Places Visited:

Florida: Kissimmee Lakes SP, Mayakka River SP, Sarasota.

Sunday, February 23, 2003
We navigated a series of county roads from Kissimmee to Lake Wales then
into Lake Kissimmee State Park. Lake Kissimmee State Park. Located
East of Lake Wales. $15 per-night water, 30 amps with central sewage
station.

We headed out of Kissimmee around 10:30 this morning. Instead of
traveling main highways Joyce let Street Atlas route us over county
roads. We exited Tropical Palms on US 192 heading east to Poinciana
Road (the corner Camping World is on) where we turned south. Within
two blocks of US 192 "the-strip" disappears and wild and rural Florida
appears. Less than ½ mile down the road we spotted 5 wild turkeys
feeding along the road. Joyce and I had trouble believing what we
were seeing. We were barely out of sight of the Camping World store
and the hustle and bustle of "the strip" yet wild turkeys are feeding
on the roadside.

After arriving at Lake Kissimmee SP we went for a ride in the Saturn
to see what was happening at fish camps located within a few miles of
the State Park. We didn't see many fish but did see a plethora of
birds that are not at all common to us. Joyce spotted a turkey
gobbler in a cow pasture. We saw loggerhead shrikes, American
Kestrels, limpkins, broad wing hawk, short tail hawk, common moorhens
(common gallinule), anhinga, a wood stork, Eastern peewee, great
egret, Eurasian collared doves and boat tail grackles.

Monday, February 24, 2003
Lake Kissimmee State Park. Located East of Lake Wales. $15 per-night
water, 30 amps with central sewage station.

This was a laidback day where we didn't do much more than take a long
walk on the trails in the park. One trail was supposed to have 5
eagle's nest on it plus some great horned owls. We walked for over
6-miles and never saw the first eagle nest. Since eagles nest in the
winter we would have seen the adult eagles and their fledglings.
Although we did not see any eagles or great horned owls we did see a
dozen or more deer and armadillo. Broad-winged hawks, turkeys and
sandhill cranes made up for the lack of eagles. This is the most deer
we have seen in Florida.

A feature of this park is the old "cow camp" left over from the
mid-1870s. Unlike cowboys out west the "cow hunters" of Florida used
trained dogs and whips to drive cattle. The loud crack of the "cow
hunter's" whip is what moved the cattle. Cow camps were built along
cattle drive routes. The camps consisted of a holding pen for the
cows and a primitive shelter for the men.

The small, lean "scrub cows" were descendants of Andalusian cattle
brought to the area by Spanish explorers as early as the 1500s. Each
year there were long cattle drives to the west coast of Florida near
Fort Myers, where the cows were loaded aboard ships and sent to Cuba.

It would only be fair to say that this park is located in the
"boonies" (no telephone in the park for campers to use & no cell-phone
service). They do have electricity and water. Orange groves, cattle
ranches and fish camps are the dominant feature outside the park.

Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Myakka River State Park near Sarasota

We traveled to Myakka River State Park near Sarasota this morning.
Using our Street Atlas program Joyce plotted our route over a series
of county roads. Only with a mapping program like Street Atlas would
we be able to see some of the sights that we are becoming accustomed
to. Paper maps just do not have these small roads on them. Cattle
ranches and citrus groves dotted the landscape. Wood storks were the
only wildlife of note today. While passing through the community of
Frostproof we passed a "Ben Hill Griffin" citrus processing facility.
For those of you that do not know Ben Hill Griffin is "Mr. Florida
Gator Football". He has donated copious amounts of money to the
athletic program at the University. When you donate the quantity of
cold hard cash to the program that Ben Hill Griffin has the university
will name the stadium for you. Now you know why the SWAMP is smack in
the middle of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. You might say Ben Hill was
one sick puppy during the last football season! After this years
recruiting most of the Gator faithful are feeling better. Time will
tell. (Only one game matters any way RIGHT? VBG)

In Myakka River State Park we met up with Joe and Lee who are
volunteers at the park. We had tried to make reservations at Myakka
River SP or Oscar Scherer SP (both close to Sarasota) weeks ago. Both
parks were full. We made a call to Joe and Lee to see if they could
pull some strings since they are "well-placed" park volunteers. As it
turns out they got us into a volunteer site next to them for the three
days we planned to be in the area. It is nice to have friends in the
right place! Lee took the afternoon off to show us around the park
then took us to a volunteer party around 6:30. Joe was driving a huge
tractor on a controlled burn and did not get back from the burn until
around 7:00. Lee says Joe is like a kid in a candy shop with all
these big toys (tractors) to play with.

Over 300,000 acres of Florida's interior was once prairie covered with
grasses, wildflowers and a scattering of cabbage palms. Before human
intervention, the prairie thrived as lightning fires and seasonal
flooding controlled the ever-invading woody plants and trees. Before
man started putting out fires that nature started (lightning strikes)
fire used to regularly race across the Florida peninsula. The trees
that survived this regular fire threat were the ones in wet areas or
that had special adaptations. Now we know that fire gives life to the
prairie (without it the prairie turns into a forest). Instead of
allowing wildfires to race across the peninsula like in the days of
old, controlled burns are set that accomplish nearly the same thing
but do not threaten buildings and such.

What nature once did naturally man is doing in a controlled way by
setting fires. Within weeks of a fire green grasses and wildflowers
appear. The prairie is home to caracaras, burrowing owls, sandhill
cranes and many other animals that depend on the prairie for their
existence.

Now you know what Joe was doing (working on a controlled burn) and why
he was doing it.

Wednesday, February 26, 2003
Myakka State Park near Sarasota

P.J. Benshoff, in her book Myakka describes Myakka as "_shady hammocks
of twisted oaks and aerial gardens, down the wild and scenic river,
and across a variegated canvas of prairies, piney woods, and
wetlands_". That pretty much sums up the landscape but completely
ignores the myriad forms of wildlife.

We stayed in the park walking trails, viewing a wide variety of wading
birds, alligators, turkeys, endangered wood storks and other wildlife.
We took an airboat ride along the shore of North Lake hoping to see
even more wading birds but it was "alligator" day. Very few wading
birds were visible but large alligators were a dime a dozen. Many
were 10 to 14 feet in length. Those are large alligators by any
standard. You do not need to take a boat ride in order to see
alligators in the park. Even the blind and terminally stupid can spot
all the alligators they care to count.

We watched a pair of sand hill cranes with two chicks. This was the
first time we have viewed cranes interacting with chicks. We did not
spot any deer today but watching a group of hen turkeys with a lone
gobbler made up for that.

Joe worked another controlled burn today but we were able to get
together with them after dinner.

Thursday, February 27, 2003
Myakka River State Park near Sarasota

Today was a wonderful day for us. We slept late then went into Myakka
SP and spent a short time with an ornithologist while we viewed and
identified a wide variety of birds. He was good (he could identify
birds) and could explain to others the slight variances between
similar birds.

After getting our bird fix we headed into Sarasota to check out a
couple of RV Parks to stay in next week. The first place we checked
did not have a modem connection. That was all I needed to here since
I have not been able to download/upload e-mail for a week now. We
left without asking what they charged. Our next stop was Sun-N-Fun
RV-Resort. We decided to stay. This is what I call a "mega-park"
with over 1,700 RV-sites. They have 4-levels of sites ranging from a
grass spot with full hookup to a concrete pad and concrete patio area.
The cheap sites are $40 per-day. Like in Kissimmee you are paying
for LOCATION. They did not have any vacant "cheap" sites and only had
one of the "next-cheapest" sites available at $44 per-day. We took
it! We were "lucky" (can you get lucky at $44 per-night?) to get the
last vacancy. When it came time for Joyce to pay the man said he
would give her a "discount". Thankfully, he really did give her a
discount, as the per-night fee ended up being $38.05 with tax.

As you might imagine this "resort" has it's own restaurant, bar,
laundry, fitness center, computer lab with computers connected to the
internet plus 10 or so telephone modem lines and Ethernet connections,
fishing lakes, meeting rooms, heated Olympic-size swimming pool,
lighted tennis courts, woodworking shop and the list goes on and on.
>From what we could see today many children and grandchildren were
visiting the snowbirds wintering in the park. Rates are considerably
cheaper the longer you stay in fact those that stay in the "premium"
sites for 3-months may be getting those sites for somewhere around $30
per-day. That is probably cheap considering what they are getting and
the location. You can say these snowbirds are NOT wintering over on
the "cheap".

By the time we completed making arrangements for our weeklong stay in
Sun-N-Fun it was time to head to Oscar Scherer State Park to see our
friends Det and Judy. Those of you on RV-Talk will recognize Det as a
regular contributor. Det and Judy are on vacation and passing through
the area. We knew their schedule and had made arrangements to meet
them on their stopover at Oscar Scherer State Park located in
Sarasota. By the time we arrived at their site they were ready to
jump in our car and go sightseeing. Judy wanted to see alligators,
specifically, big live alligators up close. To accommodate this wish
we drove out to Myakka River State Park. Spotting large wild
alligators at Myakka River is like visiting a zoo. They are there and
on display. We also enjoyed locating a host of other unique birds.

It did not take more than an hour and we had seen and experienced
enough gators and birds. Next it was time to head for the barrier
islands off Sarasota and Venice to ogle the estates where nouveau
riche winter in luxury. Those barrier islands host some magnificent
houses with beautifully landscaped yards. The drive with four of us
in the car was a constant WOW look at that one!

At Venice Inlet we stopped at a city park and walked out on the jetty
to watch the activity of fishermen, diving pelicans and beach walkers
collecting shells on the beach. This looks like a place worthy of a
return visit. Just up the road at the foot of the bridge to Nokomis
we spotted 4 motorhomes in a shady city park. The RV'ers were outside
playing dominoes on a picnic table. We noticed 3 of the rigs were
from Ontario. A sign in the park read "No Overnight Parking". I
stopped and asked them where they were staying at night. They all
responded "in a friend's driveway". I asked if their friend had room
for one more. No! They replied. It was worth a try! They said that
everything was fine with the authorities so long as they were out of
the park by mid-night, but that they vacated the park long before
that. We suspect that they connect to the friends 110-volts while in
the driveway at night and recharge their batteries. The weather is so
nice that they could easily stay in the area indefinitely without ever
having more than the 110-volt connection at night. Talk about getting
by on a shoestring those folks are wintering in a "HIGH-COST" luxury
area and doing it almost for free. I am green with envy.

Dale and Cheryl our friends from Orlando had told us to eat at a
restaurant and fish market called Urbanek's located at the bridge from
the island to Nokomis. It was 5:00 and time for supper. Urbanek's
(now called Pop's Sunset Café) is located directly across the waterway
from where the RV's were staying in the park. As we pulled into the
parking lot we could hear the entertainment playing Jimmy Buffet
music. While we dined pleasure boats plied the waterway as the sun
disappeared below the horizon. To cap off a wonderful evening at
Pop's Sunset Café we all danced to an old Eagle's tune. I do not know
how it could have gotten any better. Thanks to Dale and Cheryl for
telling us about this place. On second thought, it may have been
better if we had won the lottery.

Mike & Joyce Hendrix