Winter Trip 2016-Hillsborough River 2

Sun. Feb. 21-Thu. Feb. 25: We spent a quiet, lazy Sunday morning, with no paper that we could download, but reading our books and texts from Linda and Patty reporting on the sermon and vote for Liz. As expected, she was approved by nearly unanimous vote. We rode our bikes over to see how crowded the river was and decided we would kayak in the afternoon since not many canoes seemed to be rented. We enjoyed fruit smoothies at the café and then went back to eat lunch. There is a launch site by Cedar Landing, at the other camping loop. We drove the blue boy over to the dump station to empty and then went on to the Landing to inflate and launch the kayak. We forgot to take a camera or our phones so we don’t have pictures of our very pleasant paddle of about an hour. We saw just one alligator, only about 3 feet long, which was fine with me. The river had gone down since we arrived and was flowing slowly enough that it was easy to paddle upstream for half an hour or so, through one small rapids, and then return. The afternoon had clouded over enough that the sun was never really out during that time. Marv figured out a way to get the kayak, still inflated, in the back of the truck. We drove very slowly back to our campsite and will be able to easily take it out again while we’re here. We relaxed a bit and then made a dinner of grilled boneless pork strips and salads. After doing dishes we had brownies with ice cream on them for dessert while we watched the Disney 60^th Birthday special. Wanting to get a bit more exercise we walked around the camping loop and then got ready for bed. I washed my hair first thing on Monday and we made the rest of the Asian Salad and read until Ross and Pat Mack, along with their labradoodle, Jake, arrived around 11:30. We visited and got caught up awhile and then grilled more of the New Orleans sausages we have enjoyed on this trip. We lingered over lunch at the picnic table before walking Jake to the other camping loop, to the Cedar Landing, along the river to the picnic area so Jake could get a drink at the special, low, doggie drinking fountain and back to the campsite making it a walk of almost 2 miles. We all needed a drink by then and we talked until they needed to return to Cypress Cove, where they stay in their fifth wheel for 2-3 months every winter. 

Pat and Peggy

Old Friends: Marv and Ross

After relaxing and reading Marv and I took a bike ride around the camp road with a stop at the Trailhead for the Wetlands Restoration trail that we planned to walk the next morning. The information sign told us that it was one of only three trails (counting the Park Road) that bikers could use. So we changed our plans to bike the trail rather than walk it. On around the circle we stopped to take the short portion of the Rapids Trail so we could see the rapids we hadn’t made it to the day before. A Class 2 rapids, they would have been too much for us to do in our inflatable kayak. 

Egret feeding in the middle of the rapids

Below the rapids

Back at the campsite we had a small supper of soup and cheese and crackers, again outside, as we realized we have eaten every meal at Hillsborough River. It is another indication of how nice the weather has been lately. The sun set and the temperature hardly dropped so we only went indoors when it unexpectedly began to sprinkle a little bit. We both took showers to cool off a little bit and got to bed for an early wake-up call the next morning. On the tram ride Ranger Sean had told the group that one could see a lot of wildlife by taking the Wetlands Restoration Trail at dawn or dusk. It rained very lightly pretty much all Monday night. We got up at 7:00 and weren’t sure about the trail after a night of rain. But since it was totally clear we decided to try it. The sun was just rising Tuesday as we pedaled over to the Trailhead. The birds were singing like crazy; especially active were the pileated woodpeckers that we had heard but not seen at our campsite. One cooperated by perching at the top of a dead tree for Marv to take its picture. 

The trail proved to be really easy riding on a hard packed two-track most of the way. We startled deer two different times and could see egrets roosting at the top of a couple of trees, their feathers startlingly white against the blue sky. It was peaceful and serene as we rode nearly silently the 1.7 mile length of the road. We continued through a gate that took us into the Dead River Wilderness area, past a nice lookout over the Hillsborough River that would make a great walk-in campsite, and beyond. The trail got a little narrower although still easy to pedal but when we felt like we had seen enough we turned around and retraced our route, passing two slightly later hikers. 

Interesting fungus

Hillsborough River overlook at a bend

Marvin the Magnificent

Roosting Egret

Long early morning shadows

Restoration Wetlands Trail

Continuing around the camp road circle we had our first disappointment to our ride. We had planned on sharing the huge breakfast burrito at the Poolside Café, but when we arrived we found out they didn’t open until 10:00. Since it was only 8:45 we returned to our campsite, completing our almost 6 mile ride, and Marv made fried eggs for us instead. Bill came over and stayed a long time talking. He left when Hoosier made it clear he was ready to leave and we made wraps for lunch. Bill came back and again stayed a long time, this time without Hoosier. When he remembered that we had said we planned to kayak in the afternoon, he left us and as we loaded up the kayak, it started to sprinkle lightly. There were still blue patches of sky so we headed back to Cedar Landing. Since we had gone up river the first time, we went down river this time. It was very quiet and very peaceful with no one else around. About 20 minutes into our paddle we came around one obstacle and looked down river and saw that what we thought was a big log to avoid was moving! Looking closer we realized it was an 8-10 foot alligator, swimming downstream very slowly. Keeping a respectful distance we followed her for about 10 minutes. When she seemed to turn around a couple of times, perhaps looking for a place to sun on the bank, we decided to turn around and go back. Marv was regretting that, although he had taken several pictures, they were with the telephoto so you couldn’t see her in context. We laughingly said he could just take a picture of that rock about ten feet away, when it ducked under the water, with just two beady eyes watching us go by. That was enough alligator encounters for me for the day! Just as we got back to the landing it sprinkled again. We got the kayak out, deflated, wiped out, rolled up and stashed in the truck before we drove back. 

BIG Alligator

See you later, Alligator!

Cypress reflections in paddle ripples

The rest of the afternoon was a mix of patches of sun and short sprinkles but the temperature stayed in the upper 70s°. Dinner was grilled chicken salads because we were going to another sports bar to watch MSU play Ohio State at 9:00. We chose a closer sports bar called Coozies which turned out to be a dark, dingy, horribly smoky joint. The handful of people there were all at the bar smoking and talking loudly and no one was watching any sports. We sat at a table and the waitress informed me they didn’t have Club Soda but she got the game for us on a nearby TV. As it was getting underway a couple came in and sat at the table between us and the TV. The waitress brought the woman a glass of wine and the guy a large pitcher of beer and they both lit up and started the juke box playing very loudly. We lasted until halftime, when it seemed that MSU had the game in good shape. Using Marv’s phone’s app we listened to the second half of the game in the truck and then were relieved when it didn’t lose its signal all the way into the camper, where we enjoyed yet another Spartan victory. As usual, MSU is coming alive as we head into March. The rain that was forecast for after 9:00 on Wednesday began around 7:00am. Luckily, we had planned our day around it. We had taken down the awning and stashed everything under cover the night before. As soon as we were up and ready we drove about 20 miles away, sometimes in torrential rains, sometimes in sunshine, to the outskirts of Tampa and Ybor City State Park (pronounced Ee-bor) and National Historical Landmark District, now known as Tampa’s Latin Quarter. In the late 1800s Vincente Martinez Ybor, of Cuba, founded the city as a cigar manufacturing center. It was unusual for its time with the blending of Spanish, Cuban, Italian, Jewish, and African American families all living together. Ybor cleared the swamp and built the factories and housing for the workers, but he encouraged others to provide services such as restaurants and grocery stores, so it wasn’t a “Company Town” where everything is controlled by the owner. The Museum run by the State Park is in an old bakery building. They have an excellent 20 minute video that explains the history of the town, then we went through the museum of artifacts and photographs as another heavy rain shower came through. When we finished, a docent took us out into the bright sunshine to one of the three cottages next door that is furnished and maintained as if the workers had just stepped out for a few minutes. We were the only two people with the docent who was talkative and informative and seemed in no hurry. As we strolled across the large courtyard area between the museum and the cottages a Ranger came out and told our docent that he had a large group waiting for him to do the next tour. 

Just one of hundreds of boxes designed and used in Ybor City

The bakery building that now houses the Museum

 Restored ovens in the museum

Three workers casitas

Living room, furnished with donated items of the couple whose wedding portrait hangs on the wall

Kitchen in the casita

Cigar factory on the block behind what is now the museum...

....the building is being restored and made into apartments

We decided to walk around the area on our own, starting with lunch at La Tropicana, a Cuban restaurant a couple of blocks away. We shared their house favorite Bibi’s Cuban sandwich and an order of black beans and rice, with bread pudding for dessert and a cup of Ybor’s famous café con leche. Just as we paid and were leaving the skies opened up one more time and the rain poured down in buckets for about 20 minutes, but that was the last rain storm of the day. We waited it out in the restaurant and then walked many blocks down 7^th Avenue, La Setima, with its red brick buildings, wrought iron balconies and narrow brick streets that give it an Old World or New Orleans flavor. 

La Tropicana

La Setima

We returned to the truck and then found La Segunda Central, a nearby Cuban bakery founded in 1915, which furnishes La Tropicana its breads and our waitress assured us was the best around. We each bought a turnover and we asked for a “short loaf”(about 2 feet) of Cuban Bread. But when we got to the truck we realized it was TWO short loaves and we had only been charged 79¢. What a bargain! Our final stop of the day was Cigar City Brewery. But we arrived just a few minutes after a tour had left and we didn’t want to wait 50 minutes until the next one. We shared a double brown porter and headed back to the campground, where we gave some of our bread to Bill and ate some with the leftover pork strips from the other night and beans. 

This red shouldered hawk was perched on a low branch right behind the camper when we got back.

It stayed for pictures and watched us as we put the awning back out

It was very humid but not terribly cold yet when we went to bed. Because the next few days were forecast to be in the low sixties on Thursday we drove to Crystal River to see manatees after having doughnuts and coffee again in the morning. At the coffee we talked to a very pleasant couple from Switzerland who also own a home in Nova Scotia, and a man who grew up in West Germany but now lives in Grand Rapids. We had been told that the best place to see manatees  is Three Sisters Springs National Manatee Refuge. But we didn’t realize that it was so far from Hillsborough River. It took us about 90 minutes to drive the 65 miles. Before we reached it we passed the Homosassa State Park and decided that might be a better place to see them. In the Visitors Center we realized that this formerly privately owned enterprise was really more like a zoo with a viewing platform and underwater viewing area reached by tram or boat ride for $12.50 a person. Since we just wanted to see manatees we weren’t really interested in all that. We ate a picnic lunch of Cuban bread, cheese, and a tangerine at a picnic table in the sun which made the 60° day and gusty winds bearable. We walked the ¾ mile Birding and Nature Trail out to the entrance to the animal park and got on the boat to return on the 1 mile Homosassa River to our truck. That was all free. 

Boat ride at Homosassa Springs

Beautiful wood ducks on the river

Soft shell and hard shell turtles on the river

We went on to find Three Sisters Springs but the address in the GPS didn’t take us to the right place. I googled “Where to see manatees in Crystal River, FL” and among the answers was the headquarters for the Kings Bay National Wildlife Refuge. It was nearly 4:00 when the very helpful volunteer there explained how we could get into the Three Sisters Springs, since it was too late to catch the city trolley that usually takes people there. He told us a place we could park the truck nearby and walk in the gate, but warned us they would probably make us leave at 4:30. Since it’s a National Park, Marv’s Lifetime pass would get him in for free but I would have to pay $12.00. That sounded fair to us so we rushed over to the springs. The Ranger at the gate had already done his paperwork and closed the books for the day so he told us we could both go in free on Marv’s pass. We walked about a ½ mile to the board walk around the springs and arrived just as most of the people were leaving on the trolley. There were a couple of volunteers and a few other people as we walked up and down the boardwalk, seeing more manatees than we’ve ever seen before. Standing in one place I easily counted 30+ so altogether there must have been close to one hundred. They are mesmerizing as they slowly rise to the surface to breath and then sink down to drift around in the water, which is always at 72°. They are drawn to the springs all winter but since there have been some cold days and nights in the last few weeks there are more than ever. The volunteers all left at 4:30 and a final trolley took everyone but one photographer and the two of us. We walked back to the gate where the Ranger was locking up and ready to leave too. The plan had worked perfectly and we were very satisfied with our time with the manatees. 

The biggest of the three springs, Pretty Sister

The sun was setting as we drove home. About halfway back Marv spotted the Deep South Family Bar-B-Que, a tiny hole in the wall that advertised fried green tomatoes on a sign out front. For $9.95 I had smoked ribs, fried green tomatoes and fried okra. For the same price Marv had their steak and onion sandwich, fried apples, and potato salad. We ordered at a walk up window and ate it in their seating area of about 6 picnic tables on a screened porch that was pretty chilly by then.  It was GREAT! The temperature dipped down to 50° as we made our way back to the campsite.