NEW SMYRNA BEACH

We left Saint Petersburg a week ago, and drove across Florida to NSB, where our time share was waiting. We always find it amazing how we thrive in the small space of our Excel 5th Wheel, especially when we move into a spacious two bedroom condo. We stayed one night at the Sugar Mill RV Park in NSB, where we are storing the RV for two weeks.

This place is huge! And it is right on the Atlantic Ocean. We are here for two weeks, through Thanksgiving, and leaving Nov. 28. The beach here is really nice, with very fine sand. It is a very 'deep' beach, and they do allow vehicular traffic all along the beach, but there is plenty of room for everybody.

We spent sunday afternoon on the beach, and then welcomed Fort Dodgers Alec and Charlton Pendry. The Pendry's were with us through early Friday morning. We had a great time, doing some excursions and visiting and playing a couple of games of Settlers of Catan.

One trip was to the Kennedy Space Center which I would call a must-see. The displays were terrific, with easy to read text and clear images. We saw an IMAX 3D movie of Hubbell Telescope images---breathtaking! The Saturn Rocket on display is amazing. We also went up an observation tower to view the launch pads. There is a shuttle launch on one of the pads. This has been scrubbed a few times and I guess is supposed to launch in early December.

the shuttle launch pad

We left the Space Center and dined at the Dixie Crossroads Restaurant in Titusville. Holy cow, excellent food!!! Their rock shrimp is dynamite.

The next day we drove west to near Deland, to see Blue Spring State Park. This is a manatee viewing area and we saw a couple, but when we took the boat tour of the St. John's River we also saw tons of alligators, turtles and all kinds of birds--osprey, various types of herons, ibis, cormorants, kingfisher, and snake birds.

Blue Spring Park Gator

Ibis and great blue heron

our friendly manatee

One manatee came right up to the boat side, munching on some leafy plant, and nuzzled the side of the pontoon boat. The weather was awesome as well. After the boat tour we toured an historic home, built in the 1870s by a settler, Lewis Thursby. He developed a steamboat landing at Blue Spring, which was a major landing during that era for river traffic and shipping between Jacksonville and Orange Park. He eventually grew his holdings from 133 acres to over 900, much of which became orange groves.

Ellen at the Thursby House

This just about catches me up...We took today to catch our breath...Tomorrow Tom and Jo Ewers are going to come over for a couple of nights. We are excited to see them again!