Williams family: Camping in Mantee Springs

Josh and I decided to go camping for some relaxation and time together. We decided to go to Manatee Springs in Chiefland, Fl. My brother had gone camping there in November and recommenced it, plus this time of year the manatees are still in the springs. We headed out Tuesday and stayed until Friday. It was absolutely wonderful. We had such a great time! The weather was perfect except at night it was a little colder than you may want but we loved the trip.
We arrived at the camp site in time to set up camp and get dinner ready just before dark. Josh sat down after everything was dinner was cleaned up and started playing his guitar. I sat back and enjoyed the music. One of our next door neighbors, Jeff, came over and ask if he could join Josh is some music. It was pretty neat listening to them play together.

We had many visitors during our stay at our campsite. Our first and the funniest, was a cardinal and his mate. They were a very talkative couple. The male cardinal has apparently had luck getting into peoples cars for a tasty treat. He decided that our car MUST have something yummy in it for him and his little girlfriend. He would fly over to our car and peck at every window trying to get in. It was quite funny watching him. His mate would just sit up in a tree above the car and chatter to him. He couldn't figure out if she was telling him he was crazy or how he needed to be doing it better.

His girlfriend getting a drink

He finally gave up.

A lizard visiting our water tap.

Another visitor that was not quite as funny but just as persistent as the raccoon. He must have checked us out the first night and decided we were worth coming back to. We saw him in the tree right before bed. We have a huge cooler and since it was in the 40-50s at night were left the cooler out side under the picnic table. Well, once we had laid down in bed we head the little bandit knock over the small cooler, which was on top of the big cooler and try to get in to the bigger cooler. He must have really wanted to get in because even when Josh and I ran out making all kinds of noise he tried very hard to hide behind the trees so he could get another go at it. We decided that it might be safe to lug the cooler to the car and store it in there. So the first night we left the cooler out with no problems but the other nights the cooler went into the car. One of our most common visitors were the squirrels. They were all over the place.

My favorite visitor was the deer. The first night we were there I think the males were fighting over a female and butting head. I woke up to a lot of scuffling outside our tent. I unzipped our back window and we saw at 2 male deer and I think one female deer jump away. The next night a huge doe came right up behind our tent. I was about 5 feet away. You can't see her too well in the picture because it was so dark. It was really neat being that close to her. The last night we were there another female doe came up behind our tent. She was about half the size of the doe the previous night. She was also not quite as comfortable with us watching her. There must have been a lot of deer visiting out last night because whenever I woke up I could hear them munching.

There were still about 6 manatees in the springs that had not headed out yet. It looked like there were 2 younger manatees and the rest were full sized adults. An interesting fact I found out while we were there, is that manatees have almost no body fat. I always thought they were mostly fat. Manatees are such relaxing animals. Watching them just makes you want to sit down and relax or take a nap. They are very peaceful. Here are a few pictures I was able to get of them.

Lots of mullet fish

Josh and I did some fishing too while we were their. The first day was unsuccessful. Josh caught two catfish that both broke the line before he could get them up. While we were out there we saw vultures fighting. I guess 2 of the vultures were mad at another one. The rest of the group join them and started taking sides. The next day, Josh, with some help from me, caught a beautiful brim fish. He was a pretty good size too. We cooked him up and had him for dinner. Boy, that was some of the best tasting fish! I forgot how much I love fresh caught freshwater fish! While Josh was cooking out yummy dinner I started the camp fire. After dinner we sat by the fire enjoyed talking talking and made the yummiest smores. My belly was very happy that night!

Vultures fighting