with family at Fisheating
Creek in Palmdale, Florida May 14 - 15, 2011 |
Fisheating Creek is the only free flowing tributary that runs into Lake Okeechobee. The two RV Gypsies and some of their family members enjoyed hiking and canoeing among real alligators in the wild. Photos below. |
May 14, 2011 the two RV
Gypsies drove their RV to Palmdale, Florida, to begin their 6-month (or
more) RV trip. They are retired, do not own a house, condo, townhouse,
apartment nor any other abode in Florida to worry about. So they can stay
gone as long as they wish. When they reached Clewiston, Florida the
dreaded Love Bugs attacked their RV. |
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Below: And then to make
matters worse, it began to rain |
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When the two RV Gypsies arrived at Fisheating Creek, they unhooked their toad, and entered their RV. But so did lots and lots of Love Bugs. It took Karen Duquette almost an hour to kill all the Love Bugs that followed them into the motorhome. Not fun! |
The Two RV Gypsies built a campfire to help keep the Love Bugs away. It cost them about $20 in firewood. |
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Below: By the time
family members arrived, most of the Love Bugs had gone to bed for the
evening so everyone had time to enjoy the outdoors. Thank goodness! |
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Below: Then everyone jumped into John Smythers' truck and went to the hiking area within the campground. The kids rode in the back of the pickup truck. (Even Lee Duquette - the big kid.) | |
Within minutes of starting
the hike, it began to rain again. Nobody cared. |
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Below: There was a baby
alligator and it's mother in this portion of the creek. The photos did
not turn out good enough to post. |
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Below: Then it began to
rain a little bit harder. |
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Nature's umbrellas |
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Everyone got very wet from the rain, but still had fun. |
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Below: Lee Duquette does not know
how to behave! |
Below: Karen Duquette told Josh to
JUMP! |
Below: Josh jumped from
the tree limb down onto Brittny's shoulders |
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Below: The next morning the two RV Gypsies and their family prepared to canoe the creek. Before they even got into the canoes, the rain began again. | |
John said "CHARGE FULL SPEED
AHEAD - RAIN BE DARNED" |
Renee said "I am glad my parents are so prepared and brought ponchos" (Well Renee, you know that they are RV Gypsies and full-time professional travelers) |
Below: Karen Duquette got in the front seat of the canoe, and twisted her body around to photograph Lee Duquette. Then she held the camera up to try to capture herself on film. She used a camera, not a cell phone, so could not see what she was actually taking. Good job, Karen. | |
Below: Approaching the
railroad trestle. The kids decided to climb up to the tracks. |
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Below: Once again Karen Duquette twisted her body around to photograph Lee Duquette, Then she held the camera up to try to capture herself in the canoe. Good job, Karen. | |
Below; The rain from these two days was not enough to help ease the drought that caused the creek to dry up so they could not canoe any further down the river. It was just one month ago that Renee and John were able to canoe about another mile past this same point. So everyone got out of their canoe and took a short walk and checked the water conditions ahead. It had finally stopped raining for awhile at least. | |
Below: Lee Duquette walked
the area where there should be a creek and saw that there was no creek
around the bend either. |
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Below: Then it was time to canoe back
to the campground. |
Below: One of many fish burrows |
Below: John Smythers tried
to walk on water - luckily the creek was very shallow here so
he did not drown when he discovered that he could not walk on
water! |
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Below: The two RV Gypsies,
grandson, Alex Jones climbed up onto the railroad trestle again. John
and Josh tried to take a short cut to the other side of the railroad trestle
and managed to ground their canoe once again. You can see Alex in the
background on the railroad trestle in the photo below. |
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Below: Karen Duquette propped up her
feet and relaxed while Lee Duquette did the work of paddling. |
John and Josh thought they could raise their paddles into the air and turn the canoe into a sailboat. LOL! |
Below: An Alligator at
Fisheating Creek |
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The two RV Gypsies continued on to The west coast of Florida |