#4 Manatees and Tropiflora

Although we are staying on Lake Manatee, there isn’t any manatee viewing for 35 miles or so from where we are. Since they are warm blooded mammals, they require water temperatures of 68 degrees or higher. The manatees, whose closest relative is the elephant, have found that the water adjacent to a nearby power station is plenty warm for them this time of year. The power company built a viewing area with walkway and visitor center along an estuary.

These 800-1200 pound creatures spend most of their time foraging in shallow waters for food. One thing for sure, they do not jump out of the water like dolphins! The most we saw was a flipper, tail fin, or snout, and it was pretty hard to get a good picture of even that. We could see the shapes of perhaps 10 or 12 manatees in the water, however,

Fortunately, there was a nice visitor center where you could learn about the and see some good depictions.

We hope to see the oldest known manatee in a nearby aquarium, but have not made it there yet. He is about 60 years old, and was born in captivity. On a short walk down a pier, you pass through a 100 foot long mangrove arbor that was pretty cool.

Alongside the pier, you could see a pretty big group of fiddler crabs scurrying about. Having seen them on TV, for some reason, we thought they were quite a bit larger than their 2 inches or so.

Always looking for a good deal, we went to the Red Barn flea market and got some vegetables and a few other small items, but the best part was this sign – does it remind you of anyone you know?

We also found a huge tropical plant emporium called Tropiflora and spent a few hours there wandering through their greenhouses.

They had quite a number of interesting pieces of driftwood for sale, but the prices were anything but cheap. Prices for the larger pieces ranged from $100 to upwards of $1000 plus, depending on how interesting they were.

We spent Saturday evening in the forest in the campground listening and looking for owls. The ranger in the park we are staying at put on a short slide show about owls; it was followed up by a walk into the forest where she played some screech owl calls, and was rewarded with quite a few return calls from prospective suitors. She didn’t call the Great Horned Owls, but we hear them in our front yard at home nearly every night, so we were not too disappointed.

After learning more about owls, we have decided to be a bit more careful about taking Idgy out on the porch after dark!

#3 Arriving in Florida

Leaving Atlanta in our rearview mirrors, we headed south again and drove for a day with on-again, off-again rain. We planned the trip to Florida so that we did not have to drive many miles each day. In fact, the first day was 330 miles, and the others have been about 200 miles each.

Thinking about the weather, we realized that Chicago, Nashville, and Atlanta all had some bad weather arrive just as we left. Chicago had some frigid weather and a snowstorm arrive, Nashville had heavy rains, and possible tornadoes (we heard sirens while in town), and Atlanta had severe storms and tornadoes nearby in Alabama. We considered ourselves lucky that the most we had to contend with on the road was some moderate rain.

After spending a night in Ashburn, Ga., we headed south again and pretty soon crossed the border and stopped at the Florida Welcome Center to get some a free cup of OJ and travel guides.

It continued cloudy most of the day, but warm enough. When we arrived at our campground, Wandering Oaks, in Ocala, the late afternoon sky was only partly cloudy, but the best part was the next several days’ forecast - highs of 80 and lows around 55. We stayed here an extra day and visited with our friend, Sharie, and her dad, Joe. It's always great to meet a friend from home while on the road. Too bad Sharie's hub wasn't there too!

What a difference from what we left behind in Chi Town! After a relatively short 160 mile drive we arrived at Lake Manatee State Park outside of Bradenton, Fl. We never realized how many familiar cities are nearby until we started looking closely at the map. These included Sarasota, Bradenton, Tampa, St. Petersburg and others.

We started out sightseeing with a 15 mile drive along the oceanfront. There are many beaches, but also a continuous string of upscale resorts. 

Probably everyone has seen the iconic WW II photo depicted by this 25 foot statue we saw along our route:

The lady who claims to be the kissee, Edith Shayne, died in 2010. A married woman at the time, of the photo, she later said: 

"You can imagine how people felt. They were just elated," Shain said in a 2005 interview with The Times. "Someone grabbed me and kissed me, and I let him because he fought for his country. I closed my eyes when I kissed him. I never saw him." (NY Times)

In Sarasota, we spent a few hours at the Marie Shelby Botannical Garden. The Gardens are on the former 10 acre ocean front estate of the Shelby’s, who lived in Sarasota during the first half of the last century and left their property to the State of Florida. Claiming the largest variety of orchids in any collection in the world, the garden had not only an impressive collection of flowering plants and but also many interesting trees.

Shingle plant's leaves tightly adhere to the post.

Have you ever heard of Yoder’s? They are an Amish restaurant in Lancanster, Pennsylvania. We were pleasantly surprised to find one in Sarasota, but were not surprised to find that the food they served was every bit the equal to their sister restaurant. We enjoyed dinner quite a bit and bought some veggies at their market.

Hmmmm........wonder what other goodies are waiting for us down the road.......

#2 Commerce                                      

You know what they say about cleanliness being next to .......... Well, we had a bit of a problem with that while still in Tennessee.  Our rig has an outside faucet (for rinsing off sandy feet or, I suppose, dog washing) and it developed a leak. By the time that we stopped at a rest area in Georgia for a break we had a gusher!  John turned off the water pump and that stopped the leaking, but that meant that we had no water in the rig.  So we used bottled water for cooking and hand and tooth cleaning, and the campground restrooms for other needs. The following day, when we had a repairman come out and change the faucet, which fixed the problem.  No more roughing it, we had all our amenities back!  Oh, how spoiled we've become! 

Arriving in Atlanta, we made our way to the Corps of Engineers Campground at Alatoona Lake, McKinney Campground. Most COE campgrounds we have stayed at are really nice, and when we arrived, we asked for the best available site that we could fit on. With only three or four campers here, we got an excellent lake front site.

Our friends, Rodney and Kay also drove down from Nashville to visit friends, so while Kay was visiting, we spent time with Rodney and another friend who moved down here, Sam. Checking Yelp, we found a BBQ joint named Scott's with 9 ratings - all had given Scott's the  highest rating, so we decided to go and had a really excellent lunch there. 

Why can't we find a place like this in Chi town?

Taking a few pictures in the place, another patron approached us and asked if we wanted to buy a camera just like the one we were using (several year old Sony that was a very good camera in its day). He only wanted $50 (I had paid about $750). We took his number, and a little later the owner came around and we got to talking - he was a photographer and interested in the camera, so we gave him the fellow's number. Maybe we facilitated a sale!

We have been watching a show on Discovery Channel called Auction Kings 

http://blogs.ajc.com/radio-tv-talk/2011/10/05/discoverys-auction-kings-getting-a-third-season/  

based out of Atlanta (9pm Tuesdays in Chicago), and were surprised to find they had an auction going on the day we would be here! Since they only hold one or two a month, it was fortunate they had one going, not only on the day, but at time we could make! We talked Rodney and Sam into accompanying us, and set off for the auction. 

Can you imagine our surprise when we saw the film crews interviewing people outside the auction barn and the cameras set up inside too? They were filming for season 3? This was going to be fun to watch. 

We arrived just as the auction started, got our bidding numbers, and found some seats. We weren't too surprised at how much better the auction house looked on TV than in the flesh. 

Pretty soon, Sam was marveling at the bargains, and it was all we could do to stop him from bidding - we didn't have room to carry the stuff back to his place! All four of the main characters from the show were there, and it was neat to see them do their thing.

We (especially Anne) are always looking for interesting ornamental things to put in our garden, and when a cast iron Civil War pot came up, we just couldn't resist bidding on it. Pretty soon it was ours for $50 (ouch)! Soon after we bought another cast iron tea pot for $25. 

We had to leave shortly after our purchases, and when we got outside, the film crew wanted to interview us for possible use on the show!! They usually put these spots (that's a technical TV term, ya know) at the end of the show. They told us that the crew in LA cuts the show together from many clips, so a given segment may contain clips from different auctions. It took about 15 minutes to answer questions and get the shots they wanted plus signing waivers. It was all pretty interesting!

But we will probably wind up on the cutting room floor.........  

We managed to get into a pretty big traffic jam on the way back to the campground. 

But overall, we did enjoy Atlanta, especially visiting with Sam and Rodney.

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#1 Leaving Home

Why is it that every time we set out on a trip it seems to get harder and harder to go? Not just more difficult from the preparation aspect, but also more difficult because we seem to miss our family and friends more each time we leave. Our granddaughter, Anna's, first birthday party the day before we left only increased our mixed feelings about leaving. 

Well, we finally did get our act together and left Chi Town behind us. Maybe it wasn't so hard after all when we got a little ways south and didn't see any snow! Staying in Marion, Il, we had an uneventful first day. The entire trip to Nashville was a windy affair, and it got a little nerve wracking when we had to cross bridges in southern Illinois and Kentucky with 40 or 50 mph gusty cross winds.

Day two took us to Nashville where we stayed at the Two Rivers Campground. We arrived, checked in and unhitched the car, and wouldn't you know it? The car battery was dead!! Since we carry almost everything we own with us, a spare battery and jumpers were soon put to good use, and we were able to drive to our camping site. It seems the car dome light was on all day and that wore the battery down.

In Nashville, we traded snow for rain and tornado warnings! After a particularly heavy downpour, we understood the name "Two Rivers" a little better!

We had a nice time visiting some Nashville natives, our niece, Abby, and her friend, Landon. We also enjoyed time spent with Rodney and Kay over lunch at Roberts Western World, well recommended by our niece's hub, Joe, as a spot with good music and vittles.

We wish there was more time to spend in Nashville, because we have yet to make it to the Opry or the Country Music Hall of Fame, but Florida is calling to us........