Travels with Gunther and Kara

This was a pretty busy week for us. After our Corkscrew visit on Monday we had a bunch of errands, getting ready to leave maintenance, work, and other generally non-fun stuff to do.

Anyway; after all of that was done we headed out yesterday morning to visit the winter homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford down south of Fort Myers downtown along with a couple of other errands that were out a ways from the park but were generally on either the way there or the way back.

We had previously visited Thomas Edison’s laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ back in the summer; while we were there we learned that he also had a home and laboratory in Fort Myers. It turns out that Henry Ford was a protege of Edison’s back in the late 1800’s and in their late 30’s they came down to southern Florida on a camping trip…Edison liked it so much that he bought a 13 acre property on the southern shores of the Caloosahatchee River about 3 miles downstream from what was then Fort Myers. Ford bought the adjacent property a few years later and both built quite nice winter homes here. When the weather got lousy in NJ Edison (who by this time in his life was pretty wealthy and had a staff to run his companies for him) came down here for the warm weather and to continue his research and inventing. He had a long term project to develop a source of rubber that could be grown in America rather than having to depend on imports…he used rubber in his battery designs and Henry Ford also needed rubber for tires obviously. They were joined in investing in this endeavor by Harvey Firestone who again wanted to make tires.

Edison built a laboratory on his estate…not as extensive as the one in Menlo Park but then it was strictly devoted to botanical research. He imported and planted many exotic plants to see what would grow here and what produced the best/most latex including Mysore Fig trees…which are huge trees that don’t really bear edible figs. Research finally indicated that goldenrod was the best plant for latex except for rubber trees; but by that time the pressing need for a U.S. source had died off a bit so it was never commercially pursued.

We toured both of the estates and grounds including gardens, an advanced swimming pool complex that was ahead of it’s time, and the laboratory areas.

Connie snagged a couple photos of flowers in the gardens.

Then we wandered across the street to see the Edison House.

This is the only professionally designed garden on the property…Edison’s second wife had it done when he was in his late 70’s. The small building is a small puttering laboratory she had built close to the house for him to work in as the main lab is across the street and he was no longer working every day by this time in his life.

The Edison’s also imported hundreds of exotic orchids from around the world and installed them on the Royal Palm Trees that they had also imported.

One of the large Misore Fig trees on the property; they’re setting up a tent for a wedding tomorrow under the tree.

And a row of Royal Palms leading from the house down to the pier; which at one time extended 1500 feet out into the river…it’s very shallow near the bank and the only way to get material to the house was via water back in those days; the road was a dirt track.

And finally a lizard that posed for Neil on one of the benches on the way back across to the main laboratory area.

Neil grabbed a couple of shots of the lab itself; it’s much smaller than the one in Menlo Park is and you are also much more limited in what you can see of the lab…Connie really liked the antique fume hood in the second photo.

And that ended out tour so we headed out for lunch and errands. After a quick stop at McDonalds for a fish sandwich since it is Friday during Lent (although we actually parked in the Burger King parking lot next door as we couldn’t figure out how to get to the McDonalds lot) we made a stop for Connie’s records from the radiology place she went to for her mammogram, Home Depot for a metal plate to make the new flagpole rotate more smoothly, a couple of groceries, and a prescription for Connie we came home. It was in the high 80’s by then and we were hot so we closed up the windows and fired up the A/C units…then headed off to the pool for awhile.

Coming home about 1700; Neil declared it to be rum o’clock and then made Linguini with caramelized onions, garlic, pecans, and basil for dinner topped with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Again, yummy.

TV, nap, and it was off to bed for us.

Cyas.

Man; this getting up early is for the birds…literally. We got up this morning at 0430 so that we could be to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary by a little after 0700; it’s an hour drive and we needed to have coffee and get some Golden Arches for breakfast.

We got down there about 0715 and started down the boardwalk. Almost immediately we noticed that the water level in the swamp was down between 2 and 3 feet from our last visit in November. This means good things for birds and wildlife. 

Going really early has two distinct advantages. First; the crowds are pretty slim and everybody that does get up that early is a serious bird watcher…so there isn’t a lot of talking and unnecessary noise that scares the wildlife off. Second; dawn is when the birds are at their most active…typically by about 0930 or so they’ve finished eating for the morning and are hiding until dusk except for the ones you see around ponds and lakes.

First up; right out of the gate from the visitor center was a Red Shouldered Hawk who hung around a couple minutes then went off in search of breakfast.

A couple of trees down we spotted a Cardinal and then a Pileated Woodpecker.

We continued on around the boardwalk and didn’t see much for the next mile or so except for some nice purple Iris flowers…Connie had Neil take a closeup…and another Cardinal.

Getting out toward the marsh overlook we spotted a Brown Ibis and White Ibis on the same branch and then another Red Shouldered Hawk; although this one was pretty far away…luckily our new ultra zoom lens was able to pull it in decently.

Continuing on around to the Lettuce Lake area; a pond near the boardwalk we really hit a wide variety; a Great Egret with breeding plumage.

And not 1 but 2 Yellow Crowned Night Herons.

Followed by a couple of baby gators, a male and then female Anhinga, and another Great Egret.

Another Red Shouldered Hawk; this one was about 10 feet from the boardwalk and maybe 6 feet higher; what a nice shot.

A family of raccoons.

The momma gator.

A Black Crowned Night Heron. Bonus points for both Night Heron species in a single day.

Our final find near Lettuce Lake was this water moccasin. It’s still alive so it’s not Neil’s favorite kind of snake.

Leaving the wet area we transited the last wooded section and spotted this Barred Owl about 30 feet from the boardwalk.

That was about it; We headed through the border region of the sanctuary hoping to see some more hawks in the tree line but no luck. We were tired by that time so we came home, had lunch and a nap.

Dinner was leftover pulled pork from the other day that Neil made into a Mac and Cheese casserole. Anything with pasta, pulled pork, and cheese can’t be all bad. Then it was off to Bingo and Beer at the Elks Lodge.

Connie did get a call today that the mammogram place got her films in from the Navy and so she doesn’t have to go and have more studies done tomorrow. They saw some issues with her exam a month ago and wanted to do more studies; but after studying her films from last year and the year before decided that nothing has changed since last year so all is well. 

We have a list of things we still need to get done to get ready to travel again…only another week and a half left here at Seminole Campground in Fort Myers and we need to get some preventive maintenance items and checks completed before we leave.

Cyas.

A good day down taking photos of Ozzie, Harriet, and the eaglets today. Neil got down there about 0830 and stayed until about noon then we went back around 1600 for some late afternoon shots around the other side of the nest.

The eaglets are getting pretty large; about 1/2 the size of Ozzie and most of their hatchling down has been replaced by flight feathers…they should be airborne in the next couple of weeks. Both eaglets spent a lot of time perched on the edge of the nest today exercising their wings.

First up are a couple of shots of Harriet and the eaglets

and a couple of Wood Storks happened by.

Then Ozzie showed up.

Followed by a shift to another tree for a Red Headed Woodpecker.

and an inquisitive horse wandering around under the nest.

Next up Harriet came back from a trip out hunting, nice landing.

and then she just hung around for awhile.

Heading back in the afternoon we caught Ozzie down having a drink at the nearby pond.

and finally he got back home to Mama and the kids for the evening.

We headed off to another nearby dead tree where another pair of eagles hangs out but they weren’t home. This one you can’t get to the nest as it’s down a private road but their perch tree is accessible. Not seeing them we headed off to Cinco Amigos for some Mexican dinner. Margaritas, Shrimp Fajitas, and Chile Relenos…mighty tasty. Got home and watched TV until time for bed.

Tomorrow it’s off pretty early for another visit to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary…should see a lot of Wood Storks nesting down there as well as lots of waders now that the water levels are down.

Cyas.

It was a bit nippy today when we got up; we had to fire up the furnaces for one cycle to get it up from the 62 inside it dropped to overnight. Once that was done we had coffee, breakfast, and went to Mass where Connie cantored for her final time before we leave here on Mar 1. Home for lunch then Neil got to work on finishing up the installation of the slide topper supports and construction of the new flagpole (he cut all the pieces yesterday while had the jigsaw out).

First up was the slide topper supports. Here is a photo of the living room topper before he installed the support structure, there was about 5 times as much water puddled up there after the storm was over.

Here is the support which is constructed of 1-1/4 inch schedule 40 PVC piping. The long pieces are 4 feet long which is about the most you can have without it sagging since PVC pipe isn’t all that rigid. The T shaped feet are glued together but the beam pieces just press fit into the T joints on top of the base pieces; that makes storage easy when it’s taken down. He completed the cutting and base assembly yesterday afternoon so today it was just a matter of documenting, assembly, and installation.

And here is a snapshot of the topper with the supports installed. Neil went up on the roof afterwards and all the water puddled in the top photo had drained off by the time he got all of the structure installed.

A side benefit is that the structure will also cut down on the topper flapping and making noise in the breeze; this can get annoying when the breeze kicks up past 20 knots or so.

After that he moved on into the new flagpole. Our original pole was an 7 foot piece of 3/4 inch PVC pipe with the flag attached; the PVC goes down over a 3 foot piece of concrete rebar that he pounds into the ground. Functional but not very nice looking and really doesn’t display the flag very well as the breeze that low is not too much so the flag is mostly just hanging. So he decided to construct the new one based on several he has seen in various parks as we’ve been traveling.

As with the slide topper supports, he used 1-1/4 inch schedule 40 PVC pipe. The two long pieces are 4 feet long and the three short pieces are 1 foot long each. He picked up a combination of stainless steel and zinc plated hardware so it won’t rust since it sits out in the rain. The 45 degree angle on the flag holding portion is perfect for getting a better display of the flag and the two small hooks on the horizontal bar opposite the flag are for hanging a nameplate that he is ordering with their names and our web site address.

Here is a picture of the finished product. It swivels in the wind so that the flag is on the downwind side. We already got two compliments on it.

After he was done he want on a bike ride but it was pretty windy and he should have worn a long sleeve shirt…but he pedaled really hard and kept his pulse rate up to compensate…followed by a nice little nap for a few minutes in the sunlight on our patio.

Dinner was left over pulled pork from last night mixed with baked beans; they were a little bland last night so wespiced them up with some maple syrup and Frank’s Hot Sauce.

Tomorrow Neil is going to head down to see if he can get some more pictures of Ozzie and Harriet, our resident Bald Eagles. Tuesday we’re planning on another visit to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary…the water should be much lower than for our last visit in November so the bird pictures should be better…not to mention that we’ve got the new long lens to bring the birds closer, although we will have to carry a tripod to use it.

Cyas.

Today we had a little shopping trip to get parts for a couple of upgrades that Neil is going to install. First stop was Best Buy hunting for a new headset for Connie to use for doing video presentations and answering the soft phone on her work laptop. They didn’t have anything we wanted so we’ll have to look on Amazon and find one.

Next was a stop at Lowes to get parts for two rig modifications.

First up is an arrangement to better support the slide topper over our living room slide. As I related the other day; the heavy rainstorm we had resulted in puddling in the slide topper that ran down the side and through the poorly sealed window. For those who aren’t sure what a slide topper is; it’s a kind of awning that covers just the top of the slide when it is extended and rolls up when the slide is retracted. It’s purpose is to keep leaves and trash off of the top of the slide and hence out of the slide seals and inside the coach. On our living room slide; the topper is 14 feet long and about 28 inches wide and is supported only on the outer edge of the slide and at the wall above the slide. It’s just too much area to be adequately supported without something additional. So we got some PVC pipe to essentially make a support to go under the topper. I’ll have Neil take some pictures of it tomorrow before he installs it so you’ll see how it works…and also to provide a resource for any other RVers that happen across our site and want to do something similar.

Second is a replacement flagpole. Neil made a simple vertical one of of a PVC pipe back in the summer but he’s going to replace it with an angled one that swivels in the wind and has a place to hang a name plate. We’re also looking into ordering a custom painted welcome sign to add to our yard while parked. Again, I’ll post some pictures of this tomorrow; Neil has it about half constructed and I’ll take some photos and talk about the construction details.

Dinner was crockpot pulled pork. Early this morning (well, it was 1000 so it actually wasn’t all that early) Neil got out the crockpot…layered a sliced onion on the bottom and tossed in a 3 pound or so pork butt. Added salt, garlic, cumin, ground chipotle peppers and a bottle of beer, put on high for 8 hours or so and then drained and pulled it apart with a couple of forks. We served it with some baked beans and french rolls…dessert will be in a little while and is leftover blueberry crisp; this is a modification of a blueberry cobbler that Neil came up with about 5 years or so ago…oh so gooey and good. 

Cyas.

Well; we tried to go kayaking yesterday; we really did. Got over to the launch point and started pumping the Sea Eagle up. Connie ran back to the house to get something we forgot while Neil finished pumping the boat and seats up. Unfortunately; he discovered a leak in one of our side chambers and didn’t have everything we needed to patch it so it was No Kayaking for You on Monday. Oh well.

We packed up and came home; applied a patch to the leak, waited a couple of hours for it to dry and pumped everything up again. Went out and checked several hours later and no more leak so the patch is holding just fine. With that we ran down to the pool then Connie did some work and we headed over to Hogbody’s for wings, ribs and Guinness for dinner. We’ve got our order down to a science…16 Caribbean wings, a slab of ribs, and 2 beers each. Not a bad dinner at all.

Today Connie had a nail appointment at 1400 so we headed back out with the boat around 0900. We just left it inflated from yesterday and tied it down in the back of BAT rather than rolling it up so it would fit in the car.

By about 0930 or so we were on the water. Here’s a picture of Connie all ready to head out as well as the side channel in the Caloosahatchee Waterway where we launched.

We paddled a couple of miles through the side channels and finally got out to the main river. Our plan was to go under the I-75 bridge and then head up another small river to visit the Manatee Park which we visited from the land side a month or so ago. Unfortunately; we failed to anticipate the serious current in the side river caused primarily by the power plant. It sucks a lot of cooling water out of the main channel to cool the plant condensers and pumps it back into the smaller river. The manatees hang out near the discharge where the water is warm but the thousands of gallons per minute the power plant discharges made the current too strong to try and paddle against. So we headed back towards the bridge and figured we would just paddle around the side channels near our launch point. 

We ran into some serious wind and current problems getting back into the side channel we were headed for but finally made it…so we stopped and drifted for a few minutes while we ate lunch. Following that we meandered through the canals.

Really nice area to paddle in; calm, no current to speak of once we got out of the main river channel. Not very much wildlife though. We scared up a Great Blue Heron but too quickly to get a picture as well as a family of river otters but they also disappeared too quickly for a picture. We got back to the launch point about 1215 or so. Although we didn’t make it all the way to Manatee Park it was still a great paddle on the water in the warm so we were happy the way it turned out. We collapsed the kayak and headed home just in time for Connie to run out for her nail appointment. We spent the afternoon listening to podcasts out in the recliners then ate left over Mexican Chicken with Rice and Black Beans for dinner; then headed out to the Elks Lodge for Bingo and beer.

Tomorrow, who knows. Connie has some more work to do getting her students scheduled but other than that we don’t’ have any firm plans…such is the full-time RV life I guess…it’s tough but somebody has to do it. We also need to make a decision on next year’s wintering area between Corpus Christi, TX and the Rio Grande Valley in Mission, TX so we can get a reservation.

Cyas.

Not much doing since we got back from Key West; Connie has been catching up on work from the 3 days she was off, Neil did some maintenance items around the house and ran/biked, we went up to the pool to cool off a bit; and we made some pretty decent dinners.

Friday night was a pot luck at the park; Neil made Nestles Quik brownies and they disappeared pretty quickly. We sampled a dozen or so other really good dishes as well along with some wine coolers we carried up from the house.

Connie went and got her nails done and the stylist was really, really, really slow…took her almost 3 hours to finish. She’s been to this salon before but the nail person left so one of the hair stylists was doing nails. Not too bad of a job…just slow since she doesn’t do them much.

Tonight Neil has some chicken out for dinner; he’s still thinking about what to do with it. He’s thinking mexican style with black beans and rice but it’s still under dynamic observation as they say.

Tomorrow we’re going off on a kayak trip; we’re going to go down to the nearby launch point on the Caloosahatchee River and paddle about 3 miles upstream to the Manatee Park and back…although we’re thinking about using two cars and making it a one way paddle, he’s gotta talk some more with Connie about it.

Here are a couple more shots of the sunset we watched in Key West…just to put something nice to look at in the blog.

I kinda like the  gull one with the motion blur. This was actually an accident; the gull flew into the frame, Neil didn’t even know it was there.

Cyas.

Now that we’re back from our 3 day mini vacation in Key West and back to the rig with better internet I wanted to catch ya’ll up with the sights we saw, things we ate, and beverages we consumed.

Leaving here early Tuesday morning we tried to have a hike at Dagney Johnson State Recreational Preserve…according to their web site they had hiking trails you did not need a back country pass for. No directions to the trails on their site; so we googled and sort of figured it out. Drove to where it was supposed to be, checked out all 3 entrances as noted on their website and all said back country permit required so we gave up. As we headed on down the road we googled again and found another nearby area that may have been a second section of the preserve but by that time we were heading south.

We got into Key West about 1600 or so and checked into our hotel; the Heron House Court Bed and Breakfast…this is a nice little 6 or 8 room hotel in a remodeled house. The manager Roman ran down the street and found us a parking place as the parking is abysmal in Key West. Once we had the car parked we left it there and walked everywhere else. Monday night we headed out using some 2 for 1 coupons that Roman gave us and went to the Schooner Wharf Bar where we had beer and then a couple of Dark and Stormy’s.

The food there looked lousy so we headed back towards the hotel and stopped at Finnegan’s Wake Irish Pub. The food there was better…some potato skins and bread pudding for desert. The desert was pretty tasty but was by no means what we would have called bread pudding. Chocolate Ginger Bread with whisky sauce and whipped cream was what we thought it was…pretty good though. By the time we were done we were tired and Connie’s feet hurt so Neil carried her sandals and she walked barefoot the 1/2 mile back to the hotel where we went straight to bed.

Wednesday was our only full day on the island so after breakfast we headed out. We hiked down to Duval Street (the main den of iniquity on Key West although it is pretty tame during the day) then headed over to the southernmost point in the continental US for the obligatory touristy type snapshot.

We also got some shots of the Key West light house about 1/4 mile back down the street

and then ran into the southern end (MIle 0) of US Highway 1

We were at the northernmost end of US Highway 1 last February on our way up to Nova Scotia so we’ve now seen both ends of the highway…although the northern end isn’t really marked with anything special except the border patrol station.

We went by the original office of Pan American Airways; their Flight No. 1 to Cuba was the very first international airline flight back in I think 1927.

We passed on Ernest Hemmingway’s house since (a) the line was 75 people long or so and (b) the only thing there is a bunch of 6 toed cats which we don’t about but we got a picture of Hemmingway’s favorite watering hole Sloppy Joes instead. This bar started with another name but was owned by a guy named Joe and the floor was always wet with spilled beer and the customer’s teased Joe about being sloppy…at some point the bar was renamed . It’s an open air bar with doors all around…Neil got a picture of Kara sitting between a couple of Margaritas.

We then stopped by the A&B Lobster House as recommended by our friend Lynn and had our big meal of the day. Connie had crab/avocado salad and Neil had Coconut Fried Grouper…both were very yummy as was the Key West Pale Ale we were drinking.

At that point we were tired from our 5 miles or so of hiking so we went back to the hotel, had a siesta, and soaked in the hot tub before heading out again about 1715 for the sunset and dinner. 

First stop was the Sunset Pier Bar where…amazingly enough…we watched the sunset. Here is a wide shot of the pier and crowd just as we arrived as well as Neil and Connie at our table.

and here is a series as the sun is…going…going…gone along with a couple of the sunset cruise sailboats heading back into the harbor in the afterglow.

Our next stop was the original Margaritaville bar owned by Jimmy Buffett. This was the first bar he started and is the cornerstone of a pretty decent sized empire of tropical and Jimmy Buffett song related establishments. Our friend Heather back in DC will really like these shots.

After a couple of drinks (Margaritas of course) and some conch fritters (you gotta eat these if you’re in Key West) we wandered a little more. Neil saw this neat looking bar but Connie wouldn’t go in with him.

So we stopped and picked up a couple of cookies for desert after we got back to the hotel. Neil’s never paid 12 bucks for 2 cookies before but then he’s never had 2 cookies that totaled over a pound in weight before either. Here is a shot after we ate about half of each of them; I left Neil’s reading glasses in the picture to give you a sense of the size of these things…they were gargantuan!!

Chocolate Chip-Pecan-Macadamia Nut for Neil and Peanut Butter for Connie.

After having part of our cookies it was off to bed.

We got up this morning, checked out and headed home. Didn’t stop to see anything since Connie was feeling a little under the weather today…she partied a little too hardy last night methinks. We unpacked the car and suitcase when we got home, Neil went on a ride, and we had a bacon and cheese omelet with Helluva Good French Onion Dip on top for dinner. Desert will be the rest of the aforementioned cookies then we’ll probably go to bed early. Don’t know what we’ll do over the weekend, we’ll think about that tomorrow although we are planning on a kayak trip on Monday if Connie feels well enough and the weather cooperates.

Cyas.