Preparation
Jan and I had talked about this
trip since last semester. He was thinking of going to Florida, and I was
interested because I had not been there before. He had several conditions that
I needed to agree upon, which were too easy for me to comply because they were:
1) budget travel, 2) no theme parks, and 3) nature oriented. If I would like to
go to Florida, Disneyworld would be REALLY secondary. The Everglades and Key
West were the more important places to go. Therefore, we had consensus quickly.
The trip was decided at the time before he left the U.S.
In addition, I expected I would
almost finish my prelim final draft around that time. The period of trip
overlapped with Chinese New Year and Jan’s birthday. Therefore, there were
quite a lot of celebrations. Yet, this was also a trip of farewell. He helped
me a lot with the orienteering club in UIUC.
Therefore, during the winter
break, where we experienced the coldest temperature that I had ever seen in
Illinois, we planned our flight, car rental, and places to go. Jan, a fan of
orienteering, asked the orienteering club in Florida to leave us an
orienteering course. The trip was set, and I skipped a week of classes for
that.
Departure
On Thursday, I had the large
backpack with me that contained the stuff that I would use for the entire trip.
Before leaving, there was actually another farewell. Recently, there were just
so many people leaving for good. Life is really impermanent.
The trip to the airport went
smoothly. It was not as cold as the other days, but the snow was still
everywhere. The flight also went well. Jan and I arrived at Fort Myers
separately. When I arrived at midnight, there was rain. Temperature was
probably on the cool side, in Florida standard (~50F, 10C), so I did not need
to change to shorts immediately in the airport.
There were some troubles with the
car rental company. I knew about the toll roads in Miami, and I had plans to
avoid them. However, the person on the counter really wanted to persuade me to
pay for the electronic toll sensor. I really found shady for the people who
work in car rental companies now. In the future, I needed to do all research
about the terms in rental car and be doubtful with the person in the counter.
I chose a rental car that appeared
to have the largest trunk, and tested its lights. After that, I went to the
hotel. Jan was already sleeping when I arrived.
The Everglades
On Friday, we first drove south
for ~20 miles and went to Walmart to buy camping gears and food. Although I had
never done so, we were going to use the camping gears for a few days, and then
returned them to another Walmart. This was necessary because camping gears
would be too large to fit in our luggage that we brought on the plane. I knew
it was sort of bad to “rent” stuff from Walmart, but this seemed like the best
option for this trip.
After that, we began to stay in
the wilderness for two days, which I think it was the best part of the trip. We
drove on US-41 that at some point goes east, which led us into a large piece of
marshland. We went to the NW Everglades National Park entrance to obtain some
information. Then, we drove ourselves deeper into the Everglades.
To be exact, although we were in
the Everglades, the area that we went into is called Big Cypress National
Preserve. Still, it is a large piece of flatland, with some scattered trees
around. Was the drive boring? Maybe, but certainly not like Illinois, which is
just flat farms with few trees. Moreover, we stopped at many places along the
route that I am going to write below:
The first place was the smallest
post office in the U.S. How did we know? We stopped there to find a geocache.
The post office is as small as your bedroom, or maybe smaller. There were some
signs that described the history of this post office. We each bought a postcard
from the post office and sent to our Urbana address.
Then, we stopped for lunch at H.P.
Williams Roadside Park. We were also there to see our first group of
alligators, birds, and a few snakes. Because of the Everglades trip, I brought
a binocular and a bird book so that I could learn some more birds in the
southern U.S.
Another place that we stopped had
an elevated walkway that led to large trees that grow under water. Now I knew
from the later part of the trip that these are cypress trees.
We drove away from the US-41 to a
gravel road that is designated as a scenic highway, and we stopped even more
frequently, sometimes at every 200 meters. More birds that could not be seen in
Illinois could be found here. More alligators were also spotted. We took a lot
of pictures in this scenic route. Jan said that he was at first unsure about
bird watching, but during this trip, he found that bird watching could be a fun
thing to do. After this trip, I learned to differentiate the turkey and grey
vultures by looking at their heads.
There were great blue herons, great white herons, snowy egrets, green
egrets… names that I would confuse whether it is an egret or a heron. Along
this route, we had spotted at least 20 alligators. They were actually not as
scary as I thought. They usually just stayed at one spot and enjoyed the sun.
From the car, we got some very close shots of alligators. More descriptions
about American alligators will be provided later.
When we got close to Miami metro
area, the sky began to go dark. We did not get into the city, but we only drove
on the west outskirt of the metro area. I was quite tired and needed some
music. The radio station that broadcasts salsa music caught me, so we played the
radio station for the rest of the trip. Jan and I had some discussions about
Spanish in the U.S. If Jan would like to practice Spanish, Miami is a good
place to be at.
We got fast food at Homestead, the
southernmost part of Miami metro. Then, we drove back into the wilderness, the
east entrance of the Everglades National Park. Inside the park, we drove 50
miles to get to our campsite in Flamingo. This campsite had so little light
pollution that one could see many stars in the sky. I did not have a star book,
but I had a Google Sky in the phone. Yet, I was tired. We also needed to wake
up at 6 am to begin our next day of activities.
Saturday morning came. After
packing the camping gears haphazardly into the car trunk and agonizing with the
mosquitoes, we drove to see boats unloaded onto water and have breakfast. Then,
we went to another place to start our canoeing trip. In this trip, a group of
people paddled through red mangroves. There was a park ranger explaining the
ecosystem and the wildlife along the paddling route. There were a few
alligators along this route. Besides alligator, we also had a chance to see a
crocodile. After this trip, I learned how alligators and crocodiles are
different. For example, alligators in the U.S. are common along the shore of
Gulf of Mexico and many southern states, but American crocodiles are endangered
and can only be found in the Everglades. Alligators are adapted to live only in
freshwater, while crocodiles live only in seawater. Since water in some part of
the Everglades is brackish (i.e. between fresh and salty), alligators and
crocodiles can live together in this area. To identify between them, crocodiles
are much larger and their mouths are broad, while alligators are smaller and
have pointed mouths. Both alligators and crocodiles in America are not too
dangerous. As long as we do not provoke them, they will not treat us as prey.
There are signs around the parks that tell people to keep certain distance away
from the alligators.
In the afternoon, we went for a
short hiking tour to learn about the cypress trees that grow in the water. For
most part we were wading in the water. Some part of the water can be higher
than our knees. Another park ranger introduced the cypress dome. What I
remembered the most was that the cypress tree is the tallest when the water is
the deepest. We spotted a woodpecker and an owl in this cypress dome.
In the evening, we went to another
tour on the Anhinga Trail, where the ranger explained how alligators adapt in
the night environment. There were also explanations about alligators bellowing,
which relates to mating. There was also a talk about the most dangerous animals
that can be found in this park, which are Burmese Pythons. This python is of
course a foreign species. It possibly came from accidental releases from zoos
or from people that treat it as a pet. This snake is still rare in this park,
but the park management is concerned that the pythons will consume many animals
in the park, so the park personnel had planned to eliminate them. Another
dangerous animal, but to a lesser extent, is Florida Panther. They are also
rare, and they try to avoid humans.
During these three tours of the
day, we heard about their jobs as park rangers. They seemed to have something
in common: they move to different national parks seasonally. Two of them worked
in Alaska during summer. It seems to me that being a park ranger is a nice job!
(Yet, I am not a U.S. citizen, so there is no reason to continue thinking.)
We slept in another campsite in
the Everglades. This campsite is closer to the entrance and has more light
pollution from Miami.
On Sunday, before we left the
Everglades, we went to the Anhinga Trail again to watch more wildlife. We
noticed that there were many vultures around, pecking the top of a few cars
around. There were some blue plastic sheets on top of these cars for
protection, and could be found at a building nearby. We followed what other
people did and covered the car. When we came back from the trail, we found that
the vultures still managed to damage the rim of a car door, since we used the
car door to fasten the protection sheets. Fortunately, we did not need to pay
for the damage of the car in the end.
Along this trail, we spotted more
birds. Anhinga is a bird name, and only be found in southern states. There were
more herons and egrets, and more alligators in the water. Some people brought
their sophisticated cameras and tripods to take pictures of these birds. I also
had pictures of these birds using my camera.
Before we left the Everglades, we
went to the visitor center. There were some exhibits, and one fact that I could
remember there was that Everglades National Park is the first national park
that was established to protect wildlife. There was also a gift shop that sold
some typical souvenirs.
We got a picture of us at the
entrance sign. Then, we left the park. I hope I can visit this place again.
The Florida Keys
We left the Everglades and went
south to the Keys. It was about 3-4 hour drive along US-1 to the Key West. We
stopped at several places for blue sea, for beaches, for lunch, for geocaches,
and for driving breaks. Along the drive, I learn the names of the keys. Of course,
you won’t find Kokomo in the Florida Keys. It is just a fictional place in the
song. However, Key Largo is a real island in the Florida Keys. There was
nothing much special for the small towns along the Keys, but whenever we
crossed bridges to another key, the view was excellent.
We arrived at an urban campground
very close to Key West in the late afternoon, where we will stay for a night.
After taking a short break, we drove to Key West.
On the map, Key West looks small.
Yet, it is a good town to walk for a while. The sun was almost setting. On the
west side of this town, many people gathered to watch for the sunset. After
watching the sunset, people focused on the tricks that performers did around
the plaza.
Many gift shops are around, as
well as bars. These are the gift shops that I can stay for a couple of hours.
While I may get bored on other kinds of shopping, gift shops are usually an
exception. The notable gifts in Key West are arts on coconut shells. In terms
of food gift, Key lime products are what make Key West special. Bars are everywhere, and there were more
people than the other nights, since it was a Superbowl Sunday. My friend Jan
supported with Denver Broncos, although by half time, I did not think the team
stood a chance against the Seattle Seahawks. The game was just so lopsided that
I would like to walk around the town.
On the next day, after a night of
low-drama Superbowl, we drove back to Key West against to walk around the town
more, and find many geocaches. This included the southernmost point of the
United States (except Hawaii), which is ~ 92 miles from Cuba. There was a short
discussion on whether we should swim to Cuba. Another notable place was Hemmingway’s house.
We did not enter because of ~$10 entrance fee, but I could see the house was
quite large. Like some other beautiful towns/cities in the south (e.g. New
Orleans French Quarter, Old San Juan in Puerto Rico), many houses are colorful,
and balconies can be found. Perhaps this is because of Spanish influence?
We got a final chance to shop for
gifts. I got a final chance to taste a Key lime pie, a signature Florida
dessert that I found I like. Then, we backtracked for 3-4 hours to Miami. On
the way back, we learned about Key Deer, which is very small and endangered.
How did we learn it? We stopped at a place for geocache.
Back the Miami metro, we needed to
avoid many toll roads around here. Most of the toll roads here require payment
through electronic passes only and not though stationed booths. Using the
electronic pass in the car will incur additional $40-$50 charge in the trip.
Therefore, I planned the route carefully, and we did not use any toll roads.
We stopped for dinner with my
cousin in the University of Miami. Then, we drove to Miami Beach in which we stayed
in a hostel. By the way, Miami Beach is east of Miami and should be considered
as a suburb of Miami. Miami Beach is where the beaches and upper-tiered
residential buildings are located. It was dark when we arrived at the hostel,
but we got a chance to walk around the beach. I was very tired after the long
drive.
On Tuesday morning, we went to the
beach again to watch the sun rose. We noticed that people gathered in the
morning to do yoga on the beach. Then, we left Miami Beach early. After all,
visiting bars was not part of the plan in this trip.
Central Florida
We drove north for more than 3
hours to get to Cape Canaveral, where Kennedy Space Center is located. Once
again, there are many toll roads to avoid in Miami, so we took a detour a bit. The
admission ticket for the space center was $50 each person, which was the
biggest admission expense of the trip. Yet, I still think this place is worth
going once. One can easily spend an entire day inside this place. There are
shuttle buses that bring tourists close to the rocket launching station. Then,
there are full-scale exhibits of the rocket used in the Apollo Missions to the
Moon, and the space shuttle used in the near-Earth orbit missions. They even
have “Angry Birds in Space” room for the kids to have fun. There are of course
other typical exhibits that show the history of the American space travel
development.
We left the Kennedy Space Center
when the sun was setting. Basically, this day was only for the Space Center
trip. After finding a very big geocache near a geocaching store, we drove to
Orlando and slept there for a night. We also “returned” all the camping gears
in another Walmart. It would be a waste to throw them away, right?
After we woke up and had
breakfast, we left Orlando immediately (no Disney World for us!). Wednesday was
the last day of the trip. From the TV in the hotel, the forecast high on that
day was 82F (28C) and was warmer than average! Good that we stayed out of
Illinois for a week. We continued to go west, passed through Tampa, and went
south to Sarasota, which is a small west shore city in Florida and famous for
Siesta Beach. The sand in this beach is exceptionally white and fine, and the
water is quite blue. Once again, we saw a group of people doing yoga on the
beach. It looked like yoga on the beach is a common activity for Florida
people. Jan got a chance to swim a bit. I just walked around the beach. Some
sand castles were found around the beach.
Our last stop of this trip is
Oscar Scherer State Park. We went there because Jan was very into orienteering.
He asked the Florida orienteering club to leave a streamer course for us.
Therefore, we got a chance to run an orienteering course in Florida before
flying back to Chicago. I am not going to talk much about the orienteering
course here. I would just say that I saw many snakes when I tackled this
course. It was quite scary to go off trail.
We drove for another hour to get
back to Fort Myers, return the car, and catch the flight. I took an earlier
flight, but there was one connection in Charlotte, NC. Jan’s flight was a
direct flight, but it was heavily delayed because of the snow in Chicago.
Epilogue
On the plane to Charlotte, in the
sky, I was looking at the sun shining on the clouds. In Charlotte, I changed
from shorts back to winter clothes. In Chicago, I was back to snow, and back to
the cold winter, at about 10 pm.
I stayed a night in a friend’s
place and took a bus back to Champaign in the next morning. Jan’s flight did
not arrive until 1 am in the morning. On the next day, we still got a chance to
exchange our pictures. After that, we went to the Greyhound bus station, and
half-hugged for another farewell. He flew back to Europe on that evening.
This trip was quite similar to the
Puerto Rico trip that was done quite long ago. Both trips were like winter
escapes. Both trips had emphasis with nature (e.g. Everglades vs. El Yunque
National Forest), but there were also elements of city architecture (e.g. Key
West vs. Old San Juan) and science museum (e.g. Kennedy Space Center vs.
Arecibo Observatory). Of course, there were many islands and beaches!
Will I visit Florida again?
Perhaps. I still think that I am indifferent to Disney World or other theme
parks in Orlando. The old town of St. Augustine in NE Florida may also be a
good place to stop by. I also do not mind visiting the Everglades again.
Farewell to many of you! (or
adios, sayonara, whatever…)
