Beez Neez now Chy Whella

Titusville

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Fri 29 Apr 2011 22:53

Titusville, Brevard County, Florida

Titusville Marina will go down in our memories as the place we first met manatees. Not sure how sailors in the old days thought they were mermaids, perhaps they should have had a little more water in their rum. They are so ugly they are really cute, like vast puppy dogs, weighing in at more than a thousands pounds. They look a bit like a walrus at the front and a frayed box-pleat skirt at the rear. As soon as they hear water running they come to drink. Bear was filling the water tanks and one suckled on the nose of Beez, she was more than a little put out to say the very least. When it rained hard one afternoon the chap in the picture rolled over and had a shower. The water in the marina was too silty to take a really good picture but we think we will see more of these amazing creatures.

The other remarkable thing about Titusville is the sheer numbers of the heavily protected osprey, there are simply hundreds of them. Every lamp post and floodlight holds a nest. It only takes a couple of sticks to be placed by a bird, before the wardens have to put up a nesting platform. Nests are used each year and more and more sticks are added each season, so some are vast. Each nest had chicks, so overhead you could always see a parent hunting, soaring, watching, landing or preening. There are also many turkey and black vultures seen soaring over the many bird trails and parks in the area.

The birds do cause an amounting of 'ticking' from the locals, complaining about their white 'poop' on their windscreens, but generally everyone is very proud of these enormous birds.

Titusville is a city in Brevard County, Florida, (pronounced as you would say the word bravado without the o). It is the county seat of Brevard County. Nicknamed Space City, USA, Titusville is on the Indian River, west of Merritt Island and the Kennedy Space Center and south-southwest of the Canaveral National Seashore. It is a principal city of the Palm Bay–Melbourne–Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2008, the estimated population according to the US Census Bureau was 44,756.

The area was once inhabited by the Ais Indians, who gathered palmetto, cocoplum and seagrape berries. They also fished the Indian River, called the Rio de Ais by Spanish explorers. By 1760, however, the tribe had disappeared due to slave raids, disease and rum. Florida was acquired from Spain in 1821, but the Seminole Indian Wars would delay settlement.

Originally called Sand Point, a post office was established in 1859; although it closed a few months later. Confederate Colonel Henry T. Titus arrived in 1867 with the intention to build a town on land owned by his wife, Mary Hopkins Titus, daughter of a prominent planter from Darien, Georgia. He laid out roads and in 1870 erected The Titus House, a large one-story hotel next to a saloon. He also donated land for four churches and a courthouse, the latter an effort to get the town designated as county seat.

Titusville could have been called Riceville, but Titus challenged Captain Clark Rice to a game of dominoes to decide the name. Titus won the game, so Sand Point became Titusville in 1873. It was incorporated as a city in 1887; the year construction began on St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church, listed in 1972 on the National Register of Historic Places. At one point, Titusville would be nicknamed The City of Churches.

The Atlantic Coast, St. Johns & Indian River Railroad arrived in 1885 from Enterprise, which was connected by a spur line to the Jacksonville, Tampa & Key West Railroad at Enterprise Junction in present-day DeBary. Henry Flagler would then extend his Florida East Coast Railroad south from Daytona, with the station built in Titusville in 1892. Tourists arrived, and the Indian River area increasingly became an agricultural and shipping center for pineapple and citrus produce. A wooden bridge was built east to Playalinda Beach in 1922.

Beginning in the late 1950’s, the growth of Cape Canaveral, and later the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, made the community's economy, population and tourism grow considerably. The association with the space program led to the city's two nicknames in the 1960’s: Space City, USA and Miracle City.

We also happened to be in the worlds capital for thunder and lightening. We had just got to the car park outside the towns modest mall - when the heavens opened. Not only the heaviest rain but the biggest hailstones we have ever seen - the size of my fist. For three or four minutes it sounded like someone was pelting us with golf balls, we stayed put for fifteen minutes during the heaviest downpour. Worried about Beez Neez, we later found out no hail fell over the marina just three miles away. However we were told that tornados had hit Georgia killing many. Weird, unpredicted and unexpected weather for this time of year.

Just as the car parks were seeing the arrival of RV's (recreational vehicles), setting up camp for tomorrows space launch. The very reason we stayed on, an opportunity we will will only get this once in our lives.

As we left the car park puddles were something else

A white ibis with new opportunities seen 'scruffing' around nearby

Later on, we went to seek out a viewing spot to see the launch - set for 15:47 on the 29th of April 2011, the famous countdown clock we saw on our trip to the Kennedy Space Centre the other day. A million visitors due, we saw the roads sides slowly filling with yet more campers. We stopped to chat to a sheriff who gave us advice. "Walk, don't drive, you'll get stuck for hours". We decided there and then to jump into Baby Beez and go to a spoil ground under the big bridge everyone sees as the 'best spot'. We are now very excited. Sadly the launch was to be postponed due to technical troubles, for at least three days. We cannot afford the time to stay any longer, so sadly we must move on and miss the spectacle. However, we spent our time here doing chores, replacing Beez carpets with faux Berber, very smart, and Bear got the new water heater delivered. The last picture must go to one of our new 'friends'.