Lake Monroe

We were anchored last night in a small oxbow near Blue Springs. It was hard to sleep for all the racket outside our boat. There were billions and billions of tree frogs. We were surrounded by owls hooting at one another. And of course the alligators. The gators have a guttural growl that sounds a little like a bear growling.

This morning, we watched several gators cruising around the boat.

We left our anchorage, and headed South up the river.  I'm not sure if there's more gators here on the south part of the river, or if there's more out on weekdays or if maybe we now know where to look for them.  But along the way, we saw hunderts and hunderts of them.

Just north of the entrance to Lake Monroe and the town of Sanford, we had to contact the railroad bridgetender and ask him to raise the bridge to let us through. This one is normally closed.

Lake Monroe is the 11th largest lake in Florida.  (Lake Monroe is Indiana's largest lake.)  The one in Florida is 9450 acres and the deepest spot is 7'.  We're staying in Monroe Harbor Marina tonight.  (Not Free--$1.00 per foot and $3.00 for electricity.)  It's right on the edge of old downtown Sanford so we walked through the town, had the obligatory ice cream, and went back in for dinner tonight.  Had a great meal at a place called "Two Blonds and a Shrimp."

This is as far south as we go.  The river is not navigable south of Lake Monroe.

Pam called her uncle who lives in DeBary, FL.  They are to meet us for lunch tomorrow along the river at the Swamp House Grill.