Once again this year we were able to spend January in Florida. As in past years, our tour started in Key West at the Navy's Sigsbee RV Park. We arrived a day later than expected due to a water problem in our motorhome on the way down which was repaired at Camping World in St. Augustine. It seems that something clogged the outlet of our fresh water tank and because no water was flowing the problem was compounded by burning out the water pump when we tried to fill the water heater. A small inconvenience. We left St. Augustine early in the morning and drove to Key West where we were able to find a site under a couple trees to give us shade. It turned out that this was a good decision because temperatures were in the mid-eighties while we were there. Without hookups our power came from our generator wich runs on gasoline. We limited the use of the generator to a couple hours in the morning to make coffee and a couple hours in the evening to run the air conditioner to allow the motorhome to cool down before bedtime. We met a couple friends in Key West, Pat and Lee Brooks and Dick and Ruth Whitlock who were also there in their motorhomes. The six of us spent about 1 1/2 weeks eating our way through Key West, a different restaurant every evening and sometimes for breakfast and lunch.
After leaving Key West, we traveled north to the Larry & Penny Thompson campground in southwest Miami. This is a very nice well-maintained campground managed by the county. For us it was convenient to a number of places we wanted to see while there: the Everglades both Royal Palm and Shark Valley, Monkey Jungle, Parrot Island, and the Miami Zoo. Here, unlike Sigsbee, we had full hookups which allowed us to run our air conditioning which was needed since the temperature was still in the mid-eighties. Ah the Florida winter weather. While at L&P Thompson one of our neighbors treated us and other RV'ers to some homemade Louisiana jambalaya. This of course was the only day that the weather did not cooperate, it was cold, wet, and windy. In other words great weather for an outdoor event.
After two weeks at L&P Thompson, we again headed north for a short stop in Dade City, a little bit northeast of Tampa for a couple days. We visited with Pat's aunt and uncle who winter in Dade City in their motorhome and most importantly went to Parksdale Farms in Plant City for some of their indescribable strawberry shortcake. That is worth a trip to Florida all by itself!
These are not necessarily the best of the many photos I took but contribute best to this year's photo travelogue of Florida in the space available.
Let our tour begin in Key West
We arrived late in the afternoon and picked a site where our motorhome would be tucked in among the trees in Key West at Sigsbee RV Park.
A few of the many restaurants just waiting for us.
We ate at Pepe's on meatloaf night. Watch out, the serving size is huge! Despite the unappealing exterior, the interior is nice, the service is good as is the food.
We did not go into the Green Parrot, something about a DO NOT ENTER sign in front of the door.
This little American Kestrel was hanging around our campground showing off just waiting for someone to come along and take his picture.
One day a flock of white ibisis started parading around the RV park without a care in the world.
One evening we went to the White Street Pier for sunset and found this very cooperative brown pelican.
This sunset under a palm tree with a sailboat was taken from Truman Annex.
When in Key West you must attend the sunset celebration at least once. Take in the street performers, enjoy the crowds, have a drink, and finally.....
enjoy the sun setting over the ocean.
Want a drink? How about the smallest bar in Key West? Not a place to go drinking with friends though, it only has one bar stool.
Other things to do in Key West:
Have your portrait painted by a street artist.
Get married at the Chapel By The Sea.
Go on a sunset sailing cruise. They are so popular that many visitors will gladly give their arms and legs for the opportunity.
You can also go to the butterfly conservatory, one of our favorite places.
On weekends you can watch the local model airplane group flying at Trumbo Point. The Corsair pilot was pretty good on this gusty day except on one landing when a gust of wind caught the plane and flipped it.
Or perhaps just walkaround and take in a few of the sights around the island like these colorful houseboats.
But for now let's leave some of Key West for next year and go on to the
Everglades
Here we are about three hours north of Key West in our site at Larry & Penny Thompson Campground. Since we will be here for two weeks we will sit and relax for the rest of this day and go out tomorrow to start exploring.
Most of these photos are depicting things you might see in the Everglades and are presented without comment.
It is easier to steal your lunch than it is to catch it yourself or so they think.
Did you know that one of the basic rules of photography is to look up, down, and all around?
Why do alligators have such white teeth?
All those big lenses and nobody's paying attention to the wood stork. Or, could it be that it is too close to focus?
This little guy is just a couple days old. A pity I couldn't find a way to get rid of those branches.
I'm really hungry!
The next several photos are from the Miami Zoo, Monkey Jungle, and Parrot Island.
I don't consider photographing animals in a zoo to be wildlife photography but you can get some nice photos.
King, the silverback gorilla at Monkey Jungle is a most cooperative fellow.
Iguanas are not native to Florida but there are many roaming around in the wild. Probably offspring of pets that escaped.
Our two weeks has come to an end and it is now time to drive another three or four hours to Dade City.
Notice how cleverly this route home has broken up our 22 hour or so trip into several shorter legs.
As I said in the introduction the strawberry shortcake is a major reason for going to Dade City and here Fred is bringing us ours! This is at Parkesdale Farms in Plant City.
One morning this pair of sandhill cranes was walking around the RV park. Notice that the near one is missing his left foot. According to the bird guide books Sandhill Cranes avoid being around people. I guess this pair didn't read the book.
Okay the time has come to pack up and head for home. Only 16 more hours of driving time left. We left the day before the tornadoes struck this area. Excellent timing!
I hope you enjoyed this year's tour and will come back again on some of my other tours or browse through some of my past tours by clicking on the hiker below.
Now we have arrived home. I don't have the foggiest idea why we left Florida when we come home to this...ice. A cardinal sitting on an ice covered branch says it all.
