Beautiful Water Birds and Shells of Florida

Before we left Okeechobee, we went back to one of our favorite spots - the fish cleaning station near Lightsy’s.  The birds fully expect to be fed here.   

These birds are not really tame - they all require a certain amount of personal space, and if you cross that invisible line, they move.  For the brave Sandhill cranes, that space limit was about 4 feet, but for most birds it was a little more.  We could walk among the Wood Storks without too much fuss - they just moved aside but did not leave, since they were hoping for snacks.  The Great White Egret (larger than Snowy Egrets but smaller than Blue Herons) let me get within 10 feet, but no closer, and they watched me like a hawk to see if I was going to push it too far.

Blue Herons were more elusive - they stayed perched on top of the buildings and if we got within a few feet of the building, they flew away.  

We left the Okeechobee area on Wednesday after Christmas and drove to Fort Myers,  because that’s where the beaches are!  We stayed at The Groves RV Park, which advertised good Passport American rates.  It’s an older park with a ton of Park Models crammed close together and very small roads.  Our parking spot was near the end of a road so Randy pulled into our spot by executing a U-turn, but Clyde wasn’t so lucky - his spot was in the middle of a row and someone had parked their car in it.  The Park management said they didn’t know whose it was, so they had to wait awhile.  It turned out to be a lady visiting someone in the Park, and eventually she moved her car.   Then Clyde had the challenge of maneuvering their 5^th Wheel into the spot, “assisted” by half a dozen locals, all giving unhelpful advice.  He made it in spite of their help, and after everyone was settled in, we started the process of going to every beach we could find.  This area is famous for shells, and I learned that each beach has it’s own speciality when it comes to shells.  One beach on Santibel Island has lots of beautiful purple shells, know as Santibel scallops.  Another beach has white shells, and another one has light brown ones.  The City Park beach had surprisingly few shells, while others had shells lying around in piles.  

And a beach we stopped at on the side of the road (yes, we stop at every beach we see) has lots of large, heavy shells, mostly broken but still interesting.  

Captiva is an island just north of Santibel; its beach is big expanses of soft white sand, and we could walk far out in the shallow water, where the sand under the water lay in hard ridges, from the never-ending surf.  

There were a lot of broken conch shells in that shallow water, and we also saw evidence of the red tide that just hit this area - scores of dead fish, and the freshly dead ones looked slightly bloody - hence the name “red” tide.  It isn’t supposed to affect people, but we gall got a slight cough, which locals attribute to red tide.  On Captiva we had lunch at the Green Flash Restaurant.  I would recommend this restaurant - it has a great water view, and even better food.  BBQ bacon-wrapped shrimp, shrimp bisque and conch chowder, plus key lime pie, crème brûlée, carrot cake and triple chocolate cake, all consumed under the gaze of a Great White Egret, who was sitting on top of the boat house outside our window.

We stayed in the area until Sunday, then left to go to Lake City, Florida.  And when we left, it was Randy's turn to struggle with the narrow roads, parked cars, and overly-helpful strangers.  Eventually we got out, agreed we would never go back there, and started driving west.  There was not too much traffic on New Years Day and we pretty much drove all day.  Nancy found a park near the highway that accepted Passport America even on weekends, so we went there.  And to our great joy, all the sites were pull-throughs with plenty of maneuvering room!  The sites are snugged up right next to each other, but that’s not a problem when you like your neighbors, and we do.  Nancy and Randy are taking turns cooking, and Clyde and I are doing our part by enjoying the great meals.  

Last night we had a hard freeze here - what a difference a few days make!  Soon we will head west, and hopefully the weather will improve.