Living Our Dream

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.