Salem Ohio Days in FLORIDA and the Everglades

Before leaving for parts farther south in Florida, we went to our last night of entertainment here in Red Oaks Resort at Boots Hall. The show was opened by Alex Huston and Elmer, who says he is NOT a Dummy! They opened for Jimmy Smith, an Elvis impersonator . His show is good and it is not the first time that we have seen him. Both Jimmy and Alex are entertainers from Pigeon Forge and Nashville. Alex has opened shows for many famous entertainers including the Jimmy Dean Show for many years.

On Thursday we left the park with the motor home to take it to Classic Coach Works in Lakeland FL for some repair for ceiling damage done during rains in Florida while we were in Ohio in an apartment this winter. It was an expensive job and they did very good work. But after all was said and done, I did not like one of the colored fabrics that I chose. But guess that I will have to live with it!! We spent the night in the motor home in their parking lot and then left early the next morning in the Jeep for Bonita Springs. While waiting for their shop to close for the day, we wandered around Lakeland and stopped to check out a beautiful Outlet Mall . It was a quiet night in spite of being located on a busy highway, and we looked out over a lake behind the shop.

In Bonita Springs we joined others in the state of Florida for the Salem Ohio Reunion day at The Elks. I believe this was the sixth year for this reunion and this year they reserved an entire room for the event because of the size that the group has become. This picture is only of the Salem High School graduates and I imagine that the count was about 55 for the entire group. It would be nice to get more to attend as we are sure that there are many more wintering or now residing in the state of Florida. We can get forms for registering to any one of you or those you know who are down here, but have never attended. Just give us a notice by e-mail or by response on this Blog. We also took pictures of the women and men separately as well as pictures around the room. How many do you know? It was an enjoyable day and when we left there we went on down the road to Naples for the night, as we were not due in at my great niece's home until the next day.

While visiting with people at the Salem reunion, we were tuned in to where they are living and what they have done in the areas. Thus we decided to spend the early hours of the next day going down into the Everglades, since we doubt that we will get this far south again. We do like the mid state and Gulf area very well so far. We still need to check out the Atlantic side of the state later this spring. It will probably be two or three years before we are back here again.

Early the next morning we went to Shark Valley in the eastern part of the everglades to take a two hour Tram ride with a guide through the glades . He was very informative.

This valley lies 18 to 25 feet lower elevation than Miami and 20 feet lower than Ft. Myers. The everglades is the head waters of the Shark River which flows into the lower Gulf and is all fresh water. The river was named Shark because when the area was inhabited by the Spanish there were a lot of sharks to be seen in the river mouth. While on the tour we stopped at this tower where we could see out over this road that we had traveled within the glades. The major part of vegetation is the saw grass , called this because of it's saw like quality if you run your fingers upward on the blades. It quickly causes a cut like a paper cut. Ouch! Other trees are the ebony oaks, hardwood hemlocks and bay trees, mostly three to seven feet tall . The life borrow pits as you see here can be 18 to 35 feet deep .

The everglades lies over a three mile thick bed of limestone topped by a layer of 2 to 3 inches of muck filled with parafiden or fiten because it filters the water. It is a round plant. When the water is squeezed out of it , it resembles a wet paper pulp. We also saw a lot of spatter dock (not water lilies) over the water where we saw a lot of birds, turtles, fish and alligators. We could get quite close to the sunning alligator but not wise if their babies were in the area. We saw them swimming at all ages .

I couldn't begin to get the names of the birds that were pointed out to us. There were too many or I was just too slow!!

He did tell us many alligator stories and that they have to sun after eating so that their body temperature reaches 80 degrees to be able to digest the food. We also learned that this bird has to sun itself after swimming, to dry off the water because he does not have oil in his body to repel the water. Thus you saw them with wings spread in trees and bushes. He also seems to like his food dead as you can see that he is beating his fish to death here !

Leaving the everglades tour, we went on down to the lower Gulf tip to Everglades City to stop for a bite to eat at the Seafood Depot that friends also told us about. Most houses here were on stilts and living quarters on second floor with the garage under them on ground level.

There were also a lot of air boat ride businesses all over this area . I think that might be fun to do some time also!! We really used up most of the day and realized that we were going to arrive at my great niece's after dinner. With three little girls, I knew that we needed to hurry along before it would be their bed time.

See you on back up the coast at Port Charlotte for a couple days.