Inside-out world

Wednesday, February 22, 2012 FORT MYERS, FL – It’s always good to talk to the locals in a new area. They can give you really helpful tips. This morning, in the park’s community building, we met Dennis, who has been coming here for more than 15 years. He mentioned a state park and a local park that are quite close by, so we decided to have a look. Just a few blocks south of the RV park, we found the Koreshan State Historic Site. The park used to be a religious commune in the 19th century, founded by Dr. Cyrus Teed, who moved here with his followers from New York in 1894. His elaborate philosophies and theories included the notion that the world was laid out on the inside wall of a hollow ball which enclosed the moon, sun and stars within it. Taking the name “Koresh”, a Hebrew version of Cyrus that means shepherd, the charismatic leader brought his 200 followers to Florida to get away from hostile attitudes in New York. Their new community was self-sufficient, growing their own food, setting up a printing press, cement factory, bakery and meeting hall where they staged theatre and concert performances. A major limiting factor to the sect’s continuation was the Koreshan principle of celibacy. Perhaps their belief in physical life after death was sufficient guarantee of a future to them, but time disproved that theory. In 1961, the remaining four members of the sect sold the land to the state of Florida, which established the park and historic site that we visited today. Eleven of the original buildings have been restored, and docents provide information about the Koreshan lifestyle and activities. We only went in to see the arts hall, which is still used today for concerts and plays. It has beautiful floors of rare Florida pine, a lofty ceiling, and a model of the Koreshan world view on display. The docent told us that Florida was once a major pine logging area. Since it was a beautiful day, our preference was to follow the nature trail that meandered alongside the Estero River. Nearer the community buildings there were some lovely footbridges, flower urns and curved steps down to the riverbank, but the path became more natural as we continued on our way. In addition to the scrub palm trees, dense vines and grasses, we came upon huge stands of bamboo. Their trunk sections were around four inches in diameter at the base, narrowing as they towered upward. As the wind stirred the densely packed clusters of bamboo, some stems creaked against each other eerily, while others knocked together with a hollow sound. The river flows into the Gulf of Mexico, so plants along its shores are adapted to live in a mixture of salt and fresh water. We spotted a few kayakers paddling along in the brown water. At the boat launch, we saw a “no swimming” sign that warned of the presence of alligators, although we didn’t see any, thank goodness! We ate our picnic lunch at tables provided near the campground, while a trio of curious squirrels hovered nearby, hoping for a handout. We learned that the Koreshan park is one of Florida’s parks that allows RV camping and provides electrical and water hookups. At the ranger’s hut at the entrance we picked up a detailed map and brochure indicating all the other state parks with the same amenities. We hadn’t been able to get that information in as accessible a form online, so this was a valuable bonus to our outing today – thanks to a chat with a local!

Mangroves and mollusks

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 FORT MYERS, FL – We took a nature cruise at the conservation area on the north side of Sanibel Island today. It confirmed that having a knowledgeable person explain the flora and fauna of an area sure beats exploring with an unschooled eye. We figured that after the holiday weekend, the traffic would be thinner. Wrong! As we crawled along, we dropped the idea of visiting one of the beaches before checking in for the cruise. We learned that it was best to arrive before eight and leave after seven to ensure an easy ride. Also, renting a bicycle would also be a much better way to get around than driving. The “Ding” Darling wildlife refuge bears the name of its founder, J.N. Darling, who began establishing a protected area for wildlife on Sanibel Island in the 1940s. He was first known as a controversial political cartoonist, but now his name, and nickname, lives on in the 6,400-acre preserve that teems with birds, plants and animals. Our tour began indoors where our guide Jessica described how sea creatures survive, and what species are most common in this area. At a watery “touch table” we were allowed to handle conch shells that still housed their snail-like inhabitants, and live sea stars – not starfish, because they are not fish. We then climbed aboard a large pontoon boat for our tour of Tarpon Bay on the north side of Sanibel Island. Jessica steered us toward some small islands covered with mangrove trees. They were made when people in early times left dredged-out material in the bay instead of removing it. Mangrove twigs from other plants latched on and began to grow. The trees provide an excellent habitat for birds to nest where predators can’t harm them. As we passed the islands, we saw dozens of huge pelicans and herons perched in the trees. Some were building nests and performing mating rituals. The white pelicans, Jessica said, have the second-largest wingspan of any bird in the US, after the California condor. Mangroves are uniquely adapted to growing in salt water, with finger-like roots that have special openings for absorbing oxygen. This happens only when low tide exposes the openings, so they have only a small period of time to absorb oxygen. In addition, each plant has certain “sacrificial” leaves that collect salt water absorbed during osmosis, turn yellow and drop off the plant. Amazing! As we headed back, we caught sight of something black in the water at some distance. Jessica identified it as a manatee, but it never resurfaced. We also saw what looked like two dolphins’ dorsal fins, but our excitement abated when, minutes later, two stingrays drifted past. Their wings, breaking the surface, sure looked like dorsal fins! In any case, we had learned a lot and enjoyed our outing immensely. After our tour, we made it to the beach on the other side of the island. It was great to stroll in the foaming surf and admire the thousands of shells, mostly small or in pieces, strewn on the shore. Sanibel is a shell collector’s paradise, but it takes a keen eye to locate intact ones of any size. They are much more abundant after a storm, when bigger waves carry large undamaged specimens onto shore. When I went to rinse my beach shoes in an incoming wave, I saw the wings of two stingrays just a foot or two away in the murky water! No wonder wise waders use the “stingray shuffle” to avoid stepping on such creatures.

Gertie the ‘gator

Monday, February 20, 2012 FORT MYERS, FL – The air was much fresher this morning – a welcome change from the muggy heat of yesterday. After breakfast, we took a little tour in our campground, along a boardwalk through a marshy area thick with jungly vegetation. Even though we could hear traffic noises close by, we could have been deep in some forgotten swamp. The only wildlife was a squirrel, a bug or two, and minnows and small fish in the boggy water. Guess the pythons and gators knew better than to get in our way. We decided to go in search of some real swamp life in the Everglades, less than an hour’s drive away. Our campground neighbours gave us a brochure of one airboat service that they had enjoyed, so we headed south on I-75 past Naples after phoning in our reservation. Airboats are a common means of transportation in the Everglades. These flat-bottomed boats have a huge propeller at the back, much like an oversized fan, that can propel the vessel at speeds up to 50 miles an hour across shallow water, marshland or even dry ground. They make such a din that passengers need to cover their ears with padded protectors. Since we arrived well ahead of time for our trip, we were invited to go and see the baby alligators in a pen near the office building. The handler let us take turns holding Gertie, the baby alligator. It was quite a different sensation feeling her little body in our hands. She was surprisingly soft, and quite content to be passed from one person to another. Gertie’s older relatives were a little less cuddly looking. A pair of them basked in the sun on the shore below the office building. One was about nine feet long and the other a smaller, five-foot specimen. Standing on a wooden platform above them, we could admire their spiky backs, long claws and toothy grins from a safe distance. They were practically motionless, snoozing in the warm mud, but when the big one yawned we got a good look at his chompers. Whew! Finally, it was time to board the airboat. Ten of us got on, in two rows of four on padded benches plus two others on either side of Dan, the driver, at the back. Moments later, the engine roared and we were careening into the marshland, spewing plumes of water behind us and traveling at a speed that mashed my face around as if I were moving at three Gs! I gripped the grab bar in front of me, but Val, in the back seat, had nothing holding him in on the water side of his spot! All he could do was grab the edge of his seat and hold on for dear life. Dan weaved his way through watery pathways, with tall grasses on either side. In more open areas, we could see wading birds moving out of the way, and a few took to flight, but they were obviously accustomed to the noisy visitors. Our boat slowed down when we got to a section of open water. That’s when we caught sight of something above the surface. An alligator! Then another one! And a third! As we glided in their direction, they made no attempt to go away. On the contrary; they approached us, undulating their spiky tails to propel them forward. One was about 11 feet long, and it came right up to the airboat and then glided underneath it. We were spellbound. Dan gave us some more high-speed thrills on the return journey, deftly doing a couple of 360s in the open water to our delight! Only a few of the front-row passengers got splashed a bit, but they weren’t complaining.

Feathered friends

Sunday, February 19, 2012 FORT MYERS, FL – The mocking bird was trilling at full force this morning from its lamppost across from our site. Val looked up “mocking bird” on the internet and we learned that they can imitate hundreds of bird songs, as well as animal sounds and even machinery. He even found a video of a mocking bird mimicking a car alarm! As we stood outside listening to the bird’s virtuoso performance, our neighbour, Dick, told us it comes back every year to the same lamppost. He also gave us a good tip when we told him we were going to Sanibel Island today. He said there was an interesting collection of birds on the island that would be worth a visit, and he told us where to find it. It was a very warm and humid day, so we were glad to be heading for the water and the sea breezes. As we drove over the causeway, we saw beautiful white sandy beaches on either side, with turquoise waves lapping at the shore and seabirds soaring overhead. Lots of people were out with beach chairs, picnic lunches, and fishing rods. As we got closer to the island, there were more and more cars. After a short stop for some brochures about things to do on the island, we found the Periwinkle RV Park that our neighbour had mentioned and turned in. Just a few blocks in, we saw a row of cages with exotic birds of all kinds – parrots, cockatiels, and lovebirds – with wonderful plumage in bright greens, yellow, orange, turquoise and red. As we strolled past, admiring them, one of the birds chirped “hello!”, while others rasped and squawked. We also heard “back off!”, and a pair of birds chanting “hah!” “haw!”, “hah!” “haw!” back and forth in a most comical conversation. Beyond the cages, there was a lovely waterway with dozens of birds, natural to Florida, but some unlike any we had seen anywhere before. Beautiful caramel-coloured ducks with brown heads, and mergansers with round crests on their heads, mingled with a flock of white ibis, a pair of black swans, egrets and herons. The founders of the RV park, Dick and Jerry Meunch, had been developing this bird sanctuary for 30 years, and clearly the feathered population appreciated their efforts. So did a pair of lemurs with ringed tails, in another cage near the water. We drove out the back entrance of the RV park and found ourselves heading for a beach area, but unfortunately we couldn’t get out and have a look, because it was part of an exclusive neighbourhood that did not provide public parking. So we continued back to the main drag only to find ourselves in very heavy traffic in both directions. It turns out, since this is a holiday weekend (Presidents’ Day is Monday), everyone and their dog decided to visit Sanibel Island today! The thickest traffic was next to a huge craft fair, with tents displaying paintings, stained glass, bird and alligator lawn ornaments made of metal and other knick-knacks. We turned away from the throngs to have a look at the nature reserve on the island, but thought it would probably be better to come back on a weekday when there were fewer people! With kayaks and bicycles for rent and tour boat rides to take, it gives us plenty to choose from.

Bridges to cross

Saturday, February 18, 2012 FORT MYERS, FL – “Do not feed the alligators” says the sign a couple of streets over from our site, here at the Woodsmoke RV Park just south of Fort Myers. It’s planted next to a pond that could actually be home to an alligator, although, as I said to Val, I’ll believe it when I see it. After a whole month at Dunedin RV Park, we finally pulled up stakes and got back on the road. It was hard to say goodbye to John and Fawn (and Algarve the dog), as well as to some of the other terrific residents we’d gotten to know during our stay. Our time at Dunedin gave us time to explore, time to relax, time to fine tune our comforts in the new RV, and time to appreciate the snowbird lifestyle. But at this point, we are still vagabonds, seduced by the turn in the road and the curiosity to see what’s around the next corner. We know we will have to come back to Florida, because we could never see all its sights in one short trip. Still, we are looking forward to the next leg of the journey, which today has taken us further south along the state’s east coast. After driving through Clearwater and St. Petersburg, we crossed the mouth of Tampa Bay over the Sunshine Skyway. It’s a long, tall bridge with two sets of yellow suspension cables that rise over the water like a pair of giant triangles. In today’s humidity, the bridge, from a distance, seemed almost to float on air, with the shimmering water underneath melting into the sky overhead. We stopped at a rest stop just north of the bridge to have our lunch. The rest area also had a road leading to a fishing pier, and as we left to continue the journey, we could see lots of people had parked there to try their luck in the bay waters. Sea birds had the same objective (with their livelihood at stake rather than just their luck). We caught sight of one bird of prey a little further along, flying over the roadway with a hefty-looking fish dangling from its talons. Our new campground is larger than the one we left, and more tightly packed. More than half the sites are permanent, with double-wide park model trailers surrounded by potted plants, gnomes, flags and little signs with the residents’ names and home towns on display. There are lots of tall pine trees to provide shade, and somewhere up there is a wonderful songbird with the most amazing repertoire, that sang to us all evening. When we pulled in to our site, Val had positioned the RV perfectly on the concrete pad when a couple of staff members pulled up in a golf cart. The concrete pad, they explained, was our patio. We were supposed to be on the grass! Oops. Guess the neighbours got a bit of a chuckle out of that one. In no time we were all set up again, reveling in the simplicity of motorhome camping as compared to the fifth wheel camping we’ve been doing for the past ten years. We’ll be here for a bit more than a week. From the look of all the tourist brochures we picked up at the office, we are going to have plenty of choices of things to do. It’s great to be on the road again.

Ice chips

Friday, February 17, 2012 DUNEDIN, FL – Few things can be as exciting as watching ice thaw. I can tell you this, because that’s what I was doing today! The tiny refrigerator in our RV, unlike the huge, frostless model we have at home in Ottawa, needs to be defrosted when the crystals build up to about 3 mm thick. That was what the manual said. Since our crystals were more like ten times that thick, it was high time for us to tackle this chore (if I followed those instructions, I’d be defrosting every other day!). I dug out three insulated bags from the trunk of the car and placed into them as many of the most easily-spoiled items as I could, leaving the bread and grapes to fend for themselves on the counter. Fortunately, it was a rainy day today, so the temperature didn’t get up all that high to threaten their freshness for an hour or two. The RV freezer compartment is part of the main fridge, but separated from it by an insulated floor, hinged to an insulated door, that can slide out if desired, leaving a fridge-only compartment. All you have to do is pull the little clip on each side on the bottom of the freezer floor, according to the manual, to slide it out. That simple step took Val and me about ten minutes, as we tried to avoid snapping the clips off entirely. The other challenge was flipping the fridge door latch so that it would keep the door slightly ajar. This is a nice feature when the RV is not in use for any length of time. It helps discourage mildew. But again, it took us several consternating minutes trying to flip the latch without breaking the plastic housing altogether. We did it, but in the end, we just left the door wide open. Of course, we were admonished not to even think about running the hair dryer to zap the ice faster. The whole project reminded me of our early married days, when, as a novice homemaker, I spent frustrating hours hacking away at a coating of thick ice in our freezer with a wooden spatula, only to generate splinters on the wood but not budging the ice! When they came out with frostless fridges, I was first in line for one! The excitement became more than Val could bear, so he pedaled off on his bicycle to visit John. He didn’t want to deprive me of the full enjoyment of the experience by distracting me with his presence. No problem; I had to get the laundry done as well, so that helped pass the time wonderfully. While I was off picking socks out of the deepest recesses of the commercial dryer (which are installed for people at least a foot taller than I am), the wee droplets of melting ice were quietly draining away. By the time I had two loads folded and loaded into the massive cotton bag to lug home again, dramatic changes had occurred in the fridge. The whole bottom half of the ice coating was gone! Even more exciting, when I touched the remaining frost, it gave easily to the gentle pressure! Then I made a wonderful discovery: if I grasped what was left and lifted gently, the top half of the ice cap on each metal fin slipped right off! Into the sink went each piece, as I went back to clear the next fin in a frenzy. Mere moments later, all the ice was gone! No hacking, no hair drying needed! I could hardly contain myself. It took quite a bit of wiping to get all the moisture out, due to the high humidity today, but then the job was done. And just think, in another two weeks, it will be time to do it all over again!

Beaches and bags

Thursday, February 16, 2012 DUNEDIN, FL – It was Mum’s last day with us here in Florida, so we thought it would be a good time to take her to the seashore where she could look out on the Gulf of Mexico. We drove over the causeway to Honeymoon Island and headed for the northern tip, where the seashells are supposed to be good for collecting. It was a lovely, sunny day with a fresh breeze. There were quite a few shell gatherers on the beach, and sea gulls swooped overhead a dive-bombed the water in search of fish. It was slightly rough going for Mum with her cane (the walker, over rocks and bumps, was out of the question), but she enjoyed seeing the blue-green water stretching off to the horizon, and the mounds of tiny shells at her feet. We also caught a couple of glimpses of slim, white egrets by the roadside. Fortunately, we didn’t see any sign of another island resident, the rattlesnake. Being the consummate traveler that she is, Mum was packed and ready for her trip home as soon as she got up this morning, so there was nothing to do to get ready for the trip to the airport later in the afternoon. We had time for our beach outing, and also to drop by John and Fawn’s trailer one last time. Our plan, again, was to take Mum to the airport well ahead of time so we could enjoy a nice dinner at Carrabba’s, the wonderful Italian restaurant we discovered there when we went last week to pick Mum up. She also had time to pick up a couple of last-minute souvenirs before we ate. After another delicious meal, it was off to the check-in counter, where we were pleased to see that the airline had arranged for a wheelchair escort, as requested, to her departure gate. We said our goodbyes as she was wheeled away. It was good to hear Mum say she’d had a good time and was glad she’d come! On the way back to the RV park, we stopped at Beall’s, a Florida department store, to pick up some bargains for Val. He found a nice lightweight jacket and a couple of pairs of shorts, and with the discounts of the day plus a coupon I got on my last visit, we saved almost $90. That’s the kind of shopping we both like! Tomorrow will be our last full day at Dunedin RV Resort, after a month here, so there will be laundry to do, propane and fuel tanks on the RV to fill up, and other finishing-up activities. We don’t know what kind of internet connections we will have at the next stop (it’s always a gamble!), so if we go silent for a while, that’s a likely reason – as it always is when we’re mobile. One thing RV parks everywhere could do to make the experience more pleasant would be to make sure their wi-fi service is as up to date as possible and strong enough to service all visitors on the property, no matter how far they are from the main office. Everybody likes to keep in touch with the folks back home.