Biscayne NP protects and preserves a nationally significant marine ecosystem with mangrove forests, a shallow bay, undeveloped islands and living coral reefs. Watching an informative film the Ladies learned that this park is the site for an unusual project to restore the damaged and dying coral reefs out on the Atlantic side of the islands. Damaged by ships, drilling, pollution and countless other causes, the reefs do not recover very quickly. A multiple agency endeavor has established a reef regeneration project in cooperation with the University of Southern Florida. Graduate students spend countless hours underwater finding, shaping, ‘planting’ and harvesting little pieces of broken coral for the sole purpose of replanting these ‘coral seeds’ in places where the reef needs help. It was one of those moments when we felt that perhaps something very unique was being helped by the very critters that hurt it in the first place. Unfortunately for me this is one of those regulated places where four-leggeds are not understood and cannot mingle with the natives, so I had to be on nap duty while the Gals went exploring. I really am okay with that job and actually they returned sooner than I thought. Seems they were too late for the last glass bottom boat tour of the day. They took a few pictures and came back to the Pod Palace for a return to Long Pine Key campground in the Everglades.
On our drive back I spotted some of the most unusual animals yet in Florida City. I yelped until Kae stopped the Pod and they let me out to investigate. These guys sure had me confused because they smell like plants not animals. Florida is a way weird place.
Next day we packed up and headed out for the beginning of our northern trek up the east coast of Florida and on to Cocoa Beach to meet Renee and Kathy again. But we had to make this stop at a place Kae had read about called the Fruit and Spice Park over near Homestead. This Park is run by the County Park system and is a preserve of fruit and nut trees from all over the world. I mean they have like 57 varieties of bananas alone! It was a bit early for the trees to be in full bloom but Cokie discovered the herb gardens with their ponds and vegetable beds. This was too much to pass up and she had a ball snapping pictures of the algae and blooms and light and colors. So enjoy her joy!
We traveled back up to that inter-coastal waterway at Lake Okeechobee. On this eastern side the Corp of Engineers facility is the St. Lucie Lock and Dam. This is another beautiful place where old dogs are advised to stay out of the water because of those pesky darn alligators. Man, you’d think they owned the state of Florida!
On to Cocoa Beach and a stop at Kathy and Renee’s house in an area which is way cool with two canals right on the corner of the property, a swimming pool, pals Blue and Ollie, plus birds, boats and fun food at Coconuts Café out on the beach. Blue showed me how to sit quietly and watch for manatees swimming up the canals just out the backdoor. It was a good overnight stop and we enjoyed ourselves.
Next we headed for Titusville, just up the road, to visit with long time friends of Cokie’s – Chuck and Elaine Matroni from Nevada City. They used to own the Deer Creek Inn Bed and Breakfast down on Deer Creek, at the bottom of Nevada Street in Nevada City, CA. It was a fun, gorgeous place which they owned and operated for about 11 years. They are fabulous hosts and now they have a lovely new home in which to entertain very lucky guests. This old dog never felt so loved, so pampered and so well fed.
Kae and Cokie took off one day to visit the Kennedy Space Center and I stayed to help clean up leftovers from the delightful dinner of the previous night. Kae has been a science fiction fan for most of her life and said to visit the Space Center was like touching all the fantasies of her childhood. The Visitor Information Center with the great IMAX theaters, gift and food shops, the shuttle mockup, NASA Art Gallery, Rocket garden and much more is where you begin your tours.
You pass the enormous Vehicle Assembly Building where the shuttle and its boosters plus the launch platform are all put together. That flag is six stories high and each star is six feet across, each stripe 13 feet wide, just to give you some idea of the scale of things.
Next your bus drives along the roadway built especially for the crawler that transports the entire shuttle assembly. This roadway is the width of an eight lane highway and something like ten feet thick so that it can support the unbelievable weight of this behemoth. It takes nearly eight hours for the crawler to transport its precious cargo the 4 miles out to the launch pads.
The Observation Gantry is where you can climb up three stories and really get a sense of the size of this huge installation and Both Shuttle launch pads LC 39 A and B.
The Apollo/Saturn V Center had the actual launch control room rigged up so that you could view one of the Apollo launch sequences and sense the tension and relief that lived in that room. The first landing on the moon and the return of the astronauts was also beautifully recreated. These moments have been known to bring a tear or two to an eye. This country’s space accomplishments and resulting technology are great reminders for us of what grand things America can do when it puts its collective minds and resources together for a common goal and a common good. I think perhaps that seems like a good thing to remember these days.
The ISS is certainly another reminder of what cooperation between nations and scientific institutions can achieve. Components for the continually growing International Space Station are designed and manufactured all over the world in a dozen different nations such as America, Russia, Japan, France, Britain and Italy, to name a few. Then those components are shuttled up to the Space Station in outer space and coupled together in one vast assemblage of scientific and technological wonders. The experiments being conducted cooperatively in space today will benefit all of mankind for generations to come.
The Shuttle program has only four or five more launches scheduled, then it will be abandoned and the transport duties turned over to various private enterprises. The Kennedy Space Center will then regroup and devote its resources to more moon landings, Mars exploration and flights to other planets and the vaster spaces of the solar system. Perhaps the next generations will continue the cooperation learned from the Space Station program and the entire Earth will then take pride in the accomplishments of mankind in space.
One day the Matronis and my Ladies trusted me to guard the entire house and they took off for a site seeing tour of the Merritt Island Wildlife Preserve near Titusville. The drought in this area does show its affect on the amount of water in these wetland areas and you can see how parts are pretty dried up. Birds tend to congregated in the remaining ponds, making photography way easier for Cokie.
Tri Colored Heron
Snowy Egret
Roseate Spoonbills
Heron
They all thankfully had to visit a bread bakery in downtown Titusville and this only gave the intrepid photographer even more opportunities for pictures.
Yum!
Mural on bakery building
Our last night with Chuck and Elaine was spent in pleasant conversation over good food and wine along with fabulous desserts provided by their neighbors, Tony and Fiona Felice. I’m telling you that Tony has the best scratching hands, other than Cokie’s. Fiona’s desserts could make me wish I was a skinny, hyperactive, calorie burning, eleven year old human child for the rest of my doggy days!! No Kidding!
Next day we headed out with the intention of trying to exit Florida but we found this cool Ocala National Forest campground called Salt Spring. It is the only National Forest campground facility in the nation that allows for extended, multi-month stays. We only stayed two nights but it would be a great place to ‘snowbird’ someday. We then jetted east to the coast, ending up in a funky little spot outside of Jacksonville on the St. John’s River near Blount Island called the Hugenot Memorial/Duval County Park. Now I mention all of this because it was really affordable – like $7.91 a night and with Kae’s senior discount, only $7.12! These are not paved, developed campsites we’re talking about folks – as you can imagine for the price. These are sandy, waterfront, boondockin’ kinds of sand pits and we have the pictures of deep Pod prints to prove it! I love my mobile dog house and that 350hp engine proved how tough she really is and how fast she can get to solid ground.
It really was a different and kinda cool place with the big military ships coming and going over at Blount Island, plus the helicopter training going on overhead. It was the first time I actually had been able to get in saltwater for like forever! However this is not the real Atlantic Ocean, but part of the St. John’s Estuary. I’m working on swimming in the Atlantic some day soon.
Well, we made it! On the last day of April and we were out of Florida! On to Georgia, peaches, Savannah and who knows what else. We will catch up with y’all when we can ‘get Georgia on our mind.
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