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.