Koreshan Part 2

Springtime is here. Well not quite by the calendar but the wildlife definitely thinks that Spring has sprung. While having dinner in our dinette one evening and looking out over our side yard, we were entertained by two marsh rabbits doing what rabbits do best. And they also hop really well. Then the next evening at dinner, we had two doves using our yard for a little get together. Life was definitely heating up. Actually we are amazed by the amount of wildlife that we do see. Many different varieties of birds inhabit the bushes, rabbits skit about, gopher tortoises come out to grab a grassy snack and a few snakes quickly make their way away from us.

One of the other benefits of this park is that it is close to lots of shopping including the largest outlet mall that I have ever seen. More than 140 stores are open and more are in the building stage. Just about every name brand is there with many bargoons to be had. Karen heard about it -- where else -- while doing laundry -- from another grandmother who had just stocked up on grandchild clothes. The next day we were off and, 6 hours later, we had done half the mall. Although we managed to get some clothes for Sophie, I was worried that she would grow out of them while we were still shopping. No pictures of this – just imagine more stores than you can count.

We haven't just been shopping, we have also been enjoying the great bike riding around the area. We stopped to get a picture of the Great White Egret that was walking the path in front of us, but I put this picture in instead so Sophie can see her Avi.

We also did a trip to the Edison/Ford Winter Residence Museum. Both Henry Ford and Thomas Edison vacationed in Fort Myers to avoid the winter chill. They were great lifelong friends and had an amazing history. It is interesting that Edison was trying to commercialize an electric car at the same time as Ford was developing the capability to produce a cheap, gas powered car. The rest is history.

This is the view off the front porch of the Edison home. The river in the background is the Caloosahatchee. The river is shallow and, in 1886, Edison built a 1500 foot dock out to the deep water to bring in building materials for his house. In fact, Edison had the whole house built in New Jersey, labelled and taken apart, then shipped to Fort Myers for re-assembly – a prefab home.

One of their friends, a fellow named Harvey Firestone, brought a 4 foot banyon tree from India to help with Edison's research for a domestic source of latex for rubber. That tree, behind Karen, occupies over an acre at present. It would make an awesome home for a tree house.

Edison spent the last years of his life trying to get a commercial source of latex and had this lab built on his estate.

Edison is probably best known for the light bulb. One of the reasons that Edison purchased this property was for the bamboo behind Karen – a possible source of carbon for the light bulb filament. One of his quotes was that he wanted to make light bulbs so cheap that only the rich could afford candles.

Now it is time to move on. We have loved our time at this park, and it will be a tough act to follow. Our next stop is Oscar Scherer State park near Sarasota.

Koreshan Part 1

We had a short move North to our next stop – Koreshan Historical State Park between Naples and Fort Meyers. Here we learned an important rule – do not arrive early for your camp site. The normal checkout time for state parks is 1:00 and check in is 3:00. We arrived at 11:30 and had to wait until 1:30 for the people to move, and the site inspected and cleaned. Most people do not leave early if they do not have to.

But the wait was worth it. Our campsite was excellent – very large and private. It is a beautiful park and a definite one to return to.

The site originally belonged to a sect called the Koreshan's. One of their main buildings is in the background. They believed that the earth was the inside of a hollow sphere with the sun and stars in the center of the sphere. They had quite an active group in the early 1900's and built the site to house over 200 people in communal living. They were ahead of' their time in most things with women having an equal part in running the operation and in adopting electricity (Thomas Edison lived near by) before the surrounding communities. Their numbers dwindled after their leader passed away. The moon landing put a definite wrinkle in their theories.

The grounds are beautiful and we enjoyed walking around them. This gopher tortoise decided to come out for a nice grassy snack. These tortoises dig a 12 foot hole up to 6 feet below the ground – energetic little guys.

The Estero river runs through the park with a nice path along the river. You often see canoes and kayaks making their way between the banks. These people were truly going bank to bank as they obviously didn't have a clue how to canoe, as you can see if you look a little closer. However, they were having so much fun we decided we would like to try canoing too.

Life must go on and sometimes we must just stop and deal with the onerous chores of laundry. The park here has a wonderful breezeway to do laundry in. Karen, while slaving away, was deeply immersed in a game called Powder on her Nintendo. Powder was written by Jeff. So far her record at staying alive is 26 minutes, but she usually only lasts two minutes.

The next day was a beach day at Lovers Cay State Park. After a time to read and some lunch, we also got in a bike ride and some shelling.

Somehow I managed to pick up a devoted following. They say that these sandpipers always face into the wind – I think I will leave that one alone.

Another day we went to Pine Island for lunch and a walk along the Calusa HeritageTrail. This site was a Calusa village for over 1500 years. They were once the most powerful people in southern Florida. They built huge shell mounds and canals, and numbered in the tens of thousands.

So our first week at Koreshan is over. We have another week to go before we have to move so stay tuned. There is still lots to see.

If You Scratch...

“If you scratch, you will only make it worse,” Karen said with a somewhat cheerful voice as I scratched my arms and legs in the safe confines of our trailer. A bit of background – I must lay claim to the above words as our sons will well remember:) We had just finished setting the trailer up at Collier Seminole State Park in the heart of the Everglades. We were fine for the first part of the exercise until the mosquitoes discovered that fresh meat had arrived. There were not a lot of them, but the ones that showed up were definitely prepared for dinner. Didn't they know it is the dry season?? However, we knew this park was going to be iffy as it was in the Everglades, and we were right. Of course one of the benefits of being in mosquy territory was we could very quickly discover the shortcomings in our trailers mosquy defenses. Dusk found us scrambling for our electronic mosquy zapper ... and then scrambling for batteries for our electronic mosquy zapper. Soon our floor was littered with little charred bodies and we could retire without that annoying ear buzzing that mosquitoes have perfected. The next morning found me adding foam weather strips to the screen door to block further attacks – we hope.

To get to the Everglades from the East coast, we drove across the lower part of Florida along a highway named Alligator Alley. There were waterways along both sides of the road and the waterways were home to – you guessed it – alligators. Karen kept calling out sightings as we drove along. We soon ran out of fingers and toes so have no idea how many we saw. Let's just say lots and lots of various sizes. During a lunch stop, we learned why you do not want to play on the rocks at the side of the road.

My guess was that this little guy was a water moccasin.

At Collier Seminole, we had a great introduction to the Everglades. Our first excursion was along the Fakahatchee Board Walk near the park. Karen, the main photographer, emerged from behind the lens briefly at the start of the 1600ft board walk.

The boardwalk wound off into the heart of the Everglades – what mysteries lie before us?

Several flowers, under the general category of “flowerus prettious,” were seen along the way.

Our first bird sighting was a bald eagle's nest. There was a young eagle (eaglet?) in the nest.

And a proud parent stood nearby.

We were lucky to spot a white tailed doe with her little fawn – complete with Bambi spots – making their way past the board walk.

At the end of the walk was a large pond filled with baby alligators. It was an alligator nursery. Mother was in the shadows and numerous small alligators were practicing their “let's be still and catch something” technique.

Our next stop was Everglade City where we happened onto a boat tour ride through the Ten Thousand Islands of Everglades National Park. The number of islands apparently varies between 8000 and 14000 depending on who is counting and the tide level. Most of the islands are covered in mangroves and mosquitoes. Along the way, we passed one of many Osprey nests. Osprey's mate for life and they have recorded the same pair returning to the same nest for over 20 years. However, they do take separate summer vacations.

We were also lucky to spot our first Manatee. In our previous travels through Florida we have never seen a Manatee and we were starting to believe they were a somewhat mythical creature. But we did see one – or at least its tail as it dove.

We next went to Chokoloskee Island and visited Smallwood General Store – the only trading post in the area in the eary 1900's. It was accessible only by boat and served the local community and Indian bands. There was a lot of alligator hunting and trapping going in in this area until it became a park.

There is nothing like stopping at a picnic site to stretch your legs. But here, you have to share the site and swimming is not really advisable.

This big guy was on the other bank and just enjoying a lazy afternoon yawn.

At some spots, it was not really advisable to get out of the car!

It was a great visit, but now time to move on. Our next stop is a whole 70km north at Koreshan State Park – so stay tuned and stay warm.

First Impressions

Our next stop and our very first Florida State Park was called Jonathan Dickinson. Jonathan Dickinson was sandwiched between Stuart and Palm Beach on the East Coast. We had spent a month in Stuart before leaving for the Bahamas via the Palm Beach inlet on our sailboat in 2003. We were looking forward to exploring some of our old haunts.

Late in the afternoon, we motored down Highway 1 and watched as the landscape changed to one of desolation. Bare tree trunks and scrub brush was everywhere. We arrived at the State Park gates and there was our future home for the next week. We had been warned that there was no shade as the area had been blasted by 3 hurricanes and a controlled burn gone wild since 2003. It still looked desolate and our hearts sank.

However once in and settled at the park, it was amazing. There was an interesting hiking path to explore the habitat.

We got to see our first, honest to gosh, in the wild, alligator – the first of many so far.

Of course, I kept the escape path clear for Karen to take the picture.

We (me) even managed to explore the roof of our trailer and install a high powered cooling fan.

There was a tour boat ride up the Loxahatchee River – the tour boat was named the African Queen – there was no way I was going out to push. The salt water portion of the river was banked with mangroves.

And the occasional turtle or two or three ...

... with a sleepy alligator thrown in for good measure.

We docked for a short tour of Trapper Nelson's Interpretive site. Trapper Nelson settled in this camp in 1936 and became known as the “wild man” of the Loxahatchee. During his lifetime he built a wildlife zoo and became a local legend.

Next on the agenda was a hike up Hobie Mountain. We drove to the base camp at the foot of the stairway up the mountain, armed with full water bottles, lunch and hiking boots.

We successfully made the assault in one day. From the dizzying height of 86 feet above sea level, we gazed out towards the East. There before us was the Intracoastal Waterway, Burt Reynold's home (which is apparently for sale), the Atlantic and the Bahamas.

And to the west, we saw Florida --- it sure was flat!

So despite of our first impression, Jonathan Dickinson was a great park to visit and a good introduction to Florida State Parks. Our pictures don't show the wonderful profusion of wild flowers this park also had to offer. Next stop - Collier Seminole State Park in the heart of the everglades