On the road to Cedar Key

On THE road to Cedar Key, a neat little coastal tourist town with a couple of art coops and fairly good restaurants is this marker. It is a little known incident and I will let you Google more information.

Also, on the road, in this case Highway 19, is this neat little locomotive that hauled log cars. Unfortunately, I cannot afford one of those chain-link fence filters for my camera.

Finally, a snap of the terrain as I turn around. Adventures for the bold.

Just another day

Osprey

As I was using the binoculars to watch four bald eagles doing bald eagle stuff, Denise got this "snap" of one of three ospreys circling above us.













While watching these imposing birds we almost stepped on these little crabs that would duck in an out of their holes like something from a cartoon.

Then we went to one of our favorite "walks" and revisited a  couple of old friends.

Tricolored Heron

Great Egret

Just another day in the weeds.

RVing and Snowbird culture

Cousin Reggie*

I have tried to maintain a high intellectual level for this blog but to do so would ignore the real world. The RVing world is a diverse as any hobby/lifestyle. I have yet to see an anthropological study dealing with the RV society/culture. There are many "Twenty years on the road" sort of memoirs which serve the spectrum of self-help to humorously showing a mad mad mad world. These will provide insights and are often counterpoint to the marketing/sales hoopla from the "Industry."

There are, I think, sub-cultures. Campers head out to government parks or other Federal or State land and often live with no access to utilities. Travelers tend toward RV parks that have water, sewer, and electric hook-ups and often cable TV, and wifi. They use their towing vehicle, or if a motorized RV a towed vehicle, to see the local sights. Usually, they stay in one location for several days or even a couple of weeks. Full-timers are a variation on Travelers. They use there RV 365 days a year and may stay months in one location. Then there are mobile workers, usually construction, who are easily identified by starting their diesel pickup before dawn. Also, related and unrelated interest in specific activities such as NASCAR or historical locations are a purpose for RVing.

Then there are obscure things, traditions and such. Airstreamers (those who travel in the iconic silver bullets) have a tradition of decorating their area with Flamingos. That where cousin Reggie comes in. Our neighbors Tim and Linda once had an Airstream. From that relationship cousin Reggie appeared. He may well dwarf all other Flamingos and certainly has better taste. As you can see I have not drifted too far from the blog's high intellectual level.

*The photo of Cousin Reggie appears with the permission of Ms Linda P.F.A.N.A. (Professional Flamingo Artists of North America

Yeah, we went to see the Manatees

If you have trouble defining a "type A" person you might consider, "he/she ain't a Manatee." If you want to describe a Manatee "a really big slug" it might not be nice but about a close as you get and remain brief.

coming up for air

They do move

Mom and the kid rise together for a breath

Thanks to cool weather and a high tide we saw a large concentration of Manatee in the Three Sisters Springs in Crystal River, Florida.

Go sit under the old palm tree with anyone else but me.

Even an experienced mariner like Captain F.R. Ogg could not deal with last nights storm.

Capt. FR Ogg

It was not demon rum, this time

We have been through worse winds (30 mph gust) but not rain as it could not have rained any harder. With the Gulf of Mexico only about 10 miles away Mother Nature did not have to go far to fill the bucket she was pouring on our RV. It all proved to be an effective way to trim the palm trees.

This photo only shows a small amount of "shedding" from the palms. What to note is that the break point of the stem might create a "point" sharp enough to do damage to the human, or even inhuman body. Even without a point, two or three pounds of leaves in a bunch would be uncomfortable falling from even a modest height.

Rainbow Springs State Park "Cracker Days"

Rainbow Springs

Haven't been posting as winter hit us. We survived one night where the temperature dipped below freezing but today may hit 80. You take the bad with the good. Yesterday we went to see "Cracker Days" at Rainbow Springs State Park. Once a tourist park with zoo and amusement park rides, it is now a beautifully landscaped place around the perfectly clear water that feeds the Rainbow River.

My first fish photo

 "Cracker Days" is  heritage arts festival. The usual spinning, blacksmithing, soap making, coopering, and storytelling/lying. There was live music and while we were there was a rather good traditional banjo player. Although you must be careful in the south calling someone a "cracker," native Floridians have no problem, as it refers to the earliest settlers of the American period of history.

Cracker Camp

A Dee-lightful Day Mr. President

Teddy Roosevelt was interested in almost everything and perhaps his greatest interest was birds. Florida was of particular importance to him and the first designated bird sanctuary was due to him. Not only did he love birding but he was attempting to stop the slaughter by the plume hunters who were supplying the fashion trade.

Yesterday we thanked TR. On an island, near the mouth of the Withlacoochie River we saw a bald eagle ("dandified buzzard" Brian Keith as TR in The Wind and the Lion). Alas, he was too far away for a photo. This was also true of the pelicans, gulls, and buzzards. As we were about to leave/ an Osprey landed on a utility pole very close which startled us and we the bird. Then we walked a trail into the Withlacoochie Gulf Preserve where we took the photographs.