Everglades and Okeechobee

We left Homestead under pleasant temperatures this morning and headed down to the Everglades.  We saw more signs telling us that panthers crossed the road in the vicinity we were riding, so we kept a look out for them.  We never did see a real one, but got some pictures of one at the Visitors Center.

We saw lots of big turtles with a shell that looked like half a basketball sitting on their back.  We haven't had time to look them up to see what they are called.   There were all kinds of birds (lots of egrets), but the largest population and the largest birds, it seemed to us, were the vultures!  When we drove up to Royal Palm, the vultures were so bad, that all vehicles had to be covered with tarps provided by the Park.  If not covered, the vultures would destroy any rubber on a vehicle, such as the wiper blades and window seals, etc.

When we stopped to explore the Royal Palm area just 4 miles from the entrance, we took the Anhinga Trail and hiked 0.8 mile out into the water on wooden sidewalks made for observing wildlife.  On one of the trails, we happened upon a pile of alligators!  I mean a pile! There were 25-30 gators all piled up on the ground just below us, just lazing around.  We got pictures!

This big guy was just laying right by the walking path!

When we finished that hike, we cooled down a bit with some water, and then took on the Gumbo Limbo Trail which was 0.4 mile through a tropical hardwood hammock that had been partially destroyed by hurricane Andrew.  The canopy was destroyed at that time and is slowly growing back.  The growth is very dense with undergrowth and trees that are filled with orchids and air plants. We left after taking off and folding up the tarps and headed out.

We headed on out to Flamingo, which is at the very end of Everglades National Park, for lunch at a little restaurant there. There were quite a few fishermen there either launching or taking out their boats at the marina.

After lunch we started back out of the park. We hadn't gone 100 yards when a hawk sitting on the side of the road decided to take off but he didn't get off the ground in time & we hit him! No damage to us or the bike, but I can't say that for the hawk. LOL At that time of day, there were mirages on the road and one of the mirages turned out to be a big old alligator!  His front legs and head were all the way into our lane of traffic, as he was headed for the opposite side of the road. (That brings up a question "Why did the alligator cross the road? LOL) By the time we realized exactly what the big boy was, he had turned and started back to where he came from.  We did get a picture, but only after he had turned and started back.

We are spending the night in Okeechobee.  We hope to post pics tomorrow.  Meanwhile, nighty night.

Gator Alley

We left Treasure Island at 10:00 this morning and headed toward Gator Alley.  The temp was 65 when we started.  Pam, of course, had to have her jacket and liner on.  We stopped at a rest area for lunch (leftover turkey and salami roll ups on flatbread - healthy junk!) and it had warmed to 82 so Pam was able to travel in comfort with her 3/4 sleeve shirt and a light hoody over top of it.  😉

The temp got up to 87 degrees today, but there are storm clouds gathering.  It is supposed to rain sometime during the night.

We stopped in Osceola to see an alligator refuge on Highway 41.  There was a wooden view point where people can safely view down into the water and see all the alligators that gather there.  Bill Woods, do you recognize Fred from a few years back?

Even the grasshoppers are quite colorful down here.

He was asking about you & he's even bigger this year!  Not only could you see the alligators, but the water was filled with schools of fish.  There were gar and blue gill swimming around very unconcerned.  We kept our eyes open for more alligators as we rode on down the road, and a few did cooperate by letting us see them.  One was even swimming up the ditch beside us.

We also saw many signs that said "Panther Crossing" with a picture of a panther on it.  Of course, by the time Pam decided she wanted a picture of it, the signs no longer had a picture of the panther on it.   It had only the words on the sign.  Then the signs started saying "Animals Crossing".  It did not say if the animals were large or small, and it said nothing about snakes.  We don't know whether to feel safe or not!  LOL.  One interesting thing we did see was a blue heron.

We are staying in Homestead tonight.  Hopefully there will be more pics tomorrow since we're going to Everglades National Park. Till then, nighty night.

On The Beach

Well, we finally made it to the beach for about 1 1/2 hours. The weather was great, bright sunny skies & temp about 65 degrees. We soaked up a few rays, then took a walk down the beach.

It started getting pretty busy on the beach so we headed back to the room, as it was getting close to lunch time. I don't know why Pam likes to get all these weird shots of me (I don't ever do that to her!), but she made me post them.

Well that's it for now. Maybe more after supper.

We just got back from supper at Sloppy Joe's. We both had blackened groper with steamed veggies, black beans & yellow rice. Pam really liked her's, but I thought it had a little strong taste. We then shared a piece of key lime pie that was really good. All in all it was pretty good, I suppose. Here's a pic of a sand sculpture outside of Sloppy Joe's. These people have so much talent.

Well it's getting late & we have to start packing, as checkout is at 10:00 am in the morning. I have made a command decision to go on to the Everglades tomorrow. We don't have to be back till Monday so we're going on down there while we're this close. Hopefully we'll have some good pics tomorrow or Friday. I just hope we have enough internet service to post them.

So that's it (really) for tonight. Nighty night.

Weather Looks Good

Well the weather looks great this morning. It won't be long till it's time to hit the beach. I hope we don't look like pickled beets when we get back.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Well, the weather man got it right today for a change. It's pretty much rained all day long. When we first got up, I checked the weather map & it looked like we had an hour or two before the rain arrived.  So after breakfast, we took a short walk on the beach.

On the way back from our walk Pam had an encounter with a porpoise.

This is what happens when you take a long walk on the beach after breakfast.

Here's what it's looked like all day today. The weather man says it's going to be pretty tomorrow, so maybe Pam can get some beach time.

It finally stopped raining about 7:00 pm, so we got out for our evening walk & a little shopping. It's getting close to bedtime so - till tomorrow, nighty night!!

Made it to Treasure Island

We left Zephyrhills at 9:30 am this morning and headed for Treasure Island. Pam got real lucky & found a condo on the beach for 4 days. I looked for 2 hours one night & couldn't find anything. Go figure! Our check in time was supposed to be 3 to 4 o'clock, so we took our time & rode 2 lanes all the way. There is a lot of farm land in central Florida. Coming on the island we got held up by a drawbridge letting a couple of boats through.

We got here about 1:30 pm so we stopped by the condo & it was already clean so they let us check in early. Here's a view from our balcony.

After we got unloaded we went to Publix to get our groceries for the week & it was a mad house in there. It is the only major grocery store on the island, so with all the spring breakers & the other tourist it was CRAZY!! When we got back we washed all our clothes we had gotten dirty since last Tuesday, cleaned up ourselves, and did what any good tourist would do - we took a nap. After we got up, we took a walk down the Boardwalk. Here's a pic of the sun setting over the gulf.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so I don't know what we'll get into. I sure am glad the condo has covered parking so at least I can keep some of the salt & sand off of the bike. 

I forgot to remind you that you can click on the pictures and they should expand to a bigger one so you can see more detail.

Till tomorrow, nighty night!!

Lake Kissimmee State Park

Well, we slept in a while this morning.  We decided to look at the atlas to find a day trip & decided on Lake Kissimmee State Park. We got under way about 10:30 and made our way along as many 2 lanes as possible. The weather was great with temps in the low 70s to start with, but it got up to 82 before we got back.  (Pam:  I was comfy with my long sleeve top on 'cause I freeze at temps below 70! LOL)

Larry observing from the Observation Tower

Looks like Pam is sitting on a finger! :-)

Unbelievable roots!

We couldn't find any alligators, so this will have to do!!

We programmed the GPS for 2 lanes for the ride back to Zephyrhills & we are glad we did. It brought us back through a lot of orange & grapefruit orchards.  The smell was unbelievable. We had noticed a light scent out on the 4 lanes, but back in the country it was even better.  Pam almost hyperventilated trying to breathe in the smell of the orange blossoms! 

 

 

Everywhere you look down here there are Osprey nests. On a lot of the power poles they have installed what looks like wheel barrow bodies for them for them to nest in. I suppose it's all the lakes around that keeps so many of them here. There seems to be a bumper crop of young ones, too. 

 

 

(We haven't had time to figure out yet how our readers can add comments, but Marla you figured out a way around it, didn't you?  You emailed your comments to us!  Thanks!)

 

That's it for tonight. Nighty night!!

Visiting the Tennessee Snow Birds

I said last night I'd post pictures of our new windscreen so, before leaving this morning, I snapped a couple of shots to show the difference. The new one is 2" shorter than the one in the pics posted last night. It feels kind of odd looking over the windscreen after being behind a Tulsa Tall for some 200,000 miles, but so far I really like this windscreen. Only time will tell about the rain protection, but I like the adjustibility (is that really a word?  Sounds good, anyway! LOL

We left Zephyrhills at 10:45, headed for Sebring/Avon Park/Lake Placid to visit our friends from Chapter M that winter down here. We arrived at Glen & Sharon Bush's around 2:30, & Bob & Marty Shields were already there. We sat around for about an hour & a half catching up on what had been going on with everybody, then headed out to the Golden Corral to meet up with Rick & Cindy Valentine for dinner and a little more catching up on the happenings. Cindy's mother, Margaret, came with them, so it was a pleasure meeting her, also. After eating, it was time for Pam & I to hit the road so we could get back to our motel before night fall and all the critters started to prowl.

On the way back, we passed an orange & grapefruit processing plant that we thought was kinda' neat so we took a couple of pics before the Security Guard ran us off. We couldn't figure out what was so secretive about orange & grapefruit processing, but there must be for some reason.  I can truthfully say I have never been run out of a citrus plant before!  LOL

Well that's all for tonight so it's time to say nighty night again!!

My legal assistant  / spell checker / punctuation corrector hard at work. Thank you honey!!

Thursday Post

Sorry for not posting last night but we had internet problems,  Things seem to be working this morning,

THURSDAY HAPPENINGS:  Anyway, we tried to rest a little today and didn't get started until about 10:00 am. We headed to Dade City to MadStad Engineering, where I had purchased our new windscreen, to swap out to a shorter version. Mark, the owner, wasn't in, but they had our new windscreen waiting for us, as promised. One of his employees met us as we pulled into the lot and immediately started the change out to the new windscreen. These guys are great to work with and really build a great windscreen. Everything is manufactured in house, so at least you know where it comes from. Below are a couple of pics with the old windscreen and I'll post pics of the new one tonight.

From there we went back north to Summerfield to visit some friends that are spending the winter down here. You might remember them, Dale & Karin, as our tour guides from our trip a couple of years ago to the Balloon Festival in Albuquerque. Dale has now retired and they are living the good life, RVing around to different parts of the country, but wintering in Florida. After wearing out our welcome with Dale & Karin we hit the road again. We stopped at a roadside fruit stand and bought a big bag of fresh Florida grapefruits & oranges. I sure hope they are as good as the ones they had cut up for samples.

We made our way to Zephyrhills, where we already had a room reserved. Coming into Zephyrhills, I made the comment to Pam that all these rolling hills sure were pretty, and in her smart tone, she say's "Do you think that might be why they call it Zephyrhills"? She makes me sooooo mad some times. LOL

Today we kinda laid in for a while, one of us more than the other. We're off to Sebring today to visit more Snowbirds from Chapter M for lunch at the Golden Corral.