Well, that was fun. 3200 miles in 6 ½ days and 12 states. Everything from a spring blizzard on the Continental Divide to thunderstorms along the Missouri. We then camped in De Soto Beach Park near Tampa, Gulf side of Florida. This place was voted the number one beach in the US a few years ago, but we enjoyed the backside of our campsite, a mangrove tidal swamp with wildlife everywhere. Mangroves are crazy plants, with little muddy breathing fingers waving at the sky and roots attached to the trunks half way up the trunk.

 We then headed south to Big Cypress (great closeups of alligators) and Everglades (great closeups of no-see’ms). Didn’t get to see a crocodile or panther, but saw two anhingas, a bunch of swallow-tailed kites and almost countless skimmers out in the Gulf at Flamingo. South Florida still has a good charm about her if you know where to look, and even though the hurricane crunched Chocoloskee, it’s still very funky and fun. I recommend it for a view of ‘old’ Florida. Google Earth has some wonderful photos if you’re interested in that isolated patch of land. The entire town is built on an Indian shell mound. The 100-yr old Smallwood Store is still there and functioning. So far it’s all been good, with our new trailer just as fun as we thought it would be. We’re getting 17.5mpg with the air conditioning on, and in the afternoons, the air better be on!

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Click here to go to our main website – packed with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.