Today in Florida history...

64 years ago today, December 6, 1947, President Harry Truman dedicated Everglades National Park.

I'd hate to think what South Florida would be like without our Everglades.  Imagine solid strip malls, condos and cookie-cutter houses from Miami clear to the west coast...skipping over the Rez, of course.  Homestead and Florida City (which are quickly losing their historically agricultural status as is) would probably look just like west Kendall... Gawd Awful!!!

If you drive to the main entrance of ENP today, you may be amazed to see that farming literally is knocking on the  borders of the park.  Farming down here is on it's way out and I'd say within 20 years, there will be McMansions a block away from ENP.  It makes me sick.

Anyway, here's to President Truman, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, and countless others who helped to save and protect our precious 'Glades!  Let's just pray that she stays protected...

Strike one off the Bucket List!

Sunday, my friends LJ & OB asked if I wanted to hike Snake Bight Trail with them.  Of course I said YES!!!  Making it to the end of that trail had been on my list for years.  You see, it is the nastiest, ugliest and one of the most mosquito infested places on Earth.  I'd tried several times to hike it only to get as far as .20 down the trail and come running back to the car.

Well this time I prepared:  pants, long sleeves, Thermacell, hat and scarf.  They were in shorts and tshirts.  Insane, but they made it, albeit coated in Deet!  The view at the end was ok.  Low tide made it unspectacular, but at least there were some spoonbills in the distance to see.

No great pics - I only brought my phone.

One down, and a few more to go!

The 'Glades in June

This is just a random picture from back in June when we went camping at Long Pine.  This picture fails to show the whole scene...add about a billion blood thirsty mozzies, then it would be complete.

Note:  NEVER camp in the 'Glades in the summer.  Ever.

A Packed Weekend

Last weekend, my sweetie flew in from Pennsylvania.  As always, I asked him what he wanted to do that weekend and he wanted to go to the Keys...fishing, swimming and kayaking.  So we did!  

First we had to find a place to stay...the Conch on Inn was just a little too scary for us, so we settled on the Seafarer on southern Key Largo.  No bad - not great- but not bad. Lot's of ambiance!  I'd stay there again.

Ok, so my honey wanted to fish for tarpon from the kayak. It's a do able thing, just not in a tandem kayak!  So I took him to Robbie's so he could see some up close.  Some of them were in the 5' range...pretty cool!

We wanted to go to John Pennekamp State Park, but they were turning people away saying they were too full.  Well...thankfully I knew of a place we could dump the yak and still paddle into Pennekamp and that is exactly what we did.  We had a nice paddle through the mangroves and came out not far from the boat ramp in the park.  We pulled out next to the first swimming hole and jumped in.  The water was bath temperature, but still felt great!  After a while, we got back in the yak and headed back to my "secret" put in spot.  Thankfully my truck was still there...

Next up?  Fishing!  We settled for fishing off a bridge and for a couple hours had some fun in the sun...my honey catching all the fish (yeah, I am still a little pissed about that!)...Spanish Mackeral, a jack and a small Mangrove Snapper.  

Down some side street...gotta love the colors!

What weekend would be complete without going for a couple caches?  There was one located near this place, but some guys were hanging out, so we bypassed it.  That hotel has the Conch on Inn beat on the creepiness scale, though!

And just down the road is Jules Undersea Lodge... an actual "hotel" that you have to dive to get to.  Google it!  Kinda cool...

Leaving the Keys,we made a quick stop at the Botanical Site off Card Sound Road.  These flowers were out front, Scorpiontails.  I think they're kinda cool!

Still a few hours of daylight left as we headed back to Miami so I suggested a quick run into the Everglades National Park.  Of course....we had to stop for a cache along the way!  As my honey went bushwhacking to find "Frog Pond" (one of my caches), I stayed and took a couple pics of the storm moving in.

On the way to Royal Palm in ENP, we stopped to check out this little water snake in the middle of the road. Snakes can be so dumb sometimes!

Anhinga Trail

Pretty, huh?

Monday before making the drive back to Ft. Lauderdale Airport, we went to Key Biscayne and checked out Cape Florida at Bill Baggs State Park.

What's left of Stiltsville out in Biscayne Bay.

Well, a couple days later, I decided to go on up to Lake Placid to cut the grass and just chill out for a couple days.  This big lady was there to greet me right above the front door.  I left her in peace...she didn't mind me and I didn't mind her.

After cutting the grass, thunder started booming and the winds picked up.  I sat on the tailgate of my truck drinking some Gatorade marvelling at the gorgeous sunset in front of me...my stupid camera does NOT do it justice.  The colors were flaming and intense.

As the first rain drops started to fall, I watched a Black Racer duck into my shed.  

That was a smart snake!

And there you have a synopsis of  my last week!  

Southern Everglades Mystery?

UPDATE 7/22/11 - I have determined, most definitely, that this IS the old abandoned Aerojet General site.  The largest solid rocket ever built still lies beneath the surface here...10 stories tall...  I am planning a return trip to get better pictures and to see if I can locate the rocket!

A few weeks ago, my oldest and I took a bike ride out in the Southern Everglades Wildlife and Environmental Area. It is located just outside the entrance to Everglades National Park in Homestead.

As you can see from the picture above, the area is vast and open...the scenery doesn't change much. You either like it there or hate it. I like it. After leaving the congested city, it is nice to see so much open, green space...no cookie cutter houses or strip malls...just miles of open prairie.


During the Cold War, south Florida had a few Nike missile bases...I am not 100% sure if this area was part of all that or not. The abandoned buildings don't look military at all and there are no old signs or anything that leaves any clues as to what this area once was.

There are two of these wierd things. No idea what they are. If any of you happen to know, let me know! Maybe they are some kind of left over military thingamajiggers...



The ENP recently opened up a missile base to the public, as a tour. This is not it as it is not on park property. I do know that there were several different sights used for different things...fire control, launches, etc. Maybe this area was something. Any ideas??
On our ride back to the truck, we finally saw a couple gators across the canal. Can you see one?

A desolate, lonely place that holds some kind of mystery...just not sure yet what that mystery is. Guess I'll keep searching for the answer. In the meantime, if you happen to find yourself way down in south Florida, I recommend taking a ride out here. It's a totally different perspective on what Miami/Homestead is like.

Why I hate tryng to plant trees in my yard!

Yesterday I wanted to get out of the house, but wasn't sure where I wanted to go. I thought about it for a while, then decided on a trip out to the Chekika area of the Everglades.

We made the drive out there only to find it's gates closed. I read later that they closed for the "wet season" which I find extremely funny since we have had no rain!

Anyway, we drove around the area for a while, just checking things out. The picture below shows what our ground is really like here in South Florida.

The gray lumps are rocks...oolitic limestone, I believe. That's why it is SO damn hard to dig holes down here...so very, very hard.

Looking across the sawgrass, you don't see the rocks. It seems like it would be easy to trek across the prairie, but it's not.

Things are so dry out there right now. Gator holes have been reduced to little mud pits, and eventhough there is a small canal that runs along the road in front of Chekika, we only saw one small gator. I expected to see many more since that is the only water around. Maybe they were just hanging out on the bottom where it's cooler?

We did spot this guy and two Racers, but that was it. Nothing spectacular.

I had to throw in this picture. I've seen this truck a few times on my way to work and it always makes me laugh...

Hope your weekend was more exciting than mine!

A Day in the 'Glades

I felt the urge to head south to the Everglades yesterday and made Sam and Aidan come along for the ride. I didn't realize it'd been so long since we'd been down there...the Flamingo lodge is still closed because of old hurricane damage and the cabins are gone. All this time and they haven't done anything to repair them...the gift shop and restaurant are closed too. Sad. I hope they plan on rebuilding eventually.

The ride down to Flamingo was pretty uneventful. We never even saw a single gator. The first time I've ever been in the 'Glades and not seen at least one! Crazy...I wonder what all the tourists must think!

We walked a couple trails and looked for good things to take pictures of like this pretty flower ( I think it's a Climbing Aster)...


And my kids...


Some black and red mangroves...

We were in a panther area and someone got a little concerned.

The muddy colored water of Florida Bay.

This is usually a good place to see lots of birds, but today it was empty. We did see a Snail Kite soaring around, but I wasn't quick enough with my camera.

We laughed when we saw a bunch of tourists taking pictures of the Spanish Moss. Does this stuff only grow in Florida? I think not...anyway, I decided to play tourist and take a picture, too.

Well, that was about it. Hardly any birds (except buzzards), no snakes, no gators, no deer, no turtles, no rabbits, no nuttin'! Regardless, a day in the Everglades is better than a day in the city :)

Off on a tangent

Gopher Tortoise. Ain't he cute?

Checking on my guavas today, I noticed I've got bananas! Yay! Not many, but coming from a tree I take absolutely no care of, I'd say it's pretty good to be getting any.

My sister, who lives in Broward Co., took this picture today. She didn't know that the cute little things hanging out on her rose bushes were baby iguanas. They are cute, but not native and very invasive.

South Florida has an over abundance of non-native critters, the iguana being one. They have been in the news alot lately. The only way to really control them is to kill them. Now, I'm an animal lover, but there are some who may doubt that when I say I agree about killing the iggys. There are too many of them and there is just nothing else to do. Sure nature helps a bit by sending us cold snaps once or twice a year (they don't survive too well in extreme cold temps). But something else needs to be done. It would be nice if a vet volunteered to euthanize all iguanas brought to him, but that's not ever going to happen. It's a sad thing that has happened just because people bought those cute little babies (like my sis has in her yard), but then when they got too big decided they couldn't keep them anymore and turned them loose. Bad move.

Iguanas, parrots and parakeets, various lizards and geckos, boas and pythons... I think the pet industry really needs to be better regulated. The state has taken steps, at least as far as large snakes go, but I don't know if anything's being done about the other problems we have.

And I've learned our bear population has grown tremendously in recent years. Could they be thinging of possibly having a bear season? Most likely. The sad thing is, it's not the bear's fault. It's ours. South Florida's continued building and growth really sucks for our native creatures. More and more bear encounters are happening because we have moved into their territory.

I have hunters in my family. Most animal lovers think bad things about hunters. I do not. Hunters are actually some of the most environmentally conscious people around. They are also some of the biggest animal lovers. I do not like people who hunt for the "thrill" of it. Hunt for food. Eat what you kill. Honor the life you've taken. If we didn't have hunting seasons, our deer population would be horribly over populated and sickly. Hogs are not even native here, but we don't go out and allow random killing of them. We have hog seasons. We have turkey season. Rabbit, too (oh, I could never eat a rabbit!). And alligator season! At one time, gators were protected here. As a result, their population exploded and now no body of water in Florida is exempt from them...including swimming pools. So we now have a heavily regulated gator season, which is based on a lottery for a permit. It hasn't hurt their population at all. I love alligators. And...they taste pretty good, too. Would I hunt one? Nope. I have no desire to ever hunt anything. But I am not against it. There are very valid and good reasons for hunting and I support them 100%.

Now, if I was in the Everglades and came across a python, I would kill it without a second thought. (and I have a particular fondess for snakes and have owned 2 pythons)

Wow...what was the point of this post? I think I got off tangent a bit! Anyhoo...if you have an exotic pet, wherever you live, never EVER release it into the wild!

I gotta go make dinner now. 'Night All!

A nice day for a bike ride

Yesterday after work, I was supposed to meet a couple friends to go get a few more caches out near the Everglades. I got there early and decided to take some pictures while I waited.

This is my new bike seat. I absolutely love it! More importantly, my ass loves it!




I parked my truck in front of this big corn field. Yes, we grow corn in Florida. And it is directly on the edge of Everglades National Park. Not what you'd expect, huh?

See the little road on the left side of the picture? That is the one and only road into the main part of the National Park. If you could turn your head to the right, you'd be looking at the field of corn.

These nasty buggers are everywhere! These are young and still tender, so they didn't hurt nearly as bad as the old, hard ones. Imagine about 20 of these stuck to your pants, socks and shoelaces...along with a good batch of Spanish Needles.

This canal runs for miles. The water was very clear and it was very pretty, but I really hate canals. Canals are what messed up the Everglades to begin with, disrupting the natural flow of water from Lake Okeechobee down to the Florida Bay.

A Sweet Acacia. It's really pretty, but my dinky little camera doesn't exactly show it very well.

Well, after a while my friends showed up and we rode our bikes further down the road and ended up finding 3 caches. I hit #900! I'm happy :)

Tomorrow we are suppposed to bring our bikes and do some caching over on Virginia Key. I'm excited to see the "renovations" the city has done to that area. It's a quiet beach that most people drive right by, in favor of going to Crandon Park Beach. Most of it has been closed for a long time now while the city did some restoration projects. The grand opening was a couple weeks ago. Originally, it was a "Blacks Only" beach. Thank God those days are over!

So maybe tomorrow I'll have some nice beach pics to show you.