February 16 through 23rd: Frostproof Florida

After thirty days on site 804 in Florida City we traveled north on US 27 running parallel to the Miami Canal, passing by wetlands and along the shores of Lake Okeechobee. It was interesting to see the change of landscape as we continued past cane fields owned by Domino Sugar and by sprawling cattle ranches. The familiarity of vast acres of citrus groves welcomed our return to central Florida. We are now residents on site 453 at Rainbow RV Resort in Frostproof.

Unfortunately, Dave was sick for the first four days of our stay so we laid low while he recuperated. By Wednesday Dave began to once again feel better and we drove to Lake Wales and Frostproof to check out these little towns and visit the grocery store.

Tampa Bay on horizon

Avis and Jim Brown

 On Thursday we joined the Brown’s on a drive through the countryside to Balm, Florida, where Goodson’s Farm Market, in business since 1988, serves up flavorful Cuban sandwiches and titanic-portioned strawberry shortcakes. The strawberries are as fresh as walking thirty feet to the acres and acres of strawberries. Once sated we continued our drive westward. Along the way we passed through small towns including Fort Meade, Wimauma and mammoth cranes mining for phosphate. 

Manatee tailfin

We stopped at the Florida Power Plant just north of Apollo Beach where manatees, enjoying the warm water outflow, looked like stepping stones throughout the canal. Another check-off on our ‘life list’; seeing these homely looking animals so agile in the waterway as they move unhurriedly using their paddle-like flippers to navigate to their next lunch counter. The manatees act as lawnmowers in the canals where they keep the weeds cleared and the tourists clicking cameras hoping for a good picture. We continued to Apollo Beach where we could see the horizon cityscape views of Tampa and St. Petersburg. The Brown’s were our guests at site 453 for a dinner of shrimp scampi and strawberry shortcake

Airboat on Lake Kissimmee

Alley-gator

Grazing in the river

.

Baby Gators

We had an invasion of sugar ants into the motorhome. They followed their scouts into the most minuscule pathway under the kitchen slideout and made themselves welcome in the cupboards above the kitchen. The Brown’s had some insect killer spray we borrowed and after nearly three hours of removing all the contents from the cupboards and washing everything off we were confident that these little buggers were squashed. NOT! The motorhome exterior was covered. We feel that we have pitched our tent on the mothership of ant hills. A trip to Lowe’s is scheduled for the morning.

Bald Eagle Perched above marshland

On Friday Dave went to Lowe’s and came back with the tools to make sure would not be visiting again. We also had the motorhome washed and waxed and now looks real spiffy.  We joined the Brown’s for a drive eastward to Lake Kissimmee to Grape Hammock Fish Camp and Gator Country Airboat Tours, where we boarded a small airboat to see the "Real Florida". This was a great experience. Our captain, a native of Lake Kissimmee, seated us and we took off on a one-hour tour of the marshlands hugging the lake shore. There were a number of fishermen looking for ‘the one that got away’. We floated over lily pads, hydrilla, sea grasses and were again up close to snoozing alligators, deer, hogs, and many species of birds.

Alligator Snoozing

Friday night we began humming “the ants go marching….” as they returned enmass again. This time we were prepared with insecticide and have now put as much as possible into Ziploc bags. We really enjoy Florida, but when the bugs outnumber humans it is not the place to live.