Blue Goose ~ Day 230

January 12, 2015 ~ Tallahassee, FL to Chiefland, FL

This was a day of fog and rain and mist as I drove south into the  Florida peninsula. The next refuge was Lower Suwannee River which can be accessed by at least three different routes. I was on US19, a good 4-lane road closer to the coast than Interstate 75, which is the route most tourists take; thus, 19 is a great alternative option, at least until Homosassa when it becomes six lanes and much busier. There are several NWRs on the Florida Gulf Coast, but most can only be accessed by boat. I did actually drive west to boat landings for two of these (Crystal River and Chassahowitzka) where the waters are home to the endangered West Indian Manatee. Three other refuges (Pinellas, Egmont Key and Passage Key) are islands in the entrance to Tampa Bay. 

In order to get near the Lower Suwannee NWR, and as the sky began to clear, I decided to drive to the town of Suwannee, a 50-mile round trip from Old Town on US19. (All the coastal venues in this part of Florida require leaving the main north-south roads and driving secondary routes west to the Gulf.) I went along the northern part of the refuge but didn't take any of the many side roads available to get into it. Lower Suwannee is 82 square miles of the lower reaches of the Suwannee River, with 26 miles along the Gulf itself, a wonderful refuge for birds and bats, turtles and tortoises, fish (including the endangered Gulf Sturgeon), alligators, manatees, otters, snakes, bobcat, raccoon, deer....

Lower Suwannee River NWR - FL

I stayed the night in Chiefland. With the advent of the Interstate, these north-south routes like US19 and US41 no longer were used as much and, as one drives the northern section, the towns and their tourist businesses along the highway seem stuck in the 1960s, slowed-down versions of modern travel without the options of Starbucks for example, or even most of the common chain restaurants and motels. Some homes I passed on the way to the coast were aging, in need of paint with accumulated yard detritus, the humid damp climate evident in moldy mildewed buildings hidden from the sun in dense abundant flora. I often couldn't tell if these were deserted or just rundown, although the presence of cars and/or trucks usually was a clue. This, of course, is based on relatively few miles driven on lesser roads, but northwest Florida is not the clean and neat Florida of golf courses, condos and beaches. I would guess some folks choose this area for exactly those reasons, although many are priced out of towns and communities farther south and settle here. The RV parks have a mix of the trailers and campers, semi-permanent, with all their outdoor stuff, often in dark, heavily shaded parks, crowded together and sometimes on canals. Retirees like their dogs and golf carts. I know that seeing this on an overcast day affected my perceptions. To be fair, there are also pleasant communities and suburbs, with permanent residents. 

Lower Suwannee River NWR - FL