Trippin' Down the Road: Tropical Breezes

My long lost nephew - Butch - so good to see him again!

Kerby and Joelle with their friends Ryan and Stephen at Tortilla Flats restaurant

Me and my good friend Susan - don't know what we'd have done without her hospitality.

The Hotel Williams is a classy joint and you can't beat the company.

Day 12 – 1/15/10

Made it to the Everglades. Man, is it ever gorgeous down here. I’ve got Buffet entering my bloodstream and I’m ready for a Margarita! We had a hard time finding a campground that would take us last minute. It never occurred to us that it would be difficult to find a campsite this time of year – but then, we forgot where we were – snowbird country. However, we found a place with a vacancy that’s right on the water (Chokoloskee Island, right beside Everglades National Park). It’s very different from the county park campground that we just left behind in Orlando with all of its trees and open spaces. This place is a marina and the campsites (most of which are permanent winter homes) are very, very small and everyone is right on top of everyone else. It’s actually a pretty cool place though – a fishing village of sorts and the scenery (when you step away from the campsites) is stunning. I’m sitting here in an open air shelter right on the water surrounded by palms and cool (70-something) breezes. Not only have I shed my long johns but I actually have on shorts and a short sleeved t-shirt. Life is good! I could definitely get used to this.

Today will be a laid back day. We’re all exhausted from the running around in Orlando and are really in want of living the typical Florida beach lifestyle (if only for a day). The kids are riding their bikes around the campground and looking for fossils. This island is really a large mound of shells created by the Calusa Indians 2,000 years ago. Many of the shells are fossilized. There’s an old store/museum nearby that we plan to visit and learn more about this area. We might go for a hike in the glades - the national park entrance is just 3 miles away. It's supposed to rain tomorrow so we'd probably be smart to go today (or extend our stay a few days - which I could easily go for).

We're missing our pets so we had to find some temporary fill-ins.

The recent cold snap lowered the water temperature here to 48 degrees which killed many of the fish in these shallow waters. There are hundreds of catfish and shrimp floating in the water – very sad! Needless to say, the people (and fish) here are very thankful for the current warmer temps. We haven’t had much of a bug problem yet but I’m sure with the rising temperatures they’ll soon return.

Our neighbors are from Germany and have been travelling around the world for 3 years in a huge truck (no kids). It’s a Mercedes Benz military vehicle of some sort that the guy converted inside. It’s really quite astounding. The truck is 46 years old and has been shipped all over the world – Africa, So America, Asia, the Caribbean Islands. . . quite cool. They are actually headed to Baltimore from here where they’ll ship back to Germany and this adventure will conclude. People really are incredible – the things they do.