10/13 The Turtle Hospital, Marathon Key, FL

I had a rough time today trying to pick up a couple of items in the grocery store and getting to the turtle hospital in Marathon Key.  When I started out full-timing in my 32' motorhome, I chose not to tow a car behind me--mostly because of the extra cost and extra bother of having to hook and unhook in campgrounds. 
 
I have really had very little trouble parking to run errands and see sights, but the Keys are exceptions because there is so little extra space available because of their nature as islands.  In addition, there is almost no street parking.  I tried to rent a car, but Bahia Honda, where I am staying is about 12 miles from Marathon, where there is an Enterprise Car Rental, but it is just too far for them to pick me up.

So, off I went this morning to try to visit the turtle hospital and pick up a couple of things at the supermarket. I ended up driving through the supermarket and there was plenty of extra parking space, but it was spread out and nothing was big enough for my big rig.  Next stop was K-Mart, where thankfully there was much more free space.  Bonus was that it was next to McDonalds and I had not had breakfast, so I found a nice spot at the edge and got a sausage McMuffin with egg to go.  Always nice to eat in a parking lot in your own recliner!
Luckily, I always have my electric bike with me and my battery was fully charged and ready to go, so after breakfast, I rode the two miles down the highway--on the sidewalk, of course, because the traffic was horrendous!

The Turtle Hospital is a non-profit rescue facility located on the grounds of an old motel.  The site is obvious because the motel had two pools--one large saltwater pool and one smaller freshwater pool.  Check it out here: http://www.turtlehospital.org/.  They offer tours at least every hour.  First, was some education on the types of turtles and where they are kept in their facility.

This is the operating room in their hospital.

These posters show the process of rescuing turtles.  Mostly, they rescue turtles that have been injured by boats or have tumors growing on them. 

Most of the diseased turtles have Fibropapillomatosis, which is related to herpes.  The tumors are benign but often interfere with swimming and other functions, so they bring them in and operate to remove them. Once free of tumors, the turtles are kept for an entire year to make sure they do not grow back.  If they do grow back during the year, they get more surgery.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibropapillomatosis

This is the building where the newest or sickest arrivals live in small pools.

 

Occasionally, turtles get enough damage to their shells that air gets in and creates buoyant chambers that deform the shape of the shells. This makes them float and be unable to dive for food, so they can never be released and eventually some go to aquariums and other permanent homes.  They are called "bubblebutts" for obvious reasons.  You can see how there is a bulge on the top of this guy's shell and a black thing near his tail.  That is a weight that has been glued or velcroed there to help him be more balanced so he can swim better.  It does not help him dive, which is the reason for never releasing such turtles.

Some of us watched this one swimming around towing this pipe structure around, thinking he was stuck underneath it.  It turns out that this particular turtles likes to scratch his shell on the pipes!  Yes, apparently, turtles can feel touch on their shells and sometimes they get itchy. He also has some weights on his shell.

Note the names on the shells?  Well, if you call in to report an injured turtle, you get to name him or her!  And since they cannot always tell the boys from the girls right away, sometimes the names do not match the genders.

We are headed down to the large saltwater pool.

Next to the big pool, there are some smaller pools.  This turtle REALLY has a big bubble on his shell.  And what is the white stuff?  Turned out to be zinc oxide to prevent sunburn! 

Lots of turtles here.

This turtle had surgery yesterday to remove tumors, so he/she is bandaged up, with a little creative artwork.

This is the big saltwater pool with about 15 turtles in it.  This water is not filtered because it gets refreshed via some pipes as the tide goes in and out each day.

I think this is a Hawksbill.  Isn't he gorgeous?

Here are some of the turtles in the big saltwater pool. It was a little harder to take photos because they were moving around a lot and the lighting was not so good.

 This one has a horrible bubble on one side, so he is really off-balance when swimming.

 And this turtle is missing a front flipper.

These are younger and smaller turtles, so they have their own part of the pool because the bigger guys do not play nicely.

Here are posters showing the main species of sea turtles.  Most of the ones in the Keys are Green turtles, although they do have a few others. 

10/12 Bahia Honda State Park, Marathon Key, FL

I've been wanting to come here for a long time, but it is almost impossible to get reservations, even eleven months in advance.  I decided a year ago to try for October of this year, so was able to get a prime sea-view site with electric and water hookups. I got all my laundry done yesterday at Jonathan Dickinson SP and picked up groceries, so with a full gas tank, off I went!

Once you are over this bridge, you are officially in the Florida Keys.

And after about six hours of driving, here I am! 

This is my prime, waterfront site.  Nice and big, with shrubs for privacy on each side.

 

The Intercoastal Highway is in the distance. It sort of ruins the sea-view, but I am happy to have a nice view.  Most of the sites in this campground do NOT have views!  Heading south (left) gets you to Key West in about 50 miles.

You can just barely see the remains of the old bridge on the far left.  I parked as close as I could to the front of my site so I would have a better view.

This older gentleman caught my attention as he unloaded this cute little boat from the inside of his van, seen on the right.  He said he built the boat from instructions in a magazine because it would fit in the van.  He uses the dolly to haul it out and move it to the water.  He also said he actually owns two of these boats and if he leaves the dolly at home, he can fit them one on top of the other in the van.  He kindly gave me permission to take these photos.

Cute, isn't it???  I like the relatively tall sides and curved front to go over the waves.

This tiny boat floats pretty well, considering it has a not-especially-lightweight man, small cooler, and motor attached.  Glad to see he wears a lifejacket anyway.

It's been horribly hot and muggy here, but as soon as we get a cooler and maybe cloudier day, I will go for a walk on this bridge. 

This is a beach on the day-use part of the state park.  The light color is sandbars.  Where it is dark, it is slightly deeper and has a lot of seaweed.

The dunes and sea grass help protect the island against tropical storms and hurricanes.

I noticed today that some of the supports for the bridge looked funny, so I got my monocular out and then took some telephoto pictures of the supports and this man in a kayak.  It looks like the road maintenance crews have reinforced some of the pillars with "bandages."

This is a longer-distance view of a section of supports.

And a close-up. It looks as if there are metal casing filled with cement, but I wonder why they would use metal in salt water??  I will have to ask someone tomorrow.

10/8 Hurricane Matthew Damage

This turned out to be an extremely long day.  I had to drive from Lake Seminole to Jacksonville, FL, to drop my friend off at the airport, then I had to find a place to stay for the night since I had had my original reservation cancelled by the Florida State Parks, which had closed all of the state parks during the hurricane and until tomorrow. 

I needed to get to Bahia Honda State Park in the Keys by Monday night, so I needed to get closer.  All state parks east of I-95 were still closed, so I ended up driving all the way to Jonathan Dickinson State Park near Jupiter.  It turned out to be a world record (for me) of 411 miles!

I wish I had taken more photos, but it was windy and I needed to concentrate on my driving.  In any case, there was really almost no damage on the trip to Jacksonville along I-10, but we did notice a lot of convoys of utility trucks from all over.  No photos, but we also saw the Florida National Guard and a lot of other trucks containing disaster relief supplies, all headed east.

Signs of damage were evident along I-95 south of Jacksonville, all the way to Jupiter.  There were a lot of trees broken off or pulled out of the ground, like this one below.

About 70% of the billboards had no signage on them.  Only a few were actually fallen over.  Also, saw a very few highway signs pulled out, mostly the smaller ones.  The bigger signs seem to be anchored better and survived.

Even when there was no other obvious damage, the ditches everywhere were overflowing.  No flooding on the interstate or entrance ramps that I could see, but when I got off to get gas, there were power outages almost everywhere east of I-95 until way past Daytona.  I got off twice to find gas and the only gas station open and functioning was a Love's, except there was an hour long line, so I skipped it.  I figured it would be easier to get further south.

A lot of trees were bent to the west, even if limbs seemed OK.  My first night's stay was at Lake Louisa, just northeast of Disney World.  It is relatively inland, and I did notice Disney was in business because I heard fireworks at 10:00 pm!

The next day, another 170 miles of driving got me to Jonathan Dickinson SP and Jupiter.  There are some photos of piles of leaves and branches along the city streets.  People were very busy cleaning up but almost all stores were open and had stuff on shelves.  Except peanut butter, I should add.  It was the only thing missing from the shelves at the grocery store, I guess because it does not need cooking and keeps a long time.

Tomorrow I drive to the Keys!  Can't wait.

10/6 Adventures with Hurricane Matthew!

After we got evicted from Fort Clinch on Amelia Island, I considered several places along the Florida west coast, but decided that the hurricane could turn and even if it did not, winds were supposed to be 35-40 MPH.  Even 20 MPH makes this motorhome rock like crazy and since it is very hot here, I did not want to take any chances.

So, I decided to head for the Florida Panhandle where there would be less wind and more options if Matthew decided to head more westerly.  I drove 240 miles west to Lake Seminole in Georgia, which is just north of the border of the Florida Panhandle.  Very nice place and site!

We planned on staying only two days (Wednesday and Thursday nights) and then heading back east to the middle of the state on Friday.  I had reservations in a state park near Lake City, FL, so I figured we were OK.  Then this afternoon, I got a call telling me that all Florida state parks were closed through the 9th, so my reservation was cancelled.  Also cancelled was a reservation I had on Sunday because that also was a state park.  I also knew the site I was on was reserved for the weekend by local Georgia people.

So, we raced to the campground booth and found this walk-in site where I can stay as long as necessary.  Had to give up our old, more scenic site, but at least we have power here for AC and I can get a satellite signal, which is very important to tracking storm and keeping us entertained.

I have a friend visiting who lives in NY city and has never camped, so I am providing her with the ultimate adventure.  She has a reservation to fly out from Jacksonville Airport on Saturday afternoon, but I have a feeling her flight might get cancelled, so it might be more like Sunday.  We shall see, but at least we are safe, comfortable, and in good weather.