Mammoth Goes to See the Manatee, Day 6

Saturday, December 4

Trip to the ocean., at St. Augustine. The drive took a little over an hour--I keep thinking I need to make reservations where we want to be so we can stay in place when we get there, but then I remember that I did--or thought I did. Everyone said that Salt Springs was where the manatees where, and other than Crystal River where there weren't any camping spots, we were in the best spot.

And yes, they're here. We just can't see them. Everyone else does! If we only had an inflatable boat....

We passed
the restaurant we ate at yesterday:

Anyway, St. Augustine is a lovely old place. A bit overpopulated like everywhere in Florida. We went to the Farmer's Market first--it was a little like the one at home--lots of shoppers; few farmers. But there was one bit stand with lots of vegetables. Ed left me standing near it while he went to the bath room, and after a minute or so of trying to keep my back turned, I gave in and bought a lovely bunch of turnips. Only $3 and they were deep purple inside. Great.

I wished I'd gotten some citrus just to see if fresh tastes better. But it's best that I didn't--I don't want to ruin my taste buds for life.

The market was near closing by the time we got there, but still crowded when we left. One good thing I'll say about Florida--there always seem to be shady parking areas to leave the dogs in the car. The temperature was perfect for them to have a nice snooze while we shopped, which doesn't happen often.

On the the Beach. It was beautiful, of course, and cleaner than any beach I've ever seen. A good handful of people were hanging out (it was Saturday) and they all seemed very friendly. At least one person remarked on Zack, who was being carried--did someone get tired? And when we first parked, a lady parked next to us and I bitched under my breath. Why park right up beside us when there were empty places all over the parking lot?

But she got out and explained that she didn't want to get sand on her car. Sure enough, we were parked closest to the street and I could imagine that the oceanside spots might get sandy in windy weather. (They weren't, however). Then she remarked that she was from Texas, too--license plate--and had a son who'd just moved to Allen.

The ocean water was cold, of course. But I bet people swim in it in season.

Then we went on to the St Augustine lighthouse. And up a whole lot of stairs to the top. It was cool to the max. And again, there was nice shady parking for dogs.

 

Then back to the park where I took Molly on a long jog. Somehow, after having done this same route the day before, I missed my exit from the trail and ended up on a gravel road. I knew where I was going but couldn't figure out the best way to get there, so I ended up back out on the highway, circling the park. I don't like jogging along a highway, but it worked.

Lots of crabs at the springs...I counted fifty and I'm sure I didn't see but a fraction of them.

We saw three raccoons on the road to the primitive camping. But no bears. Oh, my.

Mammoth Sees the Manatees, Day 5

 Friday December 3 2021

Trip to Homaussa Springs. Great, but tiny wildlife park. Most of the captive animals  were rescues of some sort of other. Such as the two bobcats  (I think) that were raised as kittens by humans and illegally declawed. The pair of whooping cranes were an anomaly--the female was flightless due to a wing injury and the male had been brought there as part of an attempt to establish a flock. But he and the female bonded, and so he's stayed put every since. 

 

 

 

 

And the poor bald eagles--one had a wing that had to be amputated after an injury. It was sad to see him stuck on the ground after having seen two of his fellows soaring the day before.

They had a couple of pens of captive manatees, but the highlight of the day was the wild manatees that were nibbling at a pile of grass clippings by the gate. Big, torpid, leeches! Surrounded  by tons and tons of fish--more fish than I'd ever dreamed of seeing in a single place, and they were eating grass clippings. Yay, vegetarians!

Then we tried to see the Crystal River state park but it appeared google maps was taking us to the headquarters, not the park area with walking trails. We kept going around in circles around the building; finally, as we were leaving I saw what might have been the boardwalk area. But that's okay--it was late and we were ready to head back. Maybe a 1:45 drive is a big much for a single camping day, but now, finally, I've seen manatees!

Mammoth Goes to See the Manatee, Day 4

Thursday December 2

Pancake breakfast! Yummy even though I almost forgot the blueberries. The first three cakes had to go without their berry deliciousness.

 

After that we drove over to the springs, taking the dogs in case we found someplace for them to walk. No manatees!  Gorgeous crystal clear water so full of fishes it made my casting arm twitch. But it wasn't very deep and we didn't see any of them. We also went to the boat ramp at the primitive camping area and didn't see any there, either, although the people at the marina across the way might have been viewing them. I bet they were. They were on the shady side--we had the sun in our eyes.

No birds except a pair of Bald Eagles circling like vultures over the parking lot. Magnificent.

After that Molly and I got in a long jog. We went back to the day use area and primitive camping area, on our own legs this time, then round the campsite. it was fifty minutes by then and we were headed back to home base when I saw what appeared to be a trail off to the east of the campground. It turned out to be a "social trail"--a cut-through from the campground to Bear Scat Trail. A beautiful, wide trail through the tall trees, marked so well I could jog it. So I did. A number of places were loose sand--horrid jogging surface--and other places had exposed roots--trippers!  Molly and I soldiered on.

We went on for ten or so minutes and I couldn't tell where the trail was going (I didn't know the name at the time nor did I know that it was a loop around), so we turned back. When we got back to our starting point, we went on to see where it went. And that's when I saw this:

 

I lost all heart for going further (we'd gotten a lot more exercise than I'd planned) and we only went a little while before turning back. And that's when I met the man and woman I'd met walking around the springs the night before. It was they who confirmed the identity of the pile of bear scat (fresh, by the way), the name of the trail and the loopy nature. Maybe tomorrow or the next way we'll get a chance to take the whole thing.

Only birds were Sandhill Cranes!  Three of them croaking at each other from different locations during our morning dog walk. We saw one of them fly over before they went a out their birdly business.. I played the allaboutbirds.org website recording of their call to Ed, and he confirmed. Plus, saw them flying.

We ate dinner at this seafood restaurant on a lake nearby. Outdoors, on a porch overlooking the lake, was packed with people. But it was chilly and going to get dark soon, so we opted for indoors. Fried oysters! Superb.

Mammoth Goes to See the Manatee, Day 3

 Wednesday, December 1 2021

Falling Waters State Park to Salt Springs Recreation Area
Actual time: 5:50

Our campsite at Falling Waters:

More driving. Ed said, and I agree, that three days of driving i in a row is too much. That's a good data point for future long trip planning--this time, I just wanted to get to Florida and not waste time idling around in the places in between. So I planned a 7-hour drive, a 5-hour, and a 4-hour. But the 7-hour stretched to 8 with the traffic issues in Baton Rouge, and the 5-hour seemed just plain long. So the 4-hour, which took longer because of gas issues, turned out to be murder.

The main problem was that a quick fillup at a BP/Petro truck stop took three tries to complete. First, the car pumps didn't have diesel, but we didn't notice that until we were stopped and ready to pump. Then the first of the truck pumps was out of order and of course nobody thought to put out a flag or speed cone to warn drivers away. Then the second truck pump required him to go inside three times--to get the pump started, to get a receipt, and then to get the correct receipt when they gave him another person's.

But finally we arrived. Salt Springs Recreation Area is awfully swank. More glamping than camping. Apparently I reserved a "premium site" without realizing it, which means we have sewer hookups. And they're not just a white pipe with a cap on it--they're stainless steel basins. Yeah, two hour showers!  And although our neighbors are right alongside, it's not nearly as close as some of the RV parks we've seen. You can spit without first asking your neighbors to open an umbrella. And it's nowhere near full--I would have said half full, but three people came and went during the night so that would have put it up to five-eights.

It was getting late by the time we hooked up, and with evening descending Ed wanted to hurry up with cooking on the grill. So I fixed a quick few skewers of vegetables, got my salmon and potatoes ready, then took Molly for a walk. There were no cars at the springs and the lady at the gate had said "dogs not permitted in the springs" so I walked Molly over to the day use area.  Later I read that that rules didn't allow dogs in the day use area at all, so I won't be doing that again.

Anyway, we didn't get close enough to the springs to see any manatees. If they were even there. The gate lady said they were.  She also said there was heavy BEAR activity in the park and taht she'd been meeting one every morning and evening during her route to the entrance station. So Molly and I kept our eyes, ears and nose peeled and made a safe walk around and back to our Mammoth Home by nightfall.

Mammoth in Florida Day 2

Tuesday, November 30 2021
Denham Springs to Falling Waters State Park
Planned time: 5:04
Actual: 5:44
Stops: 15 minute gas stop; 10 minute gas stop at very crowded 76 station just off highway

Bye, bye, KOA:

 

 

 

 
On we drove to Falling Waters State Park, our first stop in Florida. 

 

 

Tunnel

 

 

The ocean, at last.  (Or the gulf, at least)

 

 

But, finally:

 

The drive seemed excessively long and painful. But the campground was pretty and more than adequate for our needs--a simple overnight stop close to the highway.

If I write a review, I will mention that the campground is VERY tight. Basically your neighbors are right up against you. And full of stupid lights--Christmas lights I can understand, despite the fact that it's not even December yet--but those stupid LED light American flags are just ignorant. They're not even pretty. I mean, if you want to fly a flag, fly one. But why go to all the trouble to string up the stupid-looking thing and junk up the night with it? America is beautiful--don't junk it up.

Molly and I walked to the day use area, where the falls are, but didn't continue on the trails to the falls. A lady with crutches was sitting there resting, and she said that the noise I could hear was the falls. So they were that close. But it was getting dark--damn, it gets dark early here! The sun set at about 4:40.

Very nice place for a one-night stop on the way to somewhere else.  Very few birds and no deer that we saw despite tons of food. Only a few squirrels.

And note to self that a 5-hour drive following up on a 7-plus hour drive is just too much driving. Tomorrow's is only 4:17, which is normal and acceptable.

 

Mammoth Goes to See the Manatees

November 29, 2021

Home to KOA Holiday Denham Springs
Planned time: 7:11
Actual time: 5:47
Stops: short pee stop at picnic area where someone had parked a Jeep in the lane of travel and we were wondering if we were going to have to push it out of the way.
Gas and dog walk stop at Love's near Alexandria 15 minutes

I'm in Louisiana, and I'm eating gumbo. It's amazing that we are here at all. We left in plenty of time (8:50) for our record-breaking 7-hour drive, and the first six hours went peacefully. Then we hit Baton Rouge traffic and a 20-minute backup on I-10 at the bridge across the Mississippi. By the time we got to the road construction after the bridge, the backup was 30 minutes and more. Never again.

The plan was to suffer the really long drive off the bat, then stop at a KOA--which we're not fond of--and have easy drives all of the rest of the trip. And three things I can say for KOA's--they are easy to get into, clean and convenient. Which was important, because the sun had set and it was starting to get dark.

The KOA had a really nice doggy play area, with an obstacle course. When we arrived there were two dogs in it, but by the time I walked Molly and Zack over, it was empty and they got the run of the place. I tried to run Molly through the jumps and tunnels, but she thought it was silly. no squirrels on the other end.

Despite Molly having taken a dump at the Love's Travel Stop, where they were out of cleanup bags and I hadn't brought any of my own from the motor home, she managed another one at the doggy play area. But they had bags, hurray! I had to pick it up by flashlight.

So we got out my frozen gumbo and made a pot of rice to accompany

it. Good eats.

Not good enough

Go Set A Watchman
by Harper Lee
read by Sissy Spacek

Golly, I am exceedingly conflicted. Parts were deep, insightful, and really really touching. And other parts were repetitive and mostly pointless. I think what the book needed was editing down to the length of a novella.

I suspect that some of the pointless parts were intended as background for stories to be fleshed out in later chapters which she never wrote. Some of the stories of her (Scout's) life were funny, or charming, but without meaning to me. Was the author trying to add depth with the long story of the falsies that Scout wore to the prom and which later ended up causing all the schoolmates to unite against the principal?  If so, it's past me.

And the repetition was murder. When Jean Louise sat through a meeting of the town citizens group with a Klan-ish kind of politician as a speaker, it would have been more than sufficient to relate four or five of his hurtful, prejudiced, and outright cruel talking points. But Ms. Lee went on for what seemed like fifty or sixty of them. I don't know how many--I quit listening and skipped to the end of his speech.

And when the young women at Jean Louise's party started in with their own versions of the small-minded, petty and evil observations about Negroes, she did the same. That chapter went on so long that I simply skipped it after the first two.

Thus the conflict. There are some really good things in this book. But it's hard to find them amidst all the chaff.