Case History: Nick
First Identified:
1977
Mother:
Unknown
Sex:
Male
Nick has been coming regularly to Blue Spring State Park for years.
He comes to spend the cold months enjoying the warm spring water.
He has been nicknamed "Crazy Nick" by manatee researchers ...
because he is so unpredictable. He
has been known to travel north in winter when all the other
manatees are heading south. He has spent two weeks
traveling from Blue Spring to Jacksonville in the winter months
rather than the other way around. Nick also likes to sleep in an
area called Mud Lake near the spring area while all the other
manatees are sleeping in the spring run itself.
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While on an overlong spate of summertime business trips to Florida,
Mr. Og found Nick through the Save the Manatee Club. Like Mr. Og,
Nick was south and wanted to be north. Mr. Og empathized with the
misguided marine mammal's plight so much that he impulsively
plunked down
fifty bucks to adopt him. (They told us that manatees
make great pets... only
later did we find out that they
weigh half a tonne and eat Mr. Og's weight in marine plants every
two days...)
Now that Team Og is stuck -- er -- blessed with hosting Nick, we
knew that he'd need a place to stay while he's visiting us from
Margaritaville. So we gave him a home at Mountain Lake Preserve in
Princeton, and set up a cache containing a few of his favorite
things -- some seashells, a Joy of Geocaching geocoin, two Ft.
Lauderdale fridge magnets, and a Jimmy Buffett album. (In addition
to being navigationally challenged, Nick is also a dedicated
Parrothead.)
Park at 40 21.479N, 74 40.238W. The given coordinates are a park
bench that gives a nice view of Palmer Lake. To get to the cache,
go 465 feet "south" of the bench. (No, not
that south, the
other
south!) Think like Nick, take a straight-line route to the
cache, and try to avoid getting your feet wet. The difficulty is
three stars if you don't use the hint, but two if you do.
The cache is a small ammo box, concealed with Full Fathom Five
Tequila/Cointreau/Lemon OgRoFlage™ and is visible if you're in the
right spot. Please re-hide it the same way, and trade things that a
manatee might like or use.
Wave hi to Nick in the lake for us. And if you do come, please
bring him some sea grass - he likes a light snack. (A bushel or two
should hold him until dinnertime, which pretty much lasts forever
as far as Nick is concerned.)
Enjoy!