December 21-23 2012 Crystal River Florida

We relaxed a day or two. John was still looking for parts for his smoker, so we went to a bunch of thrift shops and a flea market.

Sue and John with Bubbles the Manatee dressed up for Christmas. A let it snow somewhere else sign at the flea market.

John finally found all his parts, here is the finished product on his partner camp stove. He plans on trying it out on a turkey breast for Christmas dinner.  We hiked at the Crystal River state preserve above. A palmetto, long leaf pine habitat.

In the late 1800’s they cut the long leaf pines like this to harvest sap to make turpentine and tar to export. The rest they cut down for lumber.

The purple to the left of this photo is the buildings and private land, the rest is a number of preserves, refuges and parks. We could explore forever in this area. Sunset on a mackerel sky over the salt marsh by the gulf. New word for me, I learned that clouds like this are called mackerel sky.