Manatee Mania !!!!!

We pulled into Blue Springs State Park, one-two setup with BIW, and headed over to the Spring to see the alleged home of manatees.  Well, not alleged, 87 manatees and counting.  After polishing off 150 pounds of plants for their daily meal, they sped (well actually manatees don't speed) into the Blue Springs river to stay a toasty 72 degrees.  The official census park guys have counted up to 300 a day!  Fun to watch them bobbing up and down for air with a snort, doing body rolls, and just plain sleeping.  For the five days we were at Blue Spring, we checked up on the manatees daily.....Cool!

Another spring fed river, so another boat trip; this time we rented kayaks and a guide and set out into the St. Johns River and some narrow side channels.  It was a little cool, low 50s, cloudy, but still another opportunity to see all of the great wildlife and fauna.

And there's more......After a year of travel for both of us, we met up with our RV friends.  We first met Gail and Dan in Utah, and discovered that we like lots of the same camping stuff.  Together we hiked 9 miles through the saw palmettos, the live oaks, and all of this wild Florida location.  We even saw a massive (over 500 lb) wild black boar run across our trail!  And another day, we rode the Spring to Spring cycle route. Great to catch up on all of our travels, and plan for more......Next January at Death Valley NP?