Traveling the USA Part II

The day starts out foggy and dreary but eventually clears and we enjoy a very nice Easter. We start our Easter by visiting the Everglades Community Church. It's a non-demonitional church in the center of Everglades City. It's a really nice small church and we enjoy their service. They appear to be very focused on mission work, local and worldwide. For a little church their list of mission work is quite impressive.

Everglades City is the town next to Plantation Island, which is where my late brother's mobile home is located (which we bought to settle the estate and are now fixing up). It's very much a tourist town. It's a very quaint, picturesque little town.

Fishing is the focus of the town, with lots of boats and worldclass fishing in the area. It's several miles south of the Tamiami Trail, about halfway between Naples and Miami, Florida. The western end of Everglades National Park is in the town and their annual festival in February, the Everglades City Seafood Festival, is attended by thousands each year. We enjoy the small town atmosphere. Our one neighbor said we should move down here. When we explained we had a 12-year-old son who was still attending school, he said "No problem. We have a wonderful school. K-12 is all in the same building and last year there were 3 in the graduating class." Quite a bit different from our school district that I think is graduating between 600-700 this year.

We spend the rest of the day relaxing at the campground. We take pictures of the birds and elegators, walk and bike around the lake and spend time with my parents.

The campground is almost empty. It's usually not this empty til early April, and it's been this empty for the last week or so. We're thinking it's because of the price of gas -- it's simply too expensive to drive here. It's a Saturday night and there are only two or three tents and about 3 RVs in the campground (plus the volunteers).

Our two weeks in the Everglades area includes several days of fixing up my late brother's trailer. We started calling it our 'fish camp' to make it sound more fun, but it's a lot of work fixing up an old trailer.

So this is the first several days of many work days. We clean, paint, rip apart, repair walls and support the Naples Lowes and Home Depot stores. Every once in awhile we take a break, including a few to look at the water beside the trailer. With the full moon, the high tides come up above our lower dock area. We also enjoy watching the fish jump and the white ibis walking in the area behind the trailer.

We leave Sarasota, Florida and drive to Monument Campground at Big Cypress National Preserve. My parents are volunteer campground hosts here and we'll stay here with them for the next two weeks.

We really like this campground. It's dry camping but very peaceful and a beautiful area. Our campsite is beside the lake, which is inhabited by several alligators. We can watch alligators swim in the water on one side of our RV and cattle egret grazing in the grass on the other side of our RV.

We set up camp and have dinner with my parents and call it a night. Another beautiful sunny day in Florida.

We get up early and drive about 100 miles to Sarasota, Florida. We set up camp and head to the Ed Smith Stadium to see the Cincinnati Reds play the Detroit Tigers. I asked Jere several times about ordering tickets, but he said "no need". So of course we get to the stadium and it's sold out, but fortunately they have standing room only tickets.

We enter the stadium and Jere heads to the standing room only section to save his space. Joe and I head to vacant box seats in the second row behind the Reds dugout to wait comfortably for the game to begin. We were incredibly close to the players and enjoyed our great seats!

For St Patricks Day, the Tigers have green baseball caps and the bases are green instead of white.

Joe and I keep our great box seats til the middle of the 1st inning when the rightful owners show up :-( Then we head to the standing room only section with Jere.

The game iss actually a good game. Beautiful sunny day in a crowded baseball stadium and interesting fans to watch, including these 3 guys:

The usher that is in charge of the box seats Joe and I were sitting in before the game comes over to us at the beginning of the 7th inning and offers us box seats in the 3rd row behind the Reds dugout. So we have great seats again for the last 2 innings. Plus the Reds win 5-3.

After the game we head over to Sarasota Beach on Siesta Key. Crowded but beautiful swimming beach. Unfortunately we didn't think ahead to bring along our bathing suits, so we walk along the edge of the water and enjoy the gorgeous afternoon.

So a great day comes to an end and we're exhausted and head back to the RV.

It's too bad that our daughter already signed a contract for her outdoor wedding ceremony at the beautiful Schlitz Audubon Nature Center--we found the perfect place for her outdoor ceremony: South of the Border! It has everything for the perfect wedding!

An outdoor ceremony site:

Don't like that one, how about this one?

And there is even an indoor ceremony site in case of rain. Complete with indoor waterfall!

Indoor seating also available:

The ceremony site has everything! The photo opportunities are endless!

There's even a hotel for wedding guests on the property!

Jenny, why didn't we find this venue before you signed the contract?!

Seriously, South of the Border has a really nice campground, and the stores and statues (including a 6' tall sparkplug at the gas pumps) are really a hoot!

As we drive down I-95 we see many down trees and branches (even a few road signs) from yesterday's storms. We feel fortunate that all we had to deal with was heavy rain and wind. No hail damage or any other damage for us. Plus today is a beautiful sunny day, with highs in the 70s and low 80s.

We spend the day driving and stop near Ocala, Florida for the night at Wandering Oaks, a Passport America RV park. Full hook-ups for $12.50/night. Considering the price of diesel is hovering around $4/gallon, we appreciate the cheap RV park.