Jan. 17, 2014 Florida State Parks Newsletter

The concert will be held at Silver Springs State Park.

Country music icon Willie Nelson will kick off his 2014 U.S. tour by performing to thousands of fans at the Silver Springs State Park's Twin Oaks Amphitheatre on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2014. Concert doors open at 6 pm. Sasha Dobson will open the show at 6:45 pm and Willie Nelson & Family will hit the concert stage at 8 pm.

Known for his classic ballads, Willie’s latest record “To All the Girls …” introduces more than 30 news songs to his long list of popular tunes. Such songs as “Always on My Mind,” "On the Road Again” and “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.”

Silver Springs joined the network of Florida State Parks on Oct. 1, 2014. This concert marks the first in a series of concerts to be presented by concessionaire BG Capital Group. Silver Springs State Park features glass bottom boat tours, canoeing and kayaking on the river and family camping. As one of Florida’s oldest tourist attractions, this park holds special family memories for many people.

Tickets range from $35 per person to $75 per person, plus fees and taxes. Tickets can be purchased at Ticket Master.

Jodi Eller is the first woman to paddle around the state.

31-year-old Jodi Eller of St. Augustine, Florida became the first woman to complete the 1,515-mile Florida Circumnavigational Saltwater Paddling Trail that runs from Pensacola to Key West to the Georgia border. Eller paddled most of the trail in 2008 with husband Matt Keene, the first “thru paddler” of the trail and completed the remaining segments in late 2013.

“This trail is amazing,” she said. “It goes through so many different ecosystems. How the beaches change along the trail is just incredible. The trail made me a stronger paddler and it also redefined who I am in a way, bringing me back to the essence of being human. It’s a powerful experience to go through.”

Highlights of Eller’s trip included seeing a black bear cub in a tree along the Crooked River near Carrabelle, island hopping in the Indian River Lagoon and experiencing “perfect water conditions” for her last segment from Flamingo to Everglades City through Everglades National Park. Eller, a kayaking guide for St. Augustine EcoTours and an Environmental Science teacher at Flagler College, has this advice for paddlers interested in taking on the trail: “Do your research prior to your trip by reading everything on the trail website. Beginners paddling with friends can attempt this and build muscles and skill along the way, but it would be best to experience different types of water conditions first. Hopefully, more women will want to do it.”

Eller is the eleventh person to complete the entire Florida Circumnavigational Saltwater Paddling Trail since its opening in 2008. Currently, two retired police officers from Charlotte, North Carolina, Marc DeLuca and Jim Windle, are paddling the entire trail (http://kayakaroundflorida.wordpress.com/). They are more than halfway through their journey.

Visit this website for more information on the Florida Circumnavigational Saltwater Paddling Trail.

Lu the Hippo.

Staff and visitors will celebrate Lu’s birthday at Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. Join us Friday, Jan. 24 at either 10 am or 12:30 pm to sing Happy Birthday to our favorite Hippo. Visitors can enjoy cupcakes and fruit punch. Lu will enjoy his very own special birthday cake.

Lu, an African Hippopotamus, was born at San Diego Zoo in January 1960. He weighed 90 pounds at birth and now weighs over 6,000 pounds. A vegetarian, Lu consumes 15 pounds of alfalfa hay, four scoops of herbivore diet and a five-gallon bucket of vegetables and fruits every day.

A fixture at Homosassa Springs since 1964, Lu was a movie and television star with the Ivan Tors Animal Actors troupe. Ivan Tors wintered his animal actors at Homosassa Springs when the park was in private ownership. His credits include 1960s movies Daktari and Cowboy in Africa, and television specials such as the Art Linkletter Show and a Herb Alpert Special. He also starred in a Union Carbide commercial.

For more than four decades, Lu has been a mainstay among the animals at Homosassa Springs. When the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Florida Park Service purchased the former attraction in 1989, the state planned to shift the emphasis from exotic animals to native Florida wildlife and find homes for all of the exotic species, including Lu. Public support led the state to grant Lu a special Florida citizenship in 1991, allowing him to stay at the park.