Rv Sunshades, Manatees and Rv Lots

Sweetwater Rv Park – Zephyrhills, Florida
It was a cold Tuesday night and  when we got up yesterday, it was only 39 degrees.  The past few weeks our overnight lows have mostly been in the 60’s, so it felt pretty cold.
It was supposed to only get into the low 60’s yesterday,  so we didn’t think we’d try to go kayaking.  Al has a pest control account he needed to do on the Homosassa River.  We had wanted to take our kayaks  and take a paddle while we went up there.  These are our friends and we had permission to do so.   We decided we had put it off long enough and he needed to spray the house so that was going to be on our agenda….minus the kayaking.  That turned out to be a mistake.
I wrote the other day about a place locally that sold fabric for rv sunscreens and rugs.    Our neighbor told us about it but she wasn’t sure exactly where it was located or the name of the place.  She finally found a business card this morning and we got an address.  It’s in Center Hill, Florida  which is near Bushnell and Webster.  It’s called Beasley Manufacturing.  Our GPS took us right there.  Here is their business card.  You can also order this fabric and even with shipping, it’s very inexpensive.  Their store is only open through April 30th, but they can meet you there by appointment after that.  They are in town, but don’t get much business after the snowbirds leave!

This place had tons of fabric and it was $1.50 a linear foot for the first quality rolls.  They also had seconds and remnants for $1.00 a foot.  There was about every color and pattern you could imagine, including florescent orange and pink!
This fabric works great as a sunscreen on the front windshield.  It blocks the sun/heat.  You can see out but no one can see in during the day.  Of course at night people can see right in…so close your curtains!  It protects your interior from fading from the sun and helps to keep you cooler inside.  It’s used also to block the sun on tires, windshield wipers and mirrors.  We just bought some mirror covers for $20, I think.  I could have easily made them if only I would have known about this place!


They sell a few premade rugs and patio shades.  The edges are sewn and complete with grommets.  They were a lot more expensive and we felt we could get by without the stitching and we could anchor the rugs if we needed to. 
They mostly sell  just the sunscreen fabric, but they do have a few pre-made mats/rugs and  shades that you attach to your awning and then anchor down.   A lot of people in our rv park have these shades attached to their awnings.  It provides privacy and a sun block also.  That may be something we will get at a later date. 
They sell suction cups, grommets, rug anchors and a few other things so that you can make your own projects.

We were told this fabric makes a real nice patio rug.  It doesn’t kill the grass, lays down flat and doesn’t blow away.  Our neighbor uses the fabric for a rug and loves it.  She said it’s much better than the Camping World Rugs.  We decided to give it a try and got a nice textured medium brown rug that’s 16 feet long. It was only 4 1/2 feet wide, so we got two and set them down with a few inch overlap.  It actually looks very nice.  It’s smooth lays flat down on the ground.  You can barely tell where the two pieces meet.
Here is a picture of our new patio rug.  You can barely see where the two sections meet.  At 16 feet, it’s plenty big.  So far, we like it!


We also got an off white piece to make tire covers.  We’ll cut them to size, attach them with suction cups and roll the bottom in a pvc pipe to weigh the fabric down.  We bought a little clip to keep the pvc attached.  I’ll post some pictures when we get them done.  It should protect the tires from the sun.  We were told this fabric can be cleaned with any kind of chemical and it wouldn’t hurt it.  Our 6 year old sunshade is still like new.
Our next stop was to Homosassa Springs so that Al could spray his account.  It kept getting warmer and nicer out and surpassed the 62 degrees that was predicted.  Dang…where were those kayaks??
The Homosassa is a spring fed river and there are usually manatees there this time of year.  Manatees head to the springs from the Gulf of Mexico during the winter months because the waters are a “warm” 72 degrees year round.  It’s much warmer than the gulf waters.  Cold weather kills many Manatees each year, but by far their biggest threat is boaters.
While he was spraying I went out on their upper deck and watched manatees swimming by.  The first ones I saw were a mother and calf.


The river is pretty wide here and there was a fair amount of boat traffic.  Manatees are frequently injured and killed by propellers and there are usually no wake zones when Manatees are present.
This next guy was speeding.

These guys were seeing the river the best way!

Manatees can get upwards of 10 feet long and weigh over 1000 pounds, but they are slow moving and no match for a speeding boat.

I was glad to see that the manatees were staying out of the main channel and were hugging the shore.  One even swam right under the dock I was standing on.  We were sure sorry we didn’t bring our kayaks because it ended up getting up to 73 degrees.  Sure would have liked to have  gotten in the water with those manatees!  We ended up seeing at least a dozen manatees swimming right by the dock.  What a beautiful place they have!





Our final stop yesterday was to Chassa Oaks Rv Resort.  It’s also in Homosassa, Florida.  It’s on the Gulf coast, just north of Tampa.  It’s a beautiful part of Florida with lots of beautiful spring fed rivers and close access to the Gulf of Mexico.  This area and Crystal River is one of the best places to see Manatees.  You can even swim with them.   We’ve done that many times and I can tell you, it’s an amazing experience being up close and personal with these amazing and gentle giants.  The babies are like big friendly puppies and love to get their belly’s scratches.  Of course there are strict rules about swimming/diving/touching/following these animals because they are endangered.




At the Tampa Rv show, we picked up a flyer from Chassa Oaks resort.  They sell lots and if you came by to look at the resort, they would give you two free tickets to Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. 

Since we’ve been planning a visit there, we decided free tickets would be nice!  We’ve been there many times, but always enjoy it. 

Chassa Oaks was a new rv resort and very nice. We took the tour and there was absolutely no pressure or hard sell.  We walked around the place and had a nice conversation with the caretaker/salesman.  The lots are about $50,000.  In our opinion most of the lots were a little small and close together.  The few larger lots were sold.  They will soon be opening up a new section with larger lots and more amenities.  You still have to pay association fees and property taxes, so your monthly fees would be around $200.  We may end up with an rv lot some time in the future, but for now, we were just looking.  He invited us to stop by anytime for a couple nights free if we were traveling through!  Nice guy!  We enjoyed our visit, but it was time to head home after a long day. 

It turned out to be a beautiful warm day and we sure regretted not taking the kayaks.
Today, we awoke to rain, but warm temps.  We aren’t nearly as concerned about rain now that we have the new slide toppers.  No water leaks….so far… knock on wood :)

Another Work Camping call

I got a call today from Larry at Lafayette Blue Springs State Park, near Mayo Florida.  He was looking for camp host volunteers in May for their day use park.   Hmmm....might be a possibility.  We were at the springs back in October when we were camping at O'Leno State Park.  We visited several springs that day and I'm trying to remember this particular park.  I went back to my blog post and pictures that day to refresh my memory.  It's tough getting old!  The park is on Suwanee River, which is one of our favorite rivers for kayaking. 


Larry noted on our volunteer application that we were Scuba divers and mentioned that people come from all over to dive in the springs at Layafette Springs State Park. Might have to get out the wetsuit!

In our quest to look into full timing, I also signed up to Work Kamper News.  This is a site where you can find Work Camping jobs, where you can work for a free site, or for a site plus wages, depending on the situation.

We have dove in the springs at Crystal River when the Manatee were there, but prefer the ocean.  In the springs once you're in there a few minutes you have seen all the wildlife there is.  When you are in the ocean, you NEVER know what will come swimming up next...Tiger Shark, Loggerhead Turtle, Angel Fish, or Barracuda!  Springs are beautiful though mostly because of they crystal clear water.  It's any easy dive unless you do a cave dive.  You have to be a certified cave diver if you want to enter the underwater caves. Many people die each year after running out of air deep inside an underwater cave. We never had the interest in getting certified for cave diving.  Again, once you are in a cave, the formations are different but basically nothing changes as far as wildlife.  I like nothing better than being underwater and looking up to see a school of fish, a person, or a boat swimming overhead with the sun shining brightly behind them.  That's quite a beautiful view and one that you would not get in a cave.  I need to look through some of my photographs and post some of those  shots.  It's really quite amazing!

Wakulla Springs State Park

Wakulla, Florida
The full name of the park is actually Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park.  It is located in the Northwest Region of Florida, south of Tallahassee.

It is one of the largest and deepest springs in Florida and used to be crystal clear.  They have been struggling for years with water clarity.  Sometimes the water is murky and sometimes it is clear. It is not like most Florida springs with crystal clear blue water, but today it was fairly clear and we could see plenty of manatee that come to the “warm” water during the winter months.  The water is consistently around 70 degrees which is considerably warmer than the Gulf of Mexico.  Manatee’s are mammals and depend on finding warmer waters during the cold winter months.





There is a dive tower you can go on.  In the summer months people jump and dive off of it. There are no manatee floating there during the warmer months.

It’s a great place to get a good view of the area.



Notice the white mark on the baby?  It’s a scar from being hit by a boat propeller. Most all the Manatee you see have similar scars. 
Here is a Manatee nose coming up for a breath of air.

There is no camping here but they have a large lodge priced at $95-105 nightly. They have a restaurant, gift shop, snack bar,  lobby with TV and roaring large fireplace!  It’s quite nice.
 
It is a great place for a day visit. It cost $6.00 per car and $8.00 per adult for a boat tour (recommended) and $5.00 for children. There is a nice little swimming beach.
We did find out that they use Work Campers and have a little work camper village where you can stay for free with your RV in exchange for working at the park.

Here is a little campground near Wakulla and St. Marks.  It’s sometimes used by hunters (not our favorite) but is in a good location.  It’s not the prettiest campground we’ve ever seen but it adequate. We intend to stay there sometime to be closer to the coast and to St Marks.

phone: 850-925-4530.
8046 Coastal Highway, Crawfordville, FL 32327.

Apollo Beach Preserve - Apollo Beach, Florida

While at Big Bend Power Plant Manatee Sanctuary, we could see people on a white sandy beach area straight down the canal from the plant.
We drove down until we found a nice little park with beach and kayak/canoe access.  It was quite a nice little park and a great place to kayak in the Mangroves.






There were a lot of people fishing and would be a great place to kayak.  The water was clear, there was a lot of wildlife and you would have a great chance to see the occasional Manatee swimming by.
We’ll go back with our kayaks  some day soon.
After we left there we made a few stops looking for some RV furniture.  We’re wanting to replace the RV fold out couch with 2 smaller recliners.  The problem is finding small recliners.  We had initially been looking for 2 of the Euro style recliners with foot stools but decided that foot stool would take up too much valuable space in the motorhome.  We found some Micro Suede recliners at Kane's Furniture in Tampa and also Ocala.  We haven’t found anything the right size and fabric since, so we will probably have to end up getting them in Tampa.  Our plan is to remove the existing carpet in the RV and replace it with the vinyl Allure Flooring. Once we remove the couch, we don’t want to have to put it back so we will need the recliners.

Manatees of Big Bend

Big Bend Power Plant  is a power plant in Apollo Beach on Tampa Bay, that is a winter haven for the Florida Manatee. It’s southeast of Tampa.

It is a State and Federally designated Manatee Sanctuary. They try to educate people about the plight of the endangered Manatee and its habitat. During the center’s open season from November 1 to April 15, they have films, displays and other materials  to educate all the visitors. Center volunteers and staff,  answer questions and provide additional educational information.

“In addition to the manatee observation platforms, the center features a tidal walkway that takes visitors deep into a mangrove habitat. Hundreds of varieties of birds, fish and other animals thrive here.”

They have a  manatee museum where there are films about the manatee, Big Bend Power Station and the history of Tampa Electric. The center also features a gift shop, the South Shore Café, and a Web camera that is operation during the center’s open season.

“When Big Bend Power Station began producing power in 1970, it was a surprise to workers at the plant to see the manatees swimming into the canal in large numbers. Tampa Electric officials quickly realized the value the canal afforded the mammals, and, by 1986, the Florida legislature awarded the area official manatee sanctuary status. Federal status followed 16 years later. Since its inception, it has grown from a collection of observation platforms into its current 50-acre facility that has attracted more than 2.7 million visitors since it opened.”

When you drive up to the plant the first thing you notice is the big stacks spewing smoke and it seems like an environmental disaster.  The plant runs off coal, but has done a lot to limit their emissions and has gone through a lot of expense to make it safe for the Manatee to congregate there.  It’s a nice story about a big power plant making the effort to be a better neighbor to the people of Tampa and the environment.  There were stories years ago about Manatee getting caught in the warm water discharge of different power plants.  They have taken precautions so that they are safe and can’t get stuck in these areas.


This is a distance shot of the area. The darker spots you see are manatee.


This guy just kept his nose out of the water instead of staying down except to breathe like they normally do.


There are a lot of other fish, birds, and sharks swimming in these warm waters.

There were large spinner sharks jumping completely out of the water.  They were too fast for me though!

This is a spotted Ray, there were a lot of them and they frequently jumped completely out of the water.  I couldn’t quite catch them out of the water though!

They built a nice walkway through the Mangroves so you can get right up to the water.

It’s a pretty area and a great place to boat, fish, and kayak.

From the power plant we could see a lot of boats and some beach area. We decided to explore that.
more later…

When in the Tampa Bay area this is a great place to go and well worth the time.  There are not too many places that are completely free.  You could easily spend a few hours here.  We did it on a day where there were clear blue skies and temps in the mid 70’s.  Perfect weather!

Tampa Rv Supershow

After we left St Marks for the Whooping Crane flyover, we headed south to Tampa for the RV show.
The Tampa RV show is supposed to be the largest and best show in the country.
Howard and Linda Payne who write the blog,  RV-Dreams made arrangements for a get-together Thursday morning with some other people who follow their blog.  We had been following their blog a while and were anxious to meet them. 
We also met Margie and Roger.  I have also been following Margie's blog since she was trying to sell her house and prepare to hit the road.  It’s been interesting following them as they learn about this new lifestyle.
This is Al, Margie, and Roger.

Another fulltiming couple we met was Bob and Molly, they were talking about all the great places to to go in Texas.  Another place we should put on our list.
We wandered around the show a few more hours but mostly concentrated on the vendors.  Al bought some special tape that you can put on hoses, pipes and such that is heat resistant.  We also bought some Poli Glow to give the motorhome a nice shine.  We looked at some Class A’s and really didn’t see anything we loved. We didn’t even look at the very high end coach’s this year as they are mostly too bright and glitzy for our tastes, plus I hate having to take my shoes off!  We looked at several RV’s and we thought some  the new floor plans were kind of odd.  They had no overhead cabinets and very little storage place.  Where would you put all your stuff?   Nothing we found made us want to trade, thankfully!
It was a beautiful sunny day with the temperature about 75.  It was the first warm day in about 10 days and everyone seemed to be enjoying it.
The crowds were getting way too heavy so we decided to head out to seem some sights where it was less crowded.
We went to the power plant to see the Manatees and then over to Apollo Beach.  It was fun and I took lots of pictures.  More later.

Whooping Cranes

  The folks at Operation Migration put up signs on the route to let people know whether or not the Cranes would be flying.  This was our first indication that indeed the birds would be arriving today!  Now if we could just get to St Marks before the birds!
We got to St Marks around 8:00 and were afraid we had missed them.  There were a lot of cars so we had to park a good ways away and walk and it was COLD at  22 degrees! Everyone was bundled up including one Doberman wrapped in a sweatshirt and still shivering! 

One pilot from Operation Migration was there giving us updates on the flight status and answering questions.

There is a whole crew involved in this project, several aircraft, several RV’s and numerous vehicles and many very dedicated people.

The pilot told a story about how his daughter Alex was born into this life and when she was 4 years old, asked her friend “what kind of bird does your dad fly with?” I guess she thought everyone’s father flew airplanes with birds!
They spent the night in a field about 26 miles away.  The birds are kept in pens at night in a large field, and in the morning they have to motivate them to come along with the aircraft and fly along.  He explained that the birds are being “gently released” and would be on their own, but in a very safe environment.  The Wildlife Refuge at St Marks has closed off a  creek to fishing, they filled up a pond with Oyster shells so that it is just the correct depth for the Cranes.  They are in a large open topped pen in the middle of a preserve where no hunting is allowed.  People are not allowed in the area where they are at and it is a very large preserve.  Hopefully they will do well.  I remember on year when the whole group was killed by a Bobcat.     
Apparently it is not an easy job to get the birds rounded up and in the air,  and this morning it was even harder because they were taking half of the birds to the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge  and half are being left St. Marks. He explained that when they are ready to fly, they have what they call the “rodeo” where the birds are rounded up and lead away. The pilot flies low and makes sounds that cue the birds to “come on.”  Some days  it’s easier than others. The birds have a mind of their own and don’t always realize what is expected of them. It was a lot more involved than I realized. Anyway, this morning they had some trouble getting the right birds in the air but they finally arrived.
The first thing we saw was one ultra light flyover with no birds.

A few minutes later we saw the second aircraft and 10 birds following.


 


They were flying at a pretty high altitude due to the winds aloft, so it was hard to get close up shots of the birds but here are a few.
It’s hard to explain what an incredible feeling it was to see these birds.  These are endangered birds that were hatched in incubators and have been trained to migrate.  They keep them away from humans and put on “Crane outfits” when they interact with the birds.  The pilots even fly in a crane suit!  It is a group of very dedicated people that have spent 3 months getting these birds the best chance they can give them.
It was very cold, we had to get up very early and drive on dark country roads to be there, but it was WORTH IT!