Happy Thanks Giving Everybody
Yep, it’s the 3rd Thursday in November which for US citizens means turkey and trimmings at home with the family. It also means that tomorrow is black Friday…..THE best shopping day of the year. Some stores are advertising opening times of 4am this year – that’s just ridiculous. We won’t be there at that time and we certainly won’t be queuing all night, whatever the bargains. We will try to get up early though and head in for around 8am. We’ve found before that this is a good time as it’s after the real early birds and before the normal morning shoppers. So today we will chill out – it’s really hot out here by the pool again and maybe take a ride out to Daytona later. Bad news though folks – the pool heater is not working so no swimming 🙁
Anyway, back to yesterday. We left the villa at 11:15 as we had to be at the Forever Florida ranch for 1pm. The sat nav had indicated about an hour’s journey so we allowed contingency, which turned out to be just well as we got there at 20 to 1! It was 42 miles down the 192 then 7 miles along the 441 so a dead easy route.
We arrived and ‘checked in’ and only had a 10 min wait or so before our tour started. It began with a 30 min slide show (clearly not updated since the early 1990’s) about the family who owned the ranch. The first 15 mins were dedicated to their son Allen who had died in his late 20’s and the final 15 mins about how the project was about conservation and our eco system. It was a tad self indulgent on their part and could definitely use a re-vamp.
After this we made our way onto our truck for our Florida eco safari. We were seated at the very front – seats are high up on the back of a flat bed truck. We set off and the warm breeze felt like it would definitely burn my arms – oh well! As we went along the side of a swamp we saw loads of alligators. Some pretty small and some even babies. We saw 2 lots of babies and each time there was a big gator nearby. This had to be mum as gators do protect their young and if it were dad then the babies would be no more as males eat their own young! There’s a pic of one of the mums below. We also saw a few turtles in the water and one on the bank.
We learned that the sex of an alligator is determined by the heat of the nest. Over 92 degrees and they will be male, less than 86 degrees and they will be female. Somewhere between the 2 and you will get a mixed litter! A female will lay around 60 eggs but only about 12 will ever make it to adulthood.
After the swamp we were into more open land. The slide show had taught us how the land has to be burned in different seasons to allow the eco system to flourish. It thins back the plants that grow too strong and allows the sun to hit the land and let new plants grow. We saw areas that had been burned in May and the re-growth was amazing. We learned that if animals get stuck during a burn they would concentrate only on survival so a snake will not eat a rabbit if trapped together. When they escape they each go their separate ways (never to speak of the incident again!)
We saw lots of birds: kestrels, buzzards and a woodpecker. We also learned that Spanish moss that hangs on the trees is not good. It will harm the tree by taking the light and nutrients. It is also filled with mites and yet apparently the first model T Ford had it used as stuffing in the seats – YUK!
We also saw a few deer bounding around but sadly never got to see the rare Florida Panther. Apparently, only a few have spotted it. It is orangey brown in colour and not black like most believe all panthers are. A black big cat we were told is a mutated leopard with merged spots!!
The ranch also catches and pens Hogs. Apparently these are bad as they destroy the land; 2 hogs can destroy 1 acre of land in just 1 night. We saw where this had happened and it was a hollow with nothing growing. The hogs dig for bloodroot (a food source akin with chocolate to me) with their tusks and the bacteria and acid from them is what ruins the land and prevents any re-growth of foliage.
We got off the truck at one point for a walk around a boardwalk (an area where Allen (pay attention from earlier) loved to visit). As we walked across Paul spotted the mother of all spider’s webs – I did NOT want to meet it’s owner and could only imagine the size of what had spun something that size. It made me shudder. After a few mins Paul then thought something had dropped on his head. At that point I decided nature was not for me and much prefer the Florida mall 🙂
We boarded the truck after about 10 mins and headed back to the ranch. The trip had been about an hour and a half and definitely worth it. The air is about the freshest in Florida in were told due to the open ecological land so we felt it had done us the world of good too.
So, as you can see (well, read) I paid attention and took a lot in for you all to enjoy 😉
After the safari we took a brief moment to feed the fat pony at the petting zoo. Thankfully a sink was provided, as he was a messy eater!
We left Forever Florida at about half 3 and headed home. We came home a different route following the sat nav but it took no less time. We got home about 4:45 after a quick stop for gas.
We were both starving as we had only had breakfast so decided we would head out for dinner early and go to Longhorn. Before we went Paul wanted to download The Apprentice for us to watch when we got back. We called ahead to Longhorn but were told there was no wait so when we arrived we were seated straight away. We had timed it well though as within minutes there were queues of people and the place was full. We both had the 7oz fillet and Paul explained meticulously how he wanted it cooked. Michael, our waiter, was keen to get it right and apparently had 2 Managers go and cook it! Paul gave it the thumbs up to everyone’s relief 🙂
The food there is always good and we really enjoyed it (clearing our plates) and we washed it down with root beer.
When we got home Apprentice had downloaded so we settled in with a brew. We both want to kill Stuart and felt the losing team were way better than both him and Laura (who is a whingy selfish mare) – those 2 HAVE to go soon.
That’s about it then…enjoy your Thanks Giving and be back here the same time tomorrow 😉