Everglades National Park - Shark Valley and Gulf Islands Visitor Centers

In the morning, Shark Valley VC was crowded inside and out. Must mean it's good, right? There is a guided tram tour that I think is accessible, but the wait was a couple of hours and we nixed it. Out back leads to a boardwalk trail taking you through thick trees and swamp brush. Like the Anhinga Trail, it is solid, straight and easy-going for anyone in a chair. There was a small alcove patio where we saw a short ranger program. What can I say, I like rangers, like I like astronauts. Wholesome Wheelie.

Then we hit a paved trail that literally went for miles along a tiny canal with some water life to see. The highlight was a mother alligator and her nest of babies on the trailside, all clearly visible and only a few feet away. The Park Service recommends at least 10 feet distance from alligators and other wildlife, but this was right beside the path and you couldn't help but gape. There were at least a half-dozen little ones, really amazing.

Baby alligators there, I swear.

The trail itself was in decent shape and as wide as a street, with plenty of room for all the walkers, cyclists and strollers coming and going. The mother and baby alligators were one of the most memorable sights on the trip. Otherwise, without the tram tour we could have skipped Shark Valley. There were very cool things waiting elsewhere.

We drove to Gulf Islands Visitor Center at the northeast corner of the park, and only 10 miles from our campground, Trail Lakes Campground in Ochopee (more below). Yet here you drive US Highway 41,which if you take it all the way north, turns into Lake Shore Drive, so Chicago and the Everglades are on the same street. (Maybe that explains Chance the Snapper.) There's a 20-foot wide channel running most of the way. Its waters, tall grasses and mangrove trees were thick with waterbirds like ahinga and hurons and especially alligators that were visible to Mab even while she was driving. 41 runs through Big Cypress National Preserve, which looks like the grassy marshlands that we all think of as the Everglades. Mab thought it was funny that most of what we saw of the Everglades looked like prairie and forest. But you won't see but a fraction of it: It's a million-and-a-half acres. Along the way are dozens of tourist traps, gator shows and also the iconic airboats. You know I was scoping out those airboats! Most have bench seats or individuals seats that wouldn't offer the side support I'd need with weak upper-body strength. There were a couple with armrests that I might have been strapped into, but we didn't have the time to check them out.

From Gulf Islands VC, 90-minute boat tours leave every hour. They cost $40 and are wheelchair accessible. The concessionaire was surprised to learn that the one operating out of Flamingo Visitor Center doesn't offer accessibility. We got a few people to put in word about accessibility with the Park Service. Anyway, the crewmembers gave Mab and me the Leo and Kate I'm-the-king-of-the-world spot front and center. This part of the Everglades is called the Ten Thousand Islands. On a cloudy and breezy day we set out on a course between dozens of keys or small islands lining the southwestern coast of Florida.

Up ahead flew a bald eagle, the first we've ever seen in the wild. And then we found a pod of dolphins - or they found us. They were everywhere, including one that popped up right up below us. The ranger onboard said that dolphins are so smart and agile that they rarely get struck by vessels, they only like playing around. They were smaller and darker than their presence on the open seas, because they eat smaller fish and swim in murkier waters here. Ride was a blast.

The wind kicked up and the temperature dropped as we headed back. There were shivers on deck, but I was into it: I lowered my head into the wind and let it scratch my scalp which I can no longer itch. Anybody watching would be like, wheelchair boy's got a roly-poly head. If I had a hind leg like a dog it'd be kicking. Worth the cost of the ride alone!

Once ashore we hiked a little shoreline path through some woods to a timber observation tower - Mab needed to do some stairs! It turned out to be only three stories for $2, but it was fun watching her go after it. She doesn't mess around: you'd think there was a pot of gold at the top! On the way down she recited Juliet's monologue to Romeo watching down below. (They sure don't make Romeo's like they used to.)

Back on US-41 it's impossible to miss the Big Cypress National Preserve/Oasis Visitor Center. The huge deck along the front is lined with people, and since it's the Everglades you can guess why: there's gators aplenty in the canal just 10 feet below. A gangway of gators, shall we say, great big ones.

Here's where we also found out that dozens of panthers had already been killed on 41 in January and February alone. Drivers, slow down! By the way, we also drove an extra loop looking for sights just north of off US-41, and while we passed a few Panther Crossing signs that looked promising, we saw nothing and wasted an hour on the slow, rough gravel road. OK, have another gator:

We ended the day driving around Chokoloksy and Everglades City, a couple of small old seaside towns with a bit of history in them.

Everglades City

Trail Lakes Campground in Ochopee, FL, 239-695-2275, is a private campground, a bit rough and run down, but finding an open site this close at this time of year is something. Our site beside a tiny pond was gravel and grass, and not quite level. The Everglades mosquitoes are here in force, which makes the way you enter the toy hauler (where an entire wall flips down for a ramp) crucial. Technique: Turn out the lights for a minute or two beforehand, then drop that ramp and rocket your wheelchair inside. We were so busy and tired by the end of the day that we didn't even check for TV reception, but I think I remember a decent Verizon cell signal. (Didn't even journal it. zzzz) Nor did we make it into the Skunk Ape Museum at the camp entrance. Mr. Skunk Ape is the stanky swamp cousin of Bigfoot. There are a couple of life-sized Skunkers at the site, which I would love to have outside of my house, and there's a dinosaur too. Check-in was a little bit strange, but that was the tempo of the place. Electric, water, I don't remember if it was sewer but dump station, for the low $50's. It's not great, but the location definitely is, and here met the coolest bunch of folks of our entire trip, some of whom stay here every winter. For them we might come back.