Tuesday November 15th 2016

I got up at 6AM this morning after 12 hours of fitful sleep. Whatever hit me yesterday afternoon was much diminished if not gone this morning. I’m not sure if it was food poisoning or some other virus, but I’m not taking any chances with the remaining donuts. They’re going out with the trash.

Taking it slow and easy with the remaining packing, I departed St. Augustine at 9AM. My route to the W. P. Franklin recreation area east of Fort Meyers Florida was down the east coast and across the state just north of Lake Okeechobee. The mapping programs I use wanted me to take Interstate 4 through Orlando. That route is on my list of avoid if at all possible roads. Interstate 95 down the coast had some construction, but nothing like the mess in Orlando. The drive across the state on secondary roads was through cattle land, farm land and an occasional swamp.

I arrived at the W.P. Franklin campground just before 3PM. I have a back in site along the river. It takes a little more time to get into a back-in. I have to disconnect the towed car before I can maneuver into the site. Today was not one of my better backing efforts. It took me four tries before I was happy with the orientation of the RV on the site. The first 3 attempts I was crooked one way or another.

Site 3 at the W.P. Franklin Recreation Area Campground

This is a Corp of Engineer Campground at one of the locks on the Caloosahatchee River. This is part of the waterway that goes from the Gulf of Mexico into Lake Okeechobee. Another waterway goes from the lake to the Atlantic Ocean in Port St. Lucie. So far I haven’t seen any boats underway. Many of the people here seem to be here for the fishing. I’m not sure what they are trying to catch.

My view from site 3.

I’ll me here for two weeks. I intend to tour around a lot of Southwest Florida. Tomorrow I’ll start by checking out the area between here and Fort Meyers.