Trip #2 Cowboys, Indians, Princesses and Queens
Friday we picked up Bailey at the kennel in Kissimmee and took him across town to the Veterinary Hospital where he had his stitches removed. Somewhere around noon we were on the road again heading toward Crystal River, Florida, home of the manatees.
The reason we don’t have any photos of manatees is that we didn’t see any. When we got to Crystal River we had a place recommended to us where we could rent a canoe and paddle about a half-mile into a protected area where we might see some of the ancient sea creatures. Sounded good and we were going to do it until we got to thinking about it more and more. It was about 65 degrees out, so not too hot but still would be a little warm in the car after an hour or so, even though we had found some shade to park in, and although Bailey seemed to be doing fine he had just had his stitches removed a mere 3 hours earlier. We thought maybe we shouldn’t be leaving him alone so soon... there would be other times to see a manatee.
After having decided we wouldn’t rent the canoe we drove out on Fort Island Trail. The nice folks at the boat rental office said there were a couple of parks and a few places there where once in a while people spotted the manatees from shore and, besides, it was a pretty drive to get closer to the Gulf. The reason Crystal River is home to the manatees is that the river is fed from warm springs, making it a higher temperature than the gulf waters it flows into. Manatees can’t survive in temperatures below 60 degrees so in the colder winter months they migrate toward the warmer waters of rivers and marshy coastal areas.
We ended up not seeing any manatees but the gulf and the beaches were beautiful, Bailey enjoyed getting out for a while, and we did see some dolphins playing in the bay.
Things had gone a little quicker than we thought they would so instead of our original plan of only going as far as Lake City for the night we decided to call and cancel that hotel and, instead, head all the way to Tallahassee. That way we’d be closer to the coast the next day and it would give us more time to explore the gulf.
After we left Tallahassee we headed back south toward the gulf. The first thing we came to was a place called Alligator Point. With a name like that we just couldn’t miss it so we backtracked a bit to do some exploring. As near as we could tell it was misnamed. No alligators and kind of a disappointment for the 20 miles or so that it took us out of our way. But those things happen so on we went.
Not too much farther we came to Apalachicola. A very neat town situated, oddly enough, on the Apalachicola River. Before railroads came to be it was the third largest port in the Gulf of Mexico, behind only New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama. There’s pictures of it on our photos pages and also a blog about the town at ShotgunThoughts.com
Farther along the road we split a Shrimp PoBoy for lunch at a place called Toucan’s at Mexico Beach.
Back into civilization, from Panama City to Pensacola it’s pretty much one high-rise condo after another. Bailey took a break on one of the beaches.
We’d been in Biloxi before Hurricane Katrina but not since so we didn’t quite know what to expect. Turned out we didn’t see a whole lot of difference, but then again it’s been 6 years so there’s been plenty of time to rebuild. One of the places we really enjoyed was a tour of Jefferson Davis’s post-war home, Beauvoir. It was extensively damaged by Katrina but has been beautifully restored. Pictures of it can be seen on our Photos pages.
The first thing we did when we got to Memphis was go to Graceland. Not on purpose... just because we saw the exit for it when we were coming into town. After Graceland we went downtown to Beale Street and polished off two helpings
of Memphis style barbecue ribs in B.B.King’s BBQ Restaurant. Here’s a video of the Jazz band that played there...
After Memphis we headed west on US 40 to Fort Smith, Arkansas. Between we went through Hot Springs, Arkansas and the Hot Springs National Park. There’s a number of pictures of it on our Photos pages. Fort Smith was a real surprise to us. We didn’t really know anything about it but it turned out to be a good stop. Be sure to see the Photo pages for more about it. From Fort Smith we continued on to Oklahoma City. After a brief stop at the National Cowboy and
Western Heritage Museum (more on that on my blog) and a Burger King, we continued to Amarillo, Texas.
If you’ve driven the route you’ll understand why there isn’t a lot to say about it. From Amarillo we continued on through Albuquerque, New Mexico and into Flagstaff, Arizona.
