Florida: Nature Coast
The cypress knees provide support and oxygen for the Bald Cypress tree. Knees do not become trees.
Manatee Springs State Park, Florida
January 5, 2007
It was only about 50 miles from Homosassa Spring, where we stayed last night, to here, so we had plenty of time to spend in town (Chiefland) before occupying our site at the state park. We wanted to eat lunch, stock up with about a week's worth of fresh and refrigerated groceries, and catch up on our e-mail. With her half-birthday coming up, Sarah stocked up on chocolates to augment what she took from home. (Holiday left-overs: 75% off.) [Sarah has a thin woman trapped inside of her; Sarah keeps her sedated with chocolate.] We did it all at one location: Chinese buffet, supermarket, and a coffee shop with free wi-fi that I could access without leaving the van.
We had cable last night and learned about the problems of people snow-bound in homes on the western plains for a few days. Food was being air-lifted to them as they were starving, reports said. I don't have much sympathy for people like that. I have a supply of ready-to-eat foods at home for emergencies. I even have enough food in the van to sustain us for more than a week. MOSI in Tampa had an exhibit about disaster preparedness that we saw a few days ago.
With storms like this not uncommon on the western plains, people should be better prepared. Maybe these storms are nature's way of putting chlorine in the gene pool.
At 150 million gallons per day, Manatee Spring is the largest spring to feed the Suwannee River. Since we were last at Manatee Springs S.P., a 2001 'Spring Initiative' discovered several hundred more springs feeding into the Suwannee. The Suwannee River was made famous by song writer Stephen Foster when he changed the name of the river in his song, “The Old Folks at Home,” from Peedee River. The song is the official state song of Florida. Some of the lyrics were changed to reflect 20th century sensibilities.
In addition to having the opportunity to swim with wild manatees and alligators in the 72 degree (year-'round) water (if they happen to come into the spring while we are swimming – it's happened before), the park also has an 8.5 mile system of interconnected dirt trails. Everything is flat, so we can bike here for a while and get in shape for the more challenging trails in Alabama that we plan to visit shortly.
Our first day here was a partial washout. Just as was predicted, it began raining at 2 p.m. and got heavier as the day progressed. We biked some and looked at the spring; not much else. So much for the concept of 'Dry Season.' At least we have laid in a good stock of novels.
With concern for space, I usually don't like to have more that a dozen books with us at one time, but now I glad that we do. The last campground library was overstocked and encouraged us to take more than we had dropped off. It's good that Sarah and I have similar tastes in reading material, although a chick-book or action-adventure may creep in. The choices are limited; the luck of the barter system. There are a lot of cheesy romance novels (which we don't take), but there are often best sellers, too. Sometimes we buy.
January 8, 2007
It's raining again. It started last night and has been going on and off since. Sarah went to the rest room during a hiatus and had to out-wait a downpour before starting back to the van, but it's not far and it wasn't long. It has rained every day that we've been here, but not during most of the daylight hours most days. Yesterday was warm and sunny; we got our chance to bike the trails.
The sandy substrate that passes for soil in Florida makes parts of the trails tough going, but our nubby fat tires are serving us well. Although the network of trails is only 8.5 miles in length, one has to bike much more to cover all of them since some trails are only accessible from other trails and some trails dead-end and have to be ridden in the reverse direction to get back.
Deer visit the campground in the early mornings and evenings. Although against the rules, some of the campers feed them. The deer are members of the same species that are found in the north, but are smaller. Key deer are also members of the same species and are even smaller. People feed the squirrels, too. That makes them aggressive and they approach people demanding food.
There doesn't appear to be any opportunity to see manatee in the park this year. Usually manatee spend the winter hanging out in Manatee Spring because the 72 degree water is much warmer that the Suwannee River's 50 degrees. This year, the Suwannee is 68 degrees. With no food for the manatee in the spring, there is not enough difference in temperature to make being here worthwhile for them. Warm weather makes the alligators more active, but we haven't seen any here. That makes swimming in the spring more comfortable.
A park ranger told me that locals, including her, are not happy with the current warm temperatures. They don't heat their homes in winter; lighting and appliances provide enough heat. With present temperature levels, they are still running their air conditioners; they'll be paying more for electricity this year.
We got in several days of biking but the park started to clear weeds from the trails. They do this by dragging the teeth of a back hoe over the trails and turn them into sand; unsuitable for biking even with our 2” tires. Struggling through the sand caused me to pull a muscle, so we are moving on.
Between injuring my hip my trying to touch my toe to my nose and pulling a muscle biking in soft sand, maybe I'm pushing this old body too hard. Maybe I should be more cautious.
posted by Allen and Sarah at 12:32 PM
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