Marge is getting quit artistic with her photography as shown below. Sunshine Key has a mile marker post with distances from various cities around the country although I think some of the distances were put up there to make you feel closer than you are. But it is kind of neat and with the huge Flag that is flown here the picture turned out kind of nice.

In case you haven't noticed the pictures are posting now. I have to think it was the connection we had in the Keys as once we moved (today) things seem to be working fine.

We left the keys today with a tinge at regret as it seems clear we may not be back next year. Policies and cost increases have certainly gotten out of hand and while we may visit for a short time, we have decided to go elsewhere next year. At this point in time we are still planning on Florida but have made reservations near Fort Myers at Up River RV Resort which we have stayed at before. We even left our coach there a year ago Christmas when we flew home. The resort has access to the Caloosahatchee River with a boat ramp and the Gulf is just a short distance (16 miles) for Salt Water Fishing. We're already looking forward to it although we will miss the keys.

Tonight we are at the Ortona Locks on the Caloosahatchee River just outside of LaBelle Florida. We have a place in Labelle that we store the boat for the season and we will prep it and wrap it tomorrow then drop it off. We really like this campgroun...its a Corps of Engineer campground right on the river as you can see from our past posts....small spacious and really quiet. Lots of wildlife...manatees, otters all kinds of birds including the bald eagle in a tree accross the way.

I close out this post with a few classic pictures of sunsets etc. We will try and make up for our lack of post and pictures on our trip home now that that the system seems to be working.

We've been here now almost three months and neither of us knows where the time goes. Obviously the blog has been sort of forgotten at times as it has been a bit of pain to try to get anything to post properly. Google documents works very well for posting but unless the connection is good it never posts completely. Editing after the fact is so frustrating that I have given up to some extent so I apologize for the lack of posts this year while in the keys.

Lots of things have happened this year..
....Ben, our son came for as short visit
....Marge's cousin, Sandy was in Key West and visited with us briefly
....our friends the Ritchies have come down and stayed for the month of March although David has discovered he really does not care for fishing all that much. He does like eating those fish that we have caught though. Deanna on her first trip enjoyed herself thoroughly was the best student in learning to fish in salt water. She caught some nice fish too! Mark her son and his friend Jesse came down and also enjoyed a day fishing and they checked out Key West on St Patricks Day
....Dave Jag and his family were down and his son and his wife also were quite the fisherman catching enough for dinner and I think enjoying being on the water too!

....The Thompsons were here for their longest time ever
....A really strange happening was the Eagle Ray that jumped into a passing boat and unfortunately killed a woman from the blow. We have seen rays jumping often but never close to a boat. We even saw a 6ft shark come out of the water, which we had never seen before.
....we continue to eat and imbibe and enjoy with the many folks we have met over the years here at Sunshine key. Fishing and boating has been great and lots of fun.

All of us have had difficulty with the changing rules and costs and along with that the management of Sunshine Keys attitude. Basically, the costs being less than half in most other places has had a great deal to do with our decision not to return next year for the usual 3 months we spend here. We aren't sure, but we may still come down for a short time but management seems to have done its best to drive its loyal customer base away We have made reservations near Fort Myers for next year and a lot of the group is going elsewhere for some of the same reasons we are.

We plan on leaving tomorrow and will drop off the boat for storage... then we hope to head West to Natchez, Ms. From there we hope to work our way north along the Natchez Trace and get home mid April.

I tried one more time to post a few pictures but signal strength or ? has once again prevented the posting of pictures. Once we move it may be different.

Posting using Google's Documents

Well, by changing internet access and trying something new that really seems easy to use, things are beginning to work. Google documents will allow me to post text and pictures by just typing and placing the pictures, which makes it very much easier than previously. Anyway here goes with pictures again. Will try just one the first time.

Bat Tower at Sugarloaf Key

Pictures Finally!

Tried once again using Picasso and it seems to have worked this time. Rather than try to insert pictures into the old post, I have inserted the three concerning the bat house on Sugarloaf Key below. The first is of the tower by itself

The louvered access for the bats.

A view from the bottom looking up at all the "cubicles"?

Hopefully this will all post properly.

Picture Problems

Still having problems posting pictures. Have tried a couple of different methods but nothing has worked to this point. Internet connection has been one source of the problem sometimes but we're stuck with this connection until we move.

Bat House

Many years ago, when development started in the lower keys the mosquito population was a terrible problem and someone got the idea that maybe they could be controlled with bats imported from central Florida. (A single bat can eat as many as 1000 mosquito's a day.) At any rate, in 1929 a gentleman by the name of Perky decided to build this tower to entice bats to survive and multiply and resolve at least some of the problems with the mosquito population.
Perky Bat Tower

This tower is about 40 or 50 feet tall and quite intricate with roosts for the bats behind louvers that allow them to come and go with the roosts inside protected by the shake shingles on the exterior of the tower.
Entrance Louvers

This last view is from the bottom of the tower which shows the strange spacing of the interior boards that allows roosting areas through out the structure. The problem was that either the bats all died or moved on to better climates and the structure is still obviously standing to this day. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Hows that for an interesting tidbit about the Florida Keys?

Special Weekend

Valentines day our son Ben joined us for a long weekend in what we think is a bit of paradise. The first picture below is a view from the bridge looking to the beach our little island where we have spent the last seven weeks or so. The picture was taken the day that he came down so you can see we had beautiful weather and althought windy but ok seas.We did do a little exploring to see some of the sights with Ben. Its been some time since he was down here and last time it was more of a diving adventure and not too much fishing. Of course we have the boat now and that allows to do a lot more exploring and fishing. Below we visited whats called the "Blue Hole" which is a carved out piece of Big Pine Key that is part of the National Key Deer Refuge. We did see an alligator and a very colorful Iguana but no deer. Usually the deer come out of the bushes to be fed (definitely a no no) but not this day
Thought I would post a few traditional family pictures....father and son....mother and son....and last but not least the airport picture when he left.

We had an excellent time with him here and we were pleased to introduce him to our friends that we have made over the years down here in the Keys. We did keep him quite busy though ....out in the sun all day fishing then partying with appetizers (even got him to try fresh oysters) and of course a good helping of beer. He was in bed before us one of the nights! He, of course, got totally sunburned, but we did have fun catching quite a variety of fish... even a small 3' shark.

We are, needless to say are very proud of him.

Thursday Nights at Sunshine Key

Over the years of coming to this campground there have been a lot of people that have shared their individual talents to entertain everyone. The last few years Jack and Kathy with their friend Jim (occasionaly even their grown children) have put on mini concerts on thursday nights. Each week at 7:00 pm everyone gathers in front of their motorhome which they have set up as sort of a stage from which they sing and play music for a few hours. As you can see below it draws quite a crowd.

Jack and Kathy

The Crowd (as many as 100)

View from behind Jim, Kathy and Jack as they entertain

All ages come out to enjoy!

"Doin some fishin"

While Marge and I have been doing some regular fishing and of course bragging about how wonderful the fishing was, my good friend Dave Harris from home decided to take me up on an offer to see for himself. Dave has a place in the "Villages" where he plays a lot of golf!! Dave and his family live and breathe golfing. His three sons are all good with very low handicaps and Mike his middle son plays on the Canadian Tour. They all play as much as they can and enjoy the game very much. Below is a picture of us having lunch with Dave at the Cafe by the pool here at Sunshine Key.
We had been waiting for a couple of good days without too much wind and reasonably calm seas to go fishing. Dave drove down and last week we went out bright and early in calm seas no wind and lots of fog and heavy mist. Actually it was reasonably warm and the fog and mist really didn't cause too much of a problem. We even caught a fair number of fish! That evening Dave and I went out to eat and he left the next day. A good time!

Our son Ben is coming down for a long weekend in two weeks to do some of the same and get a little sunshine to boot! Will keep you posted.

Internet service

For some reason the last two months have not been the most satisfying relative to dealing with the internet and all the various connections to it. We have "suffered" through old fashion land lines to private service and even tried Comcast again which was the final straw! WE MISS OUR DATASTORM!!!! As you may recall, that was the one item that was not covered under the insurance...... we needed a rider to cover that type of item. I finally broke down and signed up for the private service that Sunshine Key offers. For the time being we will have better connections and hopefully, I will keep up a little better now.

We have been here now a little over two weeks and have been busy since we got here seeing old friends and settling in. All of us have had some real problems with management this past fall as they seemed to change the rules and particularly the costs with regard to having a boat down here. Bottom line is that the cost of having a boat went sky high by virtue of the fact that we can no longer keep the boat on site for free, but are now required to keep it either in the dry racks they were to have built or in a marina slip. All this at an increase of about $500.00 a month or more minimum. Needless to say there were a lot of upset people. The racks, however (seen below) still are not finished and management had to back pedal. Next year will be interesting as we are aware of many who are not returning or at least for not for the length of time we usually do. all a due to these new costs. Unfortunately, the Florida Keys as beautiful as they are and the cost of being here ... has started to force people to look elsewhere. Times change! An interesting side note is that there are many vacancies where there never were in previous years. Perhaps due to the cost of fuel but the change in policies at this campground have certainly had some effect.


New animal alert.....Iguana's. They have invaded this small Key. Not easily seen but fascinating to watch. The ones we have seen seem young or smaller than we have seen in other areas of the keys but they are neat!
Look close .....he's there in the tree by our motorhome.

We have been doing a little fishing with great success and eating our catch regularly.....There is nothing like fishing during the day and then having fresh fish for dinner in the evening. Our friend Dave Harris is down to fish for a day or two ....will let you know how that turns out.

Back in Florida Keys

The funeral for big Al went well with respects being paid by old friends and relatives. As I had said previously he was very well thought of and a fine man.

We were able to fly back to our coach which we had left at Collier Seminole State Park in the overflow area. The park people were absolutely fantastic about taking care of us and allowing us to leave the coach there and they even kept an eye on it for us. They even helped us pack everything in so we could leave it and catch a plane home. Nice People!!!! Thank you again Joe and Karen.

We arrived back to find everything in order and packed up and headed out for our favorite Florida Keys spot. Some changes at the resort but we are settled in and we will try tokeep you up to speed on everything we do and see.

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.