LONG, Florida vacation - opium of the open road

[Jeff Searle]

Dave,

    You could swing by me, but there's not much to look at. I'm selling out now, and with the timing of your arrival, just not much to see.  maybe a lunch, talk about the old days......

Jeff

[Caribbean Palms]

Dave,

If you get to Loxahatchee please stop by the nursery,

I'd be glad to show you around.

When you get down to the Keys, I'd reccommend stopping at the Key Deer Refuge at Big Pine and No Name Key. You can see Coccothrinax argentata and Thrinax morrisii in habitat there, not to mention the smallest deer in the world. It's just off US1 and easy to find. After checking out the palms have lunch at the No Name Pub, an original 1920's Keys treasure. There are also Thrinax radiata all through the middle Keys.

Mike

[Dave-Vero]

I appreciate the plugs for National Wildlife Refuges in Florida.  Merritt Island (and Pelican Island, well to the south) are excellent bird places.  Pelican Island is on Jungle Trail, an unpaved road with parking at a nice hammock (barrier island forest), mostly oak but with some tropical trees.  The Environmental Learning Center on Wabasso Causeway (Indian River County) has an outstanding collection of native tropical plants, but nary a palm.

Mike Harris is right about National Key Deer Refuge and its native pineland palms.  It looks a lot like Bahamas pinelands, and is truly tropical.  Also much, much drier than the mainland.  The Key West Botanical Garden is modest but growing.  By the way, Fairchild has a Keys section tucked away where hardly visitors go.  The thicket (tropical hammock) took a lot of effort to develop and Fairchild people are very fond of it.  It's a bird magnet.

[BS Man about Palms]

(Jeff Searle @ Dec. 08 2007,05:12)

QUOTE

I'm selling out now, and with the timing of your arrival, just not much to see.  maybe a lunch, talk about the old days......

Jeff

What does this mean? Are you going out of business??  ???

[Ken Johnson]

Dave,

I live at the gateway to the keys. I have a guest room, you'r invited to stay as longh as you want. I can also pick you up as your bus passes near by. 15 minutes to FTBG, 30 to the Keys.

Plenty of palms down this way and good food too (stone crabs freash from my traps!)

[Moose]

On ‎12‎/‎8‎/‎2007‎ ‎8‎:‎12‎:‎21‎, Jeff Searle said:

Dave,

    You could swing by me, but there's not much to look at. I'm selling out now, and with the timing of your arrival, just not much to see.  maybe a lunch, talk about the old days......

Jeff