A special Man

Marge's dad has finally given up the fight and passed this last Friday. He was born 92 years ago and was known all his life for being a kind and generous gentleman who was well thought of by all.

We will miss him!

Albert H. Kress

Merry Christmas from Collier Seminole State Park

We have been at Collier Seminole State Park in Florida now about a week after leaving the Corps of Engineers Park on the Caloosahatchee River. We have been here a week and have used the boat to do some exploring and have driven around the area checking out possible camping sites in the future and of course all the local sites. Collier Seminole Park is located about 16 miles East and South of Naples along the Tamiami Trail otherwise known as US 41. We have always driven past this park on the way to the Keys and wondered about it. The land itself was owned by a man named Collier who had a great deal to do with development in South East Florida and the construction of the link between Ft Myers and Miami. Mind you he was trying to develop the land as a Southern Paradise to live in. A great deal of the park is mangrove with tidal salt flats mostly populated by a variety of bird life with a river that starts at the campground and drains out to the Gulf of Mexico. Parts of this river appropriately named the Blackwater River have been dredged but it still very shallow for any motorized boat

This first picture is of our campsite which has full hookups…not a common thing in this park! When we checked out the park a week or so ago we realized that they had assigned us a tent site which we could not fit on and they were kind enough to assign us one of the campground host sites for the two weeks we are here.

These two pictures are of the boat basin and of the riverhead leading toward the Gulf. This is right at the campground where you can launch boats and from where all travel on the river emanates. They have a variety of programs to some areas of the back country with canoes and kayaks ..day and night… to see what these mangrove swamps are like. The most important thing for us was the tidal changes as we had to be very aware of when low tide was when using the boat.

Our first trip down the river was like being on the African Queen with the sides narrowing in on us then expanding out with islands everywhere with lots of open very shallow water. Our GPS was the only thing that kept us abreast of where we were at all times. Actually, before you are allowed to leave the basin you must file a travel plan with the rangers making them aware where you expect to travel and when you will be back. You have to check in and out as a safety precaution.

One of the attractions here at the campground is one of the original “Bay City Walking Dredge’s”. It’s really quite unique….tracked dredges could not navigate the swamps of the everglades so they devised a method having the dredge walk forward about 10’ at time. This was all powered by a single all fuel diesel two cylinder engine that was quite interest to see also.

Ok, time for the wildlife report……We saw a lot of the usual birds which I have shown above….the Great Blue Heron, a unknown hawk, a pileated woodpecker and even a Burmese Python!!!!! Apparently lots of people have turned their pet snakes loose in the everglades and this is one big snake….Marge almost stepped right on it as we were hiking on a remote trail through the swamp. It was somewhere around 10’ long or more with a girth of about 15” to 20”. Scary!!

On another note Big Al (92 year old father in law) is having a hard time. He will be going into Hospice after the 1st of the year as things are failing. He is a good man who has survived a lot. Please keep him in your thoughts this Holiday Season.

Lastly, we have been busy and unfortunately our connections with the internet have been limited. After next weekend we should have broadband again and I will try and keep up a little better. Most of all may you all have the best of the Holidays!

Video Experiment

Something new Blogger offers is the chance to add video to the blog. This is the first experiment with doing that and its obvious we need to work on it but this is our first try. The wind caused some problems and we need to learn to time our speech or description better, but I think its kind of neat that a little hand held camera can do this.

We are still at the locks here at Ortona and the weather has been beautiful. We have not used the boat as the snook fishing season is closed now and Lake Okeechobee is so low you cannot see the water from the rim. The rim canal has water as does the center of the lake (1' deep) with the navigable portions at 4'. We decided it wasn't worthwhile this year and will try next year assuming the rainy season fills it up somewhat.

We leave this beautiful spot on Saturday for Collier Seminole State Park right in the western part of the everglades. Will update after we are there.

Ortona Locks and Corps of Engineer Campground

Once again we found a campground that is absolutely fantastic!! We have stayed in a couple of Corps of Engineer parks and they are always really something! Clean, well located and always on water. This particular campground is again located on the Caloosahatchee River, but further East from the Ft Myers area. Located in an area of beef ranches where we are occasionally serenaded by the cattle in some of the adjacent fields. There is quite a variety of wild life which I try to take pictures whenever we can. Below is hawk that must have staked out his territory just across the street from our campsite. Not sure what kind but large and fun to watch every morning.
Turtles seem to be everywhere and some are quite sizable for fresh water turtles. This one was probably 15" across and just one of many that seem to be congregating around the locks and in the still backwaters nearby. I know the fisherman get upset with them because they tend to go after the live bait being used.

There is an otter family that has chosen to make the locks their home and each morning you can see them nonchalantly moving about, aware of the people around, but not too worried about anything. These are relatively large animals and amazing to watch. I have only seen them in the wild once before while traversing Highway 41 in the Everglades.
I took this picture because it shows our friendly Alligator at the bottom of the picture resting and soaking up the sun directly across from our campsite. That's our motorhome with the flag flying in the near distance
Not really sure what was going on in this photo. The picture was taken at dusk when the bugs, which are an issue here, come out. There were a lot of swallows or purple martins flying about over the water obviously feeding on insects. I assume that there must have been a hatch of insects of some kind coming off the water, and at a tremendous rate, as the birds were swarming above and in the water causing it to appear to be almost boiling. The picture was taken at a distance but you can see the swarm of birds.
This last picture is our friend the alligator that has staked the area near us as his own. When not sunning himself on the rocks out front, he snuggles down into the water hyacinth waiting for a meal to come along.
Ortona is really quite a distance from any major civilization and that has to be the reason there is so much wildlife. Others in the campground have seen a Bobcat with two cubs, Sand Hill Cranes and the campground host even has a snake living in a palm tree next to their camper....Marge is not too please to hear that though. We are here until the 15th, Then on to Collier Seminole State Park which is just south of Naples.

Experiment

This is an experimental post to see if I can get things to work.....by the way those are two eagles that kept an eye on us at the W.P. Franklin Locks during the two weeks were there.

Continuing problems with posting pictures

I have lost some of the pictures on previous posts and tried a number of things to resolve the issue with the latest being an upgrade to the template. Hopefully, this will work for new posts. Will add a post on our newest location soon.

W.P. Franklin Locks and COE Campground

This year we planned ahead a little and made reservations at a few of the hard to get into Corps of Engineers parks and a Florida State Park thats also hard to get into. Our first stop was at the W.P.Franklin Corps of Engineer Locks on the Caloosahatchee River near Fort Myers. There are only 30 or sites as well as some docks for those traveling along the waterways, but all are situated right on the rivers edge as you can see our site below. Yes....that is the Goldbrick flag (new having been replaced after the fire) flying again.

The COE parks are really nice with all the amenities and well taken care of. They also accept the Golden Age Pass offered to anyone 62 or over that gives you a 50% discount on the camping fee. This particular park is really an island with a causeway out to the 30 sites. Paved roads, gravel campsite areas...better than most high scale Motorhome Resorts.

Below is the view from our campsite looking out at the pier with the locks beyond. The pier is used for fishing by a lot of people. The water on the Gulf side is brackash and has tidal fluctuations, while the upstream side is freshwater. Fishing is good with some catching large mullet with snook, jacks, tilapia and sand bream all available. The water activity with fish jumping or being chased by larger fish with egrets and eagles everywhere... this is truly a wonderfull and peacefull campground.

We have had wonderful weather with just one day with a short rain shower. Wed did have some fog that was really kind of erie but neat. Below was a picture I took that morning of the pier which usually has a few fishermen trying to catch a snook.

There are some of us however that have actually caught a snook! Problem was it was undersize. The DNR down here is trying to preserve the snook fishery by limiting the size of keepable fish to betwee 28" and 33" and also limiting the season. The fish below which was released was 24" long. It was the first I have ever caught and having been treated to some fresh snook last year, I am anxious to catch more.

Our campsite at night. The campground provides a protected table and sitting having a beer with the wind calming down at night is about as good as it gets.

 

We had Thanksgiving all by ourselves, although I did try to make reservations in Labelle at a nice resturant only to be told they were closed. The manager that answered the phone at that resturant however did invite us to her house for Thanksgiving when we said we were from out o town. We thanked her but choose to go buy a small chicken and we fixed it for our supper in the motorhome. Thats' Marge below about to enjoy the dinner

 

We did take the boat out and did some exploring and a little fishing. We did not see any fish or catch anything at all but did see lots of unusual sites including the Camel grazing at the river side. This guy had to be at least 8' tall and he was just plan big. Needless to say we were quite surprised to see him

 

This is a picture of our campsite up close. As you can see the view is spectacular.

 

As I mentioned earlier we tried to plan things for staying at some of the unique areas here in florida and we are moving today to another Corps of Engineer park up stream at another lock on this waterway called the Ortona South Campground and Locks. We stayed briefly here last year but plan to stay the next two weeks there.

St Augustine Florida

For years Marge and I have thought that we want to travel down the road looking at new and interesting things without driving 600 miles plus everyday. We have always had to be somewhere at a certain time and hurried to get there. This last year we have had more freedom to drive, in this case just 80- 100 miles down the road to see some of the sights and have the time to explore new things. The city of St Augustine was one of those new stops.

Below is a picture of the old city gates located just outside the fort at St Augustine. This was the entrance to the settlement with the fort sitting on the water protecting the surrounding area. We did not get a chance to visit the Ponce De Leon fountain of youth which was nearby but did wander the fort which is really well preserved for being some 400 years old. The other nice thing was that our "Golden Age Pass" got us in for free.

The corners on the fort had sentry towers that are typical of all the Spanish Forts of the day although it would seem limited as to their use. Inside not much room and beyond being a lookout not much to them at all

There was a moat below all the walls of the fort although it is not flooded now. As you can see ...there isn't much room in the sentry towers

The town outside the fort had limited fortifications that were essentially like stockades but limited as compared to the fort. The city was surrounded by this wall at the time.

Marge trying to find her way out of fort

This picture is of the old town shopping area which in now turist heaven. Note how narrow the streets are and although this is not really T-Shirt heaven there are crowds of people with a lot of shops to accomodate them.

This is Magnolia street just outside the Fountain of Youth and neat with the overhanging trees.

Ah! Finally....Brick! and Paving Brick to boot! Most of the back streets have to some degree real brick pavers and it was fun to see the different manufacturers now long gone.

Hopefully, this post will survive being uploaded and published. I still am having problems with blogger and particularly working with pictures. I have found some ways around and hopefully they will work

Picture Problems

We are in Sarasota for two days and I will try again with the pictures being posted. Not sure what the problem is but Blogger is having quite a problem with everyone from what I can tell.

Fort Federick.....Brunswick, Georgia

We have been sort of lollygagging down the East Coast seeing some things that I have seen before in my travels and finding new places to explore and share with Marge. One area is the Brunswick Georgia area with Jekyll and Sea Island. This beautiful coastal area with the wide open expanses of marsh and tidal flats is really something to see. Between the flats and on higher ground the huge Live Oak trees (some of which are hundreds of years old) it is the picture of the South.

One we stopped at on St Simons is Fort Federicka which was a community that was established in the early 1700's. The first picture below is of the grounds outside the fort with the probably 300 year old Oaks

The picture below is of the smallish fort itself looking out over the tidal flats and river.

Can you imagine a ship coming around the bend in the river in your sights?

And again the beautiful old Live Oak trees.

On to St Augustine to see the earliest settlement in the United States.