We leave Naples Behind, stop at Sanibel Island, next destination Myakka River State Park. Speedy won't start. We reconnect with Harry & Sally and share a campsite. Speedy starts when taken in for service. More birdwatching with Alan including the hunt for the elusive Bachman's Sparrow. Speedy won't start. Steve and Harry play mechanics. We leave Myakka River in convoy, destination unknown. Back to Ocala National Forest.
With Speedy's water pump repaired, we left Collier-Seminole State Park early (and for the last time). We've decided that it is just too crowded a park to stay at. I doubt that it will be a destination on any future trip. We wanted to get an early start in order to get to Sanibel Island and the "Ding" Darling Wildlife Refuge before things got too crowded—and we were glad we did. The refuge is a famous site for bird watching.
There is a toll bridge to Sanibel and once you are on the island, it becomes all narrow two-lane roads. Traffic was fairly heavy out to the wildlife refuge. When we arrived a volunteer-guided tour was just about ready to leave, but we decided to do the scenic road on our own and at our own pace. There were volunteer birders at every significant overlook and there was much to see.
All the usual wading birds, herons, egrets, storks and ibis were present, but also a Bald Eagle and a white morph of a Reddish Egret (white with a pink bill). It was Ellen's first Reddish Egret. She had missed them at the Everglades. At the same stop as the Reddish Egret we also saw a mixed flock of brown shorebirds. They were fairly far away and we wouldn't have been able to identify them without the presence of the more expert volunteers. We saw Willetts, Black-bellied Plovers (which had white bellies), Spotted Sandpipers and Short-billed Dowitchers.
After our tour through the refuge, we stopped for lunch on the way off the island, By that time, the traffic was abysmal. It was stop and go all the way to the bridge and the traffic from the mainland was backed up all along the causeway and over the bridge. It was worse than Route 6A through the mid-Cape on a summer weekend.
After we left Sanibel, it was off to Myakka River State Park, recommended by Alan, Ellen and Sally's new birding guru. We hadn't known of this park before. It is just east of Sarasota and has two lakes and the Myakka River. It is a different environment than the Everglades or even the Gulf Coast, mostly sandy upland prairie. It is also hard to get reservations for and we had pieced together three days in three different sites. Whne we arrived, we got a call from Sally. They were also there, arriving a day earlier than they had planned. They had managed to get a site for Tuesday night, but had a different one for the following three days.
Their site for the following days was enormous, so they suggested that we share it. This began a comedy of beaurocracy. I went up to the registration building to see if we could cancel the next two days reservations and share with Harry & Sally. The ranger was not sure if we could share a site, so I would have to check back in the morning with the park manager, but this meant that I'd have to pay for the next day's site since you can't cancel on the day of arrival. I didn't cancel then, since if I had, and we could not share a site, we would have no site, as they seem to rebook them in minutes. It is a quite popular park.
First thing Wednesday morning, it was back to the registration building. The manager ws not available, but the ranger on duty was much more willing to make a decision and allowed us to share Harry & Sally's site. But I still had to pay for that day. I pointed out that we were already here and I'd tried the night before. Thsi made no difference because it was a different reservation. It turns out that if you reserve more than one site, even during the same session, each is a separate reservation. This meant that not only did I have to pay for Wenesday, but would also have to pay a separate cancellation fee for Thursday. Not much savings in sharing.
That beaurocratic nightmare over, it was back to camp to move to the new site. Speedy wouldn't start. The engine would turn over just fine, but wouldn't catch. After about a half-dozen tries it finally started. It ran just fine. We drove over to the new site. Afer backing it into place in a corner of the site, I could turn the engine off and restart it without any problems, but we were a bit concerned. Speedy had already had four problems on this trip.
This new site was very large and after Harry and Sally arrived and put their Roadtrek in another corner, there was still room for four or five more Roadtreks. It was then time to relax and enjoy the park...but the starting issue still loomed.
The next morning, when Ellen and Sally were off on their morning bird walk, I attempted to restart Speedy. It had the same problem. This was not a fluke. Much discussion ensued later in the day and I agreed to call the local Dodge dealer and bring it to them. I called and set up an appointment for first thing Friday morning. After that Ellen and Sally continued their birding pursuits and we later went over to the lake to look around and get ice cream.
Friday morning arrived and I was off to the Dodge dealer shortly after 6 AM. I started this early since I was sure it would take a while to get Speedy started. Sure enough, it started right up. The only change from the previous two days was that I'd gotten up to close the roof vent after I'd swicthed on the ignition, but before engaging the starter.
I arrived at the dealer in Sarasota just before 7 AM. There was already someone there, so he took a look at it. There were no fault codes showing and he said that the only way they could diagnose it was to have me leave it overnight and they could test it in the morning. But it was Friday, so that meant Monday morning. We had no place to stay over the weekend. He suggested that, since it turned over with no problems, that it was likely to be the fuel pump loing its prime and if I just let it sit with the ignition on for a minute before starting it, it should prime itself and then start. This made sense as that seemed to be the scenario when it started this morning.
It was back to the park with that news and we planned another day. Ellen and Sally went off with Alan, who was also camping here, to search for the rare Bachman's Sparrow, which was suppped to be present in the park and I went off for a bike ride. Harry wanted to try the Alligator Stew offered by the Myakka Outpost down by the lake, so we were off to there for lunch.
After a lazy afternoon, we had a good dinner with musical accompaniment. There was an outdoor concert being held in the park just outside the campground. We wandered up to listen to the end of the concert after dinner. Sally got there first and saw the last three songs, but washing the dinner dishes delayed us and it ended just as we arrived. After that we called it a day, not really knowing where we would be spending Saturday night. We had no weekend reservations.
Saturday morning dawned a bit damp and cloudy. We headed off with Harry and Sally in their Roadtrek to take the Canopy Walk, a nature trail in the park that includes a suspended section that is about 30 feet up, allowing you walk along at tree-top level. The nature walk was pretty quiet and went through a Palmetto forest and the canopy walk was only about 100 feet long. There was a tower at the end of the walk and it climbed to about 75 feet, where we had a high-level view of much of the park. A Black Vulture joined us at the top of the tower annd sat on a post only a couple of feet away the whole time we were there.
After the walk, it was back to finish packing up the campsite and be on our way again...and Speedy wouldn't start, even after letting it sit for a minute with the ignition on.
As in the past, it eventually started, but we all noticed that there was the strong odor of raw fuel before it finally fired. This meant that it couldn't be a fuel pump problem. Time to take things apart. We pulled the back cover off the engine and cleaned the distributor rotor, which was pretty carbonized. We now postulate that the culprit is the coil or the wire from coil to distributor. The coil got heavily soaked in coolant when the water pump failed. We tried cleaning it and then spraying all the wires with WD-40. We put it all back together and it started fine, but that was what we expected. It seems to have no trouble starting with the engine warm.
Everything packed up, we headed out together with Harry and Sally for parts unknown...sort of. The plan was to go north east, first stopping at E G Simmons Park, a county park on the shore of Tampa Bay. They had no space when we arrived. They also knew that there were no sites available a Menard Park, another county park a bit further north, So, it was off to Ocala National Forest. We called ahead to see if there were any sites at the big developed campgrounds, Alexander, Juniper and Salt Springs. They were all full. We knew, at worst, we could probably find a dispersed camping site in the forest, so it was a 100 mile ride to the visitor center outside of Altoona, at the southern end of the forest.
We walked in at about 3 PM and asked about camping availability and dispersed camping. We were told that there was no need to worry, the Dorr Lake campground, right across the road from the visitor center was only about half-full. We drove off in that direction and found two nice, flat campsites at a mere $8/night, including clean hot showers.
This morning, after a rainy night, we took Speedy into Eustis, about 10 miles away to do some grocery shopping. Needless to say, Speedy didn't start without trouble. We are considering going back into Eustis to an auto parts store to find a new coil and wire tomorrow if the problem persists on a dry, warm day. We've moved to a new campground, Alexander Springs, for a couple of days. Barring any further problems, we will then spend a few days at Juniper Springs and the weekend at Salt Springs before heading back towards the east coast and then northward.
With Speedy's water pump repaired, we left Collier-Seminole State Park early (and for the last time). We've decided that it is just too crowded a park to stay at. I doubt that it will be a destination on any future trip. We wanted to get an early start in order to get to Sanibel Island and the "Ding" Darling Wildlife Refuge before things got too crowded—and we were glad we did. The refuge is a famous site for bird watching.
There is a toll bridge to Sanibel and once you are on the island, it becomes all narrow two-lane roads. Traffic was fairly heavy out to the wildlife refuge. When we arrived a volunteer-guided tour was just about ready to leave, but we decided to do the scenic road on our own and at our own pace. There were volunteer birders at every significant overlook and there was much to see.
All the usual wading birds, herons, egrets, storks and ibis were present, but also a Bald Eagle and a white morph of a Reddish Egret (white with a pink bill). It was Ellen's first Reddish Egret. She had missed them at the Everglades. At the same stop as the Reddish Egret we also saw a mixed flock of brown shorebirds. They were fairly far away and we wouldn't have been able to identify them without the presence of the more expert volunteers. We saw Willetts, Black-bellied Plovers (which had white bellies), Spotted Sandpipers and Short-billed Dowitchers.
After our tour through the refuge, we stopped for lunch on the way off the island, By that time, the traffic was abysmal. It was stop and go all the way to the bridge and the traffic from the mainland was backed up all along the causeway and over the bridge. It was worse than Route 6A through the mid-Cape on a summer weekend.
After we left Sanibel, it was off to Myakka River State Park, recommended by Alan, Ellen and Sally's new birding guru. We hadn't known of this park before. It is just east of Sarasota and has two lakes and the Myakka River. It is a different environment than the Everglades or even the Gulf Coast, mostly sandy upland prairie. It is also hard to get reservations for and we had pieced together three days in three different sites. Whne we arrived, we got a call from Sally. They were also there, arriving a day earlier than they had planned. They had managed to get a site for Tuesday night, but had a different one for the following three days.
Their site for the following days was enormous, so they suggested that we share it. This began a comedy of beaurocracy. I went up to the registration building to see if we could cancel the next two days reservations and share with Harry & Sally. The ranger was not sure if we could share a site, so I would have to check back in the morning with the park manager, but this meant that I'd have to pay for the next day's site since you can't cancel on the day of arrival. I didn't cancel then, since if I had, and we could not share a site, we would have no site, as they seem to rebook them in minutes. It is a quite popular park.
First thing Wednesday morning, it was back to the registration building. The manager ws not available, but the ranger on duty was much more willing to make a decision and allowed us to share Harry & Sally's site. But I still had to pay for that day. I pointed out that we were already here and I'd tried the night before. Thsi made no difference because it was a different reservation. It turns out that if you reserve more than one site, even during the same session, each is a separate reservation. This meant that not only did I have to pay for Wenesday, but would also have to pay a separate cancellation fee for Thursday. Not much savings in sharing.
That beaurocratic nightmare over, it was back to camp to move to the new site. Speedy wouldn't start. The engine would turn over just fine, but wouldn't catch. After about a half-dozen tries it finally started. It ran just fine. We drove over to the new site. Afer backing it into place in a corner of the site, I could turn the engine off and restart it without any problems, but we were a bit concerned. Speedy had already had four problems on this trip.
This new site was very large and after Harry and Sally arrived and put their Roadtrek in another corner, there was still room for four or five more Roadtreks. It was then time to relax and enjoy the park...but the starting issue still loomed.
The next morning, when Ellen and Sally were off on their morning bird walk, I attempted to restart Speedy. It had the same problem. This was not a fluke. Much discussion ensued later in the day and I agreed to call the local Dodge dealer and bring it to them. I called and set up an appointment for first thing Friday morning. After that Ellen and Sally continued their birding pursuits and we later went over to the lake to look around and get ice cream.
Friday morning arrived and I was off to the Dodge dealer shortly after 6 AM. I started this early since I was sure it would take a while to get Speedy started. Sure enough, it started right up. The only change from the previous two days was that I'd gotten up to close the roof vent after I'd swicthed on the ignition, but before engaging the starter.
I arrived at the dealer in Sarasota just before 7 AM. There was already someone there, so he took a look at it. There were no fault codes showing and he said that the only way they could diagnose it was to have me leave it overnight and they could test it in the morning. But it was Friday, so that meant Monday morning. We had no place to stay over the weekend. He suggested that, since it turned over with no problems, that it was likely to be the fuel pump loing its prime and if I just let it sit with the ignition on for a minute before starting it, it should prime itself and then start. This made sense as that seemed to be the scenario when it started this morning.
It was back to the park with that news and we planned another day. Ellen and Sally went off with Alan, who was also camping here, to search for the rare Bachman's Sparrow, which was suppped to be present in the park and I went off for a bike ride. Harry wanted to try the Alligator Stew offered by the Myakka Outpost down by the lake, so we were off to there for lunch.
After a lazy afternoon, we had a good dinner with musical accompaniment. There was an outdoor concert being held in the park just outside the campground. We wandered up to listen to the end of the concert after dinner. Sally got there first and saw the last three songs, but washing the dinner dishes delayed us and it ended just as we arrived. After that we called it a day, not really knowing where we would be spending Saturday night. We had no weekend reservations.
Saturday morning dawned a bit damp and cloudy. We headed off with Harry and Sally in their Roadtrek to take the Canopy Walk, a nature trail in the park that includes a suspended section that is about 30 feet up, allowing you walk along at tree-top level. The nature walk was pretty quiet and went through a Palmetto forest and the canopy walk was only about 100 feet long. There was a tower at the end of the walk and it climbed to about 75 feet, where we had a high-level view of much of the park. A Black Vulture joined us at the top of the tower annd sat on a post only a couple of feet away the whole time we were there.
After the walk, it was back to finish packing up the campsite and be on our way again...and Speedy wouldn't start, even after letting it sit for a minute with the ignition on.
As in the past, it eventually started, but we all noticed that there was the strong odor of raw fuel before it finally fired. This meant that it couldn't be a fuel pump problem. Time to take things apart. We pulled the back cover off the engine and cleaned the distributor rotor, which was pretty carbonized. We now postulate that the culprit is the coil or the wire from coil to distributor. The coil got heavily soaked in coolant when the water pump failed. We tried cleaning it and then spraying all the wires with WD-40. We put it all back together and it started fine, but that was what we expected. It seems to have no trouble starting with the engine warm.
Everything packed up, we headed out together with Harry and Sally for parts unknown...sort of. The plan was to go north east, first stopping at E G Simmons Park, a county park on the shore of Tampa Bay. They had no space when we arrived. They also knew that there were no sites available a Menard Park, another county park a bit further north, So, it was off to Ocala National Forest. We called ahead to see if there were any sites at the big developed campgrounds, Alexander, Juniper and Salt Springs. They were all full. We knew, at worst, we could probably find a dispersed camping site in the forest, so it was a 100 mile ride to the visitor center outside of Altoona, at the southern end of the forest.
We walked in at about 3 PM and asked about camping availability and dispersed camping. We were told that there was no need to worry, the Dorr Lake campground, right across the road from the visitor center was only about half-full. We drove off in that direction and found two nice, flat campsites at a mere $8/night, including clean hot showers.
This morning, after a rainy night, we took Speedy into Eustis, about 10 miles away to do some grocery shopping. Needless to say, Speedy didn't start without trouble. We are considering going back into Eustis to an auto parts store to find a new coil and wire tomorrow if the problem persists on a dry, warm day. We've moved to a new campground, Alexander Springs, for a couple of days. Barring any further problems, we will then spend a few days at Juniper Springs and the weekend at Salt Springs before heading back towards the east coast and then northward.
I hope we can clear up Speedy's problems. The last time we drove it to the Everglades, it was our first trip in the van. We called it our "Shakedown Cruise". I'm afraid that this trip is our "Breakdown Cruise".
Myakka River State Park Photos
Myakka River State Park Photos
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