Posted on by dennis

Southernmost Florida

Made the long and tedious drive to Key West. If I were you, I’d skip the drive and fly or boat to the cute beach town.

We made it! As south as you can get in CONUS.

What a treasure we have in Everglades National Park! Spent the night in a very nice campground deep in the swamp. Had to make an emergency run to the camp store for bug spray—I stepped out of the van for one minute and was assaulted by clouds of bitey things. The bug spray worked like a charm, except for some particularly hungry biting flies. Its a good thing they stayed in an area far from the camp site.

Traversing this pass was the high point of my visit.
Beautiful and peaceful, isn’t it? As long as you stay in the car. This is where the unstoppable biting flies dwell.

North of the Everglades, I found a delightful Gulf Coast town: Venice. It was Saturday, so a farmer’s market had taken over the broad street leading to the beach. Clearly a moneyed town; there are many mansions lining the waterfront. The town was designed by the famous urban planner John Nolan and is an excellent example of the Garden City design movement of the 1920s and 30s.

This enormous banyan tree in Venice reminded me of the trees in Hawaii. Did you know they are a ficus?
These Floridians are a type of carnivorous iguana. They migrated here from the Galapagos, an unintended consequence of the Panama Canal. Many keep them as pets and train them to perform light housekeeping duties.

From the coast, I drove up through central Florida. It is very difficult to drive from the gulf coast to Gainesville without using I-75, but I mostly managed it. They raise a lot of cattle there, black, brown and dingy white ones that need laundering. I was surprised that Florida permitted the mixing of cow colors like that. The cows have a nice life, it seems, grazing in the sun or lounging under enormous oak trees dripping with Spanish moss.

Traffic and road conditions prevented me from getting a picture of cows, so you’ll have to use your imagination.
This BBQ joint looked sketchy enough to be legit, so I dined therein.
Ribs! Very nice…and enough for two meals!
Red beans and rice, along with “sausage” that looked a lot like hot dog. Still tasty, though.
Xena, the Warrior Princess, is having a great time. Here, she lounges in the dirt following an unsuccessful lizard hunt.

5 Replies to “Southernmost Florida”

  1. That iguana certainly looks a bit unfriendly, but I hope that it keeps your traveling van clean and tidy! Safe travels…

    1. I could live without those bugs!!!!! The Princess is hunting lizards but keep her away from the crocks!!!! Be safe and enjoy the West Coast of Florida.
      Gennaro

  2. Xena is big! She has grown into her enormous, long tail. Did she take on the carnivorous iguana? And what would she have done with her catch? Do you allow her to bring home her prey? Maybe for dinner or to make a handbag?
    The highlight of my family vacations in the sunshine state was the “all you can eat for 99 cents” joints. It appears that you ate better than we did.
    Many of my family members migrated from upstate NY to Florida. For me, what a wonderful fate is was to have migrated west rather than south.

    1. Thanks for the southern Florida tour. I’ll take your advice and fly or sail into Key West. You can keep the rest–too many of the bitey bugs and all the snakes, which you don’t mention, especially those Burmese pythons that gobble up everything in sight.

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