A Full-time Life

Christmas lights and Christmas Manatees

   

We went to see some sparkly light displays last week, because without Christmas lighting it would be easy to forget what time of the year it is in this sub-tropical climate.  

These pictures are from the Thomas Edison House here in Fort Myers.  Edison and his family were the first Florida snowbirds and this was their Winter estate.  The grounds were all lit up for the Holidays.  Aptly, since we wouldn't have lights, Christmas or otherwise, without his genius. 

We're going to go back one of these days to tour his lab and the museum.  This time, we just strolled around the grounds, enjoying the lights and getting into the Holiday spirit.  The estate is on the Calahootchie River -- the same River our RV Park is on.  Our estate is a little bit smaller. 

Edison liked to fish from this wharf, when he wasn't busy thinking (he was probably doing both at once).

 Another day, we took a dinner train on the Seminole Gulf Railway.  It's the only freight railroad in Southwest Florida; the depot is in Ft. Myers.  The passenger excursion trains were added in 1991. Northbound,we had the first three courses of a good meal (this is the first) and excellent conversation with our table-mates.  This special holiday trip included a  holiday lights cruise, so we disembarked at the historic Punta Gorda depot where we were bused a short distance to Fisherman's Village.  We climbed aboard a big canal boat to look at the beautifully lighted homes on Punta Gorda Isles.  Main course and dessert were served after we got back on the train for the return trip.

It was fun to look at the lights and Christmas displays.  But the very best thing about a Ft. Myers Christmas is that we are warm!  And dry! And on Christmas Day we saw our first of an endangered species, the Florida Manatee,  We saw at least a dozen. Once you spot them coming up for air, it is pretty easy to see their size and shape under water, but not clearly enough to snap a picture.   And they don't stay above water long enough.  (I have upgraded my goal of "see manatees" to "get my own picture of a manatee somehow." ) 

These gentle sea mammals really are huge.  They tend to congregate near the outtakes from power plants, because the water is warmer and that is why there are so many at the park where we saw them.   Here are two good websites to learn more about these gentle giants:

defenders (and then click on the manatee link)  and   florida marine

There's a butterfly garden at Manatee Park too and these inhabitants were a little bit more photo-friendly.   This is Christmas weather in Ft. Myers.

There are very nice walking trails as well at this park which is only a few miles from where we live.   

We'll be checking back often.

 

 

 

 

 

 

FLORIDA IS O.K.

 

"Oh, Florida," said a neighbor back at Needles California:  "I guess Florida's OK -- if you like green."  We were talking to him while looking out at the arid desert scenery around our park there.   Well...we've explored some amazing desert places and hope to spend some more time there someday, but our favorite places for long-term Winter stays have been where it is green and water is abundant.  So, although that guy apparently preferred brown desert landscape, we were pretty sure we were heading to a place we'd like.

Florida is definitely green.  I'm surprised, actually, that there are so many different kinds of trees here.  I expected palms, maybe palmettos.  But besides those, we have live oaks, usually draped with lush tropical moss; pines and cypress; some of that ever present kudzu of course, and rich undergrowth. 

All of that, of course, is  because there is lots and lots of water everywhere, which is what we really start to miss when we're in the desert for a length of time. 

So Florida is OK with us because we DO like green!     

Here is a link to where we're staying here in Fort Myers. 

ALABAMA and FLORIDA, the end of the 2008 road trip

Our last stop before we arrived at this year's Winter destination was on the Alabama Gulf Coast.  A familiar spot -- and yet different.  We spent the 2004-05 Winter in this area.  That time, we arrived on December 1, less than three months after Hurricane Ivan had devastated the region.  The RV Park where we stayed then had not been much damaged but the surrounding area was still showing serious effects.  The road along the beach was covered with sand (it didn't even open for traffic until a month or so after we arrived), many buildings and homes were in complete ruins, and there were seas of blue tarp roofs in evidence, where people were still living in homes with the roofs blown away.  When we left in April '05, the area's recovery effort was still really just at an early stage.

This time, we stayed at Gulf State Park, which was completely closed to the public when we were here before -- the whole camping area had been destroyed.  It is rebuilt now and is a great RV spot.  The state took advantage of rebuilding to modernize the facilities, so that there are full hookups and lots of space.  This state park has most of the amenities of a private winter resort in addition to being close to the Gulf Beach.  Some people we talked to said that they missed the trees that used to be here before they were blown down by Ivan, but since this was our first stay, we thought this park had everything.

These are two views from our site.  We didn't see any alligators this time, so we didn't even have a chance to not aggravate them.

The picture below is on the nearby Bon Secour River near Billy's, which is our favorite fisherman's market ever.  Many varieties of local fresh fish and shrimp, caught daily, are available.  We only had time to visit it once this time. I hope we'll find something as good in Florida.

It was interesting to see how this area has recovered.  Now, you can't tell that it was ever hit by a hurricane.  We re-visited  many of our favorite places and enjoyed the sunny weather before heading to our Winter destination.

We arrived at North Ft. Myers, Florida, where we plan to spend this winter, on December 1.  This is on the Gulf of Mexico side of the State. 

We are staying at Upriver RV Resort on the Caloosahatchee River.  It's about three miles upstream from downtown Ft. Myers.  We really like our spot and, of course, will post more as we explore the area.

So our 2008 road trip is over.  It was true cross-country travel this time -- from Oregon in the Northwest to Florida in the Southeast.  We had a great time and saw some interesting country.  But it is good to be settled in one spot for a few months.  We're going to enjoy it.

 

 

 

 

 

A few more things about MISSISSIPPI

 

At the Natchez Visitor Center we watched filmed interviews of some lifelong residents of the area.  One lady said she loved living here where she could look every day at the Mississippi River.  And, she said, think about how boats could go North on it all the way to Minnesota and South -- all the way around the whole world. 

We loved looking out our window at the River too (for the few days we "lived" across from Natchez).  But I don't think we could spend too many months with that view before we would yearn to do those trips ourselves.  We're just hobos at heart.

This is a picture of Kudzu "the plant that ate the South".  Years ago, the vine was imported from Japan as an erosion-control measure and farmers were paid to plant it.  But the Southeastern US has the perfect conditions to allow kudzu to grow out of control-- hot, humid summers, frequent rain, mild winter temperatures with few freezes and no natural predators.  So now it is a pest weed.  A sign by a patch of it on the Natchez Visitor Center grounds said that kudzu will wrap itself around poles, other plants, buildings, even you if you stand still long enough. 

So don't forget to keep moving when you're in the Southeast!

ROAD TRIP 2008, Part 3: Arkansas, Mississippi

We saw a lot of new country on this leg of our journey, but Arkansas was our first completely new state.  We had never before set foot or wheel in it.  We crossed into the state almost as soon as we left Branson; it was 250 miles to Hot Springs and it was a beautiful drive.

We stayed at J&J RV Park , where we were parked looking at a lovely little creek.  This was a friendly, quiet place very close to downtown (and the National Park).  A nice amenity was two (count 'em) two  different newspaper boxes.  We hadn't been anyplace where we could buy a daily paper for days and days. It was especially good timing because we arrived on November 5 and were able to see the historic election day headlines.  I know the newspaper business is fading fast, but Internet and 24/7 cable news coverage notwithstanding, it would have been just wrong not to have seen this historic election day coverage in print.

We liked the Hot Springs area a lot.  Our original plan had been to spend a couple of days here so we could visit the National Park (just scroll down a little bit to see our post on it).  We ended up staying a week.  One of the joys of RVing is sometimes being able to do that when a spot unexpectedly catches your fancy.   Here are a couple more places we visited while we stayed here. 

Crater of Diamonds State Park in nearby Murfreesboro is the only place in this country where diamonds can be found.    There's about 40 acres of plowed field where for a small fee you can prospect as much as you want to and keep whatever you find.  Diamonds and other gems have been discovered and the most perfect diamond in the world was found here a few years ago.  We didn't find anything -- we didn't really look very seriously -- but it was a good excuse to play in the dirt on a sunny afternoon.  (We learned later that the best time to find diamonds is immediately after a rainstorm.  People who are serious about their prospecting drop everything to arrive then because the rain washes up the stones.)   Check out their website by clicking right there on the blue; it really is very well done.  

Little Rock, the State Capitol, was just an hour away.  We toured the President Clinton Library and Museum there.  There's a lot of stuff packed into this building.  Those boxes that form the walls are full of schedules and letters that you can take out and read.    The other picture is a replica of the oval office.   

The Presidential Museums do provide a good overview of a particular era in history.  On an earlier trip, we visited the Truman Library in Independence MO and I think we got more out of it.  Maybe this one is just a little too close to the present to be fully appreciated.  But one display here pointed out that the Federal budget was balanced and the country was at peace at the end of President Clinton's term.  What you heard everybody say as they viewed that was "what a difference eight years had made."

Arkansas definitely goes on our "hope we get to come back" list.  We really enjoyed our week in Hot Springs and could easily spend more time there -- and there is a lot more of the state to see as well.

The day we left Hot Springs we stayed overnight in Vicksburg, Mississippi.  No  beautiful view for the first time in two weeks; we stayed at Ameristar Casino RV Park.  We paid more here than we had per night in the last two places (where we had those great views) so it wasn't a huge bargain.  But we did get a coupon for a pretty good free breakfast at the Casino hotel the next morning. 

Our next stop was not exactly in Mississippi but it was all about it.  Scroll down to the post "Miss Lou."  I don't know if this is true everywhere, but a hundred years ago or so back in the Northwest I learned how to spell the name of this state this way:  M straight letter crooked letter crooked letter, straight letter, etc etc.  Staying here I learned that it would be a lot easier if we spelled it like people pronounce it, which is more like this:  Mizzippi.    It sounds good that way and it would be a lot easier on 4th graders if they could spell it like it is supposed to sound.

CROSS COUNTRY ROAD TRIP 2008, part 2: Oklahoma and Missouri

 

We left Tucamcari New Mexico on October 26 and, as Bill said, just "waltzed across Texas" (earworms anybody?) without even spending a night.  Although I can look at a map and see that the part of Texas between Tucamcari and Oklahoma isn't all that far, it was still shocking to me that we could get in and out of the great State of Texas during a day's travel.  I swear we've spent weeks and weeks in Texas on other road trips, but those were different parts of the state with more stuff to see. 

So our first overnight stop on the second part of this road trip was in Elk City, Oklahoma.  This was the first time we had RV'd overnight in this state, although, in contrast to Texas, we'd spent a hour or less crossing it on several other trips.  Those other times were across the panhandle, which is uninteresting, at least the little we see driving across it.  So we were pleasantly surprised at how lush and green everything was as we entered this part of the state.  

The previous day, back in not-so-beautiful Tucamcari, we had grazed a post pulling into our spot, (which wasn't nearly as big as advertised) and put a slight ding in the trim.  So after we settled in at Elk City, Bill went out to repair the damages and a whole bunch of guys came out to kibitz.  There is no quicker way to meet people on an overnight stop.  It was fun though, because that whole entire day on the road we actually didn't see one single human being outside of a car.  Sometimes on the road it seems like we are all pod people and there is no life outside of the vehicles.  So the RV Park here was a welcome and friendly overnight stop.  It is called Elk Creek RV Park.  There's no web site, but the review sites give it a positive rating and so do we.

The next night, still in Oklahoma, was in Checotah at Lake Eufaula West KOA.  Again, it was a beautiful drive and this was an interesting stop with woodsy walking paths and nature trails to the Lake and a small restaurant on site.   

The only problem is of course, now that we've seen the good part of it, we want to spend more time in this lovely state. 

We arrived at Branson View RV Park, Missouri the next night. Here we had one of the loveliest view spots ever.  It took a little juggling to get into it, but it was well worth it.   Every so often we are lucky enough to get a beautiful water view, but this was the first time ever we'd had a hilltop view looking down at a City.   We liked this park and if we'd stayed longer, our leg muscles would definitely have grown stronger.  Walking up and down the steep hills, was ...well, breathtaking. 

In some quarters, RVers have a reputation of being a little bit tight with their money.  Merchants think we bring everything with us and don't go anywhere. We feel that reputation is generally unfounded and certainly doesn't apply to us.   We eat (in and out), go to theaters, movies, shop ... whatever we'd do if we weren't RVers.   But our week in Branson threw us right into the tightwad stereotype.  We  couldn't find a single thing in this entertainment city that interested us enough to shell out the big bucks for tickets.  Even the restaurants seemed uninteresting and the whole town too glitzy and fake for our taste.  But we liked our RV Park with its beautiful view and enjoyed enjoyed driving around to see more of the scenic Ozarks.   

One of those drives was to Point Lookout where we had Sunday brunch at The Keeter Center, the restaurant of Hard Work U (otherwise known as the College of the Ozarks).    This is a fully-accredited and well-rated liberal arts and sciences University founded on the premise that each student works on campus to pay for his or her education.  These aren't make-work but real jobs that the students do in restaurants, the farm, and about 80 other jobs or industries right on the campus.  These kids graduate free of debt and with an appreciation for work.  We were impressed.  Some of the job stations are in the dining room and kitchen of the restaurant.  The brunch table included produce and meat raised on their own farms.  After our lovely meal, we toured a little bit of the campus and learned some of history of the school and the Ozark region.  

Chasing Autumn is one of our favorite things to do and we loved the Ozarks.  We drove through more of them on our way to Hot Springs, our next stop (and the next post).  But if we get to visit this area again, we'll spend more time in Oklahoma and Arkansas and less in Branson.