27JAN-02FEB14 - Brooksville, FL (fmca area rally)

Monday morning, 27JAN, we ended our exploration of the Everglades National Park & Big Cypress National Preserve; & headed north to attend a FMCA "area rally" in Brooksville, FL, from 30JAN-02FEB.  Since we have owned a RV we have been to two "national" RV rallies, the last being a national FMCA rally in Albuquerque, NM, in 2010.  FMCA like most RV clubs is broken into a couple of areas covering multiple states, & the areas are broken down further into chapters.  This rally is sponsored by FMCA's Southeast Area; & fit our itinerary of exploring the Everglades & visiting with friends in Tampa & Navarre, FL.

 

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2010/03/19-27mar10-albuquerque-nm.html

 

http://www.fmca.com/

Tuesday morning we drove into Brooksville to check the local post office for our forwarded mail.  Then we drove to the county airport to see where we will have to move our RV to tomorrow for the Rally.  We found it interesting that our rally info packet had warning about Brooksville's red light cameras & where they are?

 

For lunch we headed to Tarpon Springs, FL, for lunch.  Tarpon Springs is famous for a large Greek community who were Florida sponge divers back in 50s/60s & 70s.  In fact Tarpon Springs was the largest Greek community outside of Greece for decades.  We visited here in 10JAN09; during that visit Dan was not able to visit Spongearama museum & was highly disappointed.  They didn't get a new building like they hoped for in 2009, but the museum is back open including the Sponge Diver's Nightmare.  Dan was able to check it off his bucket list! 

 

 

 

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2009/01/09-10jan09-seffner-tarpon-springs-fl.html

 

http://www.spongeorama.com/

Tuesday evening we headed to Jim & Mary Spence's in Tampa for a visit.  Jim was a classmate of Dan's way back in the 70s at the Coast Guard Academy.  After graduation they decided to go to the same CG unit together (the CG Cutter MUNRO).  Their paths have crossed over the years but not often enough.  It was a great time reminiscing about CG careers & acquaintances, kids, RV'ing, creative talents of both ladies, & something Dan forgot - they have owned private planes with Mary flying them on family outings!  Before we knew it was late & time to head back to the RV:(

Wednesday morning we headed to the RV Rally site at Hernando County Airport.  It was cold & wet, & we were really glad we had paid extra for electricity.  After setting up camp, we just sat inside & enjoyed the warmth of the RV.

 

Thursday, 30JAN, was an extremely wet, cold, & miserable day at the Rally.  Not sure why but the attendance is way down from past years & the number of venders is also down.  Apparently must of the attendees decided to stay in their warm RVs, so the vendors shut down at 3:30PM rather than the scheduled 5:30PM.

 

Friday morning, 31JAN, it was off to Lazydays in Seffner, FL, to have our dash AC/heat checked out.  Since this is the height of the snowbird season, we were lucky to get an appointment at all at their facility.  The weather guessers had predicted the rain to stop today & warm temperatures.  Well they were wrong!!!  The cold front stalled & today was another wet, cold, miserable day.

 

We (or more correctly Corrie) bought our present RV from Lazydays back in 2006.  They say their RV dealership is in the top five of all tourist attractions in Florida.  When we were last here (see BLOG link about Tarpon Springs) they were still suffering from the last recession & were basically empty.  Now they are completely full & have had to bring in generators for some of their RV display areas.  Two changes not for the better are - 1) no more free breakfasts or lunches; 2) they no longer have a Camping World Store, they now have their own store; but it has fewer items & all their prices we checked were more than Camping World's?

 

We sat at Lazydays for seven hours for them to do two hours of trouble shooting on our dash AC/heat system.  They discovered some broken parts that allowed the freon charge to leak out.  Since they would need to order parts, we decided to postpone any repair until we get back to Houma, LA.

 

http://www.lazydays.com/

Saturday morning the weather finally cleared & the free coffee & donuts area was mobbed RV'ers who had been holed up in their RVs for two days.  Dan attended some seminars, while Corrie took off for a Native American Festival.  Dan wanted to replace the four "house" batteries that went dead on us at Flamingo Campgrounds in Everglades National Park last week; but the vendor hadn't received nine pallets of batteries he ordered for the Rally.  Dan did buy some state of the art LED bulbs for certain areas of the RV.  We knew they were highly energy efficient, but the "amount" of light & "color" were fantastic.  If they weren't so expensive, we would have changed all the RVs lights to LED.

Sunday morning we decided to spend only a half a day at the Rally & hit the road; because we were not satisfied with the Rally.  Dan was going to attend two more seminars before leaving.  Then he got a call from Blue Ox that they could squeeze us in for servicing our Blue Ox tow bar on the back of the rig.  They used to do this for free at rallies in the past but because RV'ers abused this benefit, they now charge $25.  But this charge is far less than paying a mechanic for one half hour & probably $75 in parts.  So Dan skipped the seminars & we hit the road immediately after the Blue Ox maintenance.

 

Unfortunately we had just left the Rally & were fueling the RV up; when Jim Spence called & said they would like to come by & visit us at the rally.  Sadly Dan had not checked his e-mail before departure & didn't see Jim's e-mail about stopping by:(

18-26JAN14 - Everglades National Park, FL

Saturday morning, 18JAN, after maneuvering out of our tight RV spot we hit the road south to the Everglades National Park on I-95S.  From Palm Beach south to Miami the traffic & drivers got worse & worse; just north of Miami all the lanes except one were closed!  Luckily Dan had written down an alternative route the night before & we bypassed the traffic jam.

 

We had planned on staying at one of the RV spots at Flamingo Campground in the National Park.  We called ahead & found out that only dry camping was available & decided to stay in a commercial RV park for three nights in Homestead, FL.  Upon arrival we discovered half the campers were Quebecers & half were Latino - do you speak French or Spanish?

 

After setting up camp, Dan did internet research & we headed to Marios Family Restaurant for Cuban food.  We had Spanish bean soup, croquette, fried green plantains w/garlic sauce, congris, yuca, filletillo churrasco, & pan con bistec; highly recommended!  From there we tried to shop at Walmart - the store was way too busy.  So we just fueled the Toad & headed back to the RV thru more bad traffic.

 

www.marioscubancuisine.com

 

Sunday morning it was off to Everglades National Park to arrive at the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center right as it opened.  As at all National Parks there were displays on the Park & an informational video about the park (this one award winning).  Next stop was Royal Palm center to catch the 1030 AM Ranger led Anhinga Amble.  First thing we noticed several parked cars with blue tarps (think FEMA tarp) covering them?  We soon discovered that the numerous vultures/buzzards are known to "attack" any black rubber trim on vehicles!  The Anhinga Amble was fantastic.  Dan knew it would be great when he learned the docent was a retired Coast Guard officer (Leon Howell) with a ponytail & had been stationed in Grand Isle!!!

 

 

http://www.nps.gov/ever/index.htm

 

After the Amble we left the park for lunch at the Gator Grill where you can get gator burgers, gator tacos, gator wraps, etc.  We stuck to some excellent soup.  On the way back to the park we almost collided w/three ATVs traveling at high speed coming at us in our lane.  Turns out illegal use of ATVs is a big problem on this side of the park because the open area & minimal law enforcement.  In fact, in the afternoon we saw dozens of ATVs being unloaded from trailers & pick-ups - many already being raced up & down the road & beside the road.

 

Back at Royal Palm we walked the Gumbo Limbo Trail before joining the docent led tour of the Nike Missile Battery located in the middle of the park.  Another excellent event.  Half the tour is a "history lesson" starting w/the Yalta Conference, progressing thru Berlin blockade, Russia getting the A-bomb, U-2 incident, Bay of Pigs, & ending w/the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Turns out until the Crisis there were no plans for Nike missile defensive except for northern states & Alaska.  Within weeks after the Crisis temporary batteries were deployed to southern Florida, until permanent installations could be built.  Since this battery was located within a National Park, it still is basically intact after it was decommissioned in 1979.

 

Monday, 20JAN, morning we headed to the Shark Valley Visitor Center located in the northeast corner of the Everglades National Park.  We had wanted to reserve seats for the two hour tram ride with a naturalist docent but they were all booked & only walk-up seats were available.  Luckily the 10AM Tram was not full & we got seats.

 Note - if you ever go to the Everglades National Park make sure you go on earliest tours available if you want to see wildlife!!!  This is because it is cooler in the morning & most animals will seek shade as it heats up; & cause of the "coolness" they move slower as they warm up.  Birds may even be stationary w/their wings outstretched to heat up.  Most importantly many tourists start showing up after 10AM or later.  When we left the center at noon the place was mobbed w/no parking left & people hiking in from the main road.  Many people were very upset that there were no walk-up seats available on any of the trams.  The situation was made worse because it was a long weekend w/free admission to all National Parks.

 

Lunch was at Miccosuccee Cafe, then it was back to the RV.  The Miccosuccee say they are one of two remaining Native Americans in the Everglades (the other being Seminoles).  But we were told on occasion that the Miccosuccee are Seminoles, but with some sort of political difference?  In our RV'ing we have tried several Native American eating establishments & we have always been disappointed.  We never get "native" cuisine.  Note - fry bread is not true Native American cuisine!  It was what they created when they were forced to reservations & provided with surplus food by the government (ie wheat, flour, butter, etc).  The Miccosuccee was also a disappointment.  In fact their menu pride fully announces their favorite foods as burgers, fries, grits & soft drinks?

 

Tuesday morning we (ie Dan) decided to head to the Flamingo Campground.  This campground is one of the few in the National Park Service that has dedicated RV spots, some with electricity.  There is a reservation system for these spots, but it is booked months in advance.  However the Park Service sets aside some for first come/first served so we were keeping our fingers crossed for electricity.  Driving there was in the rain & our dash defroster didn't work even though most of the AC was replaced last month in Houma, LA.  Every time we drive lately it seems to be in the rain & we need the system to work.  So Dan called Lazy Days in Tampa & made an appointment to trouble shoot the system next week.

 

Unfortunately we could only get dry camping in Flamingo: but since a cold front was forecasted for next few days electricity for AC wouldn't be an issue.  We can use propane if necessary for heat.  After setting up camp we were very surprised to discover our house batteries were almost "dead".  In fact they wouldn't even start the generator!  We restarted the RV so we could start the generator & charge batteries.

 

Then we headed to the Flaming Visitor Center for lunch & to sign up for Ranger led activities.  The first activity was a nature walk at 1:30PM.  The rain was supposed to clear; unfortunately the rain returned & the four of us on the walk gave up after a half an hour:(  We then returned to the RV hoping the rain would stop, it did not!  Even though we ran the generator for over two hours, the house batteries were once again dead by the morning.

 

Wednesday morning we drove to Nine Mile Pond for the 8AM canoe paddle led by a Ranger.  This is another great free activity in the National Park Service - in fact they provide canoes, paddles, seat cushions & life jackets!  We assumed the canoeing would be on open water but most it was through mangrove clusters.  Which meant many hard turns in very tight quarters(you actually had to duck to get through some of the mangrove tunnels).  As a result there many collisions with mangrove roots & other canoeists.  Tempers warmed-up every now & then, but it was an enjoyable three hours on the water.  One of the other canoeists mentioned that at another National Park the couples were encouraged to paddle w/someone other than their partner & it was less stressful?

We wanted to participate in other Ranger led activities but Dan needed to address our house battery issue.  He spent a couple of hours disconnecting the four batteries & cleaning each terminal & each cable connection.  You would think with four batteries there would only be eight cables (two for each battery).  But because there are multiple electric loads & the generator, there were fourteen different connecting cables.  Dan did find signs of corrosion & cable wastage, he cleaned the terminals & connections the best he could trying not to damage/break the wasted cable connections.

 

Meanwhile Corrie went to take a shower but discovered no hot water.  Turns out all the other camp grounds have solar heated water but not the RV section?  After successfully taking hot showers it was off to the shoreline for a walkabout with Gumbo.  No one felt like cooking dinner so we got take-out from the cafe at the Flamingo Visitor Center.

 

Thursday morning, 23JAN, we awoke to find the house batteries dead once again, looks like we will be buying four new house batteries soon.  After breaking camp we hit the road for the last visitor center in the Everglades National Park - Gulf Coast Visitor Center located in Everglades City, FL.  During the drive we discovered that the now dash heating system doesn't work!

 

Most of our drive was due west on state road 41 (aka Tamiami Trail).  This is a very beautiful drive but unfortunately the road is one of the biggest problems for the National Park.  When it was built no one realized they were building a "dam" basically extending across Florida from the Gulf of Mexico to Miami depriving the Everglades of vital water from Lake Okeechobee.

 

Trivia - what does Tamiami mean?

 

During our drive we stopped at the Oasis Visitor Center & the Big Cypress Swamp Visitor Center, both part of the Big Cypress National Preserve.  At the Big Cypress Swamp Visitor Center we saw several manatees, unfortunately Dan couldn't capture on film as they surfaced to breath.

 

http://www.nps.gov/bicy/index.htm

 

Our RV park was located on Cokoloskee Island definitely at the end of the road, & a small coastal town Florida.  As we often find in small towns at the end of the road, they often have unique personalities; & Cokoloskee Island does.  Then it was off to the Gulf Coast Visitor Center for Everglades National Park.  Returning to the RV we stopped at City Seafood Market & Restaurant for a snack of stone crab claws.  Back at the RV we walked down to the RV park's to watch the sunset.

 

Friday morning, 24JAN, we discovered that our major credit card was now wrapped-up in the Target problem.  So now we have a block on our card & await the arrival of our new card.  Since it was a little windy we decided rather than go on a boat tour we would use the Toad to drive some of the dirt roads in the Big Cypress National Preserve.

 

We were driving on Birdon Road for about twenty minutes when lo-and-behold we had a full grown Florida Panther walk across the road about a quarter mile in front of us!!! Although we were not terribly close we could tell from the profile that it was a definitely a rare Florida Panther.  We slowly drove up to the spot on the road that we thought it had traveled but it had already disappeared into the underbrush.  While it was not an up close & personal look, we were more excited at having glimpsed it in the wild than any animal we ever saw in a zoo:)

 

After driving the Birdon & Turner River Roads we then went to the Loop Road.  Which we drove half of before heading to the Big Cypress Swamp Welcome Center to report the panther.  The Ranger was glad we reported it & had us feel out a wildlife sighting card for their database.  While there we finally purchased some souvenirs to support the National Park Association.  PS - a week later we got a follow-up e-mail about our panther sighting.

 

When we got back to Everglades City we stopped by the Havana Cafe for lunch.  This small cafe is only open for breakfast & lunch (except for dinner on Friday & Saturday), but apparently people come from Naples & Fort Myers, FL, to eat here.  We don't know about breakfast, but lunch was outstanding!

 

http://myhavanacafe.com/

 

Saturday morning, 25JAN, we drove to the Kirby Storter Roadside Park in the Big Cypress National Preserve to catch the 10AM Ranger led nature walk.  As we waited for the group to arrive we were having second thoughts about the "walk".  The walk is on a half mile long boardwalk that dead ends.  The start of the walk surrounded by saw grass "prairie" & although the saw grass prairie is vital to the everglades & the wildlife's survival, its not that scenic after you have seen it everyday for over a week.  But we went on the tour & we are glad we did!

 

 

Turns out the elevation of the ground drops a little over a foot by the end of the boardwalk.  This apparently small change in elevation results in varying lengths of "wetness" & four distinct environments.  The front of the boardwalk is dry eight months of year & is saw grass prairie; by the end of boardwalk is wet all year & is a cypress swamp.

 

After the tour we headed to the town Marco Island for a walk about & lunch.  Apparently Marco Island was a sleepy little coastal Florida fishing town not too long ago.  Unfortunately very little of it can be found among the high rise condos, boutiques, & golf courses.  On the way back to the RV we stopped at the Fakahatchee Indian Gift Shop.  They had some very nice items but took cash only & there was no ATM available?

 

Upon return to the RV Dan visited the Smallwood Store & Museum located at the very end of Chokoloskee Island.  Established in 1906, as their website states:  "On the western edge of the Everglades and deep in the heart of the 10,000 Islands, Chokoloskee Island has been called one of Florida's last frontiers. Here at Historic Smallwood Store you will learn the story of the pioneers and settlers who tamed this vast wilderness."

 

 

 

http://www.smallwoodstore.com/

 

Sunday morning we headed to the Everglades National Park "Gulf Coast Visitor Center" to take a boat tour.  There are two tours available from the concessionaire; a small boat into the mangroves, or a large catamaran into the area of the Park called the Ten Thousand Islands.  We opted for the large boat having canoed thru the mangroves at Flamingo.  Our tour was not the one to take if you want to lots of wildlife up close; you won't see any mammals or gators, & most birds will be in the distance.  But we did see one mammal (dolphins) & a large flock of white pelicans; for us the catamaran tour was the best choice.   

 

After returning to the RV Corrie decided to take a break, while Dan & Gumbo headed to Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park to see one of the few remaining old growth Cypress trees.  Finding the park was easy, unfortunately there were no clear directions on finding the Cypress trees.  Dan & Gumbo ended up doing some serious dirt (& sand) road driving for two hours without a map (thank goodness for GPS).  After successfully returning to the RV, it was time to start preparing the RV for tomorrow's departure.

16/17JAN14 - Fort Pierce, FL

Thursday morning, 16JAN, we hit the road for the Everglades National Park.  We decided to drive half way & spend two nights in the Fort Pierce area.  We stayed at a very nice RV resort but the campsite barely had ten feet of clearance between a pine tree & the concrete pad!  After setting up camp we headed to the nearest "dog" beach.  As we noted many years ago on visiting Daytona, FL; Florida has miles & miles of beaches, but often dogs are not allowed?  We noted several large sirens on the drive & assumed they were for tornado warnings, but soon figured out they were for the nearby St Lucie nuke plant.  On TV that evening the weather forecasters were on high alert because of another cold snap coming!  Over half the news hour was about cold weather; you'd thought a hurricane was coming.

Friday morning we headed out to our first stop of the day -the National Navy Seal Museum & Memorial.  Why Fort Pierce, FL, for this museum; & not Coronado, CA, where all SEALs are now trained?  Because Fort Pierce was the original training facility for Underwater Demolition Teams (UDTs) during WWII - & the UDTs are considered the beginning of the modern SEAL teams created in 1962.  Back during WWII Fort Pierce was "remote" & sparsely populated, & the good weather & beach provided an excellent training area.

Turns out the Seabees had a training facility just up the beach.  So the Seabees would build beach structures & the UDT trainees would blow them up.  After the war the Seabees & the UDTs packed-up & left the area, not brothering to remove the remaining beach structures/obstacles.  In 1991 the remaining structures were removed & many of them are now in the museum.  An excellent museum that even has the actual lifeboat that Captain Phillips was rescued from while being held Somali pirates!

http://www.navysealmuseum.org/

 

Lunch was at Archie's Seabreeze, Dan classifies it as a Pirate/Biker Bar.  Archie's has excellent food & a friendly wait staff who obviously have lived in local area long time, if not natives.  Archie's started in 1947 as "military shack" serving beer to the military stationed in the area.  Dan went with clam chowder & a fried conch sandwich, Corrie went with the steamers.

 

http://www.archiesseabreeze.com/

Last stop of the day was the US Life Saving Service's "Gilbert's Bar House of Refuge", a museum run by the Elliott Museum of Hutchinson Island, FL.  When Dan discovered the museum on the internet he wondered was this some eccentric museum dedicated to a bar & a house of ill repute?  Turns out the Gilbert's Bar is shallow inlet named after the pirate Gilbert, used by him to allude the authorities.  And the Houses of Refuge (ten total) were created by the Life Saving Service & were unique to the east coast of Florida.

Although there were many ship wrecks off the coast Florida every year, there were very few Life Saving Stations in Florida in the 1870s.  Turns out most survivors often made it safely ashore because of Florida's sandy beaches; as opposed to reefs, rocks or cliffs elsewhere.  However, it often took survivors many weeks to hike to safety (if they made it).  Because of this the Houses of Refuge were created, along with simple sign posts on the beach pointing & giving distance to the nearest House.  Each House had a Keeper (& usually his family), whose duty it was to provide food, water, & a place to sleep.  The survivors would stay at the House until the Keeper could signal a passing ship to take the survivors to the nearest port.

Although not a Life Saving Station, each Keeper was expected to do their best to rescue any survivors in the water.  Often there were heroic rescues in small flat bottom boats the Keepers had built themselves, since a boat was not part of the government issued equipment.  This museum is the last remaining House of Refuge & we are very glad that we stumbled across it!

http://www.houseofrefugefl.org/