Manatee Springs Sunrise (J)
Manatee Springs (J)
Manatee Springs (D)
A Turtle on a Log (D)
A Snake in the Spring (D)
Jon in the Spring (D)
Our 1996 Trip Across the USA Page 11
Back to Jon Vermilye's Photo & Trip Page
A note on Photographs - All of us are taking pictures - I'll do my best to give photo credits with an initial, but if I miss one be sure to let me know! J = Jon, D = Don, A = Anne & C = Carol. You can usually tell Anne's - her camera puts the date on the image! Also, most of the images are scans of old & faded prints, so the quality may not be all that hot.
June 25 - Manatee Springs State Park, Chiefland, FL (193mi)
After leaving the Circus Museum, we headed north along US 19 to Manatee Springs State Park in Chiefland, FL. The park surrounds a beautiful spring that comes from a cave 36' below the surface and pumps over 100 million gallons of 72 degree water per day year round into the Suwannee River. As the name implies, Manatee spend the winter keeping warm in the spring. This time of year it is filled with fish, turtles, and snakes. A very pretty park with our site (#11) on fine sand. Still very hot, but no rain.
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Manatee Springs Sunrise (J) |
Manatee Springs (J) |
Manatee Springs (D) |
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A Turtle on a Log (D) |
A Snake in the Spring (D) |
Jon in the Spring (D) |
June 26 - Panama City, FL (261mi)
We continued north & west along the coast of Florida. I like this part of Florida more than the rest of the state. Well, I'd have to also include Key West. Key West is a bit overdone, but still an interesting place to visit. Probably expensive to live there, and I'm sure the natives that are not living off the tourists probably get tired of all of us, but still a fun place to visit. Most of the rest of the state seems so over done. The north west is less - still some quiet sea shore, villages, etc.
In any case, we decided to stop at St. Andrew's State Park in Panama City. The park was crowded - we had to wait for the people in our site to pack up before we could move in even though it was well past check out time. We are in site 110, an electric site with a view of the Grand Lagoon. Called Kyle (our son) & he told us we had to get in touch with my brother Steve. Called Steve & got the bad news that my mother had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. We decided to head back to Oswego & on to Nantucket tomorrow.
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Don & Anne & Sleeping Bag (C) |
Carol at St Andrews SP (A) |
Spanish Moss (D) |
Site 110, St Andrews SP (J) |
June 27 Heading Home (371mi)
Don & Anne are going to continue the trip & we are starting back. Stopped for the night in the Dollarwise Motel in Commerce, GA. Kind of a dump, but we are only stopping for the night. Called mom - she is insistent that we continue our trip, and that we come to Nantucket in August as we planned. In fact, she told us she wouldn't let us in the house until then. She feels fine & her doctors told her she wouldn't start feeling the disease until the Fall. So, we called Don & Anne to find out where they were - probably the first time their cell phone worked! Our plan is to meet them in Fontainebleau State Park in Louisiana.
This page is maintained by: vermilye@oswego.edu
Last Update:
March 21, 2012