Ahhhh, last night was so dark and quiet we slept quite well. We woke up with the sun and took a long walk through the campground and back toward the town of Grayton Beach. It is a cute town full of shops and tons of rental beach houses. After a nice breakfast we started driving. We knew we had a ways to go today, so we wanted to get an early start.
A birdhouse subdivision we saw on our morning walk
Our little navigator, tom-tom, took us back to I-10, past the capital city of Tallahassee. We debated about stopping to see another capitol building, but decided to keep driving. It rained off and on during the day, but by the end of the day the sun came out again.
After Tallahassee, we drove south on highway19, which heads away from the coast and into the interior of Florida a bit more. The landscape turned into farmlands and wetlands. Lots of cows, some horses. The highway itself was often lined with green trees, and when we turned off it into Chiefland, there were streets where the trees came together over us, making tunnels.
We stopped at a store for a few supplies and some gas, and then the fun began. If we had retraced our steps back to the turnoff before the store, we would have found the park about an hour sooner. It’s really just a straight shot from the town. But no, we followed our little tom-tom once more, turning the other way out of town. Mistake. Big mistake. We drove around a huge basin called Manatee Basin, which is really a huge wetland area. We seemed to be getting further and further away from the park. Finally tom-tom told us to turn down a very sketchy looking dirt road. No, we told it, we’re not going there! It refused to find any other route to the park. So, we back tracked a bunch, found a friendly soul at a fire station and asked directions. Back we went, practically all the way to town before we picked up state road 320, which ends at the park’s entrance. Gotta love these navigators, or else you’d pitch them out the window into a swamp.
One of the many scenic Florida state highways we've used
Manatee Springs State Park has a spring that produces an average of 100 million gallons of clear, cool water daily. Apparently in winter, West Indian manatees swim upriver to the warmer waters of the springs. The brochure says the headwaters of the spring is a great place to swim. We were told by the park rangers the water is about 72 degrees, a little cool for our tastes, since today hasn’t been super hot. (Finally reached a high of 75 this afternoon.) When we got to our spot, another couple wandered by and started talking to us. They mentioned snakes in the water. That’s all Judy had to hear to decide swimming was out! As we stood talking about places in Florida to visit, the bugs really came out. It was that time of evening…around 6 or so. We retreated into our beloved Howie for dinner, where, armed with our flyswatter, we have a fighting chance against the critters. We watched Conviction (good movie) and later the fireflies.
Deer eating dinner at the same time we were
Total miles today=330 (could have been under 300)
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