I like boat rides…

I like boat rides. Not the kind that go fast and make lots of noise, but rather the kind that goes slowly and quietly through the water while I admire the plants and animals.

Once in Thailand we went into the mountains, first by elephant and then hiking. When we left, bamboo was cut and lashed together to make rafts and then we floated down the river. Very slow, very quiet, very perfect.

Recently we have done three boat rides: Okefenokee Swamp, Weeki Wachee State Park and yesterday the Wakulla Springs State Park.

In Okefenokee State Park (Georgia), we rode a small motor boat down into the swamp. It wasn’t completely quiet, but there was plenty to see and enjoy.

Our next boat ride was in Weeki Wachee State Park (Florida). We started with a look at the Weeki Wachee mermaids:

Florida has over 600 springs and Weeki Wachi is considered one of the largest. The spring is so deep that the bottom has never been found. Each day, more than 117 million gallons of clear, fresh 72-degree water bubbles up out of subterranean caverns. Deep in the spring, the surge of the current is so strong that it can knock a scuba diver’s mask off. The basin of the spring is 100 feet wide with limestone sides and there, where the mermaids swim, 16 to 20 feet below the surface, the current runs a strong five miles an hour. It’s quite a feat for a mermaid to stay in one place in such a current. The mermaids position themselves by breathing in air: the more air in, the more the mermaid will float up.

In 1946, Newton Perry, a former U.S. Navy man who trained SEALS to swim underwater in World War II, scouted out Weeki Wachee as a good site for a new business. At the time, U.S. 19 was a small two-lane road.  More alligators and black bears lived in the area than humans. The spring was full of old rusted refrigerators and abandoned cars. The junk was cleared out and Newt experimented with underwater breathing hoses and invented a method of breathing underwater from a free-flowing air hose supplying oxygen from an air compressor, rather than from a tank strapped onto the back. With the air hose, humans could give the appearance of thriving twenty feet underwater with no breathing apparatus.

The first show at the Weeki Wachee Springs underwater theater opened on October 13, 1947 -- the same day that Kukla, Fran and Ollie first aired on that newfangled invention called television, and one day before Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier. The mermaids performed synchronized ballet moves underwater while breathing through the air hoses hidden in the scenery.

For more history and information on the mermaids, check out: http://weekiwachee.com/about-us/history-of-weeki-wachee-springs.html

The boat ride was peaceful, but rather uneventful other than seeing the amazingly clear water:

After driving north and west to Perry, Florida we took a day trip to another spring. The Wakulla Springs is one of the largest and deepest freshwater springs. (Seems they all say that!) There are boat rides, swimming areas and a beautiful lodge originally built in 1937.

In 1937, financier Edward Ball took his idea of quiet elegance and placed it gently in the most serene place he’d found on his international travels, Wakulla Springs. He imported marble and tile, hired artisans in iron and stone, and introduced to the world a most unique retreat.

For more information see:http://www.wakullaspringslodge.com/about.html

I love boat rides, especially the quiet, peaceful ones seeing the great sights of our country.