The father I travel, the more I appreciate seeing people I know. The reason for my stop at Hillsborough River State Park was to visit my friends, Ruth and Stu.
They bought a winter home in Zephyrhills. One thing you can always count on when visiting Ruth is that she will feed you.
Oh, my goodness! Dinner with friends and good food! What a treat.
Actually, Ruth fed me a few more times, but I thought posting photos of every meal would be a bit redundant.
She took me around the community in their golf car. It is a lovely place, and I kind of hate to say it, but I could almost see me getting a place there.
The campground was quite nice, too. And, again I had to do one of those switch campsites tricks to manage to stay more than two days. This time, though, I got to switch site in the daylight, so it wasn’t a problem at all.
Right down the path from my second site was the river.
And, there was a place for people to put their canoes and kayaks in the river.
I got to watch these people launch their kayaks. They had open kayaks, so they were easy to get in. I might have to consider trying one. People always look like they are having such fun in them.
There were also the “old-fashioned” aluminum ones, like we had at Camp Shady Hollow on the Erie Canal in North Tonawanda.
One touristic thing I wanted to do while I was in the area was to visit the Manatee Viewing Center that is run by Tampa Electric. The warm water that is a byproduct of cooling the machinery is emptied into its discharge canal that returns the water to Tampa Bay. When the water in Tampa Bay gets down to 68 degrees, the manatees seek out the warmer water of the discharge canal.
I parked my car and this is the first sign that caught my eye.
Perhaps they should post this at the border? I got more bug bites in the Keys than I did in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Check my posts for more insect ranting.
The weather was lovely, but unfortunately the gulf water temperature was still too high to expect to see any manatees.
But, there were still other things to see.
How often do you get to get a good look at a power plant? It was so intricate that I could almost see building a viewing platform just to look at it. But, that’s the nerd in me speaking.
There were all sorts of fish right up by the viewing platform.
And birds wading by the shore.
There was a walkway built through a mangrove swamp where you could get a good look at the roots.
The roots trap sediment and create new land. Eventually.
The swamp has tidal creeks that run through it. These provide water and other nutrients to the swamp and its inhabitants. On the edge of the swamp, I got a good look at the sand crabs.
Along the walkway, they had a thermometer so you could see the water temperature. And get another view of the power plant. (nerd alert)
Getting back to the main area from the walk, I noticed some machines that attempted to pry a few tourist bucks out of people’s wallets. This was a free facility, but what fun is it if you don’t spend money?
You can make a plastic molded manatee for $2.
Or you could spend that $2 to experience a hurricane. Or, for 51 cents, you could make a squashed penny to commemorate your visit.
I headed back up for one last visit (to the restroom) and the call came out that they had spotted a manatee! I rushed over to the viewing platform and I THINK I saw a manatee’s nose and the tip of a flipper.
Or course, if you don’t have photographic evidence, did it really happen? I choose to believe it did.
Meanwhile, Ruth gave me a call and said that Stu wanted to wash my truck for me. That is one of the things that bugged me about the “service” I got at the dealership in Bradenton. I spent $1300 and they didn’t even wash my truck! Well, how could I turn down an offer like that?
He even scrubbed the tonneau! (Just in case you don’t know, a tonneau is the waterproof cloth cover on the bed of my truck.)
Not only did Stu wash my truck, Ruth fed me dinner. What great folks!
One the way back to the campground, I passed a cool custard shop. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to take a picture.
I thought that perhaps this was a one of a kind establishment, but I did see another one later in my travels.
Speaking of travels, the next day I hitched up and headed for Lake Louisa State Park.
