Little Manatee River State Park - April 8-12, 2018

Karen and I drove the RV west across the state to a wonderful state park along the Little Manatee River just north of Bradenton, Florida.  This proved to be a wonderful trip with much relaxation, reading and recreation.

The fun began immediately as we saw a gopher turtle (turtle ID courtesy of Mary Losi) while driving into the park.  Unless he was the fastest turtle we've ever met, we saw his twin in our campsite soon after pitching our dining fly.  We spent the evening and next morning relaxing and reading.  No TV in our RV and we like it that way!

Karen spies our turtle friend

Gopher turtle in our campsite

Our campsite

Our Monday recreation began with a bicycle ride around the park taking us through the picnic area, pavilions, canoe and kayak launch, then to the trailhead parking which featured a small amphitheater overlooking the river and finally out to the park entrance.  As the entire ride is only 5 miles, roundtrip, we decided to repeat it for a bit more exercise.  Besides, the weather was perfect, the Spanish moss draped trees were fascinating, the turtles were sauntering and the ground palms were entrancing. 

Karen watches three ducks splashing

Two turtles have climbed onto downed trees to capture the sun

For our afternoon recreation, we launched our kayaks onto the Little Manatee River for a gentle paddle trip through the calm, quiet waters and shaded passage upstream.  Without wind or rain to disturb the waterway, we could see the bottom and many fish in the clear brook.  Turtles and ducks populated the banks, but with one exception, we were the only humans on the tributary.  We pulled through the hushed stream for a couple hours, returning to our launch spot and leaving the kayaks on a nearby rack for use again later.

Tuesday was forecast to be rain and thunderstorms all day, so we drove into Sarasota, about an hour south of the park, to play tourist.  It turns out that two of our destinations were closed on Tuesday while the Selby Gardens were closed due to the thunderstorm's lightning.  So our touristing was limited to a walk in the gentle rain and finally a trip to the cinema for a dry, air conditioned movie.

Dinner proved to be quite the highlight as we enjoyed the atmosphere and victuals presented by Owen's Fish Camp restaurant in Sarasota.  Although lodged in downtown Sarasota, the appearance is a rural fish camp located in outback Florida, fifty years ago.  The seafood gumbo was superb as was the shrimp and oyster Po' Boy.  We ate in the "backyard" overlooking a ramshackle collection of colorful painted metal lawn chairs, light strings slung from tree to tree and over stuffed lawn lounge chairs collected under the splintery wooden porch roof.  Contrary to the dilapidated veneer, the porch roof didn't leak and the chairs were quite comfortable.

That's an alligator on the floating branch!

The weather having blown through on Tuesday, Wednesday was clear, sunny and comfortable with temps in the 70s and a smooth breeze to ease the bright sunshine.  With all the drainage from the rain, the current was nearly two knots on the river.  To make our recreation less work, we paddled our kayaks upstream against the current for the first half of our excursion getting the work portion out of the way, then meandered lazily back downstream with the current making all the effort as we enjoyed the flow through the creek's canopy.  The muddy backwater precluded seeing anything suspended in the current but the turtles and even a small alligator were sunning themselves on the many logs and branches.
Bicycling was again the activity for the afternoon as we repeated our double roundtrip experience from Monday morning.

Relaxation was the theme of our week's excursion as we slept in past eight AM every morning, finished reading our books, started new books and slept well sharing the night with barely discernable sounds of insects and animals situated well outside our secure little RV.