Crossing FL On The Okeechobee Waterway, Relax Time At Franklin Lock

We left Ft. Myers on Wednesday, beginning our eastbound run across FL on the Okeechobee Waterway (OWW).  The OWW begins at Port St. Lucie/Stuart on the Atlantic side, crosses Lake Okeechobee partway across, and ends at the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River down by Sanibel, a total of 149 miles.  We've already covered the lower 15 miles on the trip to Ft. Myers from Cabbage Key on Monday and really pushed ourselves on this next leg - 14 miles to Franklin Lock RV Park and Marina!  When you approach I-75, there's a RR bridge, then a long stretch of NO WAKE zone for manatees.   

As you can see, it's another gorgeous day and we really don't mind the slow pace.  We have been told the lengthy stretch through here for the manatees is due to a power plant ahead on the right which releases warm water into the river and the manatees love that.  One negative though - the water is dark again for this stretch so we'll have another moustache by the time we get to Port St. Lucie.

We have decided to take some serious time off for at least 3 days to rest, relax, and just enjoy doing nothing.  Well not exactly nothing, but slow down the travel pace a little, get some preventive maintenance done on the boat, and chill (literally, temps are forecast in the high 30s and low 40s) while waiting out another front and high winds headed this way.  Our original plan was to take the delay at LaBelle for 3 days but the docking situation there is not the best so Franklin Lock RV Park and Marina looked like it had some serious potential. On the way up to the lock, the scenery is beautiful with some subdivisions and a couple of trailer parks, but mostly homes on large plots of land.  Here's the lock as we approached it.  The lock is on the right side and the other boat you see there is in trouble because he completely ignored the no wake zone in the approach/holding area. 

I'm fascinated by the boating practices of so many boaters - either they are ignorant of boating rules/regulations and common courtesies or they simply don't care.  This guy blew past us and right up to the lock entrance, no radio, and I guess he expected the lockmaster to open the gate immediately for him so he had no delay.  Well, there was a sailboat already in the lock eastbound, a large powerboat waiting after the sailboat on the east side, and then it would be our turn.  It appeared that the lockmaster was still "chewing" on him when we entered the lock.

Anyhow, we were raised only a couple of feet in the lock and only had a few hundred feet afterward to get to the RV Park.  What a sweet little stop!  The park only has about 30 RV spots and only 8 slips for boats.    All the RV spots were full and 6 of the 8 slips were occupied.  It's very protected, clean, quiet, and there's absolutely nothing to do - just what we were looking for.  And the price was right also, only $24/night.  If we were 62, it would have only been $12.50 (your tax dollars at work, sort of like the lock we went through).  

There are also 2 sets of restrooms/showers/laundry, a boat ramp, and did I mention absolutely nothing to do?  However, it is clear that everyone here seems to be quite adept at doing that and probably has a lot of experience in that area.  

With absolutely nothing to do, we have taken a few strolls.  I think I will never tire of seeing the FL landscape.  

There's just a short stretch of road to walk before you get to a narrow and busy country road.  On the right, they are raising horses, on the left bulls.

"Large" bulls I might add, if you know what I mean!

Caught a friendly squirrel on the way back that literally appeared to turn and pose for me.

An old Buick was traveling with these folks.

There's a rookery at one end of the park, not sure what species of bird.

Don't you think this looks like an alligator?  Adam and Jen, show this to the grandkids and see what they think.

It never moved but another one just like it did with a little swirl in the water behind it, so we're claiming to have seen our first alligator of the trip.

As we often do, we'll close with the sunset and Christmas tree of the day.

OK, the tree is a little puny compared to the sunset but it's the only one we could find in the park!  Hey, it's the spirit that counts.

  

The front passed through last night, we have 20-30 MPH wind today, so we may leave tomorrow if it all settles back down by then.  Goodness, I just noticed the time - it's noon already.  Doing nothing takes a lot of time.

Ft. Myers, FL - More great memories

We left Cabbage Key on Monday for about a 40-mile trip to the Ft. Myers Yacht Basin in the downtown area.  You pass Captiva, Sanibel, and Ft. Myers Beach on the right, Usseppa, Pine Island, St. James City, and Cape Coral on the left, joining the Caloosahatchee River after about 20 miles. Again, lots of "slow" and "no wake" zones for manatees. We were joined early on by three dolphins that rode our port side wake for a long time.

 The city marina sits at the heart of Ft. Myers.  Here's a view from one of the 2 bridges close by.

The downtown area has changed quite a bit, and despite a huge population in the area, it is still has maintained a sleepy little city charm and is aptly named "The City of Palms" - they are everywhere.   Most of the city streets generally look like this, lined with palms.

 I'll tell you what else is in Ft. Myers - a bunch of old people!  Lots of retirees and "snowbirds" who come down from the north in the winter. I guess that's OK though, we're in that group now also.  And of course, the city is known for the winter homes of Edison, Ford, and Firestone.

You never know how your day is going to go.  We started out expecting an electronics guy to come by and check our instruments that monitor our battery system.  I won't go into detail except to say the two monitor panels have not read exactly as they should since we bought the new batteries in Ft. Walton Beach.  I suspicion that some "resets" probably should have been made at that time but didn't think about it then since we were in such a rush just to get them changed out.  So, I had contacted an electronics shop yesterday and the guy said he would send someone over after lunch.  We decided to take a bike ride around downtown and then to Publix to get some provisions. So, I called the shop to be sure we were still on their schedule.  Sort of.  The original shop I was expecting had decided to "hand off" the job to another shop that "should have called by then" but had not.  So, we waited another couple of hours, got some paperwork, bills, and planning done, then the second shop called to schedule us for "sometime next week."  Clearly that wasn't going to work so I just called the manufacturer, went through the details with technical support, entered two new baseline numbers from the battery swap, and voila, it all looks normal again.  We'll watch that closely now for a couple of days and hope that fixed everything.

With most of the day now gone, we decided to get on the bikes again for an 11-mile ride to see our old home from 1990 to 1993, across the river in North Ft. Myers.  I had already checked it out a few months ago on Google Earth and it was gone, so we were very curious about what had happened.  It was an older home but in great shape in a very nice neighborhood when we left it for our move to north Alabama.

This is a large piece of land just before getting to our old address, 24 Lagoon Street.  They used to have a mock civil war battle here every year and the sounds of the cannon fire and guns traumatized our golden retriever, Flair, for life!  Afterwards, she was always instantly rattled by loud noises, thunder, etc.  After we moved to AL, we came home after a thunderstorm one day and found her hiding and trembling behind the washer/dryer!  

As we approached Lagoon Street we saw the canal and dock behind our old home.

And the neighbor's place.

And another neighbor's place.

As a matter of fact, everyone's home was still there except ours!  Here's where it used to be, the driveway went about to where the fence is now (which wasn't there either when we left it). 

Fortunately, the guy who had bought our next-door neighbors' home not long after we left was working in his garage and we were able to hear what had happened.  We never knew who bought the house after us.  Back in those days, the FAA bought your house and handled all of the real estate transactions later when it sold.  Anyhow, here's the story.  An older couple bought the house after us and they let it run down a bit.  Then a drug addict bought it and literally turned it into a drug house.  He said there were frequent raids by the police, sometimes they would rush the house by road and by boat from the canal at the same time!  He said it was a mess.  Eventually, the "drugee" was not able to maintain the house, it was in awful condition by then and was put up for sale.  I'm making an assumption there were probably remnants of meth which I hear permeates everything and there's no way to decontaminate it.  Regardless, the neighbor bought the house on a short sale and had it bulldozed, made it his new back yard.  Here's the view behind the fence now looking toward the canal.  We used to have lots of fruit trees - orange, lime, and grapefruit - they are all gone now also.  Oh well, stuff happens.  It was still a great home for us in those days.

We headed back to Ft. Myers and decided to ride the free trolleys around town in case we had missed anything on our previous night's walk or this morning's bike ride.  They have 2 routes.  We got on the first one and had it to ourselves.  Here's our personal tour guide.  She was really sweet.  She makes the circuit 33 times a day!  As I mentioned earlier, we didn't recall downtown Ft. Myers being so nice 20 years ago.  It's now a beautifully restored city with cobblestone streets, lots of sidewalk cafes, boutiques, art shops, etc..  She clarified that all that has been completed in the last few years with new plans still in progress.  

We took some nighttime shots yesterday evening and had noted that these fountain areas along the riverfront were just completed in December of 2012.

There were a few more folks on the second trolley, mostly older resident folks going to Publix or sightseers.  One "regular" rider was kind of funny - when he got off of the trolley he asked the driver if he minded if he "picked up some wild women and brought them back on the bus with him."  I thought we should hang around for a while, make a few trips around the trolley route and see what happened, but Rhonda decided we were hungry by then.  So, we had a great dinner (hamburgers actually, but really good hamburgers) at  "Ford's Garage."

And a short walk got us back to the marina.

I'll close with daytime and nighttime Christmas trees.

By the way, we have made a command decision - we are crossing Florida via the Lake Okeechobee route.  Several reasons.  We need about three good days of weather to take the route back down the Caloosahatchee River, south by Naples and Marco Island, down to Everglades City, and then across to the mid-Keys around Marathon or down to Key West at the end.  We've already seen about half of that in years past (and all of it several times from Big Pine Key north), and there is more weather headed this way later in the week that forecasts unsettled waters in the gulf.  Also, we have spoken to several other boaters who have recently crossed via Okeechobee and they all say it is worth the trip. It sounds like it is definitely the laid-back environment we prefer.  Heading that way tomorrow.

Welcome To Cayo Costa and Cabbage Key

This has been a couple of the best days of our trip.  It probably has something to do with the fact that we lived in this area for three years from 1990-1993 when our kids were 6-9 and 9-12, and we have been reminded of some wonderful memories. We lived in Ft. Myers and made trips here in our 220 SeaRay Sundancer.  Adam and Scott, we hope you enjoy this post also as reminders of a time your Mom and I cherish.

We made a "lengthy" 18-mile run from Cape Haze to get here.  It was a beautiful morning for the trip.

It was interesting to see a ferry in this day of high technology and bridges of all sorts, moving a few cars only a few hundred feet across the waterway at a time.

But the real gem in this area is Cayo Costa - the unspoiled Florida. Well, there is a ranger station and a few facilities like restrooms, some very small cabins, etc. to accommodate a limited number of tourists, including a few campers.  It's pretty expensive to spend a day on the island - $2.00!  It's accessible only by boat and lies about 30 miles north of Ft. Myers in the string of islands that include Sanibel and Captiva.  Here's the setting for boaters, anchored in Pelican Bay.  We counted 20 that night.

Once we got anchored we took the dinghy over to the island and began a 1-mile walk across the island to the beach.  We encountered 2 feral pigs on the way.  Left side of the road. Twenty years ago, Rhonda and the boys saw the great-great-great-grandparents of these pigs as they crossed this same area.

And some mighty fine scenery as well.

There's a trolley available at certain times of the day and the park ranger just happened by, saving us some walking time.

The island is 6 miles long, all beach on the west side.  Rhonda got into her shelling routine quickly.

They also have some neat little areas for the guests like a campfire ring.

When we got back to the boat, Leia was ready to get outside a while.  She's gotten where she is pretty brave about walking the deck around the boat.

I got up early the next morning to get the batteries charging with the generator and caught a nice sunrise - never get tired of seeing these.

The batteries were charging very slowly for some reason and I didn't want to run the generator all day, so we decided to relocate to Cabbage Key about 4 miles away where they have a few docks and shorepower.  We would still be able to access the beach at Cayo Costa by dinghy.  Plus, Cabbage Key is a really neat place also so we took off on the hiking trail.  The first thing you find is a 60-foot tall, 6,000 gallon WOODEN water tower.  These were common in the 1930s when it was built, and it's the last remaining standing tower of its kind - the rest have been taken out by hurricanes.

Here's some of the view from the top of the tower.

Some of the vegetation is interesting.  Lots of spanish moss.

And this was really strange - looked like a tangled mess of really long string beans!

Here's a strangling fig tree.

And then there's the Cabbage Key Restaurant which is the big attraction on the island.  Yes, that's a super tall palm tree in the middle of the picture.

The really unique thing about the restaurant is the dollar bills that cover the walls and ceiling, most with names and occasions noted on them.  Last tally we could find is about 50K worth of dollar bills.  Yes, $50,000.  The tradition was started many years ago when local fishermen would post a dollar bill on the wall with their name on it to insure they had money for a cold beer when they returned from fishing.

Here's a view of the marina from the restaurant.  (And that tall palm again.)

And several guests in the area.  First, a gopher tortoise with kid in trail.

A great egret a few feet away from the guests having lunch on the patio.

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AND, OUR FAVORITE OF THE DAY, THE GEICO GECKO HAS NOTHING ON THIS LITTLE GUY.

Then it was time to head to the beach again.  We asked the dockmaster for a good access point by dinghy.  He recommended a spot from the east side of the island but we never found it the first time across the bay.  So, we came back and he clarified a couple of points for us.  We were looking for a tiny spot in the mangrove.  Well folks, we found it, here it is from the water.  (It really is in there). 

And from inside the mangrove.  No wonder we had a little trouble finding it.

It was a pretty good hike across the island to the beach but we owned it when we got there.  No one else around.  Looking north and south.

Rhonda says this little tree in the sand reminded her of when the boys dragged a big limb up on the beach once, hung some towels on there and made themselves a shelter.  I'm telling you, serious memory lane.

You want shells, you got shells.

I tried cooling off in the water but couldn't quite make the total plunge.  Not bad for mid-December though!  Have any of you gone swimming with pelicans lately?

We had been careful to mark an X for our access point through the woods and mangrove to get back to the dinghy.  It all looked the same from the beach.

Hated to leave but sunset was approaching.  Found some cactus on the way back.

Here's the trail leading us back into the mangrove.  Yes, there's more trail once you're in there.

After we got back to the dinghy and headed back to Cabbage Key, we spotted 2 white pelicans close by.

After we got back to the boat, I grilled some chicken and we had a nice sunset to enjoy.  Sorry about the boat antenna from the left.

After dinner we sorted through our shell collection for the day.  Here are some of the favorites.  This is one of the beauties of Cayo Costa - a shelling paradise.

We hope you have gotten a sense of this unique little area of south Florida.  We hate to leave, but it's time to move on.  We'll pass Captiva and Sanibel tomorrow, then run up the Caloosahatchee River to downtown Ft. Myers.  From that point we have a big decision to make - the route afterward to get to the Atlantic coast.  Three choices.   1.  Continue up the Caloosahatchee River and across Lake Okeechobee to Stuart, FL. 

2.  Around the southern tip of FL and intercept the Keys around Marathon.  3. Jump across to the Dry Tortugas or Key West and run the full length of the Keys.  The weather will play a role in that decision.  See you in Ft. Myers and we'll close with our Christmas tree for the day from the Cabbage Key restaurant with more dollar bills to the right side.