The Florida Everglades

The first thing most people think of when they think of the Everglades is alligators. They are definitely here, after a period of near extinction, they are back and thriving. But the Everglades is a wildly diverse ecosystem. There is an incredible variety of plants and animals and a whole series of identifiable ecological niches across 1.6 million acres of glade.

The National Park Service describes the Everglades ecosystem thus: "Water, tropical climate, elevations, and fire are the essential ingredients that make the Everglades unique in North America. Water is the rejuvenating life blood. The climate--frost free, humid and warm--nurtures a mix of both temperate and tropical inhabitants. Slight changes in inches of elevation diversify

what seems to be a monoton- ously flat landscape. Fire, that much maligned element, can restore health and protect diversity."

There are really only two seasons in the Everglades: wet and dry. This, the dry season, will end in May. The wet season runs from June to November. Water levels in the 'Glades can vary as much as four feet (Picture 2). The prime tourist season is during the dry season. You can actually walk through many areas of the sawgrass now and wild life is concentrated in those places that still have standing water. Fresh water flows from Lake Okeechobee in the north through a tabletop-flat sea of sawgrass to the estuaries on the southern Florida coast. The water may only move a hundred feet a day--a very slow-flowing river. There it mixes with seawater to form brackish, shallow bays and waterways. One can determine the degree of brackishness by the species of mangrove growing at any point. An inch of elevation difference may make create an environment for a different species of mangrove! Picture 3 shows mangrove roots (both aerial and prop).

Relatively little of the Everglades is accessible by road. If you want to really see the 'Glades, you will need to take a pontoon, an airboat, a canoe, or hike.

Caution would seem to the order of the day if you are moving about the 'Glades. Among the forty-some species of snakes in the Everglades, four are poisonous: diamondback and pygmy rattlesnakes, water moccasins, and coral snakes. Then there are the Burmese python, the Florida panther, alligators, and crocodiles.

In addition the plant life can be deadly. For example, the manchineal tree (picture 3) has beautiful shiny green leaves and apple-like fruit. Two bites of the fruit or rainwater running off the leaves, however, can be fatal.

The Florida Keys

The Florida Keys, the southern- most point in the United States, is a sun- worshipper's and fisherman's heaven! It 123 miles from Homestead, FL, to Key West, the tip of the Keys. (Note: a "key" is an island.) There are no alternate routes--only the one road. We drove our truck but left our camper in Homestead.

Getting to the Keys means driving over miles of causeways, some of them up to seven miles long. The weather was gorgeous--as was the scenery! The pictures pretty much tell the story.

We were advised to drive to the Keys on a weekday, because traffic is impossible on weekends. As it was, we found it difficult to drive our big truck because streets were crowded and narrow. There were many bicyclists, pedi-cabs, and pedestrians in addition to the usual traffic. We had a fabulous seafood lunch near the yacht pictured, walked on the sand beaches and onto several piers.

We saw no commercial ships as we drove to and from Key West, only pleasure boats. Resorts were everywhere. We marveled at the number of RV parks--most jammed full to the point that awnings could hardly be raised.

Sugar Cane Harvest in Southern Florida

They really know how to raise "cane" in Florida--sugar cane, that is! It's a major crop in this part of Florida. As we drove from Clewiston to Homestead, we passed cane fields for miles.

There are two processing plants near Clewiston where we camped. Unfortu- nately, we happened to camp downwind from one of them! Anyone who lived near one of the sugar processing plants in North Dakota would have recognized the odor.

Sugar cane is grown in four states: Hawaii, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. The U. S. produces 27 million tons annually. By comparison, world leader in sugar cane production, Brazil, produces 650 million tons each year. Sugar cane is grown in 110 countries. One planting of sugar cane can produce two to ten harvests with decreasing yields.

Cane is harvested during the dry season. The harvesting machine is shown in Picture 2. It cuts the cane into pieces and drops it in the trailer. Leaves and other light material is left in the field. Cane generally matures in 12 months, but the range is from 6 months to 24 months. Pictures 1 and 2 show a mature field; picture 4 shows a young stand. Where cane is harvested by hand (machete), the field is first burned to get rid of leaves and poisonous snakes. As you can see from the pictures, Florida cane is not harvested by hand.

A fibrous byproduct of cane processing, called bagasse, is burned by the plant to generate power. It is said to be environmentally friendly because it produces essentially only CO2.

The Daytona 500 Race

The Daytona 500, the first race in the NASCAR race season, was a great place to have our first experience with big time stock car races! With a starting field of 43, there was no shortage of action. This year's Daytona set records for most lead changes and most laps under caution. It also produced the youngest winner, Travor Bayne, who celebrated his 20th birthday the day before the race. He was pushed across the line by Bobby LaBonte, a veteran of NASCAR racing.

Daytona has a 2.5 mile track with some steeply banked turns (31 degrees). This is equivalent to a ski slope. It allows speeds of 200 mph through the turn. A new phenomenon emerged during tryouts for this year's Daytona. It's referred to as "hooking up." Successful race drivers have always used "drafting" to gain an advantage. Hooking up goes one step further: instead of just closely following another car, the second car actually pushes the first car. In simple physics, basically what happens is that you have one car with two engines. Hook-ups went on throughout this year's race although the pairings changed as the field was reduced by more than half by the end of the race. In Picture 2 you can see the banked turns and the pairs.

Race attendance, including RVers in the infield and pit crews, was estimated at just under 300,000 people. A unscientific estimate is that several million cans of beer were consumed at the race!

Getting 300,000 people into the stands is a logistical challenge to say the least! Race fans were transported from their assigned parking lots by a fleet of several hundred school buses. An estimated 30,000 cars were parked in our lot. One needs to remember where one parked since everyone in the lot was picked up and dropped off (after dark) at the same point.

From the Party Life to the Afterlife...New Orleans

Burial in New Orleans is usually above ground given the high water table. Since New Orleans is an old city, there are a number of very large cemeteries filled with burial vaults. Burial vaults are a status symbol. A large elaborate burial vault is your statement of status if you were wealthy and could afford one. The less well-to-do may rent a vault for five or ten years. These vaults, like the row pictured are nine feet deep. Your remains go into the vault at the front and remain there to the end of your lease. Then your remains are pushed to the back

and another "renter" takes up the front.

You will notice the community vault for the Sisters of Mt. Carmel. There are also extended family vaults.

Note in the third picture, the woman putting flowers in a vase at the front of the St. Leon the Great Mausoleum.

Not every family maintains the rental vaults as can be seen in the fourth picture (a row of vaults with apartment buildings in the background). Typically these less expensive burial options are around the exterior wall of the cemetery.

Mardi Gras -- the Business End

Mardi Gras is a billion dollar annual operation for New Orleans. Mardi Gras is a season which begins January 6 and culminates on Fat Tuesday. There are dozens of parades. Clubs called crewes sponsor floats and have their own parades. Large clubs have multiple parades--and as many as 26 floats! Six to ten of these floats are theme floats for the club and do not change. Up to 20 others are decorated annually to fit the Mardi Gras theme for that year. A float can cost the crewe anywhere from $50,000 to as much as $800,000!

Floats are

built on a basic float frame, which is mounted on a heavy-duty four-wheel trailer. All floats are pulled by tractors in the parades. One firm specializing in building the massive floats has 17 ware- houses around the city for refitting and storing the floats. You get an idea of the size of floats from the picture of the two of us standing beside the Trojan Horse.

Most of the characters like the large head in the first picture are created from styrofoam. Many of these characters are used over and over again. They are simply modified by float-building craftsmen to fit the current plan. The day after Mardi Gras work begins on next year's floats. King Kong (see picture) was built for a float but was too tall so is now his own float.

New Orleans and Katrina

Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005. The devastation in many places is still evident. The site of our campground was covered by 12 feet of water. While parts of the city are recovering quite well, others are not. The mayor recently observed that there are 61,000 properties within the city that need to be demolished. His view is that current budget limitations, the city could manage 10,000 demolitions a year. Do the math, it will require another six years just to remove the rubble. Given the usual complica- tions to these kinds of efforts, six years seems optimistic.

The first picture is of the home and recording studio of Fats Domino in the lower ninth ward. He was rescued from the roof of this house. He has moved to another home in NO. The next house is one of many new homes being funded by Brad Pitt. These homes are "green." Most are said to be net energy producers. Brad Pitt has spent millions of his own money on this project. The homes are sold at little or no interest expense to residents.

Most of New Orleans is below sea level. The city is surrounded by a levee. Water is pumped more or less continuously into drainage canals and drained into Lake Pontchartrain. The levee breeches, which lead to the flooding have been repaired. The pumping stations are awesome. One gets a feeling for the volume of water management just driving by one the stations.