The East Coast of Florida – The Atlantic Ocean Side
We are now heading north, up the East Coast, we have now been in Florida 2 weeks with another week to go. We are enjoying every bit of it and “Gradually” getting used to the heat and humidity. Felt surprisingly good to hit the road, loved our week on the Keys, but there are many more things to see and a lot more to do, so onward and upward is our coarse today. Our 1st stop was in Homestead, FL. We headed out to visit the Coral Castle a very unique and odd place; is billed as America’s Stone Henge. The structures were built by one man Ed Leedskalmin, over 20 years 1920-40. Ed was a very small but determined man, who was left at the altar by his 16 year old - bride to be, this resulting heartbreak motivated Ed to construct the Coral Castle. There are rooms of oversized furniture, walls, gardens and some interesting terrestrial structures all chiseled out of coral block that was mined and shaped by Ed’s hands. It is still a mystery how he was able to mine, cut, form and move these huge, heavy blocks of coral. No one apparently ever saw him work, he was very secretive and there is some talk about his use of electro magnets to achieve some of his “magic”. The gardens and plantings that were in around the castle were beautiful, another interesting stop on our “Safari”.
Biscayne Bay National Park was our next point of interest. We took a great cruise out into the Atlantic Ocean. We spent about an hour snorkeling on a very beautiful coral reef. We saw a great variety of coral and many different tropical fish; this was best snorkeling we have had so far on our trip. The water was amazingly clear and warm, just a bit of chop, but it gave some motion to the coral and sea plants below. Part of the cruise was a great presentation by a National Park Ranger who gave us a lot of information about how this area has become so valued and how it had been saved from development and destruction. Our visits to National Parks have become more and more appreciated when we realize the beauty that they protect and promote.
Our route continues north; we traveled over 200 miles to the Cocoa area. Drove through the city of Miami, wow, that is one huge city, looked like driving through Los Angeles, luckily the traffic was light and Maggie our GPS did not miss-lead us into downtown. We made our day’s quota of miles and got into our campground at the local Elks’ Lodge. Continuing our a quest to see more of the National Parks we drove to and through the Canaveral National Sea Shore and the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge (this is the area primarily surrounding the Cape Canaveral Space Center), more amazingly beautiful landscapes, incredibly open spaces and very few people considering it is the week before Easter.
We had originally hoped to be able to include the launch of one of the last space shuttles, the Endeavor, on our trip, but as is quite often the case, there are delays and even with Mike’s incredible flexibility in trip planning it just wasn’t in the cards. So we took the day and went to see the Kennedy Space Center, even though we had been there before, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We took the KSC- up close tour, where they drove us out to within about 3 miles of launch pad 39, where the Endeavor is in place for her launch next week. While here it has also been great to have a chance to visit with one of Mike’s students, Tristin Clouse, who contracts for NASA. More to see, more to do – we will be on the road again.