Beautiful trip of just under 40 miles from Astor to Sanford. The St. Johns River continues to get narrower. We left about 8:15 am, which fits our pattern of trying to get our trip done by early afternoon to avoid the inevitable rains. Lots of idle speed zones for manatee and then 25 mph zones in the center of the channel. 
We saw several manatees, but as you know by now, the sightings are minimal, such as a big swirl with a nose or tail visible. However, we did see a lot more alligators, such as this big one that did not dive under the water until we were quite close. Not too scary, especially when your eye level on the fly bridge is about 15 feet above the water...
This picture of a Great Blue Heron gives you an idea of the kind of jungle like scenery along much of this day's trip. It may be just my imagination, but the invasive water hyacinth seemed to become less abundant as the day progressed. 
Much to my enjoyment, we continued to see lots of osprey. As we neared our destination of Sanford, we paused briefly for a railroad bridge, passed under Interstate 4 and entered into Lake Monroe. It was a short trip along the southern edge of the lake to Sanford. The Interstate(Tampa to Orlando to Daytona), the railroad and a large airport (Orlando-Sanford Airport) show the strategic location of Sanford. The town was the southern terminus of steamship travel up the St. Johns River in the mid 19th century. The steamships were replaced by the railroad, and the town continued to be regionally important with road and air travel.
We are in Monroe Harbor Marina, which is right downtown. We took a short walk to the Chamber of Commerce to get local information, and then decided that a movie was in order. The trip to the movie turned into a several hour ordeal, but we did get to see the sci-fi thriller "Elysium". The movie was pretty good, which is unusual for me to say since I am not a big sci-fi fan. Tomorrow(Day 95) has been declared an official day of rest...
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