3/15 thru 4/15/2018 - Our month in Miami

We loved Miami (except for the traffic)!  From the beach to the ballpark (with family) to the Everglades we had a great month.

We stayed at the Larry and Penny Thompson Memorial Park which is a South Dade County campground and it was very reasonably priced, especially for Florida.  It's just about impossible to find any campground in Florida for the winter unless you book a year ahead.  And most are very expensive especially compared to our usual winter destination of Arizona.  We were very lucky to find a spot and for $600.00 for the month including electricity it's one of the best deals we've found since we started our travels.  We never expected to be this far south in Florida this winter but once I saw the Cubs schedule and realized they were opening their season in Miami it was a no-brainer.  I'll follow them anywhere and Marty is happy to come along (right, Marty?)

Map of our campground

This is a nice campground with some very nice walking trails and a swimming pool.  The land was originally a fruit orchard and there are still many fruit trees along the trail (no picking allowed).  The park is laid out in 11 pods (9 pods with 15 sites and 2 with 20 sites).  Many of the people who come here in the winter have been coming for years and stay in the same pod so each pod is like a little community with pot-lucks and outings. There is also a large building (Cabana) next to the pool and once a week they have an ice cream social.  Staying here is a cross between a state park with lots of hiking and a private park with social activities.  The "snowbirds" start leaving in March which is why we were lucky enough to get a spot (we came down on 3/15).

When we arrived in Miami the weather was perfect - sunny and mid 70's!  On our first full day (Friday, 3/16) we took a drive over to Key Biscayne to visit Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park.  It was lovely!  We walked along the seawall and then climbed the 109 steps to the top of the lighthouse and then checked out the beach.  Considering it was Spring Break the beach wasn't too crowded.  After leaving the beach we drove to Costco and discovered the very worst thing about Miami - THE TRAFFIC!  Floridians like to blame all the tourists and snowbirds  for their bad traffic and bad drivers but we were down here after most of them left and it never got any better.  Lane changes without turn signals were the norm - very aggravating.  It's a good thing we're retired and are never in a hurry.


The couple in the site next to us (Ken and Rosanna from Ontario) were extremely friendly and gave us lots of ideas of things to do in the area.  On Sunday (3/18) they had us follow them to the Miami Flea Market and gave us some tips on how best to navigate it.  We walked around for a couple hours, bought a few things (mangos and orange t-shirts) and headed back to our rig.

Later that week, we took a drive south to Key Largo and stopped at John Pennecamp State Park.  We are having visitors (Yay!) next week and are looking for places to take them.  When we got back in the car we drove a little bit further south in the Keys to an Elks Club that has 10 RV sites right on the Gulf!  We were thinking about leaving Miami a few days early and staying here a couple days.  Decided not to but it was very tempting.

An amazing, emotional day!

Saturday, 3/24, was "March for Our Lives" and we were proud to be able to march with the Parkland Community.  And now I'm getting on my soapbox:  The NRA puts out so much misinformation and too many people believe that their guns are in danger of being taken away.  If you have no mental health issues, have never been convicted of a crime and are licensed and trained and feel you need a gun to protect yourself and your family go for it.    Just please keep it in a safe place and away from young people.   We have been on the road for almost five years and have never felt that our lives were in danger.  The people we meet in our travels are friendly and kind as are the majority of people in our great country and I'm so tired of all the negative news that is put out just to scare us. STOP IT!   

Below is a list of what March For Our Lives is all about (nothing radical, just common sense laws).

1. Universal, comprehensive background checks
2. Bringing the ATF into the 21st century with a digitized, searchable database
3. Funds for the Center for Disease Control to research the gun violence epidemic in America
4. High-capacity magazine ban
5. Assault weapons ban

Guns are a huge problem in our country and something needs to be done.  I just recently found out that the NRA is a non-profit (501C 4) organization which makes no sense to me.  Organizations like Moms Demand Action which are all about educating people and fighting for common sense gun laws don't get the tax break.

Or at least use some of your millions of dollars for common sense laws!

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VISITORS!
On Sunday, 3/26 (Happy 30th Anniversary to us!) Sue, Earl, Sarah Beth and Megan drove down from the Chicago area to spend spring break with us.  The girls stayed with us and Sue and Earl stayed at a nearby Quality Inn which turned out to be the "No" Quality Inn, it was disgusting!  They ended up moving over to a LaQuinta which was even a little closer to us.

Monday (3/27) was beach day.  We drove back to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park and set up our chairs and beach umbrellas and enjoyed the day.

Bathing Beauties!

We are here!  It's so convenient to have a world map tattooed on your back. 

On Tuesday, 3/28, we drove to the central part of the Everglades.  We had planned on taking their tram tour but when we got there people were parking outside the park because the parking lot was full.  We decided to drive a little further west on HWY 41 and check out the Big Cypress Visitor Center.  It would have been nice to take the 2 hour ranger guided tram tour but there were plenty of alligators to see outside the Visitor Center and a short movie inside so our visitors had their "Everglades" taste.

Alligator Watching

First time we've seen one with his mouth open - looks a little hungry

Wednesday (3/29) was "hang around the pool" day.  It was pretty hot so the girls were very happy to go swimming and sunning.

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GO CUBS!!

Ahhhh, Thursday.  Cubs opened their season in Miami (you didn't really think they came down from Chicago just to see us, did you?)  We had great seats, the Cubs won and we have very high hopes for the rest of the season. The ballpark was filled with Cubbie Blue - there were at least as many Cub fans as Marlin fans.  As I'm writing this on 4/14 the Cubs have been struggling and are just at .500 but they just had an incredible comeback in a game they were losing 10-2.  They WON 14-10!!  Go Cubs!

The White Sox fan wearing a Cubs shirt - I'm so proud!

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Our visitors left us early Friday morning (4:30!) for their 22 hour drive back to Chicago.  My crazy brother-in-law does all the driving and on the way down put in a 17 hour day!  I think if I was driving 22 hours I might split it a little more evenly but, hey, that's just me.  Once they left, we went back to sleep and had a very lazy day.

Full time Rving isn't all play. We didn't make it to the dentist when we were last in Chicago so we found one in Miami with a "new patient" rate of $59.00 for cleaning, x-ray and exam.  They were very thorough and even re-glued Marty's crown which had been bothering him and fell out during the cleaning.  I was talking to one of the technicians (Yulietta) who was pregnant and asked if she knew what she was having.  She knew that she was having a girl but was waiting for one of her co-workers to get back from vacation before telling the staff.  She tried to tell me she was having a "gender-reveal" pinata to make the announcement but wasn't sure how to say it in English so she asked one of the other girls.  Poor Yulietta accidentally told me that it would be filled with pink items and was so upset with herself because she thought the other girl heard her.  I was sure she hadn't noticed but it was pretty funny how easy the slip was.

Yum!

We asked the dental staff for a recommendation for a good Cuban restaurant and they suggested the nearby LaCarretta.  When we got there at 3:30 the parking lot was pretty full which is always a good sign.  The food was just ok but the Mango Mojito was pretty tasty.









We've spent some time shopping thrift stores and estate sales.  We are going to a wedding later in the month and don't travel with "wedding-worthy" clothes.  We both did pretty well, I found a brand new dress and Marty found a nice jacket, tie and shoes.  I'm still looking for shoes but we still have a few weeks.

Banyan Tree at Hugh Taylor Birch State Park

Where the Boys Aren't

We had two more tourist days.  The first was on Tuesday, 4/10.  We drove north to Hugh Taylor Birch State Park in Ft. Lauderdale.  It was very hot and muggy but we still hiked the 1.5 mile trail - yay for us!  Then a quick peak in their visitor center and a walk across the street to the beach - Do you know what movie this beach was a major part of? 





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Our next and final tourist day was on Friday, April 13th.  We drove to the south part of the Everglades. We stopped at the Edward Coe Visitor Center and watched a movie about the Everglades.  Did you know it's not a swamp?  I learn something knew at every National Park we stop at.

Did you know that there's a missile site in the Everglades? From their brochure "Everglades National Park houses one of the best preserved relics of the Cold War in Florida.  A historic Nike Hercules Missile Base, dubbed HM-69 remains virtually the same as it was when official use of the site was terminated in 1979."

There was an open house at the Missile Site so we stopped and checked it out.  It was very interesting learning about this time in our history and seeing an actual (deactivated) missile.

Here's a quote from John F. Kennedy which was printed on the brochure we received:

"It is insane that two men, sitting on opposite sides of the world, should be able to decide to bring an end to civilization" (10/27/1962)

Ironic, isn't it?

Southern most point of mainland Florida

From the missile site we drove all the way to the bottom of Mainland Florida to the Flamingo Visitor Center.  They sustained quite a bit of damage during Hurricane Irma and haven't fully recovered but we did get to walk along the waters of Florida Bay (we even saw a manatee!).  We checked out the campground which at this time of year was pretty empty.  Some sites had electric so who knows, maybe someday we'll be back.






That's it for our month in Miami.  We are now heading north to Maine for the summer with a stop in Mobile, Alabama for a family wedding. 

This is a sign from the Everglades parking lot

February 15 thru March 15th - Two cities and a Swamp

St. Augustine

While we were still in Brunswick, Georgia we took a ninety minute drive south to visit St. Augustine, Florida.  St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States, it was founded in 1565 by the Spanish.  Our first stop was at the Visitors  Center for information and then it was a short walk over to the
Castillo de San Marcos - a 17th-century Spanish stone fortress with views of the St. Augustine Inlet. The Fort is a National Park and someone forgot her NPS passport so we had to walk back to the truck to get it.  That's ok, it just added to our step total for the day.

After picking up my passport we decided to walk through the tourist areas (lots of restaurants and stores) and eat lunch.  After lunch we continued our walk down the main drag with a stop at America's first Parish - Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine which was founded on September 8, 1565.

An appropriate place to visit on Ash Wednesday

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Courtyard of Flagler College

Our next stop was Flagler College which at one time was the Ponce de Leon Hotel built in 1888.  The college was founded in 1968.  What a beautiful place to go to school - the architecture and courtyard were amazing.

Looking up at the dome in the lobby

Tilework inside the lobby

Here's a link to some information on Henry Flagler, he was a pretty interesting guy and is a very important person in the history of Florida.   http://biography.yourdictionary.com/henry-flagler

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After leaving the college, we finally made it to the fort.  After getting my passport stamped (yay!)   we walked around the "ground floor" and peeked into all the rooms and then climbed the stairs to the top and checked out the lookout areas.   

Soldier's Bedroom, first floor of fort

Here's some information from the National Park Service website regarding the fort:

The Castillo de San Marcos is unique in North American architecture. As the only extant 17th century military construction in the country and the oldest masonry fortress in the United States it is a prime example of the "bastion system" of fortification, the culmination of hundreds of years of military defense engineering.

It is also unique for the material used in its construction. The Castillo is one of only two fortifications in the world built out of a semi-rare form of limestone called coquina (The other is Fort Matanzas National Monument 14 miles south)

Given its light and porous nature, coquina would seem to be a poor choice of building material for a fort. However the Spanish had few other options; it was the only stone available on the northeast coast of La Florida. However, coquina's porosity turned out to have an unexpected benefit. Because of its conglomerate mixture coquina contains millions of microscopic air pockets making it compressible.
A cannon ball fired at more solid material, such as granite or brick would shatter the wall into flying shards, but cannon balls fired at the walls of the Castillo burrowed their way into the rock and stuck there, much like a bb would if fired into Styrofoam. So the thick coquina walls absorbed or deflected projectiles rather than yielding to them, providing a surprisingly long-lived fortress.

Top level of the Fort overlooking St. Augustine Bay

Sentry Turret, those soldiers must have been short

As we were leaving the fort we saw these guys heading over to the water for a shooting demonstration (a very loud shooting demonstration).

ready.....

set, fire!

That was it for our day in St. Augustine.  It's a beautiful city with lots of history and if we're ever back in this area we'd definitely visit again (we never did find the Fountain of Youth).

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Okenfenokee Swamp

We were scheduled to stay in Brunswick, Georgia for a full month but decided to leave a few days early to visit the Okefenokee Swamp (that's so much fun to say).  It was an easy 125 mile drive west and we were in the park by 2:00 on Sunday, February 25th.  We stayed at Steven C. Foster State Park which is in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone service or internet!  We did have limited cable television so we weren't totally cut off from civilization.

Okefenokee means Trembling Earth

Steven C. Foster State Park is located within a National Wildlife Refuge and it's a 17 mile drive in from GA Hwy 177.  The campground is surrounded on three sides by the Okefenokee Swamp. We had a nice campsite in the woods with a fire ring so we finally got to have a campfire (and marshmallows!). There weren't a lot of hiking trails so we usually walked from our campsite to ranger station/store and back for steps.  Anywhere there is water there are alligators so sticking to the road worked just fine for me.


 

Swamp boat ride

On our first full day at the park (Monday) we took a ranger guided boat ride thru the swamp.  It was great since we were the only ones on the boat and could ask all the questions we wanted and he even took us on a little detour when we asked "what's over there?".   We saw so many Alligators!!  It rained in the afternoon so it was good that we took the 10:00 a.m. tour.

Infrared photo of the Okefenokee Swamp

Hold your camera to the lens of the telescope and snap the picture - pretty cool

The highlight of our day on Tuesday was driving the 17 miles into the town of Fargo, GA and using their wi-fi to check emails and download podcasts.  We had forgotten to drop off something at our last campground and had to mail it back and the Post Office just happened to be next door to the gas station where there was wi-fi.  And since the Post Office didn't open until 12:15 and it was only 11:30 we got to sit in our car and download to our heart's content.  I noticed the guy in the car next to us was doing the same thing.

a little too close for comfort

Wednesday was hot and muggy.  We did our morning walk to the office and in the afternoon we rode our bikes to the Suwanee Sill - the headwaters of the Suwanee River (can't get that darn song out of my head).  The ride was about 12 miles round trip on a nice flat road.  As we were riding along the road we saw a couple with a red pick up truck stopped at the side.  The man was trying to get the attention of a very large alligator on the other side of the sill (the sill was only about 20' wide).  This man had been fishing on the river and was attaching one of the fish he caught to his line and then trying to cast it over by the alligator.  Lucky for us his aim wasn't very good; the couple had a truck to get in if the gator started moving and all we had were our bicycles!



Steven C. Foster State Park was definitely one of the most interesting and beautiful parks we've stayed in; four nights was just right.  We've stayed in  three Georgia State Parks so far this year and we really enjoyed each of them. 

We headed back into civilization on Thursday, March 1st.  Our reservations were at Sumter Oaks RV Park in Bushnell, Florida until March 15th.  We stayed here a couple of years ago and really liked it for it's location.  It's an Escapee Park and since we're members it's very affordable.

Our two weeks in Bushnell were pretty relaxing.  Marty noticed that my bike tire needed replacing and we remembered that there was a bike shop right off the bike trail in Floral City. We dropped it off on Friday and it was ready on Saturday.  When we went to pick it up we started talking to the man in the shop about recumbent bikes and he let us try a couple out.  He claimed that once you try one you'll never go back to a regular bike. They were fun to ride and super comfortable but  for $4200.00 each, we'll have to wait till we win the lotto to get ours.

On Sunday we stopped in at Walmart for some shopping and noticed the Blood Mobile.  They were giving $10.00 gift cards with each blood donation so we figured what the heck.  Once we were inside the woman told us their supplies were low because of the Parkland School shooting which made us feel even better about donating.



















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There is a flea market every Monday in Webster which is only one town over from ours.  We walked up and down almost every aisle, got lots of steps and even bought a few things.  This was a fun, old-fashioned kind of flea market - something for everyone and not a lot of video tapes and tube socks.

I loved this book when I was a kid

Buy your guns at the flea market - no license required - Very Scary!!

My sister Judy and her friend (and mine) Annie were sailing out of Port Canaveral on a short cruise Wednesday morning.  Since they were flying into Orlando on Tuesday which was about 1 1/2 hours away from us we decided to meet  them halfway in Clermont for dinner.  We met them at Lilly's on the Lake, had a very nice dinner and visit and, much to our surprise, it was Karaoke night. All four of us all went up there throughout the evening (my first live performance in an english speaking country). It was so much fun, it was a good thing the restaurant closed at 9:00 otherwise the girls may have missed their ship the next morning.

Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on..........

We drove over to Clearwater on Wednesday for a quick visit with Aunt Arlene and Uncle Al; from there we stopped at the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa (no luck).  Thursday, Friday and Saturday were spent relaxing and enjoying the beautiful Florida weather.

Tarpon Springs


Tarpon Springs is the sponge capital of the world.  It is a town on the Gulf of Mexico and someplace  I've always wanted to see.  We took a drive over on Sunday, parked our truck and while looking for a bathroom found Craig Park.  Craig Park is a spring fed bayou and we saw lots of manatees and a few rays swimming around.  From there we walked into town searching for the sponge docks.  This is a very cool area with lots of shops and restaurants and places to sign up for boat tours.  We didn't have a lot of time to spend here because we were heading over to visit my cousin Cindy so we decided that we would come back on Tuesday and make a whole day of it.  We had a very nice visit with Cindy and her daughter, Alex.  Aunt Arlene and Uncle Al even came over to see us one more time and they brought some really good Chicago style pizza - YUM!

Diver Jason

On Tuesday (3/13) we drove back to Tarpon Springs and took a sponge dive boat ride.  It was only about 40 minutes but very interesting watching the diver go down in the water wearing the 100 year old helmet and lead shoes.  He brought up a sponge and passed it around so we could all touch it.

Diver Wannabe Marty

Diver Jason - Hey Girls he's 35 and Single! 

After the boat ride we walked around the shops and, of course, bought some sponges.  Then it was on to Yianni's for a Greek lunch.  It's fun to have a total tourist day.

We left Bushnell at 9:00 AM on Thursday, March 15th and arrived in Miami at 4:30 PM - what a long day of travel.  Are you wondering why this girl who really doesn't like hot and humid weather would travel even further south into Florida?  One reason - the Cubs!  They are playing their first series of the year against the Marlins and we're going to be there.  The last time we went to an opening game on the road was 2016 and we all know what happened that year!

That's it for this post - the next one will be about our month in Miami.  So far we've really enjoyed being down here. 

ahhhhh, the ocean