Travels with haRVy

A sign near the entrance to Myakka River State Park says, “Welcome to Old Florida” and they weren’t kidding. Once you got out of your car and hiked a few yards from the parking lot, it really felt like a tropical forest. The state has done a terrific job of preserving this land mass for the mammals and fowl that rely on it. During our brief visit we saw several very large alligators (from a respectful distance), a water snake eating a fish (very closeup from a viewing platform above some water hyacinths), a variety of exotic birds (including my favorite the Roseate Spoonbill), a few small deer, and more. We also hiked a beautiful nature trail that included a very high viewing tower and canopy walk.

Al at the top (I didn’t quite make it).

The canopy walk.

The local vulture population is said to eat the rubber off car windshield wipers and window seals! Here they are moving in on a recently vacated campsite to see if any goodies were left behind.

A couple other local residents.

This little outing occurred yesterday while we were still waiting to get an estimate for haRVy’s repair. Today we got the news. The good news is that it may not take as long or be quite as expensive as initial estimate from the first mechanic. However, it’s still going to cost a pretty penny and hold us up for a few more days. While quite an inconvenience, it could have been much worse. We are grateful for our generous hosts Marcus, Linda, Kendall, and Julia, while hoping that we don’t have any more surprises of this type in the future.