Annie Lee the Argosy No. 054

The next stop on our Florida vaycay was

 

Manatee Springs State Park.

We'd been looking forward to being at this park for almost a year - 

I love a rustic campground!

 

And manatees!

You can swim with them!

Yay!

This is as close as I got.

Only because of time...

 

But let's start at the beginning... 

with our welcoming committee... 

[there were six of them]

Just so pretty! And rustic!

And isolated!

 

And ZERO cell service.

Zip - Nada - None

This is a complete NO GO for us as we have people back home that we feel like we must be able to be in contact with... so we were pretty happy that we'd changed our reservations to just one night...

 

Add in the fact that our #AnnieLeetheArgosy had another problem with some wiring*   and we were ready to head back to civilization early the next day...

 

But not before exploring the boardwalk and the springs a bit...

And y'all know I love a good boardwalk through a swamp.

Truly. 

 

Add in some vultures enjoying the morning fog

and it's a great way to start the day!

I've told you over and over again that we love the wacky side of life. HA.

The unexpected joys along the way, if you will...

And of course there were manatees everywhere...

Hard to see because they look like 

slow floating rocks just under the surface...

My take: It's truly a gorgeous park...

There were a couple of paved / concrete sites... but most were packed gravel...

 

There were good sidewalks to the bath houses 

that were exceptionally clean and neat.

It's isolated with gorgeous woodsy views -

the springs / boardwalk are in a different area...

 

We'd definitely go back for a visit - 

and maybe take that swim with the manatees, after all... 

but the zero cell / internet will keep us from camping there again... 

If you're in the area be sure and check it out!

 

*another story for another day, but suffice it to say that she's getting a good overhaul and check up while we're not camping this winter...