Adventure Adventure.

Our Location today is Mims, Florida.

The weather forecast called for showers through the night with more showers changing to thunderstorms this afternoon. Boy are we ever glad we’re in Florida and listened to that park host’s advice. We slept with the windows open all night and woke up to sunny skies. It didn’t take long to head out on our first adventure of the day.

 

We headed towards Titusville so we could drive through the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Since we have limited time left in this area we are trying to do a quick survey of the area so that if ever we are back we’ll know what we really want to dwell on.

Female Osprey Fixing Nest

Male Osprey Protecting the Nest.

Great Heron

We stopped at the first information booth in the park where we managed to get additional printouts that would help us along our way. We also managed to catch site of another Osprey Nest atop a power pole with the mother fine tuning the nest while the father seemed to be keeping a protective eye from three poles down the road. As I was photographing them a gentleman sitting in his car with binoculars pointed a Great Heron in a tree not far away. This caused me to do much more picture taking.

We continued through the Refuge keeping sharp eyes peeled for anything we could see without going into the areas we had to pay to access. We were in awe at the raw beauty that nature had to offer us but suddenly felt shocked at the devastation when we came upon areas that had been burnt by prescribed burns.

Pelican

We stopped at the Manatee Observation Area and weren’t surprised to not see any Manatees in the area because the temperature gauge in the truck said it was 86F (30C). At that temperature most of the Manatee would have headed out to sea to feed.

Continuing down the road we came across one of Florida’s Doppler Weather Radars. There was no access allowed but it was just nice to actually see one up close.

Tupperware Lunch N Things Containers.

Sandhill Cranes at our park.

Exiting the Refuge Kathy set the GPS for Fort Christmas Florida. Suddenly we were about to drive by our campground so we stopped in for lunch. Kathy had packed our Tupperware Lunch N Things Containers this morning but instead of eating in the truck we made use of our dining room table. Looking towards the pond the Sandhill Cranes were back as well as a number of the smaller tropical birds of the region.

For all the weavers that follow our post.

Throughout the had placards in Brail.

Within thirty minutes of leaving the trailer we arrived at the site of historic Fort Christmas. We toured a few of the buildings before actually getting to the fort itself. Unlike the Conservation area we saw last week most of these buildings are not the actual buildings but recreations many of the families had lived in according to old photographs. There was still plenty of history to make it worth visiting.

Water levels down at least two feet since 2008.

Heading back towards camp we stopped at a boat ramp where back in 2008 Kathy and I had taken our first airboat ride in the Everglades. Parking the truck where we had years before we were shocked to see how the water levels had dropped in the area by nearly two feet. There was a lot more green covered ground and narrower waterways throughout the area around the boat ramp.

We needed to make a stop when we got to Titusville so while we were there we decided to grab a snack. Since it was also getting close to supper time we ended up having the same meal we had yesterday which left us filled but not stuffed.

We still wanted to explore the town of Mims on our way back to the trailer. What we could see there wasn’t too much to see. It appeared to be more of a home community with not much to explore.

The best part of the day was it only cost us our fuel and the cost of supper the rest was free. Not bad for a day filled with one adventure after another. Thanks for following along and feel free to leave a comment. Be Safe and Enjoy!

It’s about time.

Krackers

What do you call a rodent's carpet?

A mouse mat.