Episode 40
1/2020
Wow episode 40! We drove 3 hours south to Miami. Majority of the ride was on RT27. This is now my favorite road on. No traffic, to Lanes each way. Lots of forms and orange groves cattle and horses along the way. Central Florida is the cattle capital of the usa. Then we drove on. It was worse than the roads in Canada, i-95, 84 and 80 etc.
We are staying at a boondockers welcome location just outside of miami. We pulled in we noticed peacocks all over the place. Apparently a hurricane in the past destroyed a local zoo and they have been loving their new found freedom ever since. We met our fantastic hosts and enjoyed a few hours of their company that evening along with a friend of theirs. We always ask what is the local favorite food, so we visited Knaus Berry farm for fantastic cinnamon buns. The next day we drove to the Florida keys. We stopped at North key largo so we could experience how the keys used to be. Stopped at crocodile lake which is a National wildlife reserve. We met a very interesting volunteer there who is a full-timer with her husband. She was very informative regarding crocodiles and the study there of. We then headed to dagney Johnson key largo hammock. We paid our interest free and walked for a bit I'll be at there was not much to see. Then we went to John pennekamp coral reef state Park. They had glass bottom boat tours, kayak rentals, snorkeling and scuba tours. There's a little chilly for us 60° so we didn't go in the water at all. And it's 60° it was the coldest day that year in Miami. Although we do wish we had the kayak with us we would have put it in. This was the first undersea Park in the us. And apparently there is a Christ of the abyss statue down there. And we learned about the Manchineel tree, which is the the most poisonous trees in the USA. To test it I rubbed the bark on one of my fingers, nothing happened. I then googled it and apparently it's the Milky sap that is poisonous. Well there goes my scientific process skills LOL. The next day we took an airboat ride up in the everglades. We found a Groupon for $58 for a 4hr tour for 2 people. Which sounded great but what I missed was that you needed to meet in Miami. So we drove to the meeting place in Miami and we could not locate the booth. No signs no directions no nothing. We had to call them nine different times while walking around to actually find them. We then got on a bus. Diego tour was supposed to start at 10:30am. The bus didn't leave until 11:00 a.m. it was a 1 hour drive to Everglades Holiday Park. Our boat guide was from swampapes.org they help wounded warriors and are trying to eradicate the invasive Burmese python. What a fantastic guide. We saw some alligators and he taught us that they expect all of the mammals in the Everglades will be gone because of the pythons. And this was in 2020. Once all the mammals again the Gators will be gone too. After the airport ride the Everglades Holiday Park not a great show with a guy handling gators. If you ever plan on doing an airboat ride in the Everglades go directly to Everglades Holiday Park. It would have cost us $34 a person to go directly there. So yes we saved $10 but what a hassle with the bus in the parking and all of that in miami. We have booked the tour through "305 tours in Miami". Do yourself a favor and do not book anything through them, that will help lower your stress.
People often compare Miami traffic with New York city. And I would definitely agree. The one difference is in New York City people drive very aggressively. Down here they just do what they want when they want but there's no agression lol. And the next day we visited Little Havana, Miami we ate at El Cristo restaurant....wow !!!! And there was fantastic music at Cubaocho  and you need to check out el Santo. We loved little Havana and will be back. On Friday 1/24 we wanted to get back to nature. We drove to a few parks but we're disappointed with them. We then drove...