Wakulla Springs

Today after ordering the chair and going out to lunch I brought Martha home, finished my book I have been reading for the past month, and drove down to Wakulla Springs. Wakulla Springs was always one of our favorite places to go that is only about a 45 minute drive from Martha's house. I found today with Crawfordville Hwy repaved and widened (even though they had controlled burns going so there was lots of smoke) that I could get there in around 30 minutes. I made it just in time for the river boat tour (the glass bottom boat tour was cancelled because there was too much tannin in the water). On the boat tour you could see lots of birds (like the ibis above), alligators (see below), turtles, water snakes, and mullet (the pictures of the fish didn't turn out...they're too fast when they're jumping). The boat captain was a woman park ranger that said she had been working there for five years. She didn't mention the missing apple snails that used to be abundant (the ibis loved to eat them) but have been slowly disappearing due to changes in the environment (you can interpret that as global warming and urban sprawl and possibly agricultural runoff).
The animals are used to the boats and will actually stay pretty still while the boat passes (except the fish). The little girl sitting behind me was enthralled with the alligators. She had bought one at the gift shop before getting on the boat. She kept showing the alligators her alligator as we went by.
The beach wasn't particularly crowded but I hadn't brought my swimsuit and had to hurry back to Martha after the tour. We were going to go out together and I didn't want her to think I was going to be late. The lodge was pretty, as always. Maybe some day we can stay there for a visit and listen to the alligators bellow during the night.

The mud hens were everywhere. They sound like howler monkeys, especially when they are trying to get away from the boat.

The boat captain did go through the "movie channel" and talked about The Creature from the Black Lagoon but never mentioned Tarzan even when we went by the Tarzan tree. I guess my generation (and younger) doesn't remember the old black and white Tarzan movies. I remember them from Sunday afternoon movies on TV. After church I would watch old black and white movies on a Chicago station we got. Tarzan and Jungle Book (live action not Disney) movies were my favorite. I always wanted to go to India (where Jungle Book is supposed to take place). Wakulla Springs so far is my closest venture.

Going by the diving tower reminded me when we had Vincent's 10th birthday party at Wakulla Springs. All the kids loved jumping off the tower and into the 25 feet of spring fed water below. Perry got him started jumping (I think he was afraid the first time), but after he started there was no stopping him. Wakulla Springs and Cherokee Sink were some of the reasons Vincent wanted to move to Tallahassee (along with Outz's...which has since burned down).

On one visit to Wakulla Springs with Vincent and friends in tow we actually were on the glass bottom boat tour when an alligator tried to swim into the tower/swimming part of the spring. Our boat captain then drove the boat, faster than I've ever seen them since, towards the alligator and essentially shooed him to the other side. It makes me all the more leery to swim in the spring, even though I have, with just a rope dividing the spring from the animals. While the rope is really to keep the people from the animal side, I want to know who taught the animals how to stay on their side.

-- Stephanie