Catching Up

Sorry about the lag time in getting any posts up. On the 17th we left the ticks at O’Lena and drove to Lake Louisa. The drive was through tree lined corridors, small towns and urban areas almost entirely on US 27. The best part of the ride was the horse country we passed through either just north or just south of Ocala.

Florida doesn’t seem to work all that hard at handicapped access. This is a sign at a service station/convenience store.

We did have some difficulty finding the state park at the lake. The GPS got confused by the long road from the Highway to the camping area I had marked as the end way point and the state map I am using wasn’t very clear about how to get there either so we did a bit of backtracking. It turned out that we only needed to stay on US 27 and we would have driven right up to the entrance.

Lake Louisa is only about 20 miles from Disneyworld but we didn’t get a chance to visit it. We had taken Bentley into the vet in Galveston for his vaccinations but we for some reason didn’t get him the one for kennel cough and we couldn’t leave him with the pet care at Disneyworld without it.

We had a very nice couple of days at the park though. It is really a compound that includes several “lakes” or ponds. Lots of birds and flowers and a few alligators. We were warned by signage in the park to beware of feral pigs but we didn’t see any. It was very warm and our campsite had no shade but we made do.

Photo gallery here.

We then rode to the Everglades via US 27 with a cut off on Florida 29.

27 was 4 lanes divided highway with moderate traffic and much stop and go for the small communities we went through. We finally got into orange growing country and we saw our first truck load of oranges.

We spent last night in Everglades City in a hotel. As I write this a thunderstorm has been hovering over the area for the past few hours at least and it is raining cats and dogs. It’s supposed to clear up in a bit. I hope so.

Everglades City is something of an eco-tourism area. It is on the gulf side and they call the area “Ten Thousand Islands.” There are a lot of primitive campgrounds on the islands and people canoe, kayak, or otherwise boat to them. In my youth I would have been hot to go do that. It reminds me somewhat of the Puget Sound for the kayaking/camping experience.

Last night we ate out at the restaurant next door to the hotel and I had their Monday night special, all you can eat shrimp. It was a treat. Fresh and large shrimp where the shrimp was the main attraction rather than where the breading is like you usually get in the Pacific Northwest. I musta put on five pounds but it was worth the dieting I will have to do to pay for it.

We went to the visitor center at Big Cypress National Preserve, adjacent to Everglades National Park but the center was closed when we arrived at quarter to five. We met another couple who were touring on a Harley. They recommended that we visit Everglades City and we were ready for a hotel night so we did.

The visitor center had a bunch of alligators. I only took one photo of a big guy in the ditch or whatever it is called here along side the road.

We should get a lot more pics of the ‘glades’ while we are here.