My wife and I visited Rainbow Springs State Park in Florida for 4 USD. Yes, we wear masks 🙂 Payday candy bar wrappers were the most littered item in the park I am happy to report I only found a third of a shopping bag full of litter
| Weather | overcast |
| Temperature | 60F / 15C |
| Mood | rain threatening, but at bay while we visited |
| Restoring nature | as needed during a short time in a paid state park |
Florida calls their state parks “the real Florida.” Yes, there are lots of famous theme parks like Disney, Universal, and SeaWorld. They have some great beaches and a large home to our space program. Surprisingly, I have enjoyed about the same joy as much moseying around beautiful parks in my travels around the large state. In this short trip during our difficult covid times I looked for an area we could risk traveling to minimizing our risk of covid-19 exposure. Omassa National Forest and Crystal River area in Florida felt like a safer spot in our United States. I wanted to see the elephant-like manatees for myself. Along with some colder Florida weather, we had minimal contact with people while exploring these beautiful parks. My “garbidar” was on as it is at home. Our first two days I held back my urge to beautify. On the third day, I brought my work gloves and a plastic shopping bag to continue my cause. We visited Rainbow Springs State Park. Admission was 2 USD per person. I wanted to see how littered a paid state park could be. I am glad to report I only found a third of a shopping bag full of litter. My most interesting find was Payday candy bar wrappers. There was no payday for me, but I my pay was helping out Florida just a tiny bit. Although these manatee photos below were taken at litter-free Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, they were also a big payoff and highlight on our trip.
Manatees are slow docile creatures They mostly stay still underwater until they need to come up for air These are injured manatees. They are eating from the park’s Manatee salad bar. They are bigger than normal manatees because they are contained in a safe zone:-)
