POTR #14 Heading North

Peace On The Road
Heading North
May 2, 2005

It is now the first of May and most of the winter Floridians have already headed north to their summer homes, in fact I think most of them headed north the last of March or first of April. We have heard at every place we have been that people are leaving early this year. With a few exceptions the campgrounds are nearly empty. We are in a camp in Salt Springs, FL. When we came in it was at most twenty-five percent full. Even some of space that is occupied with campers has no occupants; they are basically storing the campers here. On Friday a lot of people came into the camp for the weekend. I think that most of them had children; so we have seen more kids here than anywhere. Some of the places we stayed may not have had a single child in the camp. We will be here until Wednesday the 4th and then we move north just like the rest of the winter Floridians.

Florida has been a mixed bag. It has been sunny and warm, but we have heard that it is colder and windier than normal. Even if that is true I have no complaints with the weather, especially when I hear about freezing temperature and snow in the areas we are avoiding. When Erma and I was here in April of 2004 we saw a lot of alligators in the waterways and several dolphins in the ocean. This April we saw one small alligator in the middle of Fort Lauderdale. At least this time I have been in places I could pick fresh citrus off trees that were within twenty foot of the Vectra. That was rather nice.

NOTE THE YELLOW CHICK AT THE FEET OF THE SAND HILL HILL CRANE HEN

I have been rather pleased to see the Sand Hill Cranes in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. At one camp there was a pair of cranes with two chicks just forty feet from the entrance road. I am always pleased to see new species of animals, or simply animals that I have not seen for a while.

THIS HEN AND HER TWO CHICKS HAVE QUITE A HOLE

We went down to Key West and I saw a hen with several chicks scratching around a tree in the public square. For many years my neighbors in Wheat Ridge had chicks every spring. They never allowed them free range. I have not seen chicks free ranging since I left the farm back in the 1960’s. Now for an old farm boy a free range hen and chicks was a real pleasure. You may have heard that the chickens in Key West are protected by law and allowed to roam free, thus causing problems for many people. It is funny to see a rooster strutting and crowing in the middle of a shopping area. We have also been driving down the street and had a rooster strut to the middle of the street and start crowing. It was almost as if he was saying that he had more rights to the road than my vehicle. I did not argue the point, I was laughing too hard.

We stopped at a manatee wintering spot and saw nothing. I heard later that when the Gulf Of Mexico gets above 69 degrees F the manatee leave the warm waters near the power plants. By this time the gulf waters are 75 degrees. Therefore we will have to see the manatees next winter. We have heard that on cold winter mornings the manatee will be nose to tail and shore to shore in the warm discharge waters.

THE GOODYEAR BLIMP SPIRIT OF AMERICA IN THE HANGER

THE GOODYEAR BLIMP SPIRIT OF AMERICA ABOUT TO LAUNCH FOR A TRIP

One of the highlights of Florida was kind of a surprise to us. When we were in Fort Lauderdale, Erma was looking at a street map and noticed a place marked, “Goodyear Blimp Hanger.” We had been in Fort Lauderdale before and had not idea a blimp was stationed there. It turned out that the hanger was only a few miles from our campsite. We went there one day when they were launching to leave on a trip of three weeks. One of the pilots for it took us out to the hanger and told us where to watch without being in the way. At the blimp was pulled out of the hanger he said, “There is the largest wind sock in Florida.” He was exactly right, with its design it point itself directly into the wind. They were leaving for a three-week trip to an air show and to make appearances at some ball games. There are three blimps in the USA and two in Europe. The one in Fort Lauderdale covers the lower US and the Eastern coast. I have a feeling that Colorado is on the fringe of the coverage and does not get to see the blimp.

I was rather disappointed with Epcot Center. I suppose that if I had children or grandchildren with me it would have been a very different experience. At Epcot there is not the emphasis on rides as there is at other Disney attractions that I have been to. I realize that the main objective of any place of this type is to get the visitor to spend as much money as possible, no matter what the management may say. It seemed that there were as many shops selling souvenirs, as there was anything else. The grounds were very well kept and the buildings for the attractions were impressive. We happened to be there during spring break, so there were lots of people, but it was not nearly as crowded as it will be later in the year. I am not sure how a large family could ever afford to go to the Disney attractions. For three of us it cost $200.00 for one day. I met a least one family that had several children and was planning to spend four days at the parks. I guess that if it is your vacation PLAN the cost may be acceptable.

I think about the opportunities for pictures that I have missed for one reason or another. I told you about the beautiful ice covering on all the trees in Ohio that I mostly missed because I could not find a safe place to pull the Vectra off the road. In Harlingen, Texas there was a tree that seemed to be alive with green birds. I am sure that they were green parrots or perhaps parakeets. We were on our way to church, running late of course, and I had left my camera in the Vectra. In Louisiana there were places that the roadside was covered with some beautiful red flowers. It would have been easy to pull off with a small vehicle, but anywhere I could pull the Vectra over had none of the flowers. The last of the red flowers I saw were ten miles from the place we stayed the night. I have had several other missed opportunities that I won’t tell you about, because a couple times were because of procrastination. I kept telling myself that I would go get pictures later and then suddenly it was time to move on. In Florida I was able to get some pictures of wild green parrots. And I have taken more pictures of sunsets than I really know what to do with in a couple of places. When we were in a Red Mangrove swamp there were hundreds of tiny, smaller than a dime, tree crabs. They were shy and it almost seemed that they did not want to be photographed. I was able to get some pictures using the maximum telephoto.
With a long telephoto it is hard to hold still, especially with my digital camera.

A GREEN PARROT IN FORT LAUDERDALE

A TREE CRAB ABOUT THE SIZE OF A DIME

I have been on the full-time road for six months now. Part of me does not think it possibly could be that long and another part does not think it could be that short. At times we have been in a camp for two weeks at a time and I have felt like we just arrived when it is time to leave and yet we have done so much that we could not have done it in two weeks. I never thought about the possibility that there would be the distortion of the time perception when I was in a place that I did not have a schedule.

When you get this Peace On The Road I will be in Georgia or at least very close to it. We have plans to be back in Florida next winter. Between now and next winter a lot could happen. In fact I hope a lot does happen, I want to keep doing things. We are having fun, and while I miss my friends and certain things at work I have not yet regretted retiring.

Till Later This Is Doug Of
PEACE ON THE ROAD