Cold Water Springs Florida

Manatee Springs State Park, Chiefland, FL

We visited two cold springs today.  The first was Fanning Springs, a second magnitude spring.  Florida’s unique karst topography gives it the largest concentration of natural springs in the world.  Much of Florida rests on soluble rock, like limestone. The water dissolves the rock as it moves through it, creating sinks, caves and fissures. Underground water then rises to the surface through these passages creating natural springs.  And they make amazing swimming holes! 

The water is a constant 72 degrees at most of the springs year round.  The center of this picture is where the springs are bubbling up.

This gives you a perspective on the entire spring. There were so many fish swimming all around us.  Ned is swimming over a school of fish.You can also see the water bubbling up behind me where it is coming from underground.  Most surprising is that the water didn’t feel cold at all, instead rather refreshing.  It really did give us a break from the heat and humidity. 

Time for a picnic lunch between visiting springs. Just love the symbiotic relationship between the different plants in this climate. We ate beneath these gorgeous oak trees with the branches lined with ferns. 

Down the road a bit is Manatee Springs, a first magnitude spring.  Between 35 and 150 million gallons of crystal clear water flow from this spring everyday. You can really feel the difference in the current too! Both springs looks completely calm from above, but once in the water you really have to work to swim against the current in this one.  This spring gets its name because between November and April the manatee hang out here.  It’s warmer than the river. Did you know manatee weigh between 1000 and 3500 lbs, can be as long as 13 feet, can live to 50 years old AND have very little body fat? Lesson to be learned, do not judge a book by its cover.  

We spent the rest of the afternoon snorkeling and just floating around.  For a large part of the time we had the springs to ourselves! Amazing. 

So why am I floating around and looking down? Well, looking out for some other creatures. Besides the fish and turtles we were also sharing the swimming hole with these snakes.  At first I was freaked out, then I figured out that they just wanted to hang out on the rocks and be chill.  Every now and then one would dart across the water, but I managed to stay out of its path. 

Most of the state’s springs feed into the beautiful Suwannee River.  We finally dragged ourselves out of the water and went for a bike ride.  So fun to ride along this boardwalk through the swamp and mangrove trees and then...

come out onto the Suwannee River.  So magical.  

Our camping spot for the night, along with some yummy grilled veggies. The last time we camped here (about 3 years ago) wild hogs ran through our campsite, thrashing thru the palmetto trees. Hoping for a quieter night this time.  

Florida Panhandle with dolphins

Grayton State Park, Santa Rosa Beach, FL

We spent several hours this morning on a charter boat chasing down dolphins.  It took awhile but we finally spotted them swimming in pods. It’s illegal to feed or interact with the dolphins in anyway, so you are pretty much at their whim when they decide to surface. 

The boat tour was mainly on Pensacola Bay and a bit into the Gulf.  The dolphins were so elusive and quick to come up and go under so humor me as I share some of the pictures that were so hard to snap!  We also saw a giant logger head sea turtle swim by. I also enjoyed the lighthouse and just hanging on the boat with Ned.  Fun morning and one that has been a highlight of this trip for sure. 

Back on shore we enjoyed fish tacos, mojitos and beer.  Just love being on the Emerald Coast. 

We took a drive thru the Gulf Island National Seashore.  I just can’t get over the brilliant sugar white sand beaches.  We were told that usually the water is more of a true emerald color, but because of the storm the water has been stirred up and the waves haven’t settled down.  Looks great to me! 

After picking up our voter ballot from Seaside Post Office (thanks Polly for sending it on. We had the Elections Office send our ballots to Polly’s house. We left before the ballots arrived.  Polly was kind enough to send it marked general delivery to the post office in Seaside Florida. The ballots were marked ‘partially damaged’ as a result of the hurricane, but we made it all work out) we headed to Grayton State Beach.

We arrived at the beach all set to play in the waves.  Uh-oh, the dreaded “no-swminning” flag was waving.  We settled on just sitting in the sand and letting the waves pour over us.  As luck would have it, in about an hour the ranger took the flag down and gave the okay to go in.  Ned and I had a blast body surfing, boogie boarding and getting swamped by the waves for the next couple of hours.  

Home sweet home for the night.  

The Gulf Coast

Gulf Shores State Park, Gulf Port, AL

Tropical storm Alberto has landed and is moving north! We finally get to break camp and move east, and this gypsy soul could not be happier.  4 days at one place and I start to get a little too antsy. Thank you Louisiana you’ve been so gracious hosting us, the people more than kind, and the food incredible, but we got new things to discover.  “To Infinity and Beyond!”  Well, the Infinity Space Center in Mississippi anyway, our first stop of the day. 

As far as interactive science/exploratorium type centers go, this one was just so-so.  It was beautifully designed and had a lot of cool props, but the exploring interactive part wasn’t that engaging.  My take was “all hat and no cattle” and Ned felt it was a missed opportunity.  With that being said, we did manage to amuse ourselves for a couple of hours.  The low point was being excited about experiencing the “X-Sphere-ience Theatre!”  We were expecting to be wowed by some big screen movie with special effects.  Not so much, it was a teenage girl (badly) reading a script while an ipad was projected onto a very small movie screen. The presentation was on climate change and geared for elementary age kids. Ned and I were the only ones in the audience.  Awkward....

We did enjoy seeing the Atlas rocket engine.  So impressive to stand next to it and appreciate its massive scale.  I liked seeing the Apollo 4 space command module.  It was launched unmanned into space in November 1967 and was only in flight for 8.5 hours.  Sure did get banged up in that short amount of time! Seeing how astronauts live in space is always fascinating too. 

We drove across Mississippi along the coast and really appreciated the blue skies, sugar white sand beaches and calm flat water.  Across from the beach are miles and miles of huge mansions. I wish we had stopped and played for awhile in the Gulf.   It looked really inviting, but...

we had a ferry to catch.  We took it from Dauphin Island to Fort Morgan on the Alabama coast. We got there with 5 minutes to spare...whew.  I honestly enjoyed the ferry ride as much as the NASA museum.  The coolest part was seeing this odd looking ship called Deep Blue. Turns out it is “the world’s largest purpose-built ultra deep water pipelay and subsea construction vessel.”  

Gulf State Park is our home this evening.  It’s not your typical beach state park. This place is huge and more like a resort. There’s a golf course, tennis courts, pool, and lots of construction going on. They are building what appears to be high rise condos and a conference center. There’s also a 4 lane highway that runs right thru the park. We have a sweet campsite on a lagoon and there are tons of bike trails.  Of course, we did lots of exploring.  There’s an enormous fishing pier that seems to be the major attraction. 

Okay, funny embarrassing story.  When we arrived at the pier we saw some flags flying and recognized them from our stay at Grand Isle, LA. The red flag meant high danger swimming, the purple flag meant dangerous marine animals in water, but what did that white flag with the red x mean?  We were coming up with all these theories. I thought it meant swimming not allowed. Ned was convinced it had something to do with scuba diving. I finally asked someone and she looked at me like I was a complete idiot and said “It’s the Alabama State Flag!”  Oops.  

Hard to believe this area was experiencing tropical storm conditions yesterday. Tonight we were treated to a gorgeous sunset.  Red sky at night a sailors delight.  

Bike rides and Swamp Tours

Fontanbleau State Park, Mandeville, LA

We woke to sunny blue skies.  So weird knowing a tropical storm is happening not too far from here.  We called the state park in Alabama where we hoped to stay tonight. They said the storm was scheduled to land at 1 pm and advised us to stay put.  Okay, time for a bike ride.  We decided to explore the Tammany Trace heading south, managing to ride about 20 miles. This direction didn’t have the sweet little towns, but it was a beautiful  cool ride thru the woods.

The highlight was unexpectingly coming across Bayou Lacombe. It seemed to be a local gathering place to watch the canoes, kayaks and fishing boats float by. Funny story.  As we were chatting wih everyone, one local inquired that since we were from California have we ever had crawfish.  We assured him we had our fill and even caught them in Lake Tahoe when camping.  He then asked,  “Do you know where they came from?” As he tells it, “When the Acadians were sent out of Nova Scotia the lobsters missed them so much that they followed them all the way to Louisiana. But the trip took so long and took so much out of them that’s the reason crawdads are so much smaller than lobsters.” Good one.  

Did you know “bayuk” was originally a Choctaw word meaning “slow moving water?” The French gave it their own twist and it’s now known as bayou. Things you learn on a morning ride hanging out at the bayou. 

This afternoon we took an eco tour thru the swamp. It was incredible and exceeded all my expectations.  Our guide, Desi, was a retired game warden who was raised on this particular swamp, Honey Bayou.  It got its named because at one time there was a large number of honey bees here.  Desi did an incredible job educating us on the types of flora, animal life and telling us stories of the bayou. We learned what plants were edible and what could be used for medicine.  He navigated us through narrow little back bayous regaling us with his stories. Think of the Disneyland jungle ride, only it was the real thing.  

We also boated past a Cajun village nestled on the water that has been there for generations. They make their living fishing in the bayou and Gulf. Today was opening day for shrimp season. We saw a shrimp boat heading out. 

The wildlife was pretty spectacular too. Of course lots of gators and turtles...

birds such as  the yellow crowned night heron, blue heron and egret. We also heard a beautiful bird doing its mating call. It makes the trek every year from the Yucatán, some 600 miles, to settle in the bayou for the spring.  I wasn’t able to capture a picture of this fast little fellow, but he was a brilliant little yellow canary... 

 and we had a good time watching the raccoons too.  They put on quite the show begging for food.  I think they’ve seen a swamp tour boat or two. 

Right now it’s 10 pm and we’re hanging out at a local pizza place watching the Warriors.  We just got kicked out so we’re taking our pizza and moving this operation to the beach bar.  Be right back...so the bars closed, but they are letting us hang out to watch the game.  What a game!! Good thing we got the code to get back in the campground.  

Benjamin Patterson is my hero

Fountainbleau State Park, Mandeville, LA

We expected today to be pretty mundane with only a bike ride scheduled.  Turns out it was pretty spectacular in a bunch of ways. First of all, overnight Tropical Storm Alberto decided to take a big turn east so now we really are out of its path.  It definitely makes sense to hang out in Louisiana for awhile.  Next great thing is that the Warriors tied up the series and the best thing of all was meeting up with Benjamin Patterson, but more of that later. 

It rained a bit last night so we were delighted to see sunny blue skies this morning.  We got up early and thought a bike ride on the Tammany Trace while the temperature was still cool would be fun.  We rode to Mandeville and started the day out with a local breakfast.  Believe it or not I got the simple/light breakfast which included poached eggs, bacon and the creamiest grits ever. Louisiana definitely knows how to do grits. Ned got an epic omelet. Okay, ready for our ride. 

There’s a reason Tammany Trace is rated one of the best bike trails.  It’s paved and takes you thru a couple of charming little towns. We enjoyed riding around the sweet little town of Abita Springs.  The spring water really does bubble up out of this fountain and, like our Bitney Springs, you can fill up your water bottles at a nearby watering hole. 

Next to the trail is also the Abita Brewing Company.  Our friend, Tom Dalldorf, mentioned we should stop by.  We took a tour, but didn't stop for a beer cause we were filled up from breakfast and it was still a titsch too early.  

We had been riding for about 15 miles or so when uh-oh....while filming our “one second of the day” video, going over a pretty long bridge, my iphone slipped out of Ned’s hands, bounced on the bridge, and landed in the murky swamp down below. A few choice words were uttered, but we did see the phone peaking up out of the swamp.  I was resigned to the fact that the phone was lost, but Ned was determined to retrieve it.  But how?? We were a good 50 yards on the bridge and it was at least 32 feet high. Ned said he was going to ride into the nearest town and buy a pair of rubber boots and try and retrieve it.  UGH and GROSS.  I hung out on the bridge woefully looking downward at my submerged iphone. Lots of people passed by, no one stopped, and then along came Mr. Benjamin Patterson!! 

He inquired as to why I was just standing on this bridge and wanted to make sure I was okay.  I explained to him my phone woes and he said he was mighty worried about Ned going down into the swamp.  He assured me there were no gators, but it was filled with snakes, poison ivy and God knows what other creatures in all the dank bushes.  He took a big sigh, said “I was a marine, I can do this!” Benjamin let out a rousing “oorah!” and went for it.  About the same time another guy stopped by and decided to help out too.  He was Benjamin’s wing man and would call out to Benjamin where best for him to maneuver. It was so dramatic, epic and my heart stopped a couple of times as Benjamin kept his balance over downed logs. Yep, Mr. Benjamin Patterson saved the day by successfully retrieving my iphone!  And know what else?  The iphone not only still worked, but continued to film the entire submerged adventure for 53 minutes!  I have a film of what goes on in the swamp if anyone is interested.  Thank you so much Benjamin for not only being kind to stop and make sure I was okay, but really going out of your way to help.  Ned arrived after an hour, riding all over town looking for a pair of boots.  Ned found some and offered them to Benjamin, but he declined.  (We did compensate him for a new pair of shoes). 

Well...after that little adventure the Abita Brewing Company suddenly seemed like a much better idea.  It was now mid-afternoon, hot, sunny and humid.  A beer or flight never tasted so good! (Also, shout out to Josh. He always takes my incoherent texts or phone calls with complete calm as I’m talking too fast and making no sense. Thanks for putting up with your kinda over enthusiastic mom). 

Our little bike ride turned into 32 miles. We made another stop on the way to get something cold to enjoy. (Ned rode a lot more than me trying to trace down those boots!).  Here’s Ned enjoying a snowcone and looking a bit tuckered. 

One of the bottles of rum we bought yesterday was Gingeroo, a rum Moscow Mule drink.  Upon finally making it back to the campsite we decided to pop it open and enjoy our good fortune.  

It was still blazing hot and sunny in the late afternoon (and a tropical storm no where in sight) so a good float in Lake Pontchartrain sounded great.  We could care less that the water was about 90 degrees and never got over 3 ft.  Where’s Debi?  Oh yeah, she’s making the victory sign in the far distance.  

New Orleans Redux

Fountainbleau State Park, Mandeville, LA

We had so much fun in New Orleans yesterday we decided to drive across the bridge and be tourists again. Word is there’s a tropical storm headed this way so we figured we might as well get as many outside activities in before we batten down the hatches. It must truly be the calm before the storm because we enjoyed blue skies almost all day.  I think we walked about 10 miles just taking it all in.  We walked along the Mississippi River, thru various districts, wards and neighborhoods.  NOLA is one of the best places for people watching and appreciating the quirky. 

There’s a saying in New Orleans, “If you don’t eat a beignet then you’ll never come back.”  Well that must explain why we seem to always be coming back!  Delish I might add. 

One of our stops was visiting Old New Orleans Rum Distillery, the oldest rum distillery in the U.S. What a great tour.  If you’re ever in New Orleans, I would definitely add this to your list of fun things to do.  It takes a couple of hours, but well worth it.  When you enter the distillery you are greeted with a rum drink.  We had an ice tea spiked with Cajun Spiced Rum. Bob, our tour guide, started out by playing a trivia game about all things rum.  Every person who gets a correct answer gets to take a shot of rum.  Ned and I both got several correct answers and were on our way to having even more fun.  

We learned what’s in rum, how to make it, how it’s aged and stored.  After the tour you are brought back to the tasting room and get to sample 5 different rums.  We only ended up buying 3 bottles - hey we hear this storm is gonna be a doozy so we might as well be prepared. 

We also visited the jazz museum, housed in the old mint building.  I wasn’t that impressed.  My recommendation, forego the jazz museum and instead just wander the streets and take in the live brass bands.  Nothing beats the real thing.  The one thing in the museum I did enjoy was the Black masking as Indians exhibit,  also known as Mardi Gras Indians.  These suits made of feathers and beads were so intricate, colorful and stunning. 

We ended up the day in Treme, 7th Ward under an overpass rocking out to live bands and street food.  We both settled on some homemade fried chicken, collard greens and red beans & rice. Everyone was dancing and singing.  No one can party like New Orleans. 

P.S. Looks like we might have another day of good weather tomorrow before we have to make some decisions on where to go next.  The state parks in Alabama and Florida that we were booked to stay next week have called us.  They are under a mandatory evacuation so we won’t be staying there.  Mmmm, time to have some rum and think on it. 

New Orleans & Mardi Gras

Fountainbleau State Park, Mandeville, LA

We left Grand Isle and headed for New Orleans.  We’ve been here several times before and wanted to experience something a little different. We decided on a behind the scenes tour on the making of the Mardi Gras floats.  It was amazing!! After a really great movie our guide took us through a huge warehouse to see the process in action.

We learned how the floats were designed and saw real artists in the process of sculpting, applying the paper mache and painting. 

It was overwhelming and a bit surreal to walk among these giant creations.  

Did you know that Mardi Gras lasts for 2 weeks and there are 54 parades, each sponsored by a different krewe?  A krewe is a non-profit social club that is responsible for their floats, swag they throw out, and all finances for the parade. It’s a year long endeavor.  As soon as Mardi Gras season is over, they begin the planning for next year.  Some of the krewes date as far back as the 1700 & 1800’s wow! Talk about tradition.  

Mardi Gras World has several warehouses.  We only toured two.  One of the warehouses was a event place with an interesting history.  It was originally a staging area for the gambling boats circa 1980’s.  The owners screwed up and didn’t get a gambling license.  This warehouse sat vacant for 30 years! Someone just bought it and one can now rent it out for events. It looked exactly like Disneyland at night or Pirates of the Caribbean.  I asked, it cost $10,000 to rent out for the night. Mmmm, guess my next party is just going to have to be in our backyard. 

We had planned on riding our bikes from Mardi Gras world to the French Quarter, but the rains came.  What a great excuse to head to Central Grocery and get my favorite all time meal - a muffuletta.  Seriously, best thing ever. Funny story.  We bought the muffuletta and then decided to walk around while eating it.  We were standing under a balcony watching the people go by when a very irate man comes flying out of a restaurant and yells at us. “Don’t you be eating that Central Grocery muffuletta\ in front of our place.  Ours are better and the original!!”  And he shoed us off. Okay, for the record the Central Grocery muffuletta is the original and the BEST.  However, you wouldn’t know it by the competing signs. 

We didnt’ let the rains stop us and decided to have a very romantic stroll through the French Quarter, drinking coffee, and avoiding the puddles. 

Our home for the next 3 days is Fountainbleau State Park in Mandeville.  It’s across Lake Pontchartrain. We took the world’s largest bridge (almost 24 miles) to another world.  Once we got settled into our campsite we decided to explore the park on bikes.  Fortunately, the sun was shining on this side of the lake.  Fountainbleau State Park is gorgeous! It borders Lake Pontchartrain and is dotted with huge oak trees dripping in Spanish Moss.  It houses an old sugar mill and has lots of incredible bike trails.  

One of the reasons we chose this park for Memorial Day weekend was that the Tammany Trace rail trail runs right through it.  This was named the 2017  #1 bike trail.  It is 27.5 miles long and goes through woods, wetlands and villages.  We rode over to the village of Mandeville.  I am in love with this town!  It’s reminds me of Charleston with the elegant mansions looking out at the seawall. There are lots of beautiful tree lined streets and cute little stores, pubs and breweries.  Why do our bike rides always end up at drinking places?  We found a cute beachside hide-away and passed the time with a mojito and pina colada.  

On our drive up from Grand Isle we drove by several local fruit and fish stands.  We stopped, sampled and decided on...alligator sausage.  Guess what is on the menu tonight?