Biscayne Bay National Park

Biscayne Bay National Park

Thursday Feb 2 2017

Just a few miles east of our campground is Biscayne Bay National Park. The park encompasses 172,971 acres, with 95% of it being underwater. Hhuumm, that congers up some images. Who came up with such a precise figure? I can see the surveyors now, Frick says “its actually 172,970 and 1/2 acres,” Frack barks back, “we get paid by the acre, round it up to 971!”

Millie at the visitors center

Anyhow, the park covers a vast area, it ranges from just south of Miami to Key Largo and extends out into the Atlantic about ten miles. The string of islands at its eastern edge are the northern most portion of the Florida Keys. A good bar room bet would be to the name of the northernmost of the Florida keys. Most would answer Key Largo, the correct answer is Elliott Key. 

tour boat to Boca Chita Key

On the parks western border Biscayne Bay melds into the mainland of Florida through 4825 acres of mangrove forests. This tidal mix of trees, shrubs and water are also part of the National Park. I read an interesting story about the one small beach in the mangroves. Back in the days of segregation, it was a “blacks only” beach. It existed as such until the 1960's. It is now the visitors center for the park and the departure point for our boat trip to Boca Chita Key.

Tourist looking for dolphins

The concessionaire who takes tourists out to the keys uses a large powered catamaran to traverse the shallow depths. The bay has an average depth of 10 feet with many dangerously shallow areas. On the way out the captain finds the resident pod of Dolphins and circles around them so the tourists can see and photograph them. The dolphins don't seem to mind and even ride the wake the tightly turning boat creates. I think there is a double standard going on here, if this was not a park service tour the boat would be confiscated and the caption manacled and displayed before the media for harassing the wildlife!

Wreck in Biscayne Bay

We also floated over the wreck of a sunken shrimp boat. Through the clear water we could clearly see several varieties of fish swimming about the old steel hulled boat. The captain said it was ten feet underwater. 

fake lighouse

Our destination was Boca Chita Key. The harbor and surrounding ruins were built when the property was privately owned. It is now maintained for boaters access to this portion of the park. The lighthouse was never functional and was built as a display when the area was a playground for the rich, circa 1930-s to 1940's.

Boca Chita harbor

I was surprised that the seaward side of the key did not have any surf, there must be a submerged reef offshore somewhere, but I couldn't see waves breaking anywhere on the horizon.

view from the lighthouse

More bar room trivia:

If you look at a map you will notice that Boca Chita Key and several other small islands are north of Elliott Key and I had said Elliot Key was the northernmost of the Florida Keys. Boca and the others are not true keys, instead being transitional islands.

This may lead you to query, what is the difference between a key and an island. A key is formed when an underwater reef grows to the surface of the water. An island can be formed in several ways, like a key it could have started as an underwater reef. Before it breached the surface wind and waves deposited sand on top of it, creating a transitional island. An island can also be created by sand deposited on the ocean floor, these become barrier islands, lots of these on the eastern coast of the USA. Lastly an island can be pushed to the surface through geographic forces like volcanoes (Hawaii) or shifting tectonic plates (the white cliffs of Dover in England).

There you have it, all you ever wanted to know about islands. Hope you win lots of bar bets. Millie and I enjoyed our day trip to Biscayne Bay National Park, next attraction for us is drag races at the Homestead NASCAR track on Friday night.

Miami skyline in the background

Millie and Larry after seeing their shadow on groundhog day and realizing they have to endure six more weeks of this weather!

More gym stories

We feel your pain! This morning we woke up to a rainy chilly morning with temperatures in the 60's! Southern Florida really has us spoiled, we're used to sunny 80 degree weather everyday. The front will pass over and paradise weather will return in time for our boat trip to Elliot Key on Thursday. Elliot Key is an island in Biscayne Bay National Park, more on that in the next posting.

We're busy everyday, although not really doing anything blog worthy. We go to the gym 4 days a week, but somehow I can't seem to make self torture an interesting subject to write about. The most intriguing aspect of being there is wondering about the other masochist's. 

There are two middle aged black men who are regulars, One is severely handicapped, literally dragging his near useless legs behind his walker. He works very hard on his upper body strength, for obvious reasons. I wonder what put him in such dire straits, polio, gunshot, or maybe a birth defect? His gym partner doesn't really exert himself at all, except maybe his jaws. He rambles on and on about his Facebook relationships and sexual escapades. His exploits seem a little far fetched to me, but who knows, he could be Homestead's resident Casanova! 

Then there are the gym rats, they pretty much stay on the weight lifting side of the gym, but we've seen them often enough to nod a hello in passing. Body building is a long term commitment to the gym and they are probably here every day. A surprising number of women in the gym are body builders.

On Friday a woman with her obese daughter in tow came through on the new member orientation. This poor girl was just puffed out in all directions, it didn't look like a genetic or medical condition, but instead a lifetime of junk food. The kid has a long rough row to hoe and the sad part is I got the impression she was at the gym at her mother's insistence. If she hasn't found the intestinal fortitude to fight for her health, then she's doomed. It's really sad because the poor child is only about 14 years old.

Arte Johnson on "Laugh In"

And then there's the old farts! One old guy shuffles from machine to machine like the character in “Laugh In” played by Arte Johnson. He removes the weight pin and just moves the arms of the various machines with no resistance, but heck, he's here doing something! A couple old guys and at least one old woman, all with obvious vanity problems are living in delusion, thinking themselves to be body builders. You can tell the ones here on doctors suggestion, they all have wives accompanying them, else they would be at the corner bar.

And then there are the only two normal people in the gym, Millie and me! 

Airboat ride

Like a lot of retired RV'ers who roam the country, Millie and I have a bucket list of things we would like to do and places we would like to visit. We don't (or haven't yet) hit the road on a dedicated bucket list tour, we just check off items when ever we can.

One of the things neither of us has done was ride on an air boat. Air boats are flat bottomed aluminum boats fitted with an aircraft engine and propeller. They are specifically made to skim across very shallow water. 

Boat like the one we were on

If there's one thing Florida has, it's wide expanses of shallow water. Here in South Florida it's all part of the Everglades. All the water that drains though the state in underground aquifers bubbles up here and drains to the sea through the wide shallow grasslands.

baby alligator

igator

Most of the 2400 acre Everglades National Park is off limits to air boats for conservation, but they are permitted in an area of the park near Miami. There are several tour operators on the tamiami Trail (Hwy 41) We chose “Air boat in Everglades” for our air boat experience.

Millie and I on the airboat

Riders marshall at the Pilot Travel Center on the edge of the Everglades and then drive about a mile into the park on Hwy 41 where the air boats wait at a river landing. 

the Everglades

Our boat was one of the smaller ones and it was very fast. It carries eight passengers and the Captain/tour guide. We only has six passengers on our visit so it accelerated very quickly. Willy, our Captain took us to several hammocks so we could view wildlife. We saw alligators ranging from very young ones (12 inches long) to a 7-8 foot male. The only other animals we saw were lots of different birds. There are also turtles and snakes in the Everglades but we didn't see any. 

pond apple trees

Between stops to view the flora and fauna we sometimes reached speeds I'd estimate were around 40-45 mph. The last feature we toured was a grove of pond apple trees. They grow in the water with trunks that resemble cypress trees.

large male aligator

Both of us agreed the air boat ride was very cool. This was also our first experience in the Everglades where we weren't standing the solid ground, it too was a very cool experience!

Key Biscayne

Earlier this week Millie and I spent an afternoon on Key Biscayne. The island lies south of Miami Beach and east of Miami. Its original claim to fame was as the largest coconut plantation in the United States. In 1940 the owner (Matheson) donated over 800 acres of the island for a public park in exchange for the county building a causeway to the island.

The remaining Matheson property, stretching across the middle of the island, was then sold off to developers. In 1951, you could buy a new home on the island for $9,540. In 2013 the average single family house was valued at $900,000.

private residence in the village

President Richard Nixon purchased three waterfront homes, forming a compound known as the Florida White House. His first big scandal happened here when his friend and bank owner Bebe Rebozo was caught laundering a $100,000 donation from Howard Hughes to the Nixon election campaign. 

at the Cape Florida lighthouse

The island is also home to Cape Florida Lighthouse, first built in 1825, it was burnt down in an Indian attack ten years later. The present lighthouse was built in 1847. It has been in and out of service several times over the years and extinguished for the last time in 1996 when it was decommissioned by the Coast Guard.

The structures in the bay behind the sailboat are all that remain of Stiltsville*

Crandon Blvd is the main road that transects all three sections of the island.

The light house is in the southern end in Bill Paggs State Park. Admission is $8 a car with up to four passengers. Tours of the light house are available twice daily, 11am and 1pm.

The center comprises the Village of Key Biscayne. To the west of the Crandon Blvd is mostly residential and has an air of affluence. I think I can safely say no poor people live in Key Biscayne. The little bit of commerce along the boulevard is architecturally discrete, no flashy franchises, no beach stores, no tourist attractions. The eastern side of the village is predominantly condominium complexes and large resorts, the flagship resort being the Ritz Carlton. They are all gated so getting around on that side is a puzzle. The village is mighty pretty and worth a visit, you can stay a while if you want, the Ritz will put you up for about $580.00 a night. 

Ritz Carlton - Key Biscayne

The northern end of the island is the 808 acre county park (Crandon Park), it has a large marina, beautiful golf course, tropical paradise like beach and many other outdoor activities. 

The beach at Crandon Park

I suspect that if entire the island had been developed commercially and it did not have the two public parks, there would be a guarded gate on the causeway and we mere mortals would not be welcome.

Mere mortals on Key Biscayne 

The causeway and bridges from Miami to Key Biscayne cross a small island called Virginia Key. We stopped there at Whiskey Joe's Bar and Grill and enjoyed lunch on the patio overlooking the Miami skyline. Good food, but as usual you have to pay for the view. Grouper sandwich with fries was $15.99 

Miami skyline from Whiskey Joe's 

RV facts: There are no RV Parks on Key Biscayne. The big park (Crandon) has a large parking lot, I don't know if there is parking for long rigs. The state park (Bill Paggs) has limited parking and I saw no designated RV parking area. The town is definitely not RV friendly, actually it is not visitor friendly at all. There is very little public parking and no where you could put an RV. The residential streets on the west side of town are very narrow with tight traffic circles at most intersections. All the resorts and condo areas on the east side of the main road are gated. Fuel on the island was $.50 higher than it was on the mainland, $2.50 vs $3.00 per gallon for regular gas.

 *Stiltsville has a colorful history that dates back to the 1930s, when "Crawfish Eddie Walker" built the first shack on stilts above the water. Over the years more buildings were constructed, and the area took on an aura of mystery. Accessible only by water, the area was the place to see and be seen when visiting the winter resorts on nearby Miami Beach. Stories of illegal alcohol and gambling led to several police raids on the Bikini Club and Quarterdeck Club. At its peak in 1960, there were 27 structures on the flats, but hurricanes, fires and the ravages of being in such an exposed place made every building relatively short-lived. In 1985, the bottom land on which the stilt structures sit was deeded by the State of Florida to the Federal Government as part of Biscayne National Park.

Taking it easy in SoFlo

We been passing the time with no real plan, if we think something is interesting to us, we do it, if not we can be found lounging around the motorhome. We'll be sitting under the awning watching Maggie play in her pool while we enjoy the balmy 80 weather here in southern Florida. Anyhow, I didn't think I had anything blog worthy to write about, but reviewing my notes I may not have anything of substance , but I've got plenty to say, here goes!

We recently saw a very informative PBS documentary called A wing and a prayer (2015). It is about a group of American World War Two veterans who smuggled airplanes and weapons into Palestine in the late 1940's. They are crediting with saving the newly born Jewish state from annihilation in the 1948 Arab-Israel war and with the birth of Israel's Air Force.

Millie and I go to the gym three days a week. Both of us use the weight room, tomorrow we add a fourth day, Millie will do Yoga, I will do another day on the weight training equipment.

We made our first trip to the Hispanic Market, it's always interesting, like a foreign country right up the street. We bought some vegetables, but only varieties we recognize. There's some strange looking stuff there! We always browse in the flea market behind the produce building, but didn't find anything we wanted to purchase.

We found a really good restaurant. It's in the warehouse district here in Florida City, smack dab in between two long storage buildings, it would probably not be your first choice in eateries if you judged it by outward appearances. We had the Wednesday special and boy was it good! Soup or salad, drink, all the fried catfish and two sides you can eat, for $9.99.

Bingo! We are officially snowbirds, we've started playing bingo here at the campground on Thursday nights. We are gambling of course, it wouldn't be near as much fun if we weren't playing for money!

So far we're down $35, won $5.

I got to do some electronics troubleshooting recently. Millie's sewing machine was not operating properly, I deducted it was a faulty speed controller. Further investigation revealed one of the soldiered connections the sliding rheostat had broken loose. I re-soldiered the connection and the machine is once again humming along and Millie can return to work on her sewing project.

Pictures, you may have noticed a lack of personal pictures on the blog this year. The main reason is I have technologically regressed. A couple months ago my smart phone bit the dust. No shame for it really, it survived several years of abuse, both physically and electronically. It got battered because it was a guy phone, no pampering, no protective cover, just use and abuse. When on the road we used it as a WiFi hotspot and that took its toll. These phones run very hot when set up as a hotspot and heat kills electronics. 

Anyhow I decided I would get the proper equipment for internet service in the motorhome and for my personal use I would buy a flip phone. Yes a flip phone, you can still buy them, but you're choices are limited. So, I bought this supposedly rugged armored Samsung phone, in less than a week I broke the outside screen. The phone part still works, as does the texting, I haven't figured out the voice mail yet. Texting is a pain in the duppa, remember hitting multi function keys four times to get a desired letter, yes I'm doing that! It has a camera, I don't know how good it is, the screen is midget sized. I haven't been able to find any software to download the pics to my computer via USB cable and don't seem to have the ability to send them to an email address.

The other day I was looking thru the menu's again and discovered the phone is Bluetooth capable. Bluetooth is a method of linking devices wirelessly, kind of like a mini WiFi. My computer has windows ten which has Bluetooth compatibility, but it does not have the hardware. I have ordered a USB Bluetooth radio and on Wednesday will be able to download phone pictures to the computer.

I was going to write a long winded essay on abuse of racial privilege, but I think I'll put that on my soap box blog. Suffice is to say, there is an element of the black community here in south Florida with a very strange way of honoring their civil rights leader, Martin Luther King. 

Getting healthy

Millie and I joined the local YMCA over the weekend using our Silver Sneaker affiliation. Silver Sneakers is a senior wellness benefit which is part of our health care plan. A little back ground on our health consciousness is in order. 

Millie has been a devoted beach walker, power walking two miles every morning when we are in Myrtle Beach. She continues her exercise routine in whatever way she can when we are on the road. Me on the other hand, relied on being busy all the time as a replacement for regular exercise. Since my shoulder surgery a year ago I have been afraid of re-injuring it, done little work and now I can really tell my upper body strength has suffered. So, with the Y only 2 miles up the road, it didn't take much prompting for me to take the plunge.

We got the Y tour and gym orientation over the weekend, so this morning we went to exercise We figured it would be busy with pre work visitors early in the morning so we arrived at 10:30.

Today's gyms can be a little intimidating, with the gym rats looking all ripped and the beauty queens sparkling. Not wanting to look like novices, Millie and I did our best to dress like a gym regulars. My attire was shorts and an old T shirt, and Millie was looking mighty fine in stretch pants and nylon sports top.

There were only about 6-8 people in the gym and half of them were using the free weights so we had all the strength training equipment almost to ourselves. Neither of us overdid it with heavy weight, we just did some repetitions using moderate weight. We wanted to get familiar with each machine and also start slowly so we wouldn't strain anything. Some of the others in the gym wore gloves and one had a headband. The gloves, I thought would really make me look macho, the headband idea I nixed, it reminded me of Richard Simmons. Meanwhile, Millie is still looking fine in her stretch pants and nylon sports top!

Each machine has a small pictorial that shows proper use and which muscle groups it taxes. That made it easy, as some of these new fangled exercise machines are rather confusing until you know how they work. I rather enjoyed the workout, which surprised me. Besides, if I get bored all I have to do is look over to Millie in her stre.....well you get the idea!

We plan on using the gym for strength training three days a week to start, we can get our cardio workout walking or biking around the campground streets.

Gilberts Resort

First, let me reiterate, our winter home is on the main land of Florida. We are about as far south as you can go without being on the causeway to the Keys. We like it here for several reasons, the most prominent being the tropic weather.

Our campground is located just to the left of the last traffic signal in Florida City. Just past our RV park you are funneled onto the blue barrier lined causeway that takes you to the islands. At the southern end of the causeway the road climbs a high bridge over Jewfish creek. Cross the bridge and you have arrived in the Conch Republic, aka the Florida Keys. 

Under the bridge is a marina/hotel/restaurant/Tiki Bar called Gilbert's Resort. Hidden from view for the passing parade rushing by on the high bridge, the resort, specifically the waterfront Tiki Bar is a popular spot for locals and tourists alike. Whether arriving by bike, boat or buick the open air seating by the docks is the big draw for those in search of that mythical Margaritaville. 

Millie and I have never stopped at Gilbert's on our trips to the Keys and decided to drive down and check it out. The Resort has provided the atmosphere; three large open Tiki Hut bars, waterfront tables along the dock and wanna-sound-like-the-islands entertainment. All you need bring is the attitude, which should by now be mellowed by the latitude.

There is a full menu for food, our opinion is based on just the two selections we made in our one visit. In our humble view, it is typical water view bar quality, deep fried and overpriced. 

Gilbert's Resort is a fun place to enjoy friends, people watch and take in the ever changing spectacle of boats that cruise by or tie up at the dock.