2019 - October 16th & 17th - The Everglades - Homestead and Everglades City with Air Boat Ride thru The Everglades

Can't believe that one week has passed since we began our Florida Road Trip! And, oh, what a lot we have seen and done. This morning we leave fabulous Key West taking with us many memories. We are off to Homestead, another entrance to The Everglades. Our destination was The Flamingo Visitor Center, which made the drive to Homestead two and half hours then another hour drive to Flamingo. The drive through the Keys was enjoyable then onto the mainland to Florida City and Homestead. The drive to The Flamingo Visitor Center was plain and not very exciting. We reached the Flamingo Visitor Center to be greeted by Flamingo-color buildings. But not much there! Due to hurricane impacts in 2005 and 2017, both sides of the Visitor Center and restaurant buildings sustained major damage. The complex is now underway rehabilitating the buildings. The historic character of the buildings' exteriors will remain the same … pink color and all! The Flamingo Visitor Center is housed in the left half of two pink buildings that are connected together by a walkway. The section on the right used to be a restaurant. The entire building was damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma back in 2005, but the restaurant section was never repaired and still looks like a disaster area. Named the Buttonwood Café, this was the only restaurant in Everglades National Park. The Flamingo Visitor Center is housed in the left half of two pink buildings that are connected together by a walkway. Showing the walkway connecting the Visitor Center on the left and the restaurant on the right. This section on the right used to be a restaurant. About 150 yards or so from the ongoing renovation of the visitor center and restaurant is this general store and snack shop building. It is at the Flamingo Visitor Center docks. Even the hotdog maker was not working! We bought a couple of bags of chips to last us the 40 mile or so trip back out of the Everglades to where we could get a lunch! The docks and waterway behind the building were really beautiful. We stopped at the Seminole Casino for a little while on our way, but not too lucky there. We continued on for the day to the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center of the Everglades, another visitor center by Homestead. This was a nice center with a lot of displays and information.

Greetings inside Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center from this friendly alligator! Wall mural of the Everglades inside the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center Walking around the visitor center … Momma gator with her newly hatched gators and their shells Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center lake & gazebo The Visitor Center had a statue of the famous Florida Panther EVERGLADES Everglades National Park map. The park is the largest tropical wilderness in the United States, and the largest wilderness of any kind east of the Mississippi River. Everglades is the third-largest national park in the contiguous United States after Death Valley and Yellowstone.

Thursday morning we headed out of Homestead to our next destination, Everglades City. We ended-up passing The Shark Valley entrance and also going by some of the same routes as we had taken to the Homestead entrances! Oh well, the entrances seemed further apart on the maps! When we got to Everglades City we soon found out it was a one-horse-town. The last census has the population at 402! The town has lost population continuously since 1930. In 1960 the strong winds and coastal flooding of Hurricane Donna ripped through the town and the recovery did not follow. Back in 1923, Barron Collier started building a company town. The State made Everglades City the seat of Collier County. Collier built his business as the supply depot for the construction of the Tamiami Trail.  Everglades City was devastated by that 1960 Hurricane Donna and Florida's legislature moved the county seat from here to East Naples. The town has remained small and has long been known for it's fantastic fishing in the backwaters, quaint small town, fishing village charm, great food, and long history. Without blinking an eye and missing the town, we found the Gulf Coast Visitor Center to the Everglades here in Everglades City.

The original Gulf Coast Visitor Center was destroyed by Hurricane Irma in September of 2017. A temporary Visitor Contact Station is now open. It is a small prefab building with some brochures on the area and a Ranger to help with the Everglades explorations. One of the posters in the center states: Largest designated wilderness area east of the Rocky Mountains. Under the Wilderness Act of 1964, nearly 1.3 million acres of Everglades National Park has been designated as the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Wilderness. This vast wilderness area serves as a vital rechargeable area for south Florida's drinking water supply, an important line of defense against the winds and tropical storms, and an indispensable nursery ground for marine species of recreational and commercial importance.

Adjacent to the Visitor Center was a gorgeous view of Chokoloskee Bay. Walking over to the bay we passed this fabulous Egret sign which has the wingspan of several local birds. We stood and measured our arm-span to these birds.

At the shore of beautiful Chokoloskee Bay were many coconut trees that reached to the sky. They were stunning!

As there was no park entrance here in Everglades City, we proceeded on to see the points of interest that had been listed for the town. Close by was the Ernest Hamilton Observation Tower of Everglades City named for a Florida pioneer and is the only high rise in this old Florida town! Unfortunately the steps were locked and wouldn't accept our $2 fee in the auto-pay device making us unable to climb the 100 steps to view the Everglades and Ten Thousand Islands.

There were two trails built on wooden decks with wooden hand rails that we ventured on. The trails took us through swamps full of trees and green growth. We wondered if there were alligators lurking under there just waiting for a tumble of someone into their waters.

The pathway led us to a terrific waterway. There we saw this very "Tom Sawyer" looking dock.

At the dock this sign warns folks to be mindful and watch for Manatees and Sea Turtles while practicing safe boating. Next we found The Museum of the Everglades. The Museum of the Everglades tells the story of Barron Collier. The town was once accessible only by boat. This remote frontier trading town took an ambitious new turn in 1923 as the hub of Barron Collier's personal Southwest Florida real estate empire. This building first opened in 1927 as a commercial laundry. The Museum of the Everglades dates back to a time when construction of the famous Tamiami Trail was well underway and the tiny settlement of Everglades served as the first County seat. The museum's permanent and rotating exhibits provide in-depth looks at over 2,000 years of human history in the area and tell the story of those adventurous enough, and stubborn enough, to settle Southwest Florida's lush "River of Grass." The Old Laundry Building was restored to its original 1920s Collier-era appearance.

The Old Laundry Building- Everglades Women's Club …
The first permanent white settlers arrive in this region in the late 19th century. A community dependent on hunting, fishing and farming soon emerge. This structure ceased to function as a laundry after WWII. In 1963 the Everglades City Women's Club reactivated and purchased the building as their clubhouse. Used as a museum, it retains the company town period appearance.

The Old Laundry Building built in 1927. Now The Museum of the Everglades.
Collier built this laundry as part of his planned community. The laundry was closed during World War II due to lack of staff.

The museum is hosting a traveling exhibit on loan from the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Meyers. Edison and Ford are great parts of the Southwest Florida history.

Tomorrow we're going to Fort Meyers and will be touring the Edison and Ford Winter homes. So we found this information exciting as a preview for our day to come.

 In 1916, Henry Ford received a letter from entrepreneur Robert Smith, offering to sell him his home for $25,000. Smith noted that the grounds featured over 100 fruit trees. In fact, the property was named "The Mangoes" after the line of trees that ran along McGregor Boulevard. The Mangoes was built in the Craftsman architectural style. Considered a bungalow, the home as a low-pitched gable roof, conspicuous porch columns, and prominent use of natural building materials which are showcased in the architectural design.

A stunning Flaming photo at the museum! The Laundry as originally built by Barron Collier along with machinery of the original Everglade City laundry.

 Barron G. Collier
Founder of Collier County
Admired for talents
esteemed for vision
Beloved for kindness
To whom the Nation owes the Tamiami Trail
Commemorating the Tamiami Trail
April 25, 1928

The displays of the history of this southern area are well documented with stories, artifacts and photos. The history of Barron Collier, his influence in this area and all of Florida, all make for a great presentation at his old laundry building, now the Museum of the Everglades. At the parking lot of the museum is this really cute dinosaur bike rack … it deserved to have it's picture taken! He's "the greeter" for the museum!!!

From our first planning stages of this road trip, we have been in great anticipation of an airboat ride in the Everglades. Today is that day … it has finally come! We found Jungle Erv's Airboats to take our adventure. With the airboat ride, we also got to see an alligator handler and three of his gators at Jungle Erv's. We followed this jungle path to the handlers demonstration area. Along the way are carved alligators and totems.

He has three alligators of different sizes, different ages. He opens one of the mouths for the excitement of the on-lookers! He tells a lot about the animals, has question and answer time, then allows both adults and kids to hold a couple of the gators. It was fun especially for these kids in our group!

We were seated in the front first row with one other couple behind us on the elevated second row of our airboat. Our guide goes over safety information then takes us out in the wide part of the water, a lake-type waterway to tell about the trip. We pass other airboats at their docks, fishing boats, marinas and more. He explains that in these areas we go slow because there are Manatees and Sea Turtles that we don't want to hurt. Once in the channels, he'll speed up and have FUN! Equipped with our ear sound mufflers, we were off!

 

This is what we must have looked like to the others in their airboat ride! As we approached the narrower waterways, we did speed up a lot! It was so much fun racing through the waters at high speeds and also taking in the Everglade swamp trees, roots, and growth that are so unique.

Our guide, driver, captain has been doing this for years and loves his job. He pulled over to the side where he could touch some tree branches and a couple of raccoons came down the branches to greet him and us. They are wild animals, but over the years have become accustomed to these boats and trust these drivers. Leaving our raccoons, we once again hit our high speeds for more adventurous fun! We would slow in different spots to see if our guide could spot any alligators in some spots where he had seen them on occasions, but today was not to be that day. We have seen enough gators on this trip, so we were not disappointed. We loved the ride and the feeling of the 1980's riding with Don Johnson in Miami Vice! Little pleasures of life!

We hit-up The City Seafood Restaurant on the water close to Jungle Erv's with daily fresh seafood of all types for our lunch. The menu was a kick, all fresh seafood. The cases showed shrimp, crab, alligator, fish and more. The signage was down-home just like the cooking. It was great! I decided that it would be a great time for my fried alligator bites. When in the Florida Everglades, there should be no better place to eat gator!!!

Our accommodations in Everglades City were at the luxurious Ivey House Bread and Breakfast. There may be little in this town, but this B&B was terrific! The entire place is screened-in so when you exit your room you are in a screened-in porch that leads to the screened-in pool. The rooms were large with king beds and kitchenette type facilities. There was a gift shop outside of the dining room where our delicious breakfast buffet was set-up in the morning. For dinner there was not much of a selection of restaurants in this small town, but we chose Everglades City's Camellia Street Grill. It was only down the road about two blocks, so we got in a nice walk both before and after eating. We could not have been happier. We sat on the outside deck overlooking the water. We had wonderful food and a toasted a glass of White Zinfandel to a great vacation while we enjoyed the surroundings. Just in for the season were Rock Crab legs that our server said we must not pass up. We had never seen them on a menu before and were surprised when they came out with black tips looking like parrot beaks. They were scrumptious! My main entrée was frog-legs for the first time in years. Oh so good!

Not many pictures were left out, but the complete captioned album is at this link.