MIAMI TO HOME (INCLUDING A STOP AT THE RINGLING MUSEUM)—Sunday-Friday, December 29, 2013-January 4, 2014

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Miami--Sunday, December 29th

77 degrees at roughly 6:30 in the morning. Starting mileage is 40,647.

Found Rosie II safe and sound in the parking lot where we left her and it was like we had arrived home. Looked at the Florida map and found Highway 41. It runs almost right by the airport and we then headed toward the Everglades. We had made reservations for 2 nights at a private campground just outside of the Everglades National Park, before we left home. We figured we would need a couple of days to organize Rosie and get some sleep to make up for the night we lost on our flight. We also thought we wanted to take an air-boat tour of the Everglades. I guess we have a bit more skin surface that hasn't an insect bite on it, left for the Florida bugs--my arms, ankles and feet look like I have measles.

After driving a couple of miles we stopped to fill Rosie's gas tank and buy some drinks. I asked about a grocery store nearby and the cashier said there was a Wal-mart and Publix down a couple of lights and then over a couple blocks. So, we bought enough groceries to last until we got home. Went back to Highway 41, which is also called the Tamiami Trail, and in a couple of miles the houses gave out and we quickly found ourselves in the Everglades. This Highway follows a canal out of town and we have never seen so many birds--literally hundreds in the hour & 1/2 along this route this morning. Herons, and egrets big and small--blue, green, yellow crowned, snowy, cattle, tri-colored. There was a huge number of Anhingas all over the trees and even balancing on telephone wires---quite an act for such a big bird. There were numerous kettles and committees of Vultures, but we saw just a few wakes. There was even a spoon bill here and there in the mix. We probably saw 25 Belted Kingfishers, also sitting on the telephone wires.

The birds were on top of each other, side by side, and spaced just a few feet apart. We have never seen so many birds of different species like that. Must be a lot of fish and stuff in the canal to support that many birds. Nothing exotic or new, but interesting viewing as we drove along.

Checked into the campground and we settled in and slept most of the rest of the day. It rained off and on. The next day, we decided that we hadn't seen any airboat rides that went truly into the Everglades to see the Everglades. Instead, most tours operators that we passed by, seemed to be mainly a ride on an airboat. We had noted an ad for one further down the road that was operated by members of the Seminole Indian tribe that we thought to check out the following day. So, we declared it a "down day" and relaxed in Rosie II as it rained some more.

That night, as Valerie was cutting up some more of the rotisserie chicken, she sliced into her thumb. She thought she might need some stitches, but we were not sure at all where the nearest medical facility was. So, we wrapped the thumb in some wound material from the first aid kit and finally got it to stop bleeding.

New Year's Eve, Tuesday, December 31^st

Warm and overcast. Mileage this morning was 40,754.

Woke up early and checked with the management to see where the nearest medical facility was located as Valerie felt she needed to have her thumb looked at and possibly get a stitch or two. Drove about 30 miles on 41 through the Big Cypress National Park and many really upscale retirement communities and then turned due north on highway 951 and headed to the Physicians Regional Medical Center emergency room. Valerie's thumb was cleaned and bandaged, but she was told that stitches were only put in within 6 hours of the injury. She was right, in that she would have had two. Stopped next at Publix, as for some reason, they will fill the antibiotic for free with the hospital's prescription. Even though the chicken was cooked, the PA recommended she take the antibiotic just in case.

It was now after 11:00, and we made the decision not to wander as much as we had originally planned going home, and so we continued on 951 to where it intersected with I-75, and headed toward Georgia on the interstate. We stopped at a couple Florida State Parks up a ways and found that they were full of campers, as 1) the snow birds had landed; and, 2) it was still the holidays for many. Got out the Florida State Parks map and aimed for one of the larger parks listed as not far from I-75.

After a number of miles, just south of Fort Myers, I saw campers/RV units off to the right in a line of trees along what looked like a river. Since the Federal Govt. allows camping on National Forest land, BLM land and some counties have parks that allow camping, we got off the freeway to investigate. The entrance sign said the land was a Wildlife Management Area and camping was allowed. This looked real good to us since, we can "boondock" with the best of them--we are self-contained in Rosie and do not need hook-ups. The temps were real mild so we didn't need air conditioning, which is one of the main reasons we plug in.

As we moved slowly down the dirt road, we noticed a number of strange type vehicles—flat-bed trucks with HUGE wheels and 4-6 seats affixed high up on top. We figured that they might be used for hunting something and since we had talked with someone, somewhere, gas station maybe--about recent hunting of boar or wild pigs, we thought that might be what they were doing going into a swampy area.

We found a vacant spot on a grassy area in line next to some others but we thought far enough away from them and settled in for the night. Although it was early, Valerie hadn't slept well with her aching thumb so we just relaxed for the rest of the day. We watched several of these "monster" vehicles return with people with rifles in hand and it confirmed our impressions. No one approached Rosie and there were a number of pick-ups that returned to the large camp spot to the left of us, but no one said anything to us.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Missed seeing the ball drop in NY and the Peach drop in Atlanta. Oh, well!

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Overcast and cool this morning.

The next morning, we moved off our spot and drove back down the dirt road toward the exit to a camp spot where several people were sitting around a fire having breakfast. We wanted to ask them if there were other places like this one that they knew of, since we still had a ways to travel in Florida. Well, they confirmed that they were hunting, but for small game---rabbits, snipes, doves, etc. We were also told that we were on state land, not federal, and we were supposed to have a license to hunt, make reservations, register, and pay $3 per night. However, because of the holidays, no one was around to enforce this, nor collect our fee. Ok, we just lucked out and they laughed with us--at us??? Anyway, we got directions to the nearest Waffle House for breakfast and bid the group adieu.

After breakfast, we went across the street to the Micky D's to check our e-mail. We found a note from Wendell warning us of a very bad cold front/storm heading to Atlanta by Sunday night. Hmmmmmmm. Got out maps and campgrounds books and again revised our plans in order to get home in 3 days before the storm hit. We sure didn't wish to be driving in it.

Just south of Sarasota, about 11 miles east of I-75 is the 37,000 acre Myakka State Park. Since it has 90 campsites we hoped it wouldn't be full this early in the day. Florida State Parks have at least 4 camp spots per night that are left for walk-ups and can't be reserved ahead of time. So, we hoped to get at least one of these. As we approached the park entrance our hopes kind of fell as there was a long line of cars ahead of us. What we discovered was that this park, being so close to a large urban population, on a holiday, was full of day-use visitors who wish to hike, bike, canoe, picnic, and otherwise enjoy the outdoors. No problem for us to get a spot for the night's stay.

We found our spot in the campground and then drove down to the large lake to see what was going on there. We decided to take an airboat ride to see what we could see--which was mostly alligators. I think the naturalist/boat captain was geared for finding them for the tourists although he did point out some birds and talked about the non-native water plants that are choking the lake and the efforts to eradicate or at least keep their growth under some control. We watched a pair of osprey fight in the air with a bald eagle who had caught a fish. After the 1-hour ride we slowly drove back to our campground. Nice park with lots of things for people to do.

Thursday, January 2nd Myakka State Park

Started out at 10:00 with the temp at 75 degrees. Clear with a few high clouds. 40,893 was our starting mileage.

This morning we continued up I-75 until we came to the exit for Fruitville Road and then turned east. When Fruitville Road ended at the water's edge we turned right and found ourselves back on Highway 41/Tamiami Trail and drove along the coastline and through the very nice looking town of Sarasota.

The second thing we had planned for this trip home, the first being seeing the Everglades, was to visit the Ringling Brothers Circus Museum. This area of Florida was both the winter residence of the circus, as well as, that of John Ringling and his wife, Mable. On 66 acres, between 1924-26, the couple built Ca'd'Zan their mansion on Sarasota Bay. The house is built in a Venetian Gothic style that showed the couple's love of all things Italian. Here they entertained in high style (Flo Ziegfeld, Billie Burke, Will Rogers, and famous politicians of the day) keeping a hidden closet for their liquor during Prohibition.

They next added an Art Museum on the property to house their collection of European art acquired in the late 1920’s. This was opened to the public in 1931. Everything was willed to the State of Florida when John died in1939. I didn't realize how much money Ringling made on the circus as I always thought they were more of a hand-to-mouth type business, but he was a millionaire.

Parking Rosie in the large parking lot near the street, we walked through the entrance gate of the grounds, and into the reception/ticket office and gift shop area. We purchased tickets and got a map of the property and then walked by a large pond and into the lovely estate gardens. We went first to the Tibbals Learning Center and circus museums.

The Tibbals Learning Center is full of interactive items for kids as well as banners, costumes, and other items. Making the experience worthwhile for us, however, was the Howard Brother's Circus Model handcrafted by Howard Tibbals. This is a ¾-inch-to-the-foot scale replica of the entire circus (circa 1920s) that contains 42,143 items, not including small pieces such as thousands of railroad stakes; consists of eight large tents, 152 circus wagons, 1,500 workers and performers, 7,000 folding chairs and more than 500 hand-carved animals; everything can be packed up into the 55 train cars, also individually hand-crafted; and it took Mr. Tibbals over a year to set it up in this museum. It is just fantastic in the detail--cook tents and dining areas, laundry areas, dressing areas, midway/side show area, vendor booths, animal tents and their meal preparation, wagons for storage, for transportation and on and on. Everything you can think of as part of the circus is displayed including performances with an audience in all three rings of the big top.

We were a bit disappointed in the museum itself, as we thought there would be more--just more items--not the quality nor the way those items were displayed. Maybe because the museum wasn't established until 1948 and so much circus material was gone by then or our expectations were too high. It did house about 10 circus wagons and other rolling stock and The Wisconsin, the restored Ringling's private rail car. Very nice way to travel town to town all over the US.

After eating sandwiches at Banyan Cafe on the grounds, we caught a tram ride, which took us by some of the huge exotic banyan trees planted here as well and then skirted Mabel's rose garden of 1,200 roses that she had planted in 1913. The tram left us off in front of the mansion where we took a tour of the ground floor and walked out on the promenade/patio to view the bay. Pretty day, pretty place.

The University of Florida operates the venue now and has built a number of buildings adjacent to this property including a huge theater/concert hall and classrooms for their drama majors. Both John and Mabel Ringling are buried in a small garden on the property.

After getting back into Rosie, we took University Parkway back to I-75 heading north. Just south of Tampa, we drove into a major downpour and as we drove, we watched the temperature drop from 84 to 71, in 15 minutes. We exited onto Highway 301 going north-east now, toward our next campground, Hillsborough State Park.

Friday, January 3rd. Hillsborough State Park, FL

10:00 am start and 46 degrees out this morning. Mileage is 40,990.

It rained through the night in this typical Florida Campground. Moss covered trees, sandy soil, lots of bugs.

Left out of the park and turned left to continue north on 301, now joined back with highway 40, and basically paralleling the interstate. We traveled through several small communities and farm land until we got close to I-75 due to the angles of the two roads. We then cut back a bit west and were back on the interstate. We could make it home now with no problem, but we wanted to get Rosie winterized before we parked her in front of our house in the cold that we knew was coming. We felt we needed to leave a full day free for that chore. So, we drove until where we thought it prudent to stop for the night, south of Macon, GA, which was a big enough city to have an RV place to do the work and was just a 2+ hour’s drive from home.

Friday, January 4th. Reed-Bingham State Park

9:00, 37 degrees out and cloudyish. Starting mileage 41,243

The furnace ran all night so we were warm enough with the blankets we had on the bed. We did put up all the covers for all the windows to try and keep warm air in as much as possible. Got Rosie winterized at a Camping World dealer in Macon.

Home at 4:40. Temperature is 35 degrees; ending mileage 41,465.

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