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Published: February 27th 2007
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Menonites
Sarasota has a large population of Menonites in the area. Similar to Amish, but more cell phone and digital camera having it seems. I have been wanting to visit Myakka River State Park since I first heard of it a month or so ago. It is the state's largest park and has about 39 miles of trails along with a large lake and airboat rides. Mark agreed to go with me which would make it more fun. He arrived a little later than I expected and that always throws me off - I felt like we needed all day to see it. I'm just crazy that way. It is only about 14 miles away and takes about 30 minutes to get there from Siesta Key.
Once we arrived we stopped in the visitor's center and looked at all the stuffed dead things that if we were lucky, we would also see alive and in the wild. We played with the frog and amphibian display for a while, listening to sounds from each. The only disappointing thing there was that some of the amphibians don't make sounds, so when you push their button a man comes on and says "this animal makes no sounds". Lame.
Next stop was the airboat ride. We decided to go there in order to get the tickets before
they sold out for the day. We got little plastic tickets that allowed us to get on the boat and pay there, but we had some time to kill first. They told us to be back 20 minutes before the departure time, so we spent about 30 minutes eating our packed lunches that I made that morning and walking around a bit. We walked to the embankment of the lake, which we later found out was called a weir because it dips in the middle. From there we could see about 10 alligators sunning themselves, surrounded by bunches of black vultures, as well as some egrets and a roseate spoonbill. The word on the street is that the birds were in no danger as gators only feed at night. We also got a good view of a red-shouldered hawk there.
After our small detour, we rushed back to the boat. I was worried about being late and not being able to sit together. It was an enormous airboat that seats six across so it seemed unlikely, yet we got there and what do you know? He sat in the front and I sat in the back. There was one
Gators and Black Vultures
From here I could see about 10 alligators. place we could have sat together but some lady was holding places for all her slow lazy family. Lovely. It wouldn't have mattered so much but I thought it would be nice to sit together since it was an hour-long ride. It was a nice ride though. We saw a lot of birds including a limpkin (not dead or stuffed!) and learned that the lake holds 1100 alligators, 500 juveniles and 600 adults. I relearned and reforgot several interesting facts, but one that I do recall is that female alligators make nests to lay their eggs, and the temperature inside the next determines the sex of the offspring - hotter eggs are boys, while cooler ones become female.
After the airboat ride we reconvened and decided to go to the nearby bird walk to see what we could see. Of course, it was 1pm or so and birding is worst in the middle of the day, but we looked around.
Next stop were the canopy towers and the bridge that connects them. One tower was 40 feet high, the other 75 feet, thouhg Mark cleverly pointed out that at eye level it would be more 80 feet. 😊
Me and Mark
From here, we could nearly feed about 10 alligators. With our bodies. It was quite nice to look down on all the trees from there and be able to see quite far into the distance. I have been in canopy towers before, in the rainforests in Ecuador and Costa Rica. Interestingly, there was a map of all the world's canopy tower/bridge set-ups and I found an error. It mentioned one located in the Borneo part of Malaysia, yet they showed it located on the mainland. I'm such a dork. After the towers, we walked for 40 minutes on a loop trail which was nice and peaceful, not too many people bothered with this part.
Afterwards we drove around the park a bit more to get a feel for it, trying to make out the map about where the trails start in case we came back hiking another time. For a last stop we headed back to the beginning, near the airboat ride. We walked back to the weir and looked at the remaining alligators and some closer, creepier vultures. We also walked a bit beyond and found a pretty clearing with deer tracks. No deer though. I wanted to stop in the gift shop to look around before it was time
to go but by then it had already closed, which meant we would also not be tasting any gator bites, which they were selling for lunch. I've still never had gator. We got one last look at a closer roseate spoonbill, a beautiful pink bird with a spoonbill (got that did you?) and then we had to go.
I arrived home just a little later than I expected. It was hamburger night and my grandma had already defrosted the burgers, got the buns ready to be heated up, walked the dog, and run the dishwasher. Effectively, all those things I was there to do, but she didn't mind. I took the dog out again quickly and made the burgers in a jif. Overall, a good day.
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