Homosassa, FL January 27 - February 3, 2017

Monkey Island

We traveled to Homosassa, Florida on Friday, January 27, 2017 and stayed at Nature's Resort RV campground. We drove around Old Homosassa and found Monkey Island.  It is a small island that has 5 spider monkeys on it.  They are a local attraction, fed twice daily and stay on the island all of the time.

5 spider monkeys call the island home

On Tuesday the 31st, we went to the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park.  Inside the park is a large spring that feeds out to the river.  The manatees come into the park to get to the warm spring water during the night.  Then shortly after noon the leave the park heading back out into the gulf to feed on vegetation.  They have 3 injured female manatees that stay in a fenced area during the winter months.  When the temperatures warm in the summer months the wild manatee don't come into the spring so they close a gate that allows the 3 females to have the spring to their selves.  The park is full of animals.  A hippo named Lu, alligators, deer, foxes. a bear and a lot of birds.  It was a great day.

Manatees come to the water surface to breathe.

The "girls" at feeding time come into tank for their heads of lettuce.

I couldn't stop posting Joyce's pictures.  She has taken some great ones and I want to share them.  There are a lot more pictures and a lot more stories that time won't allow us to tell.

Bobcat

Flamingo's

Florida panther

Black bear

Osprey

Black-crowned night herron. Loved his ORANGE eyes!

Whooping crane bathing.

Great Horned Owl

Snowy Owl

Alligator

LU, the hippo is 57 years old. He's a leftover resident from when park was a small zoo.

The brown spots are manatees

If you look close you can see all of the brown spots are manatees leaving the spring and returning to the gulf to feed.

Joyce with her feet in the Gulf of Mexico again

We took a drive south and found Richie Cheesesteak for lunch. It was located in Wickee Wachee Florida. (No we didn't know they had a mermaid show there till after we left.) They were re-doing their table area at Richie's, so we took our fabulous sandwiches and headed out to a coastal park on the Gulf. Pine Island Beach Park was a great relaxing place but sand here is not the white soft sand like around Panama City and Destin.

The Freezer

We were told about The Freezer by a couple next to us when we camped at Fort Wilderness when they heard we were going to Homosassa. All the locals recommended it also. When Joyce called to see when was the least busy time to come..."when we open at 11:30am" She was right it was packed when we got there, but well worth the wait.

The old freezer curtains are still there.

2 1/2 lbs of fresh shrimp for Randy

This was Joyce's pick for the night.  Wednesday night was steak night.

 Every stop we had made new friends.  At the campgrounds, eating a meal or just walking around.

 We are truly blessed to be able to see all of God's beauty!