New Orleans, the Gulf, and the Manatees!!!

Inspired by our cooking class in New Orleans, Dirk created almond pralines in the RV.  A little too crumbly so we had to eat them promptly!!!

First stop out of New Orleans was the Chalmette Battlefield, site of the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812 against Britain.

Apparently this battle was extremely important in keeping Britain from taking over the entire Louisiana Purchase and Mississippi shipping channels from the US, but of course, to me, the battle is most important for the cool song it generated!

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Had to do some major strategizing on our itinerary, as we did not have much idea what we were doing in Phase II.  Turns out other people like to go to Florida in the winter, so rolling into a State Park or cool camp site at 6pm without reservations is not OK, ie, one will not get a site.

Skirted the beaches of Mississippi and Louisiana before getting into Florida.  Really nice beaches and periodic sunshine, but too cold or windy to hang out.

Did take advantage of the seafood places along the coast, for some fresh shrimp and some Cajun boiled peanuts!  As always, our picnics are in the nice warm and wind-free RV.

One of our favorite Louisiana campgrounds, Gulf State Park, had a great Nature Center where we got to hold this very affectionate opossum that was raised from an infant.

Well, sort of ugly-cute, but soft, warm, and loving.  Hard to pry its claws and its tail off of us to put back into cage!

Rode bikes to this beach in Florida.  Found these very weird birds....not seagulls.  A closer look shows enormous bills with an orange band around them by head. They are skimmers according to a sagacious Brit we met on the beach.

Some fun drama at the Nature Center was the encouraged pursuit of the female box turtle by the male box turtle. Staff want to raise some baby turtles at the center.  The female was not too enthused at the idea, however!

She cleverly retreated to under a display case, where there was not quite enough room for the male turtle to do his thing.

Finally in Florida where apparently a lot of turtles HAVE done their thing!  This crystal clear river is one of many that flows out of the limestone substrate of Florida, producing 72 degree springs that create beautiful, life filled rivers.  We canoed this from our campground, surrounded by anhinga "snake-birds" and soft and hard shelled turtles.  Too cold to go swimming, but the water was warm!

Top billing on Dixie's bucket list was fulfilled this day in Crystal River,  Florida.  We got on a boat at sunrise and headed for one of the warm springs where the Gulf manatees congregate in the winter to stay warm.  The very cold weather we have been "enjoying" has some apparent benefit----record numbers of manatee!

With wet suits on and snorkels and masks in position, we swam from the boat to a headspring to greet the sleeping manatees.

They like humans and once we arrived, many of them swam around with us and rumbled with each other.  Remember that cameras are wide angle.  I was touching these manatees and part of the rumble.

We both participated in a lot of back rubbing and scratching action.  Laws require touching with one open hand only, to show that you are not grabbing or doing anything bad to the protected animals, but that was fine for scratching their algae covered backs.  Most of them had propeller scars on their backs. Biggest cause of death for manatees is boat encounters.

Is this baby cute or what?  Whiskers on chin, nostrils that close underwater and open when they surface, tiny eyes.  Often looked at them face to face from 0-12".  They do give kisses!

Two days later we canoed from our campground on the Chassahowitzka River, another river with warm springs that attracts manatees.  At least 10 were congregated right at the boat launch and hanging out in one's canoe was rewarded by visits.  These 1000 lb, 12 foot long animals were all around our canoe!  This baby definitely solicited scratches from us and other canoers!

On a less happy note, apparently now that we are further south, the alligators are actually awake.  This one guarded the trail to the observation tower at Payne Prairie State Park.  If all the signs say to stay a minimum of 12 feet from any alligator on land, and the trail is only 6 feet wide, and this gator is sitting on the edge of it, what does one do????  We waited until some poor ignorant chump coming the other direction walked by unharmed. Then we pushed a med student that we had met in front of us before proceeding.

A few days later, we were not so lucky!

The park we entered tonight is having a Florida Frost Festival, complete with snow sledding for kids.  It did not seem to deter the alligators, however.

This is what awaits us tomorrow!