First stop of Tuesday, Feb 3 was to have lunch at a rest area in Georgia. We realized that we prefer to eat our lunches at rest areas, it is so much easier to park than at a truck stop.
We made it to Florida!
And Lexie wanted to help us get there! She was acting as the co-pilot. She was so happy to arrive in FL that she was in my lap.
And we stayed at a campsite for two nights! What a relief not to be on the road the next day after three straight days of travel.
This park was picked so we could see manatees in the spring water. No manatees were seen during the first couple of days, but Steve did see one in the spring on Thursday morning. He only saw it because it had been moving to get some air. Once the manatee stopped moving, it blended in with the floor bottom of the spring.
The spring was peaceful to look at, and included a boardwalk from the source of the spring to the Suwanee River.
We did see vultures settle into treetops for the night, and Lexie and Steve spotted an opossum. There were signs (posted by the park) for alligators, bobcats and Florida panthers, but none were seen.
Steve and Lexie got some nice hikes in, including the Sink Hole trail. There were several large sinkholes along the trail, but there were not very dramatic. The pictures taken don’t give the sinkholes justice, it is hard to see the terrain dip into the hole.
Steve got the bikes oiled and then he took an eight mile trip out of the park and back. The road was straight and went by a lot of fields. And there always seemed to be a headwind. But it was a bike ride!!!
The weather in Florida has been cold, and there were frost warnings for Thursday night throughout Florida. I think that I saw some of the frost damage on the palm tree fronds turning brown. We were north of the Crystal River area.
We didn’t travel out of the park at all. We got the oven working and cooked a chicken pot pie that Vicki had gotten while we were in Georgia. First time using that little oven and it worked great, as long as what you’re baking/roasting doesn’t exceed 4″ tall.