Making Lemonade

Friday  February 1, 2013
Site 16 Midway Campground
Big Cypress National Preserve

Time for the dreaded shopping trip.

Can’t put it off any longer.  Day after tomorrow we move down into the heart of the Everglades.  WAY down into Flamingo and the closest grocery store other than the half dozen items in the marina is about 40 miles away.
So in order to ease the pain of shopping and having to drive into Naples to hit the Whole Foods store there, I decide to combine business with pleasure and see some things on the way there and on the way back.

Now that we are about to leave Big Cypress better late than never to visit the Welcome Center?

First my plan to make shopping less painless, we drive 20 miles to the new Big Cypress Welcome Station which is really the FIRST stop you should make when you come to the preserve.  This is a great little educational center. 
The exhibits are very well done.  I particularly liked this one with tapes of all the night sounds in the swamp.  You go in, it’s dark inside and you can push the buttons to hear any of the night sounds or you can push them quickly one right after another to hear a full orchestra.  Very cool.  Hearing the night sounds is one of the very best things about “camping”.



They also have an outdoor exhibit that enables you to make it rain near Okechobee and see the difference in its flow over the saw grass prairie or over agricultural and urban development.




There are so many great exhibits here which teach easily all about the 5 habitats in Big Cypress.  Knowing this will really enhance your visit.

They also have a big wheel to give you ideas of things to do in Big Cypress based on how much time you have, 1/2 day, 1 day, many days.
Sure wish I’d stopped here on our way in.  They gave me great ideas of things we haven’t done that will have to go on my list for “next time”.



AND it has a boardwalk out back where nearly everyone but us has seen manatee every time they come.  The boardwalk is open even when the Welcome Center is not so you can come early and stay late.  If we could have sat for a while, I have no doubt we would have seen manatee here.  But…… we have other stops to make.

8 miles further North on Route 41 to the Fakahatchee Stand State Preserve boardwalk.

We’ve been told this is a really good spot to get a close look at their big Cypress trees.
They really are beautiful trees but we cannot figure out why the preserve would fence them in right up to their trunks with this boardwalk.  Where’s the room to grow?  Won’t this cause them to grow into the boards?  Over the boards??  Am I missing something here?  There is no one to ask.
 

Along the board walk there is a sign pointing up to an eagle’s nest.



This area is far enough south for the Royal Palm to grow.  I find them the most beautiful of all the palms with their straight tall smooth trunks and graceful arching branches.


At the end of the boardwalk is a lovely gator hole with benches.  I’d love to be able to stay here for a few hours and just take in the beauty, the quiet and the peacefulness.



Of course there is a resident gator whom none of the other residents seems to be paying any attention to.  I wonder if this would also be the case in the spring or if they all think gators don’t each much in the winter.

From the boardwalk it’s another 8 miles North on Route 41 to Collier Seminole State Park.

We’re here to check out the campground.  We’ve been told the sites are narrow and difficult for “big rigs”.  After looking around we see a number of sites Winnona could fit in.  This would be a good place to use as a home base for seeing the Western end of Big Cypress and of the Everglades.  
We learn a lot about Barron Collier who agreed to donate the land for the park if it would be named for him and to help with the building of the Tamiami Trail if Lee County would carve out its southern section and name that after him.   This was one rich Memphis Streetcar advertiser.
The park has a walking dredge used in the creation of the road.  We don’t take many pictures as we plan to come back for an overnight stay.



But we do stop for a picnic lunch in the boat launch area where they have a great old playground with equipment I haven’t seen in a long time.















On the way out we see the Collier Memorial. See it there across the lawn between the two palm trees?  I wonder if Barron stipulated this too.  :-)




From the park it’s time to hit the grocery, another 20 miles north through the interminable traffic  lights of of urban Route 41 through Naples.

As usual it takes nearly 2 hours to drive there, shop, put it all in the car and get back on the road.  I’ve done Whole Foods pictures before.  Beautiful store, wonderful produce and mucho organic products which is why I like it.   Finally we are back out to make some more lemonade.

We get on I-75 going back South.  For those who have driven 75 from the North or Ohioans very familiar with it, you will be shocked to know that there is a $3 toll to drive it when it changes from being a N/S road to an E/W road.  But believe me, it was worth it to not have to drive back down US 41 through Naples.



We get off at Exit 80 at 5:15 thinking it is too late to visit the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge which has been on my list FOREVER.  Turns out that there isn’t a visitor center or anyone anywhere around at any time.  Just a seriously gated barbed wire toped area that stretches for miles and miles. 









There is an entrance open until sun down with information about the panthers







and a short 1.3 mile trail and shorter .3 mile trail through typical Panther Habitat.  We do have time to walk the trail.

What is typical panther habitat?  Pretty impenetrable.

Here’s where they like to hunt.

Oh and be careful in their parking lot to look out for these.

and don’t pull up too close to them or when you back out, you may end up with this and the insurance deductible expense required to fix it.  

What ever happened to actual bumpers anyway?  Remember them?  The metal things that weren’t just for good looks??

After that fun experience, it does make me smile to see these signs as we leave the Panther Refuge and drive south on US 29.   Although I’m not sure how they could get out of this fencing to cross this road.  AND both I-75 and this road have tunnels underneath them leading from one side of the road to the other.  The fence leads to the tunnels and starts again on the other side.  They run ever couple of miles all long the roads.   LOVE that!   Way to go Florida!!

Now it is moments from Sundown.  It’s been a very full day with lots of fun and only one shopping trip. 

But Mr. Never Say Die wants to go down to see Everglade City, Chokoloskee and most especially Smallwoods Store.   We read Peter Matthiessen’s excellent book on this area called  Shadow Country last year in anticipation of coming here but of course that never happened. 
But reading that book really got us excited about visiting and seeing the places that are important in the book.

We make it in time to enjoy the sun going down over Chokoloskee Bay.

But we are too late for a good shot of Smallwood’s Store.

In my lifetime, this store had no roads to it.
Only access was by water.

Looks like we’ll have to come back.  :-))