Dec 20/ 2012

We left Palm Harbour at 10:00 and travelled about 60 miles to Homosassa up the west coast. We spent the afternoon at the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, a wonderful wildlife park not like a zoo with all the birds and animals in large natural habitat areas. We took a small pontoon riverboat to get to the actual park, complete with ranger identifying the plants, trees and birdlife. On leaving the dock, our first encounter was with a lazy 9 foot aligator sharing a float with 3 large leatherback turtles !! We enjoyed seeing Lucifer, a 52 year old hippo, who pooped in his pool and laughed out loud at himself (sounded like a very loud donkey bray). On to the wolves and large cats, brightly coloured parrots, owls, eagles, emus, a reptile building and MANATEES. Finally !! They have an underwater seaquarium and presentation area where I got to pat a possum and feel its tail. A great day for me :) We checked into the Homosassa River Carefree RV Resort (PA), undoubtedly the nicest park so far. It feels like a storm is approaching with gusty winds and pouring rain by evening.