Monday was moving day, alright - - moved to Wal-Mart in Sun City Center to purchase a portable air compressor and some “Slime” because one of the trailer tires was losing air again! That problem fixed, H vacillated between staying on Rt 301 or getting on I75 and fighting the growing volume of wind and the growing number of vehicles on the highway Rt 301 won for awhile but the stop and go traffic in Bradenton got on his nerves so he grabbed the steering wheel tightly and got on the expressway to do battle with the force of the winds as they beat on us from 3 different sides – and of course never a tail wind!
Collier-Seminole State Park is nestled on the edge of the Everglades and just south of Naples and east of Marco Island. I’m not sure if you would call it a woods, a forest, a hammock, or a JUNGLE! We rode our bikes on some of the paths and ended up on a really rickety, rotting old boardwalk that rattled and clanked when my tires went over them. It felt like that movie where the fishing pier was being blown up behind them and falling in as they drove over it. I wasn’t sure whether it was falling apart behind me or falling in UNDER me! Whew! I did make it. The park is named for the Seminole Indians who used to live in this area and for Barron Gift Collier who was instrumental in building the roadway from Tampa to Miami and is know as the Tamiami Trail today. The park has on display The Bay City Walking Dredge, built in Bay City Michigan in the 1920’s. This monstrous big black metal creature was operated 10 hours a day, 6 days a week through the swamp to dig up limestone and mud which was piled into a bank to form the road bed, after the fill was compacted. Can you only imagine working in that sweltering heat with swarms of hungry angry mosquitoes and stinking slimy muck with no Avon bug spray or Skin So Soft?
We are listening to a rather fun novel entitled “ Nature Girl” which takes place in the Everglades and the 10000 Islands that border it. The main character is a rather goofy lady who lives in a trailer park in Everglade City. We HAD to go see that town. H said when he was there last it was just a hole in the wall spot where they built the Welcome Center for the Everglades. Now it is a classy collection of beautiful homes and condo’s each complete with it’s own boat channel behind it. At the end of the road is another small island, Chokoloskee, also mentioned in this book. We found the “Smallwood Store” a historic old Indian Trading Post and Museum, established in 1906 by Ted Smallwood. In 1982 when it finally closed, 90% of the original goods were still in the store. Ted’s granddaughter has reopened the store and has turned it into a most interesting museum. From there we went to explore another island – Marco Island – also a very upscale island. We found some free parking at the beachside Marriott Hotel and put our feet in the white sand and the gentle gulf waves. The beach was dotted with all kinds of shells and brightly colored sales on sailboats, patiently waiting to go for an afternoon sail. I even managed to grab up a few of those pretty shells before H got sand in his shoes and gave in to the urge to move on to find the next beach. In Naples the parking was not free but the beach was just as pretty and the view from the Naples Pier was of milky blue green waves washing up on white sand and colorful, grand old cottages snuggled down behind shrub-covered dunes.
We’ll be moving on again – across the vast alligator infested area called “ The Everglades” on Rt 41- the Tamiami Trail. The weather is to turn cold so we need to find a campground with electricity.
