Click on a photo to enlarge it.
After going on the internet for an hour, we drove back onto the mainland and headed further north. We stopped at an
RV centre on the way and had a look at some of the new models on sale. Some of them are huge! And they have everything
a normal household has - unbelievable. They also have unbelievable price tags! (Sorry Winnie, but you´re stuck with
us for a while!) We bought some new interior light bulbs ( the last of the big spenders!) and then drove through
Punta Gorda, which was hit really hard by hurricane Charlie when it turned inland. We stopped at Siesta Beach,
Kirstens favourite beach in Florida, to watch the sunset.
The next day, we got an early start and went to Myakka State Park. We booked into the campground for the night and
then went to the visitor centre. The centre was do-it-yourself style, and we went into the theatre to watch various
short videos. You have to keep getting up and pressing the button for the next one! The first one we chose had really
loud classical music that boomed out! We nearly bounced out of our seats! Helen was so impressed that after we´d
watched all the video sequences, she pressed the button to replay the first one again! You probably heard it
yourselves!
After breakfast, we drove along the scenic drive for about 4 to 5 hours. We saw lots of alligators, birds, wildlife
and we even got to see an otter - he was really cute! We also walked various trails and went along the canopy walk.
We spent the evening putting our electricity to good use by working on the computer and baking a cake! We seem to be
eating rather a lot of cake lately - or maybe its because there are three of us!
Myakka State Park.
After doing a 2 hour walk on Wednesday, we left the State Park and drove back to Siesta Beach for a few photos. Then
we drove further north and stopped at another beach along a string of islands just off the coast.
On Thursday, we drove over a toll bridge which looked really impressive, and went to Fort De Soto Park. The
park is called the "Jewel" in the county park system and gets a lot of visitors, including someone showing off his
home made motorbike!
We had to pay a number of tolls to get to see the park but once we got there, everything was free! It´s a lovely
little park with a lot of beaches where Kirsten and Andrea went swimming, and also has a fort which we walked around
and where Helen was put behind bars!
We spent a few hours in the park and then drove along the coast and stopped at Don Cesar, a posh hotel. Well, we
didn´t stop the night of course! We only wanted a few photos! Then we drove to St. Petersburg and spent the night on
the car park of a Chinese supermarket, where we stocked up on various sauces!
On Friday, we drove into St. Petersburg and looked for a parking space. We found a car park for the "Sunnyside" centre
and Helen went inside to find out if we could park there. She walked in on an aerobic session for elderly people with
walking sticks and walking frames, who were busy lifting up, first their right legs and then their left legs, trying
to follow the instructions from a very large, overweight man on the "stage".
After resisting the urge to join in, Helen walked to the reception to ask about parking and was told we could park for
the whole day there for free. Wonderful! So we walked into downtown St. Pete´s, as the locals call it, and found it to
be eerily empty for a Friday morning. Hardly any of the shops were open and there were hardly any people around.
We walked down to the pier to have a look around and then got caught in quite a heavy downpour on the way back. So much
for St Pete´s being called the "Sunshine City". There are supposed to be 365 days of sunshine a year! And, on any days
when it rains, the newspapers are supposed to be free! We jumped underneath some trees to try and keep ourselves dry,
but found that they weren´t really the best "umbrella" trees!
Finally, during a break in the rain, we walked back to the shops and asked someone if it was a holiday, as the shops
were closed and there weren´t any people around. The answer was "Maybe it's the weather!"
When we tried to get our "free" newspaper, we were told that they´d stopped it - probably because the newspaper went
out of business! Well maybe that´s just the way it is in St. Petersburg - not exactly the most exciting place we´ve visited!
After using the internet at the local library and retrieving Winnie, we drove to Clearwater, to visit David and Mina.
We met them on a Wal-mart car park in Montreal, and gave them our tourist passes for the underground and buses. There
was still one day left on our three day passes but we were leaving the next day and didn´t need them anymore. So we
knocked on their door and asked if they could use them. We ended up chatting for hours, they gave us maps for Quebec
and invited us to stay with them whenever we were in Florida. So we went to visit them.
It was good to see them again and we chatted with them for a few hours. They gave us a few tips about Clearwater pier
which we wanted to go and see that evening whilst they were out. So just after 5pm, we drove to the pier and got there
just in time to see the sunset. Then we went to Frenchies where we all had Grouper sandwiches (a type of white fish),
which were very good, as Mina said they were!
We drove back to David and Mina´s and parked up on their driveway. They had even put out an extension so we could plug
in and given us a key so we could use their shower! (We´ve said this before, but when you own an RV you are buying into
one large happy family!)
On Saturday, we had to say goodbye to David and Mina. We would have liked to stay longer but Andrea had to fly out from
Orlando in two days time so we were unfortunately on a time schedule. At least we had a bit of time to talk to our hosts
and we also found out that David had written a book about the time he spent walking the Appalachian Trail which is 2,160
miles long and runs from Georgia in the South to Maine in the North! The book is about to go into print and has some
wonderful hand drawn illustrations which were done by Mina.
The actual title is "Travel with Artsy and Twinkle Toes on the A.T." Apparently, everyone who does the Trail has to have
a trail name - Artsy is Mina because she´s an artist in her own right as well as being an art teacher; and Twinkle Toes
is David because he loves ballroom dancing!
It took us a while to leave our friends as we had to get our wood blocks out again to get us off their drive without doing
serious damage to our bikes and bike rack at the back! But we finally made it and then had to get to a post office to
package up some Christmas presents for Helen to send off and also went to a camping supplies store to try and get some
more gas cartridges for our gas lamp.
Next on the list was Tarpon Springs where we learned all about sponges which are actually living animals that are found
in the sea all around this area, and how a lot of Greeks came over to make a living from them. Consequently, there happened
to be a few Greek restaurants around which we couldn´t resist. Well, Helen had to buy some "Galaktobouriko" (excuse my French!)
which is basically a custard slice, Greek style and extremely yummy!
On Sunday, we drove to Homosassa Springs and booked into a campground there. After a breakfast of pancakes, we walked 1
mile to get to Homosassa Springs State Park where we spent almost 7 hours and had a great time.
The park is only small but there is a 1 mile trail that takes you to see all the animals they have there. We saw a hippo,
otters, a bobcat, cougars, 2 black bears and lots of pelicans, egrets, roseate spoonbills, flamingos, white pelicans, great
blue herons, just to name but a few! The park is actually a refuge which means that all the animals there are injured and
are being looked after as they wouldn´t survive in the wild.
We went to a "Wildlife Encounter" where the speaker was a volunteer. Unfortunately, Irene the speaker, must have been at least
80 years old and had such a shaky voice that she was very difficult to listen to. She was talking about box turtles and was
holding one in her hands as she spoke. Unfortunately, Irene not only had a shaky voice but she was also shaking a great deal.
The poor turtle in her hands was consequently shaken around for 15 minutes!! When Irene went to put the turtle back and get
another animal, we took the opportunity to leave the seating area without making it too obvious!
Then we went to see the manatees in the underwater observatory. Now that was impressive. The manatees look huge - of course you
don´t normally get to see them except for their nostrils. There were also hundreds of fish including some really large barracudas.
We went back outside to see the manatees being fed and then went back to the underwater observatory to get a birds eye view of
the manatees eating cabbage and using their fins to hold the cabbage in their mouths. There were so many of them it was difficult
to get shots, especially through the thick glass. Then it was time to feed us!! So we went for hotdogs and burgers at the café
and then chocolate cake that we had brought with us.
Manatees at Homosassa Springs State Park.
Afterwards we went to the next "Wildlife Encounter". It was Irene again and she was talking about the alligators and crocodiles
although she was due to feed "Lucifer" the hippo who was in the pool next door. So we watched Lucifer who got quite impatient and
was obviously hungry. All of a sudden he opened his massive mouth really wide and splashed around in the water to tell Irene to
hurry up!!
So Irene came over and fed him some water melon. As a special thank you, Lucifer got out of his pool, pee´d up against the back
wall and at the same time used his tail to splash the pee all over the place! The people standing behind the fence had to quickly
get out of the way! After he´d finished going to the toilet, Lucifer turned to look at the people who´d got splashed and you could
see the smile on his face!!
Lucifer at Homosassa Springs State Park.
We took a short boat ride across to the other visitor centre where Kirsten and Andrea spent most of the time trying to find a
phone. Then we rode back with the tram and went to see Lucifer the star again but it looked like he was having a snooze in the
water. Not surprising he´s tired after all the excitement! Then we went to watch the bobcat and cougars for a while before walking
the 1 mile back to the campground.
Cougars at Homosassa Springs State Park.
Otters at Homosassa Springs State Park.
Later we walked to the only restaurant in the area to go for a meal as it was Andrea´s birthday. It was a bit of a dump, a real
spit and sawdust place. It also seemed like half the menu was not on offer tonight! When we made our order, you could actually see
the woman in the kitchen shaking her head disapprovingly - how dare someone want to eat here!! Well it was certainly a memorable
birthday!
