Continuing South

It looks like my optimistic theory turned out to be the right one. At least that's the news I got from the Ford service department. It looks like I can finally put that behind me. Thanks for praying. I don't think I can put my guard down yet though. I'm going to have my eyes and ears open for any new signs of trouble.


In the mean time I haven't been sitting still. After staying one night at Johnathan Dickinson, I spent a night in the local Walmart parking lot. That was a new experience for me and I think it went pretty well. I slept pretty well and the price was great, free! I spent the next night at another Walmart a bit further south in the area of the Loxahatchee NWR. The refuge had some good photo ops as did a couple nearby local preserves. One was called Green Cay and the other one had some strange, hard to remember, Indian name. I gave the paper I had the name written on to a couple of very nice people, David and Mary-Alice, that I met at Loxahatchee. I also met a couple of professional nature photographer/comedian wanabes at Green Cay. We had a good time talking "shop". One guys name was Stan Osolinski and I hope the other guy never reads this because his name just never stuck with me. Ever have that happen to you? Sorry Gary or Mark Mesz.... Whatever.

These are Pied-billed Grebes. The first one was diving and popping up through the floating plants at Green Cay. The other one posed nicely for me at Loxahatchee.

Ttyhis Great Horned Owl chick was in a nest at Loxahatchee. Some guys would stake this nest out for hours. I wanted to get out and shoot a little more variety

This Purple Gallinule was also at Loxahatchee


These Guys, a Black Vulture and an Anhinga, were at the Anhinga Trail in Everglades NP.

And just to prove I can still shoot photos without birds in them, here's an aligator.


I spent about three days in the Everglades. I kept finding more places I wanted to explore. I think it's one of those places that you could spend years at. I guess I'll have to live with that "didn't even scratch the surface of the place" feeling, even though I did take most of the year off. Right now I'm at a painfully expencive campground near Key West. Tomorrow I board a ferry for Dry Tortugas NP. The cost of the ferry almost kept me back but now it doesn't seem so bad compared to what I paid for this stupid camground. Do you get the feeling that I don't like expencive campgrounds? At least they have internet access.


I'm going to stay on the tortugas over night. That wasn't even an option when I was there a few years ago. It costs three dollars to camp there. Much more my speed. If the weather holds out I should have a ton of photos when I get back.


I better get going now so I can get up early enough to catch the ferry. Thanks for reading.

Steve