Wednesday November 23rd 2016

This blog entry may read very similar to the last couple of days blogs. I’m not doing very blog inspiring things, but I am enjoying my stay in the Fort Meyers area.

Today my touring took me to the north into Charlotte and Desoto counties. The county is the geographical unit of significance in Florida. There is a lot of open country between the incorporated towns. I started my journey from the campground in Lee county by going strait north on route 31 through Charlotte county to the city of Arcadia in Desoto county. The terrain is flat with pine forests, cattle land and citrus groves.

I passed one huge new residential development called Babcock Ranch. When completed it will form another town. It is in the very early stages of development. The model homes aren’t scheduled to be ready until next year so I’m not sure what price range they will have. In general, the new homes in the southwest part of Florida are priced higher than the homes in the developments in northeast Florida around St. Augustine. The signs outside the new home developments in St. Augustine advertised homes starting in the 200, 300 and 400 thousands. In the Fort Meyers area I’ve been seeing 400, 600 and 1 million dollar homes advertised on similar signs.

Looking south from Ponce De Leon Park

Channel markers with a pair of mismatched sentinel birds. One is a pelican the other may be a sand piper.

This bird is guarding the boat launch.

In Arcadia Florida I turned back to the southwest on route US 17. It brought me back to Punta Gorda Florida on the south side of the Peace river from Port Charlotte. I drove through the old town center and out to Ponce De Leon Park on at the mouth of the river in Charlotte harbor. There is a wildlife center, a recreation area and a boat launch in the park. Surprisingly the parking was free in the Charlotte county (or city) park. I’ve gotten used to the Lee county parks around my campsite that charge by the hour in all parks and boat launches.

I returned to the campground on US 41 the Tamiami trail. The traffic wasn’t bad until I got into North Fort Meyers. Around the shopping areas traffic was very heavy. When I passed under Interstate 75 it looked like it was backed up with traffic so I made the right choice to avoid that route. Seeing the traffic confirmed that I was doing the right thing heading back to the campground.

Visitor to my campsite this evening.

Back at my RV home I grilled a couple of hotdogs for supper and watched the fish jumping in the river as the sunset.