Fort Lauderdale, The Everglades and Weeki Wachee

Nov 9th

We left the Keys this morning and drove to Fort Lauderdale. We are staying at a county park in the city. Easterlin Park is not in the best of neighborhoods, but the park is beautiful. If you couldn’t hear the constant noise from the traffic or trains, you would think you were in a lush tropical forest in the middle of nowhere. The lake in the park has warning signs about alligators, but we didn’t see any.

Nov 10th

My parents flew into Fort Lauderdale last night to board a cruise ship. We got up early and went to their hotel to have breakfast with them. After breakfast they had to check out of their hotel, but they still had 2 hours before they boarded the ship. We brought them back to our trailer so they could see Oreo, then we took them to the cruise ship terminal.

Nov 11th

We were supposed to have a short driving day today, but we got caught in traffic on the interstate in Fort Lauderdale. All lanes were blocked and we had nowhere to exit. Even the police and tow trucks were stuck in traffic trying to get to the scene. We arrived at our destination, Monument Lake Campground in the Everglades, late in the afternoon. On our drive into Everglades National Forest, I started seeing a lot of alligators in the water next to the road. Kathy was driving, and she didn’t believe me. She thought I was seeing logs. She finally saw one just before we entered our campground. Being out in the National Forest is such a nice change from our last stay. We are next to a lake, and there are very few people. When we were setting up, I notice a large “log” sitting on the opposite bank of the lake. I retrieved our binoculars, and found that it was a rather large alligator. As I was levelling the trailer, I came across a large black snake. I backed up and got my camera, but before I could get a picture it climbed up into a nearby tree and was gone. We noticed the warning signs were different at this lake. They didn’t say “there may be alligators”, They said “There are alligators”, and pets are not allowed lake side because the alligators will eat them. I walked to the other side of the lake to get a closer view of the alligator. It is over 8 feet long! It was basking in the day use area next to a picnic table. We kept our eyes on it all day, and walked Oreo on the other side of the park. The temperature is only about 80 degrees, but the humidity is so high, that it feels like its well over 100. We are soaking wet. Being in swamp land, I expected bugs, and they made their presents known as soon as we got here.

Nov 12th

When I got up this morning, Kathy told me that there was more than one alligator in park. She had taken Oreo for a walk early this morning, and had seen at least two in the lake. We scheduled an airboat ride for this morning through the mangrove forest. The tour left from Everglades City, which was only a 20-minute drive from our campground. Unfortunately, it is raining. The boat ride was still going though. We purchased some disposable rain slickers at the dock and our captain gave us a quick run down of what we were doing. We each had headsets and microphones, so we could talk back and forth over the sound of the engine. The first part of the trip was in a no wake zone, to protect the manatees. We did not see any manatees though. We did however, get a rare sighting of bottlenose dolphins in the mangrove forest. There were two adults and a baby. Due to the rain, all of the birds were congregating in the mangrove trees. There were thousands of them everywhere, herons, egrets, storks, spoonbills, ospreys, kingfishers and more. As we picked up speed, they would take flight in front of us. It was an amazing scene. The faster we went, the more the rain stung our faces, and the more Mia liked it. Our guide was upset that he couldn’t find an alligator for us, but we assured him we had seen enough already. Our rain slickers did not stop us from getting completely soaked. It was a good trip. We stopped at the National Parks Visitors Center to get Mia’s passport stamped. The volunteer asked Mia if she would like to complete the junior ranger program for this park. ???? Apparently, all of the National Parks have this program where the kids fill out an activity book about the park they are in, take an oath to protect the park and get honorary ranger badge for that park. We have been to over 10 national parks, and none of them have mentioned this. Mia was very excited to get her badge. By the time we got back to our trailer, the rain had stopped, and it was extremely hot and humid again. Everything we own is wet from the humidity. Showering to remove the sweat is pointless because you are instantly sweaty and gross again after the shower. We were supposed to stay another day, but we can’t take the heat and bugs. We did hike around the lake a few more times and admire the alligators. There was a nice family from Missouri fishing on the lake, and every time they move spots to fish, the alligators follow them. When fish are thrown back, the alligators eat them. Mia completed her Junior Ranger activities, which included finding different plants and animals in the park.

Nov 13th

It was already very warm when I took the dog out for a walk this morning. The park and campground are very nice, and the wild life is amazing, but we are happy to be leaving. We stopped at the Visitors Center on our way out, and Mia showed the ranger her completed activities book. The ranger looked the book over, and asked Mia a few questions about it. She led Mia to a wall map of the park, made her take an oath to observe, protect, and teach others about the wild life in the park, and then handed her the badge. It was very cute and Mia loved it. We set off on our way up the West side of Florida. I made contact with Lew and Jackie Tippet, who live North of Tampa. We lived in Colombia at the same time as they did. They invited us over to their house once we had set up camp for the night. We are staying at Cody’s RV Park in Weeki Wachee, FL. When we first pulled up, I thought we had made a grave mistake picking this place. After we parked and set up, several of our neighbors came and talked to us, and we felt better about our stay here. The park isn’t bad looking, it’s just eccentric. In one place there are manikins set up, in another there are several knights in armor, in some of the sights there are giant dinosaur statues, mermaid and seahorse statues in others. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. While most of the people living here, do so full time, they are all very nice and friendly. A little girl came up to Mia immediately, and wanted to know how long we were staying, because all of the other kids here are boys. Once everything was set up, we got in the truck and drove to Lew and Jackies house. We had some great conversations, and reminisced about our stay in Colombia. They ordered pizza for us, and Mia had a great time with their cat. They told us about some local parks and attractions to visit. It was really good seeing them again.

Nov 14th

It was fairly cold last night, which felt great after all of that heat in southern Florida. We have decided to stay for a few nights and check out the area. We did some routine stuff in the morning, school, laundry and shopping. In the afternoon we drove a few miles to a state park where we might be able to see manatees. We didn’t see any manatees, but we did see a lot of fish, and even an otter. Tonight, was even colder.

Nov 15th

We had heard from several people, that we had to see the mermaid show at Weeki Wachee State Park. Kathy looked up the show times, and we set off this morning. This is one of the strangest State Parks we have ever been to. The mermaid show started as a road side attraction, then became world famous in the 50’s and 60’s, and is now a state historical site. https://www.floridastateparks.org/WeekiWachee There are still mermaid shows plus a small water park, river ride and nature center. We watched the live underwater show, The Little Mermaid. The show and all of the water attractions, use the water from the massive fresh water spring. During the show, wild fish swim in and out of the show area. It is quite interesting. After the show, we took the river boat cruise ride, which only goes about a half mile down the river. The water is extremely clear. We saw many fish, turtles, and a manatee. Mia wanted to go to the water park, but all of the rides are closed for the winter. We went back to our trailer, and Mia played with the other kids for the rest of the day.