12/20 Myakka River State Park

This is one of my favorite state parks in Florida because there is so much to do here. In fact, I have spent the week or so before Christmas and Christmas Day here in 2012, 2014, and now in 2016.  Myakka consists of 37,000 acres of lake, marsh, pine scrub, and prairie.  And actually, only a small part of it is open to the public.  Most of it is a wildlife preserve and open only to hikers with a permit. 

Most people drive directly from the entrance to the concession area on the edge of the lake. You can fish from the bank or kayak on the lake, but no other types of boats are allowed, other than the large and noisy "world's slowest airboat" that takes tour groups several times a day across the lake to where more wildlife hangs out.  I plan to sign up for that on Christmas Eve.

This is an example of one of the large areas of marsh/prairie in the park. It is mostly wet with some areas wetter than others.

I took a tram tour into the back areas of the park with a couple of friends who met me here. This area was once a cattle farm, but most of it is grown up with brush and trees since then so it looks much as it did when the native Americans lived here.

The park service was busy burning sections last week to reduce the invasive species and keep the scrub down to where it was before fire was suppressed.  The trees easily survive these low and controlled fires, and by spring you will not be able to see the burned areas because new growth will return.

And a few alligators.  I think you can pretty much always be sure of seeing alligators here.

They have such amazing faces!

This guy was really just yawning, but you can see his throat flap, which keeps him from swallowing water when he opens his mouth underwater.

And a couple of black vultures.  They are a little smaller than turkey vultures and have no red on their throats.

I took a bike ride later and took this photo of a river that empties into the lake. 

And a boardwalk to look at birds on the east end of the lake.

This great blue heron is wearing his breeding plumage.  We don't see this often in the north, but those wispy feathers show he is in prime condition for breeding.  Unfortunately, it is those feathers which once adorned ladies' hats and almost wiped out his species!

12/18 Cleaning Day and More

Yes, I am not really on vacation.  I am traveling, but this is how I live, which means that periodically I have to clean things.  I spent some time the last couple of days visiting some other solo RV ladies, but yesterday, I also had to pick up my bike from the repair place.  It is VERY hard to find a place that sells and repairs electric bikes, but I was happy with the one I found in Sarasota. 

If you read my post from last spring, you might remember that I backed into something and bent the pedal arm on my bike since it is the thing that sticks out most behind my motorhome.  I had a new set of pedals and arms sent to me and found a local bike shop in Napa, CA, to put them on, but apparently they did not realize what the strange disk was on the pedal hub and tossed it.  That meant that I could ride the bike without a motor or by using the hand control, but the pedal boost feature that senses when I am going uphill or having trouble pedaling and gives me a tiny bit of motor "oomph" to help out.  I really had been missing that feature, and now it is fixed.  The repair shop also tuned up my bike, tightening spokes, adjusting and oiling my chain, and cleaning all the road grit off of it.  I also bought a new saddle because the old one was cracked.  So, it really looks great.  Will take a photo later!

Anyway, like every other home, motorhomes get dirty, and they get a LOT more dusty than your typical home.  I assume this is because you drive on highways and park in dusty parking lots and campgrounds.  My first task today was stripping my bed and walking over to the campground service building with sheets, towels, and bathmats.  That was one load.  I also had two loads of clothing, and this took a while with only one washer and one dryer.

I have narrow spaces on both sides of my bed to make it easier to make, but they tend to be dumping areas for stuff I don't know what else to do with.  I emptied all the trash, real trash and storage items, and got out my canister vacuum.  I thoroughly vacuumed all of the bedroom, including the fuzzy things that surround my back window.  These tend to collect a lot of dust.  Then I got a wet rag and wiped down all the walls and the tiny window sills.  I also found a dust coating on the three-piece sliding door that closes off my bedroom when I have company.  Washed both sides of that down, as well.

In between loads, I worked my way forward, vacuuming and wiping down some walls.  (Still need to do living room walls.)  I replaced my hall rug with a clean one I have in storage.  I even vacuumed the cab floor area and the mat on the driver's side, which was sandy and dirty.  Remade my bed and put some stuff away in the storage space on the far side of the bed. 

So, now I am sitting and relaxing while my slightly damp t-shirts are hanging all over the place.  I dry them only part-way and then hang them up because I don't like to shrink them. The rest of the stuff I washed is put away and the back part of the motorhome looks neat and clean.  The couch is still full of the stuff I have not yet decided where to put.  The upper storage area over my couch is getting overly full, and I need a better place to store batteries and my potential pest control stuff.

Because I often stay in places a long way from stores, I carry ant traps and gel, mouse traps, and some fly strips. I think I need to put them in a zip lock bag and put them in one of the outside storage bins.  The good news is that I found some batteries I did not know I had, and I also found the camera disk I thought I had accidently thrown away. Living in a motorhome is like having a too-large purse with too many pockets!  Staying organized and not accumulating too much stuff is a challenge for all of us.  My friend Liz had spent a day last week cleaning out some stuff, and ended up with a pile of stuff marked "free" at the edge of her campsite. 

Whew!!!  My last tasks for today involved getting my new printer working. I discovered the wireless capability will not work with my mobile hotspot (Verizon calls them a Jetpack).  So when I went out to pick up my bike yesterday, I stopped and bought a cable to attach it directly to my laptop.  So much for wireless technology!  I also need to decide how this printer is going to ride.  I have been putting it on my back dinette table and then moving it to my bed (in its plastic bag) when I drive.  That is a pain, so I am probably going to cut the box down slightly and put the whole thing on a foam pad I bought and stick it under my dinette table where I think it will be safe.  My other idea was to put it on the foam pad and then strap it to the table, but I think that is not going to be stable enough. 

Now, my last task for the day is to go outside and hook up my sewer hoses before it gets dark so I can dump my tanks.  Not a fun job to do after dark when the bugs are biting!

12/14 Ortona South Lock & Dam Campground

This is one of the nicest and cheapest campgrounds in Florida!  It's about a mile from the highway, so it is quiet, other than the noise of the water going over the dam and boats coming up and down the river.  I have been extremely busy finishing up this semester with my online students, but I finally turned in grades last night, so I had some time to go out and take some photos. 

First, here is my campsite--nicely paved, level, and nice gravel patio with a good view of the river and the dam.  There is even some greenery for privacy between some of the sites.

You can see how the line of RVs is close to the river. 

 

This is down just on the other side of the dam at the fishing pier.  The lock is on the other side of the river, so boats are not supposed to come here. 

 

 

 

There is a creek that enters the main river from the farm areas.  It must have fish in it because there were a lot of birds hanging around.

A little blue heron likes to hang around here.

And this snowy egret has been standing in the exact same place for the three days that I walked down here over the past week!  Guess he owns this spot.  You can tell a snowy egret from the other white birds because it has black legs and a black bill.  A few years ago, I came extremely close to hitting a small flock of these with my motorhome, as they took off and flew within a very few feet of my windshield.  I remember seeing nothing but white and black, so I always remember these birds! 

This is an anhinga. 

There is a handicap-accessible fishing pier right at the entrance to this little creek. 

 

This little otter was very elusive, but I caught him a couple of times.  Here he is eating either a snake or a lizard of some sort.  He lives in the same little creek about 25 feet away from the creek mouth and very close to a boardwalk over the creek.  

See the snake or whatever in his mouth?

Check out this video that gives a better close-up of him or her eating:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH4R208ybRg&feature=em-share_video_user

 

I used my telephoto lens to take a picture of this Florida soft-shelled turtle on the opposite bank.  Check out his nose!  It looks like a snorkel, and that is exactly what it is used for!  His shell is very flat and streamlined for living most of the time in water. 

There were some other turtles sunning themselves, but might be common cooter turtles. This first one was floating in very clear water.

Now, this bird is a real puzzle. I suspect it is a juvenile because of its coloring, but I cannot figure out what it is a juvenile of!  Maybe a little blue heron???  Or tri-colored heron?

Correction: The bird experts have spoken and told me this is a limpkin!

 

There were a whole little flock of these mystery birds.  I think it might be a juvenile heron, but the bird books tend to just list adult coloring.  The key is the bill shape and the fact that legs are dark.  Hmmmm. 

Tomorrow morning I am off to another state park near Sarasota, FL, so I am looking forward to that.  I might stop and check out the otter before I leave, however! 

12/5 Bike Ride at Shark Valley, Everglades

There are only two ways to travel the entire loop at Shark Valley: Take the tram tour or ride a bike.  You could walk, I suppose, but it is over 14 miles, so would take a very long time. There are two other problems with this place.  First, there is only room for two motorhomes to park.  And second, there is often a long wait for trams--two hours on this day.  Anyway, I knew about the parking situation, so I got there at 9:00 am and got one of the spots.

The tram tour costs $24 per adult, plus you have to pay the entrance fee to the National Park.  Of course, if you are a senior like me, you get in free with your "Geezer Pass" and if you bring your own bike, as I did, the loop is free.  So I spent exactly $0 for the day!

This shows where Shark Valley is located.

And this shows you the loop.  I took the same route the tram takes, starting out on the curvy eastern road.

This is the tram loading area, very early in the morning, so I left before the first tram. There was a ranger in a pickup that passed me, so I assume he was checking the road since the past night.

It was warm and muggy, but there was a gorgeous breeze.  In fact, since I was riding against the wind, it would have been very hard for me to pedal.  Did I mention that I LOVE my electric bike?  Actually, I was a bit worried about running out of battery power since it was struggling so much.  But the wind really felt marvelous, and being miles out on the trail by yourself is great! 

This is Marjory Stoneman Douglas's famous "River of Grass" described in her book by the same name. If you have never read it, shame!  Here is the Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Everglades-River-Marjory-Stoneman-Douglas/dp/1539990729/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481085430&sr=1-2&keywords=river+of+grass

Still no other bikers.  I had the place to myself.  No alligators on this part of the road, by the way, because while there is water, it is not very deep. 

This fellow was about to take off because he did not like my company.

After a half-hour of having the road to myself, here comes the tram.

In the far distance, you can see the tower in the middle of this photo.

There are rest rooms here and a drinking fountain, and that is about it.  No ranger when I was there.  I followed the tram and arrived at about the same time as it did, but I found a bench and sat for a while after it left. There were only about 6 people on a tram that probably holds 50.

Took this telephoto of a yellow-bellied turtle below the tower.  This photo was taken from the top of the tower, so it shows how good the telephoto is on my new camera!

And a view of the straight side of the loop back to the visitor center.  At this point, I was REALLY glad I had an electric bike. 

No traffic, to say the least.

On the way back, there was a ditch along one side of the road, so alligators were hauling out to warm up in the sun.  Mostly, they just laid there, but I tried to stay the required 15 feet away, at least when I was off my bike. You could not help but ride by a lot closer.

This guy was just resting, but it seemed strange that he had his mouth open.  Maybe he was just showing off his teeth.  He was not moving or threatening me at all. 

Another gator resting on the pavement because it is warm and he wants to get his body temperature up.

White egret is fishing and looks like he has found something.

I probably spent a good two hours on my ride, and it was good to get back to my motorhome, put my bike on the back and get something out of the refrigerator to drink!  Taking your home with you does have its advantages and one is being home wherever you are.