Florida

Overnight stops (in date order): Orlando; Frostfree (x4); Sunny Isles Beach (x4); Flamingo – Everglades National Park (x2); Chokoloskee (x5); Palmetto (x2); Salt Springs – Ocala National Forest (x2); Indian Pass – Fort St Joe (x2)

With a dramatic change of climate, and after a night at an Orlando airport hotel, we picked up our motorhome and drove south to spend four days at an RV resort so that we could settle in to our new home.  Although, compared with some of the RVs

and fifth wheel campers

at the site, our 29-feet long RV appears under-sized.

However, it is nearly new, and the interior is surprisingly spacious.

 

 

The resort was for those aged 55 and over.  Despite that, they let us in; and I was able to teach our American cousins a thing or two about the finer points of Cornhole. 

 

 

Having settled into the RV, we drove south to Miami and abandoned it in a truck park to spend four days with Danielle’s sister, Andrée, in her condo in Sunny Isles Beach.

We were joined by Monique, another member of the family.

Sunny Isles Beach is lined with towering apartment and hotel blocks; three of which are owned by Donald Trump.

To the north is Fort Lauderdale; with its busy port

and its maze of waterways lined by the homes of the wealthy – the ‘Venice of America’.

To the south is the art deco district of Miami Beach; centred on Ocean Drive.

 

 

We shared the streets of Miami with immigrants from Central America – iguanas; both big

 

and small.

Our next stop was the Everglades National Park – 1.5 Million acres

of sawgrass,

swamp,

 

and mangrove.

It is home to an array of birdlife.  We spotted: a sandhill crane

a nest of ospreys,

a great blue heron,

a wood stork,

a purple gallinule,

a black-crowned night heron,

an anhinga,

roseate spoonbills

and flocks of pelicans.

 

 

Manatees graze the seagrass in the shallow waters off the coast,

 

 

and the Everglades is the only habitat where American alligators

 

and crocodiles

 

coexist; together with the things that they eat.

We spent our last five days in the Everglades on Chokoloskee Island

 

 

with great views from the rocking chairs on the veranda;

especially at sunset.

The lower flag in this picture proudly announces that this is ‘Trump Country’.

Even the horses sport the Trump hairstyle.

Nearby Everglades City (population 450 – yes, 450)

 

states that it is:

We put that claim to the test at the ‘Cuban Café’.

 

We took a boat tour into the ‘Ten Thousand Islands’ region of the National Park

 

where many of the mangrove islets are still recovering from Hurricane Irma; which hit the region in 2017.

Dolphins followed us home; surfing in the boat’s wake.

 

 

Further north, we stopped at the huge Tides RV resort, south of Tampa.

The resort’s facilities would grace a four-star hotel – as would the price of our stay.

Nearly all of the residents are older people from the northern States and Canada, escaping the cold of winter.  The resort was almost full and the manager vetted us and made us feel that we were fortunate to be allowed in.  Without exception, the huge RVs, fifth-wheel campers

and their accompanying pick-ups were gleamingly clean.

 

The purpose of our stay was to visit the Dali Museum;

 

which was across the impressive Sunshine Skyway Bridge

in nearby Saint Petersburg. 

Apart from the collection in his hometown of Figueres, the Museum houses the world’s largest collection of Salvador Dali’s works.   As well as surrealist paintings,

 

there are works from before

 

and after that period of his career.

In striking contrast to the Tides, our next stop was the Ocala National Forest.

 

 

 

 

 

We camped close to Salt Springs; where the trees are festooned with Spanish moss.

 

 

The Spring’s vents add 54 million gallons of mineral-rich water to the lake each day.

The lake is home to freshwater crabs

 

 

and shoals of mullet.

 

 

We stopped for lunch

at Apalachicola – which accounted for 90% of Florida’s oyster harvest until the industry collapsed due to pollution and reduced water flow in the Apalachicola River –

en-route to Indian Pass on the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

 

 

Next day, we crossed the Perdido Bay Bridge that links Florida with Alabama.