We had recently taken delivery of our new travel trailer in October 2021. After a quick shake-out trip to Chincoteague Island in October we were really looking for a nice long distance trip. Also with it being close to my 40th birthday I was looking for a fun family excursion! We decided to head to Crystal River, FL and go swimming with the manatees. Crystal River is the only place that you can legally swim with “sea cows”. When we bought our camper it came with a one year subscription to Thousand Trails. The Thousand Trails program has several different levels and we had to upgrade in order to book a space at Encore Crystal isles. The upgrade only cost $350 and it covered our entire 3 night stay, whereas if we booked directly with the campground it would have costs closer to $500. While it made sense to use thousand trails since it was included in our trailer purchase, we all agree that we would not renew our subscription or sign up for this program normally. Our friends and family that camp with us are not members and it really limited the camping trips that we would be able to go on with them.
We stayed at a Walmart parking lot in Virginia on the first night. Walmart typically doesn’t allow overnight parking, but the RV Parky app lists specific stores that do permit it. For those not using the app, it is also great for planning trips since it gives low clearances and permissible routes. On our second night we stayed at a KOA in southern Georgia, it was right off 95 and very convenient with easy access and pull-through sites. On Sunday we arrived at Encore campground, the check-in was very smooth but the spaces are pretty tight. This being our first back-in campsite also made it challenging but we were able to get parked and unhitched with only a little bit of yelling. The campground was one of my favorites with a very large pool and hot tub, pond (although they also warned of gators), and community center with games and movies available for use. On Monday we spent time driving down to Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. Kristen and I visited this park/zoo on our motorcycle trip to the Keys in 2009 so we were excited to go back and take the kids. It is very well maintained, has a boat ride from the entrance back into the park, and has a wide variety of wildlife. The kids especially liked “Lou” the hippo who was also there in ’09 during our last visit. After leaving the park we stopped at Marguerita Grill for lunch. The food was amazing (fish tacos) and the margaritas were incredible (I ordered the medium and it came with one margarita plus a refill pitcher that held two more drinks!?!?)
On Tuesday we went to Crystal River Manatee Tours for our main event. The staff was great and worked well with the kids. Once we were all fitted for wetsuits (the water was a constant 72F from the springs) we headed out for a short boat ride around the harbor. There were several different areas that the boats go to look for the highest concentration of manatees. Our first stop only had one, but then we moved to another location that had about a dozen floating in the water. Unfortunately the kids got cold really quick and they ended up staying on the boat, but Kristen and I are already looking forward to going on this adventure again some day! While floating with the manatees they eventually get curious and swim/float right over to you. The guides let us know the proper way to touch them, just let your arm hang and only let them glide past you…don’t reach out to touch them. It was a great experience!!! After our manatee tour we got food from a local roadside dive, Shrimp Landing. The bay scallops were amazing and I would highly recommend them. The drive home was pretty uneventful, although we did learn that some Walmart parking lots are noisier than others.
