Paddling the Everglades

The weather has warmed up finally and we put the boats in  Turner River in the middle of the Everglades.  We saw an unbelievable amount of Wildlife including alligators. Cam was happy to get out alive even though Ranger "Gator" Gates said he has never had a paddler come back and report an attack.

Argggg, Hunting for buried wishkey

While camping in the Everglades we ran into Pat Johnson a very interesting bloke who's hobby it is to bury his own distilled spirts all over the country.  Pat Johnson and his good friend Pat Johnson we're both helping with the Everglades challenge, an extreme small boat race.  Google it it's a pretty wild. 
Pat, we are on route to Indian key and will be looking for the bottle of wishkey.  Thanks for the early taste and the clues on where to find it.

Everglades Via Sanibel

Happy trails to Bill and Rebecca. We hope you visit Washington DC soon.  It was great to meet kindred spirts.

We found Sanibell and Captiva to be quite fancy. I brought the wrong polo mallet and I had to take a call from Thurston Howell the III anyhow so we decided to tootle along. 

Next stop, camping at Chokoloskee Island in the Everglades. We just saw a panther crossing sign.  And I was worried about the alligators.

Shiver Me Timbers and Blow Me Down

We finally made it to Fort De Soto on the Gulf Coast south of Saint Petersburg.  We drove 3 hours with a sustained 40 mile an hour crosswind. Remember, we are driving basically a giant shoe box with 2 giant hot dogs strapped to the roof.  At what point can we legitimately be peeved about the weather?  We signed up for 75 and sunny and that's not what's being delivered.  On the positive side, we met Rebecca and Bill, fellow Westfalia  owners staying in the campground. We had a nice happy hour together while the wind continued to howl outside the camper. 
Update on the place we stayed last night. While loading the car a tour went by and described the place we stayed as previously being a funeral home. Glad we didn't know it while staying there.
Hope to report out in the morning and we don't get blown off the island.

St Augustine Via a Jacksonville Back Alley

Travel Note:  Do not trust the Garmin!  There we were heading down 95 when Lilleth* says head east on some obscure exit. Being obedient servants to all electronic devices I immediately veered right and followed her concise directions directly to a part of Jacksonville where tourists are rarely seen.  Let's describe this as early 70's urban renewal gone south.  Obviously we made it out and  landed in St Augustine unscathed.

St Augustine's old historic area is also full of alleys but nicely preserved and full of tourists. We stumbled into the Tiny Martini Bar and found the drinks to be oddly large.  We bailed on camping and found a room right in town.  Next stop the Gulf Coast.

*Lilleth is named for Kramer's cold calculating wife on Cheers. Seems even more appropriate now.

A Savannah History Lesson

Originally established by the British to stop the northern migration of  Spanish Florida, and later an important city in the Civil War, Savannah has layers of interesting architecture and stories to go with it.  We decided the best way to fully appreciate Savannah's history was to eat our way across town and ended with traditional southern cooking at Mrs Wilkes Boarding House. While waiting in line in sub 50 degree weather at the restaurant, it became apparent to us that Floridians would never go this far north because of the extreme cold temperatures.  Time to head south and see the other reasons why the Spaniards choose Florida. 

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Made it to savannah, y'all

We rolled into town and were greeted by yet another roadside attraction. We then headed downtown for a quick dinner and off to a state park for the night.  The campground is full of spanish moss and palmettos, beautiful!  We met some nice grad students from Penn State here to present history papers at a conference.  They actually came south for the warmth but so far it has eluded all of us. Today we're heading back into Savannah to look around before continuing south.