PAMPERED PENGUIN: January 19-20, Big Cypress Preserve to Chokoloskee Island, Florida

We drove from Oak Harbor to Big Cypress Preserve today. Almost 4 hours yesterday and another 4 and a half today. To get to our reserved spot in the Everglades National Park and warm. We found warm and it looks like the government will shut down the campground. But Big Cypress is really cool and am glad to get a chance to spend time here.

I learned at the visitors center that there are 15 species of mosquitoes that live here. Really glad they are out of season now. Saw these two licence plates today. Mtn Hi on a New Jersey tag-mountains in NJ?, 2 HIP on a Florida. At the campground we are at is this general store, it has 'swamp supplies'- what are those?? This tower is in Lake Placid Florida, it is the third one built for the tourists. You used to have a 40 mile visita of swamp land, but now the view is suburbia and it is closed. We also past the 2nd one, it is in Bok Gardens in Lake Wales Florida. The Bok Gardens one is the only one left that is open. We missed the RoadKill Bingo at the Oak Harbor resort. Darn. You can go on air boat rides in the swamp. At our campground they have this huge cement panther. They are an endangered species, there are about 100 living in this area. Also at our campground is the Skunk Ape Research center vehicle.

The bird watching is unbelievable here. Tons of cool birds. We stopped and mailed a package from the smallest post office in the United States. Formerly the irrigation pipe storage shed at a tomato farm, it was pressed into service in service in 1953 when the general store and post office burned down. It has been in continuous service since. Stamp collectors and tourist from the world over want the Ochopee post mark since it is the smallest.

It was 78 today. Warm enough for John to wear his chacos again, he just needs to watch where he is walking more now. A gator nest at the visitors center, a picture of all the animals that live in this park, a don't pet the alligators sign and burmese pythons have been released in the Everglades from pet owners and escaped during hurricanes.

Palm tree with a viney tree wrapped around it, Property protected by swamp apes and the swamp ape crossing sign. They are the bigfoot of the swamp area. The ripple in this mangrove swamp is a manatee. There were 8 hanging out there today. Unless you are in a boat all you get to see are their nostrils when they come up to breathe.

A map of the Big Cypress Swamp area in the tip of Florida. We are at number 1, a metal sculpture of a praying mantis playing a saxaphone at our campground. No shirt, no shoes, no problem on the back of an RV, alligator heads for sale, you can also get gater feet, a lovely big flower and a camper cabin here. Thatched roof, screen walls and a bed. The Swamp Ape and I in front of our tacky, touristy campground. Finally warm enough to wear a sun dress and flip flops. Worth the drive.

The bus parked at the Trail Lakes Campground a commercial park. We are shoe horned between two other RV's right on the road for $60 a night. The guy us behind complained because we blocked his TV signal. Who comes somewhere beautiful with wonderful weather and sits inside and watches TV in the afternoon? It is lovely country, but we are too spoiled by going to parks and having a whole campsite, trees and a picnic table and some privacy. A camper hut in the sunset.

The master piece so far. 8 hours to do the blue wrap, clean up the loose ends and start the frigget stitch around the frogs. Looking good. We moved to Everglades City today. This is city hall. It is in the 70's.

We toured the Smallwood Store museum. It is the historic store that was at the end of the road at the gulf. Ted Smallwood opened this store in 1906. It was the store, the post office and just about everything else for the region since it was the only thing there for years. The bus parked at the Outdoor RV resort on Chokoloskee Island. Very clean, quiet, in town, on the water and we get a whole site with palm trees for $80 a night. We are on an island in a bay on the gulf with the Ten Thousand Islands to paddle around in.

This vulture was with a friend in the dumpster at the trail lakes campground. Sign at the end of the road,strangler fig and cypress tree, panther crossing, Turner River canoe trail which we plan on boating, and a motorhome that says Adolescent Rewinds on it. An ibis, vulture and alligator at a roadside turnoff in Big Cypress.

The cypress trees still have their dark red fall needles on them, along with the maples red leaves.

John on a boardwalk through the cypress swamp in the swamp in Big Cypress.

Cypress trees and scenery with an ibis seen from the boardwalk.

In the orientation video of Big Cypress they had these people walking through the beautiful swamps in knee deep clear water. We tried the Gator Hook trail to experience it. Ends up the movie was during wet season and we are here during dry season. No knee deep clear water. Mostly muddy water and mud. The trail seems to follow one of the old rail beds from when the logger stripped all the old growth trees out. We waded for a while, mostly got stuck in the mud and tried to navigate through the vegetation with lots of poison ivy and gave up. View of the cypress on the trail in the first photo.

The wildlife viewing was incredible. Everywhere you look, even from the road. Ibis, great egrets, herons, wood storks and more by the road. A gar under reflected clouds in the water. Not sure what the wildlife sensor detection area is. A spider and a wood stork.

Reflected egret, green heron, and a water snake. On the trees are orchids and bromeliads have attached like ferns. I was hoping the coco plum tree was chocolate, but it is a plum tree.