Wanderung 1

Key West or Bust

Holts Take Time in Toyota Truck to Tramp Together in Tepid Temperatures!

January-February 2003

Thursday, January 16, 2003
Inspired by the ranger’s talk, we decided to check out the manatees early in the morning. We went down to the spring before breakfast and found a plethora of manatees, mostly sleeping. It was cold enough that steam was rising from the water, and the scene of “manatees in the mist” was haunting. The park had not yet opened for the day users, so we were alone with the manatees. I found myself treading softly on the metal dock so as not to disturb the sleep of these gentle creatures—I felt it would be impolite, kind of like stamping thru somebody’s bedroom. After a while, some hardy soles came down to the spring for a morning swim, and they invited us along but we declined—the water might be 73 degrees but the air temperature was near freezing so we didn’t feel like stripping and jumping in. If you get to Blue Springs, make sure to stay in the campground so that you can go down in the morning and see the manatees in the mist.

After breakfast we headed north a couple of miles to the town of DeLand for our next Volksmarch. The DeLand Volksmarch started at a very nice library, but we had to track down the start box in the Reference section. The route went past a very nice old theater that is being restored and then headed west to the old Stetson residence. That was the guy who made hats, and apparently he made a lot of money because this place was a mansion and he also founded the local college that bears his name. The route was really well laid out because we only walked 1 block on a busy street and were otherwise zigzagging thru pretty residential neighborhoods.

One highlight was a sensory garden where you were invited to smell different herbs and feel plants with different textures. Another highlight was 300+ year old red cedar, which is the oldest and largest cedar in the United States! The 1880s era Episcopal church along the route had beautiful stained glass windows made by Louis Comfort Tiffany. These were the real article and showed the almost photographic quality of Tiffany’s work at the height of his career. The club also had a great brochure with historical notes on each point of interest.

The walk ended with a swing thru Stetson College, which much larger than I had expected. It is basically a liberal arts college that also offers a degree in business administration. We returned down main street where we had a nice lunch at “Yesterday’s Restaurant”. The place was decorated with either antiques or look-alikes and the food was good. We returned to the library where they were selling used books, so we picked up a couple to read if we ever get any spare moments.

The rest of the afternoon was R & R, but we did venture down to the springs again at sunset to get a few more sunset pictures and say good-bye to the manatees. Monika took a great shot of a Great Blue Heron that was posing for us no more than 30 feet away. The sunset over the St. John River was spectacular with hues of pink against the darkening blue sky. That was a nice way to end our stay at Blue Springs.

Copyright 2002 by Robert W. Holt
Prolog
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