On a trip to Florida and the Everglades National Park, Mary (my traveling companion) and I wanted to get the northern perspective. Minnie (our trailer) traveled along Highway 41, the historic Tamiami Trail. The Tamiami, originally named by a Miami Herald reporter, was the first road built from Ft. Myers to Miami, and it passes through the Big Cypress National Preserve. The stands of Big Cypress are now only second growth, the old growth cypress were logged during World War II to build decks on aircraft carriers.

We set up camp at Chokoloskee Island, just south of Everglades City at the entrance to the waterways that weave through 10,000 Islands, eventually leading to the Gulf of Mexico. Everglades City's claim to fame was that Harry Truman actually came there in 1947 when he declared the Everglades a National Park.This would be our base as we explore other portions of the Everglades water wilderness.

On our first day, I road the 3 mile bike trail between Chokoloskee Island and the National Park's Gulf Island Visitor Center in Everglades City. From here visitors can take a Park Service tour boat into the northwestern access of the 10,000 Islands. On our trip we passed by some canoeists who were setting out to paddle some of this wilderness, and even some who paddle the 100-mile long canoe trail that leads to the southern most portion of the Everglades. This is something I fantasize doing, but first I have to get past my fear of mosquitoes that swarm the tent platforms pitched on in the swamps (in the tradition of the indigenous peoples who once lived in that fashion in the "glades").

The tour boat trip also takes visitors to see the small mangrove hammocks. The crustaceans attach themselves to the roots and provide an easy meal for the numerous wading birds. Tourists can also watch the dolphins frolicking in the boat's wake and see the osprey nesting on the water markers. The markers, of course, serve another function besides providing a nesting place. They provide navigation aids to the boats passing through this unique place where the salt and fresh waters meet.

The second day, I took my bike back east along Highway 41 about an hour to Shark Valley, the northern entrance to the Everglades. No road leads into the Everglades from the North. The 15-mile narrow loop road is designed for either the National Park Service's tram, bike or foot travel. The National Park does rent bicycles for those who don't have one with them. It's a great ride along the saw grass lined canals that bring fresh water through the glades. A wonderful bird-watching experience too with herons, egrets, even a pair of glossy egrets, sharing space with hundreds of alligators huddling in the warmth of the sun.

From here I got even another perspective of the Everglades, even walking up a tower for an expansive view of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas's beloved "River of Grass." And once again I was awestruck by this natural wonder. A most unique place where mangrove trees grow in such shallow dirt, the only dirt of which comes from the composting of the leaves of the mangrove trees that grow on what was once the ocean floor, a place where people still find shark teeth among the fossilized shell floor.

As I returned to camp at Chokoloskee Island, I passed through the Big Cypress Preserve, where the only people inhabiting this region are the Miccosukee Indians, who like the Seminoles, hid among the Everglades to escape European settlers. These First People now operate restaurants, casinos and airboat concessions that sit among the Indian Villages that dot Highway 41 passing through the preserve. These are the same people who began enterprising tourism in the region in the 1940s and 50s with roadside alligator wrestling shows.

Our final day in South Florida was a warm muggy Florida day with little wind, so I headed out from the campground's boat dock to kayak among some of the 10,000 mangrove Islands. What I enjoy so much about kayaking is the ability to get up close to the birds, see the fossilized shells in the water, even observe an otter scoot along a shell mound bank. I paddled past the historic 1908 Smallwood Store mounted on stilts. This historic landmark, named after Postmaster Smallwook who ran the store, was once an outpost for the Seminole Indians who paddled out of the Everglades in their dugout cypress canoes to trade.

Later Mary, my traveling companion, and I toured the inside of the Smallwood Store and got another look at this remote island's history; a place still caught out of time.

Chokoloskee Island continues to be noted for fishing and is particular famous for Stone Crabs, a very hard shelled heavy like stone crab that has a large claw and a small claw. Fisher people catch the crab, take its large claw at the shoulder and release the crab to grow yet another claw and then the cycle continues. Sadly, we missed the Crab festival which comes each year in February.

Our final evening we sat, as we did each evening, and watched another beautiful sunset from the boat dock. It was hard to leave the wilderness of the Everglades, leave the "real" Florida we have discovered.