Further south into Everglades territory

Davie, FL

As you’ll note from my last post, my DSLR Camera wasn’t working so I spent some time over the last couple of days finding out what was wrong and doing some shopping for camera equipment. I found a great camera repair place in Winter Park, just to the north of Orlando, who determined the body of my camera was fine, but the lens was shot. It could be repaired but would cost less to buy a new one. I had been lusting after a 18-200mm lens so that I didn’t have to change out my lenses to get zoom capability and still have the ability to take wider shots. Figured now was the time to get that lens and I’ll replace the 18 – 55mm down the road. I bought a lower cost Tamron lens and I hope I’m not disappointed. I also replaced my point and shoot since it had been giving me grief and the technology has come such a long way. So my pics may not be great for a while till I get used to the new equipment.

Yesterday I waved goodbye to Micky and Harry Porter land and started to work my way down to the southern most tip of the continental US. (Key West).

It was all business today, from point A to point B, in the shortest possible route, and that was along the Florida Turnpike. Not an inspiring roadway to say the least, but it was fast and uneventful, always a good thing when driving in traffic. It was also expensive! U.S. $25 in tolls. At least they use a card system so there weren’t multiple stops to pay tolls along the way.

My destination yesterday was Davie, Florida. It’s just a small town a few miles west and a little south of Ft Lauderdale. It’s right near the edge of the Everglades and is again horse country. The KOA is not bad at all, quite small, pretty landscaping where there is space between sites (which is not much and non-existent at my site). It’s got mostly seasonal or permanent campers. Aside from being down last night, the wifi is great. They were hit with the bad winds associated with the storms that created tornadoes a couple of weeks ago and are still cleaning up from it. It’s really handy to Interstate 75 which I’ll take down to Key West, and it’s not far from Ft Lauderdale, Miami and the Everglades.

After setting up I spent a little bit of time cooling down at the pool. I’ve definitely found some hot, humid weather. Just last week I was freezing at night and it was only getting up to 15 degrees during the day. Today it was humid and 28. Not complaining, mind you. 🙂

Then I was off to orient myself. I’m just on the eastern edge of the Everglades here and there are multiple air boat companies taking tourists out. I checked out a couple of them, and I may do both today. There are a gazillion birds everywhere down here, both native population and those wintering here. I checked out the shopping and restaurant situation and found two places in the same mall competing for mani/pedi business so I stopped and took advantage of the cheap price.

Off to see what I can see today.

P.S. Here’s an example of the lens capability. The first pic is shot at 18mm, and the second at it’s telephoto end – 200mm