Tuesday September 5th 2017

The heat continues in southern Utah. Once again it topped out in the low hundreds. We may get a thunderstorm or two before morning. Right now, in the late evening, a light show of sorts is visible on the southern horizon.

I started the day with another attempt to get a reservation at the Corp of Engineers park near Fort Meyers. It is frustrating, because there are only a few sites available at the beginning of the reservation window 6 months out. Again this morning someone else clicked their mouse a little quicker than I did. Later in the morning I started looking into plan B. My overall goal was to be on or near the gulf coast of Florida during the month of March to attend a few Baseball Spring Training games. The months of February and March are the high season for Florida snowbirds. I’ve had the two weeks from March 10th to March 24th booked since April. I just needed to fill in before and after that reservation. After the 24th of March turned out to be fairly easy. Probably because Easter is early on April 1st, there is a lot of availability at the end of March. Many snowbirds try to be home in the north by Easter.

The gulf coast of Florida from just north of St Petersburg south to Naples is premium territory. It not only is in high demand it is also high priced. I could find two and three night stays at the state parks, but the weekends were booked solid. The one private campground I talked with won’t take reservations for under a month until November. I decided to look further inland where fewer people want to stay. I found ten days of availability at the Corp of Engineers campground beside the Ortona lock on the Caloosahatchee Canal that crosses the state from Fort Meyers to Port St. Lucie. So I’m set for the month of March in Florida. Now I just have to figure out November through January. February will be a cross country travel month.

A road passes through the break in the cliff shown in this picture. Tomorrow I’ll drive the motorhome through that break in the cliff as I start my travels to Lake Powell.

The planning exercise took most of the morning. This afternoon I started to pick up for tomorrows move to the Lake Powell area. I also made a run to Walmart for groceries. All of the Halloween stuff from decorations to candy is out. Pushing the seasons even more the garden area is cleared out and it looks like they are getting ready to put the Christmas stuff out. I know it’s after labor day but really.