North Bound (I Know Wrong Way)

Our time in Sanford has finally come to an end. We left this morning and started our trek northbound, we made into Lake City, FL and a pretty nice Passport America RV Park (oak and Pines RV Park). Tomorrow we will head west and stop in Crestview FL. for a couple of days to visit friends and family. Our Daughter in OKC called and maybe having the baby earlier than expected, hopefully she can keep a cork in it till we get there.....lol.
Not going to be a whole lot of adventure for the next couple of weeks as we make our way back to OKC, but we'll see what we can come up with. So until then, we'll see you back here again.

Blue Spring State Park

 We made it into Sanford, FL. safe and sound and got settled into our spot at the Town and Country RV Park. This time we are in a spot well away from the dumpsters and the roving bear who feeds himself there nightly. Yesterday, we decided before the weather made a turn for the worst, we would take a short trip to Blue Springs State Park just north of Sanford. Being winter in FL. the Manatees like to take refuge in the warmer waters of the springs, which are a constant 72 degrees. Last time we were in FL it was a little early in the season to see the Manatees and we were only able to see one up at Manatee Springs.

 Now with this being January, and much cooler in the year, Blue Springs was loaded with the big guys, there were at least 50 taking advantage of the warm waters. The good and bad thing about this time of year is they close the springs to any type of water activities (swimming, canoe/kayaking, snorkeling, etc) to protect and and keep people from harassing them, so you can only view them from the raised boardwalk.

 We spent a couple of hours watching them swim about, play, sleep and just enjoy life. We even had the rare opportunity to catch this guy nibbling on a freshly downed palm tree.

 The park is also home to one of the original homes in the area, built in the late 1800s and overlooks the confluence of Blue Spring Run and the St. Johns River. The park also has a campground, store, gift shop and a boardwalk which runs the length of the waterway.

 As luck would have it, I was able to get some pretty good shot from the boardwalk and viewing areas.

To include this shy creature, who for many years used to run at the sight of a camera, but now makes a great subject as she has became used to having the crazy guy with the camera around and the lens pointed in her direction :)

That was our day out for now, so if you are in FL during the winter months and wish to see some of the beautiful creatures (sorry the one in the blue jackets is taken) be sure to visit Blue Spring State Park, you won't be disappointed. Thats all for this issue, stay tuned for more from Central Florida and we'll see you then!!!

Not Eaten By Gators

No, we haven't fell off the edge of the earth, nor eaten by gators, we are here in Kissimmee, FL, just south of Orlando. Our original plans to spend a few days at Everglades National Park got nixed by the weather, rain storms for the time we would have been there. So we decided to head further north and ended up in Kissimmee. We found a nice park here and just decided to take some down time. We did see some of the local sites and took in a movie, by the way, Frozen was well worth seeing, even if not quite what we expected.
Tomorrow we are leaving Kissimmee and heading a hour or so north to Sanford, where we will wait for our mail to catch up with us. We have a few things planned for the area, so hopefully the weather will cooperate. Oh and we'll be staying at the park with the nightly roving Black Bears, so we'll be on the look out for them. So after a quiet week, we are ready to travel again, until then...............we'll see you back here before long.

Kayaking Boca Chica

 We had been planning a kayak trip for New Years Day with several folks from the park, however due to the aftermath of  New Years Eve, the trip was postponed a day....lol. So, Thursday, we were up and headed to Boca Chica Key, approx 10 miles from Key West and home of NAS Key West. We had a total of 8 kayaks on this trip, a smaller group than before, but just as much fun. The trip began along the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean for approx a 1/4 mile.

 We turned into a mangrove river and began our exploration of the area.

 We all had fun paddling and chatting the day away.

 The farther into the groves we went,the narrower the river became, although nothing like the tunnels we experienced on our last trip.

 After about a mile or so of paddling we popped out of the groves into an inland salt lake, where we hung out for a while, chatted and contemplated lunch. Once lunch plans were made, we reversed course and headed back.

 We emerged again to the Atlantic, however the winds had seemed to pick up and we had to paddle into a pretty strong head wind on the open water. By the time we made it to our put in point we were all pretty spent, we loaded up and off to lunch we went.

It was another great day on the water and another successful adventure in the bag. We only have a couple more days here in Key West before we start heading north, not too fast mind you, but north bound never the less. So with our adventures behind us, we will see you next time right back here................

Happy New Year! !!!

Happy New Year everyone.  What a great way to start the new year for us, a beautiful Key West morning.