Wed., Feb 26 - We were about to go for a bike ride, when the rain started. And is it ever coming down now, with even a little thunder thrown in for effect. We could float away if this keeps up, although it's supposed to ease off before long. Folks in parts of Mississippi have been dealing with a lot of flooding, and southern Louisiana has also had a lot of rain, so maybe it's just as well we stayed in Florida this winter.

We moved here to Homosassa on Monday, into a park we haven't tried before. It's quite nice, right on the river, so we're pleased with the location and facilities. But yesterday it threatened to rain most of the day, and finally got started in the later afternoon. And didn't really stop all evening. We managed to get a good walk in before it started, but then we were confined to barracks, as we are now. Rain to continue until this evening, then sunshine and cooler for a couple of days. Should be nice by the week-end. Not really complaining, as for the most part, we've had pretty fine weather.

Our last couple of days in New Port Richie were pleasant enough. I did a long ride on Saturday, 54 kms, so the next day we took it easy. We went back to Tarpon Springs, did a little 25 km ride, then wandered the town, had lunch at Mama's, bought a sponge, watched the tourists, loads of them. It's a busy town, the sponge industry the main attraction (Spong Capital of the World), so it was a good diversion for our last day in the area.

We had a short drive to come here on Monday, so stopped off at the Weeki Wachee Springs State Park. This is a very popular site, mainly because of the Mermaid Show that has been running here for decades.The spring has a pool 400 feet deep, fed from the aquifer, with crystal clear water. An ex-navy frogman discovered the place's potential, so started an entertainment centre that features swimmers dressed in mermaid suits, who perform for an audience behind a large glass wall. They carry oxygen hoses, and do a quite remarkable 30 minute show 2 of 3 times a day. There are about 8 females, and a couple of males, who run through several routines involving underwater acrobatics, a story line that tells the history of the place,  a skit about the invasion of algae, with a guy dressed up like a blob descending upon the mermaids. They speak to the audience, or rather lip-sync, but very convincingly. They also eat and drink underwater, which I wouldn't try to do. I have enough trouble these days eating at the dining table.

It's a little hard to describe, so I'll post a couple of photos that may convey the performance. The park is quite well set-up, with boat rides on the river available if you get there early enough (we were too late at 11:00), and they also have a reptile show, which was pretty basic, but okay. There's a good restaurant for the basics, and several colorful peacocks roaming the grounds, one of which gave us a full display. So it was a good stop, and worth a visit if you're ever in the Weeki Wachee area north of Port Richie.

We met an interesting fellow here in the park yesterday, a retired guy from Colorado, who is just getting used to not working. He and his wife were in the ski hill business in the mountains for 40 years, but had to slow right down as a result of an accident he had two years ago. He slipped on the edge of a slope, and went down end over end quite a distance. He managed to climb up and go home, but next day and the days that followed became very painful. Turned out he'd broken a major disc, the second cervicle, which resulted in a couple of tricky surgeries to patch him up. Lucky he didn't end up a paraplegic. He said he's broken nearly every bone in his body over his life-time, having been a bit of an adventurer, so finds having to slow down difficult. No more skiing, as the result of a fall could be catastrophic. He's lucky to be alive, and wakes up every morning acknowledging that fact.

Still pouring! So I'll post a couple of pictures. The first shows one of the mermaids doing her thing. Each carries an oxygen hose, which they use very efficiently, and they are able to control their position underwater by controlling their inhaling and exhaling somehow. Breathe in oxygen, and descend. Breathe out, and rise. Beyond this landlubber to know just how it works, but it's quite impressive. They do two costume changes during the show, as you can see in the second and third pictures, which is also pretty amazing for a 30 minute show, considering they have to exit the pool, change,  and come back in very quickly. Takes me 15 minutes just to get into my bathing suit.

The bottom two pictures show the bottom and front of Mr. Peacock. He was really strutting his stuff. There were 3 or 4 hens heading for the exit as we were leaving. The word was out that the male was feeling amorous, and they wanted nothing to do with it.

That's about it for now. We hope the rain lets up so we can get on our bikes and go over to The Shed, our favorite watering hole, for a beer and french fries. Sunshine tomorrow, so we'll get there eventually. Thinking of and missing our friends and family back home. More later. Stay tuned.