Large alligator in our Campground

Monday, September 13, 2021, Elevation 3 – Temperature blast furnace hot.

We moved around 79 miles today, again it was only a couple of hours drive even with a stop to top off the gas tank.

We got set up, around 2:00 and I think (hope) we might have a little shade at this campground, it was kinda cloudy when we got here, only time well tell. It’s a federal campground so with the senior pass we get to stay for 1/2 price. We have electricity on site  but will need to fill the water tank from jugs for showers and to wash dishes.

We will be here for a total of 4 nights and they have a 60% chance of rain every day and it did start raining shortly after we got set up and continued to rain while we went for a drive. At least the rain and cloud cover cooled things off. I should also mention that we are the ONLY campers in the campground……..that probably should tell us something.

Tuesday, September 14, 2021 – I’m not going to mention the oppressive heat & humidity or the little blood sucking monsters. Even with 2 fans pointed at the door at least 4-5 managed to get in.

2 more campers arrived while we were gone. Gone you ask what were we up to? Well, we went for an airboat ride, not just 1 air boat but 2 different airboats and a swamp buggy tour. Yesterday after we got set up we drove down to the town of Everglade City, just to check it out, there were several airboat companies there so we stopped in at one to get some prices, they had a package deal, 2 airboat rides and a swamp buggy ride for 1 discounted price, and was told we could buy the tickets at the window or online. We wanted to check the weather for tomorrow so didn’t get any tickets. I’m glad we didn’t, back home we checked online and they had a buy one get one free, it’s a special running for about a month. We booked the tickets online.

We started out on a smaller airboat and everyone had connected headsets so we could hear the captain. We toured a mangrove swamp, then we had to drive a few miles to another location where we got on a much larger and faster boat and louder boat to tour some of the rapidly disappearing grasslands. Once that tour was over we walked across the road and rode in the swamp buggy, for me that was probably the most interesting, we made more stops and the driver was a little more informative.

My thoughts on the airboats, I’m glad I went, but probably won’t do it again, just to much noise pollution, they really need to be quieted down. The things can be heard for miles and when you have multiple companies running boats, each with probably a dozen boats that’s a whole lot of noise, I don’t want to try to imagine how loud and busy it would be in the busy season. Also I don’t know how they keep from crashing into other boats flying around blind corners.

I’m still not sure how much shade we have we left before the sun was up to high and by the time we made it back the clouds and rain were rolling in but I’m not complaining about that, it’s the direct sunshine that really causes the AC to struggle keeping it cool inside. Otherwise it’s a typical RV air conditioner, with the thermostat having a big temperature range before kicking on and off. It starts to get warm before kicking on and it cool before it shuts off.

This campground is U shaped around a lake, probably dug to use the dirt someplace, anyway when we got home yesterday we spotted a very large alligator water swimming around.

On the way home we took a multi mile detour on the loop road and this guy was just resting beside the road, Mary took this picture from the jeep window, I tried to get her to get out to take it but she didn’t want to, I just don’t know why.

The Smallest Post Office in the USA, it’s in an old pump house.

The End