Day 4 – 12th May 2015 – Merritt Island, Florida

Woke up just after 2 am and couldn’t go back to sleep. Read a bit (Rachell gave me a great book for Step-Mothers Day), played a few games which usually sends me off to sleep, but no go!
Got up at 4.30 did a bit of packing, had breaky, finished packing, packed up the car and then stopped up the road to collect the rovers that were still there. 7.10 and peak hour traffic again, lol. But I didn’t mind the slow transit as I saw a flock/pack/gathering of vultures!!!!!!! In fact is was a good morning for birds. There are usually herons around wet areas on the side of the roads and there are 30,000 lakes in Florida, no wonder the place is just so green!
Went back and walked a couple of the areas from yesterday that I had had to miss, and the lakes edge is part of a birding trail. Saw roseate spoonbills (which are pink because they eat the same type of shellfish as flamingoes), a juvenile American white ibis (it’s brown, muscovy ducks (which apparently are native here) one lot displaying with tails wagging and heads bobbing and 2 of them with ducklings, which are always great fun to watch. A passerby who had brought her grandson to see the ducklings remarked that the numbers were dwindling, “Why” I asked, “‘gators” was the reply! So of course, then I was keeping an eye open for alligators! There were noisy black birds with round tails called boat-tailed grackles (isn’t google a wonderful thing!) and small black birds with a small red patch at the top of their wings, which turned into a glorious red-patch in flight, very pretty indeed. The local called them redtips but they are red-winged blackbirds.

Anyway on the way back from the last Trail munzee (couldn’t find the motel under the table) one of the ladies told me there was a young ‘gator up near the old boat ramp, which I was walking past anyway. Up near there was a young man perched on the side of s bench. I asked him about the ‘gator and he asked me if I was munzeeing. Tim is the local for the area and had popped out for a chat, it is always nice to meet up with others. We had a look for the ‘gator, but it had gone. Tim walked me back to my car and now I know someone who’ll be at the Event on Saturday, LOL.

Gave the GPS the address of the Space Coast Geocaching Store and just over an hour later I arrived. Met Barb, chatted, looked around the shop, bought a couple of things and ‘found’ a cache. Mind you it was a bit hard to miss, an enormous box outside the door, full of all sorts of things. Wandered off to get some of the many munzees around the store, popped back in and dropped off the rovers for Barb to look after for the night. And, now someone else I’ll know at the Event. As I was about to leave, Barb had spotted a special May Flower on small island reserve, the road which I had to drive past to get to the Motel, so that was great. Had a little walk there and then on to the Motel. Now the GPS has been good so far, but not this time. She took me to a Wine & Spirits Shop. I asked someone and she said it was a couple of traffic lights up the road, so 5 traffic lights later I turned right, pulled over and phoned, and of course it was at the next set of lights, so went round the block, turned left instead of right and had to do the whole get back to right spot again. The highway here in most places is 8-10 lanes of traffic and you can only go the other direction at lights, there are no breaks in the median strip. Oh well, got here, settled in a little early than check-in time and started writing this. Then figured as I have a full size fridge and a microwave in here I would walk to a supermarket and get some supplies for the next couple of days. The lass in the Office said it was quite a long walk, but as there were munzees on both sides of the road, I got directions and started. Found most of the munzees, but where the lights (and pedestrian crossings) had been quite close together near the Motel, the one after the supermarket (which of course was across the road) was a long way off. I stood there for several minutes, pushing the button occasionally when I finally saw there was another button for the direction I wanted to go, not the side road I had already crossed. Sigh!!! I don’t think it would have made much difference, the lights don’t change for a looong time. As there are so many lanes it takes a while to get across and though most cars stop for you, some of them sneak through in the bit you haven’t got to yet!
Found some salad packs and some plastic cutlery (free) and grabbed a gallon of water. Got a little lost leaving the shopping centre, headed down the wrong road, but I did realise before I went too far, LOL. Got back to the room and finishing off this, some dinner and then hopefully some sleep. xoxo

Tillandsia hangs in lots of trees