A Surreal Day

This morning our focus was the Dali Museum in ST Petersburg, Florida. This is the largest collection of Salvador Dali's works outside of Spain. Many years ago Reynolds and Eleanor Morse bought a Dali painting, then another... and another. Soon their collecting became an obsession. For many years they held the collection in their home, but back in the late 70's offered it to anyone who promised to take good care of it. A lawyer in St Pete put together a bid and the rest is history. You can read about it here. We arrived at the gallery a little before it opened. We found a diner nearby that was attached to a yacht brokerage and sat down for breakfast "with a side order of 40 ft yacht". Chris was left with the distinct impression the waitress doesn't share his sense of humour.

Inside the diner.

We weren't allowed to take any photos in the gallery, but this is what it looks like from the outside.

Dali liked to portray himsef as an eccentric.

On the inside was a stunning collection of Dali's works. Unfortunately the gallery is too small to house the entire collection, and we only saw a small proportiuon of the collection. The good news is that they are building a new gallery that is opening in January next year. Hopefully this will have the space to display more paintings.

As we left Chris discovered he had lost the key to unlock our jackets and helmets. When we park our bike in public places and don't want to carry our helmets and jackets around, we thread a 1.5 m long stainless steel cable with an eye at each end through our helmets and down the sleeves of our jackets, then pass it through one of the pillion hand grips before padlocking the ends. We do have a spare of course, but thought it worth going back to the gallery to see if had been found there. Luckily it was at the ticketing desk..

We headed out of St Pete on US 19 north. It seemed like an endless urban area. Our aim was to reach Crystal River, about 90 miles up the coast.

We must look dreadfully overdressed to oyher riders along the way but we really have nowhere else to put our jackets. Sun/wind burn is also a problem. These riders are only going a short distance.

It was another long hot ride and we were pleased to find a motel fairly quickly in Crystal River. What a find.

It was an enormous room - probably the biggest we have stayed in on our entire journey so far. It also had a lounge and kitchen. Wanda needed a rest right away.

Apart from boat docking it had outdoor eating areas and BBQs.

Later Wanda discovered a natural spring fed pool. It has a natural bottom with plants etc.

 

A Manatee can surprise you as it flops about in the water munching on waterweed. At dusk it was difficult to see it but it did release bubbles, back and front, so you knew where it was. It came up every few minutes for air with very little of itsef showing above water. (It was necessary to view it in the morning light to realise how big they are.) Propeller cuts left three stripes on its back.

These two young men were fishing for about 15mins before catching a big fish. It took them several attempts to contain it in their bucket. It kept jumping out. 

There was a group of ducks on the shore. A Canadian goose kept following this mother duck and her brood thinking he was part of this family.

A Blue Heron flew gracefully overhead. This one later tried to find shelter for the night in the boat mooring.

The view from the mooring site.

You can explore the waterways and swim in the natural spings by renting a canoe from across the river.