A Walk in the Park

 Denny and I are staying at a campground that's far from shopping, museums, golf courses, attractions, activities--well, pretty much everything.  We're here to visit with friends who are workamping for the season at this very quiet, very new campground that has little going for it other than a great view of the night sky and nice sized camp sites.  After two weeks here of a promised month long stay, the two of us just had to get out to do something so I picked a morning drive to Manatee Springs State Park, about 55 miles away.  The storms that had been predicted for the day were passing well north of us and I thought it was a good time to take advantage of a rare warm day.

 

A six dollar entry fee allows you access to several miles of biking/hiking trails as well as the opportunity to scuba dive.  The park is home to one of the largest fresh water springs in Florida; between 35 and 150 million gallons of water flow from the spring each day.  The water is crystal clear and there is a system of aquatic caves in the limestone below the water.

A handicap accessible boardwalk leads out to the Suwannee River where the manatees gather to feed.  Cypress trees and tall pines line the walkway from the beginning to the spring to the outlet at the Suwannee.  There's even an area roped off for swimmers for those brave enough for the cool, clear water--and the alligators that may lurk in the area.  Although today the only carnivorous types we found were the black vultures

Better eyes than ours spotted two young deer resting far back in the trees.  The older was well camouflaged with a coloring that was the same dull brown of the trees while this younger fawn was a richer brown and a bit easier to see, especially once he stood up to watch us all watching him.

But my primary reason for coming was to see the manatees.  And we did see a couple, but they were about 100 yards out from us in the wind-whipped waters which made them difficult to see.  When the sun came out and the wind slowed for a moment you could pick out their shape as they rose to the surface to breathe but once the water got rough again the manatees blended in as just a pale shape.

So I've cheated and included a couple of shots from our visit to the Homasassa Springs Wildlife State Park from a few years ago.  There the waters of the Homasassa River are shallower so I was able to get a better shot of these gentle creatures.  Click to enbiggen 'em, folks.

Below is a manatee rolling onto his side.  They seem to like to interact with humans, although this has a downside; many hundreds are gouged and maimed by boat propellers annually.

 Of course, part of our fun today was running into a young couple who are taking a year off from their everyday life and traveling by RV with their two young children.  The mother is homeschooling the kids, using their travels for the geology, history and geography lessons.  So Denny and I offered our suggestions of places they might like to see or the kids would enjoy (noticing a few eavesdroppers at the same time ;))  They were thrilled with the information and we were glad to be able to encourage their interest in the RV lifestyle.

This park does have a few water and electric campsites tucked away in the trees.  It's a beautifully quiet park this time of year and a nice place to spend a few hours to reflect, watch for manatees, swim, fish, hike or just sit and watch the aquatic plants wave in the clear spring water.

Just pick a day when the wind isn't blowing.  Sigh.

Wandering the Ruins

Due to the fact that my strained back muscle was still giving me fits Denny and I limited our time in Flagler Beach to exploring the A1A, puttering around doing odd jobs on and in The Beast and finally driving about a mile and a half down the road to see the Bulow Plantation Ruins State Park.

The entry fee is $4 per vehicle for the park. There are a couple of nature trails and a canoe launch on the grounds as well as the ruins of the Bulow Plantation to explore but it's not a huge park. The path leading to the sugar mill allows you to see what the land looked like when Charles Bulow purchased his 4600+ acres of land to build his plantation. His slaves cleared 2200 acres and planted cotton, sugar cane, rice and indigo. As we walked the nature trail to the sugar mill ruins I couldn't help but be awed by the incredible amount of hard work the slaves would have had to clear such huge trees and large amounts of brush and palmettos to be able to plant fields of cotton. There are only a few limestone blocks left in the area of the slave housing; it is said that Major Bulow owned 159 slaves who were housed in 46 cabins that measured 12 feet by 16 feet and that the slaves were allowed to have gardens for growing their own food. All of this was considering treating them well by the standards of the day. Major Bulow himself died only two years after the plantation was built and the grounds planted and his 17 year old son took over the reins of the business upon Major Bulow's death, successfully running the plantation until the start of the Second Seminole Indian War.
The path to the sugar mill is about 1/4 mile long, although you can also drive to the site. There are plaques that explain what you are seeing and what process of the sugar cane extraction took place in which area. The grinding mechanism was operated by a steam engine so the mill was quite modern for its time.
An artist's interpretation of what the sugar mill originally looked like.

During the time of the plantation's operation, there was unrest among the local tribes of the Seminole Indian Nation over the government's treatment of them and in not honoring treaties. When the government attempted to force the Seminoles into reservations west of the Mississippi River, the Indians rebelled and the war started. Bulow Plantation was taken over by army troups but they soon withdrew from the plantation due to the soldiers falling ill with dysentery and yellow fever. The Seminoles then burned all the local plantations, including Bulow Plantation and its mill. The land once again looks as it did when the Indians lived there as all that's left of the plantation house are the remnants of the support pillars at the four corners of the house. You can see them in the picture below; they are the four slender white posts within the fence. Denny and I measured it off--the house would have been 40 feet wide by 60 feet long. Not a Tara, to be sure.To the rear of the plantation house was Bulow Creek. The creek was used to ship the cotton, indigo, molasses and sugar down to the creek to the Halifax River on Bulow's barges. From there they proceeded to Mosquito Inlet (now called Ponce Inlet) and on to the Caribbean and the east coast. Supposedly John Audobon came here to study native Florida birds which was considered unusual as most plantation owners would have considered Audobon's work as trivial and non-productive. The boat slips still exist because Bulow lined them with the empty ale and wine bottles from house parties which kept the creek banks intact. And finally, simply because it intrigued me, are three blurry photographs of a chamleon. I was trying to focus in on him as he ran up the tree from the ground but quickly realized that he was changed color as I snapped away. He went from lime green to mottled brown in less than 15 seconds. He actually became much darker in color, but I stopped after the three shots when the camera wouldn't focus quickly enough. Mother Nature is amazing.