Saturday December 17th 2016

The weather across most of the United States sounds terrible. Here in the Tampa Bay area it was at the opposite extreme. The temperature was near a record high at 83 and the humidity was very high. I am not going to complain, but it was uncomfortable in the direct sun.

Today’s focus was on replenishing the refrigerator and getting familiar with Lake Manatee State Park. During the last week at Disney I went through many of my routine supplies. My habit is to stop at a grocery store every two or three days, but I didn’t do any food shopping while at Walt Disney World. It has been over a week since I saw the inside of a grocery store. That doesn’t mean I was starving. The freezer and the cabinets had plenty of food. I was out of things like bread, milk and non-frozen meat.

I stopped at a Super Walmart without thinking about the Christmas shoppers. Even when the parking lot was very full, I didn’t think twice about it. I had a mission. It didn’t turn out badly. The store had many check outs open and I found one without a line. It was only on my way out of the parking lot that it dawned on me that it was Christmas shopping time.

The trigger for this revelation was a huge array of new bicycles for sale. They were lined up nicely in front of the Walmart Liqueur store. I wonder if you needed to pay for them in the Liqueur store or the main store. Florida is the first state I have seen Walmart with Liqueur stores. They are a standalone store attached to the main building. It is fairly common down here.

After my shopping trip I spent time getting acquainted with the park. The park is situated on the shore of Lake Manatee. The lake was formed in the mid 1960s by damming the Manatee River. The lake serves as a water supply for the nearby cities of Bradenton and Sarasota.

I walked the trail from the campground to the lake. The campground is located in an area of tall trees and heavy vegetation. Other areas of the park are more open scrub pine. There are signs that a forest fire went through much of the area some years ago.

The lake is long and narrow as befits a lake created by blocking the flow of a river. A beach area in the day use section of the park is currently totally full of water plants. It is not currently usable as a beach. The weed filled beach looks like a good hiding place for alligators as fairly new signs warn.

Water plant filled beach at Lake Manatee State Park.

A little was east of the beach area via one of many trails through the scrub is the boat launch area. This area was getting used for fishing and by a couple of brave swimmers. The water plans were heavy in this area as well. The parks web site implies that the water plan invasion is seasonal.

Walking some of the trails between the boat launch and the campground I saw a few of natures creatures and heard a few more. At one point I heard something bigger than a squirrel in the undergrowth beside the path. I stood still and listened for two or three minutes but never got a peak at the noise maker. Later on the walk I saw a gopher tortoise heading into the brush on the side of the path. That was the big find of the day. The other creatures were small birds that flew from tree to bush and serenaded me on my walk.