Mermaids???

While on coast, by Palm Harbor, wanted to drop in to Wikee Wachee springs, it is the deepest naturally formed spring in the U.S. In 1946 it was purchased privately and the mermaid show was started by the owner, it was subsequently sold to ABC and they built a theater back in 1959  I had read about this before and   it was in disrepair for quite a while.  The animals that they had originally were no longer fed and left the area.  The owner passed away, ABC was no longer interested and it became a state park in 2008.  They are now rebuilding the park, with volunteers, there is a small beach and water slides and of course the mermaids.

 The girls are trained to breath off air hoses and  requires SCUBA certification, first aid, CPR, several months of training, as well as being 18 years of age.  The air tubes were invented by a "frog man" now known as Navy Seals back in the 40's. They are in the water and the Mermaid's have access any time they need it - for movement up and down as well of course for breathing.  it is actually more difficult to use these than the regulard scuba gear.   I asked one how she came to be a Mermaid and she said that here mother was one so, she wanted to be one too!  These Mermaids need to be able to dive 100 feet down into the spring area and b e able to hold their breath for at least a minute or more - the day we were there, it was around 2 mintues- I tried, but no way!

For $13.00 each, you get into the park, get to see three “Mermaid” shows and they also have an animal show.  They day we were there they had several snakes, two turtles and Ali – did not take snake pictures so as not to alarm some of my friends  (D) but did take a picture of Ali.  They also have some peacocks running around and several refreshment areas. There is a small boat that goes 10 minutes up and then 10 minutes back along the waterway.  One side is the spring and cannot go any further, the other is very shallow but does head 9 miles out to the Gulf.  They have kayaks to rent or you can take your own.

Entrance

Original signage



What's this??




Why - they are MERMAIDS!!!!



Local peacock

Heeeeeeeeere's Ali!

A fish out of water

On the way home, heard loud noice on road beside us and could not quite figure out what it was - you never know what will come up beside you.....

Leaving Missions TX to Galveston, New Orleans & Tarpon Springs Fl

I did mention that we had a little celebration for my birthday, here are a couple of pictures that Dru forwarded to me the the other day

Ken and I and cake on fire!!

Bill (Bea's husband) Mary (our sister in law)

Jim (Ken's Brother) Bea (Bill's wife)

Mike & Bonnie, Alice, Ken & I, Dru

Well, we spent our last week in Texas, just visiting and relaxing.  On the Friday we gave a small cocktail party for the new friends we are leaving behind. A few drinks and nibbles, a story or two – just like real people!!!  On the Saturday final dinner with Jim and Mary and then on Friday, Mike and Bonnie had us over for a BBQ.

Bonnie & Mike

Jim & Mary

Dinner with Chef Mike

We left Monday morning the 23rd with goodbyes throughout the park and a tear or two – will be keeping in touch through email with them all.

After a great month in Mission TX spending time over Christmas, New Year’s and my birthday, we are back on the road travelling again.  We are heading to Galveston, TX just because I want to see it.

We have arrived at Galveston, later in the afternoon and drove around the island to check out parks – we chose the City one which was right by the Gulf where we could back on to the water and hear the waves crashing during the night – music to my ears! 

We went to the Visitor center the next morning to see about what was available and booked a tour for the afternoon with a local. The person at the Visitor center was very informative and gave us recommendations for a restaurant.   We drove around on our own for a while to see what was around and get the lay of the land.  We went back to be picked up at 1:00 pm. 

The tour guide had a large golf cart type machine but bigger than that was we were driving around the city in it, as there were just the two of us, it worked out well.

  Hurricane Ike in 2008 is the one the hit them and took a toll on the city.  Where we were on the Gulf side was not even where the damage was, it was in land – the hurricane brought the surging waters to the other side of the island and the main downtown was flooded.  Several of the buildings have small plaques on them showing the different hurricanes that have caused floods and the heights.  The waves surged over the Sea wall – this is where we are now staying and went to the lower sloped down areas of the city and this is where most of the damage was sustained.  There are still quite a few places on the island that have not been rebuilt or restored.  The historical society is doing some restorations as well as some people have purchased homes and is in process of restoring.  These must be done according to the historical society rules to be same as before. 

They also lost quite a few trees, and there are tree sculptures throughout the city, both private and by the city that are amazing.   We had similar sculptures when we were in Hope, BC. 

After the tour, we went down to the docks to and walked around.  They had an oil rig that was set up as a Museum that we thought we would go back the next day and look at.  We had a drink on the wharf then went to dinner at Gaido’s that was recommended to us, was very good – we had seafood of course!    

We had plans to do some more sightseeing the next day, but the weather went nuts, storm warnings, flood, tornadoes, good old weather, there were advisorys not to go out if not necessary so we sat it out in the trailer following the news – took some pictures, but they don’t show nearly all that was going on.

Day of storm

Large waves

Trying to show water pooling on ground

Morning after 1

Morning after 2

L

We left the next day heading east to New Orleans, LA – the Big Easy

Rice field

From Galveston, we travelled along through Texas City, which seemed to be one big oil town.  Also along the same route there were several rice fields, did not realize that was a big crop down here.

Stayed at nice park outside New Orleans, Slidell, which was about ½ north east so drive down was pretty straight forward.  All of the park was decorated for Mardi Gras - decorations on everything. The Park people gave us a detailed map and directions and that worked well. 

We drove down the next morning as we were going to see about booking a driving tour and paddle boat tour.  The paddle boat we wanted to book was in dry dock so could not get them and the other one that was running, did not have its booth open at the time we went to the wharf.

We walked along the River walk for a while, could see the cruise ships on the docks – they have a few that leave from New Orleans; that would be a great way to do one as you could get a hotel the day before right by the wharf, do sightseeing either on way in or out.

We started walking through the French quarter, walked along the main area, went to Café du Monde for Beignets – icing sugar coated deep fried doughnuts – WOW.  We shared though, did not want to pig out too much!  Even the statues downtown had Mardi Gras beads on them. Walked the boardwalk, went up along Bourbon street; anything goes on this street – bars open early, can walk anywhere in area with open drink – sell them outside their bars, quite similar to in Vegas. We stopped at an outside park for a drink  at at Jackson's Square, and listened to singer - she was pretty good.  Every other store front is a strip club of some sorts, graphic pictures as well – no we did not stop.

 

Street performers were everywhere, everyone advertising to get you into their stores or bars.  The whole area has restaurants and bars galore.  We did walk down some side streets off the beaten track, still downtown but not really busy, then decided we should get closer to  crowded areas. Again a great people city – even though they have one of the highest crime rates in the states.  At this point, 27 days into month, they have had 23 murders.

Fats Domino, Ken Moore, Al Hirt

Again, the downtown area was not hit as hard as outlying areas – the worst was the 9^th district and everyone said not to go near that area.  These are all inland but in very low lying areas and of course is the poorer section, they apparently are still waiting for FEMA money and not getting very quickly.

We left downtown around 5:00 pm and headed back up town and went to restaurant that the park had recommended – Copeland’s – it was packed, which is always a good sign – there was a small line up to get I when we arrived but as we were leaving, they were out the door waiting.  We had a coupon for free entrée from park as well so we had lots of food and leftovers for the next night – great way to cook!

The next day, we went back down town – Comiccom was on at the convention centre so we did see a few aliens and space people – the invisible man walked right by us so that was kind of neat.

 We took our tour of the Mississippi on the Cajun Queen paddle wheel boat out and stopped at park -------- where the battle of Louisiana was fought and did a quick tour.  While on the boat, they pointed out the 9^th district and the levy’s that they have now rebuilt – but we were behind one on the tour and does not look that great to me.  The damage is caused not by the gulf waters themselves in these places but by the waters rising and not being held back as they should be.

Mardi Gras statue and Creole |Queen in background

Creole Queen

Skyline

Skyline and river walk

Levy up Mississippi river by battlefield

Cruise ships

Skyline

Skyline

The temperature while we were there was in the mid to high 60’s (16-17 C) which is actually great for touring.

Glad we stopped here, this and Galveston were on my list of things and places to see so worked out well.

We left here in morning and headed towards Tallahassee, FL.  All was going well until a fellow pulled up beside us and started honking his horn waving at Ken to pull over to shoulder.  Ken got out and there was a big bulge on the side of the trailer tire.  Thanked him and asked how far to the next intersection and he said about five miles, so I told I was going to put on my 4 way flasher and drive slow to get off the highway as there was no room to work. He said he would follow with his flashers on as he was also getting off at that intersection and told me there was a gas station there. 

Ken could see this huge bulge in my mirror and when I turned on the ramp I hear it pop, but drove slowly down ramp and over to the gas station. He got out went back and kicked the tire and it was still inflated, he could not believe my eyes.

We made it and went inside and this young lady called her boss and got a guy to come and change the tire from spare and put the other back on the rack.  One and a half hours and $45.00 later, we were on our way.  As we were quite a bit behind, we only ended up getting to Milton, FL and staying overnight there, stopped and had dinner.

The next morning, we started driving to see how far we could get, we left highway 10 and started down along Hwy 19 – just drove for the day, nothing exciting happened and staid in Perry FL overnight – only problem was it is a pulp and paper town, but the notice they gave us with their maps told us – “since our major employer is the pulp company, what you smell, is the smell of money”.  Which actually is familiar to me as we had that in Pembroke and the Eddie Match Company was there as well so on certain days, with wind coming certain way, you got a whiff of “potage” as we called it.

Road along here had several rice fields as well and bayou along the way - as could mostly see trees, no real pictures taken.

Left there in am and have now ended up in Palm Harbor, FL just south of Tarpon Springs.  We are going to stay here for a week, do a few tours that we did not get to do when we came to Hudson, FL back in 2006.

Second day here, and there is already a Happy Hour group – go figure….

Stay tuned!