Friday, February 28, 2014

   Spent the afternoon over at Fort Pulaski just east of Savannah, near to where the river hits the Atlantic Ocean. I spent several hours wandering around out there looking at all the old fortifications, cannons and what-not. I even spent an hour or so listening to one of the ranger/docents explaining the history of the fort.


   Robert E. Lee was instrumental in laying out and starting the construction of the fort way back in 1830, right after he got out of West Point. It took 18 years to complete and was constructed with mostly slave labor from nearby rice plantations. Built in the shape of an elongated pentagon, it has a water filled moat all the way around it, complete with two draw bridges. The walls and foundation were constructed using about 25 million individual bricks, with walls that are between 4 and 13 feet thick depending on where the walls were located.


    The Forts main claim to fame is that it sits on an island in the Savannah River and was meant to protect the shipping moving in and out of Savannah during the Civil War. As such it had a large garrison of confederate troops, more than 300 men, with lots and lots of cannons and 40,000 lbs of black powder. Thought to be impregnable, Commander Oglethorpe, the Commanding Officer in charge, declined the invitation, by the Union forces that showed up, to surrender before hostilities commenced.


    So the Union forces, who had showed up a couple weeks before hand, and who had built gun emplacements of their own on nearby Tybee Island, went back and launched their attack using their new rifled cannons. These guns could accurately shoot a 70 lb projectile more than 3 miles compared to the less than 1 mile range of the guns in the fort. After 30 hours of near constant bombardment and over 5,000 shots, the Union guns had blown large holes into two sides of the fort including one hole that exposed the doorway to the powder magazine. At that point the Confederate Commander gave up rather than having his whole command blown to smithereens. It should be noted that Commander Oglethorpe was only 25 years old at that time. He later went on to become a General. Photo's will be posted at some point.


   Once done there I went ahead and walked the trail out to the Cockspur Lighthouse to take a few pictures of it. Built at the bottom of the island, it was needed at one time to show where the river divided and went around the two sides of Cockspur Island. These days though only the north channel of the Savannah River is used, so the lighthouse is no longer used as a lighthouse, although it still works as a good day use aid to navigation. I got some good photo's I think, even though I couldn't get right up to it as the tide was coming in and the wind was blowing up some pretty hefty waves. I'll post some of those photos at some point also.


    Right now though I'm done for the day so I'm going to go read a couple of chapters and then hit the sack. Hope the weather stays nice for the next couple of days so I can do a few more fun things while I'm here.





Thursday, February 27, 2014

   Yesterday, Wednesday.... it rained....... all day! 


    Today, Thursday, on the other hand, it was nice outside. A little cool overall, but bright and sunny and inviting. Just right for being out and about. I spent most of the morning just hanging out here at the trailer. I was hoping it would warm up and be really nice, but it never got much above 55 degrees, so I finally just decided to head out anyway.


   My destination for today was Tybee Island where the Savannah River opens out onto the Atlantic Ocean. It is only about 15 miles from where I am camped so it didn't take long to get there even though there was a little bit of road work going on. My first stop was the light house at the north east tip of the Island. First established in the early 1700's, there have been 4 structures built as navigation aids in this general area. The first was a simple wooden structure without a light, even though it is often called a lighthouse, it functioned as a simple navigation aid. It was built to close to the ocean however; and it was soon destroyed.


    The second was built better and taller, and did have a rudimentary light, but it was also built to close to the beach and was soon washed away too.


    The third one was built in 1773  in the present location and served right up to the Civil War. It was built mostly of brick and had a system of 16 separate lights at the top of the tower. It worked well until the war when the Confederate's abandoned Tybee Island to the Union forces. As they left though, they lit a fire inside the lighthouse destroying the wooden and steel steps and making it unusable to the Union army.


    The fourth iteration was built in 1867, soon after the war ended. All but the lower 60 feet of the third lighthouse tower was removed and an additional 85 feet of new tower was added to it. It has a long history after that with different exterior paint jobs, different kinds of lights and evening different owners.


    It is still being used as an official aid to navigation, and the light is still taken care of by the Coast Guard, although the lighthouse structure as well as the surrounding buildings are now owned by the Tybee Island Historical Society.


    I spent a couple of hours there wandering around and looking at all of the displays and buildings. Unfortunately they had picked this month to repaint the actual lighthouse tower, so it was actually closed on the inside so I couldn't climb to the top like I usually do. I got some pretty good pictures though, so I'll be posting a few at some point in the near future.


    Directly across the road from the lighthouse are the remains of one of Fort Screven's concrete gun batteries. A place where large coastal defense guns have been placed for more than 100 years in order to protect the coast, and in particular, the entrance into the Savannah River, from outsiders in the times of war. Not much is left of the original concrete structures, but one part of one battery was still in good enough shape that the Tybee Island Museum was actually placed inside it's interior concrete halls and rooms. A pretty neat little museum with lots of old pictures of Tybee Island in the late 1800's and later. It appears that it was a real swinging place at one time during the 20's and 30's.


    So all of that took up about 6+ hours and my stomach was now complaining about not having any real lunch. Headed off for some fast food and then headed on back to the trailer. If the weather stays nice I'll head back out that way tomorrow and check out some other things that looked interesting. Will just have to wait until morning to see what the weather is like.


Tuesday, February 25, 2014

    Another beautiful day here in the Savannah area. After my usual morning routine it was off to the big city to see what there was to see. No problems getting into town as it is less than 10 miles away from where I am camping. The only real problem was in dealing with the high traffic on the very narrow streets and the lack of easy parking spots around the river area. It appears likely that the city makes quite a bit of revenue off parking down there as there seemed to be no unmetered parking at all, and over the course of the half day I was down there, I managed to see 8 parking enforcement people walking around checking. No problem for me though, I found a public parking garage off the river area a couple of blocks, and found plenty of room 4 levels down under the outside world.


    Wandered the streets for about an hour trying to get my bearings. One thing on my list was the 'Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum', and I finally ran across it in my ramblings. Spent several hours there looking at all of the displays and reading all the info plaques. The museum is geared towards showing how shipping has been such an integral part of the Savannah area from the first start. Lot's of really cool boat models of some of the more important boats associated with this area, from small wooden sailboats all the way up to WWII destroyer and cruisers. What was most impressive is that some of these models were huge. One large sailboat had to be over 12' long with masts and sails that were more than 10' tall. Lucky for the museum they had an atrium that extended all the way up to the roof so they didn't actually hit the ceiling with the tops of the masts.


    There were other exhibits worth looking at of course, including a really fine collection of original scrimshaw and a whole display case of 'ships in a bottle'. Also there were some interesting displays of old navigation instruments as well as a whole case of ship building tools. Of course the best thing was the gift shop up front. I came across a short movie from the History Channel on the 'Boats of the Coast Guard', which I watched this evening. I even saw someone in it I vaguely knew when I was in way back when. Of course he is now a Senior Chief Bosun's Mate, where as when I knew him he was a lowly BM3.


    I also discovered a cool little book of knots while in the store, one that I had never seen before. What drew me to it was that it had lots of variations on other knots I already know, but these just make some of them even better. For instance; there is one called a 'Boom Hitch' which is a simple derivation of a clove hitch, but much better for tying a rope to a fixed object under tension. Also a 'Figure of 8 Bend and Hitch' as well as a Stevedores Knot', and something they called a 'Simple Simon' knot. I'm going to have to break out a couple pieces of rope now and start practicing again. That's good though cus I was getting a bit rusty anyway.


   Walked the length of Bay Street after having a bite to eat. I really good shrimp por' boy with fries and a mug of ice cold New Moon beer at a place called Annie's. Good eats and the beer was sensational. Frosty cold and brewed just down the street from where I ate.


   One of the reasons for walking down the waterfront, other than it's just neat, was that there was suppose to be this old iron lighthouse along there somewhere. I found it right at the east end of the park along Bay Street and took a few pictures. I guess it was once used to guide ships up the Savannah River and into the docks along the edge of the river. It looks like a really tall iron street lamp with a larger than average globe light on the top. A sign said that it was very helpful in showing boats the clear channel up the river after the British sunk a bunch of ships in the river to blockade it. Unfortunately the light no longer functions as it once did, but it did look pretty neat.


    Started a new book tonight and watched a couple Robin Hood episodes as well as the Coast Guard DVD. I'm hoping it is nice again tomorrow as I have plans to go over to Tybee Island and check out a couple more lighthouses. But I'm hearing that it is likely going to rain so I may just end up hanging out and working on some more photo's. Either way it a win as far as I'm concerned.





Monday, February 24, 2014

   Up early and on my way north this morning.... after I finally escaped the retired guy at the campground who wanted to explain to me his whole philosophy of life. It was actually quite entertaining, but he could of stuck around long enough once he was done talking to help me hook up the trailer. :)


    A very pleasant day to drive. Rather cool and grey this morning and then switching into a wonderfully sunny and warm afternoon as I headed north into Georgia. My goal was Skidaway State Park just south and east of Savannah. Only a little more than 200 miles from where I started out, so not too far of a drive. Took my time and loafed along and still made it into the campground by 5:30 this evening. There were plenty of empty spots for me here, and they even found one open for the whole 7 nights that I wanted. Pulled into my spot and got all unhooked, and then, because it was still light out, and because I was tired of sitting, I grabbed the binocs and camera and headed out on a short hike. Actually turned into a little longer hike than it was at first meant to be, nearly 5 miles in all. But it was a nice evening out and the trail was interesting as it twisted around the salt marsh and swamps here by the river.  Got back to the trailer just as it was getting dark though. They warn about being out on the trails at night around here. I imagine it is mostly because of the gators and bears in the area. But they also have water moccasins, copper heads, rattle snakes and wild pigs. None of which I really want to do battle with in the dark.


    Warmed up some hot chili and had a couple cheese wraps for dinner and then a really nice red pear for dessert. Not much going on this evening. Watched some more Robin Hood videos from the 1950's. I am sure these were the ones we use to watch on the old black and white TV the family had back when I was a kid, because I recognize the theme song they sing at the close of every show. It's quite a hoot watching these vintage shows. It isn't so much that the acting is bad, but the sword fighting is atrocious. You would of thought that even way back then they would of had someone hired who would teach them some basic moves. They keep doing this behind the back thing that is just appalling. Not only does it look really fake, but anyone with half a brain could stab poor Robin before he could ever get turned around again.


   Into the city tomorrow to see what the is to see. I have my sights set on a maritime museum and some time just wandering the streets looking at all the cool houses and other buildings. So off to bed for me.





Sunday, February 23, 2014

   Started in raining again sometime this morning, and it has been grey and wet for most of the day. I was up and going around mid morning and managed to make it in for the last session of dancing before it was all over with. Like most 'last' sessions in a dance weekend, this one was better than the rest of the dance. Rather hard to do since all the other dancing was pretty fantastic also. But the bands really hit their stride and the people who came were all ready to dance hard.


   Rather sad to say goodbye to some of my friends here. I really like this little dance group here in the middle of the state. But the plan is to be on the road north tomorrow morning. So I hopped into the truck after the dance ended and ran over to the grocery store for a few items I'll need in the next couple of days. Once done there I thought it would be nice to go eat an early dinner over at my favorite Mexican restaurant, La Tienda, since I won't be eating there again for many, many months. I ordered up one of the few types of burritos I had yet to sample, their one with scallops and shrimp. Yum! It was indeed a really good burrito, but I actually think there are others, carna asada and chivo (goat), are better. I'm not complaining though. It was nice to sit there for awhile, read my magazine and eat everything there was topped with their home made red and green salsa.


    Spent the evening just hanging out here in the trailer since it is still raining outside. I watched an old movie DVD that I had, Van Helsing, and read some more of my magazines. I found the movie okay the 2nd time around, the first being many, many years ago. Not fated to be one of the better vampire movies, but maybe a little bit better than most people say it was. If nothing else Kate Beckinsale in tight black leather pants isn't to hard to take. Or for that matter, neither is Hugh Jackman. ;)


    As I said earlier, I'll be heading north in the morning as long as it isn't raining to hard to hook up. If it is I may just have to stay another day if I can. But I think it will be fine and I'll be on my way to Savannah for a few days. However, I think there is still time to read a couple more chapters right now though and then its off to bed for me.



Saturday, February 22, 2014

    Just a wonderful day here today. Slept in late this morning because the dance ran so late last night. It actually ended around 11:00 p.m. so it wasn't all that late. But there was a few minutes to pick stuff up and say good night to a few people and then the drive back to the trailer took about 50 mins just itself, so it was nearly midnight before I got back.  of course after that there is still at least another hour needed to write in the blog and then come down from the dancing high. So it was after o1:00 a.m. before I got to bed and around 9:00 when I finally woke up for good this morning.


    A pleasant morning all in all. Ate some breakfast, read the comics did the crossword, etc.. Hung around the trailer for a little bit and then headed out on a  nice hike this afternoon. Ended up hiking about 4 miles out and about here in the park. Nothing really outstanding during any of it, just a nice time to be out in the warm sunshine.


    Of course there was also dancing to do this evening. I misread the schedule somewhat and arrived about 10 minutes late, but what that means is that I basically missed the first dance, so not too critical of a mistake.


    Really good, fun dancing yet again this evening. The first half went by super fast with Steam Shovel playing and Dana calling. The 2nd half though, was just a riot of good, hot, sweaty fun. The Latter Day Lizards took over the music duties and Cis Hinkle did a great job with the calling. It just moved the whole experience a couple notches up the fun meter. We finished up a little more than an hour ago and I'm just popped. Going to head off for some much needed sleep in a few minutes. Just wanted to get a little something down so I can look back later on and remember how much fun it all was.



Friday, February 21, 2014

   Woke up to rain on the trailer roof this morning. It sounded pleasant enough that it soon had me back to sleep again for another hour or two. Not hard to do since I was up until after 3:00 a.m. last night reading my book and the rain started around 8:00 this morning.


    The rain kept up, sometimes as a downpour, until late in the afternoon. It was okay though since I slept in pretty late this morning. Had a pleasant time eating brunch and reading the comics and doing the crossword puzzle. I also spent time this afternoon reading more of my book. It's a new one, to me, by Lee Child and is one of his Jack Reacher series. They have a way of sucking me in and not letting me quit reading when I need to. I picked it up yesterday afternoon and finished it up this evening at dinner. At nearly 500 pages it was a fun and totally engrossing book. Very much like all of his that I have read so far.


    I took off from the trailer around 6:00 this evening and ran into Gainsville for some dinner before the dance started. Thought I'd go have a burrito at my favorite restaurant, La Tienda, and read the last couple of chapters in my book. Almost didn't make it since the restaurant was packed when I got there. But I finally managed to order my favorite carne asada burrito and find a table to sit down at. Really good food and plenty of it for an attractive price. Less than Chipoltle and so much better tasting.    


    Just finished up the first night of contra dancing at the 'GODS' dance weekend here in Gainsville a little while ago. Started out at 8:00 p.m. with the band 'Steam Shovel' playing and 'Cis Hinkle' doing the calling. Great fun right from the first notes. I'm still a little surprised at how many people know me down here these days. I guess hanging around for several months over 3-4 years might do it though. Still, I found myself having to be on my toes just to remember names of people who seemed to know me.


   The 2nd half had the 'Latter Day Lizards' playing with 'Dana Parkinson' doing the calling. Seemed like the whole experienced jumped up another notch at that point. No doubt that the Lizards are a great band to dance to, but Dana, who is somewhere in her early to mid? 20's has really become a good caller in the last year or so. Lots of fun and it seemed like no time at all before the first night was over.


   A nice drive back to the campground and now a pleasant hour or so to come down from the 'contra dance high' before heading for bed. Tomorrow is going to be another great evening of dance. Who knows, I may even go in tomorrow afternoon and dance then too.





Thursday, February 20, 2014

    Yet another wonderful day here in central Florida. I think it made it to about 82 degrees this afternoon, which to me is just about perfect. Hardly any humidity for a change, and what there is was tempered by the light breeze from the west. Of course it is suppose to change a little bit starting tomorrow. A bit cooler, only in the 70's, and the possibility for some rain storms passing through come tomorrow night. So it should be somewhat more humid and sticky when the weekend contra dance starts up around 8:00 tomorrow evening. It won't be so hot that I don't show up however, may just have to change shirts more often, drink more fluids and take it easier if possible. Hard to do that once the music starts up.


    I took a nice walk this morning before it got too warm. Saw a couple of deer and an armadillo, but otherwise it was just a pleasant walk while the birds were all out chattering about. Tonight I'm sitting here after eating a really nice meal listening to the spring peepers calling out in the forest. A sure sign of spring if there ever was one. Of course the blooming red buds that I started to notice just yesterday should of been my first clue.


    Went into town for a little bit this afternoon to log onto the net using the WiFi of someone else, Micky D's in this case. Wanted to load up some more photo's and check out some things on the net, mainly to do with things to do next week when I'm in the Savannah area.


   Got back to the trailer just as the sun was starting to go down. It was a really pretty sunset here today. Wish I had been out on a beach somewhere to watch the sun go down. Whipped up another batch of chicken fricassee this evening just to see if it tasted better without so much salt this time..... it was! Had enough for this evenings dinner and probably enough for tomorrows lunch also. The nice thing is that it only takes a bit more than 30 min's to make and there aren't very many dishes to clean up and deal with afterwards.


    I started in watching some of the 'Robin Hood' videos I picked up yesterday. These are the original B&W TV episodes from the 60's and they are really quite fun to watch. I'll likely watch a couple more this evening, they only last about 26 min's each, and then read some more of a new book I picked up today.


  Here are a few pictures I took about two weeks ago when my girlfriend Rima and I went over to De Leon Springs and Blue Springs in order to look for manatees. We found some!


A visit to De Leon Spring and Blue Spring in Florida 
Feb. 4, 2014





De Leon Spring, like many in Florida were once plantations growing not only citrus and nuts, but also sugar cane. It had it's own crushing mill that crushed the cane and did other duties based on what needed to be ground at the time. This mill wheel is a replica of what might of been here at one time. Now it and the building it sits in and on are a popular breakfast/lunch restaurant serving burgers, sandwiches and pancakes.


I'm not sure, but I believe the original spring was dammed up in order to establish enough drop (head), to run the mill wheel. It is still dammed up enough that tidal water no longer flows backwards into the spring area. Not directly anyway. There is now a very nice swimming area on the upstream side of this little outfall. I just thought it looked and sounded nice.


We tried to take a boat tour when we first got to the park, but there weren't enough people for them to take the boat out. So we stood around and looked pathetic enough that the boat driver, who was doing some work on the engines, decided to take us over about 200 feet to where this manatee was snoozing. So this was Rima's first manatee.

When they breath they usually just poke the tip of their nose up out of the water.

 We hung around long enough, and talked to enough people, that we finally got 10 of us together who wanted to do a boat tour. We went out onto the spring run and ran downstream for a couple miles. Along the way were several old fish camps and riverside homes. This old worn out boathouse and dock caught my eye.

Yet another old boathouse along the river.

We turned up an arm of the river and into a protected nature preserve. Lots of critters along the banks and in the trees including this Great Blue Heron.


A very young alligator less than 2 feet long.


Happy, happy, happy.

This one was quite a bit larger. As a rule of thumb if you take the distance between a gators eyes and nose in inches, that will be it's length in feet. This one looked to be about 8"-9", so 8-9 feet long.

Looking back into a separate little slough.

On to Blue Springs, today looking much more green than blue. Here we see 3 manatee's along with another Great Blue Heron. The water there is at least 6 feet deep, so you can see how clear it is.

Another closer look at one of the manatee's and the Heron. One of the rangers told us that just the day before, when it had been much colder, there had been about 350 of them up in the mile long +/- spring run. They go up into the springs where the temperature is nearly a constant 70-72 degrees when the outside water grows to cold.

Enjoying the sunshine.

Lot's and lot's of fish in the spring run, some of them quite large. This is one of many 'Gar' that we saw that day. We also saw many large catfish, mullet, blue tilapia  and 3'-4' long tarpon.

One of many turtles we saw that day.

One of my favorites of the day. Rima with a pretty little rainbow manatee.

A final look at a Great Blue Heron.
















Wednesday, February 19, 2014

   A really pleasant day here in Florida today. The temperature crept up into the lower 80's with a nice blue sky and fluffy white clouds. I spent a pleasant morning here in the campground listening to the birds in the trees. I even took a little bit of a walk early on just to get out and get moving. It was only over to the nearby lake, and I didn't see much in the way of wildlife along the way, other than quite a few birds.


    Ran a few errands in town this afternoon. I had broken my cooking timer last week by dropping it one to many times on the floor. It finally just sat there blinking 3:42 minutes at me and I couldn't get it to reset or even run out the rest of the time on it. Stopped by the Target store and found a replacement for the timer and also found a food thermometer that may come in handy. I guess now I just need to cook a meal or two and try them both out.


    Also picked up a couple of packages of tortillas and some new English muffins for breakfast while there. About the only other thing of note is that I found a complete set of 143 TV episodes of the original 'The Adventures of Robin Hood'. They are all in black and white and I think it will be a hoot to watch a few of them once in awhile.


     Speaking of movies; I drove over to the local movie theatre after shopping and watched the new movie 'The Monuments Men'. A movie based on a true story of a couple of guys, mostly artist types, who were tasked with finding and returning some of the art works that the Nazi's stole during WWII. Very entertaining and a great cast that included George Cloony, Matt Damien, Bill Murry and John Goodman among others.


   This evening included filling out some applications for future weekend dances. So far Rima and I are signed up for the 'Palmetto Bug Stomp' in Charleston, SC and the 'White Water Whirl' in Fayetteville, WV. There are still others to sign up for, but some of them haven't opened up for application yet and many of them require you to print out a registration form and mail it in. While I do have a printer here in the trailer just for that reason, I'm letting Rima take care of some of those applications.


     Other than that it has been pretty slow this evening, just sitting here reading a couple of magazines and a book. There are a few more photo's posted below. These are a continuation of the ones that I posted last night. All are from a trip to Wakulla Springs State Park back on the 1st of February.


Wakulla Springs State Park - Feb 1, 2014 (part 2)







A bunch of White Ibis.

A rather impish smile from Rima

I really liked these four cormorants sitting out in the river on some old cypress knees.

I hope you can see this photo well enough to note the pattern of feathers on these birds.

One of many Great Blue Herons seen that day.

It really feels like a jungle with all the Spanish moss hanging off of the trees.

A Common Moorhen, also known as a Candy Corn bird for good reason.

More turtles.


Rima

Another Common Moorhen.

White Ibis.

A Closer view of a male Hooded Merganser.


One last view of a Common Moorhen.




















Tuesday, February 18, 2014

   Starting to get back into my usual routine now that I'm back to flying solo again. Basic breakfast this morning along with my reading of the comics and the doing of the daily crossword. I started picking up the trailer after that, as today was moving day. Several months ago I had made reservations at Paynes Prairie State Park, just up the road about 10 miles, to camp for the next 6 nights. I wanted to be a little bit closer to Gainsville and the weekend dance that will be there this weekend.

    There was no real hurry to get going this morning as there is never in assurance that the site I reserved would be vacated before this afternoon. So it was nearly 2:00 p.m. before I finally had everything hooked and ready to go. My stay at Fisherman's Cove RV park had been a good one, even though it is so low key there that it verges on being pretty much asleep most of the time. Perhaps that is why I like it.

    No problem getting in to my site this afternoon. They had all my paper work ready when I pulled up and the campground is mostly empty right at the moment. Of course that is usually the way it is in most state parks. Plenty of room during the week and then completely filled up on the weekends. Good thing I made my reservations so long ago.

    I have a new space, or new to me anyway, this time here. Like most, it is set back in the trees and while there are other campers around I think it will work out very well. The site isn't as level as others I have set up in at this campground. It took me at least another 20 minutes of fussing before Esmerelda was set up and reasonably level. The problem here was that there was a good cross slope, as well as a slope down from front to back. A couple layers of 2"x boards under the downhill set of wheels, as well as using the four scissor jacks, finally leveled it good enough. There was a bit of worry when I saw the front jacks foot starting to slide downhill at one point, but I got that settled down and everything seems to be stable now.

    Just hung out for most of the evening. I have been working on photo's that were taken several weeks ago in an effort to catch up. It will take a little bit of time to get them all done, but I got enough of them done to post a few more this evening. More of them will get posted over the next few days or so. Time to go read a magazine or two before going to bed. Enjoy the pictures.

Wakulla Springs State Park - Feb. 1, 2014


Wakulla State Park provides a one hour boat tour of several miles of the river for $8, one of the best deals around as far as I am concerned. Lead by a local ranger, you are likely to see just about anything while out and about. Last November, on another trip, there were dozens of manatee's in the river because of the cold weather. This time around there were none, but plenty of birds and other life to look at instead. 

My girlfriend, Rima, standing on the top of the 3 meter dive platform overlooking the spring basin. Just beyond the buoy you can see is the entrance to the spring, a hole that is more than 250 feet deep at this point. One of the largest springs in Florida, Wakulla Spring pumps out more than 1 billion gallons of fresh water per day. (Yes, that number is not a mistake). All of the water you see in the following pictures comes out of this one spring, except for a very small amount, only 10 million gallons per day or so, that comes in  from another close by spring. 

Looking out at some of the swampy land around the Wakulla River. You can see the trunks of the bald cypress, which normally look much more like needle bearing fir's. The only difference is that they lose all of their needles every year just like other trees lose their leaves. Cypress love the water and can, in fact, sprout in water that is 18"-24" deep. Once they grow above the surface of the surrounding water they start collecting detritus until they have made their own little island. 

 

Two pairs of Hooded Merganser's. Sure glad I got a new bird book for Christmas... I tend to forget the names of things if I don't see them very often.

Even though it was rather grey, and not all that warm out, there was a lot of wildlife out and about. 

A White Ibis.

There was enough sun out that some of the turtles were out basking. 

Nice smile huh!

 

Three different birds in this shot. On the left is a cormorant, then a White Ibis and then a Tricolored Heron. 

A female Anhinga, or Snake Bird, sitting out and drying her wings. 

There were a few alligators laying out in the sun, but this little one caught my eye.

Another White Ibis. 

If you look close at any of these pictures you will start to see all kinds of other birds in either the trees, walking on the marsh grasses or swimming. The whole area was simply awash with life. 
Note: More Photo's from Wakulla Springs State Park in my next post.













Monday, February 17, 2014

   Finally back to it after a layoff of several weeks. Sorry for the lapse.... but I was off having fun. Last time I wrote was around the 1st of February and there has been a lot going on since then. I'm not going to try and catch up on everything that has happened since then, at least in a day by day way, but I'll be posting photo's of some of what has been happening, and there should be some explanation's along with some of them.

   My girl friend Rima flew down on the 1st of February and we spent a couple of days here around Gainsville exploring some of the local sights. On the 4th we drove over to the Orlando area and spent the night with a friend of mine, Janet, before taking off for the island of St Croix in the Caribbean for a little more than a week. We spent that time laying on the beach, snorkeling and of course, contra dancing to the sounds of Wild Asparagus.

    We got back to the mainland on the 12th after hoping desperately that we would have out flight out cancelled like so many of our friends did who live further north of here. But alas, we made it in okay and spent another night with Janet before heading out to a couple more days of exploration. One day in St Augustine, another at the Dali Museum in St Petersburg and then a last day here in Gainsville looking at alligators and armadillos and having a night out at the local theater.

    There was a lot of fun going on, but I finally put Rima on a plane home to Virginia yesterday morning. She went back to more than 20 inches of snow blocking off the road into her house. She could get the rental car she had to hire, because no one could get out to pick her up, within a half mile of her driveway, but finally had to get out and wade through the snow for the last part. I heard they finally got the rest of the road plowed out today, only 4-5 days after the snowstorm and just in time for another storm that is suppose to come in a couple of days from now.

     I came back to the trailer last night and started putting everything back together. We had to move a surprising amount of stuff I have stuffed into various nooks and crannies just to have room for Rima's stuff. So I got all of that stuff put away and got all my dirty clothes ready to take to the laundry mat today.
Got all of it done today and put away already as I'll be moving a few miles up the road sometime tomorrow and it all needs to be stowed. There won't be any hurry to go, as I actually have a couple extra days left here if I want, having signed up for the whole month even though I knew I wouldn't need it. Made reservations at the local state park a few months back though so that is where I'll be heading tomorrow afternoon. It will be about 10 miles closer to Gainsville, and that will come in handy for going to and from the dance this next weekend, plus, it's just a nicer place to camp. In the mean time though I'm pretty much ready to hit the hay. I finished up some photo's from late January of this year when I was over on the east coast of Florida for the 'Orange Blossom' dance. These are from a trip I took over to Ponce de Leon Lighthouse. Enjoy!

Ponce de Leon Lighthouse near Daytona Beach Florida January 2014 


A view of Ponce de Leon Lighthouse near Daytona Beach
on Florida's east coast.

I think this is one of the prettier lighthouse's I've visited. 







Looking up from the bottom of the lighthouse. It kind of looks like the inside structure of some shells I've seen.

At one time this lighthouse would of had a class I Fresnel lens like this one to produce the light. This one, like most lenses of that period, was built in France and shipped over here in pieces. Weighing more than a ton, the light source was a oil, paraffin or kerosene wick that wasn't a whole lot bigger than some candles I've seen. 

I find these things to be truly beautiful.


Several sizes of Fresnel lenses from a 6th order, the little one in the middle, to a 1st order on the left. 


One last photo to show how bright a light would be if it was running. The bulb in the 6th order light is about the size of a automobile light and could be seen for several miles on a clear night.