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The Sun and the Moon over the Everglades

I am writing this from Starbucks in the Miami, Florida area on Monday, October 14, 2019.

We are staying at the Midway Campground in the Everglades.  Located 1/2 way between Naples Florida and Miami.  The highway (highway 41) is called the Tamiami Trail.  It is named for the two cities it connects, Tampa and Miami.

Jim McCrae said they are raising up Highway 41 in places so that the flat-flowing river that is the Everglades will be able to flow better.  So far the places being raised are on the Miami end.  I drove over them this morning.

The campground has electric!  I am glad for that so I can cook my meals, make a morning coffee.  There is water at the bathroom.  The RV's don't have a sewer hookup or a dump station.  So their time here is limited.

Also, being in the middle of a very large wilderness area, there is no cell service and no internet.  Once in a while my phone would ping and I would see a message come in.  Most often I could not reply because the service just wasn't there.

Which is ok!  I get to read some, write some, sit some, ride some more.

I last posted from the two-story McDonalds in Fort Meyers.   After that I drove to the campground.

As I was driving I remembered driving this road with George and seeing so many birds in the trees by the ditch by the road.  They had created canals on the sides of the roads when they piled up rock to create the highway.  It was a place for gator to lounge and birds to hunt and nest.   This time, though, the Everglades had a lot of water from the rainy season.  The fish and food had been dispersed.  There wasn't the concentration of birds and gators.

I stopped at a board walk.  As I was walking it I had to overcome some fear.  I was by myself and I remember a story someone told me about being on a dead-end board walk and encountering a panther (or some dangerous animal... it has been a while since I heard the story.)  So I was pushing through my fear and I moved forward.



 I came upon this amazing tree that was hugging another tree stump.


 There was an explanation nearby.  A Strangler fig starts as like an air-fern.  Then it strangles the life out of the host tree and as it grows it reaches the ground and becomes a regular tree with roots.



The water through the huge swamp/river that is the Everglades is crystal clear.  I tried to take a picture to show you.  But all you can see is me floating on the surface.


 Hey sister Mary!  Are you likin' this Lichen?



 There was a building at the beginning of the board walk.  It turned out to be a Native American gift shop.



 The clerk said her ancestry was Seminole and Miccosukee.  I picked out some feather earrings made from Turquoise.



When I arrived at Midway Campground I found my reserved spot next to three huge RV's in a row.

Will Byers who arranged this ride for the South Florida Recumbent Riders was already there in one of those huge RVs.  In fact, all three huge RV's next to my little tent were from Polk City MOSN.  This was the total of our group that was here to ride the Shark Valley Trail by moonlight.

MOSN is their Polk City, Florida neighborhood bike group.  I learned that the neighborhood is an RV neighborhood, but most of the people or parts of the neighborhood also have a brick home.  Anyway, I met folks from MOSN at the Catrike rallys we used to attend.  And then I would see them riding on the Withlacoochee and elsewhere.

We are now connected via Facebook groups such as Recumbent Riders and the South Florida Recumbent Riders.

I knocked on their doors and let them know I had arrived.  They had already riden the trail that day and were chillin' in their air conditioning.   They said the weather said it was going to rain in the evening so they weren't going to do the moonlight right that night, but would do it the next night.

I was setting up camp when Marie came over.  I was glad to learn I wasn't the only single person in the group this trip.  She has been widowed a few years.  We shared stories and dreams and she helped me set up my canopy.   She said I should get an RV and we could go traveling together.  I said, "I am not rich enough."  I am on a tent kind of travel budget.  Ha ha.

At around 3:30 I decided to go ride the Shark Valley by myself.




For those of you into grasshopper porn...





When George and I visited the Everglades years ago with our friends Kathi and Karl, Kathi counted 72 gator on the seven-mile ride to the tower on the Shark Valley Trail.

This day I saw only two.  TWO!  I remember the ground around the tower being covered with gators, huge fat gators.  Today, none.

We had visited in February during a drought, shortly after a cold spell.  The gator were concentrated around the canals and water holes.  The birds were nesting all along the canal next to the trail, making for easy pickings when nestlings fall out of the nest.

I return to camp (15 or 17 miles away from Shark Valley).  I arrived just in time for ice cream!

There are 5 of us gobbling on four 1/2 gallon tubs of ice cream.  Lots of choices.  Thank you Will Byer's for the ice cream!  The light above Will's head in this picture below is the full moon rising.


 Soon the mosquitos were biting.  I returned to my "home" and climbed into my bed.  I thought I would read a while.
I was too tired.  However I woke often and looked out at the moon as it moved across the sky.   I had expected the Everglades to be loud at night.  I expected to hear critters rustling, frogs singing.   All I heard was crickets chirping and the occasional hoot of an owl.

In the morning trucks start roaring down highway 41.

Midway is known for being a great place for star-gazing.  The nights we are here, the moon will be bright and keep us from seeing the lights of many many stars.  Just the brightest show up in the sky.  I keep checking.

Will arranged for us to ride in the morning.  We are to leave camp at eight a.m.

I leave a bit early so I can stop at a gas station to get ice for my cooler.  I had brought some things from my fridge for meals and it needs to keep cool.

When I arrive at the Shark Valley Trail, Will and Carolyn and Bill are talking with a guy named Jim.  I have seen him on Facebook.  Jim McCrea lives in the Miami area and volunteers on the Shark Valley Trail.  He was there to ride with us!

It was great, he pointed out birds, told us a bit about the trails history.  When I picked up a snail shell he told us that the non-native snails are shaped differently.  Some kind of hawks in the area are getting longer and more curved bills over the generations.  Natural selection is happening before the naturalists observing eyes.  Evolution in fast motion.










Back at my camp site I cooked my lunch and Marie came by to chat.  We are excited to meet each other, fellow single women travelers and adventure seekers.  I tell her about my dream to do Ohio trails again and she is all in.  She didn't ride in the morning but instead went to the visitors' center.  She saw about 11 huge gator there.  Dang!

It is warm in the afternoon.  Everyone escapes to their air conditioning.  I rest in the shade, siesta time.  I rest because this night we are doing the moon-light ride starting at six.

I love how easy it is for me to get ready to ride.  I just pull out my trike from the car, add my water bottle, and off I go!

We park our cars outside of Shark Valley because the gates are locked at six p.m.  But they let bikers and walkers into the park.   Jane Weber was there!  Jane is an Ohio tricycle rider.  When I was riding with the Ohio trikers they talked about her with affection.  They said she was in Florida doing a whole year of work-camping.  (She is working in exchange for a free camp site at a KOA.)  It turns out she was only about 45 minutes from Shark Valley, so she drove over to join us for the ride.  It was great to meet her in person.

It seems like I am getting to meet a lot of people I have connected with via Facebook groups interested in recumbent bicycle and tricycle riding.



As we were approaching the tower the sun was already disappearing behind the trees by the canal on the west side of the trail.

We rushed up to it to catch some of the color of the fading sun.  The color was wonderful and sent some rays into the sky.  The fading light made the flat grasslands to the east of us, brilliant.  We waited only a few minutes for the Moon to appear in the East among the thick dark cloud hovering on the horizon.




Yes, that dot above is the moon rising just after the round orb of the sun has disappeared in the west.


It was a wonderful and lovely experience.  Very much worth repeating.  Will said he would study the moon charts and try to schedule something for spring.

I try texting my friend Debra to let her know she has to do this one next time.

She needs air-conditioning.  She doesn't like hot weather.  Hmmm. 

Who else?  Linda Tolley from Ohio?  I wonder if our new Inverness triking friends the Texas Trikers will be interested?  I took two days to drive down here, but it could be a one-long-day drive.  Hmmmm.

I loved being there.  Just taking in the beauty. 

The group started moving again.  Heading down the tower to return to our trikes.

I got in front of the pack and didn't turn my lights on.  I wanted to ride by moon-light.  Which was fine, but when they got too far behind and I didn't see the trail as well, I would slow down and wait for them. This is about as brave as I get.

Little frogs with there white undersides shining in our head-lights would hope off the trail as we approached... most of the time.  I heard a few crunches... ewww!



I pulled into my camp site and Maria stopped her Jeep behind me.

"We are gathering in my RV for ice cream if you wanna come," she told me.

YES!



Today is Monday and the RV's are pulling out this morning.  I couldn't hang out in the mosquito-feasting twilight this morning.  I couldn't wait for them to get up and get going so I could say good bye.

Instead I will email them this morning from Starbucks in Miami.

Then maybe I will go ride the trail again, stop in the visitors' center, and chill in the heat of the afternoon.  Who knows?

Tomorrow I head south to join the Sisters on the Fly near Key Largo, Florida.  It is an event where we snorkle and dive and count fish for the DNR or some organization.  Excited and scared, I have never swam in the sea much, never snorkled in the ocean.  Something new to discover.

I went up on Fiverr before I left internet and asked the artist to add the narrators names to the covers for the audio books.  Soon soon soon, Alzheimer's Trippin' with George - Diagnosis to Discovery will be out on Audio book on Audible and elsewhere.






Marie bought a copy of this book.  She told me she is enjoying it.  Thank you, Marie!  I hope to see you again soon.  Maybe on the Van Fleet Trail this winter.

Comments

  1. Happy you are happy. It goes without saying that you are missed. Going to line dancing tonight. Played for funeral this afternoon. And such is life .

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great post, sounds like quite a time, I don't know about being on trails with GATORS, LOL, I don't even like snakes! Enjoy your snorkeling! :)

    ReplyDelete

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