Sat. Nov. 15 to Tues. Nov. 18th, Orchid Lake RV Resort - New Port Richey Area

Saturday, November 15 – Lake Wales to New Port Richey

Somewhat of a relaxing drive with the exception of a 7-car accident (everyone seemed to be OK – still scary though).  We arrived at Orchid Lake RV Resort just after 3 PM and got set up.  We enjoyed Happy Hour with Vance and Joan and settled in for the evening.

Sunday, November 16^th – Tarpon Springs

Fishing Boat

A Mannequin in Vendors Store -
 It did look real at first.

Another gorgeous day in FL!!  We headed out to Tarpon Springs with Joan and Vance to the Seafood Festival at the Tarpon Springs Sponge Docks.  They had vendors set up along the closed street that were selling everything from sponges to pictures.  Parking was cheap! Only $3.00 for the day, nice for a change.

Hella Restaurant

We had lunch at a Greek restaurant called Hella’s, I think that is the best Greek Salad I have ever had!!  Following another walk among the vendors we headed back to the park for Happy Hour – Yea!!

Monday, November 17^th

Today was slightly overcast in the morning and the weather dude was saying good chance (I guess 90% can be considered a good chance) of rain in the afternoon.

Wood Ducks

Even Sleeping, these guys look hungry!

Off we went to Homosassa State Park that is about ½ hour north of us. This park is just wonderful, the welcome centre is about 1 ½ miles from the actual park itself and you have a choice of taking the tram, a pontoon style boat ride or walk in.  We chose the boat ride through beautiful vegetation and trees.  They use electric outboard motors which are of course wonderfully quiet.  The park volunteer gave us a nice description of what we were seeing as well as information on the park itself.  I found that 15 to 20 minute boat ride sooo relaxing and tranquil.

3,000 Pound Manatee having lunch

This park’s animal residents are all native to Florida with one very large exception (I will get to him later) and they are all rescued animals that for many reasons cannot be returned to the wild. 

Lu, getting his greens!

We arrived at the park entrance, paid our fee and started to walk about.  We saw fox, Horned Owls, Burrowing Owls, Barn and Barred Owls, Manatee, snakes, crocodiles, many different species of birds and Lu (our notable exception).  He is a Hippopotamus!! Not really a native of Florida! When the park was being formed as a State Park the mandate was to secure this area for the preservation/rehabilitation of animals native to Florida.  Well Lu was being kept here along with a number of other non-native animals.  The other animals were moved to other parks and/or Zoo’s, but no one wanted Lu.  The citizens took up a petition and Lu (all 6,000+ pounds of him, was made a Florida citizen by the Governor of the day and was therefore allowed to stay.  He is actually a movie star and evidently was a regular on shows like Daktari. One note never to forget, NEVER stand behind a Hippo when it is bathroom time as the sign clearly shows, it is not pretty!!

A real cute Manatee and me!

We stayed for both the Manatee and Hippo information sessions.  Then after a 45 second continuous rumble of thunder we decided to start heading back to the welcome centre.  Well the rain started about 10 minutes later, just as we were getting back to the Welcome Centre via the tram.

We decided to go for lunch at the Riverside Grill which is on the river and overlooks a place called “Monkey Island”.  The story on these monkeys and how they got there can be found via this link: http://www.homosassaflorida.com/tag/monkey-island-homosassa.

We had not been served our lunch when the skies opened up!!  Lots of rain, thunder, and lightning, I had not seen a downpour like this in a very long time.  Cool!

Following lunch and the dodging of large raindrops on the way to the truck, we headed south to Oak Springs Travel Park for a great visit with friends Eric and Jacki.

Tuesday, November 18^th

Well, what a difference a day makes – temperatures have really dropped.  We woke up to temperatures in the low 40’s and as I write this at 5:00 PM it is only just barely 60 F.  Yes, I actually wore long pants during our outing today.

We did some stuff around the Ti and then decided to head out to a place called “Rural King”.  This is a store that is a cross between TSC, Home Depot, Canadian Tire, Princess Auto and Harbor Freight all bundled into one.  What a great place to cruise around and look.  I could have stayed a lot longer.