Honeymoon Beach SP

On one of the better Gulf Coast shelling beaches, just north of Tampa, this was a nice 70F day to spend at the beach. We arrived at low tide so the whole beach width was open for shelling. All small, except for the Rough Pen Shells, the selection was still good with lots of Florida Rock Shells, Florida Fighting Conch, Turkey Wing, Common Jingle, Scallops, Lettered Olives, &  Venus Sunray. The best were a quarter size sand dollar (100%), a Horseshoe Crab Tail, and the tip of an 1-1/2" petrified sharks tooth, plus the two mile beach walk.

Birding in the South

Below is a picture taken on a recent morning of thousands of Sandhill Cranes taking off.  This picture was taken by Nancy (http://mytripjournal.com/lenstravels) at Whitewater Draw Wildlife Refuge outside Bisbee Arizona. Keep in mind that these birds are 37" long and have an 80" wing span.

Here at Paynes Prairie there are also a lot of Sandhills but I've only seen four to six in the air at once. The many Ibis, the rare Whooping Cranes and all the other birds of this area are still a sight to see. The two mile hike today provided spottings of an American Bittern, Little and Great Blue Heron, Wood Storks, several Sandhill Cranes, Common Moorhens, Killdeer or a Plover cousin, and a few Cormorants. There were also hundreds of Black Vultures which look like an Ohio Turkey Vulture but they have light colored wing tips and black heads.

Sunday afternoon at Paynes Prairie

The temperature was approaching 80F and a strong wind was blowing.  It seemed like another good opportunity to visit La Chua Trail and as luck would have it the wild life was out. This area is suppose to have one of the highest concentrations of first level food chain animals in the US. Naturally hundreds of alligators were sunbathing, but the big suprise was the wild pig herd grazing about 1/2 mile off in the distance.

Right adjacant to this scene were a flock of wood storks about 1000' from the trail.

The close up scenery was handled by an alligator and turtle sunning on the dike bank.

Far Far Away

Way Down Upon the Suwannee River

Today was bicycling on the North Coast Trail near Trenton.  Not only did we bike over the river but we also dropped in at Fanning Springs SP where the 72F spring waters were providing shelter for a school of mullets, several hard and soft shelled turtles, and a half dozen manatees.

The other highlights of the day included New York strip steaks at the local grocery for $3.99/pound and a super sized quilt supply shop.  The shop even had a lounge with magazines and a parrot, kind of a nursery or babysitting area for nonquilting companions.

Chiefland Bike Trail

Today called for a trip down the Chiefland Rails to Trails. Our first time on this trail, this is a flat trail with a combination of open ground as well as tree enveloped corridor.

Arriving back at Williston Crossing we were met by the local law enforcement which keeps this group of transient snowbirds towing the line. Only the best, when Florida buys police cruisers and voting machines.

 

Paynes Praire - Dike Trail Be Vewy Vewy Quiet

A four mile hike into the praire was somewhat rewarding today.  We were within 150' of three bison and one wild horse. The highlights of the day however was the armadillo, a Grey Kingbird, and a Blue Heron.  The Heron landed in a tree about 75' from us which caused about 25 frogs to jump in the water. Another 25 repeated this action when the frustrated heron decided to leave. Later, from the 50' observation tower, we were able to spot four wild horses, several buffalo, several Sandhill Cranes, and a herd of wild cattle which inhabit the preserve.  Most of these were 1/2 to 1 mile away so our 10x50 Bushnells came in handy. 

Paynes Prairie - LaChua Trail

Today was to be a chance to see Spanish horses and buffalo but the closest we came was about a mile away.  This is a BIG wet prairie, probably 50 sq. miles.  The 3 mile walk was a good one.  All told we saw maybe 100 gators ranging from 1' to 10' in length, about the same amount of turtles, hundreds of Ibis, Black Headed Buzzards, as well a substantial number of  rails, sandhill cranes, herons and other wetland birds.  The highlights were a rare American Bittern, four Whooping Cranes, and a Lesser Heron.  The suprise we didn't see was a poisonous Cottonmouth in a coiled position just of the trail. A volunteer was motioning walkers to the left of the 6' wide trail to avoid it.  They hide rather well as we didn't see it. This trail is a must do again but first we need to hit several other trails in the park.

Old Central Florida

Today was a short 20 mile trip east to recon Payne Praire.  This resulted in a backroad view of the Old Florida which is much better than much of the new Florida.  Beautiful oak savannahs, cattle, and early 1900 housing all draped in Spanish Moss.

Sounds like something a country bumkin would say.

Or lots of fishing in the shallow lakes and swamps.

Cedar Key- Shell Mound

An interesting park outside Cedar Key is Shell Mound.  This five acre plot contains millions of mussel and clam shells, also fish and deer bones, which are stacked up to 25' above sea level.  A camp site of the Calusa Indians, it is believed to be over 6,000 years old. A neat site which shows that scantily clad girls and steamed clams were popular long before Hooters made their food chain famous.

Cedar Key and 75 Degrees

Today was a beautiful day to explore Florida's Gulf Coast which is about 60 mile west of us.  The area for several hundred miles of coast is shallow water and small islands of shell and saw grass.  The town of Cedar Key is now a small laid back resort town and fishing community, maybe 1,000 people, likely much less.  A railroad laided to this port allowed ocean transport of cedar trees ,used to make pencils (Faber), in the 1800's and also provided a Confederate sea port till capture by the Yankees in 1862. By 1900, thanks to over cutting of trees and a major hurricane in 1896, the town shrank to 1500 people and doesn't appear to have grown since.

The day was brim full of interesting facts;  John Muir stayed here at the end of this 1,000 mile walk from Indiana. Faber used graphite from Siberia and cypress wood from Cedar Key to make millions of pencils during the 1800's, salt water was boiled in huge kettles to obtain salt,  and being the gulf coast no-see-ums still bite visitors.

Williston Crossing Outback

Our RV park is a work is progress.  It is an old stone quarry.  The owner is building as money, need, and time permit but he has one of the nicest parks in Florida per our needs.  The lots are big with large concrete pads, full utilities, lots of Flora, and plenty of room for growth. We explored the back 40 today and found enough old codger toys to last several life times. Here are just a few but there are also a Linkbelt dragline, a half dozen cars, a full size locomotive, a caboose and pullman car, and on and on.  Also dirt trails in place for another couple hundred rv sites but first he has to finish the pool, bath house, general store, ice cream shop, tennis court, etc. Did I mention ,summer has returned, 70F should be here for at least a week.

Tampa RV Show

Spent a day at the Florida State Fair Grounds attending the Tampa RV show. One of the largest in the nation it covered 19 acres with just about every type of rig available.  They have made a few improvements on our rig but at the same time several things we like have been removed.  Like so may industries, it appears that the designers or accountants have no clue as to what a road warrior needs.  We came home satisfied that we made a good initial decision in 2008.  The biggest waste we saw at the show was the Prevost Marathon which was available for purchase. All you needed was $2,700,000 plus tax. I wonder if it comes with a full diesel tank?

Looking for warmth in Florida

Mammoth

Mastodon

The temperature dropped to the lower to mid 20s last night forcing the heaters to run a little longer in the Moose.  The water hose didn't freeze but a quarter inch of ice floated on our window cleaning bucket this morning.  As a result we decided to check out ice age critters. This resulted in a cultural day in Gainesville.  Several hours at the Harn Museum of Art, followed by several hours at the Museum of Natural History. Both are on the main campus of the University of Florida.  An interesting day spent viewing Asian and African art as well as Oats Field by Monet.  We also learned about the history of Florida from 30 million years ago to present. Did you know the mammoth ate grass while mastodon teeth were designed for eating twigs and bark? 

We finished the day at Devil's Millhopper Geological SP.  This is a large sinkhole on the north west side of Gainesville.  If this did belong to the Devil it has since been vacated as temperatures were in the 40s.

Manatee Springs SP

The morning started out at freezing and reached a high near 45F brrr.  Hoping to find manatees we headed to Manatee Springs about 20 mile away. Manatee Springs is a class 1 magnitude spring meaning it pumps more than 65,000 gallons per day on its 1/4 mile flow to the Swannee River. While cold, the walk was worthwhile.  We saw four submerged manatees, several diving cormorants, seven turtles, several mullets, a half dozen green carp, one river otter, a blue heron, 30-50 buzzards, several crows, a squirrel, two deer, a kingfisher, hundreds of cypress knees, two divers, and probably two dozen people. Not too bad for for a quarter mile walk on an unusually cold, icy Northern Florida mid-day.

Air Potatoes

The temperature is still running 32F-55F thanks to the frigid north, so activity of the Ohio Snowbird has been limited due to hibernatory tendencies.  Yesterday resulted in a search for a dehumidifier to dry out the interior of the RV this morning the windows were free of condensation. One more RV secret learned. 

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ag112

The big discovery of the day was the infamous, invasive, air potato growing at the edge of our lot. These look and feel almost identical to a regular potato but supposedly can be poisonous. An above ground vine which covers and kills native trees, the plant was introduced to feed slave populations in the past. It apparently is very potato like but bitter, we didn't try it.

Squirrel brings cold to northern Florida

Squirrel enjoyed the brief cold Xmas holiday up north but it followed him south.  Williston was 75F when he arrived but the low 50s to low 30s is going to be the norm for this week. The highlight Saturday was Rainbow Springs SP.  Water so clear you can see the fish and surrounding man made waterfalls from 1930.