We have been staying in lovely State parks this week starting with the Myakka State Park near Sarasota on the Gulf of Mexico. It is full of wild life and we went on an airboat trip and saw so many alligators we stopped counting.
It has been a very dry winter and water levels are way down causing all sorts of problems. On another day we visited Sarasota and the Ringling Museum which was fabulous. John Ringling founded Ringling Bros Circus and eventually took over Barnum and Bailey Circus. Sarasota was the winter base for the circus and John Ringling built a beautiful winter home on the edge of the lovely Sarasota Bay.
The museum covers the house, his superb art collection that covers Rubens and other masters and a great museum dedicated to circus life. That together with the lovely gardens and setting made one of the better museums we have ever visited.
Then it was time to move on to another state park - Rainbow Springs about 150 miles further north and on our way to New Orleans. The site of the fourth largest natural spring in Florida producing 500 million gallons per hour of lovely clear water. Manatees swim up to the spring every winter because it. Is a constant warm temperature. There were none there but we did see some at nearby Homosassa Springs. They are very large and very unusual about the size of a cow. The picture below doesn't do it justice in terms of the scale. As big as a grown man.
The Homosassa Springs has lots of other wildlife with a very good management by the Florida Parks Authority.
This week we round the corner of Florida and enter the area called the Panhandle so called because it is long and narrow and connected to the pan of the main Florida peninsula.
Location:Florida West Coast
