A Drag, A Dredge And A Strand

I've got a slide show and a short write for ya today. Not bad considering the computer decided enough was enough on Thursday and refused to (Go To) work! Stuff like this always happens when you are geographically far away from you daily Help Menu- that being the Geeks On Tour and or the Best Buy. But close is a relative thing and the hour to Best Buy in Naples seemed the better alternative for this go around. Off we went. New computer? Sure, no problem. Have money, will sell. But connectivity. Big problem! Since I wanted to now connect two computers, the old fixer-upper and the new big daddy- on one air card. Doesn't sound like it would be an insurmountable task, but computer technology being what it is- forever on the go- there are now NO computers left that use the type air card I possessed. Which, come to think of it, made me feel a bit possessed! Computer sale on hold- traipse off to The Verizon Wireless Store to see what we shall see. A solution. Change (on a grandfathered no-limit data plan) to a MIFI card. That reads like this: My Fi, as in wifi only it's all mine and the hot spot is where-ever I go. Runs several computers and is lightening fast even compared to my previous broadband access air card. Same price for unlimited data.... Problem solved? Are you kidding me? Nothing is that simple. I get everything back in house (that would be "bus") and the computers are working fine, running almost like I know what I'm doing (luck accounts for a great deal in life) and I'm starting not to sweat so much all of a sudden. Only, when I go to print something... You guessed it, there are no drivers to support the old printer with the new Windows 7 program. Arrrgghh! So for now I'm computing and updating and refiling and reading and loading and doing all matters of important computing on the new computer.... Then finding a way to print what simply must be printed on the old computer...until we can make the journey back to the Best Buy to see about a printer that will work with both units. I love using technology. I just hate dealing with it when it won't do what I think it should when I think it should and the way I think it should. Still, to be back in business three days after the great crash of 2010? Not too shabby in my humble opinion. And as I've had about three hours sleep between "then" and "now," I think I should just be getting on with this post. That was a drag!

We took some "personal" time and ventured out to go see the walking dredge that was used to build the Tamiami Trail through what at the time was nothing but Everglades Swampland. People often have trouble with that word. Funny name for a road. But not really. It was road carved through the swamp from Fort Myers, don't ya see, To Miami. So ya get a little lazy with your pronunciation and now you have a road that just goes from one spot on one side of the great swamp "ta Miami" - hence the name! Tamiami Trail. The dredge is the little brother of the massive bucket line dredges that we explored when we were in the Yukon Territory and in Alaska. And if you want a look at them all you need to do is look back on the summer posts from last season in Chicken, Alaska where we camped all summer in the shadow of the Pedro Dredge, perhaps one of the best preserved of its species in existence today.

Following the visit to the dredge (at the nearby state park) we took what we expected would be a quick and short (11 mile) drive through a trail that goes through the nothingness of the Fakahatchee Strand. Good thing we were fueled up before entering the "scenic trail" because we went on and on for some three hours...only to realize that it was not really a "loop" as it was described by the visitor center who said the road "isn't too bad" - only that there was a tiny place to turn around at the end of it without dipping your tires in and sinking into the swamp. Turned out not to be a rugged challenge for the Quigley, but a surprise for all, and we booked it hard to get back out by dark. Bad things happen in Sleepy Hollow at night.

So there you have it , my friends, a drag, a dredge and a drive through the strand. The slide show, out of basic lack of energy on my part at the moment, will be first of the dredge, and then images from the everglades on the strand trail. Eerily beautiful, it is easy to lose track of time and all else in the outside world. It took way longer than we planned, but was probably just the thing we needed to Hit The Refresh Button: