TAKE A HIKE

                             I hiked the Cruikshank Trail with the Florida Trails hiking group.  It's five miles long in a loop around a pond at the end of the Seven Mile Black Poiont Drive in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Titusville,Florida.  We saw some egrets and coots trying to stay warm on a cold, windyu but sunny Central Florida winter day.  Driving out of the refuge later we saw a 15 ft alligator sunning on an island in a pond.
                              On the Cruikshank you see nothing but wide open spaces and vistas.  I guess that's worth an anuual 5 mile walk.  There is more wildlife at the local sports bars as the patrons liquor up for the football play offs leading up to Super Bowl Sunday than at the Refuge usually.  Still we march on and are tired at the end but relieved it was a cool rather than asweltering Florida day in the blazing sun.
                                A group dinner at Dixie Crossraods in Titusville owned by a fisherwoman and naturalist Laura Thompson who started the Brevard Bird Festival.  The festival held at Brevard Community College in Titusville,Florida every January is one of the best attended in the nation.    Almost all the Florida Trails hikers had the restaurant's specialty which is Rock Shrimp.  They are little crustaceans grillled with butter tasting like lobster and looking like shrimp.  It costs $12 and is basically an appetizer plus hush puppies(corn fritters) and cole slaw or cheese grits or vegetables.  The Bermuda Fish Stew is excellent and can be a side with basket for $12 or dinner with two sides for $15.  The service was quick and efficient  in a delightful open windowed party room.  The entire restaurant is decorated with fantastic flora,fauna and fish pictures by Al Rao, the local Titusville muralist.
                          Many of the hikers were going out the next day to hike 5 miles at a nature preserve along the St. John's River (which looks like a swamp)   on Rte 46 outside of North Titusville on the way to Geneva, Florida and just past the Jolly Gator Fish Camp.  Florida Trails has hiking groups throughout Florida with a hike once or twice a  week.  This group was centered in the Orlando area.  Most of the participants are women.