I'm Back!

It's been a  hard month since I last posted, as the ones that are following this blog know I had to cut my trip short after hearing of Mother passing away. As I was about as far away as I could get in the U.S. from where my parents live I had a long journey home of about 5000 kms. which I managed to do in 4.5 days. Ya I am a little obsessive and when I decide I am heading home not much stops me. I must say though I hope I never do that again, I do not like the interstates to begin with as they tend to be very boring plus the many sleepy moments and the pain I was in was a bit too much. After I got home I rested for a few days and then off to Vancouver Island in Beth's Van to my Mother's Funeral. I must say I do a lot better pain wise on my bike than in the Van but glad we took it as the weather was nasty and I brought a lot home from my parents home as my Dad is also in a home I now have a lot of his tools. It's nice to keep things in the family but also hard to see my Parents things.

I have a few days of my trip that I didn't write on so I will try to remember a few things here and post some nice pictures I got.

Off to the Everglades. The weather is warming up now. Apparently I am at the end of the tourist season so they have closed a lot of the campsites in the Everglades as the rainy season will be starting anytime so I am lucky to miss the rain. On my last trip I didn't get to see Alligators so that is a high priority for me this time. Apparently they have panthers also in the Everglades but they are seldom seen.

I camped in a campsite that surrounded a small lake hoping to find Alligators but couldn't see any. There was one other person camping there so I talked to them and they said there was there were lots of gators in the canal along the road, so off I went to get my pictures. I see why they live there, the amount and size of the fish in the canals were amazing, lots of food there for sure.

It was very warm over night so I left the fly off, by morning everything was soaked due to the humidity. So here I am at my pick nick table having some breakfast and I look up and there is an Alligator not more than 30 ft. from me crossing from the bush behind my tent over to the pond, he was so quiet I almost missed him, but I did get some awesome pictures after hurriedly scrambling to find my camera.

    

The other sunny side of the lake was his destination, apparently after they eat they lay in the sun to warm up as it helps digestion.

On to the Florida Keys.

Well I thought $36 was expensive for a campsite, here it $43.

These crabs live in holes on dry land, not sure what they eat or if they even go into the water.

The weather was finally getting nice and hot and I am starting to relax and enjoy the warmth after riding far to many miles in less than warm weather. The Keys are not known for and abundance of sandy beaches, although I did find one and was just heading there as I got the call from my sister about my Mom passing away.

A  few pics from my trip to Vancouver Island at the end of May.

The weather was a little extreme for the end of may, it might have been a little difficult on my bike.

The home where I grew up as a child. For sale - only 1.28 Million!

Well as far as continuing my trip to complete the U.S. states on my bike, I'm not sure at this point as it is getting a little late now, I have a father and son camp out next week with my son and grandson and then that would only leave me a month before the BMW national rally in Salem Oregon which I wanted to be at. I may try head out in Sept., go across Canada and then down the east coast and across the south into Arizona for awhile, just not sure how I would get back home with my bike in Nov.