Tuesday, February 26, 2019

2/25/2018. Bicycling in the Everglades with Alligators

Today Sandy and I drove down to Shark Valley in Everglades National Park to rent bikes and ride a 15 mile paved path off of Alligator Alley.  

As many of you probably know Sandy and I for years have ridden numerous miles together on a Tandem bicycle.  This is the first time in many, many years that we have ridden separate bikes.  We decided to rent instead of haul our tandem due to the drive time and precarious way we haul the tandem on our bike rack.

First, we had a great time after a little stutter start getting Sandy back up on a bike of her own.  We saw 30 Alligators 5’ or longer, and a group of 18 baby alligators laying in the sun and enjoying the water.  See pictures below.

In addition, we saw some very pretty birds.  Also in the picture below.

What I will say is beware of the wind at your back, as it may come to bite you when you turn around to return to base.  We rode out 7 miles along a canal.  The ride seemed easy, slightly down hill, with a slight breeze at our back.  Well when we started to head back along the loop trail, we headed straight into the wind along a winding trail which was now in an open prairie type swamp with the wind coming straight toward us.  Now it was not gale force type wind, but enough to almost stop us in our tracks.  We fought our way the last 8 miles back, slightly uphill into the wind.  What we expected to take 2 hours, took us 3 1/2 hours to complete.  We later found the wind speed we faced was 10 mph. 

In the end, the trip was well worth the challenge.  The gator and bird sightings were unlike we have ever seen.  Yes, we would do it again!  Maybe next time we will get an earlier start, take more water and snacks, bigger brim hats, and apply sunscreen more often. 

PS.  Thanks to Allen and Carla Brecht for the recommendation

The following is Sandy’s input:

In addition to Shark Valley in Everglades National Park, which allowed us to check off another national park from our to do list, we drove through Everglades City, which had about 2 restaurants, most homes were on stilts, several smaller RV parks of the resort variety (but not much entertainment  in the local area but the National Park and Florida Panther Preserve), and several airboat ride companies. 


Bill was definitely fearless in Shark Valley. All the signage said stay a minimum of 15 feet from the alligators. Riding along the trail, we’d find ourselves biking past alligators hiding in the grass as close as 4 feet from the trail. So what do we do, stop and take a photo of course!  Sandy took hers from the tail end of the closest ones, but Bill went to the snout end to get a face view. Maybe hoping for an action shot!  Yikes!















2/25/2018 They make SPEED BUMPS huge in the Everglades. Dead 8’ Alligator in the middle of the road.

We left Ft Myers at 7:00 AM for the 2 hour drive to Shark Valley to go bike riding.  On our way down Rt 41 (Alligator Alley) a little after 8:30 AM we stumbled onto an Alligator that wasn’t quick enough to make it to the other side of the road.   

In my twisted mind, I couldn’t help but think about the conversation between the Alligator and a chicken prior to the accident.  You know the saying what came first the Chicken or the egg or is it who crossed the road first??  Anyhow I think the conversation went like this:
  “Chicken turns to the Alligator and said “you go first” and the Alligator said No, you go first.  Chicken says well OK, but if I make it, then you have to follow.  After the accident, the chicken thinks to himself, another win for the chickens, another pair of Alligator shoes with matching purse for those crazy humans.  Now maybe those humans will save me from the Chick-filet people  

Well I never expected to see an Alligator in the middle of the road.  Check this one off my bucket list.  I can only imagine what the driver of the vehicle said to himself when his headlights illuminated an 8’ alligator in the middle of the road prior to his vehicle being launched airborne off the back of this alligator :-).   The alligator did not survive and since the vehicle was no where in sight, my only guess is that it had to be a huge truck.  Boy, what a story that driver has to tell.

There were people running out with their cameras  to take a picture, but we decided it did not need to be archived in our photo album.

Later in the day as we returned home the alligator was no longer to be found.  Hmmm, I wonder what happened to it??

PS.  Don’t tell Sandy I posted this, because she gave me the look of “Are you Kidding, You cannot post this on our Blog”.

Oh, Yes I did. :-)  


Monday, February 4, 2019

2/4/19. Pickle Ball injury

Since arriving here in sunny Florida Sandy and I have taken up Pickle Ball.  This game is a combination of Racquet Ball, Ping-pong, and Tennis.  It is played on a court that is roughly 1/4 the size of a regulation Tennis Court.  It requires some running around, but the more I play it the more I realize it requires, quick thinking, quick reaction time, some quick movements, and more strategy with ball control.  It is a huge thing at the Cypress Trail Campground in that it is played Monday through Saturday beginning at 8:00 AM and 30 to 40 people show up each morning.  

Well much to my chagrin, this morning I was playing with two 70+ year olds and one other.  I served the ball from the back court and my opponent dinked (technical name for bopping it just over the net :-)) it over the net into the kitchen (another technical name for the Out of bound in the front court :-)) so I leaped into action doing a fast run to the net and tore the muscles on the back of my calf.  I can’t believe it.  After all these years of football, track, racquetball, snow and water skiing etc... etc... I rip my calf muscle playing a game called pickle ball against some 70 year olds.  I have never ripped a calf muscle before.  

Now I am hobbling around and probably nursing this thing for the next couple of weeks.  Unbelievable!!!

I just have to laugh. I still like to play sports like an 18 year old, but this body hasn’t caught up to my way of thinking

OR

Maybe my thinking hasn’t caught up to my 61 year old body yet!!  :-)

COME ON BODY, GET WITH THE PROGRAM. :-)