April 27 – The Everglades, FL – Trail Lakes Campground/Skunk Ape Research Headquarters

We’ve been contemplating hitting another theme park while on the eastern portion of our trip and we finally decided on Busch Gardens in Tampa. It was recommended by some friends and everything we’ve read about it makes it seem like a sure bet. With that destination in mind, we headed north towards Miami and west on Highway 41 through the Everglades – another place we wanted to check out. The Everglades is large – comprising a good chunk of southern Florida. It was interesting to see the landscape – a combination of forest - not of the northwest type obviously, grassland and swamp. The kids enjoyed seeing alligators in the wild along the side of the road as we drove.

We followed our typical routine of waiting until late in the afternoon and getting a feel for where we would end the day before searching for a camp spot. In this case, we needed a campground as the state park we were in the past couple of days didn’t have laundry facilities. There were surprisingly few campgrounds around – we were in the middle of the everglades so I guess it kinda makes sense – so we went with Trail Lakes in Ochopee, FL pulling in right at dusk. Jim pulled up to the night managers spot and I hop out of the passenger seat to talk to the guy and I’m immediately attacked by bugs. I’m not sure if they were mosquitoes or black flies or some evil combination but they were aggressive and there were tons of them. The night manger apologized for the bugs and quickly pointed me to a campsite. As I turn around Jim and Nancy, who had remained in the RV, are laughing hysterically. I was literally surrounded by a cloud of bugs. Needless to say we armed ourselves for battle with mosquito repellant – the kind with deet not the greenie, organic stuff - and bug spray before heading to the laundry. Nancy said that you know conditions are bad when you have to RAID spray the laundry room before you can put a load in and then hit the dogs with it before they come back in the RV.

As it turns out, this place had more to offer than the RV park.  It was the epitome of the quirky roadside attraction. It had a “zoo” of sorts which amounted to a old, metal pole building with a combination of swamp animals – snakes, turtles, gators and birds of all sorts – that his place had taken in over the years. The centerpiece was a 20’ python – thankfully it remained caged although the guy showing us around offered to take it out for us. No thanks!! This place also serves as headquarters of sorts for skunk ape research. One of the guys here has made it his life’s work to pursue and document this phantom creature which is basically the everglades version of sasquatch. If you think I’m making this up you can check it out for yourself at www.skunkape.info. The whole deal was really odd. Not surprisingly I took a little heat for the choice as Nancy wasn’t totally satisfied with the accommodations.

Camping in the Everglades



Everglades landscape



April 25-26 – Bahia Honda Key, FL – Bahia Honda State Park

On our drive down the keys we drove through Bahia Honda Key which is a small key roughly halfway between Key Largo and Key West. The key is about 500 acres and is comprised almost entire of a state park which is known for having some of the best beaches in the keys. We got lucky, found an open campsite and decided to spend a couple days there on our way north.

Jim, I and the boys got a fishing charter on the 25th and headed about 10 miles offshore. On the boat ride out it was amazing to see the water changes different shades of green and blue. Closer to share it was a light blue-green color, further out it turned sky blue and once we got about 5 miles out the water was a deep royal blue. It was also very clean – way different than the comparatively muddy, murky water we are used to in the Puget Sound. We fished near a place they call the wrecks where the US has intentionally scuttled some old Navy ships in about 350 feet of water. Our captain didn’t have the bait in the water for 10 minutes and we had fish on. We ended up taking 4 amber jack – each between 50 and 60 pounds - with the boys teaming up to reel one of them in. On the way back in we caught 4 dolphin – the fish not the mammal – which averaged about 7 pounds each. We could get used to this kind of fishing J. All of us loved being out on the water for the day although the water was a little rough and James did get seasick by the time we got back to flat water. The girls enjoyed a relaxing day hanging out at the RV and playing in the ocean.

The kids all loved swimming on the ocean beaches and gulf beaches which were only a few hundred yards apart! There was lots of sea life to be found and they wasted no time finding hermit crab, conch shells and a variety of other sea creatures. We also lucked out and were able to see a manatee swimming in the small marina at the park. I actually reached down from the dock and was able to pet it. It seemed very friendly as it surfaced close to the dock for quick a while as we looked on and it didn’t seemed to mind being touched at all. Very interesting creature and a cool thing to see.





Newest member of the family - Buddy

Beachcombing is serious buisness

Jim with one of the keys' bridges behind

Zach reeling in a 50 pound Amber Jack

James and Zach with their catch

Back at the dock displaying our dolphin

Cleaning the catch

Sunset at Bahia Honda Key

April 24 – Key West, FL – Sears Parking Lot/Kmart Parking Lot

We headed south the next day anxious to work our way over the 40+ bridges and 100 miles of road that connect Key Largo and Key West. On our way down we stopped at a roadside attraction called Robbie’s. This place advertised having huge Tarpon swimming around their docks that you could feed. Sounded too good to pass up right?? I thought so too. We quickly made our way to the docks and, sure enough, they had a school of 100+ fish. Some of them were huge – easily 100 pounds or more. We bought some herring and the kids had a blast hanging over the dock having the tarpon literally pluck the fish out of their hands. One of the things that the place didn’t advertise was the pelicans – there were over a hundred of them as well and they were aggressive. They were literally picking the herring out of the kids’ hands as they ran down the dock to feed the tarpon. The kid’s had some pretty good gouges on their hands after it was all finished. Needless to say I spent my time trying to keep the birds at bay.

We made it all the way down to Key West, found a place to park the motorhome and headed out to see the sights. We saw Ernest Hemingway’s house and local haunt – Sloppy Joe’s bar - and hit the main drag, Duval Street. We got our picture taken next to the marker designating the southernmost point in the US and enjoyed key lime pie from the Key West Key Lime Pie Company. Key West was a great little town – really nice old homes and lots of neat history. I was expecting a lot more eccentric behavior on display on Duval Street particularly later in the evening but, thankfully, there wasn’t any.  Not having a Walmart available on the keys – Cuba is actually closer to Key West than the nearest Walmart - we chose a Sears parking lot as our home for the evening. I thought I had a solid plan in that I parked with a few other cars next to the Sears automotive center hoping to disguise our overnight stay as just another car in for service. It didn’t work – we were awakened at 2:30 in the morning by security threatening to call the tow company if we didn’t move. We successfully made our way 4 blocks down to the K-Mart and finished out the night. Nancy wasn’t too happy about it but in my mind this is sport and part of the fun that comes with trying to finagle a free camp spot for the night.

Heading out to feed fish



Elizabeth loved this kind of fishing - see tarpon and pelicans behind



Lucas getting close to the action - these guys take food right out of your hand

This little guy was beautiful. He was eating pieces of fish out of our hands.

Marker designating the southernmost point in the continental US. We can't drive any further from home and still be in the US.

Key Lime Pie Company

One of Hemingway's haunts

 

World's largest flip flop



April 23 – Key Largo, FL – Key Largo Kampground and Marina

The Florida Keys is another place Nancy and I have really looked forward to visiting. Our strategy here as it has been throughout our trip is to make up our daily schedule as we go. We haven’t made any camping reservations, booked any tours, etc. in advance and although we have a pretty good feel for our general route and timeframe there is plenty of opportunity to improvise as we go. Given that the timing of our trip is before the busy summer travel/vacation season, this has worked well.

Our first stop in the keys was Key Largo. This is the first key and the largest. We stayed at a campground here that was on the Atlantic Ocean and it was precisely the tropical paradise that we expected. Palms and lush green trees were plentiful in the well established campground. The kids were scouring the place for coconuts and would have climbed every tree in the place if we had let them. There were reasonably satified with the 6 or 7 that they accumulated before parental intervention slowed them down. We helped them husk the coconuts and supplied straws and they drank the raw juice. They loved the pool and we all really enjoyed the 90+ degree weather and the nice ocean breeze.



Loving the Atlantic Ocean and the coconuts!





Jim and the girls goofing off under the Tiki



April 22 – Miami, FL – Topeekeegee Yungnee Park

There’s a reason this place goes by “TY” park. We made our way quickly down through Florida as I had previously arranged to meet a friend and former co-worker, Rui Cardoso, in Miami. Rui has a house and boat in Miami even though he’s worked out of Seattle for over 10 years now. Rui invited us out for a boat ride in the Atlantic Ocean and Intercoastal Waterway on his 37’ Searay. This was truly a special treat – we loved the boat ride and got to see and experience Miami in a way we couldn’t have otherwise. We anchored out and the kid’s got to go swimming – James even joined in after Rui convinced him that there weren’t any sharks lurking below the surface. We all enjoyed seeing the dolphins swimming around the intercoastal and the seemingly endless mangrove trees that line most of the waterways.

Zach at the helm

Elizabeth at the helm

Isabella got in on the action as well

The girls swimming in the intracoastal

Nancy and kids with Trump Towers - Sunny Isles Beach behind

April 21 – Lake City, FL – Walmart

Nothing too exciting to report here. We stayed at Walmart and were treated to the loud music coming from kids’ cars parked across the street in a vacant lot. Unfortunately their taste in music didn’t mirror ours. I told Nancy that if we upgraded the system in the RV just a little more we could have had stereo wars.

April 20 – New Orleans , LA – French Quarter RV Park

On our way into New Orleans I check a couple reference guides that I use. Both warned against driving into downtown New Orleans in an RV - evidently the streets are narrow. So what do we do – we drive there anyway. We rolled into New Orleans in the early evening and found our way to the visitor’s center near the French Quarter. Although it was closed, the French Quarter RV Park was across the street. We lucked out and they had a last minute cancellation so we pulled in and set up camp across the street from the French Quarter and about 4 blocks from Bourbon Street. We geared up for a night on the town and headed out with the kids and dogs in tow. The Navy was in town and things were hopping on Bourbon Street. We scoped things out and asked one of the locals which way we should head to avoid the worst of it. There were quite a few street performers that we all enjoyed including one group of guys that did a dance routine right in the middle of the street. We tried unsuccessfully to steer clear of an almost 7’ tall cross dresser. This individual was obviously pretty confused but he – I think - evidently liked dogs because he sure took a liking to Jett. James let us know later that we didn’t need to worry because he pulled the dog away quickly. Fortunately we were keeping an eye on the sights around and ahead of us. I noticed a guy wearing nothing but underwear with his butt cheeks exposed. I have no idea what he was doing and didn’t care to find out. I quickly redirected the herd to avoid a confrontation. Believe it or not, we managed to avoid most of the weirdness that the French Quarter offers.

While on Bourbon Street we ran into a couple of fellow RVer’s that we met on the road while stopped in Kayenta, AZ. Bruce and Vicki are a retired couple from Australia that left from Vancouver, BC in a rented RV and were following roughly the same route we were taking. We enjoyed catching up with them and sharing stories of our travels. We finally sat down to dinner around 10:30 at night and enjoyed another local treat –Jambalaya. We got back to the RV shortly before midnight.

The French Quarter RV Resort turned out to be the nicest we’ve stayed at. It was only about 5 years old – definitely post Katrina. The hard surfaces were all done in brick pavers and the pool facilities and common areas were all first class. The kids, of course, didn’t care for it as the pavers didn’t provide a smooth surface for their scooters :).





The gang in action





The kids loved the beads




No doubt about what this shop is offering




A crowd gathers to watch street performers