October 2020 Road Trippin - 10-23-20 - Space Coast Day 5

We did another drive thru on Black Point Wildlife Drive this morning.  When we left camp, it was raining, by the time we crossed over the Indian River, we had sunshine.

We thoroughly enjoyed our drive again today.  We saw a lot of the same critter species that we saw on our first day.

The weather continued to cooperate allowing us to hike to the blinds and the tower today without any liquid sunshine.

The Gators were very active today. We saw about a big Gator swimming in a pond. 

Then we saw a little Gator crossing the road.

Then we saw a medium size Gator laying in the road showing off his teeth. 

You realize just how beautiful these creatures are when you get to see them out of the water.

We stopped for our picnic lunch at Parrish Park.  We had a birds eye view of the birds and Dolphins in a feeding frenzy.

We made another ride through Sand Point Park before heading back to camp.

We were hiking around camp when the liquid sunshine began to fall.  Florida's weather is as fickle as Mississippi weather.  One minute it is beautiful, then the next minute, it is raining. 

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October 2020 Road Trippin - 10-22-20 - Space Coast Day 4

We knew this morning that we had a 50/50 chance of seeing a rocket launch from the Kennedy Space Center.  We got to the National Seashore a couple of hours prior to the planned launch.  We spent the morning being beach bums, or rather, birding beach bums.

We thoroughly enjoyed our walk along the beach, seeing Shorebirds and Crabs while having our toes in the water and our ass out of the sand!

After about an hour of walking the beach, we got in the bed of the truck, sat in our chairs and waited, excitedly, for the launch.  About 11 minutes before the launch, we found out the launch was scrapped.  Dang it!! We knew coming in that there was a 50/50 chance of the launch not happening today.  But, it would have been cool to see.  Maybe we will get another opportunity before we leave.  

It was probably not a coincidence, when we drove out of the park, that the Final Countdown was playing on the radio, at the exact time the launch was planned.  Just saying.

We went to the Haulover Canal to look for Manatees and found them.  There were several of them on both sides of the canal.  

While we were eating our lunch, off the tailgate of the truck, under the shade trees, we saw Manatees, Dolphins, Ospreys and such.

Our excursion to check out the Biolab Boat Ramp was a little more than we expected.  We thought we would ride in and out in just a few minutes.  That few minutes was not in and out, and not a few minutes.  6 miles later on a one way road, we found ourselves 2 miles inside the National Seashore from the entrance gate.

Our attempt to drive thru the Black Point Wildlife Drive was cancelled when the road was closed for construction.  Oh well, we have a few more days for this opportunity. The ride over was well worth it, seeing a Bald  Eagle sitting on his favorite Osprey nest.

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October 2020 Road Trippin - 10-21-20 - Space Coast Day 3

We were hoping to see a rocket launch at the Kennedy Space Center today.  We got up, checked it out, and the launch was cancelled.

We had a rainy start this morning.  Which was not a problem.  We lounged around, ate lunch, then went looking for Limpkins, which was our back up plan for the day.

We checked out the Chain of Lakes Recreation Park where we were greeted by 100's of White Ibis, along with lots of other species of birds on our drive in.

We hiked along the 3 miles of trail, meandering through the woods, and over and around the water.  It didn't take long to achieve our goal of finding Limpkins.  There were plenty of them here.  Another Cha-ching for us!

A walk up the 50 foot Tower rewarded us with a spectacular view. It also rewarded me with wobbly legs.  But it was definitely worth the rewards.

We saw lots of Loggerhead Shrikes, aka the butcher bird today.  We got really close to a couple of them.  We never knew they had such a pretty song.  We also got a close up view of that wicked looking bill as they were singing.  

We thoroughly enjoyed our couple of hours at this park walking along the beautiful scenery, watching all kinds of shorebirds, songbirds, gators, etc.

We saw some more pretty views and critters at our next stop, Marina Park. 

 We went back to Black Point Wildlife Drive for another looksee.  We didn't see as many critters as we did the other day when it was rainy, but, it was still a very enjoyable time.  

We finally saw our first turtle in Florida, a Florida Softshell Turtle. The things that excites us!!

Tomorrow, may be another rocket launch day.  According to the Facebook post, we have a 50/50 chance of that happening.  We will 👀.

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