“We live in a wonderful world full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if we only seek them with our eyes open wide.” (Jawaharial Nehru)
One thing about staying in one location for a number of months is the ability to experience the local attractions as well as looking a bit deeper into the surrounding area and finding those little bits of seedy local history and stories as well as meeting and seeing some of the more “interesting” people.
We have had the opportunity a couple of times to drive the Tamiami Trail (or Hwy 41) which is an absolute beautiful drive filled with wonderful sights of scenery and incredible wildlife. But then that is one of the problems – this drive is a favorite of the tourists and in turn a dodge-car type of experience if you wish to get anywhere. People with a few dollars in turnpike money prefer to cross the swamp on Alligator Alley (I-75) a safe, divided, 4-lane interstate with fences on both sides to keep wildlife out of traffic. Those who can’t scrape up tollbooth change or want to visit the attractions are forced to drive further south and take the Tamiami Trail, which during the tourist season is a harrowing two-laner with little to no shoulders next to deep canals. People are always trying to pass, avoid, or view the wildlife and dodge the tourists - there are many spectacular head ons! 
Frog City has nothing left but an overgrown airboat ramp and is still an access point into the Everglades. It belongs to the park now but used to be a bustling city of 12 with a telephone switching station and a boat ramp where people would come and catch semi-tropical fish for their aquariums. For awhile (before the park bought it) it was an attraction for Roadside America.
Dead Body Lane is a road between Shark Valley and Miami accessible from the Tamiami Trail that has a history back to the 70s of bodies being dumped along it in the swamp. There have been about 15 or so found since the 70s with the latest being just before we got to Gulf Coast. The police reports mention that they believe they have found less than half of what's out there. Hence the name “Dead Body Lane”. We won’t be exploring that one!
The Skunk Ape campground and gift shop is the endeavor of one of the old Everglades City fisherman that resorted to “square grouper” fishing and pot smuggling in the 80s. Square Groupers being bales of marijuana wrapped in burlap that were tossed from drug running boats from Latin America and the Caribbean Islands. The locals would then go out just past the Ten Thousand Islands and collect or “fish” for them. After one big DEA/FBI/State Police bust, close to 80% of the male population of Everglades City and Chokoloskee Island were serving time for “square grouper fishing”. It was a very good thing to be an adult male in the area during that time as the women folk got rather lonely.
One day as we were working on our projects we encountered the “Moon Man”. It seems that there is an elderly gentleman that comes here once or twice a year that enjoys kayaking through the islands wearing nothing but a very shear (front only) loin cloth and a woven palm frond hat. It wouldn’t be bad if he would wait until he got out in the islands to remove all those encumbering clothes but he did it right here and then proceeded to unload his kayak and took his time getting ready to go – just a mooning, hanging and dangling as he went about his business. Linda’s comment of “I can’t believe that’s legal” was repeated many times as she went back on numerous occasions to check on his progress. She said that she was trying to avoid him and purposely went back to the shop by different directions each time but always seemed to run into him-----mmmmm! Luckily there were no school groups around at the time. It’s interesting what we take as entertainment down here in the Glades!
As we continued our adventures in Everglades National Park I don’t believe that I mentioned that we have been doing quite a number of projects for the maintenance side at the Gulf Coast station. In that, I mean that we have been asked to plan out, build and/or repair a number of things that the guys just didn’t have the time to take on.
We designed and made a fabric roller and cutter (something like a carpet roll at Home Depot) for the guys so they didn’t have to keep wrestling with the big roll on the ground. Seems to be working pretty good for them.
We also designed and made a cabinet for the blue print tubes. We even made sure they had extra space for new plans as needed. The one project that gave me the most to think about is when they asked that we design a new chassis for the personal equipment carriers, and other than the axle and wheels, using only PVC (PVC doesn’t rust!). After a bit of fiddling with the plans and equipment we succeeded using schedule 80 (super heavy duty) PVC. We also redid their canoe haulers by replacing the pads for the canoes and gave them new bearings for all the wheels.
We also helped with the removal of one of the observation decks at the Shark Valley Visitors Center and went out in the work boats to help with the rebuilding of the chickees and dock at the Willy Willy and Rogers campgrounds.
The guys that we work with are characters in their own rights – there’s Bill the Maintenance Supervisor and chief buyer of “Stuff” which he is constantly doing.
Then there is Ryan who is second in command. He was raised in the backcountry hunting and wrestling alligators and is one of the best boat operators I have ever run into, bar none. He also has some pretty cool stories!
Raoul doesn’t do as well with the boats (he is the one I got stuck on a oyster bar with) but is one of the happiest and hard working fellows we have ever met. He and his family immigrated from Cuba in the 90s.
Victor, the youngun, spent time in the military recently and is trying to adapt to his new position as a seasonal ranger. He is a very happy guy also and is willing to take on any job needed – quite the young man. Here we are getting the work boat off a sandbar that Supervisor Bill put us up on while on one of our excursions into the Ten Thousand Islands. Linda was along also for this little trip as we spent a couple of hours watching the tide rise.
We signed up for a one day canoe adventure at the Big Cypress National Park on Halfway Creek and Turner River through the mangrove swamps and tunnels. It was one of the things that we had talked about and wanted to do while we were here. Some of our friends had taken a similar ride through Turner River and saw all kinds of wildlife, gators right next to the canoes, snakes hanging from the trees and birds everywhere. Didn’t quite work out like that for us!
I have been in canoes quite a few times over the years and have traversed the lakes of the Boundary Canoe areas in upper Minnesota and Canada as well as the Churchill River system in Northern Manitoba, but my blushing bride of 41 years had never been in a canoe. But I was an experienced paddler (although I hadn’t done it for over 20 years) and didn’t think it would be a 
We drove over to Boca Raton to visit Cousin Brad and his Mom, Lois (our most favorite Aunt) at Brad’s place. It was a pleasant drive through Alligator Alley and into the Coral Springs, Ft. Lauderdale, and Boca Raton area.
Definitely more people and developments (hurricane fodder!) on the east side of the Everglades. Brad has an absolutely beautiful home in Boca Raton and we enjoyed the tour and visit immensely. They came and visited us at Everglades City a week later and we enjoyed the time they spent with us as well - and we were able to give them a quick tour of the Gulf Coast portion of the Everglades and give Aunt Lois an introduction to the RV lifestyle. I think she was rather surprised.
The Everglades City Seafood Festival has been going on for over 41 years and attracts people from all over southern Florida. There are bands playing all day and into the night, rides and games for the kids, beer tents for the adults, vendor booths of all types for anything you could possibly need and the food….oh, the food! It smelled sooooo good. There is nothing like festival/fair deep fried greasy everything to make the mouth water and the arteries slam shut. Not too long after we got home I made an appointment with my cardiologist out west.
Every type of gulf coast seafood you could think of, including Key Lime Pie on a Stick. There was Stone Crab, Crayfish, Mahi Mahi, Flounder, Red Fish and Calamari - most caught by the local fishermen. We tried a bit of gator (pretty chewy stuff) also Grouper and Coconut Shrimp -and some of the greasiest fries I have ever had. My digestive system was nothing more than an internal slippery slide for the next couple of days.
The Gator Boys from Animal Planet were giving shows every couple of hours and we were able to catch one the first night. Here's Jimmy doing a chin hold with one hand inside the mouth. So far he still has all his fingers and no scars that I could see on his head. His co-star suffered a severe head bite last summer and doesn't do the live shows anymore – gee I wonder why!
One of the bands/singers we saw while we were there was Jimmy Van Zant, cousin of Ronnie Van Zant of The Lynard Skynard Band -- you guessed it “southern rock” heavy duty redneck stuff. He does belong down here. He played a lot of his cousin’s music and was really pretty good. The beer was flowing, the tattoos, bikers, volunteers, tourists and swamp people were coming out of the woodwork and everybody was putting their redneck on. Lots of fun.
Oreo - our 17 pound Tom Cat, who has lived and traveled with us for quite a few years, decided he likes being part of the Blog and will continue to provide a few purr-fect bits of wisdom and observations for all the blog readers out there as well as a few comments about the antics of his pride members and life on the road.
This will be my last chapter on the variety of species that I and my pride have encountered as we completed our stay in this place called The Everglades. I hope you enjoy it. As you can tell the alligators didn’t get me, but from what my pride members tell me, we will be heading into coyote country before too long. I hate those guys! They are way too focused on making me into a snack.
Turkey Vulture
This is one half of the local road kill clean up crew known as a Turkey Vulture. They are pretty big and ugly – ugly – ugly! With their unfeathered red head, yellow circles around their eyes, and sharp curved beaks, they are enough to give even the dead stuff nightmares. They are classified as carrion eaters, but then so are most people when you think of it. When was the last time you saw a person eat any meat that was still wriggling? Sushi is raw but dead! Now Cats, like me, we like our stuff still wriggling and juicy.
These guys are considered the Buzzards of the Old West and soar in large groups on the thermals – I remember being in Carlsbad, NM one year and seeing hundreds and hundreds of them soaring just off the mountains. Quite the sight.
Black Vulture
This is the other half of the road kill clean up crew. He’s a bit smaller than the Turkey Vulture with a gun metal gray head and a real funny walk/hop when they are on the ground. Like his bigger cousin, he is a carrion eater and just like in all of the stories - he is very, very patient.
Broad-Winged Hawk
I’m told this guy is a bit on the rare side. But he likes to come and visit us. This picture is of him as I was watching from my home. He was on the neighbor’s 5th wheel ladder. My pride member took this picture for me right out of my window. He is small and stocky but doesn’t say much but is always watching. He is really good at catching the small things that run around here and he is really fast. He doesn’t share though, I’ve asked.
Definitely one of our more striking local residents.
Here is one of the immature Ibis that hangs around the 5th wheel – he’s my buddy. I watch him from my window or door as he wanders around picking stuff out of the grass to eat.
Yellow Crowned Night Heron
We see these guys every once in a while at low tide here in the Everglades. They like both salt and fresh water wetlands and they are active both day and night as they run around in the mud flats hunting for their favorite food – crabs and crayfish.
Their eyes really get your attention when you first see them, red like hot coals. When I first heard them make a sound it scared me and I went running under the chair. It’s a really loud and guttural “Quok! Quok!” something like a sick truck horn.
Well I hope you enjoyed the last couple of blogs and all my information about my fellow members of the animal kingdom that live down here in this place called The Everglades.
The Oracle of the Everglades
Oreo
With all that, we have wound up our stay here as volunteers for the Everglades National Park Gulf Coast and as with the many other places we have been, we were excited to get here, fascinated with the experiences, adventures, making new friends, and then eager to move on. It’s time. We will be working our way up to Interstate 10 and make some friend stops along the way, spend a bit of time in New Orleans for some of the Mardi Gras and then on to Houston for family visits.
I took one last bike ride in the area and these guys (Brown Pelicans) lined up to say goodbye out on Chokoloskee Island.
As we get ready to hit the road our past experiences and expectations of future endeavors remind me of a quote by Danny Kaye “Life is a blank canvas and you need to throw all the paint on it you can.”
Time to go fling some paint!
Home is where we park it
Lee & Linda
