I was off to Florida for 10 days - and not a moment too soon as 'island fever' was fast approaching ! The main reason for going to Florida was to fulfill a long held ambition of cave diving in Ginnie Springs (fresh water cave system in Northern Florida). The diving was 6 days of the trip (and a seperate journal entry). That left me with 2 days travel and 2 days to go do things ! So my excursion to Florida began.
The flight was uneventful and I successfully collected my hire car (I had got a great deal through a recommended website. You can check it out at www.carjet.co.uk)
I headed north on the Florida turnpike, my destination of High Springs was about a 5 hour journey. The drive was pretty uninteresting, the view was pretty nondescript, lots of billboards - certainly not a scenic route. I arrived at High Springs, settled into my accomodation for the next 7 days and then when hunting for food. I ended up eating a bison steak, and am pretty confident that it was one of the best steaks I have ever eaten.
The next 6 days revolved mainly around the cave diving. In the evenings I shopped (new clothes & laptop) and tried to satisfy my craving for junk food (as there are no fastfood chains on TCI). Amongst other things I consumed Big Macs; Wendys Baconaters; KFC and hotdogs - after a couple of days I had had enough and attempted (usually unsuccessfully) to find more tasty and healthy food.
I also spent time wandering around High Springs, enjoying the various sites - the gun store; the many many churches; the trailer parks; rusting cars and shacks with corrugated roofs and junk filled yards. OK, so I am being slightly unfair, but there were more then their fair share of these - I certainly knew I was in the South. The countryside was beautiful though, (especially after leaving an island of scrub), the grass verges teamed with wildflowers, there were tree lines roads and it was great to see fields, hedges & trees (things I miss from the UK).
I saw my fair share of what would stereotypically be called 'rednecks'. Probably the most classic was Saturday at Ginnie Springs. There were 3 white guys with shirts off displaying beer bellies, slowly getting sunburnt. They were standing on the back of their pickup truck, drinking beer. They had the stereo blasting Nickleback and cheered as every vehicle and person passed them by. They arrived at about 10am and were still going strong when we left at 4pm !
Another amusing experience was seeing 'tubing' and 'tubers' in action at Ginnie Springs. It is a massive pass time - basically you get driven upstream then climb into an inflatable tube, before gently going with the flow. There are a massive range of tubes, from single person to those holding a dozen or more people. The tubers travel en mass, usually with a crate or two of beer - its hilarious to watch and I am sure great to participate in. All I can say is 'only in America'
The diving finished on 11th and so on the 12th I headed south towards the Kennedy Space Station. By a stroke of real luck the Space Shuttle 'Atlantis' was scheduled to launch at 2:04pm that day. Its mission was to repair the Hubble Telescope and it was an opportunity that I didn't intend to miss. I had planned to see the launch from the Astronaut Hall of Fame. This was one of the closest viewing areas that didn't sell out well in advance. I arrived a couple of hours before launch time and parked in overflow carpark number 4000 (slight exageration). The place was rammed, I spent some time in the Hall, then joined the thousands of people who were awaiting the launch. We were too far away to see the initial takeoff, but would see it within seconds of its launch. There was a large screen to see the shuttle, countdown etc and a previous astronaut talking about the prperations etc.
As we neared the launch and go ahead was confirmed, cars just started pulling over on the side of the highway, people just got out and walked to any free spot where they could get a view. The countdown and then finally takeoff. Atlantis was magestic and dissappeared from view all too soon, and then seconds later we finally got the sonic boom. The experience was unique, however, it was now time to literally run back to my car to try and get out and avoid 4 hour traffic jams.
I now headed across the state to Crystal River, where I had booked to go on a tour to swim and snorkel with Manatees.
I was at Birds Underwater (www.birdsunderwater.com) at 6:15am - even the sun was still asleep ! The best time to see Manatees is November - March, as such we were a small group - 3 and a guide. We watched a video, climbed into wetsuits and then climbed aboard the pontoon boat. We were heading out just as the sun started rising.
Crystal River, is both shallow (about 3 - 5ft deep) and certainly not clear. I am told it used to be crystal clear (funnily enough), however over development, removal of pond wed etc, means that visibility is now about 3ft (God bless progress). That aside we were privileged enough to see and swim with about a dozen manatees during the 5hr tour. They are amazing creatures, best described as a hippo pig cross !. They are also huge, even the juvenilles were about the same size as me. If they want to interact then they swim right up to you so that you can scratch them - if you get a ticklish spot they make funny squeaking noises and swim away - hilarious. It was a great experience, well worth the early morning start.
The last day involved heading back to Miami Airport. I chose to take a longer route down the West side of Florida so that I could drive back through a 90 miles scenic route through the Everglades. I only got a snapshot and it wetted my apetite to return and spend more time here. The waterways through the glades are stunning with wildlife aplenty.
A great trip and I certainly didn't feel ready for it to end - I could quite happily have just kept driving around the States.
