2022-2
Part 2
Exiting the Keys
Tamiami Trail, U.S.
41
Everglades City
La Belle Florida
Campground: Parking Lot Everglades City, free
Campground: Ortona South, Cross Florida Canal, LaBelle $14 Electric/Water, senior rate 4 nights
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| Ortona South |
Cost breakdown:
part 1
$49.00 Rv diesel (st cloud)
$25.00 propane fill, ½ tank, RV
$29.00 South bay, camping (one night)
$84.03 Rv diesel (Fl City) 13.86 mpg
$180 Sigsbee, camping 6 nights (dry camping)
part 2
$72.08 Rv diesel (Key West) 16.18 mpg
$76.48 Rv diesel (Everglades City) 16.188 mpg
$56.00 Ortona South Campground, Electric/Water
$571.69 total for fuel and campgrounds: 13 days
Heading out on Sunday. I had used the dump station and water filling the night before and packed up all outside chairs and bike. Sunday morning I went through the self car wash bay basically to do a quick power wash of the RV since I was fairly close to the sea water and spray.
As I was heading out, I reflected back on what I expected to see and what changes there were in the Keys. The drive didn’t seem initially to wow me, but that was partly because the skies were overcast the day I drove through the keys. So the sea was not the vibrant turquoise blues and greens I was expecting. They were more of a darker moody blue. Fortunately the ocean and gulf appeared in all it’s glory days later as I drove around. Restaurants changed names, the usual tourist shops filled every shop lining Duval Street. All of the historic places are still there along with those pristine homes from the late 1800’s. Only two large cruise ships are permitted but the affects of that many tourists descending in town can be quite overwhelming. And of course they block the sunsets from the famous Mallory Square. I found that if I got out early enough, I could enjoy walking around the downtown area before the crowds. And even took the Conch Train, which I always recommend. In the end, what I discovered was that though the keys had not really changed character all that much, I had. Age has a way of changing ones perspective. No longer needing to hit all the bars and night spots. And after too many years of abusing my body with the sun, sand and swimming, I no longer had a desire to bake in the sun, get a tan or go for a swim. Though I surely would have gone for a swim if the occasion arose. Riding my e-bike Little Zippy was just perfect as I enjoyed seeing so much without having to worry about Covid, crowds and all that stuff. Including that bike ride across a portion of the old US 1 highway to Pigeon Key.
I don’t feel bad that I’ve changed and not the keys. I’m still ready for the next adventure and enjoyed visiting the keys just not like I had in my younger days. And I’m pretty happy about finding out that works for me.
The drive heading back up the keys was smooth as the traffic heading out was relatively light. The only issue being the heavy winds buffeting the camper especially going across the bridges. The 7 mile bridge being the most challenging. Both hands on the wheel for sure.
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| U.S. 41 the Tamiami Trail. yes, the same road that eventually heads north all the way up to Houghton Michigan |
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| South Florida Water Management. they even control when water can be released from my chain of lakes in St Cloud Fl |
Back on the mainland, I headed to U.S. 41 going west, also known as the Tamiami Trail. My plan was to go to Everglades City a town I’d never been to. Along the way are many opportunities to take air-boat rides, see gators, which I saw plenty of. As well as a few rest areas and lots of control dams for the many Water channels used to control the flow of water through the Everglades.
Everglades City has a bit of history, being a staging area for the building of the Tamiami Trail which required dynamiting the hard limestone/choral rock to be used to build up the roadway. Otherwise your talking a lot of swamp land down here. A side note. I expected to have to deal with lots of mosquitoes but was pleasantly surprised at not having any issues both down in the keys as well as my stay in Everglades City and the LaBelle area. Though to be honest I didn’t stay outside after sundown much.
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| Black Panther country |
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| Everglades City (actually a small town on the edge of the Everglades) |
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| small gator, hiding |
Driving through the Everglades, I passed many areas that had very high fences to protect the endangers black panthers from being run over by vehicles. Course I didn’t see any, and wouldn’t expect to as the population of black panthers is pretty low. 120-230 estimated to be in Florida.
I’m enjoying my time along the Chaloosahachee Canal Which connects the west coast of Florida, through Okeechobee Lake to the East Cost of Florida. 5 locks, one of which I’m camping at where I get to see a couple of the 12,000 boats that come through here every year.
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| La belle Florida |
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| Ortano Lock, campground |
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| Sabal Palms, native to Florida Florida's State Tree |
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| bike ride, country roads |
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| Sunset at Ortano Campsite |
Rv Note: The top rubber seal has come loose on the slide and will have to be addressed when I get back to St Cloud. Unable to fix it while on the road and it appears the awning cover over the slide might have to be removed to fix the gasket.
Otherwise Zippy has performed quite well on this trip.
La Belle is a nice sized town(around 6,000) developed mainly for the cattle ranches and extensive farms and sugar cane fields around here. Though, it being about an hours drive to Ft Myers, it appears that a fair amount of new subdivisions are going up advertising home starting in the $250,000 range on up. They looked a lot more expensive than what any farm hand could afford.
This portion of my trip was to experience a bit of the “real” Florida. Away from the big cities, beaches and highways. I’ll head back to St Cloud tomorrow with plans to begin closing up the Do-Dah cottage for the season.
The adventure continues.
More photos:
