Thursday, Jan 10 - Cool here today. It only went up to about plus 14C, so the furnace and heater were both going this morning. Nice bright sunny day, however, so we were able to sit in the sun this afternoon for a little reading. Going down to 7C tonight. Not asking for sympathy from any quarter.

As mentioned, we're in one of our old favorite places, Homosassa. It's our 4th time in this park, so we know the area pretty well. We did the wildlife park on Monday, which we always enjoy. Tuesday, we rented a two-seater kayak, which was an adventure, yours truly being the novice. Trying to coordinate two long paddles is a challenge, so for the first hour, there was a lot of grumbling from the person in the stern. He finally figured it out. When Gail dips her paddle, you do it too. When she shifts to the other side, you do it too. When she decides to do three in a row on one side, you do it too. Worked a whole lot better than the other options we tried (you paddle on that side and I'll paddle on this side...didn't work, as with the headwind we had, and the current, we travelled three times the distance necessary to get to where we were headed.

Anyway, our marriage is still intact. We saw manatees, right beside the kayak, and managed the last hour much better. And yesterday, I got even, as we drove to Inverness, where we like to do the Withlahootchie Bike Trail. We did 32 kms, which tired the little person out, so she rested while I did another 18, to hit my 50 mark. It's a nice trail, converted rail to trail, so it was a nice day, and even Gail conceded she enjoyed it.

Today, we took it easy, focused on trying to decide where to go on Saturday, north and west, or south. The weather in the west is still not very encouraging, so guess what? After trying out two or three parks, which were all booked up, we took the easy way out, and decided to stay here for another week. The weather looks okay too, so it allows us a little more time before having to decide where to go from here. Typical Richardson decision. If you can't make up your mind...don't!! We rewarded our indecision by walking into the village for a beer, some chowder and shrimp at The Freezer, a local favorite watering/feeding hole. Great seafood.

I may find a picture or two to post from our trip to the Wildlife Park. Stand by.

This fellow is Lu. He had his 59th birthday last month, and is the only remaining mammal from the park that preceded the present edition. Formerly the park contained quite a variety of mammals, but when they redesigned it, all were moved out except Lu. Now the park's focus is birds and manatees, with a few deer and reptiles, plus one Florida panther and a black bear, in the park.

 This fellow is a crested caracara, a member of the falcons/buzzards bird of prey group.

 Here we have a full-faced white pelican. We've seen them on Dave MacKays family ranch in southern Alberta. Biggest of the pelicans.

 Last edition, we mentioned whooping cranes, which we thought we might have seen. Turned out they were Sandhill fellas. This is the real thing, a genuine whooper.

Finally, we have a Great White Heron. Note: he's not blue. But he's very similar, except that he's not blue. He's considered a morph of the Great Blue. First one we've seen, so he'd go on our lifelist if we kept one.

That's it for now, folks. We'll be in Homosassa for another week. Then who knows? More later. Stay tuned.