Well... winter is behind us, now we have to wait for the weather to catch up with the new season. Becky and I spent most of the winter in Citra, Florida which is in the North Central "horse country" part of the state. I certainly mean no disrespect to the folks that call that part of the state home, but other than a fancy RV Resort and a tired 9 hole golf course on premises, there isn't a thing to attract us back next winter. We did meet a really nice guy while there - our next door neighbor, George. Our first day in the park I was setting up my satellite dish and he came over to help. Four hours later we were receiving HD images. Thanks again George.
We moved up to Tallahassee towards the end of February and have spent the last month scouting out digs for this coming winter's campsite. We found it a little South and West of Tallahassee, in a small coastal community - "Holiday RV Resort" in Panacea, FL. But more of it later. I will describe it, and the next community South and West of it - Apalachicola, FL only to say that if you're looking for really inexpensive, sweet, tender, sea fresh oysters, either of those two towns is where you need to be. Apalachicola Bay Oysters in the shell can be had for little more than 10 cents a piece when ya buy a half bag. Depending on the size of the oysters that means anywhere from 7 to 12 dozen. Best dang oysters I have ever had.
Just outside of Tallahassee, in Crawfordville is the Joe Ball Wakulla Springs State Park. The picture below is taken from one of their tour boats, just after clearing the boat dock. Beautiful and in a sense, errie scenery like this drifted by for the entire 1 hour ride. The springs water is crystal clear and the state park operates glass bottom boats when the conditions are perfect. The day we were there the water was too stained but we were still able to see the bottom 10 feet down crystal clear. We are told that when the waters are optimally pristine, you are able to see down as deep as 120 feet.
Missed it by a nose! I would imagine we saw 100 alligators both on land and in the water. Our boat was filled to capacity so it was very difficult to get the pictures you really wanted but I did manage this one, and really dozens of others but I'll spare you. Actually there are two alligators in the picture - you can see the second half of the other one's tail pointing in the other direction.
It's an automatic reaction to jerk your arm back into the boat when you see alligators swimming along side.
We also saw quite a few Manatee's as well. Honestly, I didn't get to snap any pictures of them so I am borrowing this picture I took a few months ago further south. Well, I never claimed to be a photographer... all those dark colored bumps in the water are the Manatees... use your imagination.
In the following picture, you can see the curved, broken off trunk of a palm tree. The rest of the tree was cut off by lightning some years ago. But when the tree was in its whole, it hung over the middle of river, or "The Jungle" as the operator referred to it. It is the same tree from which Johnny Weismuller was seen swinging across the river in the original movie Tarzan. If it isn't that same tree, well, it's a nice picture of a quarter of a palm tree isn't it! Various scenes from the TV series "Flipper" were also shot in these waters.
Ahhh, at last! The claim to fame - the "thing" that put Wakulla Springs on the map! I know you know the name of this pool of water - it's The Black Lagoon. And we all know who, or what came from The Black Lagoon right? Absolutely, this is where The Creature From The Black Lagoon terrorized all that came too close. the boat pilot paused for a few minutes at its entrance hoping to catch a glimpse of it but to no avail.
So if you ever find yourself in Tallahassee, take a short ride to Crawfordville and visit the State Park. The boat ride is probably the best "paid attraction" I've been to in a long while.
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