W P Franklin Campground

We left the Sarasota area and Oscar Scherer State Park on Monday and are now at W P Franklin Army Corp of Engineers Campground east of Ft Meyers. This camp was built by the ACoE in conjunction with a lock to service boat traffic on the Caloosahatchee River which drains Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico. We are about 20 miles inland from Ft Meyers. The campground is very nice and super clean, but there is just not a lot to do other than fish and kayak. (Wait a minute, that's really not so bad).
The locals are catching a few really nice snook here, and the tarpon fishing is supposed to be great at times. Our neighbors are catching mullet every day from their campsite on the water, but I really don't crave mullet so I'm leaving them alone.
We will be here until Friday and then move north to Mayaka River State Park and we will see Becky and Laura and their families in Siesta Key this weekend. Looking forward to seeing them and the grandkids.
I'll get back into my blogging when Wifi signals are better.
All is well with us and we hope everyone else is doing well too.

Sunny Again!

After some rain early on Monday the sun has been shining abundantly. We have cooled into the sixties at night, but still high seventies to low eighties in the daytime.
This evening we went to Nokomis Beach to watch the sun set. The parking lots were jammed and we thought that it was odd that so many people would go to the beach to watch the sun go down. Then it occurred to us that Wednesday evenings are drum circle nights! A huge crowd gathers around the percussionists to pound out a rhythm and dance the sun to sleep. There were tons of people having a good time and listening to the music.
The sun put on a marvelous show as it sank into the gulf, and everyone was happy.

This was the beach on Tuesday afternoon. Umbrellas sprouted up like multi-colored mushrooms!

The north side of the Venice Jetty at sunset on Wednesday. Lots of fisherfolk gather here to catch the catch of the day.

Weary sailors heading in with Venice in the background.

A gorgeous sunset on Wednesday.

Sailing to heaven.

These are the people gathered on the beach for the Nokomis Drum Circle.

Today we finally had some rain

After about three weeks of sunshine we had showers for about two hours this morning. The locals were happy since this should wash the pollen out of the trees.
We have been having fun visiting lately/ We saw brother Bob and Donna at their place near North Port (Port Charlotte area). on Thursday and again Sunday. They have a nice place and we spent a lot of time in the pool with them. Lots of fun and good friends of theirs to meet and talk with.
We saw our friends from Wheeler Road on Pine Island south of Punta Gorda on Friday. They are staying a KOA park there and we toured the Island with them. Then today we spent the day with Joe and Lynda Bozin, our neighbors from Washington Township. They are in Florida for a week vacation and they stopped to see us at Oscar Schere State Park.
Let the good times roll.

Bob and Donna at their winter home.

Fishing on Saturday morning produced this Sheephead, it's supposed to be a good eating fish.

Joe and Lynda Bozin at Pelican Alley Restaurant.

Wednesday, March 18

We had a relaxing day in the Florida sun today... again! It started off with some fishing from the kayak on the Osprey river in the morning. I had an interesting morning and caught two snook, a redfish, a snapper of some sort and a small pinfish. It was my best morning yet in the saltwater.
Around lunch time we packed a cooler and headed over to Nakoomis Beach on Casey Key, not far from our campground. We spent the afternoon basking in the sun and walking the beach. Lots of shells and lots of people here.
Later, back at camp, we had stone crab for dinner and then enjoyed a bluegrass jam session at the campground. It's hard to believe that it's past mid-March already. We have been on the road since early January and the winter is flying by. We are looking forward to some visiting the next couple of days, with brother Bob and our Wheeler Rd neighbors, and we are at Oscar Scherer State Park for a full two week stay.
I hope everyone is doing well and I'm glad to see the temperatures improving in Michigan.

We started off in this

 

And now we are enjoying this. What's not to like?

Our last day at Koreshan State Park

Today was the last day at Koreshan S. P. in Estero. We took a ride today to see Ft Meyers Beach and to Lovers Key State Park. We had lots of traffic crossing the bridge into Ft Meyers Beach, but once there the traffic cleared and it was un crowded driving along the beaches and hotels and resorts. There were a lot of beach access spots with parking at meters to use the beach.
We drove to Lovers Key State Park, a little further south along the gulf and went into the park. We parked the truck and caught the free shuttle to the south end of their beach to spend the afternoon. It was a beautiful sandy beach about two and a half miles long. We had a nice day and later drove back home through Pelican Beach and north to the campground.

My new favorite tree. This was a planting in the Koreshan gardens, imported from Australia. It's called a monkey puzzle tree and the branch ends are a puzzle of sharp scales wrapped around a stem.

A brown rat snake at the campground. We also saw a coral snake on the path to the bathroom one night, but I didn't have the camera. This is more snakes than we saw in the Everglades!!

Kayaking on the Estero River. It was about three miles to the gulf, but we didn't make it that far since boat traffic started to get bad.

We took a ride to the Corkscrew Wildlife sanctuary run by the Audobon society. This is a two and a quarter mile boardwalk through pinelands, grasslands and an ancient bald cypress grove that is the largest stand of virgin cypress in the U.S.

These are painted buntings at one of the bird feeders. This is the most colorful bird I have ever seen.

A snowy egret in the wetland ds. Notice the green face on this guy.

A barred owl in the cypress trees.

 

Here we are at Ft. Meyers Beach.

The tram to south beach at Lover's Key.

This is a portion of the beach at Lovers Key S.P. It was a long stretch of white sand and surf.

Catching up the pictures

We are at Koreshan State Park in Estero, Florida. This place has an amazing history that is a long story in itself. I'll get to that later.
 It's been a while since I posted pictures, so here I am catching up.

the catch of the day at Key West before we left for Dry Tortuga National Park

Fort Jeffrson on Dry Tortuga Key

Yhe yourists get here by plane and ferry. It is about 70 miles southwest of Key West

Fort Jefferson was built by the US in the 1860/s with about 16 million bricks from Pensicola

I found a gun to play with

We snorkeled in the crystal clear waters around the beach and the pier heads. Lots of fish and conch shells

A moat went around the fort to keep the enemy at bay

 

A resident blue Heron

On the way back to Key West we passed Sunset key. Oprah and Tom Hanks reportedly have cottages here.

The moon shimmering on the water at Curry Hammock State Park

Our jungle camp at Koreshan State Park

One of the tortises we saw in the park

The Koreshan settlement has a lot of interesting history. Read up on it when you have some time.

They generated power for the surrounding communities

An example of their handiwork

 

We're back on mainland USA

We left Marathon and the Florida Keys today, We stopped at Key Largo Fisheries on the way out and had lunch at their backyard restaurant (Conch Fritters, shrimp salad and Mahi sandwich, mmmm good)! We also stocked the fridge with some of their fresh seafood.
It was warm and very breezy all morning, and on our way across the Everglades. Then when we got to our campground at Estero we had a little rain and the humidity set in. It got to 87 degrees for a while. Right now we are sitting in the air conditioned camper after dinner, a long walk and showers. Tomorrow we will start exploring this new area. We have never been at Koreshan State Park or Estero before.