January 20, 2001
Well, Happy New Year to you. It got off to a rocky start for us, but here it is. And we're still enjoying the lifestyle. And we're glad we were in Florida when brother Bill's family needed some help here and we could take the time to go to Flamingo for as long as it took.
It's still fairly early in the morning (7:30 a.m.), the wind is blowing the awning and screen room around a little, and occasionally a rain squall will hit us. I just went outside to see what the "whump" was on the trailer, and there was a huge glob of Spanish moss hanging off the living room slide-out. Must have fallen out of the tree we're parked under. Temperature inside is 79 and outside has dropped to 66. I'm comfortable, but when Barby gets up she'll complain about the heat and want to open some windows, I'm betting. Supposed to be in the mid-30's tomorrow night, so we'll keep the down comforter handy for a bit yet.
Hummers and big trucks of various sizes and shapes are rumbling by as the National Guard comes in to practice whatever it is they do on the weekends. We went out to the runway a while back to watch the paratroopers practice their jumps, but nothing happened. We learned later they were an hour or so off schedule. Oh well.
Remember the Christmas Eve ceremony that we attended at Bok Tower Gardens that I didn't take any pictures of? Well, apparently I lied. I guess I couldn't avoid taking at least one more sunset shot (with Spanish moss hanging on those big Live Oak trees). We're some 300 feet above sea level at this point (close to the highest point in Florida), and everything is down hill from here.
The vultures in Florida are ubiquitous. On the left is one of their favorite morning spots--the water tower here in the Bombing Range, less than a mile from our home. On the right is part of the wall around the small arms range, also nearby.
The water tower full of vultures in the background with a fence around a field of vegetables in the foreground. They hold their wings out to get warm from the sun in the morning. It's about 9 a.m. or so, and with the slight overcast earlier, they're doing their best to warm up. We're already warm, as we've walked about a mile and a half to get here.
Hummm. The water tower is out of sequence. Must have taken the shot on our way back to the trailer. There are two kinds of vultures as near as we can tell. The Turkey vultures with their red heads, and the Black Vulture. The Black Vulture, in addition to having a black head, will soar with its wings flatter than the typical "V" of the Turkey Vulture. On the drive into Florida, we'd see them and wondered what they were. Solid black, soaring like a raptor with the rather "flat" wingspan, but almost always in pairs. We knew that raptors seldom hunted in pairs, and couldn't figure out just what it was we were looking at. And speaking of things to look at, I'm fascinated by water reflections. This little pond in the middle of the pine forest near us is totally protected from the wind, and gave an outstanding reflection that I couldn't pass up. Indications around the pond were that it is primarily used by cattle for drinking and wading. No sign of alligators.
We're in Flamingo, on one of the "Outback" tours that brother Bill used to take people on. Capt. Bob was the operator on this one and had nice things to say about Bill, which we appreciated. The naturalist, Gary, was fun. He'd lived in Alaska for 17 years, had a beard and an attitude much like Bill, and they'd been good friends for the two months Bill was there. On the left is a crocodile, not an alligator. The difference, Gary said, is that the croc has a narrower jaw, with his fourth tooth back on the lower jaw sticking outside of the upper jaw. Sure, like I'm going to investigate. This fellow likes to sun himself on the boat ramp, totally messing up the boat launching and retrieval, but much to the delight of the tourists. We saw a picture of him taken a week or so earlier with a six foot alligator in his mouth. There was no proof that he'd killed the gator, and he swam around for a couple of days with it in his mouth before abandoning it. The marina people pulled the dead gator out and disposed of it--not a good tourist attraction. The suspicion is that the croc didn't kill the gator, as they will usually stuff their kill into a hole or something underwater until it gets mushy before eating it, and they will almost always eat what they kill. But nobody knows for sure. They were glad that it was a croc with a gator rather than the other way around. The croc's are making a comeback, while the gators have done a fine job of coming back. And on the right is one of the first coons I've ever seen hunting/eating in the broad daylight. There were three of the little rascals up this bush alongside the canal, gobbling up the red berries. Don't know why they like them so much. Their droppings show they don't digest them worth a darn.
Wish I could figure out how to make things come out even with the pictures/stories. Oh, well. On the left is a shot Barb took of some Anhingas with a Great Blue Heron in Florida Bay. She's looking directly toward Cuba, but those islands belong to the U.S. On the right is a look at the dugout canoe we built the box for. (see December 15, 2000) What we have here is the platform the natives carved to stand on while poling the canoe along the waterways. It's half broken off as you can see. What so impressed me, in addition to the symmetrical beauty of the canoe, was that these people could stand on this platform on this narrow (less than 3 feet wide), long (19 feet) canoe and not toss everything in the water in the process! With our "modern" technologies we'd have trouble making a dugout this beautiful and functional, and I'd sure be challenged to even get into it without rolling it over, much less stand up there and push-pole it anywhere. And these people used these things to go many miles through many waters as well as the incredible mangroves.
The reason the canoe was out of its box was so that some local archeologists could gawk at it, and so that the woman in charge of the preservation could take a closer look at it. The fact that the box-builder was there was just because he was supposed to be "working" that day.
But it looks like our days of "standby" are about over. On Monday, we are supposed to begin tearing down the pit toilets we took GPS coordinates of a couple of weeks ago. Because things can change hourly here (some four different governmental agencies all located in one place!!!), we'll let you know later what we actually end up doing. If we're still on standby, that's fine with me as I still have a to-do list about a month long.
Tampa RV Show (by Barb)
We took advantage of this awesome spectacle a couple of days ago. Awesome because of its size--the biggest we've ever seen. Took place on the Tampa fairgrounds, a huge place, with both indoor and outdoor space. It was "shorts" weather, a Thursday (not so crowded), and comfortable to walk around. We bought a few things and enjoyed seeing the new motor homes, from the million dollar ones to the not- so-luxurious, but equally livable, ones. We find it interesting that the folks who deal with the "high end" cost motor homes will admit that these have as many problems as the lesser priced ones.
The fellow we bought our DeBlasi "mopeds" from had a booth there. It's a mini folding motorcycle made in Italy; ours were in fact shipped from Florida where the (only?) U.S. representative is located. We said hi to "Hardy" whom Dave had spoken to on the phone during our purchase transaction; Hardy has a definite Italian accent. While standing there, Dave took advantage of the opportunity to "sell" the product to a couple of interested customers (you know Dave!). We needed to replace a directional lens cover since we broke one, and Hardy was kind enough to give us one for free. (and Dave says: Well, it wasn't totally free. When I pulled out my cash and asked him how much, he grinned and said, "Sing me a song." All I could think of was happy birthday, and so I sung that for him.) Fun.