Manatee Springs SP; Chiefland, FL

This park made us feel more like we were in our home environment. Much more wooded with oak and maple trees. A few palms but not the number we have been use to. The springs have super clear water and are deep, which gives the water a very blue color. We missed the manatee though. The water temps in the bigger river, the Suwannee River, have gone up so they are out there and not in the small springs now. The cg is nice with OK bathhouse and most sites are good, a few are small.

We saw lots of wildlife here. There were deer, raccoons, and owls at our campsite; and lots of birds including pilated woodpeckers, quail, sign of wild pigs and more on the trails in the park. This park also had good trails, 8.5 miles, that were for the most part good for biking. I think we hit all of them on bike or foot while we were here.

This boardwalk through the cypress to the Suwannee River was a great stroll from the campground. A nice park for a short visit but not one I would want to spend a lot of time in. Having to drive 6 miles to town to make a call is bothersome but hey, we are camping!
We move to Skidaway Island, GA then to Huntington Beach, SC. Hope the weather doesn’t chill down too much as we move north.

John Pennekamp SP and Lake Louisa SP

I didn’t get that blog posted did I? Well, let me tell you about our second visit at John Pennekamp SP, Key Largo. We had 4 days here this stay, more time to get around. We found out that the kayaking here is very nice. Lots of mangrove trails to explore. You just don’t follow the one trail marked for the rentals, there are many branches and paths to take. The water in the mangroves here is so clear. We saw many fish and some stingrays. We also found that the bike trail along Rt 1 outside the park takes you to good locations, like restaurants, shops, grocery stores, post office, etc. We have 2 weeks scheduled here in Jan., God willing, and I think we will like it. We can also do day trips to Long Key and Curry Hammock if we don’t get time there to camp.

Lake Lousia SP, Clermont, FL. A park with 6 lakes, LOTS of trails, good bike riding (with hills!) and orange trees. The campground has very spacious sites and clean bath houses. They also have laundry here which I’m appreciating more and more. The vegetation is immature. The campground is located between 2 lakes and the osprey were a constant pleasure to hear and watch. Because of the close proximity to Orlando, at 9pm each evening you could hear the fireworks from Disney. I thought it was fireworks at first.

One of the biggest memories for us from this park will be the fragrance. Wow, we were treated with the most wonderful smell of orange blossoms. It was interesting to me to see the trees in full blossom with fruit still on them. Sometimes the smell was overwhelming, but pleasant.
We are in Manatee Springs SP now and have to drive for WiFi and phone reception, so this will be the only blog while here. We leave this park March 31st and leave FL for this year. We have 3 stops along the coast on our way home. We should be back in Ship by mid April. I’m ready; the jury is out on Les.

Curry Hammock SP, Marathon, FL

The last of the Keys campgrounds for us to experience was Curry Hammock. A newer campground, only about 5 years, it is well designed and well maintained. It is small with only 28 sites, 25 without the camp hosts. It beside the ocean with a few of this sites facing it. But even the back sites are only a short walk away. No site is bad here. The kayaking here is better than Long Key with more sheltered keys to paddle around. A bike trail into Marathon just 2 miles south is nice and they have a nice hiking trail one mile from the park entrance.

The beach here is small and man made. There is sand for awhile but soon you get into a clay like sticky mud that will suck off your shoes. So not so good for swimming. But there are trees on the beach and picnic tables to make your beach time very pleasant.

Lori and Chris came and stayed with us for 2 days. We enjoyed having company. The trailer did fine with company, but sure glad Lori and Chris aren’t big people. That couch bed makes sleeping a little cozy!

We purchased some fresh fish and had a fish fry one evening. Yum! Yellowtail and Mangrove Snapper. Wish we could get some more time in the Keys for next year but the competition is so stiff for sites. Looks like we will only have 2 weeks in Jan. 2010, but I’m not complaining, some folks can’t get that.
We are in Pennekamp Coral Reef SP in Key Largo now. I’ll post a blog before we leave here Sunday since they have WiFi here at the park. That is a great feature!

Long Key SP, Marathon, FL

We are back in the FL Keys. Arrived March 5th and will be here until the 22nd. We will stay here a week, Curry Hammock a week and back to Pennekamp for a few days. From talking with a number of folks that have been here before (Southern FL) I think maybe we had better be thankful for the cold fronts and wind that has accompanied them because the insects have not been bad at all. We hear that the no-seeums can be really awful at times. I’ll take cooler weather thanks.

This is the view from our camper door here. Wow, every site in this park is on the ocean. That is super, but Rt 1 is again on our back door. The road noise is ever present but it is not as loud as we had it at Bahia Honda. This is tolerable. We are in site 24 but the first 15 are closer to the road and smaller. The sites are sand and some of the spots are pretty deep. Les had to use the 4W-drive to push the camper back in the site. Also, the hook ups are paired meaning that every other site has to use extensions to reach, the even site numbers. Two of the three bathhouses are new and all are clean. The ocean campsites are the draw to this park and there really isn’t a lot else. A little walking and you can ride your bike out side the park on a bike trail. We will take advantage of the proximity to the ocean and get in some beach time with our books. Pass the sunblock!

We rode our bikes down the road to this fishing bridge (2 mile bridge). It was a neat ride and as you can see, the water is so pretty. We saw dolphins in the water beside the bridge having much better luck at catching fish than the folks on the bridge.

Back to finish out Chokoloskee. Our last day the wind finally settled enough for us to do one more trip into the 10,000 Islands area. We enjoyed the kayaking and I did some shelling since it was low tide. We paddled through some of the islands and made it out where we wanted but realized that it would have been a lot smarter to have taken the GPS along to make sure we didn’t get turned around in the maze of mangrove trails.

Our last night we had a special dinner in that Rod and Gun Club I mentioned last post. This is a picture of their game area. The place was very interesting and had very good food. Thanks Lynn and Forrest for telling us about it.

Have I confused you enough? I’m back to Long Key now. This is a picture of the tangle that the mangroves create. We took advantage of the nature trail here, a 1 ½ mile trail by the ocean and through the hammock. Very nice walk.

We drove to Key West and took a biplane ride around the area. We saw the coral reef, islands, shipwrecks and lots of beautiful ocean. It sure was a neat experience. I purchased this for Les’s Christmas but found out that I could ride along. It was fun.


Another treat on our stay here was the full moon and clear skies. What lovely evenings watching the moon shimmer on the ocean. We even took a bike ride after dark with no lights because the moon was so bright. We leave for Curry Hammock, just 10 miles south, tomorrow and there will have a visit from Lori and Chris. That will be nice.

Final Chokoloskee Island Post

No pictures for this post. But we have had some nice days to report. We did have a cold front push through again and the wind picked up keeping us off the water. We had a few days of quiet to relax also.

We did ride our bikes to the end of the island, 3 blocks maybe, to visit the Smallwood Store an historical site of a 100 year old general store and post office. I think that one could visit this site many times and see something different. It is loaded with period items of the early 1900’s.

Another day we rode our bike to Everglades City, 3 miles north. While exploring the small town we found some nice restaurants. A special one was the Everglades Rod and Gun Club, http://www.evergladesrodandgun.com/ . If you check out this link, you will see that this place is a special get away for some familiar people. It was a really neat place. There are huge fish and a skinned alligator on the walls, along with wood paneling and a wonderful veranda. We plan to go there Wed. evening for supper. I sure hope it is warm enough to eat out by the water.

This area is subtropical and pretty remote. I can see why it is such a draw for fisherman. There is a few kayak trails that we didn’t get to this year. But we plan to return to this area next winter, God willing, and we can paddle them then.

Today we drove up Rt. 29 to Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park. Wow, that is a mouthful. We stopped at the ranger station and found out there is some hiking trails. We decided to walk a 2 mile (one way) trail to a cabin in the swamp. It was a very nice walk on a road through a cypress and royal palm area. This was a good road that we could have taken our bikes on. We’ll remember that next year. We then drove to the Big Cypress Boardwalk that is just a few miles west on Rt 41. It is a .6 mile boardwalk through the same cypress and royal palm forest. We saw raccoons, an eagle on a nest, some wood storks, and gators of course. I have no pictures because I took my camera without a battery! Lesson: Check your equipment before you leave the camper.

We leave for the Keys Thurs., Long Key SP first. I doubt if we will have WiFi anywhere close there. May have to wait awhile to post again? I’m hopeful that the weather will be warm enough for us to try some snorkeling this trip to the Keys. I will post when I can.

Chokoloskee Island Park

We are in our only private park of the trip now. A small park where most of the sites are full time residents and fishing is their goal. Nice folks, but not our preference for camping. We are camping in a trailer park. The marina here at the campground is a wonderful place to watch the sunset and we do that every evening. Chokoloskee Island is 4 miles south of Everglade City and as far south as you can get on the west side of FL. A nice perk here is the option of purchasing WiFi for our stay. We are here to March 5th.

A visitor center for the Everglades Nat’l Park is just up the road in Everglade City and we took a 4 hour ranger led kayak trip to get a taste of the 10,000 Islands area here. There is a 99 mile kayak/canoe trail through here where there are campsites placed a days trip away. What an adventure that would be. But not for us!

A day trip for us was to visit Shark Valley in Big Cypress National Preserve. There is a 15 mile loop trail that cars are not permitted to travel. So we took our bikes and peddled around. What a lovely trip. As you can see we saw lots of alligators! We even saw a nest of babies and other little ones. We took a picnic lunch for the trip. The weather was lovely. On our drive back to cg we took a loop road though Big Cypress, half of it was dirt but a nice ride if you don’t mind dusting your vehicle. We also checked out the dry campground available in the National Park. May try them next year?
Another day trip was to Marco Island. Too built up for us, you can’t see the ocean unless you pay to park and walk the few public access paths to the beach. But, thanks to a tip from my friend Lynn, I was able to do some nice shelling. I found the shell middens and did some good digging to get some nice shells.


This is a male Anhinga. What pretty birds. Along this trail we also saw the Green Heron, Black-capped Night Heron, Wood Stork, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Little Blue Heron, Great Egret, White Ibis, Glossy Ibis and Louisiana Heron. We were also treated with viewing young Anhingas. Such a very nice trip. Anyone who doesn’t want to bike the trail, a tram runs it also.

Koreshan SHS, Estro, FL

We really enjoyed our short stay at Koreshan, a settlement from the late 1800’s, early 1900’s of a communal group. The campground is small and has nice sites with good privacy. The bathhouse was nice also. As for activities here at the park, the settlement was very interesting and well maintained. The staff/volunteers have activities for you such as bread making, antique motor demonstrations, musicals, and others. They are on the Estero River which is nice for paddling, but we did not get a chance to do that this trip, three miles to the Bay.

A day trip from the park is Sanabel Island where we spent some time at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. We were treated by a wealth of shore birds there and especially these spoonbills. Wow, this was the first we saw them and we were so taken by their colors. We did put our kayaks in there and did some paddling. It was so nice to “sneak” up on a couple yellow-crowned herons!

We were also able to meet up with our Aliner friends, Lynn and Forrest, who were also down here in FL enjoying a break from winter. We met in the Big Cypress area at Billie’s Swamp tours.

Of course, while we were there we had to take a Swamp Buggy tour. I’m so glad we did, we were blessed with a rare sighting of a FL panther! No picture, it crossed our path and disappeared into the hammock so quickly. But we got a good look at her and what a treat that was for all. On that trip we saw a lot of wildlife and birds. I added some new ones to my bird album that I’ve begun in my picture folder. I know have 41 photos of different birds we have enjoyed while on the trip. That is not all the varieties, just the ones I have pictures of.

This was the view out our trailer door while we were at Oscar Shearer last week. It was very nice being on the water. We are now in Chokoloskee Island south of Naples. I’m writing this blog the night before we move, so the next blog post will tell you about that area. This is the only private cg we are staying at on our trip in FL. It is targeted at fishing since it is at the edge of the everglades and on the ocean. I’m looking forward to the good kayaking I hear is down in this area.

Oscar Shearer SP second visit, Osprey, FL

We have had a good second visit to this park. It is a good park to stay in with a rails to trails bike path, some kayaking, and driving distance to three nice beaches. The weather has been nice, a bit on the cool side, but still great.

Tomorrow we leave to travel a bit farther south to Ft. Myers area and Koreshan SP. More posts to come.

Myakka River SP second visit

We are back to Myakka River SP for another week, site 14. This stay is much warmer. Temps are in the high 70’s to 80’s now, evenings in the 60’s. Our site this stay is much nicer. Bigger space and away from the water pump which is close to the bathhouse.


We are being treated with regular visits from a new sow here at the camper. She came a few days alone but when the babies were big enough they came with her. She stopped right behind our camper to feed them. That pig is one of the most photographed animals in the park!


We had a visit from Martin and Jane Reiff while here. They joined us on a paddle of the Myakka River. They took to kayaking very quickly.


Jane show skill in quick turning when she saw a particularly large gator!


We were treated with watching a family of limpkins at the lake. The parents were feeding about 5 young ones snails they found in the water.

Our site for the short 2 days we were in John Pennekamp in the Keys, site 31. This section of sites was pretty narrow. The sites as you enter the campground were larger. The park is small but is much quieter than Bahia Honda. The Visitors Center has a 30,000 gallon aquarium to view. We did a paddle and hear that the snorkeling is great here. It is still chilly and we are returning in March so we will wait to try the snorkeling then. I’m told that the no-seeums can be bad here. We’ll hope that we don’t experience that!

We are back to Oscar Shearer SP and WiFi! We will post again at the end of the week.

John Pennekamp SP, Keys FL

A quick note on this short stop before leaving the Keys for the month. This park is the most northern park in the Keys right in Key Largo. It is small but nice offering some mangrove kayaking, snorkling, a glass bottom boat ride, and scub diving. And the biggest thing: Away from the road! We don't miss that droaning road noise from Bahia Honda one bit. We return to the Keys in March for 2 weeks visiting this park and the other two SPs here. I'm sure we will have better weather for taking advantage of the snorkling then. We were surprised to hear that this park has WiFi connection. That is such a nice feature to have in a cg.

Tomorrow we will have a big driving day through the Everglades back east of Sarasota to Myakka River SP for a week. We enjoyed the park the first time we were there and will have a better campsite this visit. Hope all is well with our family and friends!

Bahia Honda SP, Florida Keys w/Pics

Well we finally made it to our first cg in the Keys. Bahia Honda is a beautiful park as you can see from the pic above. The weather for us is about 10o cooler than normal, but that means highs in the low 70’s. The wind is gusty so we didn’t do any paddling here since it is in the ocean and channels around the keys. BUT, we don’t think we will return here to camp. Notice in the picture that RT 1 (the bridge) runs very close to the campground, the noise is very loud and annoying! But, the beaches are beautiful and the road noise is very subdued although, every present.
We are getting some biking in, it is so pretty to ride along the pretty colors.


And of course, we are taking advantage of the sun and beaches. Notice the “sea grass” that is littering the beach. Actually, the sea grass is beneficial to the beach to help lessen erosion


There are lots of sponges here on this beach. I am holding a bowl sponge. There are no shells here to collect, the sea grasses catch them out in the water and they rarely come on shore.

We leave Saturday for 2 days in another Keys SP, John Pennekamp. I hear they have good paddling and great snorkeling, although I’m not sure if it will be warm enough for us to get in the water yet? It will probably be around Feb. 18th before we can post again

Johathan Dickinson SP

Well, it is time to move once again. Our time here on the Atlantic has been good. Of course the warm spell experienced here didn’t hurt our positive impression. Temps for the last few days have been Highs of 80’s and lows of 60’s. We found this park to be very nice. At the entrance there is dune, sand scrub habitat with lots of dead snags which is not very attractive to campers, but 4 miles into the park there is a campground called the River Campground. It is in the marsh, slash pine and turkey oak habitat; a nice camping environment. The bathhouse was clean but layout was very tight. If we return we will look for sites in the beginning of the loop, the back side (#114 up) has you where the sun hits the door side of the camper all day.


What a lovely beach within a few minutes drive. This is the National Wildlife Refuge beach on Juniper Island. Super place to spend a couple of days.

This brown pelican was eyeing a surf fisherman and posing for some of my pictures. How nice of him. We move Sat. Jan 31 further south. We plan to stay a few days in a city park before heading to Bahia Honda SP close to Key West. We are really looking forward to spending some time there. After 5 days there we go to John Pendecamp SP for 2 days then back to Myakka River SP. We are 1/3 of the way through our FL camping experience. It has been great so far and we look forward to what the Lord has in store for us for the rest of our stay. Hope to get a posting during our stay in the Keys.

New Parks, Myakka River and Jonathan Dickinson SPs

Third campground of our trip is Myakka River SP. I have to say that our first impression was not good as you can see from the picture of our site. This site is the tightest camping we have experienced in a State Park, a close second would have been Mustang Island in TX last winter. As we set up we both said that we would not return here again. Well, that changed after we had a chance to get out of the campground. This is a very large SP and it has a lot to offer. Extensive off road biking trails along with lots of paved road to ride, a lake, river area, hiking trails, a wilderness area and more. After looking around we see that there are better campsites (don’t get the sites that are in the middle of the grounds at Big Flats CG). The smaller Old Prairie CG is the nicest, with better bathhouse and laundry there.


Yes, we did more paddling here. The wilderness reserve attached to this park requires permits to enter. They limit use to 30 people per day in the area. We got permits and paddled the Myakka River from the ranger station to the Little Myakka Lake this day. And yes, this water has alligators. And we found that they grow them big around here!


This one was taken with a zoom lens and was a comfortable distance away.


These two were in a small channel and gave Les a thrill as they dove under his kayak to “escape” from us. Wow! I like the bigger water better.


You can see how close the bank was in this area. Another day we got permits again and hiked 2 miles into the reserve to the lake. It was a beautiful walk, and we saw an armadillo scurrying across the path. Heard some wild pigs in the brush but did not see them.


Another cool feature of this park is a canopy walk they have. Yes, it bounces as you cross and my fear of heights kept me moving along. It was cool to walk in the tree tops though.


The air plants they have here are so cool. Of course the Spanish Moss is the traditional one you think of but there are so many more to observe. And the pretty fungus that grows on the old growth trees is neat.


On our paddle we saw a nice variety of birds. I think I have them identified correctly. My birder friends will have to correct me if I’m off. I have pictures of them all on the slideshow to the right. Here is the list: Osprey, White Ibis, Lipkin, Little Blue Heron, Great Egret, Lesser Yellowleg, Great Blue Heron and Black-Necked Stilt. We saw a Yellow-crowned Night Heron, but no picture yet.


We see the damage from these guys a lot. The wild pigs tear up the ground and we have seen them at all the parks so far. They must be a big problem here in FL. We moved to the Atlantic side Jan. 22, that will be interesting to see if there is any difference from the west coast.


We moved to Jonathan Dickinson SP last week. As you can see they have much nicer sites. There is some biking here, hiking and good paddling on the Loxahatchee River.


We saw more birds, lots of osprey and paddled 3.5 miles to a historic site, Trapper Nelson’s. That was a long day, but very pretty. We will be here all of next week. The weather has warmed up and we are enjoying sun and temps in the mid to upper 70’s. We have to hunt WiFi so be back when we can.

Moving tomorrow

Tomorrow we move to our next campground, Myakka River SP. It is very close to this area so no big drive. The cold front hit us too. The high today was 55o, but I'll take that over the temps Mom is reporting from PA. Above is a pic of Turtle Beach and a couple more on the slideshow. What beautiful sea shells the Gulf of Mexico gifts to this beach. I had to pick up a pocketful! We will plan to drive out to the coast again tonight. Turtle Beach was about a half hour drive, but the one today should only be 15 minutes? There is a lot of build up on the coast and you can be driving right beside the water and never see it! Thank goodness some was saved for the public. We won't have WiFi at the next parks so back to visiting public libraries.


We were blessed with good wildlife here. This cardinal and her mate visited yesterday and came very close for us to take their pictures. On a bike ride on some backcountry trails of the park (a lot of areas that were too sandy to ride and we pushed) we had a herd of wild pigs cross the path ahead of us. Three adults and 10 babies, no picture! We also saw my first FL Scrub Jay, a bird only found locally I believe. They are so pretty and the one we saw had no fear of us, coming very close for us to get a good look. The squirrels also like to come into the campsite. Sorry we keep our area clean. ;-)