100 Times Bitten, Twice Shy — Camp Buy Me Love

NP Roadtrip – Days 68 – 70 – Everglades National Park

On the way over to Everglades from Ft. Lauderdale after our awesome 5 day St. John mini-vacay, we had a few exciting things to check off the task list. One was laundry, and the lovely Residence Inn made that possible. The second was to pick up our order of Camp Buy Me Love t-shirts. That’s right, we now have t-shirts available for sale on our website! Forgive the limited amount of information on the t-shirt descriptions and also the wrinkly product! We're in nature folks. There are no irons in nature. And every time I even need to LOOK at one of the tees, I have to roll back our bed and prop the lower cabinet on top of my shoulder while balancing our space heater in one hand and carefully unwrapping the t-shirts with the other. That might be a slight exaggeration, but you get the picture.

Why am I selling something? I promise I didn’t set out to sell anything. This trip is about exploring. BUT…I applied for a trademark last summer for the Camp Buy Me Love name. It’s a good name, right? Everything is all set to go, but I found out, after my application was reviewed and approved, that I have to use it in commerce before the fuzz approves it. And by fuzz, I mean the US Patent and Trademark Office. I could have picked any number of items to sell on the website, but I thought, no one needs matchbooks or pens or frisbees or golf tees. What you really need is another logo t-shirt. Right?!?! Ok, moving on. The third list item was to grab some milkshakes at Robert is Here. Hopefully you read my ode to Robert is Here in my last blog post, but if you didn’t, you can access that here. Luckily, we pulled in right AFTER about 100 teenagers poured out of a tour bus, all making a bee-line for the milkshake kiosk. Crap. Never fear, Robert was THERE and he called in reinforcements. Ooh, and they also let you cut the line if you had a credit card. Guess who can’t get credit cards? Teenagers. Insert evil adult laugh here ---->>>.

The drive through middle of Everglades National Park is absolutely beautiful. From the Coe Visitor Center to the Flamingo Campground is about 35 miles so you have ample opportunity to take in the marshes, the cypress domes, and the birds. There are so many birds in the everglades it’s unbelievable. And you can see for miles and miles. The elevation barely changes and is so low they even have a sign that says “Elevation 7 feet” at one point! Oh, and we were lucky enough to get to see a Gopher Turtle on this drive, just hanging out on the side of the road. Those that follow our Facebook account, will remember that we have barely seen any wildlife in the parks. I sent the picture of the turtle to my cousin, who quickly identified the species as the Gopher Turtle and said that she had never seen one in her all her years working in the Everglades, so this was a HUGE score for us!

Since we left our trailer in the campground for a week, we were preparing ourselves for the possibility of something having gone wrong while we were gone. We were relieved to see that nothing was awry except that our AC drain was clogged with dead mosquitoes. Really appetizing, right? So naturally, we made a quick dinner of Camp Buy Me Love Pizzas and played a little Yahtzee while we relaxed in our newly acquired Mosquito Net Tent from Walmart. Worked pretty well, although we still need to figure out how to get it close enough to the door of the trailer, while still being able to open the door of the trailer.

The following morning we drove up to the North side of the park where the Shark Valley loop is located. It’s a paved, flat, 15 mile loop popular for bikes. They also have a tram that can take you on the loop, but G and I looked forward to biking it. It’s an hour drive from the Flamingo campground, which put us there around 10 am after a Starbucks run. We set out on the trail and saw amazing wildlife right away. In fact, about a mile in there was a huge alligator just lying in the middle of the road. We steered clear, but in hindsight, I should have gotten off the bike and took a picture. Gators are lazy. They barely move. But I was too nervous to stop so we flew right by. We stopped a gazillion times to look at other gators, birds, flowers, etc. At mile 7 you lock up your bikes so you can go up the viewing platform. Architecturally, it is in stark contrast to the natural surroundings. A huge concrete structure, built in a circular pattern, exudes a 50s vibe. It slowly takes you up to a covered platform where you can take in the view from above. After grabbing a few pictures you get back on your bike and travel the rest of the 8 miles back to the visitor’s center. It’s very flat, but it is so hot and muggy, and the day we were there the wind was blowing in our direction both ways making it difficult to maintain speed. I was overheated for the last 5 miles, and didn’t really think I was going to make it on my own. We took several rests and water breaks, but sometimes it’s just best to keep it steady and forge ahead. The mile markers were my lifeline. I just kept looking at those knowing that they were going to add up to 15 miles quickly. And they did. It took us about 2 hours, taking a lot of time to stop for pictures. We both got some Gatorade from the vending machine and chugged those down, packed up our bikes, and went on our way.

NOTE: G took way better pictures on this ride than I did. As soon as he edits them I will put them in the post, but for the time being, you have these less superior ones to look at.

After the bike ride we were supposed to go on an airboat tour, but unfortunately we would have had to wait for about 45 minutes for the next boat to leave. We opted to go straight into Homestead where we met my cousin for lunch and then went on the airboat tour on the south side of Homestead at the Everglades Alligator Farm. It was quick and fun and we saw a bunch of other reptiles, birds, etc. that was included in the price of admission, so I’d say that was a winning last minute change-up. We were then supposed to go the 34 miles into the park, get the dogs and take them the 34 miles back out of the park so we could let them run at a dog park (without fear of mosquito bites) and also put gas in the car. I was so tired, though, when we returned to Flamingo, that I couldn’t fathom the hour-and-a-half round trip. I walked the dogs with their mosquito repellent bracelets on and convinced G that we didn’t have to go to town. We spent our last night in the Everglades enjoying some wine our neighbors had given us before we left, and slept like tired little babies. The next day we packed up everything and headed back to Homestead. We were dangerously close to running out of gas. Being near empty without a trailer is no big deal, but being near empty while towing a trailer is downright dangerous. Our car told us we had zero miles left on our tank about 6 miles before we were going to be in Homestead. That last 6 miles G drove about 15 miles per hour in a 45 MPH zone. We didn’t even stop at Robert is Here as we drove by, which is a miracle in and of itself. Fortunately for us, we made it to the gas station and went on our merry way to the happiest place on earth.