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Episode 40
1/2020
Wow episode 40! We drove 3 hours south to Miami. Majority of the ride was on RT27. This is now my favorite road on. No traffic, to Lanes each way. Lots of forms and orange groves cattle and horses along the way. Central Florida is the cattle capital of the usa. Then we drove on. It was worse than the roads in Canada, i-95, 84 and 80 etc.
We are staying at a boondockers welcome location just outside of miami. We pulled in we noticed peacocks all over the place. Apparently a hurricane in the past destroyed a local zoo and they have been loving their new found freedom ever since. We met our fantastic hosts and enjoyed a few hours of their company that evening along with a friend of theirs. We always ask what is the local favorite food, so we visited Knaus Berry farm for fantastic cinnamon buns. The next day we drove to the Florida keys. We stopped at North key largo so we could experience how the keys used to be. Stopped at crocodile lake which is a National wildlife reserve. We met a very interesting volunteer there who is a full-timer with her husband. She was very informative regarding crocodiles and the study there of. We then headed to dagney Johnson key largo hammock. We paid our interest free and walked for a bit I'll be at there was not much to see. Then we went to John pennekamp coral reef state Park. They had glass bottom boat tours, kayak rentals, snorkeling and scuba tours. There's a little chilly for us 60° so we didn't go in the water at all. And it's 60° it was the coldest day that year in Miami. Although we do wish we had the kayak with us we would have put it in. This was the first undersea Park in the us. And apparently there is a Christ of the abyss statue down there. And we learned about the Manchineel tree, which is the the most poisonous trees in the USA. To test it I rubbed the bark on one of my fingers, nothing happened. I then googled it and apparently it's the Milky sap that is poisonous. Well there goes my scientific process skills LOL. The next day we took an airboat ride up in the everglades. We found a Groupon for $58 for a 4hr tour for 2 people. Which sounded great but what I missed was that you needed to meet in Miami. So we drove to the meeting place in Miami and we could not locate the booth. No signs no directions no nothing. We had to call them nine different times while walking around to actually find them. We then got on a bus. Diego tour was supposed to start at 10:30am. The bus didn't leave until 11:00 a.m. it was a 1 hour drive to Everglades Holiday Park. Our boat guide was from swampapes.org they help wounded warriors and are trying to eradicate the invasive Burmese python. What a fantastic guide. We saw some alligators and he taught us that they expect all of the mammals in the Everglades will be gone because of the pythons. And this was in 2020. Once all the mammals again the Gators will be gone too. After the airport ride the Everglades Holiday Park not a great show with a guy handling gators. If you ever plan on doing an airboat ride in the Everglades go directly to Everglades Holiday Park. It would have cost us $34 a person to go directly there. So yes we saved $10 but what a hassle with the bus in the parking and all of that in miami. We have booked the tour through "305 tours in Miami". Do yourself a favor and do not book anything through them, that will help lower your stress.
People often compare Miami traffic with New York city. And I would definitely agree. The one difference is in New York City people drive very aggressively. Down here they just do what they want when they want but there's no agression lol. And the next day we visited Little Havana, Miami we ate at El Cristo restaurant....wow !!!! And there was fantastic music at Cubaocho  and you need to check out el Santo. We loved little Havana and will be back. On Friday 1/24 we wanted to get back to nature. We drove to a few parks but we're disappointed with them. We then drove to Biscayne National Park once again we wish we had our kayak with us. It was a nice place to spend some time albeit most of the park is water-based. We then went to the Everglades National Park and did a couple of small hikes. Volunteer there told us there was an estimated for Florida Panthers in the Everglades and around 200 and all of Florida, he then went on to talk about the invasive pythons. It seems like everybody in Florida is worried about these things. Or last day in Miami we drove to South Beach. We parked two blocks from the beach it was a beautiful Saturday 80°, the beach was packed and the water was warm. This was our first visit to South beach. We walked along the beach and then we walked along ocean drive. We picked one of the many sidewalk bars and we ordered a drink. We knew South Beach was really expensive but the drinks started at $20. However the $30 drink was the 30 Oz coconut mojito. So not too bad really. It took us an hour or to share this drink. I'm sitting next to us was a young couple from Chicago so we engaged a nice conversation with. And yes it is an expensive place there's a hotel which was the former Versace Mansion and it's smaller room which is sweet goes for $1,000 a night but remember if you have to ask the price you can't afford it. The next day we packed up and headed north west to Fort Denard. We have two choices to get there go across i-75 which is known as alligator Alley which is two lanes with a speed limit of 75. I don't go above 60. There are signs at the entrance to the highway that they do use cameras for speed detection and we'll take it you even if you're going 1 mile an hour too fast. But the way we wanted to go was across the Tamiami trail. It's the old road to go from Tampa to Miami hence the name Tamiami. Speed limits of basically 55. One lane each way. It's slower and a lot more scenic. That day it was in the 70s but it was a Sunday so there was a lot of the parking lots were full but we did stop a few times we got out for a short walk we were treated to seeing birds alligators and a couple of manatees. We arrived in Fort Denaud on the Caloosahatchee River which goes from the Gulf of Mexico to lake Okeechobee. That lake which is the big round lake when you look at a map of florida, is the second largest freshwater lake in the US. It's average depth is 10 ft lol. IT supplies water to most of the Southern Florida. And there is a Okeechobee canal that goes from the Atlantic Ocean to the lake and then over to the Gulf of mexico. The next day we went to the Tallahatchie regional park. It's a nice park with over 3 miles of trails. Then we went to Manatee Park in Fort Myers. It's free but they charge $5 to park we saw manatees right from their boardwalk. We then rented a canoe for 20 bucks an hour. What an experience! The manatees are swimming right underneath the canoe. We wish we had our kayak. The next day the 29th we drove North to Ruskin Florida and we pulled in to get set up.

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