#44 - Sunday, 2 April 2017 - Sea Rim State Park, Texas

Second post for Sunday Funday. This entry from the blustery beach of the Gulf of Mexico at Sea Rim State Park. Those of you who caught my Snap or Insta stories today saw my campsite right along the ocean. It’s the middle of nowhere and I get cell signal for a couple minutes every five hours or so. When I arrived the volunteer at the headquarters told me that the weekend was slow due to the severe thunderstorm warnings. I sure can pick a good time to perch my Wheelhouse right above the windy beach!

After 510 miles on Friday and 410 yesterday, I was glad to only have about 100 miles today, but a leisurely stop at the Texas Welcome Center, the remote location of the park and the back highways that were my path meant that it took almost three hours. (The visitor’s center was impressive with loads of literature and a nice boardwalk through the Blue Elbow Swamp behind the building). This area of extreme southeastern Texas near the border with Louisiana is pretty desolate. The major feature during my trip south once I was in Texas was the cluster of oil refineries for petroleum conglomerates like Valero that are just north of this park. The day was gloomy and overcast and that only enhanced the bilging smoke coming out of the dirty stacks of the oil plants.

I am here for three nights. I really need to do some computer work so I actually picked the location due to its remoteness. Sun is predicted for tomorrow and I’ll definitely spend a few hours chasing shorebirds, waterfowl and gators with cameras, but I am here to relax and sit in front of this laptop and get some projects completed. Hopefully tomorrow’s draft will be the final one for the catalog I have been working on for Northwest Zoological Supply and I’ll spend hours working on the Journal of the BTS

All the best, M

#43 - Sunday, 2 April 2017 - Lake Charles, Louisiana

Rainy Sunday morning greetings from Twelve Oaks RV Park near Lake Charles in southwestern Louisiana. Yesterday was a four state day. I left the panhandle of Florida and drove across the narrow southern tips of Alabama and Mississippi and on past New Orleans, through Baton Rouge across the mighty Mississippi River near its end at the Gulf of Mexico and on to this park 33 miles from the Texas border. I doubt this 2017 road trip will have any other days where I am in four states. Only a half hour from Texas, I could have easily made it five states, but my next destination is Sea Rim State Park. It lies on the Gulf coast in extreme southeastern Texas about 100 miles from here.

The freedom to choose destinations on a momentary whim is a wonderful part of this experience. As I drove along the Gulf of Mexico through four states I didn’t really consider spending any time oceanside until I stopped for a picnic lunch with Jesse at the Mississippi Welcome Center along Interstate 10. As she ate her apple and I had a can of tuna and crackers, I looked at my Texas Gazetteer and 2017 Road Atlas. I looked at the path I had driven and the stretches of ocean I had passed. State and National Parks are my sites of choice, and I spied Sea Rim State Park. I looked at its website on my iPhone and became intrigued. It has RV sites along the beach and a boardwalk that takes you along a path above the brackish marshes. It also said there were wildlife observation blinds. I decided I had to go. Unfortunately, a website glitch didn’t allow booking a campsite for the same day, so I was only able to reserve a site for the following day – today. I booked two nights, but if it is what I hope I likely will ask for another two during check in.

Since I couldn’t get into Sea Rim last night, I had two choices: crash for free in a truck stop or Wal-Mart parking lot, or find an inexpensive RV park somewhere along the interstate in Louisiana. After the picnic ended I sat in my truck and thumbed through my giant RV campground directory and chose one. It was three hours farther along the interstate. I read the guide’s brief description and three ratings system and then visit the park’s website to check out photos and more info. I’m not too choosy for only one night’s stay, but I certainly don’t want to pay $ to stay in a shithole. Twelve Oaks was certainly reasonable at the Good Sam Club discount price and I wasn’t disappointed upon arrival.

I only have two hours to go so I’ll have a leisurely morning here and am now making eggs and coffee. I plan to get a few more images up on Instagram and write a few postcards. Then I’ll break camp and drive a short distance west before heading south to explore the gulf coast for a few days.

Cheers, MJ

#42 - Saturday, 1 April 2017 - Holt, Florida

Good morning from River’s Edge RV Campground near Holt, Florida. Yesterday morning I left Kissimmee Prairie and drove a little over 500 miles over the course of 10 hours. I will miss that state park. As I left I was treated to glimpses of the park’s two most noticeable raptors. I paused to photograph a Red-shouldered Hawk on the ground among palmetto scrub. As I neared the spot near the park entrance where one or two Crested Caracaras were often sighted, I slowed to watch one perched high on a post and then noticed another on the ground on the opposite side of the road. I came to a stop and realized that there were two on the ground roadside in addition to the one perched high above. They are wary and didn’t give me a chance to aim a lens at them. I hadn’t seen three caracaras together before, nor had a red-shouldered hawk fly right alongside my truck as I cruised down the road. It was as if the best had been saved for last. Later when the Florida Turnpike ended at I-75 north I saw my first bald eagle of the trip hovering just above the road. When I started west on I-10 toward Tallahassee and the Florida Panhandle I began to see some dead-on-road (DOR) armadillos and turtles.

Although I photograph what wildlife I can, I’ve written before how I’d rather just enjoy the animals and nature instead of being distracted by capturing the moment for others to see. Additionally, there is so much to see that I can’t capture images of. I have photographed herons, egrets and raptors because I love them, but also because they are larger birds. Aside from a mockingbird photograph from the Everglades and another odd small bird here and there, I am really not a bird photographer. I couldn’t be even if I wanted to be. My longest lens is a second hand 300 mm f4 I bought from Chad Campbell along with a 1.4x teleconverter that extends its range to 420 mm. Bird photographers use faster glass and longer prime lenses. 600 mm fast prime lenses are standard with those with deep pockets using an 800 mm behemoth. These lenses start at about $12,000 and fast 800 mm to 20-25K or more. I’ll stick to spiders and snakes.

Wildlife I saw in the Everglades, but either did not photograph or capture satisfactory images of include Roseate Spoonbills, Wood Storks, Black-necked Stilts, White-tailed Kites, Swallow-tailed Kites, Brown Pelicans, etc. At Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park I saw but did not capture with camera include American Kestrel, Northern Bobwhite, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Eastern Meadowlark, Black Racers, Eastern Glass Lizard, Blue-sided Garter Snakes, Ribbon Snakes, raccoons, fox, kites, Eastern and Florida Grasshopper Sparrows, etc.

I had thought about getting completely out of Florida yesterday, but after ten hours on the road had had enough. If I went farther into sunset and the dark beyond I would have just crashed in a truck stop or something. I decided to look for an inexpensive RV park where I’d have water and electricity and be able to rest comfortably. As its name declares, River’s Edge RV Campground sits along the Yellow River and has a boat launch that I’ll explore after I post this for waterfowl and such. Holt is off Interstate 10 east of Blackwater Bay and where highway 110 drops south to Pensacola and the Gulf of Mexico. Just northwest of here is Blackwater River State Park. My campsite is about 40 miles from downtown Pensacola. After drinking my coffee, eating an egg bagel and breaking camp, I’ll continue west on I-10 past Pensacola and into Alabama. I’m less than 90 miles from Mobile, which sits on the Gulf’s Mobile Bay. From there the Mississippi border is not much farther and I-10 continues along the southern coast to Biloxi and onward. I’ll see where the wind blows me, but I expect to spend tonight in Louisiana or Texas.

Shortly after this morning’s drive begins I will hit 10,000 miles on a truck I got a week or two into January! My truck also records how many miles each trailer is connected and I believe the Wheelhouse now has around 2600 miles on it. It has served me well and is a cozy home for a gypsy. I admit I do ogle other rigs and consider what I might have had. My gas mileage is poor so I think about the smaller RV I was going to originally go with. I also see the advantage of a self-contained small motorhome. However, one factor in choosing my rig was the fact that I have a parrot along for the ride. A small bird takes up a lot of space!

Mentioning Jesse reminds me of something … Yesterday I posted story pics and video of her riding shotgun, which in her case means sitting on my right shoulder as I cruise down the highway. My last blog entry was a compendium of LINKS. I mentioned Snapchat and my fondness for sharing my travels other than wildlife photographs using it. What I neglected to mention is that Instagram copied Snapchat and added a story feature. Those are those circles at the top of your feed if you are using the app. Since I know that both my bonus dad Joel and my sister Lisa use Instagram regularly, I realized I should just post my road pix to both Snap and the Insta story. This means that they don’t have to screw with Snapchat. For those of you who only view my Instagram photos via your web browser, this gives you a reason to download the free app for iOS (or android) and view my Instagram on your iPhone, iPad or other handheld device. You don’t have to use it for other things. Just make a quick account so you can like and comment on my photos and then click on my story circle at the top to see my miscellaneous snapshots from my journey. It’s really easy and a quick YouTube video “Instagram for Beginners” will set you straight. Just sayin’.

Cheers, MJ

#41 - Thursday, 30 March 2017 - Kissimmee Prairie Preserve S.P., Florida

Today is my last at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. I've said that before and returned, but this time I can honestly say it is my last visit in 2017. It's supposed to reach 90ºF today after a high yesterday of about 87ºF. At 10 pm last night it was still close to 80ºF. But the weather was perfect for sleeping and a gentle breeze kept me comfortable. Tomorrow morning I depart. It will be the last day of March and it is time to get out of Florida. I've had my maps out over the course of the past couple days, but they can be overwhelming as every location intrigues me in at least some way. That's the amazing thing about America – you could spend an entire year just exploring one state. As someone who seeks snakes and spiders, Florida holds all sorts of treasures. But I am itching for the west. I love the deserts and rocky hills and mountains. My next destination is Texas and that state would require years to explore.

My plan – admittedly a strong word for my very loose ideas – is to head out tomorrow morning with no set destination. See, that certainly isn't "a plan". I looked for state park campground vacancies near Tallahassee, but they are hard to come by. I looked at RV parks in my phone book size directory. Then I realized that I just want to get west. I can crash at a Pilot Travel Center or Wal-Mart parking lot or rest area when I get tired. I'll half fill my reserve water tank and fill my propane and just keep filling my truck fuel tank until I feel like stopping for a couple days. I'm still considering a quick visit to Jackson, Mississippi, but likely will just take I-10 west across the panhandle of Florida cutting across the narrow southern tips of Alabama and Mississippi, and circumvent New Orleans as I cross Louisiana into Texas.

I have an amazing set of six eBooks that are guides to boondocking in the southwestern states. The author has been everywhere and pens her "Frugal RV" bibles telling you how to live on the cheap everywhere. The guides not only tell you where to camp free, but also the best roads to shunpike. As I've explained previously, this means using secondary highways and back roads to avoid interstates. I don't have a problem with using interstates as I like the services that are found along the way like truck stops and nice rest areas, but the biggest attractions of shunpiking are seeing out of the way places most don't visit and, even more so, circumventing major cities. As I enter Texas and look to head southwest I don't want to take the superhighway right through Houston. I'll follow her route around it and toward Austin before heading south and trying to avoid San Antonio.

Either way, the "plan" is to get to Texas for April and make my way to Big Bend National Park. Unfortunately, April 15 is the change of seasons for most camping locations. That means that the warm climate south uses reservations earlier in the year due to the influx of snowbirds. By mid-April reservations "are not necessary" and everything becomes first come, first serve. I'm going to look for an "off grid" free boondocks campsite near Big Bend, but I'd really like to camp in the state park if possible. It doesn't make sense to avoid camping fees and then spend more on fuel to drive in and out every day. There are two campgrounds within Big Bend operated by the National Park Service. Only one accommodates RVs the size of my Wheelhouse. However, it does not have electric/water hookups. That's fine for a week and can be stretched to two weeks by minimizing showers and dish washing and such. There is a third campground in the park (maybe on outskirts?) that has full hookups and is operated by a third-party vendor. I'll give them a call once I get to Texas. For the geographically challenged, Big Bend is extreme southwestern Texas so there are plenty of spots along the Rio Grande I plan to visit prior to spending a couple weeks around Big Bend. But first I need to get out of Florida and tomorrow I will try to put some miles behind.

M

#40 *** IMPORTANT WEB LINKS ***

Good morning from Kissimmee Prairie.

Just wanted to write a quick post about the Wheelhouse tour video I made a while ago. I had emailed the link (https://youtu.be/JMGLDaRi6FE) to family and friends, but had mistakenly set the YouTube video to "private" and wasn't informed for some time. It is now unlisted, but viewable by those with the link.

As long as I am sending out links ... (this will be last time I post these so please bookmark if interested)

• My Instagram - Reminder: even if you don't use Insta and choose to not use app on handheld device, you can view my posts via computer browser
• My SmugMug Photo Galleries (I will soon be updating this site and adding many more recent images. If you wish you can even order prints here.)
• My websites: ExoticFauna.com and MJacobi.com
• My Snapchat is exoticfauna (snap code image below for easy add). I now only post wildlife pix to Insta. Snapshots go to my Snapchat feed. This app is brilliant. Photos you take or view evaporate and don't take device memory away. They are moments in time and although meaningful in the moment they are more frivolous and fun. Each post to the story exists for twenty-four hours and then disappears. If you use Snap give me an add and follow my story. If you don't yet, it is very easy to download free app and use just to follow my daily pix. I'm trying to post 6-12 a day and it's a great way to stay in touch. Here's a video that teaches the basics and tells you what it's about.

#39 - Monday, 27 March 2017 - Kissimmee Prairie Preserve S.P., Florida

Greetings once again from the spot you're probably going to think is my favorite on Earth. It isn't. No place in Florida would rank very high. But this surely is my favorite area of Florida. The place is deserted. I am one of only four occupied campsites a month the 16 or 17 available in the equestrian campground. They had a big event here on Saturday and apparently everyone left first thing Sunday. There are still about a half dozen sites taken in the Astronomy Pad area and perhaps a dozen more campers in the family campground, but it is very peaceful here in the horse area. I can't see the other two occupied campsites and the one I can is two sites away and on the end.

My office as I type this for y'all

I just returned from a trail that cuts through a couple of deep ponds connected by a culvert with four big pipes and there must have been close to fifty alligators ranging in size from five to eleven feet in the area. I photographed some of them along with feeding great blue herons and great white egrets. I then drove out the park toward the spot where a caracara is often seen and captured some images of one perched there scanning the surrounding prairie for carrion. As I've mentioned before, the northern crested caracara is a type of falcon, but it has the feeding habits of a vulture. When I drove back to camp for lunch and to write this blog entry, a group of wild turkey was foraging around my Wheelhouse. I had seen a few hens and an immature male during my morning coffee, but now there was a larger group including a tom. They meandered off to leave me with my sardines, tuna and crackers.

I'm camped here until Friday, which is the last day of March. It is peaceful and without the hordes of savage mosquitoes that plagued my Everglades hiking. I sit at this picnic table as a gentle breeze keeps me cool as the temperature of the partly sunny day hovers around 27ºC/81ºF. I have no plan for Friday morning, but likely will pretty much go full speed ahead north and get out of Florida before I linger here any longer. I can't just stop every interesting place or I'll spend a year in one state. Texas is calling my name and I'd like to be able to visit Dr. Brent Hendrixson in Jackson, Mississippi along the way. Still, that's a bit farther north than I want to go and my goal will be to get across Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana and shunpike on back highways into Texas avoiding Houston. I'll probably head up toward Austin before heading south to follow the Rio Grande towards Big Bend National Park. Texas has two national parks on the list, but I'll spend an extended amount of time in the Big Bend region before finally heading into New Mexico. 

Cheers, M

#38 - Saturday, 25 March 2017 - Brighton RV Resort/Seminole Indian Reservation, near Okeechobee, Florida

I woke early to the sounds of birds and cattle. I went to bed last night to the sound of good ole boys with big trucks and air boats returning to their cabins and some noisy late RV arrivals. It was the worst night of sleep I have had since I finished recovering from jet lag earlier in March. I can't blame that all on the noise I guess. I just didn't feel that tired and ended up tossing and turning.

I am in a new RV Resort that is owned by the Seminole tribe. Located on the northwest side of Lake Okeechobee, Brighton RV Resort is much more than I had expected based on the moderate price. After setting up camp I had a swim in the nice pool and had it completely to myself. The resort has a gift shop with handmade Native American items, a large "trading post" that has an attached Subway sandwich shop, fuel pumps and beautiful paved sites with patios and full electrical, water and sewer hookups. With my Good Sam Club discount, the nightly price is just a bit more than it was in Everglades National Park. Sunday morning I am headed back to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park for yet another visit. Yes, I love it there. It's a good location to spend five more nights before I start heading out of Florida. It is just over an hour north of here. The town of Okeechobee lies to the east of the path from here to the state park about half way between.

The cattle sounds are coming from across the road. I expect I didn't notice a road side pasture as I looked for the Brighton entrance sign along Reservation Road. The birds noises were largely coming from the river that runs alongside the park. Signs posted near the water warn of alligators and snakes in the area. Why else would I be here? 

As I drove north on a secondary highway (U.S. Hwy. 27), after taking the turnpike north from the Everglades and then Interstate 75,  a canal ran on the east side of the road and I saw launch ramps full of the redneck jet ski – the Florida air boat. It has to be remembered that the "river of grass" that is the everglades isn't limited to the expanse of Everglades National Park. Okeechobee is the largest freshwater lake in Florida and the seventh largest in the United States. It is second only to Lake Michigan in terms of lakes located entirely within the 48 contiguous states and the largest contained within one state. As huge as it is, the average depth is actually less than 9 feet and the maximum is 12 feet. The Kissimmee River is a broad floodplain that empties directly into Lake Okeechobee and is one of the four central Florida rivers that feeds the Everglades. Air boats are popular throughout southern Florida. I'm not sure I want to know what these yahoos are doing on them*. They don't seem like fishing boats, and the only ones I've been a passenger on were larger tour boats in the everglades.

The reason I am at an RV "resort" is that the ratings and price were right and I couldn't get back into the state park until Sunday. RV resorts are not usually on my radar. Many are expensive places that cost more than a nice chain hotel. They offer clubhouses with social activities and many amenities that are attractive to sunbirds and retired couples. Those that are more moderately priced can be a little scary. Most of those I saw on my drive here to Brighton are fairly typical of the cheaper RV parks. That is, many "campers" are actually residents so the parks are more like seedy mobile home parks. Very often you will see sedentary old travel trailers up on blocks that have had screen porches built around them. I saw one park where the space between units was less than six feet and the run down old recreational vehicles were falling apart and had shacks attached patchwork-style around rusting old campers. My goal is to visit 30 national parks in 2017 and as many state parks as possible so these will be secondary choices for places to camp. My primary choice once I am out west will be boondocking sites on public land that are completely free. Of course, these won't have the sweet little swimming pool I have here, nor even the electricity, water and sewer. That's when I will be completely off the grid and focused completely on solitude and nature.

Happy Weekend! M

* I'm adding this a couple hours after I made this post. I am even more intrigued by this air boat thing now. By using generalizing slurs like "yahoo" and "redneck" and "good ole boys" I expect some of you may picture the stereotype these terms conjure. You might expect some guy in his twenties with a Florida Gators ball cap on backward and a can of Bud light in his hand and questionable bumper stickers on his lifted off road truck. My campsite neighbors arrived after I did in a brand new Ford F350 dually and a brand new large fifth-wheel Grand Design travel trailer. They appear to be late 50s to early 60s and "clean cut", whatever that means. They set up camp and barbequed dinner just about any similar couple I've encountered. The difference is that I discovered this morning that they are with the younger guy whose air boat I photographed (see above). For some reason the guy felt the need to run the air boat for ten minutes right on the drive between our two campsites. Now that they've pulled away I am intrigued by what they are going to be doing on that boat all day. They had a cooler. Just drinking? The opposite neighbor pulled in late last night in a large and twenty years old or so bus style RV. Their noise outside my open bedroom window is one of the reasons I didn't fall asleep under the cool breeze and eventually had to shut my window. This morning I discovered that they were a forty something couple with a boy about seven or eight years old and a large mastiff puppy. It turns out that the small red air boat parked with a black truck in the adjacent grass is theirs and running that boat (maybe they just like engine sounds?) at 10 pm seemed like a good idea to them. They left earlier this morning in the truck and I am now wondering if they left the mastiff pup in the RV. I would have walked him for them ...