Shark Valley-But NO Sharks!

Battle scarred alligator-first one we saw immediately starting out on the bike path!

We'd been hearing about Shark Valley, part of the Everglades National Park...I guess I DID know that there was the Everglades National Park in Florida, I just didn't realize that Shark Valley was a part of it. It's on highway 41,  straight east, about 70 miles from Naples. We heard there was a 15 mile bike trail through the heart of it....We wanted to check that out so we did! Our senior pass got us in for free...Otherwise, you pay a 10.00 entry fee. Park opens at 8:30 AM and closes at 6:00 PM.

Egret in flight at Shark Valley

You can walk several shorter trails there or you can walk the 15 mile one that a lot of people choose to ride their bikes on. We did see several people walking the 15 mile trail. The bike trail through the park was an incredible experience! There are alligators everywhere, lying along the trail WITHIN A FEW FEET OF YOU. You could touch them if you wanted to.

This just confirmed what we heard yesterday, that alligators are considered docile unless they are hungry, and if they are hungry, they will go after something if their prey is at their eye level. OR SO THEY SAY! We couldn't believe it that people WALKED this trail as well as biked it, after seeing more than 12 alligators sunning themselves along the walk. Unbelievable! If the park thinks we're gonna stop by this sign if a tram comes by, it ain't happenin'!

The literature that the park hands out says stay at least 15 feet away from alligators. That was tough to do today, THEY WERE RIGHT THERE!

Most of them paid no attention to us, but ONE of them raised his head as Eldy was riding slowly by, and about gave him a heart attack! He paid no attention to me whatsoever! Guess he thought Eldy looked interesting in his straw hat! I can't believe they let people go out on the trail with the alligators so
close. A couple of times we actually had to drift over to the other side of the trail so we wouldn't run over an alligator's tail!

It was an experience we won't forget! AND, Eldy and Sparky both rode the entire 15 miles today! We don't know how long it took us, we stopped a bazillion times so Sparky could get photos...There were so many wonderful things to see....Like the egrets taking flight...

A great heron.....

An interesting spider....

Anhinga swimming underwater...so streamlined!

And the reflection of the skies in the grassland waters....

If it was later in the winter, we would have seen a huge variety of birds. Today, we saw egrets, common types of herons, and lots of anhingas drying their wings again.....I guess later in December and into January, all kinds of birds start showing up in the park grasslands and trees.

There are three ways to visit Shark Valley...walking, biking, or riding a tram along the 15 mile loop trail. The tram is a two hour narrated ride with a naturalist or park ranger. There is an observation tower and restrooms halfway through the trail where you can stop and get under shade for a little bit. You can stop for a picnic lunch if you bring your own, walk a spiral ramp to the top to see a 360 degree view in the park. You can even see alligators down below.

I think that about covers it...gotta be a record for the number of photos in a post today...but they were all important to me in remembering what a special day it was today....hope you enjoyed our visit to Shark Valley. Thank you to our blogging friends who mentioned that we needed to go see Shark Valley, and thank you for the nice compliments we receive over time on our blogging and photos. We really appreciate your feedback and interest....Sparky and Eldy

Naples Pier--Ooh, La La!

Why the ooh-la-la? Because we heard a LOT of French on the pier today. That means the French Canadians are here, and time for Sparky to brush up on her French! I love listening to people speak French, it's such a beautiful language, but unfortunately, I remember very little of the seven years I took way back when...The more I listen, though, the more it comes back.

We took it easy today, did some errands, got my bike in tip top shape at the bike shop, swapped out my former seat for a new gel one..I plan on doing LOTS MORE bike riding...And Eldy is back on HIS bike, riding to town the last couple of days..no mean feat for him, it's 3.2 miles one way from our RV park into town. 'Course what he eats when he gets there is NOT Sparky's business...just teasin', honey...he either just rides in and out back home again, or gets himself a cup of coffee at Starbucks downtown....

Naples Beach -view from the pier

A little shelter from the sun at the pier

We found out that there are music/festival nights in downtown Naples on Thursdays. The second Thursday of each month is 5th Avenue's music fest..live entertainment up and down the streets--fun! We'll be going this Thursday evening. Then, we found out that 3rd Avenue has its music thing goin' on EVERY Thursday night. The fun starts at 6:00 PM. Third Avenue is a historical district...it's filled with very cool shops and VERY expensive ones at that.

Tile cobblestone walk in front of the pier

After driving around a little bit, we found the Naples Pier. The pier is down at the end of 12th Street or Avenue. I believe parts of it date back to the late 1880's. This side of Naples is such a beautiful part of town--huge palms lining the streets, lush foliage, beautiful flowering azaelas and other summer flowers.....You park your car about a block from the beach if you can't find parking any closer. It's metered parking, a quarter gets you only ten minutes of time! But the walk down the 1,000 foot pier is so pleasant and so are the views. And I'm not talking bikini views, either, Mr. Eldo! But I could be!  It depends on the weather and your luck, I guess. You can get a snack on the pier, fish from it, and even rent a set of fishing equipment for 33.00 and fish your heart out for the day! What you'll catch, I'm not sure! There's shade and benches to sit on if you just want to watch everybody else, which is what we like to do sometimes.

It's beautiful all over downtown Naples and on the outskirts as well....all the median parkways and curbsides are beautifully landscaped and well maintained, the palms are trimmed, flowering shrubs and bushes are carefully attended. Everything is mulched, it's just a gorgeous city! It's amazing!

(Photos today are all from Eldy's iphone 4S. It's got a great camera on it, and it shoots beautifully in low light even!)

Tomorrow, we're headed for a national park in Florida. I didn't know there was one! We'll tell you all about it soon......P.S. Karen, whom we met at Nick's Rally with the "twin" Phaeton...I have no way to email you. Can you please send me your email address? I tried to contact you thru your comment, and it didn't show an address for you. Thanks!

The REAL Alligator Alley!

We've heard that the interstate highway 75 is "Alligator Alley" but we can't vouch for that. What we can vouch for is the stretch of highway 41 heading east towards the Everglades. After leaving Naples and driving east, about 20 miles out, start looking to your left at the Everglades canals and waterways and you'll start seeing them.

Last year about this time, we saw one right after another. This year, because the water is so high from all the rain they've had earlier this fall, the banks are not there for the alligators to sun themselves. We had to drive much farther east to start seeing them. And see them, we did!

One of our favorite spots to stop and learn some new things is the H.P. Williams boardwalk/park. There's usually a naturalist or two there and we always learn some new things we didn't know before...Did you know the ibis has a nickname--"Chokoloskee chicken"?  They move their heads like chickens when they feed...Chokoloskee is a town/island in Florida. How the two go together, I'm not sure, but the Calusa Indians and locals use to eat ibis as a source of food.  And drum roll, please!....They taste like....CHICKEN!

Did you know alligators never sleep?  They have a highly efficient thermal regulating system that shuts down their organs when it's cool, they go into a sort of coma state...BUT THEY'RE AWAKE. Did you know they don't eat humans unless they perceive them as food? Well, DUH, Sparky! What is meant by that is, if some dumb tourist (and it AIN'T Sparky!) throws some food to them and nothing happens, it's the next person who comes along who might be in trouble. If the alligator views THEM as a food source--they might come after you. The naturalist said they can run VERY fast for only a couple of seconds...BUT at speeds up to 30 m.p.h.! But most of the time, they are very docile. Are you SURE, guys? This one doesn't look like it, although he does look like he's smiling!

Alligators WOULD go after a little dog, because it's low to the ground, moves like prey so it would be viewed as a food source. A person swimming would be viewed as a food source....If something is in the range of its ground level viewing, all bets are off! So consider yourself forewarned! Hm-m-mm..I wonder if a kayak is perceived as a possible food source?

Next, we stopped off at the Big Cypress Information Center....it's got a nice boardwalk where you can see manatees, alligators sometimes, and various birds...the manatees are just starting to come in from the gulf waters. As the gulf cools down, the manatees moved inland....There were three, one of them a baby, but we just saw one...There's somewhere in Florida where you can swim with the manatees, I'd love to do that! It's probably not an ecologically sound idea, but it still sounds cool!

Wanna see some BIG alligators? Head to the Oasis Welcome Center....there are always big gators in the canals right outside the boardwalk at the visitor center...Here are some BIG BAD boys.....The one laying his head on the other just cracks me up with his expression! Sort of like, "Duh, what's up, people?"

Then we saw something else really cool at the Oasis boardwalk...a female anhinga (brown heads/necks are females, black heads are males) was swimming underwater at our feet under the boardwalk..Up she pops out onto a branch with a fish! And we watched her flip the fish several times until she got the head first into her mouth, then she swallowed it whole! That's how they eat fish--gotta have the head first go down.

After her tasty meal, she spread her wings to dry.....anhingas don't have oil in their feathers for buoyancy like ducks do...so they have to "hang out" to dry.....

On the way home, we saw some wood storks...I think they are endangered....but there seemed to be quite a few in the waterways and marshy swamps along that same highway 41...I'm so glad I got to see them and they didn't fly away as I approached!

It was quite a spectacular nature show today.......You can't beat the Everglades for some wonderful viewing experiences!

Getting in the Florida Christmas Spirit!

We hauled out all our Christmas decorations from under the bays...which is no easy feat! You gotta get out the ladders, the cleaning supplies, (don't forget to tell 'em the yarn tote boxes! says E.) to get to the Christmas decorations box which happens to be in the middle of the bay storage area. We do have one slide out tray, but the Christmas box isn't in the slide out tray, that's for all the stuff we use all the time. You would get a chuckle out of either one of us reaching into the far depths of the bay--if it's Sparky, she's got her butt and legs halfway sticking straight out the bay door, and half her body is inside the bay, stretching and reaching and yanking boxes out of the way to get to the decorating box! Kind of like those goofy leg things you see hanging out of a truck's tailgate.... Ever see one of those? I thought it looked very real the first time I saw one...I think I actually said, "Oh, my god! There's a smashed leg hanging out of that guy's tailbed!"

At any rate, we got out our four foot tree...wish we could put it on the dash, but our dashboard is too narrow. Wish we had one of those steering wheel tables that converts your steering wheel into a table, but those suckers cost 50.00! So we put it on our kitchen table. It looks really nice. I made a lot of knitted ornaments for it, and bought a few for sparkles. Even got a Coke can hanging on the tree for a memento!

Then, we worked on the outside palm trees...hung colored lights on one, and little white lights on the other....Got our rope lights underneath on the patio, and thank heaven, we're not paying for the electric!

Tomorrow we're going on an alligator hunt!......See you at Alligator Alley!

Getting a Haircut Can Be Scary

Sparky needed a haircut...so.....So she went looking for recommendations in the park...Lady at the park office is new, not able to recommend anybody..... she's still getting to know the town. Talked to a couple of people in the park, one, one of them a very elderly gentleman. First mistake, a guy might not know the best place for a woman to get a haircut....He said his wife had gotten a haircut at ________ and really liked the place. Well, that was good enough for me....off we went to the salon that shall remain nameless.....Second mistake--Sparky did not peruse the salon as to the beauticians working there. They were all senior citizens! But she did not notice that at the time. She breezed right in to make an appointment, focusing only on the 40+ something energetic lady working the front desk and there was one appointment available in 45 minutes. Great! She did notice that every single person waiting to get a haircut was a little white haired old lady, at least four of them sitting in the waiting room chairs--that was her third mistake...BUT, Sparky thought there might have been a senior discount today, so she didn't think too much of it. (Hey, now, Sparky--you ARE a senior citizen in a lot of instances!) Yep, but I'm not 65-- YET! These ladies in waiting were every bit of 75+....

Back home to relax at the patio, read the local newspaper to catch all the latest happenings, back to the salon a short while later.....As Sparky sat waiting for her turn, she started to notice that there was NOBODY in the salon under the age of 60--no beauticians that appeared any younger, no young customers waiting, and she started to feel a little nervous about getting a current stylish short haircut. Finally, it was her turn....Out totters a very elderly lady, she's the beautician!..."Ma-am? I'm ready for you...." Uh-h-h-h....OK...we'll give this a try.....She pulled out her supplies for a razor cut, with VERY SHAKY HANDS...Uh-oh! This is NOT good....She's going to razor cut my hair with a mild palsy? Now Sparky was REALLY nervous!

She says, "So...you want a PIXIE cut?"  PIXIE cut? When was the last time you heard a hair style referred to as a "pixie" cut?  I think it was back in the fifties and sixties! " Uh, yes, that would be fine..."
Half an hour later, I had no bangs left, and a bad case of nerves, but it was a haircut that would suffice. As Eldy says,"I'll just say what you always say to me when you cut MY hair--Don't worry, it will grow out!"  Sigh! Thought I'd try a black and white photo today--heck, it's all gray anyway!....Here's me with the too short haircut!

The Jolly Cricket before the dinner crowd comes in

Not much else happened today...Eldy washed the bugs off the coach, we went to Walmart looking for some Christmas decorations, and we decided to try the happy hour specials at the Jolly Cricket in downtown Naples on 5th Avenue-- a beautiful restaurant with a British pub feel. We split a filet mignon pair of sliders with Stilton blue cheese and carmelized onions and french fries--delicious! And then, we just had to have pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting. The presentation was beautiful, didn't quite capture it clearly with the camera phone, but you get the idea. We'll definitely go back for happy hour specials!

Tomorrow we'll be decorating our home on wheels and our site to look like Christmas is coming! Not many in the park have decorated, it's early yet. There are quite a few empty spaces here at the park. I'm sure it will get fuller as time goes on.....We'll see you tomorrow at our site.....Eldy's wondering when Sparky is gonna want to go alligator hunting...Soon, dear! Soon!

pumpkin cake squares with cream cheese frosting--yum!

Naples and Neapolitan Cove RV Resort

We are HERE! In Naples...yay! A beautiful city, fantastic landscaping, clean and cosmopolitan! Lots to do,  lots of things to see, "Alligator Alley" (Sparky's definition of alligator alley is highway 41, heading east towards the Everglades) restaurants galore, the Apple Store and more....

Neapolitan Cove pull thru

Neapolitan Cove is a very small RV park...60+ sites...About 18 are pull thru's in the center of the park, the rest are back ins, and for a reduced rate, you can park parallel to the wall that separates the park from Tamiami Trail, which is highway 41. The park was recently sold to new owners last month. There have been some changes made. Rates have gone up--darn! I would quote some but they seem to vary a bit depending on who you talked to and when, since the ownership has changed. It's over 1,000 a month up until January, when they really take a hike!

The park management has had the beautiful hibiscus shrubs trimmed down to practically nothing between the sites--darn! The tall hibiscus hedges provided wonderful privacy between sites the last time we were here and now the short, severely pruned back shrubs make the sites much more visible to each other..Guess they wanted to make the sites look larger....Sites are close together, but beautiful palms and flowering hedges help make the narrowness tolerable. Everything is paved and the pads are concrete with little concrete patios. The concrete pads are narrow and we just fit. As a matter of fact, the park staff had to come and trim the palms so we could put our awnings out and get our front door open....

As the branches came crashing down, I moved them into a pile for the guy and couldn't believe how HEAVY those palm blades are! REALLY heavy and non-bending!  It was like holding a heavy sword in my hand!  Guess that's how they've adapted to the hurricane force winds.

The park has a laundry, clubhouse, and a VERY small pool....you can't swim laps, it's just for "dunkin'"...Here's our patio side view....

What makes this park so special is the location....you can ride your bike to downtown "old" Naples, the site of fantastic eating, shopping and waterfront happy hours specials. Head east for a bit in the car, and you are at the Everglades....and lots lots more...AND there's there's the gulf not too far away....still wishing for that inflatable kayak, but it's just gonna have to wait! And no, Santa is not going to bring Sparky a kayak...Sparky hasn't behaved herself well enough this year to merit a kayak....lol! It's enough that we are in a beautiful location for quite a while, the weather is beautiful, and we are both healthy and can enjoy this wonderful lifestyle! We keep pinching ourselves to remind us that we really are here doing this!

See you tomorrow.....we'll see what the day brings....

Sparky Ventures Out on Her Own

WHOA! THAT was a mistake! You should never send a spatially challenged individual such as Sparky out into new territory without first checking to see if they know where they are going! To be fair to Eldy, Sparky said she DID know where she was going! She said it was easy, according to the lady who gave her directions. Never mind that the lady that gave her directions said SHE was not very good at directions! Sparky was out to find a bike trail in Floral City in a park "near a bike shop" said the lady at the check in at Breezy Oaks. She told her, go over the bridge over I-75, keep going and then you'll see the sign for Floral City and turn left. Or was that right? Sparky got the turn wrong, and ended up in Bushnell this morning. Once she got to Bushnell, it looked vaguely familiar, so she thought she'd call Eldy and get guidance back to the RV park. Here's how it went with Sparky starting the conversation.
        "Hi, honey."
        "Where are you?"
        "I don't know, I got lost for a bit. But I think I'm in Bushnell. I think Floral City is too far to go for the bike ride. I saw a sign that said 24 miles. So I'm heading back home. Which way do I go?"
        "Well, I don't know which way you are going!" Sparky looks out the window and starts to tell Eldy  where the sun is in location to her, but decides to leave that out of the conversation.
        "Well, I'm by the railroad tracks (not a lot of help) and there's a sign that says 48."
        "Does it say 48 east or west? You want to go west."
        "Ummmm, can't see it, but OK,  I think I know now which way to go."
        "OK, take your time." Which is always a reassuring thing for Sparky to hear, because she knows it's going to take a long time to get back home if she gets lost again. She didn't resort to using the phone G.P.S. because she didn't program the park's address into the phone! Dumb dee da dumb, dumb, dumb. She starts down the road towards the original way she came from when she first took the wrong turn, because she THINKS she saw I-75 and can get back to the RV park that way...BUT, she gets sidetracked by the Dade Battlefield State Park.

That was a nice diversion! It is 3.00 admission to enter the park, 2.00 if you are on a bicycle. There is a 10 K trail that connects to the park somehow, but Sparky didn't see it. The first thing the attendant says to her is, "You know this is the season for snakes and we do have scorpions here, but I haven't seen any." Thanks for the warning, pal! Sparky didn't bother to ask what kind of snakes, but read in the visitor's center that they are indigo snakes......non-poisonous, but they can be big--as in 3-5 feet long or longer! They are the biggest snake native to the U.S. Ugh!

There is a nature trail at the state park and some very nice picnic areas. You can watch a 12 minute video about the U.S. troop massacre by the Seminoles inside the small visitor's center. There's a lot more to the story about why that happened, of course! The Seminoles not only were trying to defend their homeland which was being taken away from them, but they also sympathized with the slaves and provided refuge for them, which aggravated the southern states.

There were massive live oaks in the park that were amazing! It is a beautiful, 80 acre park as you can see by the photos...a lovely place to have a picnic or sit on one of several benches and contemplate the beauty of the park...

This national historical site marks the place where the Seminole Indians massacred 177 out of 180 troops on Dec. 28th, 1835, protesting President Andrew Jackson's decision to force them to move to Oklahoma. This battle defeat of the U.S. soldiers triggered large troop involvement by the U.S. into Florida, and started the Second Seminole Indian War. Every year, close to the battle date, they have a re-enactment of the battle which is pretty cool, locals have said. This year it will be held the first week of January, 2012.

Sparky watched carefully for snakes and scorpions, but didn't see any....whew!

Tomorrow, we leave for beautiful Naples---Yay! We'll be there for the ENTIRE month of December! We'll be staying at Neapolitan Cove RV resort....It's above budget for us, (our max has been 30.00 a day, most of the time we try really hard to stay under that)  so we've been saving and been below budget for weeks in order to splurge for this very special city in Florida that we really love.....You'll see why in the coming weeks......See you soon in Naples....