Dec 27, 2012 - Old Towne, FL

We are on our way to Houston to drop off Billy. Andy, Maggie, and Kevin flew home, and the plan is for Billy to camp with us on our way back west. We will drop him off in Houston, then continue on our way to the lower Rio Grande Valley. Mack and Holly were boarded at a kennel for 5 days and they were very happy to see us again. It didn't take long for them to get back into the travel routine.

Dec 18, 2012 - Manatee Springs, Florida

Manateee Springs is a first magnitude spring that feeds the Suwanee River. Florida has many springs that come the a large aquifer that exists under much of Florida. It runs up to 150 million gallons a day. Manatees come up the Suwanee to this area for the warm water in the winter. We did not see any while we were there. Mike snorkled in the clear sring water. Saw a lot of fish! The spring also attracts large numbers of American black vultures, who winter here. The surprising number of birds makes for a somewhat Gothic spectacle, with...

Nov 11, 2012 - Chiefland, FL

This is an overnight for us on the way to Panama City, Florida. After we left Tampa and headed north, the terrain changed. We left the wetlands and gators behind and entered a region with horsefarms and cattle farms. Many, many horsefarms and lots and lots of cattle. We are at a campground on the Suwanee River. Yeah, that Swanee River. There are strange looking pine trees, no-see'um bugs, and lots of Spanish Moss on the trees. This is a pretty undeveloped area and the roads all have numbers and no names, and some are gravel.

Apr 3, 2012 - Day #42

Day #42, March 30, 2012, Friday: Got away early and drove north to Chiefland, FL, and Manatee Springs S.P. Quite a spot where between 35 and 150 million gallons of water flow into the Suwanee River daily and then into the Gulf. Manatees have migrated away from their winter home in this 78 F water so we didn't see any. Beautiful park though and we enjoyed it.

May 10, 2011 - Prepare for trip

Spent the day loading the 5th wheel, Getting the house ready to survive while we are gone. All the furniture off the porch, set up the plant watering system. Still watching the weather because our plan for this summer was to travel the Mississippi River from Vicksburg to Mn. The trip is up in the air because the Mississippi is flooded. We are going up in the Florida Panhandle for a week to fish the Gulf and have a good time. We will decide where we will go in a week or so. Plan on leaving early Saturday morning, May 14th;

Mar 25, 2010 - Manatee Springs State Park

Hello Everyone! I searched for long horns when we were in Texas, but found none...now, here in Florida there are some right down the road from our park, so, I had to take their picture. The rest of the pictures are from Manatee Springs State Park. You have to look closely in the water to see them, but they are there. They look brownish in color. There is a mom and calf and two older ones. The park was beautiful. Heading to Georgia tomorrow. Having a rain and thunder storm now. Be safe everyone. Fondly, Nancy and Steve

Jan 26, 2010 - Time to Move On

We hung around Sumter for 10 days….long time….but we got so much stuff done. We can now open the storage compartments and actually find what we want ...and you know how nice that is…...plus, nothing is trying to jump out! Couldn’t sit still any longer so we headed out today….going northeast. Our toaster oven died…sad…but it was pretty old. Being the frugal folks we are …we wanted to get one at Kmart (we have a gift card). Walmarts everywhere - but we did find one and (I can take photo if you really want) we now have a shiny new toaster...

Jun 16, 2009 - Manatee Springs State Park

After leaving Alabama mountains, when in the mornings we had to have a blanket on while sleeping. We come to Georgia and Florida with 94 degree weather and a heat index of 104, so the waters felt so nice during the day to be able to cool down. It is nice to be home again and to be able to enjoy some hot weather.

Mar 28, 2009 - Manatee Springs State Park

We again moved a short distance north about 60 miles to Manatee Springs State Park, which is near Chiefland, Florida (the stay here was only one night). After setting up the RV, we walked over to the spring where we thought we might see some manatees… no such luck, but we did see some humans swimming. There was an elevated boardwalk, which followed the spring outflow a short distance to the Suwannee River. On Friday morning before heading further north, we took a short hike on the sink hole loop and found several small sink holes in the...

Nov 29, 2008 - Manatee Springs

A Florida treasure - Saturday, November 29 All good things come to an end, and so it was with our peaceful Thanksgiving drop out on St. Joe Peninsula. Our next destination is Tampa, a lot more hectic and a seven hour drive east and then south. We want to be there by Sunday night, and we decided to make it a two day drive, so we left St. Joe at noon on Saturday and headed for another Florida State Park at Manatee Springs. Manatee Springs is about half way to Tampa and the drive was a leisurely ride across the rest of the Panhandle and then...

Mar 3, 2008 - Manatee Springs - Chiefland, FL

Well, it seems that a lot of the state parks do not have sufficient cell coverage, so the entries are a little slow in coming sometimes. Our travels take us to Manatee Springs in Chiefland, FL, but first we stopped in Tallahassee to visit the State Capitol Building. Unfortunately, we did not realize we crossed through a another time zone, so we arrived a half hour to late. From what we could see from the window, it looks really neat architecturally inside. The outside is very charming in a Southern way with the red and white striped awnings...

Feb 16, 2008 - Manatee Springs SP & Fanning Springs State Park

We had booked a site in St Augustine Beach for 8 days starting on 18 Feb so we decided to make our way to Chiefland to stay in WalMart's car park for 2 nights. We were only a few miles from Manattee Springs State Park so we spent the first day there. This was a good park for swimming in the springs (constant temp 72 degrees) and there were plenty of divers that day. The spring produces over 100 million gallons of water a day. They had a boardwalk that went down to the Suwannee River with several stop off areas overlooking the river swamp...