The Huge Black Monster of a Walking Dredge is still proudly
on display at Collier Seminole State Park.
It and others like it were used to dig the miles and miles of ditches
along side the Tamiami Trail that runs from Tampa, down and across the
Everglades to Miami Florida. Without
those ditches, there would not have been enough muck and dirt to pile up and
make the roadway now called Rt 41. Once
again we followed the ditches and the high road that lies high and dry between
them out and across the Glades. Sometimes there were shallow ponds and shorebirds, fishing for
their next meal. Sometimes it was miles
of swamp grass or a cluster of low trees and palms on swaths of higher ground. We passed the road to Everglade City and
various airboat ride
concessions along the way. I had several birthday cards to mail and we stopped at the
smallest Post Office in the entire United States to mail them! While the Ochopee Post Office was formerly
an irrigation pipe storage shed for a local tomato farmer, the local postmaster
pressed it into service after a disastrous fire in 1953 burned down the
original general store and post office.
This structure has been in continuous use ever since, as both post
office and ticket station for the Trailways bus lines! I hope Becki and Bobbie checked their
postmarks!
The National Park System normally operates Midway Campground
and reservations are placed with Recreation.Gov but with this ridiculous
“partial government shutdown”, no one knows
what’s going on. R.Gov is telling people it’s first come
first serve. One host is saying they can’t stop anyone from parking and staying
on any open site. The other host has
put out a “campground full” sign and “reserved” signs on all 24 sites. H was obviously concerned since we needed
those 2 nights to fit into our camping schedule so we left Collier Seminole
early that morning and arrived in Midway by 10am. Our reserved site was open
and we backed in and quickly hooked up to the electricity!
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| Midway campground |
The next storm was to arrive on Thursday so we grabbed a
bite to eat and headed out to explore via blue truck. The “Loop Road” is now mostly level gravel and posted speed signs
say 25mph and sometimes only 15mph. We
drove thru jungle areas with the
palmetto and Cypress trees hugging the edge of
the narrow road. There were areas of
swamp with pools of calm water. Tall
thin Blue Herons blended in with the tall strange looking gray Cypress trees,
covered with stringy, spooky looking Spanish moss that swayed in the breeze.
Yes - we saw gators. We REALLY saw
gators as we drove back up to the Visitor Center. It was warm enough by then for all the big black lumps of leather
to haul themselves up on the banks to grab some warm rays. One even smiled at us! At the Visitor Center, the rustic wooden
boardwalk still stands above the area’s ditch and there are still a magnitude
of the black monsters lurking in the dark waters or sunning on the
rocks –
RIGHT below your feet!
As promised the storm arrived and we were forced to stay
inside most of the day Thursday. H got
to read and I got out the sewing machine!
Friday morning was another moving day!
Backtracking on westbound Rt 41 we reversed our route and then headed
north on Rt 29 – the way we arrived 2 weeks previously! As we had seen on the way down, there were
several areas that were bordered by high fences topped with barbed wire. Every so often there were big yellow signs
announcing “panther crossing” areas- complete with under the road passageways
for the stealthy endangered big cat to travel safely thru his domain. Up in the “forest” – it’s bears. In the
Glades – it’s panthers – and we didn’t see any of them either!
We made it to WP Franklin without further incident and we hurried to set up before the next round of wind and rain hit. Squishing around in the deep waterlogged grass would have been more fun if it weren’t so cold and windy out! We’ve got two weeks here so we’re good! Our shoes should dry!
Our travel schedule had us booked for 2 nights in Ortona
Lock Campground before we would move into WP Franklin Lock and Dam
Campground. Remember, we had just
camped at Phipps Park in Stuart – within walking distance of the Port Lucie
Lock Campground and now it was Ortona.
See Last Years Florida Blog!!
Our site was great! The back
window of the “tan train” overlooked the lock and dam. The side door and
windows looked up the Caloosahatchee River!
The sun was shining and the boats were slowing down to enter the
lock! H got to spend his afternoon at
the Ford Dealer in nearby Labelle getting
the latest truck problem tended to
and lucky me – I got to tend to the laundry and have some “me” time!
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| Ortona campground |
More rain was predicted.
Scattered showers for Sunday morning, then clearing, then the real
storms were to arrive from the south during the afternoon. The weatherman missed it again! The DELUGE started before 5am and just
barely let up by 9am when we made our dash for the highway. Poor H was just about drowned trying to get
the “train” hooked up and the tanks drained.
See the lovely view from our doorway, looking up the river? See the low area just past the gravel
patio? Sunday morning it was FULL of
water!
We made it to WP Franklin without further incident and we hurried to set up before the next round of wind and rain hit. Squishing around in the deep waterlogged grass would have been more fun if it weren’t so cold and windy out! We’ve got two weeks here so we’re good! Our shoes should dry!
