WESTWARD HO … Family, Caverns and Finally Home

WESTWARD HO

Family, Caverns and Finally Home

Final Journal #19

November 8 – 15, 2018

Resting at the Mississippi River

How do you get from Florida to New Mexico in four days? Walt Disney World to Carlsbad Caverns is 1,608 miles on the interstates. It should take 23 ½ hours nonstop which we do not do. States traveled west include Panhandle of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and finally New Mexico.

 

We make friends with every roadside rest area, a couple Cracker Barrels and two Walmarts. Breaking the rules of no interstates and no more than 330 miles a day, we move along at 400 to 500 miles a day. Only rule we keep is not to travel after dark.

To break the monotony we listen to Lee Child and Stephen King thrillers on audio, pick up some geocaches along the way and treat ourselves to dining out at our favorite travel restaurant Cracker Barrel. 

Geocachers will not want to miss this one in Carlsbad

There are reasons for this madness. The Florida Panhandle is in no mood for tourists … Hurricane Michael did not leave much along the coastal areas. Our volunteer responsibilities are calling us. And we promise our children that we would be home for Thanksgiving (a role reversal here). 

MORE FAMILY

However, our next stop is Dan’s sister and her husband, Marilyn and Chris and their four fur babies. As hosts of a campground in Carlsbad about 20 miles from the Caverns, they set us up as a great campsite so we could visit. 

We had a great visit and some wonderful fun with the fur babies.

CARLSBAD CAVERNS

 It is probably 35 years since we had been there and we excited about a second visit. Much has changed. We remember a challenging hike to the bottom over rocks and trails with an elevator ride back up. Today we find a continuous paved trail with handrails all the way to the bottom at 850 feet below the surface.  The plan is to hike down and then come back up on the elevator.

OOPS .... NOT TODAY

However, we never make it to the great room at the bottom. Not today. The elevator is not working. They warn us that we have to hike back up. So, not sure how far we can go, we head on down. We meet many tired, panting, exhausted people coming up … many who had gone down in the elevator and were not planning this hike up … many of them our age. That new path is wide enough for a wheelchair and sure enough, a couple people have to be assisted up by rangers who bring electric wheelchairs down to get them. About halfway down at 375 feet, we realize that going down is easy but we might need one of those chairs to get up, so we turn around and head back up.

HEADING HOME

Our trip consists of 8,807 miles total in 11-weeks, good family time and so many memories that our aged minds probably will not retain them all. Nonetheless, we enjoy every single moment. 

The last leg of our trip is north through New Mexico trying to get home to Colorado between snow storms. If you think NM is vast lonely stretches of nothing ... you are right.

EXPLORERS EXTRAORDINAIRE 

In the last four years, we have explored the entire North American Continent. We have taken a number of small trips around the interior of the United States. There was a 10-week trip to the NW corner through Canada to Alaska in  2015; a 9-week trip to the NE Maritimes visiting Newfoundland and Nova Scotia and the NE states of the U.S. in 2016; 2017 brought us to the total solar eclipse in Oregon; and this SE trip. What about the SW?  We lived there for 40 years in California, exploring it all.

Thank you all for following along with us on our travels. Your comments and reactions are treasured and we sincerely hope you enjoyed our journal-blogs.

Dan & Vicki Rector and our Coyote.

Central Florida – Louisa, Mickey and a Rally

Journal #18

October 31 - Nov 2 Camping 

November 3 - Nov 7, 2018 at WDW.

As you recall in a prior journal, we hurried into Florida from Georgia on October 9, just ahead of Hurricane Michael, running east toward Jacksonville, Fl. Good old Google gives us a map of our month’s travels and here it is. We leave Florida on Nov 9, so we seem to have spent an entire month in the Sunshine State.

Lake Louisa State Park

Yet another awesome Florida State Park! Lake Louisa State Park near Clermont (just west of Orlando) includes five or six lakes in a string of lakes along the hilly part of central Florida. It seems that this part of the state was the only land thousands of years ago and was a string of islands that were isolated from the rest of the continent. 

The Atlantic Ocean deposited sand dunes on the east side and the Gulf of Mexico slapped along the west sides. Today we have rolling sandy hills and dozens of small lakes. 

We climbed on our bikes and put in about 13 miles exploring these lovely paths and marshes.

Disaster Averted

As we are leaving this state park at the dump station, a fellow RVer (an angel in disguise) notices a very large lump in our tire… on the internal inside. So we head to Clermont and a Tire store. Sure enough, the angels traveling with us had gone into action. That tire was ready to blow … disaster averted. A New tire … those babies are expensive, but worth the money … no more Chinese tires. Now, when Dan does his routine walk around before we drive, he runs his hand around the inside of the tires.

Walt Disney World

How could we be so close to Orlando and not go to Walt Disney World? In fact, we had added this to our plans long ago in January responding to a Rally call. A fellow Roadtrekker put together a Roadtrek Rally at the campground inside WDW at Fort Wilderness. There are 30 Roadtreks in our campground and we meet some friends we had camped with at previous rallies and made many new friends enjoying a group event every day.

 

Five days, four WDW Parks and an average of 18,000 steps a day make for an invigorating experience.

I am not writing up an extensive journal on this adventure … for many reasons… there is not enough memory in my computer; if you’ve been here, you know; if you have not been here, how can we explain the multitudinous experiences, live shows, rides, thrills, displays, animals and food. 

It truly is a whole world.

The live performances are colorful, talented and incredibly entertaining. We will say that Animal Kingdom and Epcot are our favorite parks and evening is more fun than the daytime. 

The animals in Animal Kingdom are NOT animatronics, they are living breathing beautiful creatures set in natural settings ... in fact, one enormous natural setting … where the animals roam free interacting with one another.  

The campground, Fort Wilderness, is amazing, high-tech, huge with spacious sites and all the necessities … not a parking lot here.

In addition, if you ever plan to come here, let us know ...  we have collected a lot of insider tips.

Next: Westward Ho!

 
x

St. Petersburg, Florida Trip Journal #17 … October 30, 2018

St. Petersburg, Florida     
Trip Journal #17 … October 30, 2018

St. Pete

We plan one day in St. Petersburg. Three places is our goal: the Sunken Gardens, Salvador Dali Museum and the Chihuly Collection. All three opened at 10:00 a.m. so we arrived at the Gardens at 10 and spent two hours there. Then we headed over to Dali’s place and did not leave until almost 5:00 p.m. Therefore, Chihuly missed us. We have been to his home studios in Washington at Tacoma and Seattle, marveled at all the glass works, and experienced the demonstration works there, so we know what we missed here.

Sunken Gardens

These gardens have been a landmark in St. Pete since 1935 when it became public. In 1903, George Turner, Sr. a plumber who was also an avid gardener purchased four acres with a shallow sinkhole filled with water and an ancient rich soil. 

American Beauty Berry. East & Central United States

Persian Shield ... Southeast Asia

Draining the lake, he began his garden with fruits and exotic plants from all over the world. The city of St. Pete now owns it and fully restored to its former beauty, we can stroll and discover this place of wonder ... down 15 feet below street level. So beautiful ... so enjoy the pictures!

Garden Croton Hybrid - Indonesia, Malaysia, South America

Crown of Thorns -- Madagascar  

See thorny stems and blood drop flowers

Even the Animals are Beautiful! 

Koi

Yellow Shrimp Plant - South America

Angel's Trumpet - South America

Girl's Back

Salvador Dali

Like almost everyone else, we only think of Dali as a surrealist. However, only 9 years of his life did he delve into the surrealist movement. Trained as a classical artist and returning to that style after his experimental period, his work reveals his considerable talent. Even when painting beyond surrealism, his work contains evidence of his deep imagination. 

Most of his paintings require hours to pore over and perceive deeper meanings and nuances. Guidance by the docent becomes requisite to see into his unique mind and themes across the years.  I love the detail he uses. 

As amateur artists, both Dan and I both enthused to get back to our acrylics and brushes. Hello Annie.

Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory

The "Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory" painting could also be labeled ... "Getting Old". 😋

Even the building is amazing. Built to withstand a category 5 hurricane and with the entire collection on the third floor, the structure astounds. Outside we also find a mathematical garden and a full hedge labyrinth. 

Clyde Butcher

Sure enough to tie our travels together in an elegant portrait, we come across Clyde Butcher again as he travels to Catalonia, Spain to photograph Dali’s inspirational home and environment. This display in the museum includes a filmed interview with Butcher as we learn more of his life and art. We remember Butcher when we visited his original studio on the Tamiami Trail in Big Cypress National Park. His work is mainly black and white photographs. He explains it simply by saying that color photographs impress with vivid colors however we miss the subject matter of the scene. With black and white, we see what is actually present.

Next: Heading northeast on the road to Central Florida. 

Sanibel Island ... Trip Journal #16 … October 26-28, 2018

Sanibel Island, Florida
Trip Journal #16 … October 26-28, 2018

Now driving west and then north, we head to the west coast (of Florida). Using mostly blue highways, we fell in love with this one street. Did I say I loved oak trees?

Sanibel Island 

Sanibel Island is famous as one of the best places in the world to find seashells. Unlike most barrier island on both coasts of Florida that run north-south, this one has an east-west orientation thus saving the shells from being battered by the waves of the gulf. 

Sea shells on beach

As we walked along the beach, we did collect a few … see the picture of the beach at my feet at the high tide mark.



In the late 1800s, land investors arrived at Sanibel Island and made plans to drain the swamps and marshes and build for a projected 95,000 people. The existing residents also began their plans and over the years, they have succeeded commendably. Today only 7,300 people live there and 68% of the island is preserved conservation land.

Conservation Efforts

68% of Island is Conservation Land

Beginning with a famous political cartoonist Jay N. “Ding” Darling, who was also an early conservationist, he was instrumental in blocking the sale of environmentally valuable land to developers. There are now two major conservation groups and multitude smaller ones, including the city of Sanibel. The Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation has set aside a third of the island in small isolated acreages all over the island and the residents of Sanibel even voted to tax themselves for funds to purchase and maintain additional land for preservation.

Mangrove Swamp

Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge

The largest is The Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1945 by Truman, which covers 33% of the Island that includes Sanibel’s mid-island fresh water wetlands that are everglades-like and mangrove swamps along the bayside of the land.  The visitor center of the Refuge is one beautiful place, entertaining while educating. We learned that there are hundreds of kinds of beautiful ducks and all about Ding.


We went on the tram that runs through the Refuge that traverses all of these natural environments. Alligators, birds of all kinds, iguanas, mangrove crabs and close-in walks through the mangrove swamps were part of this excursion.

More about Mangrove Trees

Mangroves help stabilize the bayside shoreline ever reaching out and actually growing the island with their branches that insert themselves in the ground and their leaves which decay and form soil. Mangrove trees really cannot survive in salt water even though they thrive.

If you lick a leaf, you will find it is very salty; the trees flush out the salt this way.

Mangrove Tree Crab

Restrooms

Now I do not usually take pictures of toilets. However, designated the most beautiful restrooms in this country the Darling Wildlife Refuge restrooms deserve to be photographed. Some of the pictures show toilets, hand dryers and sink. Outside in the hallway you find yourself underwater if you look up!

 
 

Periwinkle Park

"Pumpkin" Catalina Macaw - South America

Periwinkle RV Park is on Periwinkle Way on Sanibel Island. We responded to a suggestion from a couple we met at Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo. This week is the last week of the off-peak season, rates are $15 less than usual and the RV section is nearly empty. To our surprise, there is also an unpublicized, not-mentioned-anywhere aviary in the center of the park. The Park is home to many exotic birds and 40 different species of waterfowls that live in the two ponds. Migrating birds visit the site also … Blue Heron, Anhinga, Ibis and Egrets. 

 


The owners began their collection of exotic birds in 1964 with unique waterfowl and monkeys; with the care of Libby the bird lady, they are a special treat to come upon.  We were fortunate to meet her and learn a lot about the birds that live here. ‘Pumpkin’ the South American Catalina Macaw is my favorite and she posed willingly for the camera. Enjoy the pictures.

Sunsets Never Fail to Enchant

The east-west orientation of this island also allows for sunsets stenciled by the palms as everything is mostly on the north facing side of the island. We were walking on the south facing side when we took this picture.

Bicycle Trails and Lanes

This area has so much to offer! We left our Coyote in the campground the entire time and only explored by bicycle. There are 25 miles of bike trails … and none of them is in the traffic lanes of a road. We did 30 miles of these trails over two days. All are designated bike lanes, landscaped, and beautiful. Some pass through natural environments set aside by the various preservation groups; others travel through the commercial district, never once being on a street. Moreover, other trails offer views of the wealthier homes. This dolphin picture is one of their mailboxes.



If you find yourself here … do not miss the Rabbit Road trail and the Bailey Tract. This picture with Vicki is the Rabbit Road trail with the road and the Sanibel River on either side.

Dan got a selfie with an alligator (bottom right hand corner of the photo) in the Bailey Tract. 

Next: Art, culture and nature in St. Petersburg. 

Another great feature of the trails is the frequent water fountains along the trails and bike lanes. Even our furry friends are considered. In addition, pedestrians and bicycles always have the right-of-way, as there are no traffic signals in the entire 12-mile stretch of the island.

Sanibel Island’s Name

So charmed by this lovely isle the pirate Jose Gaspar named it after Santa Isabella, the Spanish Queen in the early 1500s. Saint Isabel is the name of the church we attended. Note the difference between the interior of the cathedral we visited in St. Augustine and this modern church. There are many different ways of expression with stained glass.