Canoeing with Alligator, Manatees, Assorted Birds and Turtles

Wed Dec 4th. 

Today we passed 5,000 miles on Our V odometer. (Not all from this trip.)

Rented a canoe from TNT Hideaway for the Wakulla River, south of Wakulla Springs State Park.

The great thing about canoeing this time of year is that we had the river to ourselves.

Assorted birds, turtles, and views

Alligator!

Two Manatees! Mother and child? They swam under our canoe! Twice! 

After the canoe trip, we still had a little energy left over for the St Marks National Wildlife Refuge

Thurs Nov 28 to Tues Dec 3rd - Tallahassee - Mail on the Road

Highlights

Our first mail delivery, at Chabad of the Panhandle. Thanks Aryeh for mailing us our absentee ballots! Thanks Rabbi Oirechman and Chanie for accepting our mail delivery, letting us camp in your parking lot, and having us for meals on shabbos!  

Canopy roads 

Maclay Gardens

Various bike rides

Fri Nov, 29th - Tallahassee, Capital of Florida!

Downtown was deserted on Black Friday. We got a parking spot right across from the state capitol building.

The old state capital building was converted into a history museum, after narrowly avoiding demolition. The new capital building was constructed directly behind it.

Excellent museum. We felt like we were on a Norpac mission.

Remember "Hanging Chads?"

 A nice addition to Our V

Thanksgiving at Walmart!

Thursday, Thanksgiving evening to Black Friday we slept over at the Walmart in Crawfordville, FL. A unique experience. Add it to your bucket list!

Many Walmarts allow free overnight parking for RVs and trucks.  Which brought us to the Walmart in Crawfordville, FL, Thanksgiving evening. That particular Walmart actually is not one of the Walmarts that allows overnight parking (it used to) but we figured we wouldn’t be asked to leave that particular night, and we weren’t.

Here are the highlights:

It was hard to find a parking space.

Entertainment was provided - Around 6pm, we attended the “Post Thanksgiving Dinner / Pre Black Friday” shopping extravaganza. TV’s were on sale and selling like hotcakes! Crowd management was a work of art. Cart flow was restricted with Disney style lines at the checkout. There were five police cars outside and cops all over the store inside, but fortunately (or maybe because of the police presence,) no riots broke out. 

We managed to bag a USB-C cable ($3!), a half gallon of milk, a carton of Graeter's mint chocolate chip ice cream, and a box of Wheat Chex. Maybe also some bananas. 

Total cost - $10.71 
The experience - Priceless.

The parking lot was much less crowded the next morning.

Nov 28th - Thanksgiving at Wakulla Springs State Park - I Am Knee High to a Cyprus

Wakulla Springs State Park. The first spring we will see on this trip. Many, many more to come...

I thought this place was going to be a great big tourist trap, which it was, but it was also great.

It was very crowded because there was a big Thanksgiving brunch/dinner in the fancy Wakulla Springs Lodge. We were our usual shlumpy selves and everyone else was dressed up. (It was interesting what some of these folks considered dressing up.)

Excellent Ranger hour long narrated boat ride over the spring and a part of the Wakulla River. 

The water in the spring comes from a cave 110 feet below the surface. Until about 30 years ago, the water had been crystal clear, the boats had been glass bottomed and you could see the mastodon bones at the bottom of the spring. Now the water is murky. This is mainly due to pollution from Tallahassee, such as fertilizer runoff.

But we saw a great of assortment of birds, the 1st (also 2^nd and 3^rd) alligators of this trip, and a manatee!

After the boat ride, we walked through a cypress forest on the Wakulla Springs Trail. So cool! Cypress trunks have buttressed bases and are surrounded by “knees”.  

Thanksgiving evening to Black Friday we slept over at a Walmart. More on that on the next post.