We got Angelika onto her plane with no problems, and so we headed back to "the rig".   We had thought that, since we were in the neighborhood,  we should go and visit Everglades National Park.  To make sure this was something we wanted to do, we had perused some of the coffee table books on Southern Florida that were available in the airport bookstore, and discovered that much of the everglades was "an endless sea of sawgrass".  Also, all the tourist tips said to be prepared to be eaten alive by mosquitoes the size of hummingbirds.  Since we were all pretty well eaten up already, this had little appeal, so we headed North instead, up the Western coast of Florida, in search of Caladesi Island.

It had begun to rain hard that morning, and really dumped on us for a bit.  We did not begrudge South Florida this moisture though, since they were in full scale drought.  After searching the map and our RV park finders, we came up with Fort Myers.  The route from Fort Lauderdale to Fort Myers (what is it with all the "Forts" here in Florida?)  took us North and West up highway 75, through "Alligator Alley".  At first this name mystified us, but we soon understood: all along this roadway they had dug out a pretty good sized canal to hold the water back, and we saw dozens of huge alligators lounging in this canal and on its banks.  This continued for miles.  Dozens and dozens.  It was unbelievable.

We reached the vicinity of our campground, and were underwhelmed.  The roads were crowded, and the campground was too.  After unhitching the trailer, we headed for the beach.  The beaches in this part of Florida are 'famous', and we could see why: the sand was very white and fine, almost like dried clay, and the water was shallow and warm.  But as soon as we were in the water, it clouded up and became quite cool, so we headed home, somewhat defeated.  But wait... there is more.  Shortly after arriving at the campground, we all noticed that something was biting us -- something we were not seeing.  The proverbial 'noseeums' apparently lived in the mangroves nearby; little tiny black insects that left itchy welts.  Our screens did not stop them, so we pretty much got bitten  continuously.  We are still scratching as I write this, 3 days later.  And yes, these did become Doug's newest Least Favorite Insect.