Manatees

I know I shouldn't be whining about the weather, all across the continent folks are dealing with weather afflictions far worse than us here in Florida. In my old stomping grounds, the mid Atlantic states are dealing with a couple feet of snow. In southwest Virginia Betty and Paul's 4wheel drive car was not able to climb the snow and ice covered driveway to their mountain home, this is the first time ever that has happened. In California houses are falling in the ocean, Alaska had an earthquake, our home in Myrtle Beach South Carolina saw temperatures below freezing. Kind of makes my complaint of overcast and rainy with highs barely in the 70's pretty trivial.

California houses falling into the ocean

The good news is we're leaving our January campsite in Titusvillle and heading to the Keys on Monday. We will be on Tavernier Key for the month of February, I'm hoping for warm sunny days.

Manattee

One of the items we had on our to-do list for January was to see Manatees in their winter refuge near here. This past Monday the weather looked OK so we drove to Blue Spring State Park in Orange City. A lot of other people had the same idea and we had to wait in line to enter the park.

Waiting in line to enter Blue Spring State Park

After about ½ hour of inching to the entrance gate we paid $6 and found a parking spot not too far from the viewing area. The water flowing from Blue Spring is 70 degrees and is sufficient to keep the creek clear all the way to the St Johns river. This makes a perfect winter home for the manatees and the park services suspends all water activity during the winter months the manatees are here. There is a board walk along the creek and about ½ dozen viewing platforms over the water for park visitors.

Several manattees

Spring that feeds the river

Larry in Blue Spring SP

Blue Spring SP

In danger of becoming extinct just 45 years ago the portly but affable creatures have made a come back and now number about 6000. It may take 45 more years before the manatee huggers, powerboaters and land developers stop arguing about the best way to save the sea cows, but that's a another story.