RV Preparation & Repairs
Julie and I have been hiding out from the harsh northeast winters in Tampa, FL since late October of 2018. We had decided month’s prior that we wanted the summer 2019 RV season to be our Alaska edition but we had a lot of work to do to make that happen. We wanted to catch up on our blog, which we were about 2-3 months behind on. We wanted to create a whole new website which would be much easier to navigate and search. We wanted to create a store and try to make our passion our business as well. First things first though, our beloved Bubbles RV needed some much needed work.
Since the early summer of 2018 we were having trouble with our RV’s inverter. The inverter is what changes the electrical current of the van from direct current (dc) to alternating current (ac). The issue was that the inverters fan (which is located directly under our heads when we sleep) kept on turning on every 6-8 minutes. This made it impossible to sleep while it was turned on. We had taken Bubbles to a shop in NY over the summer but after a month there they could not find any issues. After our two week drive from NY to Florida where every night we would need to shut the system down we immediately started to look for a repair shop that specialized in the Roadtrek brand.
While it took a bit of time to find and even longer to get an appointment we finally found a shop called Gerzeny’s RV World in Lakeland about a 30 mile drive east of Tampa. This shop turned out to be amazing! While the repair shop in NY could not find anything wrong, Gerzeny’s was able to diagnose and address our issue fast. As it still did take a few weeks to fix as getting specific RV parts can take a while to ship, Bubbles was finally ready to once again take Julie and I on the road.
Finding a Route
As it was early April and not yet time to head north to Alaska, Julie and I decided instead to go the opposite way; south to the Everglades. A few months prior Julie and I were in the southwest Florida town of Fort Myers for a family reunion. I’m a bit of a geography and map nerd and while I was looking on my phones map I noticed a small island community in the western Everglades with seemingly nothing else around it. So after the family reunion ended and before heading back north to Tampa, Julie and I decided to check it out. It took about an hour to get there driving southeast but that island community ended up being two, the town of Everglades City and the even smaller island community of Chokoloskee. As we thought they were pretty neat and more importantly had an RV park we decided to make this our first RV trip of 2019.
Day one of our trip turned out to be a bit longer than expected. Bubbles was being stored in a storage facility in Lakeland so after waking up and packing the car we headed over to the storage facility. We then packed Bubbles and drove back to Tampa to pick up our bicycles. From there we were finally off. We made it from Tampa to Chokoloskee in a little over 3 hours arriving at the RV park (Outdoor Resorts of Chokoloskee) just after 5pm. After setting up and cooking we finally were able to take a breather. It felt great to be back in the RV again for the first time in about five months.
Everglades National Park
The next morning we woke up to a breezy but sunny day. As Chokoloskee and Everglades City are both very small towns we decided that the best way to get around was by our bikes. We filled our water bottles, put some extra clothes in a backpack and we were off. Everglades City and the Gulf Coast Visitors Center for Everglades National Park was located on the other side of the 3 mile long causeway connecting the two towns. Luckily for us there was a sidewalk the entire length of the causeway, which made for a great ride. We explored the visitor’s center for a while before signing up to do a narrated boat ride. This turned out to be great! While in almost every national park most of Julie’s and my itinerary involves hiking, its not exactly something that can be done in a national park in which the majority of the park is under water.
Once it was our boarding time we hopped on the boat with about 20 other people. Almost immediately Everglades facts started to come fast. The park is the third largest in the national parks system and one of only a very few that is in a truly tropical climate. It was the 26th National Park being established in 1947. One of the unusual facts was that Harry Truman himself dedicated the park from a small airstrip in Everglades City. We tried to imagine how really isolated Everglades City must have been in the 1940’s and to have a president here was really crazy. Also it was only one of a few parks to be dedicated off property as Everglades City is not actually in Everglades National Park but across a waterway from it.
We also learned a lot about the wildlife and plants in the park. From dolphins, alligators and manatees to why the color of the water was a murky brown (leaves from mangrove trees fall in the water, decompose and turn brown). We learned a lot. One of the highlights was seeing a bird called a cormorant eat a whole fish. The fish was about half the size of the bird and we were told that in order to swallow it the bird had to position the fish just right. It took about ten minutes but the bird finally positioned the fish and in a flash the fish was in the birds stomach. It was pretty neat to watch.
The last fact that we were told turned out to be the most interesting. We were told that thousands of years ago the Indian tribes in the area had built almost all the islands in the area (including Chokoloskee) by hand. As fishing in the area was world class they wanted to live there so would dig up shells from the shallow water and build shell mounds where mangrove trees were already growing. Over the years and centuries they would add on and add on more shells eventually creating islands that could resist the water currents and storms of the area. This really blew our minds that our 21st century RV campground was sitting on top of a shell island that Indians built thousands of years prior.
After our boat tour we jumped back onto our bikes and explored the rest of Everglades City. It seemed from looking around almost everyone made their living by either some sort of part tourism or by fishing, either commercially or by being a guide. As we were pretty hungry we decided that we should try some of the local fish and stopped by a restaurant called the Camellia Street Grill. When we entered the place was packed which is always a good sign. We knew it would take awhile to get our food but as we had nothing else planned for the day we ordered food, grabbed a beer and relaxed. Once our food finally came it was delicious! We both had ordered a grouper sandwich and it was worth the wait. After lunch we biked back to Chokoloskee and relaxed for the rest of the day.
Exploring the Island of Chokoloskee
The next day we woke up and jumped back on our bikes. Today we were just staying on Chokoloskee. While the island is small (only 0.2 sq miles) there was still a little bit to see. Up until the early 1980’s the island boasted a general store called Ted Smallwood’s Store. This store sold everything an island family would need as well as serving as a post office as well as an inn if a traveler needed someplace to rest for the night. Today its been turned into a museum showcasing its own items from years past as well as history and artifacts from the nearby area and community. We browsed through the museum before sitting down and watching a video about a gentleman who grew up in the area. It’s a pretty neat museum and one that we would recommend if you are ever in the area.
From Ted Smallwood’s store we headed back to Bubbles. We wanted to check all of her systems to make sure everything was working as it should before setting out on the long drive from Tampa to Alaska. We tested the air conditioner, furnace, water pump, stereo systems, macerator and every system that we could. I am proud to report that everything worked and she is ready to go. For the rest of the day we hung out at the RV Park’s pool and made dinner.
The next morning we woke up, packed and hit the road back to Tampa. We were glad that we explored this remote part of the state and decided that next time we come back we should do some fishing of our own!
Next up….A tour of our adopted hometown, Tampa, FL
