Park #6 Manatee Springs State Park

Haven't posted much the last couple days - but we're hanging in there! We've been trying to keep busy, in spite of the continuing cold spell. Unreal! We actually thought we would be able to pick up Foster's remains (we're having him cremated) this Tuesday, but it turns out they only do this once a week, so we have to wait until next Tuesday. Fortunately, we are still in the immediate area for the upcoming week, so that part works out okay. Yesterday (Wednesday) we moved from the Old Town Campground over here to Manatee Springs State Park, which is actually only about 15 miles in distance. It's a nice park - the springs are really pretty - and there are manatee in the springs, which we always love to see. We were disappointed to find out that we would not be able to put our kayaks in at the spring (which you normally can do) - apparently during this cold weather they are very careful not to disturb the manatees in any way. So today (since it was actually in the mid 50's!) we put our kayaks in at Usher Landing which is only a half mile south of the state park (1/2 mile along the river - about 4 miles of driving) and then we paddled upriver for about an hour and a half and basically floated back down to our starting point. It was very pretty - we love the huge old cypress trees with Spanish moss hanging on them. I didn't download any pictures yet, so can't attach them but I may throw a picture on tomorrow. We got home about 4:00 and then headed into Gainsville for the University of Florida women's basketball game, against Auburn. VERY exciting game - the gators won by two points in the second overtime - WOW! It was fun to go to a bigger school for a game - and we're going back next Tuesday for the men's game which is going to be broadcast on ESPN (so look for us - we'll be the ones with the Michigan sweatshirt!).

Yesterday was basically moving day, although we got in a nice little walk around the park. We both really struggled with the move. Since it was such a short distance we didn't hook the car up - we just each drove separately - and when we got to the park it was obvious that both of us had been doing a little crying - it seemed so WRONG to leave the last park without Foster - it was almost like we were forgetting to take him or something. Plus he always loved moving day - he could tell when we were packing up the rig to make a move and he would get so excited! But we did it and we're sure the first move will be the hardest. And each day it seems to get less awful and less painful...

Monday and Tuesday, our last two days at Old Town, were cold - below 50 - but we decided that we needed to keep moving so we got in a bike ride on each day. We did 12 miles on Monday and 14 on Tuesday. There is actually a very nice rails-to-trails bike path in the area - it runs about 30 miles total so we did two different stretches of it. On Monday we crossed an old railroad bridge to get over the Suwanee River - that was kind of fun. It's been so weird to have days and days of cold - it's been getting down to the low 20's overnight, so we turn on both space heaters and turn on the hot water heater (which we normally only turn on when we're going to use hot water - like for dishes) because we think the heat generated by the heater probably helps to keep the "basement" warmer and protect our water pipes - it would NOT be fun to freeze any of our pipes during the trip - yikes!

So that's a quick update on what we've been doing the past few days. Thank you to all of you who sent e-mails and stuff over the past week - we really appreciate it. More to come in a couple days...