November 3, 2005 - Lovers Key State Park, Florida

Talk about busy!  We came back down on Tuesday after the storm (Hurricane Wilma) had blown off into the Atlantic.  I'd called the office and learned they had space for us, but not the space we'd had before.  Seems one of the three pole barns that had been protecting equipment and supplies from the weather had jumped the fence and was sitting in our space.  Well, at least the roof had.  But they had power and Peggy said they really needed some help, so here we are.  Of course, that was on Tuesday the 25th, and I'm only now getting around to an update.  Barb and I are not used to physical "work," and we're both sore in places we'd forgotten we had!  But it's a good sore.  And Barb's rash from the sun and her bug bites are minor inconveniences, considering the beauty of this place.  And yeah, I'm sporting a few welts from an attack of fire ants myself (I stepped on their nest and they mightily objected).

While we were "stuck" in Clermont, we got to go see some friends from way back.  We met Ken and Sandy in maybe 1994 or 1995.  Can't remember which.  Barb and I were teaching a Sunday School class, and Sandy was in the class.  Ken was the bass player, and we didn't get to know him until a bit later.  They live in Palm Bay now.  We'd seen them once since they'd moved to FL, but we'd not met their son yet.  What a joy!  Seems to us that laid back parents often have pretty easy going laid back kids who love everybody they see, and Michael was no exception.  He'd climb up in our laps, get a hug and go off to do his thing for a while, and then back he'd come.  Great kid.

The two cats let them share their house with them, and there's never a dull moment.  We got to see the new generator they use to keep the refrigerator and some other things going when they loose power from hurricanes (repair work from Hurricane Charlie is still in limbo).  Not having the entire state of Florida wired underground is one of those mysteries that we find interesting.  Some people tell us it's because of the cost of buried cable, but I'm not buying that.  It costs way more to keep replacing the power poles and re-stringing wire, let alone the inconvenience that goes with a lack of power.

And the day after visiting Ken and Sandy, it was back to Lovers Key and work.  Here are some "windshield shots" of all the devastation we saw going through Bonita Springs (there was 1,000% more debris the following weekend when folks had a chance to start cleaning up).  The eye of the storm was just a little bit south of this, but from the TV you'd think there wasn't a tree (or power line) left standing.  The storm passed through on Monday and this is Tuesday afternoon.

On the day we drive in, there didn't seem to be a lot of signs knocked down.  We did have to be careful at several intersections because the signal lights were not working and, yes, we did see some damage to buildings and there were places where trees were down, but it sure wasn't anything like we'd been led to believe.  No wonder so many people stick around after the order to evacuate is given.  Now, we're on the west coast here, and the worst damage apparently was on the east coast but, still, it looked pretty minimal to us.

And when we got to the park, we noticed that they hadn't opened yet, and the little sign said that they'd be closed for a while.

Before driving in, we decided it would be a good idea to walk around a bit first, as the rig isn't all that easy to get out of tight spaces.  Barb obviously had the camera at this point, as my priority was to get parked someplace.  Yeah, coconuts.  All over the place!  Barb found a bunch similar to the bunch in the background and it now lives at our place, but more on that later.

We could tell there'd been a pretty good wind through here by all the trash on the sidewalks and the trees that were obviously damaged.  But then when we walked down to the volunteer parking area, we could see the roof where it didn't belong.  Our parking space was right behind it.

The shops didn't look like they'd had any damage at all, but the fence had a bad case of the leans, and was sporting a new hat.

There's where the roof landed after doing an apparent summersault.  Any idea where this guy was hanging out during the storm?  We sure are amazed at how the wildlife survives stuff like this.  As we were driving down, we saw all the birds back at their normal activities as if nothing had happened.  Barb even spotted some tractor egrets, but didn't get a picture of them.  A tractor egret looks exactly like a cattle egret, except they're following a tractor rather than a cow!  When Barb spotted them and told me about it, I dang near put the rig in the ditch from laughing.

We got parked and rode the bikes to the beach to watch the sunset, and check out the damage.  Neat thing about this evening.  We had the entire park to ourselves and the wildlife.  No other volunteers were there, and of course the staff had all gone home.  Sort of special to be in such a beautiful place and not have another person anywhere in sight.

This patch of concrete has been put here after the bridge was built, and sure enough, some raccoon had to leave footprints.  These are natural prints, not like so many other parks where animal footprints have been put there intentionally so people can learn what they look like.  We'd chased a family of  'coons off the bridge on an earlier trip over the bridge.

The tram circle tree was down, but looked like it could be saved (and it was) and the beach was still there.

The gazebo was still in good shape as well, without a single ding from the debris that must have been flying around.

The beach is made of shells.  Any sand is just ground up shells.  When you walk on it, you're crunching up shells.  That doesn't keep Barb from looking for special shells though.  Frankly, we'd expected bigger waves and more erosion than this.

The shore birds were running around like normal, except that one who was hopping around.  Only had one useful leg.  This little crab was either playing possum or really sound asleep.  It was alive, but not moving at all.

The south bridge, one we cross every day, looked perfectly normal (and was) and another shot of what we're walking around on.  This park includes four islands:  Long Key, Lovers Key, Black Island, and Inner Key.  This bridge takes us from Inner Key to Lovers Key.

My favorite "bag lady" doing her thing--and dodging the dead horseshoe crab.  Wish I'd not messed with it.  Stank up the place something terrific. 

The concession stand had some leaves and branches, but otherwise everything was fine.  The tables get turned upside down on purpose whenever there's a hurricane coming.  And a big sea grape (tree name) went down, and we eventually cut it up and tossed it in the burn pile.

Barb's latest collection.  Shells and a Venus Flytrap.  Why is it that the stuff she likes to collect is so inexpensive, and the stuff I like to collect is, well......... not so inexpensive.

Remember that little welcome sign that impressed us so much?  Well, here's the stake it was on, and there's a shot of the space we used to occupy.  That's a "beach truck" where you can buy hot dogs, soda, candy and that kind of stuff--it was damaged by the flying roof in several places.  Oh, yeah, you can also rent beach umbrellas, lounges, kayaks, and canoes.  Those bars laying on the ground used to be beams that held up the roof of the pole barn.

That's our new home, right across the street from where we used to park, and that's the view from our back yard.  Hummmm.  I might get to do some fishing after all.  And our bikes--wow, what a place to go biking!  We ride out to watch the sunset about 4-5 times a week.  What a life!

Barb and Mary did a lot of work on the bike path, hauling off trash.  And I think those coconuts are the ones now living with us.

Yup, Florida has big bugs alright.  Out to the beach yet again to watch the sunset.  This one without any clouds.