Home for awhile - 6th update

6^th Installment / Update  June 14 Pompano Beach, Florida to June 16 in Lake City, FL

When I last posted, our car had broken down in Charlottesville, VA, and we had to wait over the July 4 holiday weekend until we could try to get it fixed on Tuesday the 5th.  The car trouble was not coil as I thought (2^nd time I have misdiagnosed coil as problem), but fuel pump.  Mechanic didn’t have replacement for the old VW, so he repaired/rebuilt the pump.  I’ll get a new one while I’m home and take it back to DC with me.  We were able to leave Charlottesville that afternoon and had a nice drive into DC area through rolling hills of VA horse-country.  We stayed at Crowne Plaza just outside Dulles airport on night of 5^th and also left the car there as they have long term parking.  In fact they include 2 weeks of parking in $139 + tax cost of hotel room, so quite reasonable in addition to convenient.  $40/week after that.  Parking is covered.  So, anyhow, we’ve made it home.  Stayed home for 2 days/nights and then went camping the first weekend we were back to Leo Carillo State Beach Park in Malibu.  It was nice sleeping in our old van at the beach  - upscale from the VW and a tent, but not much.  

We have reservations to fly back to DC on August 3.  We're hoping that the weather will revert to "normal" summer weather compared to the last few week's extremes.

June 14

In order for the mechanic to work on the VW with complete freedom yesterday, I completely unloaded the car and schlepped everything into our room.  Gave us a chance to sort it out and then hopefully the repack of the car would be easier.  Here’s a picture of all our “stuff” on the hotel baggage cart waiting to go back in the VW.

Sorry for the blue hue. More camera malfunction.

(Noting the camera issue above and others I have mentioned, I have returned the S9100 camera to Target after 5 weeks of regular use and abuse and swapped it for a new one of the same kind.  Hope this one isn't a lemon.  So far so good.) 

It took me a couple hours to load up the car that morning..  Fortunately the sun was not out too bright, but it was still nice, humid FL weather, so had to take a shower before leaving and anyhow we were off about noon.  Nothing like an early start.  We got on I95 and went south for a bit to 595 and then west to I75 for a few miles before we exited on US27 that goes northwest to Lake Okeechobee.  I’ve heard this name for years and kind of liked the sound of it, but had no idea about the Lake until we saw it. By the way, it’s 47 miles of sawgrass to Lake Okeechobee – no services along the way from I75.  Fortunately we were supplied with chips and beer, but we were very ready for lunch by the time we got to the first little town of South Bay near the Lake and were able to get a Subway sandwich.

Sawgrass about 4’ tall across the North New River Canal that parallels US27 on the east side. 

Cormorant panting in the heat at a lock alongside the canal.

Right behind the sign and the railing you can walk down to the North New River Canal.  There were a couple of guys fishing here, but I decided not to risk their ire by photographing them “breaking the law”.  Instead I talked to them and found out that they were fishing for bass.  I walked over to another spot a bit away from where they were fishing and could see alligator gar, huge tilapia and pacu (an aquarium fish import from South America that gets quite large when released in the Florida glades or canals), but I couldn’t get good pictures.  The gar were several feet long.

From South Bay we jogged east and then turned north alongside the east side of the lake on US98 to Okeechobee.  The Lake is behind a large berm/dike, so it’s not visible from the highway.  There is access to the Lake up and over the berm to various boat launching and picnic and camping areas.  According to my AAA Tour Book, Lake Okeechobee is the second largest freshwater lake in the continental US.  It’s greatest depth is 14’, but most is much shallower.

 

View of the lake north of Pahokee, FL.  The Lake’s level is pretty low thanks to the drought that is everywhere from AZ to FL and GA. (Sorry the pic is so washed out.)

We checked this place out and found a pretty empty marina.

Maybe this is why?  This guy surfaced right between the 2 pilings in picture above.  The head was about 2’ long and about 6” between the eyes.  This boy is big.

From Okeechobee on the north end of the Lake, we continued northwest on US98 to Highlands Hammock State Park near Sebring, FL, where we camped out overnight.  Highlands Hammock was FL’s first state park in 1931.  I heard about it from a friend from my Army days of 1971 in Korea who did his undergraduate and graduate work in marine biology FL and lived in FL I’m not sure how long.  Former 1LT Roger Hanlon is now a Ph.D. doing research at Woods Hole Institute in MA and he knew exactly the kind of stuff I’m interested in and steered us away from the Atlantic Coast of FL and recommended Highlands Hammock State Park and Ichetucknee Springs State Park (boy is that word hard to type).  By the way, Roger’s marine research is very interesting.   If you’ve ever seen a show on television about squid or octopus or giant squid or cuttlefish on Nature or Nova or Science Channels you have probably already seen him or certainly  film/video that he provided.  A veteran of something like 6000 dives (that’s my memory and if I’m wrong Roger not to be faulted), here’s a link to his website: http://www.mbl.edu/mrc/hanlon/  His latest research is about camouflage and how the animals do it.  Here’s a link to the video on his website.  These animals are amazing.  http://www.mbl.edu/mrc/hanlon/video.html

Cattle and cowboy country around Lake Okeechobee.  You can tell it’s not Texas or Wyoming by the palm trees in the background.

We crossed the Kissimmee River about halfway between Okeechobee and Sebring where I spotted this osprey.  He’s got a fish about as big as he is. 

 

He looks rather peeved at me and flew off.



But I followed him to next roost on the other side of the Kissimmee River for some more pics.  Fortunately he preferred roosting on the telephone poles beside the highway instead of in the nearby trees where I wouldn’t have been able to see him.



Outside of Sebring and a thunderstorm has just gone through.  Headlights went out in the VW, but it’s still daylight, so not too big a deal.  Once the lights dry out, I replace the fuse and lights are fine.  I think I need to take the time to re-tape the wires that go from the headlight through the wheelwell and back into front hood/trunk area of the VW.  The wires are supposed to be inside a rubber tube, but it’s long gone, so I’m pretty sure that’s where I get a short during rain.  On the other hand, I’ve been wrong about the coil being source of other electrical problems, so the short could be anywhere.

Since the rainstorm had already passed through we figured it was safe to campout that night at Highland Hammock State Park.

 

Campground is not too full.

June 15

Left Reyna sleeping in the tent this morning and drove a mile or so from the main campground to where the Park has a variety of nature trails.

 

The Big Oak

The base of the tree is filled with cement to provide support.  Branches too.

There were a number of boardwalks through the park.

An orange tree out in the wild of the Park.  I wish I had picked one to see how they tasted, but I didn’t.

Fern garden as the trail sign promised.

Rebar and hunks of concrete exposed where tree is broken inspite of the effort to hold it together with concrete.

The exposed roots show how low the water level is due to drought.

Pond has been reduced to a puddle.  I saw 2 wild pigs back in the brush here after I heard them crashing around first.  However, I couldn’t get picture.

Another Spanish moss laden tree.  I don’t know why I like the moss so much.  Possibly because it is so stereotypically southern.

These orange tree are growing in the area where an early settler had cleared the hammock of trees starting in 1881.

Cypress trees

Buttress roots on the cypress

I couldn’t decide when I was there and can’t tell from this picture whether this is just what is left of creek leading into pond or is it the trail of an alligator?  I like the alligator explanation better.

Water level is low.  I don't really know if it is seasonal or drought or combination.

Great egret.  That's actually the species name.

This guy about 2” across measured from tips of leg to tip of leg

Damsel fly,  Different from Dragon Fly.  Damsel's fold their wings up.

Don’t know what this was warning us about, but nothing in the road changed.

I guess you can tell from the number of pictures that I really enjoyed Highland Hammock State Park.  After packing up that morning (kind of late) we drove all of about 30 miles north on US27/98 to Lake Wales and decided we were ready for lunch when we saw Fat Boy’s sign..

We order the Feast for 2.  Smoked turkey, bbq chicken, pork, beef and ribs.

 Ribs were good and so was the rest.

We left Fat Boy’s with our next couple days lunches from the leftovers in our cooler and continued north on US27/98 to Ocala and then onto I75 to Gainesville.  We are heading to Ichetucknee Springs State Park about 30 miles northwest of Gainesville.  We were only about 100 miles from here when we went south on US98/28 a couple/few weeks ago on our way south down the Gulf Coast of Florida -- time flies. 

On the way north to Ichetucknee.  It's prairie in the middle of Florida.

The draw at Ichetucknee is a spring that runs constantly at 72 or 73 degrees depending on your source of information at a gazillion gallons of water per hour to form a river that flows 6 miles at 1 mph through a nice tropical forest.  The river is said to be crystal clear and it turns out to be true.  We arrived there late in the afternoon after another thunderstorm had flooded my side of the car and shorted out the lights again and too late to float today, so we went to Ichetucknee Family Campground at North Entrance for the night, since the Park itself offers no camping. 

 

Our campsite with the floor pad from the driver side of the VW outside on the back bumper of the car attempting to drain and dry out overnight.  It didn't.

Somewhere between Highland Hammock and Ichetucknee, Reyna souveniered these alligator foot back scratchers. 

Our night at Ichetucknee Familiy Campground was the noisiest place we’ve ever been -- and not because of fellow campers.  The insects and birds all around in the forest and whatever else was sounding off frequently and loudly until midnight or so were as loud as we’ve ever heard, and we’ve been in Honduras as a hurricane approached and in the Amazon and some other tropical places and heard some forest/jungle noises for comparison.  Ichetucknee was really something, but I eventually fell asleep so don’t really know how long it kept up as I woke up every now and then and continued to hear them.  Then, I heard the roosters I’d been warned about by the campground owner/manager the night before when we checked in.  He apologized for the roosters, but said they belonged to a neighbor so he couldn’t do anything.  Thanks to the roosters I was awake when the lightning and thunder and rain started about 0500 and continued until about 7.  That was fun.  Lightning strike and count 1 ... crash of thunder.  It was close.  That’s also when we discovered the holes in the bottom of our tent from the coral gravel in Key Largo when we didn’t put the ground cloth down.  This time we had the ground cloth under the tent which served as a wonderful collector for the runoff from the rainfly over the tent.  Then, the water that puddled on top of the ground cloth ran under the tent, found the holes, and seeped in.  Fortunately, we were “high and dry” on our ¼” of ensolite foam.  Our sheets got a bit wet around the edges, but otherwise no great flood.  Also, we found that the pole frame around one of the windows in our tent had collapsed (poor design – first time it had been tested) and allowed rain to get some of our gear wet.  But all-in-all no big deal, and the storm was really something to experience from the dry and "comfort" of the tent.  With the rain beating on the tent and the lightning and thunder crashing, we were very close to the elements.

June 16

A bit of a soggy start to the day, but we packed everything up and rented our tubes from the campground.  The Park charges $5.00 per person and that includes shuttling you from where you park back to the spring at the head of the river, which is at the North Entrance about a mile from where we camped.  Float tubes rent for $4 or so.  You just leave the tube at the take-out point when you’re finished.  So, we rented our tubes and I dropped Reyna off at the put-in place with our gear and I took the car down to the South Entrance and take-out point (midway) and caught the shuttle back.  Took about an hour.  One of the things that is recommended is to leave your car keys at the concession stand at the take out point.  For $2 they take a pic of you to be sure it’s you when you come back and they hold the keys, so you don’t lose them in the river.  While I was waiting to do this, the lady in line in front of me asked for a waterproof camera.  I hadn’t thought of that and bought the last one the concessionaire had.  Now I was ready for Ichetucknee.

The owner was sorting tubes by color as he needed 250 all the same for a church group coming next day.  He wanted them to all be the same to avoid any discussions or questions or arguments.  Experience.

Color coordinated.

The State Park is very strict about what you can take on the float tube.  Not only do they prohibit taking any alcohol or food with you on your tube, but won’t even let you take a water bottle.  As a result, there is no litter along or in the river anywhere, but it does get a bit thirsty after a few hours floating.

05 22a     009 18a    Pic 07 20a    023 04 

Saw turtles at several places but drifted by before I could get pics.  I managed to grab a log to hold myself still for a bit to get this one.



The river is often wall to wall tubers due to its proximity to University of Florida in Gainesville.  We were lucky that for most of the trip we couldn’t see folks in  front or behind us. 



I put the camera under the water to get this picture and to my surprise actually caught some fish in the frame.

The water is clear.  You dan see the rocks and sand on the bottom surrounded by grass.

After we finished our tube down the river, Reyna wanted to go back to the North Entrance to check out the Blue Hole Spring. 



It was a half-mile to the Blue Hole Spring.  Reyna hiked all the way down and partway back before she needed a bit of help.



You can kind of see the blue part in background.  There was a deep cavern here where the spring welled up.  It was easy to see when I swam out, but not so visible from the shore.  Small bass and other fish in the pond.  Saw some turtles too as I snorkeled around.

We left Ichetucknee late that afternoon and drove about 30 miles northeast to Lake City near the junction of I10 and I75 where we spent the night in motel and put our tent and sheets in the washer and dryer.