Let the Spring Camping Season Begin!

It was spring time, and we couldn't wait to go camping! Denisa has always enjoyed the spring wildflowers we have found on our travels around the country. This year she enjoyed the spring tulips that were blooming in the front yard of our house. Last summer we bought tulip bulbs in Amsterdam in Europe, and we got a 100% bloom rate this spring from those bulbs.

We had been watching the night-time low temperatures, and finally determined that freezing temperatures were over. It was time to de-winterize the trailer. It was also time to start camping again! Mark had been working on some more modifications to the trailer that we were ready to try out on a short trip in April to a new-to-us nearby lake. We had heard good things about Smithville Lake, and we found the hardest part was deciding which of its well-reviewed campgrounds would be best for us.

We settled on Crows Creek Campground. The only thing we didn't like about it was the price. We're getting used to those half-price camp sites in federal campgrounds, and this county campground seemed too expensive at $40 per night. They only gave us old folks the "fourth night free" discount. So that determined the four-night length of our first spring camping trip. One of our first projects was kayaking on Smithville Lake. We found out that springs are windy here, so we picked the least breezy day to put the boat on the water. During our last camping trip we were chasing fall-colored leaves, and this trip we are chasing spring blossoms. The redbuds surrounding the lake were putting on a lovely purple show on the shore.

Part of Smithville Lake covers what used to be a forest. We like kayaking through these areas because the big motor boats and their waves don't bother us here. 

That also means that we are more likely to find wildlife in these calmer and quieter areas--but not today. Sometimes we find a big old tree in the middle of the water that just looks like you could climb it. Mark has always been a tree climber, and he couldn't resist this one. So he got out of the boat, and Denisa took his picture. We're guessing that those limbs haven't been climbed on in many years.

When we put away the boat that day, we noticed that we had a problem. We have been getting more and more water inside the boat in recent outings. It looks like our eight-year-old inflatable Sea Eagle kayak has a tear in one of its seams. Mark planned to test his gluing skills to see if he could fix it.

It's a good thing that we had planned another form of recreational transportation for this camping trip. We had read that Clay County had a nice paved trail system around the lake.

Just like the lake, those trails also had lots of blooming redbud trees surrounding them.

If you look closely on the left side of the trail, you'll see that we startled a deer as we zoomed around the curve.

The first day we rode 10.4 miles heading west from our camp site on the Anita Gorman Trail. By riding a little of the dirt trail and then the road, we were able to make it into a loop. The trails follow the edge of the lake, and they are relatively flat. The next day we biked 9 more miles heading east to finish up the whole trail. We loved biking at Smithville Lake!

The last day we drove across the bridge to the other side of the lake to explore Camp Branch Campground. We also had to explore the paved trails on that side, but we hiked them. We like to hike, bike, and kayak, and we managed to do all three before our last sunset at Smithville Lake.

Four days was the perfect amount of time for a camping trip because that got us home in time for Easter. We got to do some egg dying and Easter egg hunting with some of our favorite people.

Eli's hands turned green when he decided that reaching into the dye was the easiest way to retrieve his colored eggs.

Both of our sons were here to celebrate because Easter Sunday was also Mark's birthday. We were doubly blessed this Easter!

Besides celebrating Matk's birthday, we were also celebrating Denisa's Mother's 95th birthday. Denisa and her two sisters hosted a birthday celebration and invited all her relatives and the whole town of Beaver, Oklahoma.

That spring trip to the Oklahoma panhandle meant that our grandchildren got to spend some time playing with their distant cousins . . .

and spending some time riding the new pony at the ranch.

Remember that Mark is a tree climber? It looks like this spring he is passing on his skills to another generation. He helped grandson Eli up into this tree at the park . . .

and granddaughter Carter up into this tree they were trimming at our house.

It's a good start to spring and another camping season!

More Trailer Modifications - Mark did some more really neat things!

With a few camping trips under our belts, we thought of more things that would make the trailer more comfortable. That led to Mark googling ideas and shopping on Amazon. Then, just like magic, he found solutions. Denisa thinks he's wonderful!

We noticed that the lighting wasn't good for reading in bed, and Mark found a great solution. He installed two chargeable reading lights over the bed. They are adjustable in color and intensity of light, and can be aimed right on a book you are reading. Mark screwed the base to the cabinet, and the lights are actually held in place by a strong magnet. That means they can also be pulled off their metal bases to use as flashlights.

One of Denisa's favorite modifications gave us more storage in the kitchen. Between the three-burner gas stove and the kitchen window was a knife block with slots for huge butcher knives and meat cleavers. You would think we were running a butcher shop in this little trailer if we had that many big knives on board. Since we only travel with two small knives, that seemed like a lot of wasted space. So Mark ordered some metal malt glasses, and cut perfect circles for them to fit down into that space. Now we have handy containers for all kinds of kitchen utensils! They're within easy reach and they don't take up any precious drawer space.

Our little 12-volt refrigerator sometimes struggles with keeping food the right temperature. We've had some frozen lettuce, and cantaloupe slices that turned into popsicles. At the same time, other sections of the refrigerator seemed a little warm. Mark read that improving the air circulation would help the temperature within the refrigerator to be more consistent. The glass shelves that come with it didn't help with the air circulation. So Mark ordered some heavy duty wire shelves, and then cut them to be the perfect size. The picture below shows the new wire top shelf, and the old glass shelf that will be replaced.

If there's one thing that we don't like about our new trailer, it would be the big window in the front. It's just silly to have one in the front on this model, where normally the Murphy bed completely covers it. When you put the bed down at night, you then have a big window when you want privacy to sleep. It comes with an inside blind over it, but that means you can't sit up in bed to read a book without banging your head on that blind. We were beginning to hate that window. 

The other problem is that the window can be broken if the tow vehicle throws up a rock. We read that there are companies that will make a custom window covering that will protect it from rocks, but the prices were high! So Mark did lots of research, and ordered black padding material that matches the texture of the bottom third of the trailer front. He also bought a dozen strong suction cups. His total cost for his custom window cover was much less, and it looks and works great!

With the suction cups, we can take it off if we want the light inside the trailer. But with it on, we don't have to have the roller shade down and can lean against the glass to read in bed. That was a great project!

We have lots of things that need to be charged with a USB--our fans, our phones, our new bed-side lights, and our computers. So Mark installed extra USB chargers that can use our solar powered battery, rather than plugging into an outlet that must have shore power (or uses the energy-hungry inverter). Since we are working to stay at more places without electrical hook-ups, this is another way to make that possible. 

We have struggled to find a place to store our shoes. Mark invented this newest modification that uses a plastic mat to keep the dirty shoe bottoms off the wall. In the picture below you can see the tall part of the mat going up the wall, but he creased the mat in such a way that the shorter side goes up to protect the arm of the sofa as well. It will hold three pairs of his shoes, and that's about all that he owns. It's out of the way, and uses a little wasted space to store some big shoes.

Denisa thinks that Mark enjoys solving problems and then crafting the solution. Mark thinks that Denisa is sure lucky to have married such a handy guy!

Everglades National Park and Key Biscayne National Park - checking parks off our bucket list

If you had an extra day in Florida after a cruise, what would you do? We would cross two more national parks off our list, of course! So when we got off the cruise ship in Miami, we had a full day planned. That included renting a car for transportation to these two parks. We had read terrible reviews about the rental car companies close to the very crowded ship pier. There were stories about people waiting in line for hours for their reserved car, only to find that they were out of vehicles. We didn't have time for such foolishness, so we got on the free trolley (that we have used four times now), and got to a more remote office where there were no lines and plenty of cars. Then we were off on the drive to Biscayne National Park.

If you haven't heard of Biscayne, you are not alone. It's one of the least visited of the 63 national parks. But it will be #51 for us, so we are there! Actually it is a very large park, but 95% of it is under water. The walking path along the shore and the visitor's center are the only parts on dry land, so we did both.

We shared the rocky shore line with this beach lizard.

This is a great place to go salt-water kayaking, but we didn't have our boat with us. So we had to watch the salt-water fish from the shore trail. The water was so clear that it was easy to see the fish under the water.

It was too windy for kayaking or snorkeling, and some of the boat tours were cancelled because of the gusts that day. The light house is only available via boat, and it was closed for renovation. So even if we had planned a full day to see the watery magic of Key Biscayne, we obviously had to do it on a calm day. We will check this national park off our list, but we need to come back to really experience it.

That put us back on the road in our rental car towards the Everglades National Park. But before we do any trails in the park, we have to make the necessary touristy stop in this area. We made reservations at the Everglades Alligator Farm. Before you assume that Mark is doing something stupid (again), that's a statue instead of a real alligator.

The Everglades Alligator Farm even had some baby crocodiles.

This farm raises alligators to sell for their meat. These gators come in all sizes from babies . . .

to big boys . . .

to babies that are postured in such a way that they look like big boys.

We had to try some gator tacos, as the alligators around us watched us warily.

The alligator farm is proud of how big some of their gators grow. This guy is about three times as long as Denisa.

The real reason we came was for the airboat ride into the tall grass. We know this is a very touristy thing to do, but it was another thing to check off our list.

We started slowly through the narrow channel bordered with trees and tall grass near the farm.

Then we headed into the everglades--with its sea of grass. These wide flat bottom boats can float in just inches of water, and it often looked like we were going to go aground. We did get wet as we made one of the 360-degree turns through this soggy grass prairie.

We found one alligator, but it almost seemed like it was staged. Maybe they feed him in that same spot every day?

As we slowed down for our return to the farm, our captain pointed out another creature on this ride. We can add iguana to our list of scaly creatures seen today.

The big propeller behind us was deafening. But hearing protection devices were provided at the beginning of the ride.

Airboat rides are available at many places in this part of Florida. We chose the Everglades Alligator Farm for its price and reputation, but also for the extra things to see here. Most of the other airboat companies don't have hundreds of alligators.

They time the rides and shows so that most travelers can also see the alligator feeding. The farmer told us lots of alligator facts as he threw dead rats into the crowd of scaly reptiles. We learned that a group of alligators is a congregation. The congregation crowded to the front when they saw him swinging rats by their tails.

The other attraction was something like an alligator wrestling show, where the handler showed us the inside view of a gator's mouth. You hope to never to see that under any other circumstances.

As we left the alligator farm, we got to pose with another scaly critter, this pet armadillo.

Now that our tourist stop was finished, we could finally get to Everglades National Park and some hiking. Our first stop was a recommended hike on the Anhinga Trail. Anhingas are one of the few birds that swim with their bodies under water. Because only their s-shaped neck and head is above water when they swim, they are nicknamed "snake birds." They dive underwater to fish for meals. Before they can fly well, they need to perch and spread their wings to dry them out. We found an anhinga hanging out on its name-sake trail drying out.

The trail runs right along a canal, and it didn't take long to find our first gator.

Even though we had just seen so many at the farm, it just seemed more real to find them in the wild.

This gator kept gliding along beside us, so Denisa kept walking and taking his picture. Count it as a double blessing when you see an anhinga and an alligator at the same time on the Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park.

 

Another double with a heron and an alligator in the same picture.

The trail becomes a loop, and heads over the water on a boardwalk. We spotted a couple more gators from the boardwalk.

The birds were out fishing as we continued along this great trail.

It's easy to spot wildlife when people are stopped and watching it too. But it's more fun when you see one that no one else has spotted. Mark's an eagle-eye wildlife spotter, and that includes alligators. We had this alligator all to ourselves.

He also spotted this anhinga that was fishing in the shallow water near the boardwalk. This bird actually has another nickname--turkey bird--because of the way its tail feathers fan out. We could see that fan  under the water. But what's that in his mouth?

We were certainly surprised to watch as it caught a fish that we assumed was too big for him to actually swallow.

We watched in amazement as that skinny-necked bird managed to swallow that big old fish whole! That was an unplanned wildlife moment!

The Anhinga Loop is well-reviewed for a reason, and it didn't disappoint us.  The brilliant blue skies made a nice back drop for this double crested cormorant.

A close-up shows that hooked beak that makes him a successful fisherman. It also shows that he has bright orange facial skin and brilliant blue eyes that matches the blue inside his mouth.

As we left the Anhinga Trail, we spotted our final alligator of the day.

We had read warnings about leaving cars in the parking lot for this trail. In fact, they often leave a box of tarps for visitors to cover their cars while they are hiking. That's because the vultures like to congregate here and spend their time shredding the plastic on doors and roofs of automobiles and RVs. We didn't see any tarps today, so maybe the problem has been taken care of. The only birds we saw were kinder, gentler species that liked to pose for us.

After hiking the best wildlife trail in the Everglades, we drove deeper into the park. We spent some time at one of the visitor centers. This is a huge national park that deserves several days to see more of it. But on our tight schedule, we were glad we got to see as much as we did. We hiked another trail, that showcased the flat river of grass and water that covers this entire part of Florida. This national park is a slow-moving river that is making its way to the ocean ever so quietly. There were miles of glades as far as we could see. Maybe that's why this is called the everglades.

The sun was already setting as we drove back to our motel in Homestead, Florida. After eating way too much food on the cruise, our gator tacos seemed like a tiny lunch and we were hungry. The next morning we had a sizable drive back to Fort Lauderdale to return our car and catch a plane home. But we had a successful time of checking things off our bucket list at two different Florida national parks!