Sat, 11/12/11


Manatee Springs State Park, Chiefland, FL:  Another beautiful morning—but cold.  I got up at 6:00 and turned on the furnace.  A couple of hours later it was warm enough to venture out from under the covers.  Took a shower and dressed.  Mike had a fire going. So I made my smoothie and went outside to join him.  A lot warmer already.  Sat around the fire for a while and after lunch we went for a hike.  Stopped by the spring first to see what was going on with all the divers.  It’s a great deal for the divers.  For $15.00 they get to dive for two days and are able to try out all the gear that the outfit from San Diego offers.  And they had a food tent set up for lunch and dinner.  Hiked around for a couple of hours.  Unfortunately, we didn’t see any wildlife.  We see more behind our site.  Got back from our hike and we had some new people in the site on the other side of us.  A young couple and two small kids.  They unloaded all their stuff and he told them how to put up the tent—and he left.  So the woman and the two kids struggled for a while.  I asked if they needed some help and she gratefully accepted.  We got the tent up finally and Mike came out and helped stake it down.  I told them to tell their dad they did it all by themselves.  Anyway, then we left to go to Chiefland and Bar-B-Que Bill’s for dinner.  They have the best food there.  A great salad bar and their soups are all homemade.  The other night they had Brunswick stew which I got hooked on when I lived in Atlanta.  It’s hard to find on any menu unless you’re in the deep South.  Tonight they had goulash which was wonderful.  Didn’t look anything like the stuff I used to make.  No big surprise there.  Back to our site and got ensconced inside.  Hope it doesn’t get so cold tonight.  Down into the 30s last night.  72 today.

A couple of these large snakes live in the spring.  Just a harmless brown water snake.