Crystal River

 

October 10, 2021

 

Crystal River

After departing the Smoky Mountains, we continued south through Georgia. We had never visited Athens, Georgia, the home of the University of Georgia and the birthplace of some of the coolest music in the 80s and 90s with bands like REM and the B-52s getting their start there. So that was our next stop for the night.

It is a cool little college town that we had a chance to explore a little bit during the evening and following morning that we stayed there. I wanted to check out the campus and the hip area of restaurants, bars and clubs that are found nearby, including the famous 40 Watt Club, which is the musical heart of Athens and still draws the best bands in America to grace its stage. Sadly there was no show the night we were in town, but I hope to return and catch a live show there someday.

Another spot in Georgia that we had never visited, but that I had always wanted to see was the former Confederate Prison at Andersonville. Today the site is a National Historic Site that features an amazing museum, the only one in the United States that is dedicated to prisoners of war, and not just the Union troops who suffered and died in such massive numbers at this location, but all prisoners of war in every conflict. Andersonville National Historic Site pays tribute to all American prisoners of war. The park
has three features: the National Prisoner of War Museum, the site of the Andersonville prison, and the Andersonville National Cemetery.

The museum is incredibly well done, at once harrowing and sobering but something that everyone should see. The experiences of prisoners across the ages and through the myriad of conflicts are explored and examined. Andersonville prison has a well-earned reputation as one of the worst and most inhumane in American history. The conditions were abysmal at best, and thousands of Union prisoners died of malnutrition, disease and mistreatment. The Confederates barely had supplies to keep their own soldiers and citizens, so treating prisoners well was almost an impossibility. 

Our destination after departing Georgia was Crystal River, Florida. Crystal River is a small town on the Gulf Coast of Florida at the heart of what is known as the Nature Coast and is known far and wide as the official home of the Manatee. 

The city is situated around Kings Bay, which is spring-fed and so keeps a constant 72 °F temperature year-round. A cluster of 50 springs designated as a first-magnitude system feeds Kings Bay. A first-magnitude system discharges 100 cubic feet or more of water per second, which equals about 64 million gallons of water per day. Because of this discharge amount, the Crystal River Springs group is the second largest springs group in Florida., Kings Bay can be home to over 400 manatees during the winter when the water temperature in the Gulf of Mexico cools, and is the only place in the United States where people can legally interact with them in their natural conditions without that interaction being viewed as harassment by law enforcement agencies

It wasn’t yet “Manatee Season” but we wanted to visit anyway and go out on a swim with the manatee tour before things got too crazy and thankfully there is a year round resident manatee population. We booked a room at Plantation on Crystal River, a sort of fading though still nice resort in Crystal River and booked a manatee experience with Explorida to take us out snorkeling in Kings Bay to swim with the manatee.

It is a truly magical experience seeing these peaceful, serene creatures in their natural habitat. Our guides were excellent, making sure to get us close to the animals with as minimal intrusion as possible. They did not really seem to mind us at all and continued their behavior without paying us much mind at all, of course we were completely respectful, following all the guidelines and rules about getting too close or bothering them.

After swimming with a couple of manatees for about an hour, we were treated to another awesome experience as our guides took us by boat to the beautiful 3 Sisters Spring where we were allowed to snorkel from the boat into the crystal-clear waters of the amazing spring, which is closed to swimmers during the busy season and may be closed to swimmers altogether soon. 

It was a just all around wonderful, beautiful, and moving experience. I was so glad that we came before the true onslaught of tourists and our guides were happy to have so few people and took extra time with us. It was truly one of the highlights of my year. Crystal River was only the second place on our trip home where we opted to stay multiple nights in the same place.