(January 14) We haven't been north of Naples on the Florida west coast yet, so it's time to explore. We drove up to Little Manatee River State Park for 3 nights (near Bradenton). This was a nice small park with very friendly people and a river for canoeing, although we didn't get on the river, but watched others go out. Alligators, history, and ice cream socials were other highlights at this park. Campers at a site nearby gave us tickets for a very big camper/RV show in Tampa so we did that one day. We also drove to a great free park in Palmetto, Emerson Point Preserve, that featured coastal views and very large shell mounds (middens).
Myakka State Park was recommended (a little south of Bradenton and Sarasota) but we couldn't get reservations so we opted for Myakka State Forest, closer to Port Charlotte. This turned out to be a good stop for us, as the rates were less and our side trips from there to Port Charlotte and Englewood on the coast were very interesting. We rambled one day down to the end of a long street in Port Charlotte and got to an empty lot on a corner with two sides of the property bounded by the west coast Florida intracoastal waterway. Before too long several of the locals had found us checking out the property and we stayed for quite a while chatting and daydreaming about what it would be like to live there. The state forest had good biking and hiking trails and had an area for horse trailers with additional trails for riding. There are no connections for water or electricity there but for 3 nights we managed well with our own water tanks and batteries, and set up our solar panel we brought to supplement the batteries.
From some notes I had taken before we started our trip we found Ft. DeSoto County Park near St. Petersburg. This is some park! Right on the water, with large paved driveways for each site, a camp store with great ice cream, a rec hall with a fire going day and night -- it has started getting cooler as we have headed north -- and great bike trails and fishing opportunities. The nightly rates here are a little higher than we have been paying, but it was such a treat to have all these amenities (plus a laundry at the washroom) that we extended our two nights into three.
After two short and manageable days driving we stopped at the Florida end of the Gulf Islands National Seashore near Pensacola. It was chilly there but we got to walk on the beach at sunrise, observe nearby nests with large birds standing in them -- some type of heron, possibly Great Blues but we have never seen them standing in nests before -- and take bike rides and walks through the dunes. The sand here is as white as snow, and looks like snow drifts along the road. We spent a day at the Pensacola National Naval Aviation Museum, full of planes, helicopters, three IMAX theaters and lots of naval history.
Our grand finale for this part of our trip started with setting up in Schiever, Louisiana on January 26 for our two-week Habitat Care-A-Vanners project. We camped with the other members of the project in a trailer park surrounded by drainage ditches--this is bayou country -- and we worked in nearby Thibodaux, Louisiana. Our soon-to-be-friends for these two weeks include a couple from Ontario, a family with two children, a single 80+ year-old man who bakes bread and beignets (Cajun doughnuts) for us several times, and retired nurses, a pastor, teachers and an airplane pilot. We have good cooks and good musicians so our off-time was spent gathering for "happy hours" and pot-lucks and music jams.
Unfortunately we had very cold weather, so much so that two-and-a-half of the first three days we spent back at our RVs waiting for the icy rain to subside. Most other days started out in the 30s with wind-chill much lower. We worked on two new houses mainly, with side trips to several other houses that are being re-habbed to be resold. There were issues with getting materials due to the bad weather so our group of 17 sometimes was farmed out to the Habitat Restore to help there, or to making bunkbeds for a large group of college students coming in a month. At the end of the two weeks we had gotten doors and windows in both new houses, porch decking and railings were built, one house was insulated, several other projects such as installing soffits were accomplished.
Outside of the Habitat work we got in a trip to New Orleans on a nice Saturday between the two weeks. We took a ferry from across the Mississippi to the center of the city, avoiding parking in the city, and walked with several from our group to lunch at Central Grocery (a line out the door there) and explored the Jackson Square area and vicinity. The Riverwalk back and forth from the ferry was less crowded than the city and gave us views of all the ship traffic in the river. Other outings were to catch the music of one of our supervisors who plays sax and keyboard with a small group at a local club, a night of cajun music (small accordion, fiddle, guitar and a triangle) at the Thibodaux Acadian Cultural Center, and a group dinner-out at a local restaurant for our last night.
We were somewhat disappointed not to meet more of the local people, and we got tired of the loud trains going by at all hours, the dirty drainage ditches and the large amount of trash everywhere, but all-in-all it was a chance to help out, work with some great people and see a new part of the country. There are other sites for Care-A-Vanners and we may try another next year, maybe in a warmer climate!
It was an easy decision to go back to Florida for our next 4 weeks. We need weather where we can take off our down jackets and long-johns!
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