Our driver/guide, Kenny, kept a steady stream of facts going as he drove from Naples to Everglades City along the Tamiami Trail. Our RV park is on Collier Road in Collier County. The Collier in question is Barron Collier, a major earlyday investor in SW Florida (he eventually owned a million acres). He also was publisher of Collier's magazine. Anyhow, the state had planned a road, called the Tamiami Trail, to connect Tampa with Miami (get it?). They had built the road from Tampa to Naples, bud didn't have the money to continue the road across the Everglades from Naples to Miami (call it the Namiami Trail). Collier said, I'll build it for you if you will create a new county and name it for me. They did and he did (this was in the 1920s). (Oh, where have all the Colliers gone?) He had a special machine built, like a giant spider, that moved on feet as it dug a ditch across the state, using the excavated earth to build a raised roadway.
Now, since my early days in OK, I've heard the phrase, bar ditch, used to describe the ditch alongside a country road or highway. Never knew why it was called that, never asked, just accepted it. Well, it's a corruption of the term, borrow ditch. You borrow dirt from the ditch to build the roadbed. (And if the road washes out, it's a default ditch!)
The original Everglades swamp covered eight million acres; the national park has 1.5 million acres. You no doubt know that in the last century, much work was done to build canals that would drain (parts of) the swamp to create farmland and retirement property. The Tamiami Trail highway is itself a barrier to the natural southward flow of water through the Everglades. To many, this was an environmental disaster - one of Hiaasen's favorite themes. Now, there is a restoration project under way, but not without controversy. A high priority is to do something about the Tamiami Trail, but there are issues. For one, the Miccosukee Tribe opposes a plan to replace about a mile of the highway near its eastern end by a bridge. May have something to do with casinos and tourists, but I don't know for sure. Also, those who fish the canals - and we saw many so engaged - oppose filling in the canals.
At Everglades City we took an airboat ride, looking for manatees and gators. As we left the dock several pelicans plopped on to the boat looking for handouts. I was on the front row and got a bird's eye view of our passengers. After I had snapped a few pictures, the boat captain asked that I repel future boarders - they mess up his boat.
On the shore behind this bird a very upscale RV park is being built. The waitress at lunch said you couldn't get in unless your coach was worth $500,000. She was not happy about what is happening to her Everglades City.
On the airboat trip, some places we had channels to follow, as below. Other places we essentially traveled from puddle to puddle across mud.
We didn't find manatees (in the deep channel where we launched), but did find this gator toward the end of our boat ride. Gatorwise, though, the real action was yet to come.
After the airboat ride, the half-dayers were picked up and taken back to Naples. The rest of us got lunch in the former train depot in Everglades City - all you can eat shrimp peel and salad bar. Plus, gator bits appetizers - tastes like chicken.
Our group was five people, a French-speaking couple from Canada and a father and son from Oklahoma who had come to FL for the Florida-Oklahoma BCS game, and me. The Oklahomans had driven over from Miami (120 miles) early for the excursion because the son (7 yrs. old) wanted to see alligators.
In the restaurant lobby was a stuffed gator. Lots of symbolism here for us Oklahomans because the U Florida mascot is the gator. Dad and Kenny wanted to get a picture of son with head in gator's mouth. Son said no way. Next day, we found out why.
The afternoon boat excursion took off from the National Park dock in what is called the 10,000 Islands region of the Everglades. Main objective was to motor out to where the dolphins hang out. When they're in the mood they will follow the boat, surfing the wake. We found dolphins and enjoyed watching them arc out of the water, but they wouldn't follow the boat. Guide said they were too involved in sex play. Oh, look. He's trying to flipper. At this point my camera batteries died (or overheated) and I found that my back-up batteries were also dead (sometimes rechargeable is not rechargeable), so no picture. Just use your imagination.
Our guide, the boat driver, not Kenny at this point, told us about a particular tern that is nature's windvane: when they perch on a channel marker or elsewhere, they face into the wind. Often they're in pairs because one good tern deserves another. However, some terns face away from the wind because tern about is fair play. I suggested that when terns cluster together that should be called a ternament. Just a barrel of laughs on that boat.
Next stop was the Smallwood Trading Post, now a museum. Here's a then and now pair of pictures.
In browsing the museum's books (including the White Trash Cookbook), it's apparent that there is much interesting history in this area and many unusual characters. One of those characters is Totch Brown, who founded the excursion company that did our airboat trip.
Next stop was the Ochopee Post Office, the smallest in the US. - it's 6 x 8 ft. When the postmistress needs to use a restroom she locks up and drives to the nearest gas station. Seems to do a pretty brisk business selling souvenir postcards and stamps for mailing them out.
A little later we drove down a country road paralleling a stream, or ditch. Many gators in this area. We found one on our side of the ditch, and Kenny got out and took pictures on our cameras.
Here's a picture he got on my camera. Note that this guy's left paw is missing (the gator, not Kenny). Kenny "knew" this gator, so he invited us all to get out and get a close-up shot - mine is below.
I asked what it would take to make this gator move. Kenny said if he slapped him, he would probably just slide into the creek. At this point it's pertinent to recall Kenny's first words to us before we even left Naples. In Florida, NEVER stand next to any body of open water, anywhere, any time! When we were by "gator creek," I asked if there had ever been any tourists disappear from here. We just don't know, he said ominously.
Last stop on the way back to Naples was a roadside gator exhibit, where you could hold one. This is a four-footer, muzzled, and essentially a pet.
The young Sooner got his chance, too.
Some gator facts. They can stay underwater for up to six hours. They have a valve at the back of their throat that keeps water out of their innards and enables a gator to lay underwater with its mouth open. If a fish or other object touches their tongue, snap, the jaws close and dinner is served. They have double eyelids, again for keeping water out. Also, shell-like ear covers that close over their ears when they submerge.
Though Susie missed all this excitement, the next day she got to see lots of gators on our drive to Key West. There is a visitors center along the Tamiami Trail, next to the bar ditch along the trail, and that thar bar ditch is well-populated with gators. Those are Susie's hands in the last picture.
Anyhow, the Everglades are a fascinating area and one that I'd like to spend a little more time in. A winter month down here would be nice. We hear it may have snowed in Cedar Crest while we've been gone.
Next stop: Key West.
Cheers,
Susie and Rob
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