28 Feb 2020 Dry Tortugas NP

We made reservations for the ferry to Dry Tortugas NP back in July ($360). So we could not have known what the weather would be. There were small craft warnings up for the Dry Tortugas with wave heights of 7-10 feet. So we were a bit concerned the ferry would be canceled due to the weather. We were up at 4:30 in the morning to get ready and out the door by 6am. Leslie commented getting up that early felt more normal than sleeping in after 23 years of B&B mornings. We were concerned about leaving Etta alone for 12+ hours, so we set up the Furbo so we could monitor here while we were in cell phone range. It is an hour drive to Key West ferry terminal where the Yankee Freedom III docks. We arrived in time to catch the pre-boarding briefing. They were planning to make the run, but they were strongly suggesting everyone get a dose of Dramamine to prevent motion 

sickness. But, neither one of us get motion sickness so we decided to skip it. The ride out was 2.5 hours. The first part of the trip was in water protected by a chain of uninhabited keys so it was relatively calm. But after we cleared the keys, the waves grew in height and soon we were bouncing around pretty good. People started getting sick all around the boat. The crew was busy running around and handing people vomit bags and cleaning up messes. Luckily, they also pumped in plenty of fresh air to help keep the odors down. As we pulled into sheltered harbor at Fort Pickens, there was an audible sigh of relief in the boat. Unfortunately, many folks on the boat were going out to the key to go snorkeling, but the water was so rough it was not practical, plus the water was very murky due to the waves, and the temperature with the wind was in the low 60s. After 2.5 hours on the boat, we only had 4 hours on the key before we had to be back to the boat. Only Garden Key was open to the public, the other six keys that make up Dry Tortugas were closed due to bird or turtle nesting. The park is almost 100 square miles, 99% of it is under water. Most of Garden Key is taken up by Fort Jefferson. The first thing constructed on Garden Key was a lighthouse in 1826. The lighthouse was later moved to Loggerhead Key. Fort Jefferson is one of the largest masonry buildings in the US. Built from 16 million bricks imported initially from Pensacola (like Fort Pickens), until the start of the civil war, and then from Maine. Construction started in 1846 and was halted in 1876. The Fort was built by a combination of slave and prisoner labor. Fort Jefferson remained in Union hands through the Civil War. It never saw any action, was never finished and never fully armed (only 146 cannon were ever placed in the fort and it was built to hold 450). The fort was built at this location because in the 1800s, following the Louisiana Purchase, a large portion of the shipping between the port of New Orleans and the east coast had to sail past the end of these keys. Fort Jefferson represents the end of a large coral reef that runs from Biscayne Bay to the Dry Tortugas. In addition, it was the only protected anchorage between New Orleans and Key West. As the US Navy built up during the civil war, it reached a point where it could defend the US coast and it was decided to halt construction on all 42 coastal forts. In addition to being a defensive fort, it also served as a prison. The most famous prisoner was Dr. Mudd who was imprisoned after he set John Booths leg after he assassinated President Lincoln. After construction on the fort was halted, two coaling stations were built to refuel US Navy ships. The seven keys were made a wild life refuge in 1908, then a National Monument in 1935 and a National Park in 1992. Between hurricanes, settling of the massive structure and being in a tropical environment, the fort is slowly falling apart. The park service does some maintenance and restoration, but they are not keeping up. 

We signed up on the boat for the guided tour of the fort. Hollywood, one of the boat crew, gave the tour. He had some facts that were not in the self guide tour book that made the tour more interesting. He had so much enthusiasm for the park, it was infectious. Following the tour, we went back to the boat for lunch and then continued touring the fort on our own. We walked the moat wall part of the way until the waves started breaking over the wall, and followed the self guided tour route to see where Dr. Mudd was imprisoned, and where the soldiers lived and worked. The boat ride home was smoother than the ride in the morning and no one got sick. We arrived back in Key West at 5:30. Etta was very happy to see us when we got to the Wanderer. She had held it for 13 hours and was very happy to get outside to relieve herself!

Entrance Sign

Fort Jefferson as we approach the harbor

Fort Jefferson

Two stories of gun positions

Inside the Gun Emplacements

Gun emplacement

looking out a gun port at the moat

Looking down the side of the fort from the moat wall

Front of the fort with the moat and draw bridge

Looking out a gun port at the moat and moat wall

Looking out a gun port at the Gulf

looking across the inside of the fort

Dr. Mudd's prison cell

26 Feb 2020 Ohio Key

The drive from Homestead down US-1 to Ohio key was only 89 miles. A portion of the drive was on two lane bridges over the ocean including a 7 mile stretch just before the RV park. We are staying at Sunshine Key RV Resort ($129 per night, no discounts available) on Ohio Key. Other than the wind blowing us around a bit, it was a pleasant drive. The RV Resort takes up the entire western side of the key (the eastern side is swamp). It’s a very large resort that is packed with snow birders. But it is set up for big rigs, so we had no issues getting into our site and getting set up. On check-in we found out that WiFi is not included in the ridiculous price. But the WiFi is through Jabba and we have an account with them from previous stays at other RV parks. So although it cost $15 for a week, at least it works very well! We are here to go to Dry Tortugas NP, visit Key West, and go to the southern most point on the 48 states that you can drive to. 

24 Feb 2020 Everglades Day Three

We decided we need to get in some hiking before we left Everglades NP behind. On Thursday we had got some hiking suggestions from the ranger and we also researched the available trails on the AllTrails application. We headed to the Royal Palms area of the park. There we hiked two trails, Anhinga (0.9 miles, 0ft of elevation gain, 332 calories burned) and Gumbo Limbo (0.4 miles, 0ft of elevation gain, 138 calories burned). On the Anhinga trail, we saw almost a dozen alligators, tons of fish, and a wide variety of birds close up (a couple of Anhingas, several very showy Cormorants, Giant and Little Blue Herons and a little colorful bird with a couple of bright white tail feathers contrasted against his blue and green melded chest and wing feathers….trying to name him still).  A good portion of the trail is boardwalk over a marshy/shallow lake area. The whole southern portion of Florida sits on limestone bedrock formed over millions of years of coral and mollusk carcasses. There is a very thin layer of soil on top the bedrock. So inches of elevation above sea level mater. A few inches lower and the water is deep enough that grasses can’t grow, a few inches higher and its forest. We then hiked a portion of the Long Pine Key trail (4.1 miles, 0ft of Elevation Gain, 815 calories burned). After hiking in for two miles through a Long Pine forest with occasional meadows (where it was too wet for the trees because it was a few inched lower), we had not seen a single bird or animal! It was very flat and boring. But it was a good way to start breaking in our new hiking boots. SO we turned around and headed back rather than proceeding on. We had followed the rangers suggestion to wear long pants and long sleeve shirts because of the bugs, but they turned out not to be an issue. Luckily there was a nice breeze to keep us cool. Yes, we walked farther in Disney World than we did in Everglades NP. Following our hike we headed over to the Schnelby Winery/ Miami Brewery, which was more or less on the way back to the Wanderer. On the same property was the southernmost winery/vineyard in the US. After talking with the bar tender and finding out the wines are mostly sweet, we headed for the brewery since we are more into dry wines than sweet wines. We had a couple of the local brews to sooth our aching feet (these new boots are going to take a few miles to break in), we headed back to the Wanderer. The beer was ok, but nothing special.

Gator lurking in the lily pads

Fish in the gator pond

Blue Heron looking for a meal

This is a small gator!

Gator looking us over

Gator going for a sunny soak

Long Pine Trail

23 Feb 2020 Everglades day two

Leslie had wanted to go for an airboat ride in the everglades. But we found out that those are only available at the northern part of the park, an hour and a half drive away, plus very high wind warnings. So we decided to do a boat cruise in the southern portion of the park.  After checking out the options online, we settled on a evening cruise on Florida Bay. In the morning we went to Rosita’s for our Sunday Mexican Food fix.  It is actually pretty good Mexican food with a good level of heat. In the afternoon we drove back to Everglades NP and stopped at the visitor center to see the park movie we had missed on our previous visit. David found a tee shirt/hat package so he could get his park hat and Leslie could get the tee shirt. We then had to head for the Flamingo area of the park (38 miles from the visitor center) to meet the boat. We arrived just as they started boarding the boat. After dousing ourselves with bug repellent, and getting our wrist bands (tickets), we headed for the upper deck of the two story open deck boat. The wind was still blowing pretty hard and there were still gale warnings up on the east coast. But it was not rough on Florida Bay and the wind kept the bugs at bay. We learned that Flamingo was named after the pink Flamingos that used to be in this area. But the pioneers figured out the flamingos were pretty tasty and the plumage could be sold to hat makers, so the species was hunted to extinction in this area of Florida and they have not returned. We also learned the difference between an alligator and a crocodile.  An alligator is fresh water and slightly brackish water creature and a crocodile is a salt water and brackish water creature. Crocodiles are lighter in color and their nose is sharper in profile. We saw two crocodiles as we left the harbor and headed into Florida Bay. They took us first to Murray Key and then over to Frank Key before heading back. We saw lots of birds ( egrets, ibis-of which they have a Super Colony, meaning over a hundred thousand,  a roseate spoonbill, great blue herons, little blue herons and tricolored herons) and a wonderful sunset and that’s about the highlight of the cruise. On the way out of the park, we could hear something hitting the Behemoth that sounded like rain, but there was not a cloud in the sky. It was bugs! The Behemoth got covered in squashed bugs on the drive out. 

Crocodile

Keys out in Florida Bay

Crain standing in the middle of Florida Bay in the setting sun

Sun setting on Florida Bay

22 Feb 2020 Key Largo, FL

Having heard of Key Largo in songs and movie, we were excited to go there ourselves. David also researched the most southeastern point in the 48 contiguous states. It was located on the northern portion of Key Largo. The drive from Homestead along US-1 was pretty anticlimactic. Everything is so flat, you really can’t see much. Every once in a while you get a glimpse of the ocean. As we came onto Key Largo, we made a turn north to go find the southeastern most point. After driving 15 miles to the northern portion of Key Largo, we came up to a gate at the entrance to a gated community. When we pulled up to the gate guard, David explained we were trying to get to the southeastern most point in the 48 states. She laughed and told him that it was an exclusive gated community and we could not go in search of the southeastern most point. So we turned around, satisfying ourselves that we had gotten as close at we could, very much like the southwestern most point (its on an Air Force Base in California). Our fifth extreme point. So we proceeded down Key Largo expecting to find a cute downtown area or historic district. What we found was a ten mile long traffic jam due to a ‘Giant Nautical Themed Flea Market” that was being held on the south portion of the Key. After crawling through the traffic, and finding no downtown or historic district, we decided to find the nearest brewery to wait out the traffic before heading back. We briefly considered going to the flea market but there were so many people and the parking was crazy, and since we are not “Nautical” people, we settled for some great beer at Florida Keys Brewing Company. On the way south, we had noticed a restaurant called Snook’s which was located on the gulf side shore of Key Largo. It had good reviews on line, and it look like a good location for a sunset dinner. So we stopped there on the way north and had dinner. The location was excellent, the sunset was beautiful, but the food was not that great. Etta was happy to see us when we got back to the Wanderer.    

Florida Keys Brewing company

Sunset from Snooks

21 Feb 2020 Biscayne Bay and Coral Castles

This morning we headed for the national park on the other coast of Florida, Biscayne NP. We knew as we headed over that there would not be much we could do in the park. Over 95% of Biscayne NP is water. The majority of solid ground in the park is on the keys in the park. A key is different from an island. An island is formed by geological forces (volcanoes, uplifts) and keys are formed by biological means (coral, sea shells, etc). Without a boat there is not much you can do. With gale warnings up for the next several days, getting our kayaks out on the bay was not an option. We arrived at the visitor center and explored the exhibits, collected our 71^stpassport stamp, and strolled through the store (David bought his hat) and watched the park movie. Established in 1958 as a national monument to protect the bay from development, it was enlarged and turned into a national park in 1980. We talked with the ranger about hiking options and there was really not any on the mainland. There are a couple of trails on the keys, but without a boat they were not an option. There are commercial tour operators that take you out to one or another of the keys, but with gale warnings, we did not want to take that ride. There was a short trail by the visitor center along the waters edge and out onto a seawall which we walked before hustling back to the Behemoth as a rainstorm moved in. Since it was lunchtime, we looked up a local seafood restaurant since watching all the fish in the park movie made us hungry for sea food. The Black Point Ocean Grill was on the water and just down the road from Mount Trashmore (the garbage dump for Miami). As we walked in we notice two tables full of Miami-Dade county motorcycle cops, so we knew it was going to be good. It was Delicious!

After lunch, we went to the famous Coral Castle. Built by an immigrant from Latvia, Edward Leedskalnin, in the 1930s, he mined coral limestone in massive megalithic stones that he shaped and moved by himself. It is not clear how he lifted and moved the stones weighing up to 15 tons without any modern equipment (no hydraulics!). It was an interesting side trip. 

Entrance Sign

Biscayne Bay

Coral Castle

North wall of Coral Castle

Sea shells form abstract art in the coral rock

20 Feb 2020 Big Gators

David was suppose to work today, but all his afternoon telecons were canceled in the morning, so once he cleaned out his email, we decided to do an exploratory trip into Everglades NP. Our first stop was for some good Mexican food at Rosita’s for lunch. We then drove to the Everglades NP eastern visitor center. We explored the exhibits, collected our 70^thpassport stamp, and strolled through the store (they did not have any Everglades hats or cups!), but we skipped the movie for now so we could drive to the Flamingo visitor center before it closed. We talked with the Ranger about possible hiking opportunities. There are not a lot of hiking trails in the park. Several short boardwalk interpretive trails in the different ecological zones in the park and one hiking trail. But we warned the mosquitoes could be fierce. She also pointed out a pond where there was a “feeding frenzy” going on due to fish being pushed into the pond by a storm and trapped by the outflow. As we drove the 38 miles to Flamingo Visitor center, we noted the signs announcing the highest points on the road above sea level, 3-4 feet! We arrived at the pond the ranger told us about and found quite a few egret around the edges but there did not seem to be a lot of action going on. By the time we got to the Flamingo visitor center it had closed for the day. So we wandered over to the marina and check out the store there for hats, and came up empty again. As we wandered through the marina we saw several manatee surface to breath, but the water was so dirty we could not see their bodies. We also found an Osprey nest with two chicks and a mother and father. With the sun heading down, we headed back toward the Wanderer. On a whim, David pulled into a side road to another pond and found a HUGE gator sunning itself on the beach. It was amazing how big that sucker was! The people standing around getting too close for our tastes. So in a short visit we clicked off most of the wildlife we were out to see. 

Entrance Sign

Great Egrets

Wood Stork

Osprey nest

Massive Gator

Look at those Jaws!!

19 Feb 2020 Homestead, FL

We took a slightly longer route from Orlando to Homestead using US27 to avoid going through Miami. We are staying at the Southern Comfort RV Park ($41 per night) just off US-1. The RV park is really tight for our Wanderer, but we made it to our site and were able to pull in at an angle to fit. The WiFi is not working, seems to be a common issue with RV parks in the south. Everything else seemed fine. Were here primarily to see Biscayne NP, Everglades NP and Key Largo. 

14 – 19 Feb 2020 Wonderful World of Disney

The drive from Carrabelle was pretty straightforward. No parts almost fell off. The traffic coming into Orlando was heavy and the drivers are a bit crazy. We are staying in the Kissimmee/Orlando KOA ($85 per night with KOA discount). Its in the heart of the tourist action and only 9 miles from Disney World. We had a deluxe back in site with a nice patio. 

We had planned to go to Disney World on Saturday and visit David’s Cousin Beth and her husband John who live in Daytona Beach. But we found out that the Daytona 500 race was on Sunday and President Trump was going to attend. So it was going to be crazy. So we swapped out plans and went over to Daytona Beach to see Beth and John on Saturday. Its only a hour and a half drive over to Daytona Beach. We had lunch at their house before heading over to the beach area. We went over to the Ponce Deleon Lighthouse that was built in 1885-87. We climbed up the 203 steps to the top for a wonderful view of the countryside. It also tested our fitness!! We then went over to the beach. Before heading out to dinner. It was a great visit and we were so happy to see them. 

On Sunday we headed over to Disney World. We hoped that the race would draw crowds over to Dayton Beach. Unfortunately that was not the case. We arrived at Disney Hollywood Studios at 9am and it was already packed! All the rides already had 90 to 120 minute lines if you did not have a fastpass for the ride. We worked our way around toward the Tower of Terror and gave up when we saw the standby wait lines and could not get fastpass for any of the rides. So we headed over to the Star Wars area and enjoyed seeing the Millennium Falcon, Luke’s Star Fighter, Darth Vader’s Tie Fighter and many more Star Wars sets. It was fun watching the kids build their own light sabers and droids. We then went over to Epcot on the Skyline tram which dropped us off in the International area, so we explored Britain, Canada, Norway, Mexico and China. We ate Lunch in a Mexican cantina since it was Mexican Food Sunday. The international Festival of Arts was running and we wandered through some of the booths. We then worked our way toward the entrance to Epcot and stopped to check on the wait time for the Soaring ride only to find the wait was in excess of two hours. Much of the area around the entrance was closed for renovation. We stopped off in a Pub in the Britain area and enjoyed real British beer before heading back to Hollywood Studios and the Behemoth. The parks were ridiculously crowded, it was almost record heat, and we walked 6.5 miles. We had had enough for one day. 

Monday, Presidents Day, we headed back to Disney. We decided to break the day up into two treks. Overnight, Leslie had managed to get fastpass for two rides. But one of the rides that Beth had suggested was fully booked for fastpass. So we headed to Epcot first thing and arrived before it opened. We were lined up with several more hundred people when they opened the gate and made out way straight to Soaring. We were in the standby line but managed to get on the ride after only twenty minute. It was a cool ride, sort of like you hang gliding over the major wonders of the world. As we sat in the seats for the ride and strapped in, David noticed that there was a canopy above us and commented that it was to keep anyone from vomiting on us. Most of the international area was not open but there was a bakery in the French section open so we went up there and had a wonderful brunch that reminded us of our time in Paris. We then headed out of Epcot and took the Monorail over to the Magic Kingdom where we made our way to the “It’s a small world” ride that Leslie had ridden as a child in Disneyland. David thought it was cute but was more interested in the engineering of the animation. After walking around the Magic Kingdom for a bit (Looking for a beer only to find out there is no alcohol in this park) we made our way back to Epcot and then back to the Wanderer as it was getting hot and the crowds were starting to grate on us. After getting Etta settled and us a chance to cool off, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom in the late afternoon. We jumped on the Monorail back to Epcot where we worked our way through the remaining countries in the international area before meeting up with Beth and John in the biergarten for dinner. The food was actually pretty close to good German food. Following dinner we all headed to the Magic Kingdom on the monorail where we rode the Pirates of the Caribbean ride (Our other fastpass item). We then made our way to the castle to watch the closing light and fireworks show. The perfect way to wrap up our visit to Disney World. It had been even hotter today (87F) than yesterday, and we walked even further (9.2 miles) and the crowds even thicker, but it was a fun day anyway. 

Tuesday, David worked all day and Leslie took the chance to go shopping for Christmas gifts. 

Ponce Deleon Lighthouse

Beth and John with us at the lighthouse

Looking down the stair well in the lighthouse

View from the top of the lighthouse

Daytona Beach

The Disney World entrance

Darth Vader

Droids

Storm Troopers

Speeder

Millennium Falcon

Bridge

Tie Fighter

Star Fighter

Buzz Lightyear

Woody

Minnie

Starship Earth

Balloons in the Magic Kingdom

Micky at Hollywood Studios

The Disney Castle

Beth and John at the Biergarten in Epcot

Disney Castle at the closing light show

Disney Fireworks