I learnt two new facts in Naples. No, not Italy. Naples in Florida. Firstly not all frogs are green and slimey. This pretty little frog was dry and like leather. Very strange in a state where there is water everywhere. Second, who knew that ‘wet’ in latin-american was ‘piso’? So when the floor is wet then ……. well you know, piso off.
Our time in Key West was over and we had ‘upped stumps’ and headed north. More beautiful scenery. More bridges, More swamp. Just near Key Largo we stopped for a bit of lunch at “Ma’s Famous Restaurant”. Shane ordered the steak tacos and got a shock to get 3 huge shells stuffed to the brim and a side salad with it. More surprises when in the middle of nowhere we came across the Miccosukee Casino. It is really no where yet it has its own airport right next door so the ‘whales’ can fly almost up to the casino doors to play their vices. The Miccosukee I believe are part of the Seminole Indian Tribe and the casino is on their reservation through which we were travelling. At the head of the peninsula we diverted onto the 41 to Naples. The next 100 or so miles of roadway was near dead straight with some grassy swamp and some wooded swamp. Our complete GPS route read “make a U-turn at SW 139th Ave (0.58 mi), Turn left onto 8th St S (93.97 mi), Arrive at destination (0.18 mi)”. To break the monotony we stopped, took a picture of a grasshopper, walked 40 metres along a walkway (too hot to go further) and had a toilet break.
We had booked online at a park we were not very sure of. It seemed kinda posh and it was mostly an “over 55’s, private owners only” but it turns out that the permanents were well and truly separated from us nomads and it was quite a nice park. The entire county of Naples is quite nice. Who am I kidding. Naples is terrific. Apparently it is the most affluent community in the USA and sure enough some of the homes there put Palm Beach to shame (see http://volitans.net.au/2018/06/palm-beach-florida-wealth-beyond-belief/ ) We visited a quaint marketplace called Tin City which is lots of fun with many unique stores in it. We got a range of Balsamic Vinegar and olive oils from a specialty store like none we’d seen before. From there we took a drive up by the beaches. These beaches are also beautiful but sadly it costs a minimum of $8 US to park for an hour so don’t drive to a beach. The picture of the private house with the long green lawn is on the beach next to the lane we stopped in. Following this are pictures of several houses and the 5th Avenue shopping street (for discerning buyers).
The next day we took a boat tour to find Manatees, the ‘cousin’ of our Dugongs. This wasn’t expensive at around $50 each and the homes along the canals can make you gasp. Having missed out on seeing manatees on Florida’s east coast because it was out of season we weren’t holding our breath especially when the first thing we spotted was a ‘gator. It was the first of many as they have no fear of humans as you can see by the post tour pics where one came right up to our dock. Anyway we did find the elusive manatees. First a mother and calf who, on having us harass her, took her baby into a creek too small for us to follow. A few minutes later a large male was spotted and off we went to catch a glimpse of him. A glimpse is about all you get too. These shy elusive mammals don’t like to have their picture taken so we can only show you a small range of what we saw. The colour of the water doesn’t help either.
After a brilliant morning we got back to our van just in time to cop another tropical downpour. If you come to Florida (and we highly recommend it) don’t do so in June. We’ve had 29 days here and only 3 have not had a downpour. You can see in the last photo a shot of the van park which went from dry to this in minutes.
Only one more place to post about and I’m up to date. Cortez, west of Tampa is a summer paradise with glistening white sands on the Gulf of Mexico. But more in the next blog post.
Garry & Shane.