Living Our Dream

Dora Canal

Bushnell, FL

As we said in our last post, we had only short drive from the Yalaha Bakery to Mount Dora for our pontoon boat cruise of the Dora Canal. We took the same cruise two years ago with other friends, and we thought Barbara and Dick would enjoy it, too.

There are several boats that offer crises of the Dora Canal, but we went with the same one by Lake County Waterways that we took last time. We arrived in plenty of time to get a good parking spot and pay for our cruise. The photo below shows some of the other passengers waiting to board.

The Dora Canal is at the opposite end of Lake Dora from where the tour starts, so we headed out across the lake. As we left the dock, we could see Boathouse Row where there are expensive, lakeside homes built right over the water. Years ago, these homes started out as simple boathouses. The boat owners got tired of driving to the lake every Saturday and again on Sunday to go boating and fishing, so they started to take cots and coolers so they could spent the night. The boathouses soon were remodeled into more elaborate homes. Today, these homes are highly sought after and bring high prices even though the housing market is down.

We took our cruise on a Saturday, and there was a bass-fishing tournament going on so we saw a lot of bass boats as we crossed the lake.

We got to see some of the big homes along the waterfront. One such house was built by Harry Duncan in 1926. Dancer/actor Buddy Ebsen got his start giving dance lessons in an upstairs suite and dancing with female guests at Mr. Duncan's parties. Buddy Ebsen is best known for his role as Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies. The Duncan House is now a bed and breakfast.

Out on the lake, we also saw numerous birds like cormorants, gulls, an osprey and a couple of bald eagles. We couldn't get good photos of the birds when they were flying, but one of the eagles landed in a tree near its nest.

At the western end of Lake Dora we entered the Dora Canal. The canal, which was previously known as the Elfin River, connects Lake Dora and Lake Eustis. In the late 1800s, a steamboat captain hired a crew to dig out the river by hand to make it more passable. The Dora Canal is about a mile long and has been called the most beautiful mile of water in the world.

There are a number of mobile homes lining the canal on the southern end.

After a few hundred yards, there are no more homes, and you can really appreciate the natural beauty of the canal.

Since it was a Saturday, there was a lot of boat traffic on the canal, and we didn't see quite as much wildlife as we did when we cruised the canal back in 2008. Click here to read about our 2008 visit.

Even though we didn't see quite the variety of wildlife, there was still plenty to see. There were a lot of anhingas, like the female below, drying their wings along the banks...

...and in the trees.

Like cormorants, anhingas don't have oil in their feathers like ducks and geese do. The lack of oil allows the birds to dive deep underwater to hunt fish, but they must dry their wings before they can fly far afterward.

We also saw quite a few blue herrons along the canal. These large, wading birds didn't seem to be bothered by the relatively heavy boat traffic.

One area of the canal had several blue herron nests in the trees along the banks. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a good photo because of the sun overhead.

The predominant tree along the canal is the bald cypress. Although they are conifers, bald cypress trees lose their needles in winter. They lose their needles, not because of cold, but to conserve water during the winter dry season.

Bald cypress trees are long-lived. The one in the photo below has been dated to be about 2500 years old. Even though its top is missing, it is still very much alive.

The cruise goes north up the Dora Canal, turns around in Lake Eustis, then returns back down the canal and goes back across Lake Dora. It was only about 2:30 when we disembarked, so we walked a little way up into the town of Mount Dora. Mount Dora is a fairly busy tourist town with numerous inns, bed and breakfasts, shops and restaurants.

You can even take a carriage ride around town.

One building we passed had an interesting facade designed to look like a library. Perhaps it was originally a book store.

There were also other "artsy" features like the mural shown below.

It was an excellent day with good weather, good fun, good food, and good friends. We have more planned, so look for our next post.

Mixon Fruit Farms

Sarasota, FL

Margery's online research into things to see in the Sarasota area turned up Mixon Fruit Farms in nearby Bradenton. By the way, Bradenton is also the home of spring training for the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. Mixon Fruit Farms is a third-generation, family-operated citrus grove that has tours of their grove and facilities every day except Sunday. Since it was less than half an hour away from where we were staying at Sun-N-Fun Resort, we drove over to take the tour.

We got there about 10:30 AM and signed up for the 11:00 tour, then we looked around the gift shop a while. When we went outside to board the tram for the tour, we found out we were the only ones who had signed up for the morning tour, so we went out into the grove in a 6-passenger golf cart instead of the big tram.

Mixon Fruit Farms started in 1939 when Willie and Rosa Mixon bought 20 acres of land, planted some citrus trees, and opened a roadside stand. Today, the farm has grown to 350 acres; and they ship boxed fruit all over the United States and Canada.

The entrance to the grove has a huge archway covered with bougainvillea.

Once in the grove, we stopped so Cain, our tour guide, could demonstrate the picking bags and bins used by the workers. With bags slung around their necks, workers climb ladders up to 18 feet tall to reach the fruit. They pick on their way down, and by the time the reach the bottom of the ladder, the bag can weigh up to 70 or 80 pounds. The bottom of the bag opens to dump the fruit into the bins.

It was great having our own personal tour. We could stop any time we wanted and get out of the golf cart to get a close-up look.

Modern citrus groves use water misters to protect fruit and trees during occasional periods of freezing weather. The misters spray relatively warm well water on the trees. The misters also create a fog layer around the trees that helps keep cold away.

Mixon also has examples of some of the older methods of protecting the trees from cold scattered throughout the grove. In the early days, they used smudge pots that burned diesel fuel. The pots, which were placed every other tree, not only generated heat, but they also created a layer of dense black smoke that helped insulate the trees.

In the 1960s, they used large wind machines. The moving air created by the machines helped keep frost away. Each machine could protect about 10 acres.

One thing we learned on the tour was how to identify a grapefruit tree even if it doesn't have any fruit on it. The grapefruit leaf is a double leaf with a heart-shaped leaf at the base of the main leaf.

Mixon Fruit Farms donates the use of land for a wildlife rehabilitation and educational facility. The facility is run by Wildlife, Inc., whose main rescue facility is located on nearby Anna Marie Island.

Wildlife, Inc. rescues both native and non-native animals that have been injured. Native animals that are rehabilitated can be released back into the wild.

Wildlife, Inc. keeps a number of animals at Mixon Farms. The two tortoises in the next photo are not native. They are African spurred land tortoises that can grow to be up to 300 pounds and live up to 100 years. People get these tortoises as pets, then when the pets get too big, they are frequently released into the wild. Unfortunately, these burrowing tortoises displace the native gopher tortoises, which are a threatened species.

Another non-native we got to see was a green iguana named Spike who was the subject of an amusing story. A church pastor called Wildlife, Inc. to report an iguana on their property and asked if someone would come 'rescue' him. When Spike was placed in his new home at Mixon Fruit Farm, one of their part-time workers saw him and said, 'Hey, that's my pet iguana!" (They look all the same to us, but a 'parent' can identify their own.) Seems the fellow also worked maintenance at the church and had been keeping Spike there unbeknownst to the pastor! Since Spike is a non-native, the worker agreed to let him stay with Wildlife, Inc. rather that risk his escape. As a former pet, the iguana was handled a good bit, so he was content to let Paul pet him.

The little screech owl in the next photo is a native that was hit by a car and suffered a broken wing. She can't fly well, so she will remain at the rehab center. Incidentally, the tufts of feathers on top of the owl's head are not ears. The owl's ears are on the sides of its head just about even with the eyes. The exact purpose of the "ear tufts" isn't known, but some think they aid in camouflage to help the owl blend in with tree bark. Most forest owls have ear tufts while owls that live in open country do not.

After our tour of the citrus grove and the wildlife rescue area, we took a self-guided tour of the fruit-packing facility. Unfortunately, nothing was going on because it was a Saturday, but we got to see the fruit washing machine, the sizing machine and the sorting tables. Informative plaques and a video showed how everything worked. Perfect fruit goes into gift boxes, blemished and misshapen fruit are used for juice, and bad fruit is discarded. Skin and pulp from the juicing operation become animal feed at a nearby farm. The photo below shows the area where gift boxes are packed.

After seeing the packing facility, we stopped in the gift shop at the Grove-Side Cafe where we ordered a Cuban sandwich to share. We got the sandwich to go and carried it outside to the butterfly garden where they have a couple of picnic tables.

There is also a kid's maze there, as well as some plywood cutouts where we took a tourist photo.

Mixon Fruit Farms also has a pavilion where they have concerts. The pavilion, along with the gazebo beside the koi pond, can be rented for special events such as wedding receptions. The pond was quite large, and very pretty with palm trees and bougainvillea all around and an artificial waterfall in the shadows to the right. Notice the blue heron to the left of center.

The heron posed nicely among the water lilies.

There were lots of koi in the pond, and some of them were almost two feet long.

We really enjoyed our visit to Mixon Fruit Farms, especially our personal tour of the grove and the wildlife rescue area. There is a charge of $8 for the tour for adults, and we thought it was well worth it. When we finished up at Mixon it was only early afternoon, so we took the long way home along the offshore barrier islands out in the Gulf. We'll tell you about it next time.

Florida Keys Part II: Sightseeing in Key West

After touring Crane Point on Key Vaca near Marathon, FL, we got up bright and early next morning and headed south on U.S. 1 to Key West in the car. Although there is camping in and near Key West, it is very expensive and most of Key West has very narrow streets that would be difficult to negotiate with a large vehicle like an RV.

As many of our regular readers know by now, we like to take guided tours of new areas. We found two for Key West - the Conch Train (pronounced konk - an edible, marine mollusk) and the Old Town Trolley Tours of Key West. The Conch Train looked like fun, but the Old Town Trolley was the same company that did the tour we took of St. Augustine last year. We liked that tour; and besides, the trolley made more stops. We could hop off at any stop to sightsee and just get on the next trolley that went by, so we decided on the Old Town Trolley.

Another advantage to a guided tour was we could park at the visitor center for free and ride the trolley into town. Most parking in town is in pay lots or metered street parking - another good reason not to take an RV to Key West.

One of the first stops on the trolley tour was the Southernmost Point. This is the southernmost point in the Continental United States accessible to civilians. There is a concrete marker in the shape of a buoy there, and we had to stop for the obligatory southernmost photo.

In this area are the Southernmost Guest House, the Southernmost Hotel, and the Southernmost House. There is actually a house farther to the south than the Southernmost House. It was built later and is called the Southernmost Southernmost House, but it's not as picturesque as the original Southernmost House, which is shown in the photo below.

The Southernmost House is a guest house and museum. It was built in 1896 as a private residence at a cost of $250,000 (equivalent to $6 million today). It underwent a $3 million restoration in 1996.

Just to illustrate how far south Key West is, it is closer to Havana than it is to Miami. It less than 100 miles to Cuba, but it is about 130 miles to Miami "as the crow flies."

Being close to Cuba means Key West has had a lot of Cuban influence. In 1890, Key West had a population of 18,000, half of which were said to be of Cuban origin. The battleship USS Maine sailed from Key West on its way to Havana where it blew up sparking the Spanish-American War. There was a huge influx of Cuban refugees during the Mariel Boatlift when Castro allowed people to leave Cuba for a short time back in the 1980s.

Back during the Mariel Boatlift, there were so many refugees that the Border Patrol set up checkpoints along US Highway 1. These checkpoints inconvenienced the locals and deterred tourism. As a tongue-in-cheek protest, the city of Key West seceded from the Union and declared itself a micro-nation called the Conch Republic. Although not a serious secession, the protest did help tourism (and T-shirt sales) when the roadblocks were finally discontinued.

Another sign of Cuban influence are all the chickens roaming the streets. Back in the early days, the Cubans liked to watch and bet on cock fights, and they brought their chickens with them to Key West. When cock fighting was outlawed by the United States, the Cubans simply turned their chickens loose. Although there have been thoughts of rounding them up, it was decided to let the chickens continue to roam free. Since they roam free and must fend for themselves, they eat a lot of bugs.

 

The next trolley stop where we got off was the main stop down by Mallory Square at the western end of the island. We walked around the square and the docks. There was a yacht tied up that was as large as some we saw at the marina near Palm Beach.

We could also see a large cruise ship that was in port.

We strolled around some of the shops that were in the area of Mallory Square. Then we walked up Whitehead Street to Harry Truman's Little White House.

Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, during his fourth term (this was before term limits). Truman, who had been vice president for only 83 days, became president. After overseeing the end of WWII, Truman was exhausted, and his doctors wanted him to rest. Someone suggested the use of the base commandant's residence at the Key West Naval Station since the house was vacant at the time. There was no long-distance telephone service in the Keys, so Truman would not be interrupted unnecessarily. In fact, telephone lines were run from the house to a Navy ship docked nearby so they could communicate with Washington when they needed to by means of the ship's radio.

The house was originally built in 1890 as a two-family duplex for the base commandant and the paymaster. In 1911, the house was converted to a single-family dwelling because the new commandant had a very large family and needed more space. During Truman's term in office, which ran from 1945 to 1952, he liked it so much that he spent a total of 175 days in the Little White House in Key West.

Although the Little White House is no longer owned by the U.S. Government (it is owned by the Little White House Foundation), it is sometimes still used by former presidents. In fact, President Carter visited in June of this year. Therefore, photography of the inside is not permitted for security reasons. The house looks the same way it did when Truman stayed there. Approximately 90% of the original furnishings (down to the stapler on Truman's desk) are still there. We were surprised, although we shouldn't have been, to find the furniture looked just like Margery's parents' furniture down to the breakfront. The photo below shows the outside of the house.

 

The ocean used to come up almost to where the palm trees are in front of the house. In 1909, the harbor was dredged to accommodate larger ships and the material from the dredging was used to fill in the area in front of the house so it is now at least 500 feet from the water. Barracks (now condominiums) were built between the house and the ocean. The Navy has done a lot of dredging around Key West over the years. As much as 30% of the existing land area of Key West is fill from dredging.

Although we didn't get off the trolley, the tour also goes past the house where writer Earnest Hemmingway lived from 1931 to 1939.

Hemmingway spent a lot of time at Sloppy Joe's Bar, which is still in business. It used to have a different name, and it used to be a few doors down the street; but in 1937, the landlord raised the rent from $3 a week to $4. Joe Russell, the owner of the bar, refused to pay the increase and rented a place a few doors away on the corner of Greene and Duval Streets. The old bar never officially closed for the move. The customers just picked up their drinks and bar stools and carried them up the street to the new location. The photo below shows Sloppy Joe's Bar.

Right across from the Hemmingway House is the Key West Lighthouse. Hemmingway said it was a good thing it was so close to his house because it often helped him find his way home from Sloppy Joe's at night. The photo below shows Key West Light.

 

The first lighthouse, which was 65 feet tall, was completed in 1825. It was close to the beach and was destroyed by a hurricane in 1846. A new, 66-foot lighthouse was built on higher ground and was completed in1849. After surrounding trees began to obscure the light, the height of the tower was increased by 20 feet in 1894.

We learned about Truman and Hemmingway, and found out Key West has long been a magnet for celebrities. Other famous residents of Key West include Jimmy Buffet (singer), Mel Fisher (treasure hunter), Calvin Klein (fashion designer), Boog Powell (baseball player), Tennessee Williams (playwright), John James Audobon (naturalist), and Kelly McGillis (actress - Top Gun and Witness).

There was too much to see and do in Key West for a one-day visit. After taking the trolley tour and doing some sightseeing, we called it a day and headed back to the motor home. We would return the next day to see the sunset. We will tell you about our second day in Key West in our next post.

South Florida's Gold Coast Part IV: Miami Beach

After Thanksgiving, we took a drive north to Miami Beach. We were planning to visit Vizcaya, which is an estate built along Biscayne Bay in the early 1900s by industrialist James Deering. We decided to follow a campground office hand-out that took us by way of the scenic route. It took us past some of the beautiful, old homes closer to the coast rather than via the Florida Turnpike.

The scenic route also took us through Coconut Grove. It was once a tropical village of Bahamian seamen; but today it is a "hip" Miami neighborhood with boutiques, seasonal festivals, fine dining, and abundant night life. The photo below shows sidewalk cafes and a number of boutiques with brightly-colored awnings.

 

The next photo shows Coco Walk, which is an open-air mall in with dining, entertainment, art galleries, and specialty shops. There's even a big, pink flamingo out front.

Coconut Grove also has a number of buildings with unique architecture. The photo below shows a store with an intricate, copper sculpture over the entrance. It's difficult to see in the photo, but there are shapes that look like butterfly wings surrounded by a background of small flowers and leaves.

Shortly after driving through Coconut Grove, we arrived at Vizcaya. Vizcaya was built as a winter home by James Deering, who was vice president of International Harvester. Construction was started in 1914 and completed in 1916. Vizcaya is an Italian Renaissance-style estate that used to consist of 180 acres (only 10 acres remain today) and included the main house, extensive gardens, and a village of support buildings that serviced the estate.

Vizcaya was such an elaborate undertaking that more than 1,000 workers were employed during its construction. That was 10% of the male population of the city of Miami at the time.

James Deering died in 1925. In 1926, a hurricane severely damaged the house and gardens. Dade County purchased the house in 1952, opened it as a museum, and began an ongoing program of restoration. The house and many of the formal gardens have been restored; and there are plans to restore more of the gardens, the support buildings in the village, and a few of the rooms in the main house that are now being used as offices.

The photo below shows Margery beside the fountains at the entrance driveway.

The front of the house, which faces Biscayne Bay, is shown in the next photo.

 

There is a boat dock in front of the house on the bay. A little way out in the water is an intricately-carved stone breakwater that is shaped like a Venetian barge.

 

There is also a tea house along the bay that has views of the stone barge, the house, and out into the bay. The photo below shows Margery and Paul in the tea house.

 

Inside, the house is quite elaborate and ornate. Unfortunately, photography is not permitted inside the house, so we'll just give a brief description. The house is built around a large, central courtyard. This courtyard was originally open, and there were several large doorways (without doors) in the exterior walls to allow the ocean breezes to circulate freely. A glass roof and glass doors were added in 1985 to protect the interior from the weather. The roof and doors also allowed the addition of air conditioning which was beneficial in protecting furniture and artwork from humidity.

The first floor has a reception hall, library, music room, living room, and dining room. The bedrooms were on the second floor.

The house contains fine antiques, furniture, sculpture, and artwork collected from all over the world. Vizcaya has 22 sets of china so guests would never get bored by having to eat from the same china pattern twice. One set of china is not the original set that James Deering ordered from England, but is a replacement set. The original set was being shipped from England aboard the RMS Titanic and now rests on the bottom of the Atlantic. White Star Lines, owner of the Titanic, provided the replacement set of china.

Even though the formal gardens at Vizcaya have been reduced in size from what they originally were, they are still quite extensive. The photo below shows just a portion of the gardens.

 

Throughout the gardens, there are smaller areas that are designed to be a little more intimate. The photo below shows one of these areas.

 

One entrance to the garden area in the photo above was through an arched, coral-lined grotto.

The hibiscus in the photo below is an example of the tropical plants in the gardens at Vizcaya.

The gardens have numerous fountains and water features like the one shown below.

 

In the next photo, Paul is standing by another water feature called the Water Stairway.

 

From Vizcaya, it is only about a 15 minute drive to Miami Beach, so we decided to continue our drive to see the historic, Art Deco hotels in South Beach.

South Beach is the southernmost part of Miami Beach and is the first part of Miami Beach to be developed. Development of the land that was previously a coconut plantation began in the 1910s. In 1920, a land boom began in Miami Beach and development increased. Much of area was destroyed by a hurricane in 1926 (the same hurricane that damaged nearby Vizcaya). Then in the 1930s, an architectural revolution hit South Beach with the introduction of Art Deco and Streamline Moderne architecture.

In the '70s and early '80s, the area fell into decline, and South Beach became a run-down, high-crime area. Then in the late '80s, a renaissance began when there was an influx of fashion professionals into the area. Even though some of the old Art Deco buildings had already been lost, many have now been restored to their former glory. Sidewalk cafes line one side of Ocean Drive, and the ocean is right over the dunes on the opposite side of the street.

 

A few of the hotels have antique cars parked out front to add to the ambiance.

 

The old Buick in the next photo coordinates with the colors of the hotel.

 

We enjoyed seeing the vitality that exists in South Beach, but the quiet of our motor home was a welcomed respite. We are almost at the end of our stay in South Miami, but there was one more thing we wanted to see while we were here before we headed to the Keys. Check back in a few days to find out about our visit to the Everglades.

South Florida's Gold Coast Part I: Palm Beach

We visited Florida's Space Coast, which is the area around Kennedy Space Center. Now it was time to check out the Gold Coast of Florida, which is the area of the Atlantic coast farther south that runs from Palm Beach down to Miami. The Gold Coast includes other cities like West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Pompano Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Hollywood. We usually avoid heavily-populated, urban areas such as this, but we were curious about the area and its glamor. We also needed somewhere to stop on our way to the Keys and this was a convenient distance from New Smyrna Beach.

We drove a little less than four hours south of New Smyrna Beach and pulled into John Prince Park Campground where we had reserved a site. We don't like to make reservations if we don't have to; but the Snowbirds are starting to arrive in Florida, and from what we could find out, John Prince is quite popular so we didn't want to take any chances. It turned out they weren't anywhere near filled yet, but we figure it's better to be safe than sorry.

John Prince Park Campground is beautifully landscaped. The photo below shows our pull-through site in the full-hookup section.

It has tent sites with no hookups, tent and RV sites with water and electric, and RV sites with full hookups and 50 amp electric. Long-term camping is permitted in most of the sites (lakefront sites have a 14-day limit), so they do get their share of Snowbirds. Honey wagon service is available for those in sites without sewer. Roads are paved, but they are a little tight in several spots. The pads are paved in the full hookup and 14-day sections and are crushed shell in the other areas. The size of most of the sites is quite generous; however, a few sites on the inside of bends of some of the roads are close to the site behind.

John Prince Park is located a little to the south and a little inland of Palm Beach, FL, in Lake Worth. Palm Beach County operates the park and campground. The park is located on the northern part of Lake Osbourne which is a 338-acre lake popular for freshwater fishing and boating.

One thing we didn't know about John Prince Park is that it is right next to Palm Beach County Airpark. The airpark is primarily for private planes (propeller-driven only, no jets), but we also saw (and heard) helicopters taking off and landing. Our campsite was located right next to a runway, and the planes were pretty noisy when they hit full throttle to take off. Fortunately, there weren't that many takeoffs, although Sunday seemed to be a pretty popular time for flights, as did the evening before we left (which was two days before Thanksgiving).

Speaking of noise, there are quite a few distant trains. The reason there are so many trains is the tracks are part of the South Florida Tri-Rail transit system that runs commuter trains from from Miami to Palm Beach. The tracks run parallel to I-95 on the far side of Lake Osbourne. Usually, we could barely hear the trains; but if the wind was right, they would sometimes sound quite close. Although it wasn't that bothersome, we could also hear traffic on I-95, especially when everything else quieted down at night. I-95 is 10 lanes wide in this area, and it carries a lot of traffic.

While staying in Lake Worth, we took a ride around the area. We parked and walked down to the beach, and we were struck by how much bluer the water is than farther north in Myrtle Beach or even in New Smyrna Beach. In spite of the cool breeze that day, there were a few people on the beach including one or two swimmers, a few surfers with boogie boards (also called a body board - a small, light-weight surfboard used to support the upper part of your body while body surfing), and a kite surfer. The kite is the little crescent at the left of the photo below.

 

We parked near a pier with the intention of walking at least part way out to get a good view of the beach. Unfortunately, except for a restaurant that was open at the beach-end of the pier, the rest of the pier was closed. It looked like they were doing some renovation on some of the concrete pillars for the railings.

Our research of things to do in the area turned up a DivaDuck Amphibious Tour of West Palm Beach. We always enjoy trolley and mini-bus tours of a place we have never been before. Two years ago, we took a Duck tour of Branson, MO, that we also enjoyed. We thought the DivaDuck might be a good combination land and water tour. The water part of the tour travels along Lake Worth Lagoon (also part of the Intracoastal Waterway), which would be a good way to see come of the expensive, water-front properties.

The Duck tours of Branson used renovated WWII amphibious vehicles. The name "Duck" comes from DUKW, which is a letter code used by GM, the designer of the original vehicles. Unlike the WWII Ducks, the DivaDuck is a newly-built, state-of-the-art amphibious vehicle called the Hydra-Terra built by C.A.M.I., LLC in New York. The vehicle is 39 feet long and 8 feet wide - just a little longer than our motor home. It can seat 46 passengers and 2 crew members and has a 300 hp Caterpillar diesel engine. The captain has a Class C (commercial) driver's license to operate the vehicle on land and is licensed by the Coast Guard as a Master Captain to operate the vehicle in the water.

 

We arrived early and had about half an hour to hang around the plaza in downtown West Palm Beach where the tour starts. The plaza is called City Place. City Place is a mall-like area with expensive shops, boutiques, and quite a few restaurants. In the photo below, Margery is heading into the plaza.

 

At the other end of the plaza, Margery is sitting by the fountain in front of the Harriet Himmel Theater for Cultural & Performing Arts. As you can see from the poinsettias in the first photo and the Christmas tree in the second, City Place was all decked out for the holidays.

After enjoying the plaza at City Place for a while, it was finally time to board the DivaDuck. While the tour spends most of the time in the water, the DivaDuck travels on land for several blocks to the boat ramp at Curry Park where it drives into the water of Lake Worth Lagoon. The photo below shows us heading down the ramp. Notice the label on the paddle hanging over the cab where the captain is sitting.

 

Henry Flagler, the oil/railroad/hotel magnate, was responsible for much of the development along the east coast of Florida. Last year when we visited St. Augustine, we learned how he honeymooned there with his second wife, and then built the Ponce de Leon Hotel a few years later. Flagler also bought up a number of short line railroads and formed the Florida East Coast Railway to carry guests to his hotels. West Palm Beach was originally intended to be the terminus of the railroad, but a freeze prompted Flagler to extend the railroad to Miami. The railroad eventually ran all the way to Key West.

Palm Beach was established as a resort by Henry Flagler. In the late 1800s, Flagler began buying up land on the barrier island of Palm Beach and built the Royal Poinciana Hotel followed by the Palm Beach Inn as winter retreats for wealthy northerners. Flagler founded West Palm Beach on the mainland side of Lake Worth (the lake lies between the barrier island and the mainland) as a community for those who worked on the island. Today, Palm Beach remains a place for expensive hotels, fine restaurants, high-end shops, and homes for the affluent. Although West Palm Beach has its share of fine homes and high-end shops, it is more of a bustling, working city.

Lake Worth was once a fresh-water lake. There were no rivers or streams flowing into the lake - it was fed only by ground seepage from the Everglades to the west. Today, the lake is a salt-water lagoon and is permanently connected to the Atlantic by an inlet. When the inlet was created in 1918, the dredging created Peanut Island at the mouth of the inlet. Although the island was originally named Inlet Island, it was renamed Peanut Island for a planned peanut oil operation which failed in 1946.

Today, Peanut Island has a park with campsites, a reef, a pier, and the Palm Beach Maritime Museum. There are no bridges to the island. The campsites are accessed by boat or water taxi. The museum is accessed by a ferry from the museum preview building located in Curry Park on the mainland. There is also a bomb shelter on the island built in secret for President John F. Kennedy, who occasionally spent time during the winter in Palm Beach.

The tour progressed north on the Lake Worth Lagoon past numerous luxury homes. The house in the photo below was owned by Celine Dion, but she gave her mother this house as a Mother's Day gift. Celine is building another one a little farther to the north.

 

The photo below shows a house that now belongs to an attorney but used to belong to the well-known pianist, Liberace. He had a pool in the shape of a grand piano.

 

Other famous past or present residents of Palm Beach include Ann Coulter (conservative columnist), Donald Trump (business magnate), Ivana Trump (Donald's ex-wife), Madeleine Astor (Titanic survivor and wife of John Jacob Astor), the Kennedy Family, E. F. Hutton (Wall Street broker), Rush Limbaugh (conservative talk-show host), Rod Stewart (singer), Vera Wang (designer), Henry Paulson (U.S. Treasury Secretary), Jimmy Buffet (singer) - just to name a few of the names we recognized.

On the tour, we also learned Palm Beach was named for the coconut palms found growing there. Coconut palms are not native to Florida. In 1878, a Spanish ship carrying coconuts from Havana to Barcelona wrecked and dumped its cargo. The coconuts washed ashore and sprouted on the barrier island now known as Palm Beach.

Another interesting fact we dug up was that, although they may survive for a while, it is likely that coconut palms will eventually be killed by cold weather if planted very much farther north of Palm Beach.

On the way back to the boat ramp, we passed a number of houses on the mainland side of the lagoon. These are still quite impressive and expensive, but not quite as luxurious as the ones on the other side of the lagoon on Palm Island. We also passed a large marina. Some of these boats are HUGE and there were LOTS of them! The photo below shows just a few.

 

Some of the celebrities who currently or used to dock their yachts at the marina include Jimmy Buffet, Magic Johnson, and Tiger Woods.

When we returned to the boat ramp, the captain just drove right up onto the land, and we continued on down the road back to where we started at City Place.

Another interesting attraction that turned up in our research of things to do was the Loggerhead Marinelife Center. The Loggerhead Marinelife Center is an ocean conservation organization and a sea turtle hospital and is located north of Palm Beach in Juno Beach. They are adjacent to one of the most heavily nested beaches in the world. Admission is free, but there is a suggested donation of $5 per adult. The photo below shows the entrance to the center.

 

Sea turtles are generally found in temperate and tropical waters. They are highly migratory, but the females return to the beach where they were born to lay eggs. The loggerhead turtle, along with the green, leatherback, hawksbill, and the Kemp's ridley, commonly nest in the U.S. The loggerhead is most common, but all the above species are either threatened or endangered. The leatherback is the largest at about 6 feet long weighing from 500 to 1500 pounds. The Kemp's ridley is the smallest with a shell length of 2 feet or a little more and a weight of 85 to 100 pounds. The Kemp's ridley is also the rarest and most endangered.

Inside the center, there is an exhibit room with facts about sea turtles (especially loggerheads) and beach ecology. There also is interesting information about shellfish, sand, and coral. There is a display of a cross-section of a simulated loggerhead turtle nest. The turtles mate during migration. The female finds her way back to the beach where she was hatched, climbs out of the water, and digs an egg chamber to deposit her eggs. She then covers the eggs with sand and returns to the water. The female loggerhead will repeat the nesting process up to 9 times in a nesting season. The photo below shows the simulated nest with the hatchlings climbing out.

 

As soon as the hatchlings crawl out of the sand, they head straight for the water. They will spend the first several years of their lives hiding within floating plants, such as Sargassum (which is a brown, free-floating seaweed sometimes also called Sargasso seaweed). The young turtles will eventually leave the protection of the seaweed and head for near-shore habitats such as lagoons and estuaries.

The exhibit also includes a replica of the fossilized skeleton of an extinct sea turtle that was found in our "home" state of South Dakota. At a length of over 13 feet, the Archelon is the largest species of sea turtle that has ever been documented. The photo below shows the Archelon replica.

 

Out back of the exhibit building is the turtle hospital. There are exam and operating rooms where visitors can watch through observation windows if there are turtles being treated. There are also tanks where visitors can view recovering turtles. The photo below shows a turtle named Boo.

Boo was brought to the turtle hospital by fishermen who found him offshore and realized Boo had fish hooks in his mouth. Now that the hooks have been removed, Boo is still slightly underweight and anemic. The web site for the Loggerhead Marinelife Center has a listing of all the current hospital residents and what their ailments are. About 70% of their patients recover and are returned to the ocean.

We are enjoying our time on Florida's Gold Coast. We particularly like the lush, tropical landscaping that comes with being farther south in Florida. There is an even greater variety of palm trees and other tropical plants than there is in parts of Florida to the north. The photo below shows bougainvillea. Although light frost will not kill the plant, it will cause all the leaves to fall off. The leaves will eventually regrow, but here in South Florida, there is little danger of frost.

There is more sightseeing to come along the Gold Coast before we move on to the Keys. Stop back soon to check out our next post.

Florida's Space Coast Part III: The Coast

In addition to witnessing the launch of the Shuttle Endeavour and visiting the Kennedy Space Center, we also explored some of the other things to do in the vicinity of the Space Coast.

On the barrier island south of New Smyrna Beach and to the north of Kennedy Space center is Canaveral National Seashore. The seashore is an undeveloped area that is a sanctuary for plant, animal, and marine life.

A short distance inside the northern entrance to Canaveral National Seashore is Turtle Mound. Turtle Mound is a 50 foot high hillock of mostly oyster shells and is a refuse mound left by the Timucuan Indians from about 800 to 1400 AD. During the time the Indians lived here, the mound was as much as 75 feet high. Turtle Mound contains over 30,000 cubic feet of refuse and extends approximately 600 feet along the shore of the Indian River, which is the river that runs between the barrier island and the mainland. The mound is easily visible from the sea and has been used as a landmark by mariners since the time of the Spanish explorers. The turtle-like shape of the mound gives it its name.

There is a boardwalk that carries visitors to the top of the mound.

The photo below shows Margery and Paul on the boardwalk with the Indian River in the background.

 

Much of the larger plant growth has been removed from the top of the mound. You can see exposed oyster shells in a number of areas. But more importantly, with the vegetation removed, there is a clear view of the surrounding area. The photo below is looking north along the Indian River. The beach houses in the distance to the right are outside the national seashore.

 

Along the boardwalk, we saw several of these zebra longwing butterflies sipping nectar from the flowers.

 

A little farther down the road into the national seashore, we stopped at a parking area along the ocean side of the island where we could walk out to the beach.

 

After visiting Canaveral National Seashore, we also stopped to the north in New Smyrna Beach near where we were staying. Unlike the beach at Canaveral National Seashore, New Smyrna Beach is more like Daytona Beach a few miles farther to the north with a wide beach with little slope. The sand is very fine and so tightly packed you can easily drive your car on the beach like you can at Daytona. There is little danger of getting stuck unless you disobey the signs and try to drive on the sand at the very back of the beach where the tide seldom reaches. The photo below is one of the many auto entrances to the beach at New Smyrna.

The panoramic view of New Smyrna Beach below shows how totally different it is from the beach at Canaveral, which is only 8 or 10 miles to the south.

Just across the inlet to the north of New Smyrna Beach is Ponce de Leon Inlet Light Station. But you can't get there from here because there is no bridge across the inlet. You have to go back across to the mainland, drive about 10 miles north almost to Daytona Beach, cross the bridge there out to the barrier island, then drive almost 6 miles back to the south to get to the light station.

At 176 feet high, Ponce de Leon Inlet Light Station is the tallest lighthouse in Florida and the second tallest in the country. The lighthouse used to be called the Mosquito Inlet lighthouse until the inlet was renamed in honor of the Spanish explorer in 1927, which is a good thing because we tend to avoid any places that have "mosquito" in its name. :)  Work on the lighthouse was begun in 1883 and completed in 1886. The lighthouse is constructed entirely of brick and contains approximately 1.25 million of them. The foundation is 12 feet deep and is 38 feet across at ground level. At the base of the tower, which is 32 feet in diameter, the walls are 8 feet thick. The tower tapers to 12 feet in diameter at the top where the walls are only two feet thick. The photo below shows the Ponce de Leon Inlet lighthouse.

This area of the coast was long recognized as being very dangerous. Bonfires were lit on the shore to aid mariners. The first lighthouse built on the south shore of the inlet in 1835 was damaged by a hurricane, attacked by Seminole Indians and eventually fell into the sea without its lamps ever having been lit.

Last year when we visited the light station in St. Augustine, FL, we learned that, although the terms lighthouse and light station are frequently used interchangeably, lighthouse refers to the tall structure with the light on top while light station refers to a lighthouse that has a complex of support buildings. The support buildings at Ponce Inlet include the principal keeper' s house, two assistant keepers' houses, a woodshed, a pump house, a generator building (added in 1940), and an oil storage building.

Paul climbed the 203 steps to the top of the lighthouse. The photo below shows one of the assistant keeper's houses from the top of the tower. Margery, who decided not to stress her knees by climbing the tower, is sitting on the bench in front of the house to the right of the steps.

 

From the top of the lighthouse, you can see Daytona Beach in the far distance to the north...

 

...and to the south you can see the marina at the mouth of the inlet, New Smyrna Beach in the middle distance, and Canaveral National Seashore beyond that.

An entrance building/gift shop was added to the complex in 1992. It was built according to 1883 plans for a proposed, multi-family keeper's dwelling. In 1995, a building to exhibit the Preservation Association's collection of Fresnel (pronounced Fre-NEL) lenses was also added.

Fresnel lenses are actually a combination of lenses and prisms. The use of prisms allows a reduction of the overall thickness of the lens.

Order numbers are used to classify Fresnel lighthouse lenses with a first order lens being the largest and a sixth order the smallest. The first lens used at the Ponce de Leon Inlet lighthouse was a non-rotating, first order lens illuminated by a five-wick kerosene lantern whose light could be seen 20 miles out to sea.

In 1933, the lighthouse was electrified and the fixed lens was replaced by a rotating, third order lens. The rotation of the lens allows a unique pattern of flashes which is used by mariners to identify the lighthouse so they would know their exact location. The third order lens continues in operation today as a privately-operated aid to navigation.

There are a number of lenses and lamps on display in the lens exhibit building, but the star of the show is the restored, first order lens that was originally located in the Canaveral Lighthouse to the south. The Canaveral Lighthouse is located near the Kennedy Space Center. When it was discovered vibrations from all the rocket launches were damaging the lens of the Canaveral Lighthouse, the lens was removed in 1993 and placed on display at the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse. The lens is over 16 feet high and weighs 12,800 pounds.

 

As you can see, the lens is illuminated, although with a lower wattage lamp than would be present in actual use. The lens also rotates, and we were fascinated by the light patterns as they traveled around the walls.

 

Many of the other buildings on the grounds have displays of artifacts and photos that depict the life of the keepers and their families. The First Assistant Keeper's house is furnished the way it would have been at the turn of the 19th century. The photo below shows the bedroom.

 

Also on the grounds is one of the first charter fishing boats in Ponce Inlet, the Gay Wind. The boat was built in 1939 in St. Augustine and was in service until 1999.

 

Next to the Gay Wind were two rafts used by Cuban refugees trying to escape to America. The one on the left is made from canvas and styrofoam and washed ashore in 1989. A life vest was left in the raft by the Coast Guard indicating those on board had been rescued. The raft on the right was made from a truck inner tube, some wood, and a few pieces of styrofoam. The fate of those on the second raft is unknown. The fragility of these rafts that were used to traverse 90 miles of open ocean between Cuba and Florida indicates how desperate some are for freedom...something we take for granted.

 

While walking the grounds of the lighthouse, we stopped to admire these tropical-looking plants with bright orange flowers. We don't know what they are, but it was a good reason for a photo.

We spent a week on Florida's Space Coast and we found plenty to do, but there was one more thing we wanted to check out before we left. Right up the road from the campground was a sign for the ruins of a sugar mill. Every time we drove by, we were curious as to what it was. Finally, on our last day in New Smyrna Beach, we drove into the narrow road to find out. Just a few yards off the main road was a nice little county park.

In 1830, Henry Cruger and William DePeyster acquired 600 acres of land, bought machinery, and established a sugar plantation and mill on the site. Unfortunately, in December, 1835, Seminole Indians attacked the mill, set fire to it, and destroyed other plantations in the area.

The sugar house where the sugar cane was processed is pretty much all that remains of the mill. The locals carried off some of the stone blocks to use for other buildings after the destruction of the mill. The building was made from coquina, which is a type of limestone found along Florida's Atlantic coast. Coquina is composed of compressed bits of shell and is quite durable. In our travels last year, we found the Castillo de San Marcos (the large Spanish fort) in St. Augustine, FL, was constructed from coquina. The photo below shows the sugar house.

The mill had a steam-powered cane crusher to extract the juice, which was then heated in large kettles. Some of the kettles are still there. With Margery and Molly standing beside them, you can see how big they are.

 

When enough water had been boiled off, the thickened juice was ladled into wooden cooling troughs. After the sugar had cooled and crystallized, it was packed in barrels. Before shipping, the barrels were stored for a time to allow the molasses to run out.

Behind the ruins of the sugar mill is a short nature trail that runs through the palmettos. Molly enjoyed the opportunity for a little walk.

As we said, there is a lot to do in this area, but it was time to be moving on. We will have to add another location to our list of places we want to return to someday. From here, we will be heading farther south.

Florida's Space Coast Part II: More Kennedy Space Center

After the bus tour at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), we returned to the visitor center and went the the IMAX Theater where they have two screens showing two different movies. We missed the start of the movie Magnificent Desolation - Walking on the Moon so we saw Space Station 3D. Margery makes quite a fashion statement with her 3D glasses.

The movie depicts life aboard the International Space Station and shows how the astronauts go about their daily tasks. The 3D effect with the huge, wrap-around screen and surround-sound makes for a really great experience. The movie was shot from the astronaut's perspective enabling you to feel like you were actually on board.

After the movie, we walked over to an area that featured a space shuttle replica.

We were able to climb aboard to view the cockpit and the cargo bay, which has a simulated payload.

Next to the replica of the shuttle are shuttle booster rockets and an external fuel tank.

For the launch, the shuttle rides piggy-back on this rocket/fuel tank assembly. We learned the booster rockets, which are the smaller, white cylinders on the sides, contain solid fuel and burn for two minutes. They are then separated and fall into the ocean. Parachutes allow the booster rockets to splash down undamaged, after which they are recovered and reused up to twenty times.

The large, orange fuel tank in the center holds liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for the main engines on the shuttle itself. The fuel in this external tank lasts about eight minutes; and when the fuel is exhausted, the tank is separated from the shuttle. By this time, the shuttle is traveling about 15,000 miles per hour or approximately 20 times the speed of sound. The tank is the only major component that is not reused. It burns up on re-entry.

Adjacent to the shuttle replica and rocket/fuel tank assembly is the Shuttle Launch Simulation Facility which is shown in the photo below behind the trainer jet. This new attraction is a Disney-like ride that simulates a space shuttle launch.

 

Paul couldn't resist trying the ride, but Margery went to the observation room where she could watch the ride on monitors without experiencing all the shaking and tilting of the ride. It wasn't really all that bad - mostly shaking to simulate the vibration of the rocket engines and tilting backward and forward to simulate the g-force of the launch. There were no sideways movement, spinning, or turning upside down.

After the ride we walked over to the Rocket Garden that consists of various rockets used throughout the history of the U.S. space program. Each one has a plaque describing the history and specifications.

The photo below shows an F-1 rocket engine that was on display in the Rocket Garden.

A cluster of five F-1 engines that produced a total 7.5 million pounds of thrust were used on the Saturn V rocket. Just one F-1 engine, which was powered by liquid oxygen and kerosene, produced as much thrust as all three of the main engines on the shuttle combined.

The Saturn V rockets that were used in the Apollo Program are the largest operational launch vehicles ever built. It was said at the time that outside of a nuclear explosion, the sound from the lift off of the Saturn V was the loudest man-made sound ever produced. Our previous post showed a photo of a Saturn V rocket that was on display at the Apollo/Saturn V Center on the bus tour. There was also a Saturn V in the Rocket Garden that allowed us to get a photo of the other end where the space capsule is located.

They also had a mock-up of an Apollo space capsule on display to illustrate how cramped it was. The photo below shows Paul clowning around adjusting the controls of the mock-up trying to get it to blast off. You sit in the capsule just the way it is shown in the photo - lying on your back. Getting in wasn't too hard, but getting out was less than graceful. Paul was glad Margery had already turned the camera off.

 

Adjacent to the Rocket Garden, there is a building with artifacts, scale models of rockets, and photos depicting the early days of space exploration from Sputnik to Project Mercury, which was the first manned, human space flight program of the U.S. Paul took advantage of a photo-op with a life-size composite photo of early astronauts.

It was getting late in the day and we had seen pretty much everything we wanted to see, so we left KSC and headed back to the motor home. There are lots of other things to see and do around Florida's Space Coast. Stay tuned to see what else we found.

Florida's Space Coast Part I: Kennedy Space Center

As we headed south from Myrtle Beach toward Florida, we made a one-night stop at McIntosh Lake Campground and RV Park in Townsend, GA. Lake McIntosh Campground has fairly widely-spaced sites, full hookups, and cable. Roads are gravel and sand and the sites are grass and sand. The campground is fairly quiet - they are less than a mile from I-95, and, although you can hear the traffic on the interstate in the distance, the noise isn't objectionable. We got a pull-through so we wouldn't have to unhook our toad. Lake McIntosh Campground is a good place for either an overnight stop or a longer stay. They also have an on-site restaurant, The Lakeside, which is nice after a long day of driving. However, we ate in during out stop. The photo below shows our site at Lake McIntosh.

 

Right across from our site was the lake.

 

From Lake McIntosh, we headed down I-95 the next morning to New Smyrna Beach, FL, where we stayed at New Smyrna Beach RV Park and Campground. New Smyrna Beach RV Park has roads that are sand and crushed shells. The sites are mostly grass. There is a good bit of shade from live oaks in the front section, but the back section has mostly palms, which are less dense. They were very accommodating and gave us a site in the back where we could get good reception with our satellite dish.

Site spacing is fairly generous. The campground has full hookups (including cable) in the RV sites, but there are also tent sites without hookups as well as nine cabins. Wi-Fi is also available. The photo below shows our site at New Smyrna Beach RV Park.

The campground is nice and quiet - no planes, no highway noise, and only a few, distant trains. From our site in the back section, we couldn't even hear the cars passing by on the road that ran past the front of the campground.

New Smyrna RV Park will undoubtedly be filled with Snowbirds in another month or so. Quite a few have arrived already.

We wanted to tour around Florida a little before heading to our winter stop in Bushnell. A stop at the Kennedy Space Center was at the top of the list. The area immediately around the Kennedy Space Center, which includes Titusville, Merritt Island, Cocoa Beach, Melbourne, and Palm Bay, is known as the Space Coast.

When we first began to research campgrounds around Kennedy Space Center (KSC) several weeks ago, we were unaware there was a space shuttle launch scheduled for the evening of the day we planned to arrived. When we found out about the shuttle launch, we were delighted to know we would be so close on the day it was scheduled to lift off.

The shuttle mission is to perform several "home improvements" to the International Space Station. The astronauts will install a new recycling toilet, a new galley, and two new sleep stations. The work is part of a long-range plan to boost the station's full-time crew from three to six.

A little while after dinner, we went outside to wait for the launch. Sure enough, right on schedule at 7:55:39 the sky to the south lit up as the rockets ignited. In a few more seconds, we could see the bright light of the rocket engines coming up over the trees. The photo below is a little blurry because we didn't have a tripod to steady the camera for the low-light photo, but it gives you an idea of how the shuttle launch lights up the sky, even though we were about 35 miles away from the launch pad "as the crow flies."

 

The shuttle arced to the northeast out over the ocean. We could see the booster rockets burn out and fall away. We watched until the shuttle was just a little dot of dim light, then we went back inside and watched a replay of the launch on the NASA channel on our DVR.

A few days after the launch, we drove about an hour to the south to the KSC. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created in 1958. In 1962, NASA established its Launch Operations Center on Florida's east coast. The center was renamed Kennedy Space Center in 1963 in honor of the president who put America on a path to the moon.

KSC is located on Merritt Island (it was once an island, but now it's actually a peninsula) and covers 219 square miles. Only about 9% of the land is developed, and the remainder is a wildlife refuge. Since public access to most of the area is limited for security reasons, the wildlife is very much undisturbed. We saw numerous birds while we were there and even a small alligator near a pond along one of the main roads.

Kennedy Space Center has a visitor complex that has numerous exhibits and shows detailing the past, present, and future of space travel. Tickets are expensive ($38 + tax for basic adult tickets); but the visitor complex is so big and has so much to do, the tickets are good for two days, and you certainly get your money's worth. We managed to see what we wanted to see in one day, but it was a very full day. A bus tour of the facility is included in the basic admission price, but there are also extra-cost tours and programs that would take much more time.

The bus tour of the space center is the primary thing we wanted to do, so we went straight to the bus boarding area as soon as we bought our tickets and got through security. Security is tight, but not as unfriendly as it is in airports. Be sure to check the web site for what you can and can't take in if you're planning a visit.

Shortly after the bus departed, we went by the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) where the shuttle (properly called the orbiter) is mated to the booster rockets and external fuel tank and where the whole assembly is stacked onto the crawler that is used to transport the orbiter to the launch site. The VAB has cranes that can position components weighing thousands of tons to within 1/64th of an inch. The low building to the right is the launch command center.

 

The first stop on the bus tour is the Launch Complex 39 Observation Gantry. One of the two crawlers that is used to transport the shuttle from the VAB to the launch pad is stored near the observation gantry. The crawler itself weighs 6 million pounds and has a carrying capacity of another 12 million pounds. The crawler moves on eight gigantic treads, and its speed when loaded is about 1 mph. It takes eight hours to move the shuttle from the VAB to the launch pad.

From the observation gantry, you can see Launch Pads 39A and 39B. The photo below shows Launch Pad 39B, which is where the most recent launch of the Shuttle Endeavour took place. The white dome is the liquid-hydrogen tank with a capacity of 850,000 gallons.

 

The photo below shows Margery reading about the space shuttle rocket engine that was on display at the observation gantry.

Visitors can stay at each stop of the bus tour as long as they want. When you've seen all you want to see, you just get on the next bus that passes by to travel to the next stop. Buses run about every 15 minutes.

The next stop was the Apollo/Saturn V Center, which details America's moon landing program. At this stop, the Firing Room Theater re-enacts the Apollo 9 launch. The simulated control room is set up using some of the original consoles from the Apollo 9 flight. Apollo 9 was the first flight with the Lunar Module on board the spacecraft.

There is also a Saturn V rocket on display. The Saturn V is a multi-stage, liquid-fueled rocket used for NASA's Apollo moon program. The photo below shows the "business end" of the 363 foot long Saturn V rocket.

 

Also on display was a Lunar Rover that was used for astronaut training.

And what would a moon-landing exhibit be without a moon rock? They have a two samples on display including a small slice from a rock that you can actually touch. The sample was brought back from the Apollo 17 mission. Margery said it felt very smooth.

The Lunar Theater depicts the first moon landing (Apollo 11) using taped footage of the flight and scale models that are about a one-third life-size.

The third and final stop on the bus tour was the International Space Station Center. The International Space Station (ISS) is a cooperative effort of the U.S., Russia, eleven European countries, Japan, Canada, Brazil, and Italy. Work on the ISS began with the launch of the first segment by Russia in 1998. Several other modules have been added since that time. The ISS has been continuously manned by various groups of astronauts since November 2, 2000.

At the ISS Center, there are displays of modules that you can walk through. The photo below shows a module with biotech experiments.

 

In the photo below, Margery is looking at a "Waste Management" module with the toilet on the left and the shower on the right. Her facial expression seems to be saying, "Is this what I think it is?"

At the ISS Center, you can also climb up to the mezzanine and look down on actual ISS modules being assembled.The assembly takes place in an ultra-clean environment to prevent any type of contamination. All the workers must wear shoe covers, bonnets, masks, and disposable suits called "bunny suits."

In the photo below, the Japanese are working on their experiment module, Kobi (Japanese for "hope").

The Kobi project is Japan's first facility for manned space activities and aims to conduct astronomical observations of Earth and other celestial bodies. It is scheduled to be completed in time for a 2009 launch.

After we toured the ISS Center, the bus took us back to the visitor center where there was still much to see. Check back in a few days for our next post or you can sign up to receive e-mails of our posts. We have more to share about what we learned at the Kennedy Space Center.

When we drove to Mount Dora to meet our friends and tour the Dora Canal, we passed through the small town of Yalaha. In Yalaha there is a rather large, German bakery that is known for their breads and desserts. We read in the newspaper that Yalaha Bakery had outdoor entertainment every Saturday. Being big fans of breads and desserts, we hopped in the car and headed out there.

Outside, they had bratwurst and sauerkraut to eat and a bluegrass band for entertainment. This little bakery out in the middle of nowhere was packed! We have found that music is a big drawing card for snowbirds in Florida. In the photo below, you can see part of the crowd gathered to listen to bluegrass.

Inside the bakery, the delicious-looking baked goods were also a big draw since customers were lined up 4 deep. It was hard to get a good photo between all the people, but here is a small part of the selection.

We had a difficult time deciding what we wanted, but we ended up with a loaf of kalamati olive bread, a piece of Black Forest cake for Margery, and a piece of Sacher Torte (chocolate torte with apricot filling) for Paul for dessert. The desserts were as good as they looked. As you can see, there is already a bite missing form each piece because once we got them out of the box, we couldn't even wait until after the photo to try them!

After the surgery on Margery's left knee at the end of January, she had a lot of difficulty getting comfortable in the recliner in the motor home. The seat just hit her wrong in the back of the thigh and knee. Although it was a nice Flexsteel recliner, we lamented almost from the beginning that we didn't get Ultraleather instead of cloth for easier cleaning. Now that she was finding it uncomfortable, we started searching online to see what else might be available. We noticed most of the newer motor homes are using a Euro recliner with an ottoman instead of the larger, all-in-one recliner like we had. A lot of people that replace recliners in RVs go to Lazy Boy, but we couldn't find one near us. We did, however, find a company about an hour away near Tampa that did RV makeovers and that carried replacement RV furniture so we took a drive down. Well, they only had one REALLY comfortable recliner they called a "stressless" recliner from a company by the name of Villa. The only problem was that it was REALLY expensive.

That prompted more online searching, and we found another company from Norway called Ekornes that also made a recliner they called stressless. There was a store in the Villages that carried Ekornes so we drove there to take a look. They had a really good selection and we initially looked at the entry-level model with the basic leather upholstery. To make a long story short, they had a floor model recliner that was a couple of levels up from the entry-level model and that had a better grade of upholstery. They offered it to us at a very good price wanting to make room for new merchandise. Although it was still more than we originally intended to spend, it was too good a deal on a VERY comfortable chair so we couldn't pass it up. There goes the tax rebate we don't even have yet. As a bonus, Paul used our bathroom scale to weigh the old recliner, which we ended up selling to our neighbor here at the campground (who just happens to a snowbird from Leechburg, PA), and it weighed 112 lbs. The new chair and ottoman together weigh 53 lbs., which is a weight savings of over 50%! The photo below shows Paul enjoying our new chair.

On February 26, we headed down to Largo Medical Center at about 5:00 am (yikes!) for the surgery on Margery's right knee. Her left knee was well on its way to complete recovery after surgery 4 weeks prior and it was able to handle the task of now being the "strong" knee after the surgery on her second knee. The right knee got partial resurfacing as planned. The photo below shows Margery in her hospital room shortly before we checked out.

And here she is arriving back at the motor home about 24 hours after surgery.

Again, the first week was the hardest; but the experience with the first knee has helped us know what to expect, how to better manage pain, and how to better reduce bruising and swelling. As with the first knee, Margery ditched the walker after about 3 days. We put the walker out front of the motor home with a "Free" sign on it and it was gone within the hour. Paul is so proud of how well Margery has done through all of this. She has been a real trooper and has been very diligent with exercises and is committed to rapid recovery. And from Margery's point of view, Paul has been so supportive. He's been a great caregiver and coach.

While taking time for Margery's recuperation, Paul cleaned out and organized a couple of the outside storage bays, replaced a leaking support strut on one of the storage bay doors, modified a pair of replacement windshield wiper blades to fit the motor home, climbed up on the roof to remove and clean the roof vent covers, and inspected the roof joint caulking while he was up there. Margery continued her daily exercises and gradually increased the length of her daily walks.

At the beginning of March, some of the snowbirds began leaving the campground. For the most part, however, their spaces were taken by others who were just arriving so the campground remained pretty full. Although some of the new arrivals only stayed a day or two (they are probably on their way north from somewhere farther south in Florida), most had patio mats, chairs, and grills spread out and they stayed a week or two. Some of the new arrivals seemed a little younger and were probably not yet retired. There were even some younger kids, probably on spring break, visiting grandparents. During the winter, the campground is a 55+ park, but youngsters are allowed to visit. By the middle of March, there were a growing number of empty sites as many of the snowbirds began heading home in time for Easter.

We originally extended our stay in Florida from the beginning of March until just before Easter because of Margery's knee surgery. However, the week before Easter, Paul was hit with the respiratory version of the flu that was NOT covered by this year's flu shot so we extended our stay until after Easter. Paul tried his best to count his blessings...like he didn't have to push himself to go to work and we we weren't currently 'traveling'...but five days in bed and 9 days of feeling really crummy made it difficult. This was a stubborn flu that hit a fair number in the campground. We are so grateful that Margery did not get it, too. We used copious amounts of hand sanitizer and antiseptic wipes.

As Paul's flu subsided, we were finally in a position where we felt like making our spring travel plans, which included a leisurely drive north and a swing through Pittsburgh at the end of April for a short visit with Lora and J. Michael and a few doctor appointments we weren't able to fit in last August. However, shortly after we had made our doctor appointments, we received word that J. Michael's father, who had been recuperating from a bone marrow transplant in his second battle with acute leukemia, suffered an irreparable brain hemorrhage. An e-mail sent out by Lora stated: "The whole family and some friends were there the rest of the afternoon and through the evening. We sang, listened to the Word, told stories, and cried. It was a painful, but precious time. He slipped away with his loved ones gathered around him. We rejoice knowing that he is whole and with the Lord, but he will be greatly missed."

We spent a day evaluating our options in light of our original plans to arrive in Pittsburgh in late April. Do we leave the motor home in Florida, share the driving in the the Saturn to Pittsburgh for the funeral, stay with Lora and J. Michael a couple of days, then return to Florida and start a more leisurely journey north in the motor home? Or, do we hurriedly pack up the motor home and have Paul (who was still not feeling his best) do all of the 20-hour drive over two days, arriving a few weeks before spring. Economics, combined with our love for traveling with all the comforts of home at our fingertips, caused us to opt to check out of Blueberry Hill 12 hours later and leave for Pittsburgh with the motor home. We experienced God's grace in so many ways...the well-known, end-of-March spring break/snowbird exodus from Florida wasn't too bad traffic-wise, we made excellent travel time in pretty good weather, we found easily accessible campgrounds that were open, and Paul had the stamina to make the drive. We made a one-night stop just north of Charlotte, NC and made it to the KOA in Washington, PA, mid-afternoon the next day.

As we write this, we are so happy we made the effort to be here for the funeral. J. Michael's father was a simple man who loved people and loved the Lord. He lived a life of service and touched many lives, not only in the Life's Key Prison Ministry he founded with his wife, Mary Ann, but also as a teacher of God's Word. What a rich legacy he leaves. He was not only a servant of the Lord but a fun-loving, wise, devoted, and caring husband, father, and grandfather. He will be missed by all who knew him.

We plan to stay in Pittsburgh for the memorial service on Saturday. It will also give Paul a chance to continue his recuperation. We then have three weeks before we're due back in Pittsburgh for our previously scheduled doctor appointments when we'll park the motor home at Lora and J. Michael's. We are researching where we might go in those three weeks to re-capture spring and bring it back with us.

Things went so well with our day of sightseeing and the airboat ride, we agreed to meet our friends again the next day for another boat cruise. This time, it would be a little tamer, but still very interesting...a pontoon boat cruise of the Dora Canal. The Dora Canal, originally known as the Elfin River, connects Lake Dora with Lake Eustis, which are located a little over an hour's drive northeast of where we are staying in Bushnell. After a steamboat captain hired a team of laborers to dredge out the Elfin River in the late 1800s to make it more passable, it became known as Dora Canal. Today the canal is a favorite spot to see wildlife including alligators, wading birds, otters, turtles, snakes, and more. In addition to the wildlife, there are towering, Spanish moss-draped cypress trees, some of which are 2,000 years old.

There are numerous cruises of the canal available that start at any one of several towns along the lake. We picked one by Lake County Waterways because it started from the town of Mount Dora where our friends were staying. The town of Mount Dora is located near the eastern end of Lake Dora. Lakefront property here is quite expensive. As we pulled out from the dock, the captain pointed out the little blue cottage and boathouse to the right that are for sale. The asking price is $1.25 million. And just to confirm, that is the little blue cottage by the water, not the big house behind it up on the hill.

One of the large houses along the lake shore belongs to the originator of Chicken McNuggets. After watching his wife prepare cut-up chicken pieces for their children one night, he refined the recipe and got a patent for it...and then sold it to McDonalds. When the uproar about the danger of trans fats started, he re-formulated his recipe to eliminate trans fat, got a patent on the new recipe, and then went to McDonalds and sold them the new patent. Smart man. :)

Another large house along Lake Dora belonged to a wealthy gentleman who, in the 1920s, liked to throw large parties. The women liked to dance on and on; but the husbands would get tired, so the wealthy host hired a young dancer to dance with the wives to keep them happy while their husbands rested. That young dancer was Buddy Ebsen. Ebsen soon left Florida to form a Vaudville dance act with his sister and he eventually became an actor. He is best known for his role as Jed Clampett on the TV series The Beverly Hillbillies. The house where he started his dancing career is shown below.

On our 5+ mile cruise down the lake to the west end to where the canal is located, we passed a large tree in someone's back yard where a bald eagle had a nest with newly hatched chicks. What a thrill it was to see the mother eagle standing at the edge of her nest!

Once we got to the canal, we had to maneuver under a narrow railroad trestle, then it was idle speed up the canal. We were immediately greeted by low overhanging tree branches draped with Spanish moss. We were impressed at how lush the vegetation was, even though the many cypress trees were still dormant. Cypress trees are conifers; but they are not evergreen, even way down south here in Florida. After passing a few residences at the southern end of the canal, the canal quickly began to look like a wild river through an uninhabited jungle. In fact, the Dora Canal was used to film some re-takes of the river scenes originally filmed in Africa for the classic Humphrey Bogart film African Queen. In the photo below, you can almost imagine you are deep in the jungle.

Along the way, we saw numerous blue herons. All the birds we saw seemed fairly used to boats floating by, so they didn't take off as long as the boat didn't get too close to shore.

The next photo is a little blue heron.

Several species of egrets are common in Florida. We saw both snowy and great egrets along the shore of the lake and along the canal. Shown below is a great egret wading in the shallows.

Below is a pair of wood ducks.

There were also several small alligators along the banks. There used to be quite a few larger 'gators in the canal, but water levels are down about three feet leaving the average depth of the canal at only about three feet. The larger 'gators have moved to areas where the water is a little deeper and they don't have to worry about overhead boat propellers. The water level was lowered when there was widespread flooding a number of years ago after three hurricanes passed through the area in succession. Of course, they have never had three hurricanes in succession before or since; and now because of the drought, they probably couldn't raise the water level if they wanted to. The alligator in the photo below is probably about 3 to 4 feet long.

We saw dozens of anhingas crossing the lake on our way to the canal. Anhingas (and cormorants, which tend to be more of a salt-water bird) are aquatic birds that do not have as much oil in their feathers as do ducks and geese. Therefore, when the cormorants and anhingas swim at the surface of the water, they are partially submerged. Anhingas are also sometimes called snake birds because when they swim, their exposed necks and heads look like a snake. The lack of oil in their feathers allows the cormorants and anhingas to dive and swim under water to search for fish. After a period of underwater fishing, the birds have difficulty flying because their feathers have become waterlogged. They then must perch with their wings outspread to dry. When we got to the canal, we saw numerous anhingas like the one shown below drying their wings from their fishing trips in the lake.

The Dora Canal is only about a mile long, but what an interesting and beautiful mile it is! When we got to Lake Eustis at the north end of the canal, we turned around and headed back the way we came to the dock in Mount Dora. These three cypress trees greeted us as we made the turn-around at Lake Eustis.

After we got back to Mount Dora, we walked about two blocks up the street (yes, Margery made it both ways on her own) to a nice little Italian restaurant for an early dinner with our friends. A visit to Mount Dora on a sunny, warm Sunday in February is delightful. There are many shops and restaurants...a number have outdoor seating with live entertainment. The photo below shows the view back down toward the dock.

After a couple of days of sightseeing, we were ready to sit a while, but we did need to catch up on laundry and grocery shopping. We are preparing for surgery to resurface Margery's second knee scheduled for February 26. It will be hard after coming so far with the first knee to backtrack with the discomfort of the second surgery, but as we said before, we have to keep our eye on the ultimate goal.

Margery's knee surgery went very well. She had the inner portion of her left knee resurfaced and the prosthesis put in as planned. She was up walking 3 hours after coming out of the recovery room (they usually make patients wait 4 hours), so the exercises she did before the surgery seem to have helped. The photo below shows Margery arriving back at the motor home about 27 hours after surgery.

The first few days back home were a little uncomfortable, but once she found the right schedule for pain medication and the exercises started to limber up the knee, things got a lot better. They expect you to use a walker for up to 2 weeks, but Margery quit after 3 days. It just seemed to be in the way and that's how they said you would know it was time to give it up. Within the first week, she was already walking on the new knee as well as she walked before the resurfacing, although she still couldn't go quite as far. She was also able to begin cutting back on the pain medication. Probably the most bothersome part of her recovery has been the pain from the deep bruising on the back of her thigh and leg. Although the bruising is normal, Margery bruises easily and at this writing she is still experiencing a fair amount of discomfort from these bruises. Even putting on lotion is painful. But, hey, no pain, no gain! We're keepin' our eye on the goal.

We are enjoying the warm weather here in Florida. Molly went outside on Groundhog Day and saw her shadow. She declared there would be 6 more weeks of 75 degree weather. Although there is a lot of green around with the live oaks, pines, and palm trees, Florida still has spring. The nice thing is that it begins around February 1. We have azaleas, redbud trees, and roadside wildflowers blooming. Many of the deciduous trees, like the ones shown in the photo below, are starting to get leaves.

We heard from friends we visited last February when we passed through southern California. Margery met Barb through a Bible study years ago, and even though Barb and Kent moved away from Pittsburgh quite some time ago, Margery and Barb have always kept in touch. Barb and Kent were coming to Florida to meet family and go to Disney, but they were coming early to escape winter (they now live near Chicago) and wanted to get together with us. Not knowing how Margery's knee would be progressing, we nevertheless made plans for a visit figuring we would just hang around our motor home if she didn't feel like doing any sightseeing.

As it turned out, Margery's knee was doing very well so we decided to drive to Homosassa, FL with Barb and Kent to take an airboat ride, something Paul has always wanted to do. An airboat is a flat-bottomed boat powered by a large V-8 engine and pushed along the surface of the water by a 6 foot airplane propeller. The purpose of an airboat is to go fast through shallow water.

We found Captain Stu who had a specially-built airboat that would carry up to 6 people, so we made reservations. Captain Stu was very interesting. He had grown up around the water and his passion for what he does was evident. He even takes his airboat out on his days off and goes fishing.

The first part of the tour is down the Homosassa River where the speed is limited to "idle speed" because of the manatees. This was a good time for some nature viewing. Unfortunately, we didn't see any manatees, but we did see a porpoise, numerous wading birds, gulls, pelicans, and several osprey. The osprey like to build their nests on top of the signs along the waterway as shown in the photo below.

Once we got clear of the manatee area, it was full throttle and the 500 hp engine had the boat gliding along the water. This area of the Florida Gulf Coast is a large estuary containing hundreds of small islands with interconnecting waterways. Some of the islands aren't really islands, but clumps of mangroves. Mangroves are a family of trees and shrubs that thrive in tropical tidal areas. Mangroves are suspended above the water on an intricate, intertwined root systems. The root systems form their own ecosystems trapping sediments and nutrients creating a rich habitat for numerous varieties of fish as well as shrimp and oysters.

We had an exhilarating ride cruising the backwaters, skimming by the islands and through the shallows. The photo below shows Margery, Barb, and Kent as we flew along. As you can see, Kent's jacket is blowing wildly in the 40 mph wind.

Paul got to sit up high in the seat next to Captain Stu. Woo-hoo!

We stopped out near the Gulf of Mexico and just floated with out-going tide and currents. The photo below shows Captain Stu telling us about the tides and giving us some history of the area before we headed back to the dock.

Our ride whet our appetites so we stopped in the Homosassa Riverside Resort where Captain Stu docks his boat for a fried grouper appetizer to share. We wanted to save our appetites for another seafood restaurant we had heard good things about up the road, but the fried grouper was delish and will be worth another trip next year. We also stopped at the fresh seafood market Captain Stu recommended where we picked up some fresh shrimp for a new shrimp and pasta recipe Margery wanted to try. (It was easy and tasty!) Of course, Margery (left) and Barb couldn't pass up the opportunity to 'monkey' around.

After our airboat ride, we stopped by the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge to see if we could spot any manatees since we didn't get to see any when we were out with Captain Stu. The refuge is comprised of approximately 20 islands surrounded by the spring-fed waters of Kings Bay in Crystal River, FL. Since we obviously didn't have a boat, we were hoping to see some manatees from the dock at the visitor center, but no luck.

They did have some interesting displays in the visitor center including the skeleton of a manatee, which is shown in the photo below. We found it interesting that the flippers have bones like fingers even though the flippers are solid. It was also interesting that the ribs don't curve down around the underside.

Manatees are mammals that, like porpoises, live entirely in the water. In the winter, they swim up the rivers searching for warmer water. Manatees are 9 to 10 feet long when fully grown and weigh 800 to 1200 pounds. Manatees are slow-moving and are completely herbivorous. They can consume 10 to 15% of their body weight in aquatic plants a day. Manatees have no natural enemies and can live up to 70 years. The biggest cause of manatee deaths is collisions with boats. Becoming entangled in fishing line and nets is also a big problem. Manatees are endangered with only an estimated 2,600 in the United States.

We capped our day of sightseeing and visiting with a stop at Stumpknockers Restaurant in Dunellon, FL. Stumpknockers is known especially for their catfish. Since they weren't supposed to open until 4 p.m., we were surprised to find the parking lot full when we arrived a little before 4. The waitress told us that the owner often opens early when the customers begin arriving...this day at 12:30. However, one online reviewer we read said they made a special trip to the restaurant only to be disappointed to find it not open for lunch so be sure to call if you're going earlier in the day.

The restaurant takes its name from a panfish that inhabits southern streams. The fish is called a stumpknocker because it hangs out around the base of cypress trees that grow in the water.

We enjoyed our meal out on their deck overlooking the Withlacoochee River. It was a good way to relax after a busy day.

We find taking a guided tour is a good way to get a quick overview on our first visit to a historic city like St. Augustine. We took a tour last year in Savannah and this year in Charleston and enjoyed them both. We like the tours because they are a quick way to find out where things are located, to learn some interesting facts that may be hard to dig out otherwise, and to get an outline of the history of the area. So we wanted to take a guided tour of St. Augustine. There are only a couple of tours available, so we chose Old Town Trolley Tours. The tickets are good for 3 days, we could get off and on at any of over a dozen stops along the route, and we got a combo ticket that also included admission to The Old Jail and the Florida Heritage Museum.

One interesting stop along the tour is at St. George St., which is which is now a pedestrian mall. The buildings in this old section of the city have been transformed into quaint shops as shown in the photo below.

In spite of numerous attacks on the city and many fires and hurricanes, quite a few buildings from the 1700s remain. For example, there is the Gonzales-Alvarez house from around 1723, the Colonial Spanish Quarter which is a city block of nine historic houses and shops from around 1740, and the oldest wooden school in the United States. The exact date the old school was built is unknown, but it first appeared on the tax records in 1716. Many of the old wooden buildings such as the school are not painted. They are built of cypress and cedar which are resistant to rot and insects. The photo below shows the oldest school.

Imagine our surprise to find out that "snowbirding" is not a phenomenon unique to the 21st century. It seems that its origin go as far back as 1888! Perhaps was is unique is that it became more attainable for the middle class as our parents entered retirement. Henry M. Flagler had a huge influence on what is considered to be the golden age of St. Augustine. He also left a permanent mark on the entire east coast of Florida as well as much of the entire state. Henry Flagler was the business partner of John D. Rockefeller in the Standard Oil Company. After the death of his first wife in 1881, Flagler traveled to St. Augustine on his honeymoon with his second wife. He recognized the potential for Florida to become a winter playground for the wealthy and the rest, as they say, is history. In January, 1888, his Ponce de Leon Hotel opened and a second hotel, the Alcazar, was well underway across the street. The Ponce de Leon Hotel, which is shown in the photo below, is now part of Flagler College.

Flagler College is relatively young at 40 years of age. This co-educational, nonsectarian college provides "a rich liberal arts education in a small, supportive environment." Students provide tours of the Ponce de Leon Hotel but we saved it for another visit.

Louis Comfort Tiffany designed the interior of the hotel and included in the design are 79 stained glass windows. The windows shown below are in the hotel dining room (also the current dining room of the college) and are valued at over $6 million.

Unique to Flagler College is their annual New Year's Scholarship Ball where guests can welcome in the new year among the breathtaking Tiffany glass, elegantly carved columns and towering murals of the former Ponce de Leon Hotel’s Dining Hall. New Year's revelers can celebrating by getting a taste of the former luxury resort’s opulent heyday. Black tie, of course, is required. :)

Flagler saw the need for good transportation to get his guests to his hotels so he purchased the Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and Halifax Railroad, which was the first part of what was to become the Florida East Coast Railway. The railway was eventually extended all the way to Key West with Flagler buying or building hotels along the way in places like Daytona, Palm Beach, and Miami. Flagler encouraged settlement and farming along his railway and made many gifts to build hospitals, churches, and schools.

One of the churches built by Flagler is the Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church which he built in memory of his only daughter, Jenny, who died while giving birth in 1889. The church, which is styled after St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice, was completed in less than a year. Flagler, his first wife and his daughter are interred in a mausoleum within the church.

Henry Flagler was quite the ecumenical. He also built the Grace United Methodist Church. Their original church and parsonage stood on land Henry wanted for his Alcazar hotel so he built them a new church in exchange for the site. He also gave land for the Ancient City Baptist Church and financed a new bell tower for the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine which is shown in the photo below.

Flagler also built the city a new jail. It seems his hotel guests didn't like seeing prisoners from their room windows so Henry built a new jail outside of town. It was quite attractive for its day and, in fact, first-time visitors to town who disembarked at the train station across the street at night sometimes went up and knocked on the door of the jail thinking it was a hotel. The Old Jail is shown below.

Here is Paul demonstrating where the term "jail bird" came from. Unruly prisoners were locked in cages which were then suspended over the prison yard.

Christmas decorating in St. Augustine isn't as low key as it is in Williamsburg; but being a historic city there is an absence of blow-up snow men, plastic Santas, and tacky glitz. The bed and breakfasts do the most elaborate decorating. The one shown in the photo below has combined Williamsburg-style decorations around the door with more elaborate lighting.

Below is another example of a bed and breakfast with Christmas lights.

In addition to touring the old city both in the daytime and at night, we drove across the bay to Anastasia Island to see the beach and to tour St. Augustine Lighthouse. The Spanish built a wooden tower on the island manned by a single soldier. The watchtower was primarily an early warning system to identify incoming ships, but it also served as a landmark to identify the city.

In 1683, the wooden tower was replaced with a sturdier tower built of coquina. The complex also included a guardhouse, a well, and ammunition storage, all surrounded by a high coquina wall.

By 1870, it was evident the sea was encroaching on the coquina lighthouse and construction of a new, brick structure was started in 1871. The new lighthouse was first lit on Oct. 15, 1874. Several years later, the old lighthouse fell into the ocean.

The photo below shows the St. Augustine Lighthouse with its distinctive spiral black and white paint scheme and red top. This design is used to identify the lighthouse in the daytime.

The lens in the lighthouse is a Fresnel (pronounced fray-NELL) lens named after its French inventor Augustin Fresnel. Fresnel lenses for lighthouses are essentially a series of concentric prisms and are ranked according to size. Sixth order lenses are used on lakes and in harbors. First order lenses are the largest. The St. Augustine lens is the same first order lens that was first used in 1874 and measures 9 1/2' tall. The lens in the photo below is a fourth order lens and is similar to the one used in the coquina lighthouse from about 1855 to 1871.

The St. Augustine Lighthouse is 165' tall and the maximum actual recorded sighting distance was 18.75 miles out to sea in 1911. We decided not to climb the 219 steps to the observation deck, but they did make for an interesting photo.

Margery is descending the stairs from the porch of the keepers' house in the photo below. The keepers' house is a duplex where the 2 keepers and their families lived.

The St. Augustine Lighthouse is still operated as a navigational aid and as a museum by a non-profit organization. Today it is fully automated with a sensor to turn it on at dusk and off at dawn. There is minimal maintenance required and the duties of the keepers (which in addition to lighting and putting out the flame also included carrying fuel up the tower, replacing and trimming wicks, cleaning soot from the lens, and winding the mechanism that turned the lens) have all been eliminated.

From St. Augustine, it is a short hop over to the Orlando area where we plan another visit to the Mouse. Last year we thought we wouldn't need to go back to Disney for a few years, but Disney did what they do best - they created good memories. We enjoyed thinking about last year's visit so much with all their Christmas decorations and programs, we decided to schedule a return trip for our next stop.

From Charleston, SC, we continued our southward journey stopping at Ocala National Forest where we stayed at Salt Springs Campground. While Ocala National Forest has a number of campgrounds, most have no hookups. Salt Springs Campground, however, has full hookups and is a nice quiet campground with paved pads and numerous trees - mostly pines and live oaks. Still, there are quite a few sites with potentially good satellite reception. With the discount we got with our America the Beautiful Pass, this was a nice place to chill out for a few days at a lower price than some of the tourist areas we had been in recently.

After spending four days at Salt Springs, we headed northeast to St. Augustine on Florida's Atlantic coast where we had reservations at Indian Forest Campground for a week. Indian Forest has gravel roads, packed sand/grass pads, and scraggly grass between sites. Indian Forest is very convenient to St. Augustine; but that means they are located on a main road into town with the accompanying traffic noise, especially since they are very close to the road. Many of the sites are shaded, but the owners graciously gave us one of the sites in the center of the main loop where there was full sun.

St. Augustine is the oldest continuously-occupied, European-established city in America. We had followed primarily British history up until now with our visits to the Historic Triangle of Williamsburg/Yorktown/Jamestown, Charleston, and with last year's visit to Savannah. We had touched on the history of Spain in the New World with our visit to the Alamo in San Antonio and to the Southwest in general, but now it was time to learn about Spain on the eastern side of the continent.

Florida was discovered in 1513 by Juan Ponce de Leon, whose name means Prince of Lions in English. Although there were prior Spanish settlements, they all were abandoned due to hurricanes, famine, and warring native tribes. The city of St. Augustine was established in 1565 by Pedro Menendez de Aviles. This founding date is 22 years before British "Lost Colony" on Roanoke Island in 1587 (when supply ships finally returned 3 years later, the original colonists had vanished), 42 years before the British colony in Jamestown, and 55 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.

The 208' tall stainless steel cross in the photo below marks the spot where Pedro Menendez is said to have landed on September 8, 1565.

As soon as the landing party was ashore, they celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving and afterward, Menendez laid out a meal to which he invited as guests the native Seloy tribe who occupied the site. The meal probably consisted of cocido, a stew made from salted pork and garbanzo beans, laced with garlic seasoning, and accompanied by hard sea biscuits and red wine. If the Seloy contributed to the meal, the menu could have included turkey, venison, gopher tortoise, seafood such as mullet and sea catfish, maize, beans, and squash.

Although the thanksgiving at St. Augustine was celebrated 55 years before the Puritan-Pilgrim thanksgiving at Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts, it did not become the origin of a national annual tradition. During the 18th century British forces won out over those of Spain and France for mastery over the continent. Thus, British observances such as the annual reenactment of the Pilgrims' harvest festival in 1621 became a national practice. After the U.S. became an independent country, Congress recommended one yearly day of thanksgiving for the whole nation to celebrate. George Washington suggested the date November 26.

In 1863 during the bitter struggle of America's Civil War President Abraham Lincoln established the last Thursday in November as a National Day of Thanksgiving, making it truly a national holiday. The President urged prayers in churches and in homes calling on the "whole American people" wherever they lived to unite "with one heart and one voice" in observing a special day of thanksgiving, and to "implore the interposition of the Almighty to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it...to full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and union." We don't know how football got into it. :)

Last year when we visited Savannah, GA, we learned that Savannah had several forts to protect the new colony from the Spanish. In fact the British colonies of Georgia and Carolina were so worried by the Spanish that they attacked St. Augustine several times. Their efforts to expel the Spanish by force were unsuccessful. After the French and Indian War, the 1763 Treaty of Paris gave Florida and St. Augustine to the British. Florida was ceded back to Spain at the end of the American Revolution in 1783 in recognition of Spain's assistance to the Colonies during the war. A little later, however, Spain was being invaded by Napoleon and was struggling to retain its colonies. Spain turned Florida back over to the United States in 1821.

One of the reasons the British Colonies were unsuccessful taking St. Augustine by force was the strength of Castillo de San Marcos, a fort built by the Spanish to protect the city. For over 100 years, St. Augustine was protected by a series of wooden forts. Construction of a masonry fort which was called Castillo de San Marcos was started in 1672. The Castillo is built from a locally available stone called coquina, which literally means "little shells." Coquina is made up of fragments of billions of sea shells bonded together by time and pressure. It is fairly soft so it is able to absorb the impact of cannon balls without cracking making it an ideal material for a 17th century fort.

The fort is built in a star shape. The bastions projecting out from the corners of the fort provide a variety of angles of fire from the gun deck atop the walls, including the ability to trap anyone foolish enough to try to scale the walls in cross fire.

The entrance to the fort, which is shown below, was protected by a tidal moat and drawbridge.

Inside the fort, the chapel can be seen in the center of the wall which faces the entrance.

In the photo below, the white line just below the horizon and to the right of the muzzle of the cannon is the surf breaking at the mouth of the harbor about 3 miles away. This is just within range of the cannons.

Paul remembers his childhood visit to St. Augustine. The photo below shows Paul at Castillo de San Marcos in 1956.

Here is Paul during our recent stop at Castillo de San Marcos near the same location as the 1956 photo. The fort has changed a little since 1956. Paul has changed a lot!

Castillo de San Marcos is only a small part of what there is to see in St. Augustine. We think a guided tour is in order and will do some research to see which one we like the best.

One of our final excursions before leaving Florida was a trip to Daytona to tour the International Speedway. Being NASCAR fans, it was a great opportunity to learn about the history of the sport and to actually experience the 31 degree bank! This picture of the Daytona race on the beach in the 1950s was remarkable for the undeveloped area to the right of the beach as seen in this picture!

Additional pictures of Daytona and other experiences are in Photo Album: 011: Heading West on I-10.

We enjoyed our month in Florida and now understand why so many snowbirds call it home during the winter. In addition to visiting with Pittsburgh friends, Pat and Wink Daniel, at their home in The Villages and also with Paul's aunt whom we hadn't seen since Paul's dad died, here are some of the reasons we liked Florida:

• There are so many live oaks, that it’s green all winter.
• Even when it gets dark early, you can still spend the evening with the door open.
• You can drive in and out of rain showers within 1 mile.
• The clouds are puffy, cumulus, and seem like you can touch them. They are rarely steel grey all over like Pittsburgh skies.
• You can hear birds chirping even in December.
• Flowers bloom in December…even wild flowers.

Our goal this winter is to explore Florida, south Texas, and Arizona for consideration for next winter. Much to Margery's surprise, Florida is worthy of serious consideration. : )

We try to maintain a four-hour travel day so we allowed 2 1/2 weeks to travel the 2,200-mile, 45-hour drive to Quartzsite. We left Bushnell, Florida on December 28 planning to get to Rainbow Plantation (another Escapee park) in Alabama for the new year's weekend. As we traveled north on I-75, the number of palm trees decreased  while we traveled through horse farm country. Watching the changing terrain  has been one of the most interesting things we have found about traveling west.

We were amazed by the number of pine forests in the panhandle of Florida.Our weekend in south  Alabama gave us the opportunity to see the less developed and more accessible beaches of Gulf Shoes and Orange. Even though it was gray and threatening rain, we drove down the peninsula and found large stretches of beach with no houses blocking beach access. There was also quite a bit of property for sale which made us wonder if some homes were destroyed during Hurricane Katrina.

Our travels across Louisiana and eastern Texas deserve another trip before forming an opinion. We drove through heavy rain which caused this small pond at our overnight stop to overflow its banks.

We spent the weekend in Livingston,TX, at the home base of Escapees. The highlight of our stay was attending a church where teenagers filled the whole front half of the church and took the initiative to stand during worship, to raise their hands in praise, and to be pro-active in moving out of the pews to greet adults during the fellowship portion of the service. It was also the first time we ever saw the minister's wife walk down the aisles shaking people's hands and welcoming them to the service for about 10 minutes before the service. The other thing we appreciated about the service was the opportunity for quiet, personal prayer...lasting more than 20 seconds.

At this juncture, we revised our travel schedule several times as the forecast for nighttime temperatures in the teens was predicted across the south. We had planned to stay in Pecos for three days, but we revised our plans to stay only two days so we could move out and get far enough west before the low temperatures hit.

The high point of our stay in Pecos was the West of the Pecos Museum  which is housed in a saloon built in 1896, by R. S. Johnson, a former Texas Ranger. The red sandstone building included the saloon on the first floor with bedrooms upstairs. In 1904, the three-story Orient Hotel was added and was in use until the mid-1950s.

There were over 50 rooms of exhibits: artifacts, history, and West Texas lore. Additional pictures in the photo album capture some of the notable and quirky displays.

Another fascinating thing we learned was the presence of the Permian Sea, a large underground saltwater sea located under the west Texas desert. Water from this sea is pumped to the surface and used to raise "the sweetest, cleanest, best-tasting shrimp." The Permian Sea Shrimp Store is definitely on our list to visit  when we pass through Texas another time.

Pecos is also known for its cantaloupe. Although the varieties grown in other areas are the same, climate, soil, and cultivation methods account for the distinctiveness of Pecos melons. Pecos cantaloupes first became popular and in wide demand when they were sold to the Texas and Pacific Railroad to serve in their dining cars.

As we traveled I-10 across west Texas, the landscape changed dramatically. The live oaks and other trees became smaller and were eventually replaced by mesquite and creosote bushes and prickly pear cactus. We passed miles and miles of this landscape never seeing a house or a person and rarely grazing cattle.

At the end of western Texas, entering New Mexico, the terrain began changing again. We were struck by these mountains rising above us.

When we are traveling on successive days, we usually stay at Passport America campgrounds along the interstate that provide pull-through sites. These are very convenient, but not too quiet., so we were delighted to find Caverns of Sonora. Located six miles from the interstate and situated in the heart of a ranch, there was an RV park in addition to the caverns. Unfortunately, I was not able to take the cavern tour. The sign in the office said there were 360 steps on the tour and 1 3/4 hours of walking. That's more than my knees can handle. However, the wildlife and quiet in the area was amazing!

As we continued across  New Mexico and into Arizona, the changing landscape continued to enthrall us.

Driving through Phoenix on a Saturday proved to be a challenge as the road seemed inadequate for the amount of traffic. However, as we pulled into Saddle Mountain RV Park (a Passport America campground) in the setting sun, we were rewarded with the changing colors on the mountains surrounding the campground.

While staying at Saddle Mountain, we took a day trip to Wickenburg, AZ . This town deserves more than a couple of hours to explore so this trip we reconnoitered for a more in-depth visit in the future.  Located on the northern edge of the Sonoran Desert, we were captivated with the colors and textures of the vegetation and the beauty of the mountains. We'll sure to be back to visit the Hassayampa River Preserve, Desert Caballeros Western Museum, and Vulture Mine which is an abandoned gold mine. Wickenburg is also home to Rumuda Ranch offers biblically-based residential programs for women and girls suffering from eating disorders and related issues.

Although we've had two nights in the 20s, we did miss lows in the teens as we had hoped. Thursday we travel the 70 miles to begin our Quartzsite stay. This will include self-sufficient camping in the desert…meaning without any hookups. We will depend on our water tanks, generator, and batteries to provide us with electricity and heat. Conservation will be the word of the day. We look forward to sharing with you our Quartzsite experience.