December 18, 2011

Last night Randy’s kitchen fixed a big dinner for the RV Park.  They served Greek Salad, Relish trays, Tomato-Basil soup, Amaretto Carrots, Seasoned Peas, Pork tenderloin, White cake, Coconut cake, Chocolate cake and Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce.  All for $9.00!!!   This morning they followed it up by serving a great breakfast -  Bacon, Sausage, French Toast, Biscuits, Toast, Fresh Fruit, and an egg station where they fixed omelets to order.  And that only cost $6.  Basically, for a little bit of cash, people can eat very well here. 

But it’s a lot of work so this afternoon we needed to do some non-restaurant things.  Clyde and Nancy came to the rescue, driving us out to see some of the local stuff.  For starters, we went looking for alligators.  They are around here somewhere, so we should be able to find them, right?  Not so fast...For starters, Lake Okeechobee is simply huge.  When you stand on one shore, you can’t even see to the other shore.  That’s a lot of area to look for gaters in.  But Nancy asked someone at the local computer store, who recommended Lock 7.  We assumed that would be a big lock-and-dam, similar to the one we saw at Alton, Illinois.  But as far as we could discover (by driving around and asking people standing on the bank), it’s a marshy area not too far from our RV Park.  There were no gaters there today because half a dozen air boats were roaring in and out of the marsh.   But we drove around a little, and found a great view of the lake.  

The computer lady had mentioned a second gater-viewing spot, not too far from Lightsey’s restaurant, where we had a great seafood dinner a few nights ago.  We went there, and once again, no gaters.  A local fisherman told us that it’s too cold for them to be out today.  Apparently they have dens in the river bank (or lake bank), and the dens have air pockets, like beaver dams.  When it’s cold they dive underwater to their den and lie there, out of the cold water, and don’t show up for the tourists.  Silly gaters.  But at that point I quit caring about gaters, because being in that area was like stepping into Audubon-Land!  There were large water birds everywhere.  All kinds of beautiful, amazing birds.  

There were a lot of Wood Storks - I didn't know about these birds before now.  They are very pretty except for their heads, which are very ugly.  It looks like a vulture head got stuck onto an egret’s body.  They have wicked-looking beaks, and the other birds tended to move out of their way.  

A young Brown Pelican sat in the middle of the Wood Storks; all of the time we were there he kept his head down and never lifted his beak; maybe that’s Pelican for “I’m not a threat to you".  

A couple of other pelicans who like their own space sat on top of a nearby boat; the adult has a lovely white neck.

A Great Blue Heron, with it’s distinctive black shoulders, stood on the dock, watching the rest of us.

A couple of large Sandhill cranes flew in; they are easy to recognize by their cap of red feathers.  They are usually found in pairs, and that seems to give them confidence; they walked fearlessly among the other birds, and occasionally would rush at the others to get them out of the way.  

The reason all these birds were here is because there is a fish-cleaning station.  A couple of successful fishermen were cleaning fish and the birds were lined up quietly all around them, hoping for scraps.

And on top of the cleaning station stood a Great Egret, watching for something that would be worth coming down for.  What a wonderful place this is!