We got up really early which was sort of aided by yesterday’s time change and went to the Ford dealership so we could get in line early to meet their obnoxious first come-first served policy. We arrived at 6:45, 45 minutes before they opened and we were the first folks served but it still took three hours out of the day. I love Charlotte but I loathe Ford dealerships.
After dealing with these assholes, however, the rest of the day was wonderful. First we went to Wakulla Springs State Park. The springs pour out 400,000 to 600,000 gallons per minute of fresh water and they are located right in the middle of an area infested with wildlife. We saw big vultures, cardinals, ibises, gallinules, ducks, cranes, some animals with names I can’t pronounce and loads of alligators. It is spectacular, especially since they take visitors out on battery-powered boats to see everything from the water. We also went into the adjacent resort building and ran into the maintenance manager, Neill Adderly, the son of Cannonball Adderly the musician. He took us on a tour of the 1930’s vintage building which is very nice.
From there we went down to St. Marks on the Gulf of Mexico. The area is a federal wildlife refuge so, again, we got in free using our federal access pass we bought in Gold Beach last July. I love that $80 pass; we must have saved about $300 so far and the year isn’t over yet. The refuge is truly magnificent. We saw alligators everywhere, birds of all descriptions and stuck our little mitts in the Gulf. There is also an old lighthouse at the end of the road that is pretty neat considering it is cylindrical but built from brick. We also found that visitors should keep the windows up and run the A/C since there are also quite a few flying insects.
Dana called and spoke with Mom for a while before our miserable Sprint phone took a shit and dropped the call. Nice to chat with Dana.
On the way back to the Invader we found a restaurant called “Savanna’s Country Buffet” which had great food in their buffet for $8.75 a head, including the drink and tax. Good home-cooked stuff and we overindulged disgracefully. On the way home we ran through some thundershowers which only dropped rain at a rate of about 4 inches an hour. We also finalized all the necessary arrangements for our next three stops in Florida which seems to be pretty necessary because not only is it spring break for lots of Florida kids, this area is a Mecca for all the retired and elderly old farts from the entire eastern seaboard.