Unique Adventures in Homestead and The Everglades - The Aerojet Rocket Facility, The Anhinga Trail & More

Join the Sunshine Republic for little known insights about outdoor adventures and culinary delights in Homestead and the Everglades. 

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In this episode of the Sunshine Republic podcast, we'll take a look at a number of exotic and culinary adventures in and around Homestead and the Everglades. As ever, as the Everglades is a long drive for just about everyone in our listening audience, what I would point people to is to start with, with refreshments at a Starbucks at 76 East palm drive and Florida city, it's right off the turnpike. And you can stuck yourself up with some caffeine on the way and that's a that's a really good starting point. 

But departing Starbucks, one of the least known adventures today is a rocket facility. So departing west from Starbucks, you can you can head west. 

All the way down to Aerojet road. Aerojet is actually the name of the facility. And I'll give you a little background that, you know back in the late 50s, when the US was planning on going to the moon, the US Air Force gave AeroJet a rocket manufacturer $3 million to construct a manufacturing and testing site in Homestead. They bought the land a few miles east of Everglades National Park at $2.50 An acre for an annual lease with an option to buy 25,000 More a quarter more acres. They also dug a canal. The C 111 canal also known as the Aerojet canal was dug even though it was very close to Everglades National Park as back then economic development won over any environmental concerns the canal would be used to barge rockets in from the facility to Cape Canaveral. 

This facility was building solid fueled rocket boosters of the size needed  - a single solid fueled rocket booster of the size needed for the Saturn 5 rockets. And back then, this question arose as to whether use liquid fueled rocket engines solid ones or some combination of both. Initially solid fuel rockets were favored. But in the end that didn't work out. So during that process though, before they got to that end game, they decided to build 24 meter long 260 inch diameter rocket chambers. And a number of those were delivered and were test fired. In fact, between September 25 1965 And June 1967, three test firings were done. The first was fired at night and the flame was visible from Miami 50 kilometers away. The second one was fired with similar success and was relatively uneventful. The third test firing took place by reusing some of the hardware from this second test and it was known as SL three and would have been what had the would have been the final test rocket. It used a partially submerged nozzle. Near the end of the burn near the burnout, the rocket nozzle was ejected and caused propellant comprised of hydrochloric acids and other dangerous substances to be spread across the wetlands in the Everglades and crops and fields all over Homestead. Many residents locally complained about the damage, including paint damage to their cars and killing 1000s of dollars of crops including avocados but by 1969, NASA decided to go with liquid fueled engines for the Apollo Saturn five rockets, and that caused the workers to be laid off and the facility to be abandoned. So it's been abandoned ever since. What is fascinating is you can park your bicycle right there at the head of Aerojet road and ride among these abandoned facilities. And truthfully, they haven't been touched since the late 1960s. 

It's very eerie, and it's very picturesque as well. Many graffiti artists have taken to go and do their work there and paint some tremendous graphics of for all sorts of things on these very large three and four story concrete, very industrial buildings. One of the highlights that sadly is no longer available is that at the southernmost end of the complex, down a three mile road three miles south of the main construction and fabrication complex is actually where the rocket motor is still housed, and up until about 10 years ago, you actually could go into a small metal shed look through a grating and see a tremendous rocket motor mounted in the ground but because of safety reasons that that shed has been dismantled, and while the rocket still remains there in the ground, it has been covered by a multitude of jersey barriers, precluding anyone from looking into the hole. But I would say it's a very fascinating and very different ride within the Everglades. So if you bring your bicycle and a bicycle is recommended as it's a long walk. It's probably a three or four mile round trip among all the facilities and down to the rocket motor. So it's better to bring a bicycle and as well as some an extra tube for your bicycle because there is some gravel or wreckage and different things that may cause a flat in your bike tire.

Once you've been involved with the whole Aerojet experience, you may be up for more of a nature experience. So the next stop, only a mile to a mile or two down the road, actually is the Everglades National Park and the Ernest Coe Visitor Center. When you pay your admission, it's strongly encouraged to do go to the visitor center. They do have a tremendous amount of educational displays and films or brochures, collections by local artists and they will answer every question you may have about the Everglades so that certainly is worthwhile stopping in there. But of course for the first time visitor and even if you're been have been there multitude of times, one of the most favorite sites, right near the visitor center is the Anhinga Trail. It's a short trail less than half a mile in length. It's about four miles from the formal entrance to the park and it starts at the at a Royal Palm Visitor Center with bathrooms and water. But this trail is a paved walkway and then portions of it are a boardwalk over the Taylor Slew freshwaters sawgrass Marsh there's a tremendous amount of abundant wildlife from all types of alligators, turtles and hangers, herons, egrets, lots of grasshoppers, turtles, we've seen turtles laying eggs run alongside the walkway. It really is one of the most best places where you can see the most amount of wildlife close up. It is one of the most popular trails in the park. So I would urge everyone to get there early. And you might want to even avoid the busiest days of the year. It is notable and you can find some videos of this on YouTube. In 2003 tourists witnessed a fight between an alligator and a Burmese python that went on for almost a day until a larger alligator join the fight and the snake escaped. There was quite a bit of video news coverage of that. It's interesting thing to watch. There's other bike trails that are in and around the area too. And hiking trails as well that you can take advantage of. But if you've been to Aerojet for an hour or two or three, and then the Anhinga Trail it'll be you'll be hot. You might have any you might be in need of refreshments. 

So one great spot to stop in is the Schnebly winery which is very close. And it is world renowned for its tropical fruit wines. And before you question and turn up your nose at tropical fruit wines, they are not all that sweet they are drinkable. And even if you don't like the wines, Schnebly now makes a number of different beers -  they brew beer there as well. And it's a great spot for a respite from the sun. Their facility now includes some huge Tiki huts that are often come with live music on weekends. So that's really worth a visit to see the creative wines that are made from avocado and mango and all types of varieties of rare tropical fruit that grows in the Homestead area. 

So if you’ve develop the tastes for rare tropical fruit at the Schnebly Wierny or if you already have an appreciation for tropical fruits and Florida - a simply don't miss visit is Robert is Here. Robert is Here is a fruit and vegetable market where Robert is the proprietor. Robert in the early 1960s was the son of an avocado farmer and his dad sent him out on the side of the road with some avocados to sell and no one stopped or so goes the legend. On the second day, Roberts dad put a sign over Robert on the side of the road with his table of avocados. That sign allegedly said Robert Is Here”. Well it's now 60 years later, and Robert Is Here has metamorphosized into a tremendous visiting location. Not only is it a huge farm market of all types of fruits and vegetables grown in Homestead, there's a number of all types of canned jellies and things made out of out of fruits and vegetables and produce from the local area. They in the past decade or two they've become very well known for making shakes with any combination of rare fruit that's available that day. So you can perhaps have a black Sapote or jaboticaba shake or all types of all types of egg fruit carambola whatever, whatever is there today. It's always fascinating to try new combinations of their shakes and you really need to have a shake if you'd if you stop at Roberts. More recently, they've added quite a bit out back including a petting zoo with a wide range of domesticated animals from cows and tortoises and chickens and goats - which is great fun for the kids. And you can feed them carrots and that's just a great entertaining location. They do have entertainment on weekends. Typically, guitar players – let’s move on to our last culinary stop for the day… 

If you have not had enough food and you're still a little hungry after food at the winery and Robert’s a family favorite is Shiver’s barbecue in Homestead. For a long time it has been the go to stop not only for myself but also the folks that are on my adventures in in the area. For 60 years they've been serving the best barbecue in the homestead area and I would  urge anyone if you need a little sustenance on the ride home to wherever your final destination may be to stop in. Shiver’s is at 28,001 South Dixie Highway Homestead Florida 33033 that's S H I V ers and you will not be disappointed. So that's another quick visit to a locale in Florida with some adventures today. We started at Starbucks to kick our day off. We visited Aerojet and the rocket facility there. The earnest go visitor center the hangar trail four miles away from the visitor center in the Everglades. Then on to the Anhinga trail, Schnebly’s, Robert is Here and Shiver’s. See you all again next time.