There goes Florida, part 7 - Everglades City, Chokoloskee & Marco

[Hilary]

There goes Florida, part 7 – Everglades City, Chokoloskee & Marco

Cast
Me – Hilary, 48. Beginning to suffer from trip-planning overload, but looking forward to seeing some new-to-us parts of Florida.
DH – Jeremy, 49. Looking forward to fishing opportunities in the Keys and on the coast, but could do without quite as long in Orlando.
DD1 – Rhian , 19. Looking forward to forgetting university studies for two weeks – anything else will be a bonus.
DD2 – Amy, 15. Looking forward to first trip to IOA , Mission Space and the Hard Rock Hotel, but not looking forward to the prospect of being ill on the flights again.

Tuesday, 6th April
The weather had been getting warmer every day since we arrived in Florida, and today it was 78 degrees when we set out after breakfast.

Today we were going to fulfil another long-held Wish List item and go on an Airboat ride. On the long drive across the Everglades we’d seen numerous Airboat outfits near the Keys, but not as many near Naples. My S-I-L had taken her family on one a couple of years ago, but her nephews seemed more excited about the photos they’d had taken holding baby alligators with their mouths taped up (the alligators, not the nephews). I didn’t really want that kind of Airboat ride if it could be avoided . We had asked at the hotel front desk if they could recommend any particular operators and a British man passing by said they’d been with ‘Speedy Johnson’ a couple of days earlier and thought they were very good. We checked the advertising leaflets for him and couldn’t spot any alligators/Sellotape combinations in the photos, so Speedy Johnson it was to be!

It took us an hour or so to drive back along the very long, very straight, very flat US41 to reach the turn off for Everglades City and the Airboats. We arrived late in the morning and decided to Find somewhere for lunch first. We drove around looking for somewhere to eat and passed quite a few other Airboat operators, all doing a seemingly brisk trade. Some clearly advertised Alligator Encounters as an added attraction but, to my relief, Speedy Johnson made no such claims .

We found a very out-of-the-way place for lunch at Chokoskee (an island off the coast from Everglades City), called JT’s. This was basically a trailer home converted to a kitchen, restaurant and small shop and gallery, with extra seating in the garden to one side. It was on the horizontal side of laid-back and the food was fantastic. We sat in the garden under the shade of a huge umbrella and watched lizards running along the fence. There was a well-tended vegetable patch behind the trailer and I imagine a lot of their ingredients were probably home grown.

It was very quiet and peaceful here - until a group of about 20 motorbikes arrived. The motorcyclists looked as though they probably belonged to an over-50s chapter and were very good humoured, if a little raucous for such a quiet spot! This would have been a lovely spot to sit and relax for the afternoon, but it was very hot outside, even under the large umbrellas – and we had an airboat to find.

Well satisfied after our lunch we headed back to Speedy Johnsons and asked what time the next boat would be.
“Have you booked?”
Booked? We didn’t know you could book.
“No, we haven’t. Can you fit four of us in, please?”
“Well, I could do you in two separate boats with two on each at 5:30pm today, or all four of you together tomorrow morning at 10:00am.”
We were stunned. There was such an abundance of places doing Airboat tours round here it had never crossed our minds that we wouldn’t be able to just walk up and get on the next one leaving.

We decided to try another Airboat place, but got the same story everywhere. There was nothing for it, we would just have to book for tomorrow and come back.

On the way back to Naples we stopped off at an Outlet Mall and managed to do some shopping here, so between the shopping and JT’s for lunch we had still managed a fruitful trip to Everglades City, even without our Airboat trip.

Back at the hotel, Jeremy busied himself arranging another fishing trip. As he was confirming the final details he was writing down instructions for meeting back in Chokoloskee! That would make three days running that he would be driving along that 40 mile section of US41!

Wednesday 7th April
So today we really were going on an Airboat tour. We arrived at Speedy Johnson’s a bit too early, so we drove down to Chokoloskee to make sure Jeremy knew where to meet his fishing guide tomorrow. The we headed back to check-in for our 10:00am ride and signed away all our entitlement to anything, anywhere, anytime, and waited at the dockside for our captain, Tony, and his craft to appear. Each boat took six passengers, so we had another couple on our boat, along with the four of us and Tony.

Tony went through the obligatory drill (I don’t why this was deemed necessary in view of the waiver forms we’d signed – they might just as well have fed us to the alligators then and there) and then issued us with our ear-protectors. Then he went through some more warnings about getting sunglasses pulled into the huge blades at the back of the boat, and eyeballs being sucked through the back of our skulls if we went too fast. Well, that’s what it sounded like.

We set off at a gentle pace out from the dock and slowed right down to try to spot some manatees. The water wasn’t at all clear, but every now and then we’d see a little snout come up to the surface and could then make out the shape of a manatee next to the boat. Across the water from the dock we stopped by some mangrove roots and Tony explained about the differences we’d see between the mangroves in fresh and brackish water. Whilst he was talking, a racoon appeared from between the roots and came right up to Tony, who then fed him something that looked like dog biscuits. It was obviously a pretty tame racoon who knew where his next snack was coming from, but it was nice to see, all the same.

Once we got into the water channels through the mangroves the boat went a bit faster and we needed to put the ear protectors on. Then, when we got out into the open marshes we had to hang on to everything as Tony really let it fly. We stopped to look for alligators and one appeared, but Jeremy reckoned that might have been '‘tame'’, like the racoon! The most bizarre wildlife was a group of wild pigs on an old railway cutting – it could have been a scene from anywhere back in the UK.

On our final run back across the open marsh before heading back to the dock, Amy managed to lose both her hat and her ear-protectors, which were supposed to be keeping her hat on. Tony stopped and retrieved them both from the back of the boat (they hadn’t been chewed up by the fan), but it took him a while to get the boat free from the mud at the bottom of the channel, because the water was so shallow. I began to formulate some excuses for being unable to get out of the boat to help push it free but, luckily, Tony managed to extricate us before I was forced to tell humiliating lies in front of my children.

All too soon, our hour’s ride was over and we all agreed it had been an experience worth waiting for, if a lot faster and louder than I’d expected. A bit like the Rockin’ Rollercoaster, then.

We drove to Marco Island to find somewhere for lunch and had an excellent meal at the Snook Inn. We didn’t think Marco looked like the kind of place we’d want to stay (too smart and cosmopolitan for our small-town taste), but it was nice to have a look around parts of it. Although we’d thought we might have a swim here, we decided to head back to our hotel and find a beach near there instead. Well, you try telling Rhian she’s got to get changed on a beach and you’d understand why it’s just easier to drive back to the hotel .

On our way back, I consulted the maps and guidebooks to locate a beach near our hotel which might be good for a quick paddle. Crab Pass sounded as though it would fit the bill – it had car parking and a boardwalk through mangroves to get to the beach. We found it easily enough but balked slightly at the $4 parking charge.

We set off along the shaded boardwalk to the beach and felt the first few spots of rain. There were many more families coming away from the beach then heading out to it at this time of the afternoon, but there seemed to be evidence of a mass exodus taking place – we were practically the only ones walking in our direction. Then we were confronted by a small land-train coming towards us, laden with passengers and their beach paraphernalia. As we were wondering just how far away far the beach might be, in order to deem a land train necessary, a few more trains followed behind – all full to bursting with sand-covered families, presumably leaving the beach now that the weather had turned from brilliant sunshine to shade and showers.

Then, from behind us we could hear a land train coming in our direction. We stood to one side to let it pass
“Do you guys want a ride to the beach, I’ve plenty of room?” asked the driver.
Well, it would be rude to refuse, wouldn’t it? We hopped on board and enjoyed the ride. The ride which was a lot longer than we had imagined. The ride which would have been a pretty hot, wet walk if we’d continued by foot.

At the beach exit there was a café and toilets, and an enormous queue waiting for the next land train back to the car park. We practically had the beach to ourselves, and the rain stopped right on cue. We stayed only about half an hour – just long enough for us all to be able to say we’d paddled / swum in the Gulf of Mexico – and then we returned to the now empty beach buildings to have an ice cream whilst we waited for the next land train back. So this was why we paid $4 to park – it includes the land train ‘fare’. We discovered this is run by The Registry Resort of Naples, and the car park abutted its very attractive grounds.

Back at the Park Shore Resort we had a relaxing evening sitting on the balcony, shaking the sand from our shoes and watching the sun set in the distance.

 

[KayleeUK]

Sounds like a cute ride to the beach Looking forward to your airboat trip

 

[highlander447]

Sounds like a good couple of days we loved our airboat ride it is fun

 

[Minniespal]

Great report ~ Thanx for sharing.

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

Hilary, your trip is so similar to ours a couple of years ago it's spooky

We did our first airboat ride with Speedy Johnsons. Got some lovely photos of the raccoons, still can't believe the gators love marshmallows (went on a more eco-friendly, read that as completely out of control airboat ride last year that put Speedy's in the shade). We also saw the one remaining ostrich with the wild piggies. There was some story about why they were there, but as there was a rather large alligator by my side of the boat that was taking ALL of my attention I really can't remember).

The Snook Inn at Marco is great - the food's good, service good and at night time in particular if you're lucky enough to get outside you can watch the dolphins go by.

By the way, know what you mean about Naples being full of the more mature visitor. Marco is actually known as the "gateway to Heaven" because it has so many retired people living there