Bezabor: Bike Week, St Augustine, Kennedy Space Center. (This is an updated version for the period through March 5, then new info through today. The original version was posted from Panera Bread Co. in Ocala, FL and has now been deleted. This one was posted from Sunrise Bread Co, Titusville, FL)
Saturday, March 11-
We headed first to the Astronaut Hall of Fame and were first in line when it opened at 0900. The Hall of Fame doesn’t sound all that interesting in concept but it was actually very well done. The first section includes a very complete illustrated timeline of the things going on in the space program on top and events in U.S. history (both political and cultural) on the bottom. There were also lots of artifacts, things like personal possessions and equipment the astronauts used. I enjoyed seeing all the vintage footage of space events covering thirty years… much of which I hadn’t seen before. Then we went into another area where they had ‘simulators’. The gravity simulator was terrific—it takes you on a jet ride as the jet flies at a very low level and then has a problem and recovers at the last second from an emergency spin. We finally left there by 1230 or so and went over to the Visitor’s Center complex where we saw the other movies we hadn’t seen, saw a presentation by astronaut Jack Loumas, toured a full-size shuttle, and saw many static displays of historic equipment and events. We finally left at 1800 and could have used another hour or so to visit.
We then went into Titusville and hooked up to wifi at Sunrise Bakery which was closed for the day but nevertheless had a super signal in the parking lot. We were hungry so only took time to check our email before closing down and heading back to Wal-mart for the night.
Friday, March 10-
Today we headed for the Kennedy Space Center. We didn’t get there until noon but still managed a very full day. We went a little overboard and chose both the Maximum Access Pass as well as the NASA- Behind the Scenes tour. With the options, that added up to $118 for the two of us--- quite a lot of money for us but it gave us access to the Visitor’s Center, the Astronaut Hall of Fame, and the ‘private’ tour. We first saw an IMAX 3D film about walking on the moon then it was off by bus to the launch pads and assembly building. Our guide was Bob, a former NASA engineer who took an early-out and now does these tours in the winter. Bob was great. He was a wealth of knowledge and was great at handling questions. After two and a half hours with Bob, we were dropped at the Saturn V visitor’s center and closed it down, then hung around the main visitor’s center until about six and had our tickets stamped for a return the next day. The tickets are good for up to two consecutive days. We spent the night at the Titusville Wal-mart and it was a relatively quiet night for a Wal-Mart.
Thursday, March 9-
This morning Labashi broke a tooth on a breakfast granola bar so that diverted our plans for awhile. We called our insurance provider back home for a referral to the St. Augustine area and soon obtained a list of dentists to choose from. We chose one on the south side of the city and with an address we knew we could find and told them of our plight. They said to come right over so we got there as soon as we could. Labashi had to fill out several pages of questionnaire but within a half hour of arriving she was called in. A few minutes later she was out—the dentist had advised her that it was going to need a crown and she’d be better off to wait until she got home to deal with it. And there was no charge for her advice or for seeing us!
We soon got back on schedule with our visit to St. Augustine. Labashi had wanted to see the Spanish influence in the area so we went to the Governor’s Museum, the Oldest House in the U.S., and the Spanish Quarter via our bicycles. We took our time with each site and that filled our afternoon very well. As we exited the last one, the St. George Street area was closing down for the day and we headed back to the Faver Dykes campground for the night.
Wednesday, March 8-
Today we did our basic housekeeping tasks, getting things back in order after our kayaking adventure yesterday and taking care of showers, the dump station stuff, and a general cleanup and re-stowing of the van. Then we went back to Daytona to check out the swap meet advertised in bike week literature. I checked my wireless hotspots listing during a stop for ice and found one listed for a restaurant in Ormand Beach but when we got there and fired up the PC there was no wifi. That’s the first time this has happened for us but it’s very understandable. The listing comes from wififreespot.com and they get their info from people reporting the spots to them and there’s no validation or periodic re-verification of the info. So we just had lunch in the parking lot and then headed off to Volusia County Fairgrounds for the swap meet.
The event itself was smaller than I expected but had a great variety of Harley parts, many very old and most in poor shape. It would have been a great event for someone restoring an old Harley and looking for that impossible-to-find part. I was hoping to find some used Concours or KLR650 parts or accessories but that wasn’t in the cards. Afterwards we drove into Daytona Beach and headed up along A1A toward St Augustine. Labashi wanted to shop for a new bikini at a specialty shop she had found while waiting for me to get my Starbucks fix earlier in the week. I’m happy to report that she found the perfect bikini.
On the way north we stopped at a state park campground but they were full. The nice lady explained that they are full most of the year given that they are on the beach and only have thirty-four campgrounds and the non-reservable sites are gone very quickly during Bike Week. We continued north, figuring that we could always head inland 20 miles or so to the Wal-mart at Palatka where we had stayed earlier if we couldn’t find anything else. But the next state park, Faver Dykes State Park, wasn’t so easily accessible for the Bike Week folks. As we entered we saw a ‘Sorry, the campground is full’ sign but we’ve found that doesn’t mean they don’t have a campsite available or won’t let us camp in an overflow area (if they have one) so we thought we might as well try while we were this close. And sure enough they had a site for us, complete with a Reserved sign…they must have been expecting us. As we finished up supper it turned dark but we had a bright moon so we walked the campground road and the road back to the launch ramp. We heard an owl and some kind of very strange sounding bird or spring peeper or something off in the yuccas. At the boat launch we turned on our lights and looked for reflections but saw only a few bright spots reflected back at us— most likely frogs.
Tuesday, 7 March-
Today we took a day off from Bike Week and went kayaking. We took the trip down the Juniper Springs Run. We had a bit of a snafu at the start. The park concessionaire runs what is called a ‘reverse rehaul’ shuttle. What that means is you drop your kayaks and all your paddling gear at the put-in and drive your vehicle to the take-out. A driver brings you back from there to the put-in. That way you end the day at your vehicle rather than having to shuttle both you and your gear back to your vehicle. The other good deal is that you are only shuttling one person, the driver, rather than the driver and the other paddlers in the group, so it’s cheaper—only $6 for me rather than $12 for both Labashi and me and our gear. The only problem was the regular girl was off and a manager was running the show today. She failed to tell me that the shuttle driver would meet me at the take-out, not the put-in. I figured he’d meet me at the put-in where we had just unloaded our gear and while Labashi watched the gear, he’d lead me to the take-out. I had no reason to believe otherwise— they had provided no map or information on where the take-out is and these are often back unmarked dirt roads. So I waited for about a half-hour and went back to check. The manager assured me she had called the guy and he should ‘be there’. After another half-hour I asked again and this time learned where the take-out is and how to get there. Not the best start to the day.
But the trip was a winner, in fact we rank it as our best kayak trip ever. The water was crystal-clear the whole way. The scenery was wonderful—palms and yuccas and live-oaks strewn with Spanish moss. The creek was only a boat-length in width for much of the way and always had a nice current going. We saw lots of turtles sunning themselves and had to pass by within four feet of a BIG alligator sunning himself on the bank with his nose in the water—he had to be at least ten feet long.
Our seven-mile trip took us about five very busy hours. The creek twisted and turned time after time and the current kept trying to sweep our long sea kayaks against the opposite bank so we had to do a lot of paddling to correct. By the time we reached the take-out we were shot for the day.
Afterwards we retired to the Juniper Springs campground for supper. Apparently it rejuvenated us because we felt like taking a walk and walked the campground loops and the nature trail at the Spring. On the way back we stopped to chat with a kid of about 12 or so writing in his journal. Soon Mom and his brother and later Dad came out to talk. Today is the 242nd day of their trip. They too are Canadians from near Toronto. Mom and Dad are teachers on sabbatical and they are home-schooling the boys on this trip. They crossed Canada to BC, down the West Coast with a side trip to Utah, across through Arizona and the southern border states to Florida and they are headed back to Canada next week. They were a delight to talk to. They had an infectious excitement about all the things they’ve seen and had a lot of recommendations for us, particularly in the Everglades. Further along in our walk we noticed a young guy with backpacking gear and no car so we figured he must be hiking the Florida Trail which passes through the park. We asked about trail conditions and learned that some of it is underwater near Hopkins Prairie but otherwise is in good condition. He said he was probably going to have to get off the trail since he thinks he has a brown-recluse spider bite on his foot and it’s too painful to walk. He then asked us if we’d ever heard of the Rainbow People. We guardedly said yes, and he went on to explain that he had never heard of them until this year when he was hiking and ran into the Gathering a month ago and he’s just now leaving--- he said he learned so much there that he just wants to continue walking the Trail to think about all the new, mind-blowing (my words) things he learned at the Gathering. Interesting conversation, that. We think he was a little high while talking with us—but maybe it was the brown-recluse spider talking.
Monday, 6 March-
We went into Daytona today so I could demo-ride some bikes. Labashi was looking forward to a relaxing day in the van, catching up on her trip log and just taking it easy while I took a few rides. We parked in a big open lot behind the Speedway set up for everyone who drove a vehicle other than a motorcycle. While the bikes could park near the displays and, in fact, become part of the show, we had to park in the ‘back forty’ and walk to a tram for a ride to the displays. But that was OK— there were surprisingly few vehicles in the giant grassy field so it gave us a nice place to park the van well away from the busy street and extra-noisy traffic and that gave Labashi some expectation of privacy as well as gated security--- all for free.
I took the tram around to the demo area and since the first area was the Harley area I thought I’d try then new V-Rod with mid-controls (called a Street Rod) and maybe a Buell. I got lucky—when I asked about trying a Street Rod, the girl running the show said she had one in the next group that a guy had asked her to hold for him while he went to get his friend but that was a long time ago and his time just ran out so if I wanted the Street Rod I could have it. I took that one and also scheduled a Buell Ulysses adventure bike for an hour later. These demo rides were done in a group. The only rule was that we could not pass the group leader. As we left the demo area the group leader accelerated hard and we all did the same. Then we took a twenty-minute tour of the roads around the airport, a nice mix of two-lane straight-aways and a few twisty sections for good measure. I liked the Street Rod but it’s too much of a cruiser for my taste—made for going around the peanut circuit and blipping the throttle a lot. The Buell was a 1200 cc bike so had a lot of oomph for an adventure bike but seemed to run rough and the brakes were poor—or maybe I was just expecting too much.
Afterwards, I went looking for another ride but it soon became clear that I had made a mistake in not getting there extra early and scheduling bikes throughout the day. I checked at Triumph, Kawasaki, Moto Guzzi, and Suzuki and it became clear that the interesting bikes were scheduled up quickly and you could get a less interesting one but only if you waited around a couple of hours.
I had noted back at the Harley area that the tour bikes didn’t seem to have a long line so I stopped by there and just as I walked up a bike came in and the girl asked the half-dozen or so of us if anybody wanted that one—a standard Electra-Glide. I jumped at it and enjoyed that ride. In this case you went out on your own, following a course of orange arrows strategically placed at intersections along the way to tell you whether to turn or go on through. Again, it was about a 20-minute ride but it was nice to not have to pay the strictest attention to speed limits or passing zones--- Harley-Rider-in-Training, you know.
As I rolled back in with that one and got off the bike, I heard someone say they’d have to start closing things down for the day soon so I got back in line and they cut it off just behind me. This time I took a fancier version of the Electra Glide, fully dressed out and ready for the interstate.
After the rides I headed back to the van and Labashi was hungry so we had dinner there in the van before heading back out to the National Forest. That night we were invited over to the campfire of the wintering folks. Our new buddy Charley-from-Maine was there and he introduced us to Bonnie, Cy, Henry, and Jane. Henry and Jane are native Netherlanders who emigrated to Canada in the Fifties and their home of record is near Toronto. We didn’t catch where Bonnie and Cy were from but judging by their accent they too are Canadians. They asked what we had been doing and we explained, then we asked what we had missed at the campground today. Turns out the big excitement was the Navy had posted someone to stop traffic from going past the campground. The road leads to a Navy bombing range and the story was the Navy was testing a new sighting device and it’s not working properly yet so it’s too dangerous to drive close to the bombing range fences. We enjoyed our company and headed back to the van at bedtime—about 2100 for these folks.
Sunday, 5 March—
It was COLD last night! The weatherman predicted mid-Forties overnight but when I woke at 3 a.m. I saw it was 33.4. At dawn it was 30.6. Yet by 0830 it was forty and rising fast and the sun was hot enough that I could sit at the picnic table in a short-sleeved shirt. What amazing weather.
We met two of our fellow campers this morning—one whose name I didn’t catch and the other was Charley. Both are full-timers, living at Florida campsites all winter. The first guy was a wealth of information about the National forest and the St. John’s Water District. It has taken us a day or two and this guy’s assistance to realize that there are five different authorities in the area and each has its own infrastructure and rules. There’s the National Forest folks, the State Forest folks, the State Park folks, the St John’s Water District folks, and the Cross-Florida Greenway folks. Each has its own set of maps and set of rules to abide by. The good news is each has facilities available for recreation and it’s not all that hard to figure out whether they are of interest to you.
The people we’ve met out here have had many stories to tell. We’ve seen several hunters running these back roads with dog boxes on the back of their pickups. Yesterday we talked with one who we had seen using a tracking antenna to locate his dogs. When we had been checking out the Farle’s Lake campsite yesterday we had seen three hunting dogs with antennas on their collars wandering the road so when we saw the hunter in the same area later we stopped to tell him we had seen dogs and presumed they were his. This led to a chat about his dogs and his tracking equipment. This was around noon or so when we ran into him and he said he needed to find his dogs and catch a few hours sleep; he had been out since 11 the night before. He said his tracking antenna could pick up his dogs’ radio signals as far as 12 miles away in the right conditions and terrain and could lead him to right up to a dead dog if it came to that. He had six dogs in the box and he was still looking for another nine. He also told us some stories about what he called ‘the rainbow people’, stories that remind me of stories I’d heard in my youth about the ‘gypsies’—itinerant groups of ne’er-do-wells who would steal everything not nailed down and wouldn’t hesitate to stick a screwdriver in you if you crossed them. He told us how they had taken over the nearby campground last year and he wouldn’t have anything to do with them. He also said a hunter friend of his had had a dog approach one of the Rainbow People and the guy took off his radio collar and put it on himself, thinking it was funny. His friend promptly loaded the guy into his dog box and locked him in there for two days, giving him only water, and told him he was going to be there until he found his dog. The story-teller said he told his friend he might get in trouble for doing something like that but his friend, said “No, not me—I’ll bury him first”. But apparently his found his dog before it came to that.
Our next font of local information was the guy who told us about the five authorities governing land in the area. And he too went on to tell us about the Rainbow People and how wicked and mentally unbalanced they are. He says this year they are down at another campsite in the forest called ‘the Block’. He also was a wealth of information about the local fauna. The most dangerous animal in the forest, he says, is the golden recluse spider. He says it puts a stinger deep in your flesh and that injects a painful poison that makes you very sick and if perhaps kills you. But generally people are bitten by them only when they do something dumb like stick their hands in a pile of firewood or brush, he said. He then told us to keep an eye out for the pygmy rattlesnakes. They look like a small pine branch but they curl up in the sun into a coil, generally around oak hammocks. Just give them some space and go around them—no big deal, he said. Then he said he’d better not tell us about the timber rattlers… they’re thicker than your arm and have a nasty disposition—but don’t worry about them, they’re generally found around building foundations and ‘anywhere there’s heat—they like the heat’. He also spoke of water moccasins and said they’d come after you. He claimed to have been bitten twice while swimming in nearby Alexander springs/ “Stay away from the grasses”, he said. His bites caused him to be very sick for a day and sick for a week. But he did offer a way to protect yourself in camp—just pee a circle around your camp and the snakes won’t cross that line. He even gave me tips on how to walk and pee at the same time to make the circle. This guy is living in a pickup truck with a topper. He has an RV rollup-awning attached to the topper and roof and apparently rolls that out for shade when he needs it. He’s a very nice guy and, as I say, a wealth of information.
The next guy we spoke with was Charley from Lincoln, Maine. After our trip to Maine last Fall we had a lot to talk about with him and I think he enjoyed our chat. Charley is an old-timer—probably 75 or so-- who winters here in Florida every year. He had been a truck driver, a Teamster, and he was glad to know I had once been a Teamster too. Charley is living his winters in a little Chrysler mini-van, a 50 cc scooter on a receiver platform on back and a large Sears rooftop carrier on the roof. He doesn’t walk very well; he just hobbles over to visit his buddy on the other side of our little campground. Through the day today, we only saw him doing his chores, reading a bit, and sitting at the picnic table watching the world go by. Charley seemed a little more charitable on the subject of the Rainbow People. He said they have a Gathering every year and the Forest Service assigns them a large camp area. They smoke their mushrooms and do their drugs and for the most part leave others alone but of course there are some bad apples in the bunch and there’s the occasional knifing.
Later that morning we took a walk on the Florida Trail, northbound from Farle’s Lake. The trail is beautiful. We of course were on the lookout for spiders, snakes, alligators, and Rainbow People and didn’t see any of those. But we did come upon a large bear scat in the trail but it was dried out and pretty old.
That afternoon we drove into Ocala to get ice and connect to the internet. We had an early supper at a Panera’s restaurant and then set up the laptop to check our email and I filed a blog entry.
Then we returned to Farle’s Lake and took a walk around 7 p.m, just after dark. We walked southbound and in just a short while came upon a very fresh (and large) bear scat. That was enough of that, particularly with this thick undergrowth all around and us not all that familiar with the local bear population’s tolerance for tourists wandering into their homes after dark. It’s nice to be back in the van writing this!
Saturday, 4 March-
Today was another Bike Week day. We spent most of it at Riverfront Park, where a large crowd was checking out all the bikes and accessory vendors. We found free parking near the center point of the area and that made it nice—we would walk for a while then circle back to the van for a break, then make another loop in a different direction. We also stopped at the Speedway on the way out of town but by that time things were closing up for the day so we headed for the woods. That morning we had checked out the Juniper Springs’ canoeing area. We had a long chat with a ranger there. As he was telling us about the recreational opportunities nearby, he mentioned the Florida Trail. Then he blurted out: “Did you hear about the recent murders?”. It seems that some mentally-challenged individual had bought himself an AK-47 assault rifle and wanted to kill someone with it. So he came to Florida and set himself up along the trail and shot two backpackers and threw their bodies into Hidden Lake. Then he walked out of the forest and hitch-hiked back to his hotel with the gun in a duffel bag. When the news came out about the killings, the guy who had dropped him off at the hotel called the police and they caught him.
The ranger then went on to tell us what a wonderful place Florida’s national forests are for recreation. He and his wife are originally from Wisconsin and have been wintering in Florida for years. It seemed incongruous to be talking about the recreational opportunities just a few minutes after the talk about the grisly murder but of course the same types of things have happened back home on the Appalachian Trail. Statistically, of course, you are very safe to walk both the AT and the FT—but it’s very difficult to reconcile the statistics with what happened to the completely innocent backpackers who just happened to run into the wrong guy.
On our way toward Daytona we also checked out nearby Farle’s Lake campground in the Ocala National Forest and hoped there would still be a spot available by the time we got there. This campground is back in three-and-a-half miles of sand road but, like Delancey Lake, once you get there it’s worth the trip. There’s a nice open, grassy area, pit toilets, and an iron ranger. But the ranger only needs $5 for the night so it’s a good deal. We had also seen a free designated site just off the sand road but when we checked it out we saw a stack of junk in the campsite. The junk was the removable contents of a mini-van, complete with child’s seat, toys, school papers, etc, and the two rear seats from the van….probably the work of thieves who stole the van, dumped the contents and were looking to use the van for hauling. The dates on the child’s papers were the end of January so it didn’t happen long ago. That made up our minds for us--- we decided to move on and thank goodness we did and found Farle’s Lake.
Friday, 3 March-
This morning we headed once again for the Ocala National Forest but a few miles before it we came upon a sign for a visitor’s center for the Cross-Florida Greenway. We had never heard of it but thought we’d check it out. The greenway turns out to have been developed because of an abandoned cross-Florida canal project which started in the 1930’s and was finally abandoned in 1971. It’s a 110-mile-long band of greenspace (water trails, hiking trails, mountain biking trails, and camp sites) across the state and looks very interesting. We decided this would be an excellent area to explore later—but for now we were going to Bike Week. We continued into the Ocala National Forest. Along the way we drove back a dirt road to check out the Delancey Lake campsites and saw that they were virtually empty and cost only $6 a night but then again they are a long way from Daytona-- but they’d serve as a backup if we couldn’t find anything closer. We drove on to the Salt Springs visitor’s center where we bought a map of the Forest and discussed camping possibilities. It looked like Juniper Springs would be about as good as we could expect to do if we weren’t willing to spend $30 a night or more and also listen to lots and lots of motorcycle noise. We made it to Juniper Springs by noon or so and happened to get one of the last camping spots available. The cost was $17 but only one night was available. But that would at least allow us to have showers and, if we wanted, we could paddle Juniper Run, one of the nation’s top five canoeing trips (according to Juniper Springs!). After securing our spot for the night, we drove on into Daytona to get ourselves oriented. We first stopped at the speedway and walked around the ‘fanzone’, checking out all the chopper builders’ displays and those of the accessory vendors. Then we went to the Sunshine Mall for more vendor areas. This one seemed to concentrate on Gold Wings and we were amazed at the variety of gear available for the ‘Wingabago’ (sorry, Clyde!). Then we headed downtown to Main Street. We had to pay $10 parking but were only two blocks from the strip. The strip was a hoot. By that time it was late afternoon and things were getting started for the evening. The bikes were showing off on Main Street (which is closed to anything but bikes) and it was lots of fun. Loud fun, but fun nonetheless. We also happened to be walking along behind a flasher--- not a blinking light but a drunk-out-of-her-mind silly woman who kept dropping one or the other of her bikini cups to anyone who would pay attention. The view over her shoulder (at the crowd!) was hilarious. But it didn’t take long for her to run into a problem—she was dumb enough to flash near a LEO and the last we saw her she was trying to talk her way out of it and he was having none of it. The other silly thing we saw was The Naked Cowboy—the guy who wears a cowboy hat, his tighty-whities and big cowboy hat while strumming a guitar in Manhattan. We had decided there was no way to get a meal on Main Street so had walked a few blocks down to Wendy’s. And while we sat there eating our burgers and watching bikes go by out the window—there went the Naked Cowboy walking along at a fast clip toward Main Street. Walking with him was a young lady with a clipboard and trailing behind was a TV cameraman. We later saw the Cowboy entertaining a group of giggling tourist ladies on Main Street. But it was nice to get out of town and back to our nice, quiet campground at Juniper Springs.
Thursday, 2 March-
After another day of driving we dropped into Jacksonville to find a bookstore to buy a Florida Gazetteer and weren’t having much luck when we happened upon a Starbucks. I asked there while ordering a well-deserved Mocha Frappacino (Affogato style!) and learned there was a bookstore nearby. Good thing we stopped—we wouldn’t have found that hidden-away store on our own. By the time we got out of town and headed down Route 17 for the Ocala National Forest in hopes of finding reasonable camping, it was getting dark. So when we happened upon a Wal-Mart at Palatka, we decided to see if overnight parking was permitted there. As we drove into the lot we saw signs saying overnight parking wasn’t permitted but also saw a security car there so I thought I’d ask. We were happy to learn that while there is a local ordinance forbidding overnight parking, Wal-Mart security says it’s not enforced in practice and in fact is unenforceable because it’s private property so we were welcome to stay. At the edge of the lot was a Chili’s so we bought a take-out meal of fajitas from there and enjoyed that in Mocha Joe--- that kept us from being tempted by the expensive drinks in Chili’s and we could enjoy some of our cheap-but-good box wine with our meal. Livin’ large at the Wal-mart!
Wednesday, 1 March-
We left for our long trip to Florida at 0930 and drove for nine hours, ending up in Lumberton, NC, where we spent the night in the local Wal-mart parking lot. It was noisy but the price was right! When we stopped for gas, I checked my gas mileage and saw we had averaged 16 miles per gallon—not bad for doing much of the trip at 65 miles per hour and carrying the kayaks atop the van. Roads were good and our only hangup was on the Washington beltway—about a half-hour’s delay because of construction on the Wilson bridge south of the city. We had been wondering when we’d see our first clearly-Daytona-bound fellow travelers and it turned out to be the ‘meat-grinder’ area on I-95 just south of DC. We started seeing pickups and vans pulling trailers with two or four custom Harleys and choppers and started noticing enclosed trailers with motorcycle gear stickers.
Tuesday, 28 February-
We finally were able to meet with our accountant to square away taxes for the year today. The rest of the day we finished up our preparation for the trip. That evening we drove up to Wildwood Nature Sanctuary for the fourth presentation of Dauphin County’s winter lecture series. This one was about the bald eagle restoration program in Pennsylvania. We learned that Pennsylvania had only two (known) bald eagle nests in the early Seventies and that number has now grown to 97-plus nests. State officials had relocated eagle pairs from Saskatchewan and that was part of the story. But it was also projects associated with the Clean Air/Clean Water and the Endangered Species Acts which share the credit for this great success. We also learned that state officials are looking for volunteers to monitor eagle nests and also want the public to report locations of nests. With eagles actively building nests now, it’s the best time to spot new ones.
Monday, 27 February-
Today we continued trip prep and prep for our meeting tomorrow with a tax accountant. I did manage to get an hour-and-a-half walk at Pinchot.
Saturday, March 11-
We headed first to the Astronaut Hall of Fame and were first in line when it opened at 0900. The Hall of Fame doesn’t sound all that interesting in concept but it was actually very well done. The first section includes a very complete illustrated timeline of the things going on in the space program on top and events in U.S. history (both political and cultural) on the bottom. There were also lots of artifacts, things like personal possessions and equipment the astronauts used. I enjoyed seeing all the vintage footage of space events covering thirty years… much of which I hadn’t seen before. Then we went into another area where they had ‘simulators’. The gravity simulator was terrific—it takes you on a jet ride as the jet flies at a very low level and then has a problem and recovers at the last second from an emergency spin. We finally left there by 1230 or so and went over to the Visitor’s Center complex where we saw the other movies we hadn’t seen, saw a presentation by astronaut Jack Loumas, toured a full-size shuttle, and saw many static displays of historic equipment and events. We finally left at 1800 and could have used another hour or so to visit.
We then went into Titusville and hooked up to wifi at Sunrise Bakery which was closed for the day but nevertheless had a super signal in the parking lot. We were hungry so only took time to check our email before closing down and heading back to Wal-mart for the night.
Friday, March 10-
Today we headed for the Kennedy Space Center. We didn’t get there until noon but still managed a very full day. We went a little overboard and chose both the Maximum Access Pass as well as the NASA- Behind the Scenes tour. With the options, that added up to $118 for the two of us--- quite a lot of money for us but it gave us access to the Visitor’s Center, the Astronaut Hall of Fame, and the ‘private’ tour. We first saw an IMAX 3D film about walking on the moon then it was off by bus to the launch pads and assembly building. Our guide was Bob, a former NASA engineer who took an early-out and now does these tours in the winter. Bob was great. He was a wealth of knowledge and was great at handling questions. After two and a half hours with Bob, we were dropped at the Saturn V visitor’s center and closed it down, then hung around the main visitor’s center until about six and had our tickets stamped for a return the next day. The tickets are good for up to two consecutive days. We spent the night at the Titusville Wal-mart and it was a relatively quiet night for a Wal-Mart.
Thursday, March 9-
This morning Labashi broke a tooth on a breakfast granola bar so that diverted our plans for awhile. We called our insurance provider back home for a referral to the St. Augustine area and soon obtained a list of dentists to choose from. We chose one on the south side of the city and with an address we knew we could find and told them of our plight. They said to come right over so we got there as soon as we could. Labashi had to fill out several pages of questionnaire but within a half hour of arriving she was called in. A few minutes later she was out—the dentist had advised her that it was going to need a crown and she’d be better off to wait until she got home to deal with it. And there was no charge for her advice or for seeing us!
We soon got back on schedule with our visit to St. Augustine. Labashi had wanted to see the Spanish influence in the area so we went to the Governor’s Museum, the Oldest House in the U.S., and the Spanish Quarter via our bicycles. We took our time with each site and that filled our afternoon very well. As we exited the last one, the St. George Street area was closing down for the day and we headed back to the Faver Dykes campground for the night.
Wednesday, March 8-
Today we did our basic housekeeping tasks, getting things back in order after our kayaking adventure yesterday and taking care of showers, the dump station stuff, and a general cleanup and re-stowing of the van. Then we went back to Daytona to check out the swap meet advertised in bike week literature. I checked my wireless hotspots listing during a stop for ice and found one listed for a restaurant in Ormand Beach but when we got there and fired up the PC there was no wifi. That’s the first time this has happened for us but it’s very understandable. The listing comes from wififreespot.com and they get their info from people reporting the spots to them and there’s no validation or periodic re-verification of the info. So we just had lunch in the parking lot and then headed off to Volusia County Fairgrounds for the swap meet.
The event itself was smaller than I expected but had a great variety of Harley parts, many very old and most in poor shape. It would have been a great event for someone restoring an old Harley and looking for that impossible-to-find part. I was hoping to find some used Concours or KLR650 parts or accessories but that wasn’t in the cards. Afterwards we drove into Daytona Beach and headed up along A1A toward St Augustine. Labashi wanted to shop for a new bikini at a specialty shop she had found while waiting for me to get my Starbucks fix earlier in the week. I’m happy to report that she found the perfect bikini.
On the way north we stopped at a state park campground but they were full. The nice lady explained that they are full most of the year given that they are on the beach and only have thirty-four campgrounds and the non-reservable sites are gone very quickly during Bike Week. We continued north, figuring that we could always head inland 20 miles or so to the Wal-mart at Palatka where we had stayed earlier if we couldn’t find anything else. But the next state park, Faver Dykes State Park, wasn’t so easily accessible for the Bike Week folks. As we entered we saw a ‘Sorry, the campground is full’ sign but we’ve found that doesn’t mean they don’t have a campsite available or won’t let us camp in an overflow area (if they have one) so we thought we might as well try while we were this close. And sure enough they had a site for us, complete with a Reserved sign…they must have been expecting us. As we finished up supper it turned dark but we had a bright moon so we walked the campground road and the road back to the launch ramp. We heard an owl and some kind of very strange sounding bird or spring peeper or something off in the yuccas. At the boat launch we turned on our lights and looked for reflections but saw only a few bright spots reflected back at us— most likely frogs.
Tuesday, 7 March-
Today we took a day off from Bike Week and went kayaking. We took the trip down the Juniper Springs Run. We had a bit of a snafu at the start. The park concessionaire runs what is called a ‘reverse rehaul’ shuttle. What that means is you drop your kayaks and all your paddling gear at the put-in and drive your vehicle to the take-out. A driver brings you back from there to the put-in. That way you end the day at your vehicle rather than having to shuttle both you and your gear back to your vehicle. The other good deal is that you are only shuttling one person, the driver, rather than the driver and the other paddlers in the group, so it’s cheaper—only $6 for me rather than $12 for both Labashi and me and our gear. The only problem was the regular girl was off and a manager was running the show today. She failed to tell me that the shuttle driver would meet me at the take-out, not the put-in. I figured he’d meet me at the put-in where we had just unloaded our gear and while Labashi watched the gear, he’d lead me to the take-out. I had no reason to believe otherwise— they had provided no map or information on where the take-out is and these are often back unmarked dirt roads. So I waited for about a half-hour and went back to check. The manager assured me she had called the guy and he should ‘be there’. After another half-hour I asked again and this time learned where the take-out is and how to get there. Not the best start to the day.
But the trip was a winner, in fact we rank it as our best kayak trip ever. The water was crystal-clear the whole way. The scenery was wonderful—palms and yuccas and live-oaks strewn with Spanish moss. The creek was only a boat-length in width for much of the way and always had a nice current going. We saw lots of turtles sunning themselves and had to pass by within four feet of a BIG alligator sunning himself on the bank with his nose in the water—he had to be at least ten feet long.
Our seven-mile trip took us about five very busy hours. The creek twisted and turned time after time and the current kept trying to sweep our long sea kayaks against the opposite bank so we had to do a lot of paddling to correct. By the time we reached the take-out we were shot for the day.
Afterwards we retired to the Juniper Springs campground for supper. Apparently it rejuvenated us because we felt like taking a walk and walked the campground loops and the nature trail at the Spring. On the way back we stopped to chat with a kid of about 12 or so writing in his journal. Soon Mom and his brother and later Dad came out to talk. Today is the 242nd day of their trip. They too are Canadians from near Toronto. Mom and Dad are teachers on sabbatical and they are home-schooling the boys on this trip. They crossed Canada to BC, down the West Coast with a side trip to Utah, across through Arizona and the southern border states to Florida and they are headed back to Canada next week. They were a delight to talk to. They had an infectious excitement about all the things they’ve seen and had a lot of recommendations for us, particularly in the Everglades. Further along in our walk we noticed a young guy with backpacking gear and no car so we figured he must be hiking the Florida Trail which passes through the park. We asked about trail conditions and learned that some of it is underwater near Hopkins Prairie but otherwise is in good condition. He said he was probably going to have to get off the trail since he thinks he has a brown-recluse spider bite on his foot and it’s too painful to walk. He then asked us if we’d ever heard of the Rainbow People. We guardedly said yes, and he went on to explain that he had never heard of them until this year when he was hiking and ran into the Gathering a month ago and he’s just now leaving--- he said he learned so much there that he just wants to continue walking the Trail to think about all the new, mind-blowing (my words) things he learned at the Gathering. Interesting conversation, that. We think he was a little high while talking with us—but maybe it was the brown-recluse spider talking.
Monday, 6 March-
We went into Daytona today so I could demo-ride some bikes. Labashi was looking forward to a relaxing day in the van, catching up on her trip log and just taking it easy while I took a few rides. We parked in a big open lot behind the Speedway set up for everyone who drove a vehicle other than a motorcycle. While the bikes could park near the displays and, in fact, become part of the show, we had to park in the ‘back forty’ and walk to a tram for a ride to the displays. But that was OK— there were surprisingly few vehicles in the giant grassy field so it gave us a nice place to park the van well away from the busy street and extra-noisy traffic and that gave Labashi some expectation of privacy as well as gated security--- all for free.
I took the tram around to the demo area and since the first area was the Harley area I thought I’d try then new V-Rod with mid-controls (called a Street Rod) and maybe a Buell. I got lucky—when I asked about trying a Street Rod, the girl running the show said she had one in the next group that a guy had asked her to hold for him while he went to get his friend but that was a long time ago and his time just ran out so if I wanted the Street Rod I could have it. I took that one and also scheduled a Buell Ulysses adventure bike for an hour later. These demo rides were done in a group. The only rule was that we could not pass the group leader. As we left the demo area the group leader accelerated hard and we all did the same. Then we took a twenty-minute tour of the roads around the airport, a nice mix of two-lane straight-aways and a few twisty sections for good measure. I liked the Street Rod but it’s too much of a cruiser for my taste—made for going around the peanut circuit and blipping the throttle a lot. The Buell was a 1200 cc bike so had a lot of oomph for an adventure bike but seemed to run rough and the brakes were poor—or maybe I was just expecting too much.
Afterwards, I went looking for another ride but it soon became clear that I had made a mistake in not getting there extra early and scheduling bikes throughout the day. I checked at Triumph, Kawasaki, Moto Guzzi, and Suzuki and it became clear that the interesting bikes were scheduled up quickly and you could get a less interesting one but only if you waited around a couple of hours.
I had noted back at the Harley area that the tour bikes didn’t seem to have a long line so I stopped by there and just as I walked up a bike came in and the girl asked the half-dozen or so of us if anybody wanted that one—a standard Electra-Glide. I jumped at it and enjoyed that ride. In this case you went out on your own, following a course of orange arrows strategically placed at intersections along the way to tell you whether to turn or go on through. Again, it was about a 20-minute ride but it was nice to not have to pay the strictest attention to speed limits or passing zones--- Harley-Rider-in-Training, you know.
As I rolled back in with that one and got off the bike, I heard someone say they’d have to start closing things down for the day soon so I got back in line and they cut it off just behind me. This time I took a fancier version of the Electra Glide, fully dressed out and ready for the interstate.
After the rides I headed back to the van and Labashi was hungry so we had dinner there in the van before heading back out to the National Forest. That night we were invited over to the campfire of the wintering folks. Our new buddy Charley-from-Maine was there and he introduced us to Bonnie, Cy, Henry, and Jane. Henry and Jane are native Netherlanders who emigrated to Canada in the Fifties and their home of record is near Toronto. We didn’t catch where Bonnie and Cy were from but judging by their accent they too are Canadians. They asked what we had been doing and we explained, then we asked what we had missed at the campground today. Turns out the big excitement was the Navy had posted someone to stop traffic from going past the campground. The road leads to a Navy bombing range and the story was the Navy was testing a new sighting device and it’s not working properly yet so it’s too dangerous to drive close to the bombing range fences. We enjoyed our company and headed back to the van at bedtime—about 2100 for these folks.
Sunday, 5 March—
It was COLD last night! The weatherman predicted mid-Forties overnight but when I woke at 3 a.m. I saw it was 33.4. At dawn it was 30.6. Yet by 0830 it was forty and rising fast and the sun was hot enough that I could sit at the picnic table in a short-sleeved shirt. What amazing weather.
We met two of our fellow campers this morning—one whose name I didn’t catch and the other was Charley. Both are full-timers, living at Florida campsites all winter. The first guy was a wealth of information about the National forest and the St. John’s Water District. It has taken us a day or two and this guy’s assistance to realize that there are five different authorities in the area and each has its own infrastructure and rules. There’s the National Forest folks, the State Forest folks, the State Park folks, the St John’s Water District folks, and the Cross-Florida Greenway folks. Each has its own set of maps and set of rules to abide by. The good news is each has facilities available for recreation and it’s not all that hard to figure out whether they are of interest to you.
The people we’ve met out here have had many stories to tell. We’ve seen several hunters running these back roads with dog boxes on the back of their pickups. Yesterday we talked with one who we had seen using a tracking antenna to locate his dogs. When we had been checking out the Farle’s Lake campsite yesterday we had seen three hunting dogs with antennas on their collars wandering the road so when we saw the hunter in the same area later we stopped to tell him we had seen dogs and presumed they were his. This led to a chat about his dogs and his tracking equipment. This was around noon or so when we ran into him and he said he needed to find his dogs and catch a few hours sleep; he had been out since 11 the night before. He said his tracking antenna could pick up his dogs’ radio signals as far as 12 miles away in the right conditions and terrain and could lead him to right up to a dead dog if it came to that. He had six dogs in the box and he was still looking for another nine. He also told us some stories about what he called ‘the rainbow people’, stories that remind me of stories I’d heard in my youth about the ‘gypsies’—itinerant groups of ne’er-do-wells who would steal everything not nailed down and wouldn’t hesitate to stick a screwdriver in you if you crossed them. He told us how they had taken over the nearby campground last year and he wouldn’t have anything to do with them. He also said a hunter friend of his had had a dog approach one of the Rainbow People and the guy took off his radio collar and put it on himself, thinking it was funny. His friend promptly loaded the guy into his dog box and locked him in there for two days, giving him only water, and told him he was going to be there until he found his dog. The story-teller said he told his friend he might get in trouble for doing something like that but his friend, said “No, not me—I’ll bury him first”. But apparently his found his dog before it came to that.
Our next font of local information was the guy who told us about the five authorities governing land in the area. And he too went on to tell us about the Rainbow People and how wicked and mentally unbalanced they are. He says this year they are down at another campsite in the forest called ‘the Block’. He also was a wealth of information about the local fauna. The most dangerous animal in the forest, he says, is the golden recluse spider. He says it puts a stinger deep in your flesh and that injects a painful poison that makes you very sick and if perhaps kills you. But generally people are bitten by them only when they do something dumb like stick their hands in a pile of firewood or brush, he said. He then told us to keep an eye out for the pygmy rattlesnakes. They look like a small pine branch but they curl up in the sun into a coil, generally around oak hammocks. Just give them some space and go around them—no big deal, he said. Then he said he’d better not tell us about the timber rattlers… they’re thicker than your arm and have a nasty disposition—but don’t worry about them, they’re generally found around building foundations and ‘anywhere there’s heat—they like the heat’. He also spoke of water moccasins and said they’d come after you. He claimed to have been bitten twice while swimming in nearby Alexander springs/ “Stay away from the grasses”, he said. His bites caused him to be very sick for a day and sick for a week. But he did offer a way to protect yourself in camp—just pee a circle around your camp and the snakes won’t cross that line. He even gave me tips on how to walk and pee at the same time to make the circle. This guy is living in a pickup truck with a topper. He has an RV rollup-awning attached to the topper and roof and apparently rolls that out for shade when he needs it. He’s a very nice guy and, as I say, a wealth of information.
The next guy we spoke with was Charley from Lincoln, Maine. After our trip to Maine last Fall we had a lot to talk about with him and I think he enjoyed our chat. Charley is an old-timer—probably 75 or so-- who winters here in Florida every year. He had been a truck driver, a Teamster, and he was glad to know I had once been a Teamster too. Charley is living his winters in a little Chrysler mini-van, a 50 cc scooter on a receiver platform on back and a large Sears rooftop carrier on the roof. He doesn’t walk very well; he just hobbles over to visit his buddy on the other side of our little campground. Through the day today, we only saw him doing his chores, reading a bit, and sitting at the picnic table watching the world go by. Charley seemed a little more charitable on the subject of the Rainbow People. He said they have a Gathering every year and the Forest Service assigns them a large camp area. They smoke their mushrooms and do their drugs and for the most part leave others alone but of course there are some bad apples in the bunch and there’s the occasional knifing.
Later that morning we took a walk on the Florida Trail, northbound from Farle’s Lake. The trail is beautiful. We of course were on the lookout for spiders, snakes, alligators, and Rainbow People and didn’t see any of those. But we did come upon a large bear scat in the trail but it was dried out and pretty old.
That afternoon we drove into Ocala to get ice and connect to the internet. We had an early supper at a Panera’s restaurant and then set up the laptop to check our email and I filed a blog entry.
Then we returned to Farle’s Lake and took a walk around 7 p.m, just after dark. We walked southbound and in just a short while came upon a very fresh (and large) bear scat. That was enough of that, particularly with this thick undergrowth all around and us not all that familiar with the local bear population’s tolerance for tourists wandering into their homes after dark. It’s nice to be back in the van writing this!
Saturday, 4 March-
Today was another Bike Week day. We spent most of it at Riverfront Park, where a large crowd was checking out all the bikes and accessory vendors. We found free parking near the center point of the area and that made it nice—we would walk for a while then circle back to the van for a break, then make another loop in a different direction. We also stopped at the Speedway on the way out of town but by that time things were closing up for the day so we headed for the woods. That morning we had checked out the Juniper Springs’ canoeing area. We had a long chat with a ranger there. As he was telling us about the recreational opportunities nearby, he mentioned the Florida Trail. Then he blurted out: “Did you hear about the recent murders?”. It seems that some mentally-challenged individual had bought himself an AK-47 assault rifle and wanted to kill someone with it. So he came to Florida and set himself up along the trail and shot two backpackers and threw their bodies into Hidden Lake. Then he walked out of the forest and hitch-hiked back to his hotel with the gun in a duffel bag. When the news came out about the killings, the guy who had dropped him off at the hotel called the police and they caught him.
The ranger then went on to tell us what a wonderful place Florida’s national forests are for recreation. He and his wife are originally from Wisconsin and have been wintering in Florida for years. It seemed incongruous to be talking about the recreational opportunities just a few minutes after the talk about the grisly murder but of course the same types of things have happened back home on the Appalachian Trail. Statistically, of course, you are very safe to walk both the AT and the FT—but it’s very difficult to reconcile the statistics with what happened to the completely innocent backpackers who just happened to run into the wrong guy.
On our way toward Daytona we also checked out nearby Farle’s Lake campground in the Ocala National Forest and hoped there would still be a spot available by the time we got there. This campground is back in three-and-a-half miles of sand road but, like Delancey Lake, once you get there it’s worth the trip. There’s a nice open, grassy area, pit toilets, and an iron ranger. But the ranger only needs $5 for the night so it’s a good deal. We had also seen a free designated site just off the sand road but when we checked it out we saw a stack of junk in the campsite. The junk was the removable contents of a mini-van, complete with child’s seat, toys, school papers, etc, and the two rear seats from the van….probably the work of thieves who stole the van, dumped the contents and were looking to use the van for hauling. The dates on the child’s papers were the end of January so it didn’t happen long ago. That made up our minds for us--- we decided to move on and thank goodness we did and found Farle’s Lake.
Friday, 3 March-
This morning we headed once again for the Ocala National Forest but a few miles before it we came upon a sign for a visitor’s center for the Cross-Florida Greenway. We had never heard of it but thought we’d check it out. The greenway turns out to have been developed because of an abandoned cross-Florida canal project which started in the 1930’s and was finally abandoned in 1971. It’s a 110-mile-long band of greenspace (water trails, hiking trails, mountain biking trails, and camp sites) across the state and looks very interesting. We decided this would be an excellent area to explore later—but for now we were going to Bike Week. We continued into the Ocala National Forest. Along the way we drove back a dirt road to check out the Delancey Lake campsites and saw that they were virtually empty and cost only $6 a night but then again they are a long way from Daytona-- but they’d serve as a backup if we couldn’t find anything closer. We drove on to the Salt Springs visitor’s center where we bought a map of the Forest and discussed camping possibilities. It looked like Juniper Springs would be about as good as we could expect to do if we weren’t willing to spend $30 a night or more and also listen to lots and lots of motorcycle noise. We made it to Juniper Springs by noon or so and happened to get one of the last camping spots available. The cost was $17 but only one night was available. But that would at least allow us to have showers and, if we wanted, we could paddle Juniper Run, one of the nation’s top five canoeing trips (according to Juniper Springs!). After securing our spot for the night, we drove on into Daytona to get ourselves oriented. We first stopped at the speedway and walked around the ‘fanzone’, checking out all the chopper builders’ displays and those of the accessory vendors. Then we went to the Sunshine Mall for more vendor areas. This one seemed to concentrate on Gold Wings and we were amazed at the variety of gear available for the ‘Wingabago’ (sorry, Clyde!). Then we headed downtown to Main Street. We had to pay $10 parking but were only two blocks from the strip. The strip was a hoot. By that time it was late afternoon and things were getting started for the evening. The bikes were showing off on Main Street (which is closed to anything but bikes) and it was lots of fun. Loud fun, but fun nonetheless. We also happened to be walking along behind a flasher--- not a blinking light but a drunk-out-of-her-mind silly woman who kept dropping one or the other of her bikini cups to anyone who would pay attention. The view over her shoulder (at the crowd!) was hilarious. But it didn’t take long for her to run into a problem—she was dumb enough to flash near a LEO and the last we saw her she was trying to talk her way out of it and he was having none of it. The other silly thing we saw was The Naked Cowboy—the guy who wears a cowboy hat, his tighty-whities and big cowboy hat while strumming a guitar in Manhattan. We had decided there was no way to get a meal on Main Street so had walked a few blocks down to Wendy’s. And while we sat there eating our burgers and watching bikes go by out the window—there went the Naked Cowboy walking along at a fast clip toward Main Street. Walking with him was a young lady with a clipboard and trailing behind was a TV cameraman. We later saw the Cowboy entertaining a group of giggling tourist ladies on Main Street. But it was nice to get out of town and back to our nice, quiet campground at Juniper Springs.
Thursday, 2 March-
After another day of driving we dropped into Jacksonville to find a bookstore to buy a Florida Gazetteer and weren’t having much luck when we happened upon a Starbucks. I asked there while ordering a well-deserved Mocha Frappacino (Affogato style!) and learned there was a bookstore nearby. Good thing we stopped—we wouldn’t have found that hidden-away store on our own. By the time we got out of town and headed down Route 17 for the Ocala National Forest in hopes of finding reasonable camping, it was getting dark. So when we happened upon a Wal-Mart at Palatka, we decided to see if overnight parking was permitted there. As we drove into the lot we saw signs saying overnight parking wasn’t permitted but also saw a security car there so I thought I’d ask. We were happy to learn that while there is a local ordinance forbidding overnight parking, Wal-Mart security says it’s not enforced in practice and in fact is unenforceable because it’s private property so we were welcome to stay. At the edge of the lot was a Chili’s so we bought a take-out meal of fajitas from there and enjoyed that in Mocha Joe--- that kept us from being tempted by the expensive drinks in Chili’s and we could enjoy some of our cheap-but-good box wine with our meal. Livin’ large at the Wal-mart!
Wednesday, 1 March-
We left for our long trip to Florida at 0930 and drove for nine hours, ending up in Lumberton, NC, where we spent the night in the local Wal-mart parking lot. It was noisy but the price was right! When we stopped for gas, I checked my gas mileage and saw we had averaged 16 miles per gallon—not bad for doing much of the trip at 65 miles per hour and carrying the kayaks atop the van. Roads were good and our only hangup was on the Washington beltway—about a half-hour’s delay because of construction on the Wilson bridge south of the city. We had been wondering when we’d see our first clearly-Daytona-bound fellow travelers and it turned out to be the ‘meat-grinder’ area on I-95 just south of DC. We started seeing pickups and vans pulling trailers with two or four custom Harleys and choppers and started noticing enclosed trailers with motorcycle gear stickers.
Tuesday, 28 February-
We finally were able to meet with our accountant to square away taxes for the year today. The rest of the day we finished up our preparation for the trip. That evening we drove up to Wildwood Nature Sanctuary for the fourth presentation of Dauphin County’s winter lecture series. This one was about the bald eagle restoration program in Pennsylvania. We learned that Pennsylvania had only two (known) bald eagle nests in the early Seventies and that number has now grown to 97-plus nests. State officials had relocated eagle pairs from Saskatchewan and that was part of the story. But it was also projects associated with the Clean Air/Clean Water and the Endangered Species Acts which share the credit for this great success. We also learned that state officials are looking for volunteers to monitor eagle nests and also want the public to report locations of nests. With eagles actively building nests now, it’s the best time to spot new ones.
Monday, 27 February-
Today we continued trip prep and prep for our meeting tomorrow with a tax accountant. I did manage to get an hour-and-a-half walk at Pinchot.
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 09:09
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home