A great day for ducks and walking a museum

I don’t want to complain about the weather, especially considering what folks back home are dealing with, but…

High today in sunny Florida was 54 here in Tallahassee. If it keeps raining I’m going to trade this trailer in on an ark. We saw the sun on Sunday (how appropriate) but that’s about it since Thursday. Today I was forced to wear a sweatshirt because of the cold and damp conditions.

When we left Michigan we had warm clothes packed for the first couple days, but I never thought I would be pulling them out and wearing them here in Florida. So, no whining, but we are hoping for warmer and drier weather starting tomorrow.

There are some outdoor activities we want to do but right now are not possible with the monsoon that we have been experiencing.

A young couple parked next to us is struggling with an electrical problem with their RV and while I did what I could to help (I think my best suggestion was to read the RV manual section on electrical) it wasn’t much. What I know about electricity and how it works you could type on the head of a pin. But I do feel sorry for them as they have a young baby and are trapped in the park until they get the battery issues solved.

Fortunately the RV works when it is plugged into the park power so the baby is safe and warm, but they are kind of trapped here until it is fixed and I get the impression they are on a pretty strict budget.

I was up early, Joan followed about 9 a.m. We had breakfast and did our weight exercises indoors because of the weather.

With plans to walk outside flooded out, we decided to head downtown to the Museum of Florida History where we could do our walking inside. It turned out to be a pretty good deal. The museum was free, there was a small donation asked for the current John James Audubon exhibit and they waived the $5 parking fee for first time museum visitors.

Anyway the Audubon exhibit was extensive and very informative about the life of America’s well known bird artist and naturalist. But there is plenty more to the museum and we took a short guided tour of a part of the museum. Joan, always the bird watcher, really enjoyed this part of the day’s activities.

The exhibit covers the long and interesting history of the Florida peninsula from its first occupants, the Seminoles and other Native American people to his 9-foot extinct Armadillos and Mastodons to the current economy and ecology of the state.

One of my favorite parts of the museum was the section on Florida’s role in the Civil War. I’ve studied the Civil War and can’t say that I’ve ever heard much about Florida’s part in the War Between the States, so I learned a lot today. The museum also has a nice display of real Civil War flags, weapons and uniforms so I found that interesting too.

Another part of the museum had interesting artifacts from Florida’s many shipwrecks. Considering I paid about $5 a piece for Joan and I to visit Mel Fisher’s Shipwreck Museum last year, this exhibit which had many of the same treasures was a real bargain. Lots of gold and silver was on display from the wrecks. I had to pull Joan away from the gold displays to keep her from drooling all over them.

Also the museum had an extensive exhibit on the role of Florida during World War II and I believe my father told me that he had been here during the war so I found that particularly interesting as well. One display showed the locations of sunken merchant vessels at the hands of German U-boats. We could have spent a couple more hours at the museum, but they kicked us out at closing time at 4:30 p.m.

On the way to and fro we noticed a couple signs that made us laugh. Both were at restaurants, one indicated “additional parking in rear” which was a good thing because there was literally no parking in front or on the busy highway. We put that under the category of “duh.”

The second one at One Fresh Restaurant said “Lunch, Dinner and Breakfast.” Other than the odd listing order we were curious as to what other meal might be available.

Just our weird sense of humor I guess. Also the weather guy on the local ABC affiliate here is named: Casanova Nurse.