RX fire burns in a field

The 81 mile trip from Skunkape HQ in Ochopee to The Glades RV Resort in Moore Haven was my kind of trip; short, easy roads through wide open spaces, no highways and no mistakes- we are getting better at this. We always check the route on our Garmin GPS (Missy), Google Maps on the iPhone and on the spiral bound Rand McNally Deluxe Motor Carriers’ 2015 Road Atlas; at least the day before.

The Garmin can calculate in either car or RV mode and when in RV mode Missy just loves to take us right to a major highway and forget those other scenic routes. So we have begun using car mode, comparing to the all-knowing Google Maps and double checking to the atlas. As long as the roads are highlighted orange, meaning approved for vehicles with STAA- authorized dimensions, we are golden. STAA is the 1982 Surface Transportation Assistance Act that, among other things, established weight and size limits for trucks, etc. So if the road is good for them, it’s good for us and that includes underpass heights too.

Still seeing oodles of birds along the road edges thanks to the frequent gullies or tiny canals that run parallel to the roads. Bird heaven.

Yes another osprey; I liked the background

Saw large (tiny by Texas standards) cattle fields and I’m pretty sure cattle egrets were hanging around too.  When we stopped the car and I got out, every single cow turned and looked (just like this one!) with mild interest and a nice pose, then resumed cow activity when we drove off.

I’m sure someone knows what breed this is

Our home for four nights was almost in the middle of nowhere, but you could drive east or west on Rte 80 (we did both) and get to stores, gas stations and such. Every new place – and for us they are all new places- offers a bit of mystery and some level of challenge.  We often check Google Earth to see where to turn in; avoiding an unplanned de-coupling is paramount since backing up with Bonny attached is verboten. The check-in process varies and I’m learning ask the important questions, such as where are the site numbers placed.  Some places lead you to your site but others, such as The Glades, give you a site map and verbal instructions. Always seems simple when I’m standing in the office. Follow the main road in all the way to the tiny marina, turn right and site 10 is the 4th on the left. The site number will be on the short black lamp-post.

Our site. Note the overhanging branches, the small shed to our right and cactus hiding the lamp-post

Site numbers for 9 and 10 were well hidden and our permanent neighbor in #11 had encroached noticeably onto our site and when they saw us, hurried to move extra tables and chairs that would have been mowed down during the perfectly- executed backing in process. No room to move over to allow the awning to extend ( but that was fine since the wind was up most of the time) and no room to raise the antenna with the branches right there.  No TV all winter so why start now?

Red-bellied woodpecker in that old tree

The old tree proved to be visited  often by a pair of woodpeckers who vocally announced their presence. They had me well-trained just like Pavlov’s dumb dog.

A few miles west on Rte 80 is the Ortona Lock, one of several along the Caloosahatchee Canal that links Lake Okeechobee to Ft Myers. The lock is run by the Core of Engineers and includes a 30 site RV park that I couldn’t get into trying two months earlier. All the sites have a view and all are concrete and gravel with a covered picnic table. Full hook-ups too.

I met Wade, a COE volunteer and we had a nice chat

Sailboat in Ortona Lock- a COE site with 30 RV sites

The water drops eight feet in the lock for those heading west. While I was bird watching and chatting with new buddy Wade, Russ stood by the lock while the sailboat crew tried mightily to get themselves attached using lines already hanging over the concrete.

Successful exit from the lock

We survived, but don’t have the T-shirt, the coldest Florida night in three years while here in Moore Haven. Ran two electric heaters all night on medium to keep the inside temp at 65 while the outside dropped to 29. We could run propane heat but it’s noisy and the rig electric heat (A/C reverse cycle) won’t work well in temps much below mid-forties and it’s noisy too.

The Tamiami Trail linked Tampa to Miami (Ta for Tampa and well, you get it), traversing the Florida Everglades; it was considered an engineering marvel at its 1928 opening. Not long after the cars began using it the first roadside attractions began to spring up along the route. Alligator shows, wrestling shows, Indian Villages, gift shops, fishing camps, restaurants and rest stops for weary travelers. Today you can find airboat rides and swamp buggy rides too.

We’d intended to take an airboat ride but decided not to. A swamp buggy was even more intriguing but four hours was too long for a body jarring jaunt through lord knows where and what if we broke down? Wimps.

The Museum of the Everglades and lunch at the #2 dining spot Camellia Street Grill was more appealing. The “donations only” museum was divine and beautifully restored; located in the laundry building for the 1920s company town it contained enough but not too many well-designed displays and a seating area to view four short videos.

Here we learned how and who built the Tamiami Trail in 5 long, grueling years and the history of the city that began as the village of Everglade. Settled in the 1870s by a Connecticut Yankee living in Key West, his farmlands and house were bought by George Storter, Jr. who had migrated here from Alabama with his family in search of a warmer climate. I can see if you live north of Virginia, but Alabama isn’t warm enough?

Along comes self-made millionaire, the flamboyant advertising mogul, Barron Gift Collier. He took over the Storters’ holdings for his agricultural interests in 1921. He offered to finish the Tamiami Trail from Naples (where it had stalled) to the Dade County line (Miami area). In return he requested that Collier County be created out of the acres he owned and the legislature agreed.

First a town was needed as a base to provide and house workers so Collier built a company town. Grocery, laundry, Post Office, Bank, Inn, Community Center, jail, courthouse, housing and the necessary infrastructure for the engineering center and county seat. Residents had the benefit of telephone service, newspaper and hospital.

From this base 76 miles of road through uncharted swamp was completed between 1923 and 1928, with not a single loss of life. Even though we saw photographs of the machinery and methods, still hard to comprehend an undertaking of this magnitude; just feeding everyone was a monumental effort. Thanks Barron.

Next, lunch time and TripAdvisor came through again.

A long line proved what a great spot this was

You place your order, find a table and your food, add’l beverages and check are brought out to you. New Zealanders waited in front of us; further proof that Florida’s 60 million annual visitors make it the Numero Uno travel destination in the world.

I think the water is the Barron River

Oyster Po’Boy and Garlic bread BLT/grown on-site Greens/Ricotta Salad with Grapefruit dressing.

We also learned, no surprise, that the teeny Ochopee Post Office is the smallest in the U.S. The current tiny building replaced a larger one that was destroyed by one of those nasty hurricanes in 1953; an irrigation shed in its former life.

So cute and real too!

A stop at the Gulf Coast Visitor Center in Everglades City was a must and you can look out toward the 10,000 islands. Boat tours and a small info center with displays, booklets reminded us of Flamingo. The 11am ranger-led talk could not have been better and when Mark suggested we walk away with a NPS Bird Checklist booklet for the Everglades, I got two. One for “he who is a man ahead of his time.”  I’d always (not recently though) kept a list of birds we saw in our backyards in Old Saybrook and Essex and Benj had a long list of ones he spotted in the Florida Keys during our first year cruising, but I never considered an official checklist. Oh watch out now as she takes those binoculars and camera everywhere!

A volunteer ranger gives us all an inspiring bird identification talk