Heading out from Santa Rosa, we decided to follow Hwy 98 the entire way to St. Pete’s Beach. We like to stick to the secondaries, as it is generally a relaxing, and far more informative drive than on an interstate.
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| Manatee Springs |
Hwy 98 weaves its way pretty much along the coast, through lots of little towns, and around a few big ones. We saw a lot of devastation from the hurricanes last year, especially in the Tyndall area. Crazy to see a huge stand of pines, all of them snapped off below the tops. Many homes and businesses are recovering, but clearly, some have just walked away from the ruin.
We stopped for the night at Manatee Springs SP, home to one of Florida’s largest freshwater springs. It is also a winter refuge for West Indian manatees. Between 35-150 million gallons of clear water flows up from the spring every day. Snorkelling with manatees is a highlight of a visit here.
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| odd tree nubbins... |
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| lots of visitors |
No manatees were around this afternoon, but someone mentioned that the morning was a good time to see them. The park is full of deer, and sure enough, we were able to watch five of them graze through the scrub, looking for some tasty foliage. Barley was quite intrigued to see an animal that was much larger than anything he has ever seen in campgrounds. We could tell from him being so relaxed that he knew he was very safe in his current vantage point.
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| what the hell??? |
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| not to scale |
We continued along the Hwy 98 until it turned into the Hwy 19 outside of St. Petersburg. It gets very busy outside of the city, almost like it is one long stretch of retail. We grabbed the 699 through St Pete’s Beach, then made our way to the park.
Fort DeSoto is a chain of five interconnected islands, with several beaches, campgrounds and huge fishing piers extending out into the ocean. The park hosts more than three million visitors per year, and that’s no wonder as it is simply gorgeous. The campsites are large and private, with many lucky ones actually backing onto the water.
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| great sites at Fort Desoto |
The next day we hit the beach and it was fabulous. It runs for miles, with many spits and little tidal lagoons. The sand is talcum fine, and the water was warm. We lazed and floated for the longest time.
Dinner with our longtime friends Helen & Paul that evening finished the day.
More of the same the next day, which was wonderful, but news of the evolving coronavirus started to cloud into our blissful getaway. We were a bit out of the loop as our location was not the best for connectivity. We were all uncertain as to what to do but the we did up did end up deciding to shorten our trip and replan our route back home. It just seemed like the right thing to do.
Based on the info we were absorbing, and realizing that our mode of travel is in effect social distancing, we were thinking we were low risk, and considering that our next destinations were pointing in the homeward direction, we decided to have a quick visit in Lake Mary to see my buddy Jim, then spend a couple of days in St. Augustine. From there we will make our way back, camping along the way, which could be considered a very simple form of self isolation. We were comfortable with our plans at that point.
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