Hey Wallace, look at that eagle’s nest on top of the radio tower. By mid-morning, we were on a tour back to Flamingo, the small museum and marina at the far end of Everglades National Park. It’s been a couple of years and we did not go on the boat ride as planned. It seems to have doubled in price to $26.50 per person. Plus, I met a young lady who is going to be disappointed because my digital camera let me down. Her picture is blurred (my camera trips the shutter very slowly in low light, instead of beeping a warning).
Ranger Leslie is one of those rare people you meet where there is an instant compatibility. Makes me wish we had met at a different time. She is the type of gal I dated in college and I’m so glad there are still a few such unjaded women around. The rules say we’ll never meet again, but the electricity was there; a very captivating mutual attraction on the personality level. Some might say “chemistry”. Sigh.Author's note 2015-06-14: I was right. I never saw Ranger Leslie again.
All these years I’ve been in the area and I did not know about the summer mosquito problem. I’ve been in the swamps before, so did they stop spraying? Even a heavy layer of repellent did nothing, we had to take turns jumping back into the car so only one door was open at a time, and still they got inside. One bit me in the shoulder blade right through my shirt. Question. How is it that even a good brisk wind won’t blow mosquitoes away?
Wallace and I stopped at every stop and had key lime pie at the marina. We would have walked up to a mile on the trails but the mosquitoes stopped us after a few dozen yards. Mosquitoes are among the most useless life forms in existence, they don’t do anything but bite, they don’t even pollinate plants, they are a hated species. With a whine-like buzz, they annoy all but each other and spread foul diseases. They are the invertebrate equivalent of the US diplomatic corps.
We declined to take the boat ride although we toyed with the idea of renting a canoe. Instead, we stopped and spent a few minutes at everything along the way. It is off season so there were no tourist crowds. I was impressed by the amount of distance we walked, mostly along seashores. We found a popular park I’d never seen before, called the Dante Fascell Center, but by then we were both dog tired from such a long day. Dante Bruno Fascell was another of those countless New Yorkers who moved to Florida and used his considerable family wealth and influence to rise to insignificance.
Of course, we stopped at Robert is Here, the fruit stand. They were having their 49th anniversary. Popularity may be responsible for their relatively high prices, we did not have the $5 milk shakes this time. The place was packed full of boy scouts and antique cars. All these were places we’ve been before (2007/04/21). It was actually nice to be familiar enough with the area to explore. I think I’m becoming a minor authority on mangrove trees. The round trip was 224 miles, Wallace driving most of it.
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We saw more of those Everglades City style “homes” for sale. These are the 12 x 33 pre-fab shacks that would easily fit on our patio. The asking price is $49,900 and I doubt that includes the land. (The same models in Everglades City were $80,000 five years ago.) I took this photo of one of the nicer units on Xmas day, 2006. You can get an idea of the tiny dimensions and clearances by the neighboring shack on the right.I must feel sorry for people who find they have no choice but to live in such a place so far out into nowhere. Two people would have a hard time sharing what is basically a decked out summer cabin. These are not the only things nibbling away at the agricultural areas south and south-east of Miami. Urban sprawl means there are now acres of those obnoxious duplexes with the slate roofs.
Housing developments on farm land are known as “the final crop”. All three of the connecting commuter roadways (Dixie, Florida Turnpike and Krome) are the same size as they were twenty years ago, which gives you some idea of the daily traffic jams. Yet only three states (CA, NY & TX) have larger populations than Florida, at 39 million.
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