Chapter 12: Mobile to Orlando
November 17 - November 27, 1997
11/17 Last night, we settled into I-10 Kampground, convenient to Mobile, Alabama. This morning, we slept in until 8 AM, perhaps unconsciously postponing the transition from warm bed to cool trailer (actually, the electric heater kept the temperature at about 60 degrees, but compared to a toasty warm bed, it seemed cold). We've been reluctant to use the furnace - it's a minor nuisance to get the propane tanks refilled, and electricity is free. But this morning, Dave got up and turned on the furnace, and Helen stayed under the down comforter until the whole place was nice and warm - only 10 minutes or so. The radio reported a hard freeze inland. We're just a few miles from the Gulf, and the temperature here hovered just above freezing.
Last night, after hooking up our utilities, I pulled the drain valve handle for the black water holding tank, and the handle and actuator shaft came off in my hand - the attachment to the valve sheared off. So today will be spent fixing it. I'll have to crawl under the trailer and remove about a hundred screws in order to remove a big plastic cover that encloses the tanks and drain plumbing before I can even tell what will need to be done. It probably will require a whole new valve, so I'll have to hunt up a well-stocked RV store. While I began the repair process, Helen toured Bellingrath Gardens.
Late in the afternoon I picked up Helen at Bellingrath Gardens, and we used the rest of the daylight in driving out to Dauphin Island - one of the long string of barrier islands stretching along the coast. It's a low, narrow, sandy island but is rapidly being covered with vacation homes. Along one stretch of the south side, there are high sand dunes, and a few large expensive houses have been built perched right on top of the dunes, facing directly out into the Gulf of Mexico. I wonder if they can get insurance? The water is studded with oil drilling platforms, in all directions. As the sun set, the superstructures of these huge platforms lit up like Christmas trees. After dark, it looks like there's another city out there in the water.
11/18 Most of the day was spent running out to buy parts and tools and under the trailer installing the repaired waste valve. I couldn't find a new valve with a handle extension that would work - and ordering one would require waiting several days for it to be delivered. So I put in new seals in the old valve, rebuilt the handle attachment fittings, and reinstalled it. It works fine. But it's not my favorite way to spend a day.
11/19 The Mobile Museum of Art is quite nice - small, but with excellent displays. We particularly enjoyed a good selection of Hudson River School paintings. One room was contemporary crafts - furniture, pottery, etc. We found several pieces very attractive, including a Wendell Castle table. One piece in particular caught my attention - a beautifully built parody of a Queen Ann table. The legs were classic Queen Anne shape - bulging out at the top, then curving gently back in and then out again at the bottom. But each leg morphed smoothly into a stalk of asparagus, so that the foot was a characteristic asparagus spear. The color was creamy at the top, but gradually became asparagus color - a rich bluish green at the bottom.
Later, we walked the Mobile historic districts, and drove into the busy international port. A new waterway is just being completed from Mobile up through Tennessee, and this is expected to substantially increase shipping traffic in this already-busy port.
11/20 We got on the road reasonably early, for us (10 AM), planning to drive all the way to Orlando. Along the way, we left the interstate at Pensacola and took highway 98 along the beach, stopping several times to enjoy the view. The Gulf Islands National Seashore provides some really nice views. There is a long section of highway between Fort Walton and Destin where the road runs along a narrow, completely undeveloped, island. Parking areas and walkways across the dunes have been built every few hundred yards. We stopped at one of these, taking pictures and enjoying the surf.
In Destin, we saw the sign for the Camping on the Gulf Holiday Travel Park, and on the spur of the moment turned in to look it over. They had available sites right on the beach, and we decided to stop very early and spend the rest of the afternoon and evening on the beach. The beach sites are expensive - $30.52 with tax, for a narrow site with water, electricity, but no sewer connection. However, there's nothing between us and the surf except 100 feet of the whitest sand we've ever seen. The park isn't crowded - less than half of the beach sites are filled. The sites two rows back from the beach are nearly full - they are bigger, less expensive, and have sewer connections. And then the sites even further back - several hundred of them - are nearly empty.
The wind is warm, from the south, whipping up impressive surf. The trailer windows are already spotted with salt, and we'll regret this later when we have to wash everything. From my easy chair in the trailer, I can see water out three different windows - almost a 180-degree view of water. Just beyond the RV Park on both sides are a few expensive houses perched on the dunes. Beyond these are expensive-looking high-rise condominiums. After dark, we drove down the road a mile or so to Buster's Oyster Bar and stuffed ourselves with an excellent gumbo and a nice mixed seafood platter.
11/23 A one-night stay has turned into four days - it's just too nice here to leave. We've done little except watch the waves, walk the beach, and study the sea birds. I've had the binoculars and the bird guides out, trying to identify a few birds. We've spent so little time on the seashore that we viewed "sea gulls" as a single nearly homogeneous population. Now, I'm becoming sensitive to the differences in the mixed flock that collects daily on the beach between our trailer and the water. In the past few days, I've learned to distinguish the Laughing Gull, Royal Tern, Ring-beaked Gull, Sandwich Tern, and perhaps a few others. There are also a couple of kinds of Sandpiper, and lots of Brown Pelicans. The latter organize themselves into a formal squadron twice a day - headed east in the morning and west in the evening. The rest of the day, we see individual pelicans patrolling out over the water, periodically folding their wings and diving into the water with a huge splash. Tomorrow, we really must get up early and leave - we have family expecting us in Orlando.
11/24 We actually did get up early, and were out of the RV Park and on the road by 8:30 - probably a new record for us. Interstates 10 and 75 across Florida are not very interesting - a great deal of second-growth forest, clear-cuts, tree farms, and occasional expanses of farmland. We arrived at Orlando Green Acres RV Park well before dark. This is a huge place - about 550 sites, laid out on a rigid grid. Every site is identical - about 20' x 50', grass with a small concrete patio and a picnic table. The streets are paved, and there is a huge swimming pool in the middle. Most of the sites seem to be leased seasonally, with no one currently in residence. So the park is quiet and peaceful. It is in a densely populated suburb of Orlando - not normally our preference. However, it is just a couple of miles from Helen's brother Merrill's home, and thus very convenient.
We quickly got set up, microwaved some dinner, and then headed over to Merrill's for a visit and to download e-mail..
11/25 We browsed through the Florida guide to hiking trails and canoe routes, picked up at the Visitor's Center as we entered Florida. Blue Springs State Park is only half an hour away and looked interesting, so we packed a lunch and headed there for a day of canoeing. The artesian spring has a flow of over a million gallons per day - one of the biggest in the world. It wells up into a large pool in the middle of the forest, and flows a half-mile or so before joining the St. Johns River. Scuba divers swim against the current down into the earth about 120 feet before being stopped by very strong currents where the passage narrows. The water comes through channels in a limestone formation, fed by rainwater seeping into the limestone at slightly higher elevations further north in Florida and Georgia.
What makes this particular spring interesting is that manatees migrate up the St. Johns River from the Atlantic, and as the river cools during the winter, move up the channel to the spring because of the warmer water - 72 degrees all year. We had expected to be able to canoe up to the spring, but during the season when the manatees are in residence, canoeing is forbidden (swimming and SCUBA diving is ok, however). So we looked at the spring and the manatees (quite visible through the very clear water) from overlooks along a raised boardwalk.
We then launched the canoe to explore a few miles of the St. Johns River. We paddled into an inlet heading west into the swamp, and poked along the shoreline until we were startled by a huge splash just off the side of the canoe. We had nearly run over a manatee, lying just under the surface feeding off the lush vegetation along the shore. We backed off a little and continued slowly, and discovered we were in the middle of a herd of these animals. They were lying peacefully, often with a few feet of brown back just breaking the surface, occasionally munching on the vegetation. We sat still and watched for a long time. On one side of us, a huge gob of water plants would slowly sink below the surface, ingested by a monster. Then, on the other side of us, there would be a "whuff" of exhaled air as another animal took a breath. And then, a whole section of floating plants would heave and move sideways as one of these giant animals shifted position. Then a blunt snout would appear and chomp on another plant. As long as we moved slowly and didn't actually bump into them, we were ignored. We could have reached out and petted them, except that a startled tail flip from one of these half-ton beasts would have catapulted the canoe into the air and us into the water.
After watching for quite a while, we continued on through more of these quiet backwaters. Great Blue Herons stood as still as statues, imitating driftwood as we glided past 20 feet away. Anhingas sat among the foliage grumbling and squawking as we passed. The egrets, less complacent that the herons, would flap off ahead of us and land a few hundred yards further along. One little cove had a tree full of Ibis. Later, in another cove, Ibis were standing in shallow water probing the water with their long down-curved bills. Occasionally, a long sinuous neck would appear out of the water ahead of us - an Anhinga surfacing to look around. At one point, we were startled to see a long neck sticking up out of the water, with a head shaped exactly like a small fish, fins and all. We paddled close to see what it was, and it disappeared underwater. After a moment or two, an Anhinga stalked out of the water onto a log along shore, with a fish neatly clamped by the tail in its mouth. It proceeded to hammer the fish against the log - tenderizing it, we presume - normal dinner preparation?
Twice, we came around a corner and startled a small alligator, which made a huge thrashing disturbance as it disappeared into the water so fast that all we saw was a tail. Many logs had one or more turtles sunning themselves.
11/26 Helen visited with her brother and sister-in-law, Merrill and Merne. Dave drove down to Kissimmee to Camping World - a national chain of large RV equipment stores - for a shopping spree. Kind of funny that Camping World is almost adjacent to Disney World. It's a good choice of location for them, however - there's a huge concentration of RV Parks in the immediate Disney World area. We've been accumulating a list of needs and wants, but this is the closest we've been to one of these stores since leaving home. We could mail order from their thick catalog, but in some cases, we really need to see and touch an item before being sure it's what we want. Also, shipping is often a problem - sending large packages via our mail forwarding service can get expensive (and slow). Another stop at Home Depot was needed to fill out the materials list for a couple of projects - installing a new "flameless" catalytic propane heater, building small "coffee table" shelves on the walls adjacent to the sofa. Spent the evening at Merrill's.
11/27 Wonderful Thanksgiving at Merrill's, with Helen's family members who drove in from around Florida - sister-in-law Betty from Bradenton, nephew Rob (with his long-time girl friend Sandy and her father) from West Palm Beach. There were eight of us around the dinner table. It seemed an even bigger event, since during the day we all had speakerphone conversations with three other family members in Michigan and Ohio.