Everglades National Park…Another Stick Pin

The Walking Stick gets another National Park Pin!

Another sunshiny day in Florida! I’m not rubbing it in. It is a perfect start to the day. Looking out of the camper, I see a low ground fog towards the pond. The long pines standing straight above the surrounding fog. The sun now hitting the tops. The tree bark is a warm yellow. It is very quiet, I don’t even hear a bird. This was a morning for a big breakfast with eggs, toast, juice, jam and of course our “us Baby Boomers” won’t go without our morning pills.
I have a walking stick that I decorate with little stick pins, that I have acquired on our many journeys. The National Parks are the prime source of my stick pin collection. Hence, a new Everglades National Park stick pin was purchased.

Ground Fog ~ Long Pine Campground at Sunrise

We packed up and stopped at the gate to pay our $8 bucks for the night. It is 34 miles down to Flamingo, the end of the road for vehicles. The ride down there took us to Rock Reef Pass (elevation 3 feet). The big Ford it made over with no problem. Phew! What a relief. Now one might expect this whole area to be wet, but in fact there are several regions that we drove through. The Freshwater Marl Prairie… this was covered with knee high grass. Here the birds of prey are soaring watching for the movement of little critters. There are several turnouts to access trails. One of the noted trails was Long Pine Key Trail. Many ponds were also good places to watch wildlife and canoe treks. To name a few of these; Pine Glades Pond, Sisal Pond, Ficus Pond and Sweet Bay Pond. We didn’t stop at these places today, but will tomorrow on the return voyage.  Our mission was to get a good camp site down at Flamingo, preferably with electricity. We got in, but all electrical sites were booked. Oh well, we’re pretty comfortable here. We spent the day walking around, going to the ranger talk at 2pm and reading a good book (The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw). Our site had a big shade tree and it was in the eighties with a nice breeze. I couldn’t wait for the evening meal, a cold beer and steak…Life is Good in the Everglades!!

That is what we did and saw