Very low key day today. Cold this morning and it is suppose to be even colder tonight. I thought it was Florida.... it isn't suppose to get down into the 30's down here.

    Stayed in for most of the day and did inside stuff today. Did my financial stuff for the next couple of weeks, cleaned up, got rid of a bunch of magazine's and read a book. Did make it out for a walk this afternoon once it warmed up a bit. But it wasn't all that warm so it wasn't a very long walk.

   Right now I keep falling asleep on the couch so I guess it is time for bed. The rest of my book will just have to wait until tomorrow.

   Up at 8:30 this morning cuz my alarm failed to go off at 8:00 a.m. like it was suppose to. Even though I checked, and yes, it was set for 8:00 a.m., and yes, the little alarm doohickey was clearly visible as being 'ON'.  Guess I need to now figure out if it was a random glitch or if it is time for a new alarm clock?

    Other than that the day went really well. The only reason I was up that early to begin with was that it was time to leave the cool bay breeze's of Fort DeSoto and move north and inland to my next stop in McIntosh, Florida.

     Packing up went well, and other than having to wait a bit at the tank unloading spot, it didn't take all that long either after breakfast and my usual routine were done. A nice steady tail wind all the way up the interstate. Stopped for a bit of lunch somewhere south of Ocala and then called a few friends I hadn't talked to in a while since there was a good signal there. Finally pulled into the RV park around 4:00 and got all squared away again.

    A warm day today with all the sunshine and all, it is cooling down right now though as a cold front moves through and drops a few rain drops on the trailer roof. Going to hang loose for the next couple of days and not plan to much in advance. I do know that there are a couple of plays going on in Gainsville that would be fun to take in but need to check on dates as it would be nice to do one this weekend and then one when I get back from St Croix. Also need to sign up for a few more dance weekends and start organizing for my trip next week. That will mean a couple more loads of laundry at some point. I may wait on that though until Monday, just in case I want to do the regular Gainsville dance on Sunday afternoon.  Otherwise life is just grand.

   A relaxing and easy day for me today. Had a bit of trouble falling asleep last night, not sure, but it could of been the 4 cups of tea I had before midnight. Needless to say it was after 3:00 before I finally fell asleep. Of course once asleep I woke every hour like clockwork to get up and go to the bathroom. Ah the joys of growing older. Of course it means I'll be much more sane about what and when I drink tonight.

    Even with the late night I was up and about at 8:30 this morning for some reason. The usual ritual of comics, crossword, email and fb before deciding to take a walk out around the park. A pleasant stroll along the shore line dipping one's toes in every once in a while. Lot's of birds out today also.... saw two roseate spoonbill's along one of the canals. Of course it was the morning I didn't bother to get the camera out of the truck. Oh well.

    Came back and felt like just hanging out.... so that is what I did. Spooled up the movie 'John Carter from Mars' and watched it again. I actually liked the movie and still do. Not sure why most everyone else panned it... but 'different strokes' as they say.

    Had to run into town again this afternoon. It seems that one of the possible hazards of staying in one place to long is that the ant hoards will find you and invade. Noticed a couple of them two days ago.... and smashed them.... but by today it was way more than I wanted to track down individually and kill. I'm not normally one to use poisons or pesticides... hell I can't even walk down that aisle in a store with out having coughing fits. But I've used a brand of ant traps before that seem to work well and don't seem to have to much effect on my breathing. So I picked up a box of 6, as well as some butter and t-paper, and put all 6 traps out this evening. They are already doing a good job of enticing the little buggers in. I hope to be rid of them in a day or two but will most likely leave the traps out until I get back from St Croix. Just in case they want to try to invade while I'm off on vacation.

    That brings up an interesting conundrum I've been studying on for a couple days now. One of the ladies I was waltzing with on Saturday asked me how, since I'm retired and pretty much foot loose and fancy free, would I ever know if I was on vacation.  Talked it over with several friends since then and the only answer I could think of is that a vacation would be something with a higher anticipation quotation than a regular day. So my trip down the Grand Canyon last year was a vacation. Dance weeks at Morgantown and on St Croix... also vacations. Moving the trailer tomorrow to Fisherman's Cove in McIntosh.... not a vacation... even though I am looking forward to being off again. Will have to think about it more and maybe refine the definition a bit more as time goes on.

    In the meantime there are still dishes in the sink to do and stuff to put away in preparation for tomorrows departure. Here is a second installment of pictures from the road trip down to the Circus Museum on Saturday. Tonight it is all about the 1/2" to 1ft scale model of the circus.

Howard Tibbals scale model of the circus and all of it's people, animals and gear. As seen at the Circus Museum in Sarasota Florida - Jan 26, 2013

Taking up about 3,800 square feet of display space and containing between 50,000 and 60,000 individual pieces this is certainly the worlds largest miniature circus. Based on the Ringling Bros - Barnum and Bailey's Circus. Tibbals named it the Howard Bros Circus after himself after Ringling and B&B wouldn't allow him to use their name because of copyright infringement. Ironic that it is now so prominently displayed in a museum, while about all circus's, is mainly about theirs. It even has it's own building named after him now.

This scene shows the 1st tent to go up after a circus hit town, the Commissary tent. In a circus such as Ringling's more than 3,600 meals had to be cooked and served at least 3 times a day. Each Circus had to have it's own cooks, waitstaff and of course clean up personnel. It's a part of circus life you never think about.... until you get hungry.

Another early tent to go up was the makeup and wardrobe tent. Each performer was generally in charge of their own makeup, but there was also staff to help as well a people to sew, repair and pack all of the costumes used in a show.

A barber shop and hair cutting salon. All the conveniences of home.

     Sorry for such a delay in getting anything posted these past few days. It has been a rather hectic, but fun weekend of dance and exploration and those times when I got back to the trailer were used to catch up on some much needed sleep. But I'll recap it all here, more so I can remember it than anything else.

    Most of Friday the 25th was spent in hanging out at the trailer and getting ready for the dance weekend that was starting that night. I left around 2:00 in order to drive over to the Tampa airport and pick up a couple of friends who were flying in from Denver. No real problem meeting up with them and since I had a few extra hours to kill I even drove them around a bit so they could find something to take with them to the pot luck before the dance.

    I met up with a friend of mine from Nashville at 5:30 and we ended up eating dinner at a restaurant just down the street from the dance hall. Pretty good food over all and the best part was that we could sit outside and watch the sun go down over the bay. With the palm trees, good conversation, a nearly full moon and soft warm ocean breeze it was a pretty nice dinner all in all.

   The dance started at 8:00 and about 300 people were there ready to go when 'The Blue Ribbon Dance Band' and Will Mentor got us started. Good music, good calling and lots of fun dance partners. The 1st half was over way to early. The 2nd half had the band 'Riptide' playing with Cis Hinkle doing the calling. They were even better to dance to as they played more upbeat, or at least louder, tunes than the 1st band. Now don't get me wrong, there was nothing wrong with any of the 1st half, it was just that the 2nd half was more energetic and that was what everyone was there for. By the time 11:30 came around and the last waltz was played, my feet were sore and I was exhausted and dehydrated. It was just enough to get me back to the trailer and then into bed.

    I picked my friend up at 10:00 on Saturday and we headed down the coast to the town of Sarasota. We were on a mission to see the Circus Museum that they had there where the Ringling Bro's - Barnum and Bailey Circus use to have their winter quarters. It took about an hour to get down there and then we spent a couple of hours seeing as much of it as we could before our hunger for lunch overtook us. We hit the main circus museum buildings as well as the mansion of John and Mabel Ringling. Lots of stuff to see of course but a few things really stuck out. The 1st was the 1/2":1' scale model of the circus that some guy named Howard Tibbals has been creating for the last 40 years or so. With between 50,000 and 60,000 individual pieces and taking up 3,800 square feet of space, it is an amazing history of the circus in miniature. Photo's of some of that will be forth coming as soon as I can get them all sorted and processed.

    There was also the original private railroad car of the Ringling's. Fully restored it was an amazing piece of architecture on wheels. But the thing that struck me the most was the Mansion that the Ringling's had built right on the waterline of the bay. One of three mansions they owned this one was called Ca' d' Zan, or House of John, and was built to emulate the grandeur of palaces they had seen in Venice and Seville. A very beautiful 'house' in any case, it became even more interesting today when I went out to the movies to see the show 'Parker' and saw that they were using that house as one of the main sets. The best part was in knowing that the house wasn't really set in Palm Beach like they had you believe in the movie. Cool!

    We finally gave up on the museum because of hunger, even though there seems to be a lot more to see there. Maybe next year. We went off to Barnacle Bills in Sarasota for a quick lunch and then back to St Pete for some relaxation and a nap before meeting up again for a quick dinner before the evening dance.

    Another hopping night of dancing on the official 'Snow Ball'. Some people dressed up, some even in all white, but most just came dressed to be comfortable on what was a nice warm and pleasant evening. The reverse order to the bands tonight with Riptide starting off and BRDB second. No holding back tonight as everyone was revved up and ready to dance. By the time 4 hours had gone by we were all drenched in sweat, exhausted and very, very happy. Once again I had just enough left to get me back to the trailer and into bed.

    Was up way to early on Sunday. The last dance started at 10:15 so it was a struggle to get up and take a shower and get dressed and drive over to the dance hall. But it was done, and like usual, Sunday was some of the best dancing of the weekend. There was a noted lack of energy to most everyone as well as a lack of any great brain activity going on, so it was a good thing that the callers kept the dances easy and not to fast. By the time the dance ended at 1:30 everyone seemed to be happy but exhausted. It had been one of the best dances this past year. Lots of fun people and a lot of good friends. Never did get to dance with everyone I wanted to, but that is often the way it goes. The good part is knowing that we will meet up again at some other dance weekend. It is one of the great things about contra dances.

    I headed back to the trailer soon after the end of the dance. I was tired and feeling a little bit nauseous for some reason. Finally figured out that it was most likely due to all the allergy meds I had consumed over the course of the weekend. It is really a bummer when your own body works against you. In this case having to good of an immune system. The pills did help keep me from having fits from all the dust that gets stirred up at every dance, but it also takes a toll after so much stuff. I ended up falling asleep on the couch and not waking up until nearly midnight, only to go to bed and not wake up again until nearly 10:00 this morning. It seemed to work tho as I felt a 100% better today.

   Finally got some food and fluids back into the body this morning and decided to take it easy today. With that in mind it was off to find someone to give me a haircut. Found one over near the mall who consented to "lower my ears" a bit and got done with that onerous job once again. Since I was already there it seemed like a great idea to go see a movie, so that was how I came to see the movie 'Parker' this afternoon. A good 'Boys Night Out' movie, but not one that will ever garner any awards of any kind. Still, it did have a bit of a plot and J-Lo still looks good. I'm sure women would also find Jason Straithem (sp) easy on the eyes also.

   So that about does it on the catching up stuff. I am sure there are already parts that have been forgotten, but that is the way it goes. Here are a few photo's from the Circus Museum. Tonight it is pictures of the mansion. Other photo's will come along later.

John & Mabel Ringling's mansion, Ca' d'Zan, at the circus museum in Sarasota Florida - Jan 26, 2013

The front view of part of the house. You can see the Italian, Spanish and Moorish influences. I love the tower.

A view along the back. Note the curved stairway to the tower and the little deck that must be up there also. The stairway at the bottom right of the photo leads down to the boat landing dock. It was covered with black, white, green and orange limestone tiles.

A closer view of the tower, staircase and upper deck. Check out the details above the windows and the colored tile accents.

The outer facade of the inner spiral staircase.

Another view showcasing the window details.

More windows.

Another overall view of the back facade.  

This chair looked like it could stand up to anything or anybody. Check out the carved details.

The office.

This was just inside the family room. The warm wood is really set off by the black and white marble tile.

The roof over the main living room area had this chandelier and all this richly painted detail. The balcony runs around 3 sides of the second floor and has doors to the rooms found there. We couldn't, unfortunately, see the 2nd floor.

Another view of the main living room showing some of the furniture on the 1st floor and another view of the 2nd floor balcony.

Ah! The "boy's" room.

The formal dining room had another beautiful chandelier and this remarkable wooden ceiling. Made entirely out of wood, it must of been a nightmare for some finish carpenter to install. The details on the interior panels is all wood marquetry also.

A closer view of some of the panels.

The way they kept thing cool in the days before modern refrigeration.

    A very nice day for me today. An easy morning reading the comics, doing the cross word and checking out fb and email. Pretty routine stuff for me most days. Had a message from a couple Colorado friends who are coming in for the contra dance this weekend asking if I could pick them up from the airport and take them over to their hotel. Haven't heard back from them yet, but assume that is one thing on my list for tomorrow.

    Had time for a quick walk around the park here just to get out and stretch a bit before starting in on my errands for the day. First on my list was going over to see the movie 'Zero Dark Thirty'. Had been wanting to see it for quite some time and am glad to have done it, even though it was quite disturbing in several places. Interesting to find out some more of the background behind the killing of Bin Laden and was most interested to note that the movie showed that there was no new information on his where abouts that was gotten by the use of torture. It wasn't until the CIA actually went to work and did some detective work that his where abouts was discovered. The only thing I wasn't ready for about the movie was that it was nearly 3 hours long. Boy did I need to go to the bathroom by the time it ended.

    Seemed like a nice day out so I splurged and had lunch at a 'Chipotle' restaurant right there in the same shopping center. I always love their chicken burritos. A nice lunch while reading a magazine and watching the world go by.

    Went and did some grocery shopping afterwards. Needed to pick up some more oranges and another bottle of honey. Also found another pair of river shoes I liked. A different color and this pair doesn't have a heel, just a strap, so getting rid of rocks under your foot ought to be easier.

    Not much else going on tonight. Will probably read for most of it, but do need to do one piece of trailer maintenance before then. My shower floor had a crack in it even before I bought it, because the manufacture never put anything under the fiberglass pan to support it. I ended up shooting a can of expansive foam under it and that seemed to do a pretty good job of shoring it up. It didn't do anything for the actual crack though, so I've been getting by with just applying that universal 'fixit' material; Duct Tape. It also has worked pretty well, but it finally lost all of it's sticky quality and has let some water in. So this morning I coated it all over with some clear caulking and will apply some more duct tape just to finish it off.

    Below are a few pictures I took yesterday afternoon while out for a walk. Picked out the top 6 that I liked but couldn't cut it down any farther than that. Each are a bit different as the scene was changing while the sun was going down. So enjoy!

Variations on a Sunset - Fort DeSoto County Park Florida - Jan 23, 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The one other photo from yesterday. A nearly full moon was coming up as the sun went down in the west. It was a very beautiful evening.

 

     To busy yesterday to get anything posted. It was a fun day spent with my sister and her husband at their house in Palm Coast. We had a pleasant morning just hanging out, eating breakfast and goofing off. I finished up some laundry and Barb and I worked on our Pine Needle baskets for a few minutes also.

    We all headed for St Augustine late in the morning. We went up to wander around some of the art galleries that they know and enjoy. It's fun to go into them every time we are in town and some of the owners and sales people are even starting to remember who I am. Or at least that I am some how related to some one. It is also fun to wander around and really get a chance to look at some of the art work with my sister or brother in law telling me little bits about the artist or that particular piece of art. Over and over it hits me how many talented people are out there. Lot's of different styles, especially in painting, but all are of some interest to me. Would love to take home a dozen or so pieces I saw yesterday. Lucky for me I not only live in a very small trailer..... but I'm to poor to afford most of it. Someday I'll end up in a place where I can once again think about buying and owning art work again... But right now, it's kind of nice to just look.

   We had to make a trip down one of the old streets there in town and look at some of the shops. I needed to find another crystal to add to the ones in my truck, and ended up with a nice red one this time. We also found a new shop there that sold all kinds of olive oil, balsamic vinegars and fruit wines. Some were quite yummy!

    We had lunch at A1A brew pub right there overlooking the harbor. I love their fish tacos that have some kind of really different sauce they put on them. Add in a nice pint of their amber ale and it is a lunch fit..... for us.

     I stayed with the two of them until early evening before taking off. They fed me one more wonderful meal and then I left. Always seems to happen that way. A nice drive back to the park and the trailer with lots of time to think about the past week and then the upcoming ones. I am truly blessed with a great life.

   Up early this morning and hooked up and on my way by 10:00. Other than spending about $12 in tolls it was an easy drive. Down to I-4 then west to Tampa and I-275. Off at exit #17 and then a couple of miles out to Fort De Soto County Park. Checked in at the main office where my reservation was all correct and ready to go. My site is one of the inner loop ones, so I'm not right on the water, but it is only about 50 feet away, so not too bad. Mine is also a pull through site that is at least twice as long as the back in ones. About 15 mins to set up, another 20 to get some lunch and then it was time for a nap. Woke up in time to take a nice walk around the campground area here in the park. Took a few photo's of the sunset over the mangrove trees this evening. Looking forward to relaxing tomorrow. Need to do some grocery shopping but also want to go see a movie and look for a new bike. Here are a few pictures from my walk on Flagler Beach with my sister as well as my one and only shot in St Augustine.

 

Flagler Beach Florida + one photo in St Augustine

Lot's of birds on the beach the day we were there. I'm pretty sure this is a Sand Piper, just not sure which one of dozens it is.

I am pretty sure that this one, which for some reason reminds me of Groucho Marx, is a Royal Tern.

Here we have Larry, Curly and Moe.

The pier at Flagler Beach.

You would think that it would be easy to identify these birds.... they're seagulls right? Turns out that not only are there dozens of kinds of these also, but some of them also change their look every year for their first 4 years. So I give up.

There was a little surf running that day. Enough that there were several people out trying to surf.... they weren't very good. So there are no pictures of them.

The required pictures of the surf hitting the pier pilings.

I like this one better.

Went to take some pictures on the day we went to St Augustine and this was the first one of the day. Unfortunately it was also the only photo of the day since the battery took that time to die. Of course the spare battery was back at the house in my truck. Oh well.... just means there is yet another reason to go back. This photo is of one of the towers of the old Flagler Hotel. A beautiful building that is now being used as the Flagler Collage main building.

    Drove up to my sisters place in Palm Coast this morning.... just in time to help peel nearly 20 lemons in order to make this years supply of Lemoncello.... yum! A slightly different recipe this year... maybe it won't be so strong that one shot will put you on the floor.

    We went over to Flagler beach this afternoon and walked along the shore for better than an hour. It was fun watching all the shore birds and the brown pelicans. Took lots of pictures and hope at least one or two of them are good enough to post later on.

    By the time we were back at the house it was time for dinner. My sister and brother-in-law had started a big pot of beans early on and Barb made a big pan of home made cornbread to go with them... what a feast.

    Barb and I spent the evening learning how to make pine needle baskets. She actually knew a bit about how to do it already so her job was more to show me how to do it.  I get an 'A' for effort. but there is a long way to go before anything worth while comes out. Lucky for me materials are cheap. Have to remember to collect some of the long needles from the trees down here.

   We are off to St Augustine tomorrow. It will be time to go up and visit a couple really cool art galleries that they both know. I wonder if some new piece of art work will come home with them tomorrow.  St Augustine also means a trip to the local brew pub, A1A, for fish tacos and cold beer. I'm hungry already.

    Just finished up the last dance of the weekend here in Orlando. Like many 3-day dances this afternoon one seemed to be some of the best dancing of the weekend. Still not really sure why that is. Have thought that it may be because we are all now use to dancing with each other and therefore more relaxed, or it could be that we are all so tired that we are just running on auto-pilot while being fueled with copious amounts of dopamine and adrenalin. What ever the reason it was a real hoot to spend a couple hours this afternoon dancing to George Marshall and Wild Asparagus.

    Of course I am lucky in that I'll get to dance to them for a whole week on the island of St Croix. But that is still several weeks away and there is still another weekend dance, the Snow Ball, before that. Looking forward to that dance now as there are two bands playing it that I have never heard before. Of course they are both made up of these great musicians who have all played in one or more other bands before. So it should be a lot of fun to hear and dance to them next weekend over in Gulfport, Florida.

    Looking forward to a bit to eat now and then a nice hot shower. After that it may actually be time for sleep. If nothing else it feels like a good nap is in the future. Right now it's time to eat some thing and start rehydrating.

   Last night was the first night of the 'Orange Blossom' weekend dance. A very fun time seeing a lot of friends from all over the country. I'm not sure anymore if it would even be possible for me to walk into a dance weekend anywhere in the states and not know at least one person. In the case of this weekend it would most likely be more than half of the estimated 180 people at the dance last night. It is one of the really nice things about taking up this kind of dancing.

   The first hour and a half was taken up with dancing to the band Wild Asparagus and the calling of George Marshall. It hit me during the 1st dance how easy it is to forget how truly wonderful this band is. They play so well and with such polish that you kind of forget that they are one of the top contra dance bands in the world. The calling by George is also a lot of fun, he often does easy to medium dances during the evening dances, but he does it so well that you tend to forget how hard it is for other callers at times. Anyway; it was a ton of fun.

    The calling for the 2nd half of the dance suffered some what and it made it that much more obvious how tight George and Wild Asparagus are. The 2nd band, The Sky Tones, were very good though, and we all made the best of the sometimes confusing calls. By the end of the night at midnight I was certainly good and tired.

    There is about an hour commute between where I am camped and where the dance is on the south edge of Orlando. I knew it was going to be a bit of a problem, but since there were other things I wanted to do over the week, that were more up in this area, it was a sacrifice I was willing to make.

    I spent most of the time before going to the dance yesterday hanging out around the trailer and reading a book. Also had to do some chores and clean up a few things.

    Will head over to the dance for this evening in a couple of hours. I usually don't do many of the daytime dances or workshops and nothing going on this afternoon sounded all that interesting.  There was one dance of difficult contras late this morning and that would of been fun. But it would of meant getting up to early after such a long night and then it would also mean finding something to do for the rest of the afternoon. 




For the past 3 days there have been a flock of wild Osceola turkey's hanging out near the front entrance road to the park. There have been up to 10 of them in the group and they seem to be pretty acclimated to having people drive by them on the way in and out of the park.

   Spent a wonderful day yesterday hanging out with some good friends and visiting Blue Springs State Park to look for manatee's. I met my friend here in Florida early in the morning and we drove up to the park where we met up with a couple more friends, Donna and Rhonda, who had flown in a couple days earlier and were going to be in town for a couple of weeks.

    We wandered around the park for a little bit and checked out the spring run to see if there were any manatees in residence. Turns out that there were only a couple hanging out and that may be because the weather has been so warm lately that there was no need for them to move into the spring for warmth.

    As I said, we did see a couple, basically a cow and her calf, but that was about all. Lot's of fish to look at and a turtle or two plus the area is just so beautiful. The water in this spring, all 101 million gallons per day, is so clear that it reflects every color around it. So on sunny clear days it looks very, very blue. But yesterday with all the clouds, it looked much more green in color. We also wanted to do a 2 hour boat ride out on the St John river, but it turns out that the trips were all full, but they were also much more expensive than the one I had taken over at a State Park in western Florida.

    So.... since it was clouding up, cooling down and looking like rain, plus it was nearly 1:00 in the afternoon, we all parted company and Jan and I went over and had a burger at a local 'Five Guy's'. Haven't eaten at one of those for at least a year so it was nice to have a burger and piping hot fries.

   We went on back to Jan's place afterwards and sat around talking, drinking wine and watching old versions of NCIS on TV. A couple of hours of that and then it was off to 'Paco's' for some good Mexican food. We met up with Jan's daughter, Marie, and had a great time eating and drinking Mexican beer. The food is not as good as some in the west, but is so far above anything else I've had east of the Mississippi River that it tastes great. I had chicken enchilada's and a guacamole taco with beans and rice, so I'm set for a day or two.

    I headed back to the trailer after that and spent a pleasant evening reading and drinking tea. Tonight is the start of the weekend 'Orange Blossom' contra dance. Looking forward to dancing to some great music and a wonderful caller and seeing some old friends. George Marshall will be the main caller tonight and Wild Asparegus will be the main band. Till then I just plan to hang out and read some more, maybe watch a movie. Will just have to see what suits me.

Blue Springs State Park near Orlando Florida - Jan 17, 2012

The spring run is about a mile long from where the spring comes out of the ground to where it enters the St John River. Along the way it is lined by some beautiful old Live Oaks and Palm Trees. The color's are remarkable.

The spring water is so clear that it reflects whatever colors surround it. When the day is sunny and clear the water is mostly blue, but when there are a lot of clouds the water is often more green colored.

A cold front was starting to come through so the temp was down to the low 70's - high 60's. It also had lots of clouds and the wind was starting to blow which made it hard to see into the water, but which made the Spanish Moss move in some beautiful ways.

My friend Jan and the one manatee that is always easy to see. Jan and I go back more than 40 years to Denver and the boating program down at Washington Park. She went on a couple of canoe trips with all of us and also use to x-country ski with us on the weekends.

Love the color. It probably helps to have a nice polarizing filter on your camera, but it is really quite pretty just looking at it.

The bottom of the river is all white coral sand so it reflects color's really well.

More interesting lighting effects.

We did actually see a couple of real manatee's. In this case a cow and her calf. You can see the little one in the upper left corner. Sorry it isn't clearer, but with the wind the water was disturbed just enough to make it hard to see into it.

Looking up river towards the spring source. This spring flows at a rate of up to 101 million gallons per day, (yep... no mistake on that number), so you essentially have a river right from the start.

The source of the spring is just a big water filled hole in the ground. The water comes out crystal clear at a steady 72 degrees. The manatee's move into the spring runs in the winter when the river and ocean water drop in temperature. But I think it has been so warm lately that there has been no need for them to be there this year.

   Spent a nice day helping out a friend here in the Orlando area. Basically it involved holding the ladder while she climbed on her roof and swept all the leaves out of the valleys. So I guess it was important that I be there in case someone was needed to dial 911 if she fell off, but it was a good thing that never happened. So a short hour or so of "work" and then it was off to the beach for some lunch.

   We ended up out at New Smyrna Beach, just north of Orlando. We ended up at a little beach bar there called Chasers where we both had a bite to eat. I ended up with, what else, fish tacos, while Jan settled on this huge burger. Both meals were wonderful, especially washed down with a couple cold beers. Not much better than sitting in the sunshine, overlooking the ocean and having something to eat and drink.

   I dropped Jan off around 3:30 and headed back toward the trailer as I was expecting a call from some other friends who had flown in from Colorado. We were all suppose to go out to dinner together this evening to celebrate one of their birthdays, but I waited and waited and no call ever came through. Finally looked a bit closer at the phone and realized that the ring tone volume was turned all the way down and that they had been trying to get ahold of me all afternoon and early evening. Long story short is that I blew it and missed out on a fun dinner with two charming ladies and it was all my own stupid fault.

    I'm still hopeful that they will still try to get ahold of me tomorrow as there may be a chance to do some canoeing with them and other fun things. Will just have to wait and see on that one though.

    Very fun day today spent with my sister and her husband up in Palm Coast. A nice lunch out at a restaurant on Flagler Beach, fish taco's and beer of course, and then a couple hours driving some of the back roads that they have discovered since the last time I visited.

    Also got a chance to pick up a load of mail a friend had sent last week. The good news is that my truck registration did in fact make it okay. The bad news is that there was no sign of the trailer registration, so it is somewhere still off in the neither world. Otherwise there were a couple of magazines, my wooden boat mag. showed up, and a few other items that looked important but really weren't.

    Headed back just at dusk so most of the drive was in the dark. Not a problem as about 65 of the 80 miles are on the highway, so just a little bit of road where you have to be really careful about things jumping out in front of you and trying to commit suicide.

   Talked to my friend here in Casselberry this evening and it looks like we are on tap to goof off again some tomorrow. She has some chores around her house she needs an extra set of hands to do, but mostly it will just be fun to hang out with someone again. Still waiting to hear from a couple of other friends in the area also. I have been expecting a date with them for dinner in the next day or two as well as maybe going and doing some paddling over at Wakiva Springs.

     More info has also come in on the trip to St Croix, so I am really starting to get excited about that now. It is always such fun to be down there in the sun on a beach. The cheap rum is just a bonus as far as I am concerned.

    Spent a quiet day here at the trailer and in the park. Really wanted to work at finally getting over this cough that seems to have been going on for weeks now. Seems ironic that how to 'work at' getting rid of it is pretty much not to do anything. Something I am happy to say I am really good at.

   Dosed myself up really well starting last night with all the usual cold and cough suppressant types of drugs, I know all of them really well by this time. But I also hit the system pretty heavy with big doses of aspirin to see if that had any effect. To my surprise the combination seems to have knocked it all for a loop and my coughing is now down to a couple of times at the end of my 4 hour dosing cycle. It probably hasn't hurt that I have also spent a lot of time laying on the couch catching naps between chapters in one of my books or magazines.

   Did go out for a short walk this afternoon and explored the actual park I'm set up in. Very nice little county park with a big area set aside for playing in the spring run as it comes out of the ground and flows down through a section of the park they turned into a swimming area. There are also a couple short trails to explore and lots of benches to sit on and watch the squirrels doing their thing.

Kelly Park Florida near the town of Apopka - Jan 13, 2013

 


Unlike most springs in Florida, Kelly Springs actually comes out of two caves in the side of a low cliff instead of bubbling up from a hole in the ground.

 

The water is just as clear and blue as elsewhere though, as is the main temperature of between 72-74 degrees.

The park allows people to swim and tube on the upper section of the spring run. This is where most of them put in.

A section of the spring run. Obviously this is not as large of a spring as some that I have taken pictures of.

Lot's of nice pickerel weed blooming in and along side the edges of the water.

The park ran the spring through a large enclosed swimming basin close to the parking lots and concession stands. This is late in the afternoon, but it appears that the area is well used by families for a nice day out with a picnic.

 

A couple of tubers and swimmers coming down the channel.

Down below the last take-out the stream gets a bit denser and wilder.

 

Saw this flock of about 6 Osceola turkeys on my walk this afternoon. They weren't hanging around very long so the photo isn't the best.

 

There were a whole bunch of burls growing on this one old Live Oak tree in the park.  I can imagine that this area with all of it's different grain patterns would make a very beautiful turned bowl some day after the tree has died or has been cut down. But the texture even now is kind of interesting to me.