January 22 The Space Coast On Friday January 11 we are camping at Manatee Hammock Camp. For our first outing we headed to Merritt Island National Wildlife Reserve adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center. It was open even though the Canaveral National Seashore was closed due to the shutdown. We really enjoyed the 6-mile Black Point Wildlife drive where we saw many wading birds and took several short nature trails. We then went to Orlando Airport to pick up Steven who is joined us for a week.

 Early Saturday we went north to the Ponce De Leon Lighthouse and Museum. It is the tallest lighthouse in Florida and we climbed the 203 steps to the top of the 175 foot tower and had great views of the Florida coast.

The Museum included most of the original lighthouse keepers residences and outbuilding that supported the light and each had displays and exhibits about life at the lighthouse and the activities required to run the station. There was also a building that displayed the kinds of lights used for navigation and had several large Fresnel lenses.

We ate lunch at a fun place near the lighthouse that was right on the water with trees growing up through the deck and pelicans sitting on the pilings nearby.

We ate out on the deck and watched all the activity. Afterwards we walked on the Ponce Inlet Beach for a while before driving back home through Merritt Island Reserve again.

 Sunday was the warmest day we have had in a while and Steven wanted to go to a beach so we headed south to Cocoa Beach. We spent 3 hours sitting and walking on the beach while Steven spent a lot of time building a big sand castle. Unfortunately is was built at low tide …

After the beach we played 18 holes at Lighthouse Cove Miniature Golf and had ice cream cones. Either the course was very difficult or we are pretty bad because we stopped keeping score after the 8th hole but we had a fun time.

 Monday Steven and Mark went to the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum near the campground. It has an extensive collection of planes from WW1 through the Gulf war with a large section on Viet Nam warbirds. We had a personal tour by a docent that was a crew chief in the Air Force and gave a lot of personal experiences about the planes and combat areas they flew in. The tour included the restoration hanger, the actual Bell H13 whirlybird helicopter used in the MASH movie and TV. Steven’s favorite was the front portion of a B-52 that you could climb in the cockpit and see the navigator and bombardier positions.

 Even though we had hoped the government shutdown would end in time for our visit to Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday it was not to be so we could only visit the Visitors Center and the Apollo/Saturn 5 displays but not the launch pads or the huge VAB building on the bus tour.

 The Apollo exhibit has the launch control room where you experience the Saturn 5 launch as it actually happened with stations lighting up and technicians calling in.

Then we saw a simulation of the Apollo 11 landing - it starts with a lunar landscape and an audio of the landing, then a lunar module lands in front of you, after the video of Armstrong on the moon an astronaut appears on the ‘moon’ and then the top portion of the LEM takes off. The highlight of the exhibit is a Saturn 5 rocket laying down with the stages separated and a description of each.

 The shuttle exhibit has a video of a shuttle launch with lots of camera angles and the shuttle Atlantis suspended as it were in space. The other exhibits included space suits, how astronauts did activities in space, and innovations we use daily that came from the space race.

The final part of the exhibit is a Shuttle Launch Simulator where you are put into the cargo bay and you experience what it is like to ride the shuttle to orbit including the roughest part of the launch, the vibration that happens at launch, and it did feel like our cheeks were wobbling around a lot! Using the angle we were tilted at you did feel like the g-forces on you and the sort of weightless in space. All pretty cool. The final part of the exhibits are about the future commercial space activities going on at Kennedy today and planning of a Mars Mission by 2030. We spent the entire day there and felt we could have spent more time to see everything.

 On Wednesday we took an hour hike a nearby nature preserve called Enchanted Forest. It showed the different type of habitats in Florida on a very nice trail. Then we went back to the beach in Cocoa Beach but it was much colder so we took a short walk on the beach and decided to head back to camp.

 Thursday we moved to Clearwater Lake Campground, Ocala National Forest in Central Florida. It was a lovely area with lakes and lots of trails. Mark was able to sail his model sailboat and Steven and Mark used our Kayak again to paddle around the lake. There were Sand Hill Cranes and Egrets on the lake. We walked the trail around the lake several time.

 On Friday it was time for Steven to head back to Portland. We drove back to the Orlando Airport with all the toll roads and traffic and we were glad we decided to not spend more time there. It was nice to have Steven visit us and he said he had a great time in Florida and being away from work.

 On Sunday we visited Blue Spring State Park and saw many Manatees. The park said there were 74 that day and they come to the 72 degree water flowing from the spring to keep warm in the winter. Some winters there has been as many at 400+ Manatees recorded in the spring during real cold spells.

 We also took a wonderful 2-hour boat trip on the St. Johns River with some of the best birding we have seen in Florida. The captain was both knowledgable about the birds and told us about the history of the river and the Manatees.

We have now moved to Fort DeSoto Park in Tampa Bay south of St Petersburg. We will be here for 10 days before heading North and towards home. That brings up to date with us.

Southern Florida and Heading Northward

December 28 we entered the main area of Everglades National Park.

With the government shutdown it was a little bit strange because we saw 3 or 4 rangers the whole time and they were law enforcement. Luckily campgrounds, boat tours, and rentals are all run by concessionaires so we could camp and rent a canoe. We planned to stay at the Flamingo Campground (farthest south and 38 miles into the park) for for 9 days but it was very hot, muggy and mosquitoey and birding was not very good so we decided to move on after 5 nights. The big hurricanes recently has caused a lot of damage to the mangroves and palms with the storm surge bringing high water from the gulf and over the trees that are killed by being submerged in salt water so the birds are not coming here now.

We wanted to do a lot of biking, but several of the trails were totally impassable from water and mud that looked like wet concrete. On one trail Mark was wet and muddy up to his knees before we decided that we had better turn around! We took a nice boat ride into Florida Bay and another day we took a 3 hour canoe ride down a canal into a wilderness lake. Our biggest animal sightings here were crocodiles and manatees.

We then moved to Long Pine Key Campground early only 5 miles from the park entrance. One of the birds we saw in this area was the purple gallinule, a very lovely bird.

We used the campground as a base and drove down to John Pennekamp State Park in the Florida Keys one day and took a glass bottom boat tour. The boat went 45 minutes out to a coral reef with lots of beautiful fish and then the boat circled for quite awhile while everyone looked through the windows and a naturalist explained what we were seeing. It was pretty cool!

Another day we drove east to Biscayne National Park, which neither of us had been before, 95% of the park is water and it is the largest marine park in the U.S. We took a boat tour to Boca Chita Key one of the 44 islands in the park.

In the 1930’s it was bought by millionaire Mark Honeywell who bought it to have parties on. He even built a lighthouse on the island so that his friends could find their way to his parties. We went up in the lighthouse and had about an hour to explore the island. It was beautiful.

 Saturday, January 5, we left Everglades National Park and moved to Larry and Penny Thompson Memorial Park and Campground ( a Miami-Dade County Park). After 8 days in the Everglades, it was quite the ritz with full hookups, no mosquitoes, a pool and paved bicycle trails. Upon our arrival, we went to the nearby Gold Coast Railway Museum, toured many rail cars and saw many locomotives, and took a short train ride.

We also visited Zoo Miami a huge and very nice zoo with large animal habitats surrounded by moats. Our favorite was “Wings Over Asia” the largest aviary in the United States and 3rd largest in the world. It was very impressive. We were at the zoo for 5 hours and really wore our feet out!

We also enjoyed the bike trails at the campground,

the pool, and enjoyed a delicious meal at a Cuban Restaurant.

 Tuesday, we headed the trailer north to Lake Kissimmee State Park in central Florida near Lake Wales, Florida. We just picked it off the map and very lucky and surprised because it is so beautiful with giant live oaks and Spanish moss. It had several nice bike trails which we rode and it was very peaceful and beautiful.

We saw deer, an armadillo and lots of Sandhill Cranes.

We also spent half a day at Bok Tower and Gardens in nearby Lake Wales. We had been there over 20 years ago and wanted to see it again. The gardens were absolutely beautiful. I really liked the children’s garden! They never had playgrounds like that when I was a kid. The tower has a 60 piece carillon and we were lucky to enjoy two concerts.

We arrived a few hours ago at Manatee Hammock Campground near Titusville. We can see the buildings at Cape Kennedy across the river from our campground. Steven is arriving tomorrow for a weeks visit and we are looking forward to seeing him.

That about brings us up to date. Hope all is well with everyone.