Monday March 5th 2018

It was cool to cold overnight. I rolled over and went back to sleep several times waiting for it to warm up in my RV home. By nine thirty or so I dragged myself out of bed. It was nice in the sun, but still in the sixties overall. The temperature topped out in the upper seventies with no clouds and a little wind. It was another great day.

A school of some variety of (sucker?) fish.

Three turtles and a lurking fish.

This park continues to keep me entertained. I planned to go grocery shopping after breakfast, but watching the activity in the park distracted me. I finally left the park around three thirty. Today I was drawn to the water creatures more than the birds. The canal surface was still enough that you could see schools of fish swimming around. On the banks turtles were sunning on the rocks. East of the dam I even managed to catch a glimpse of the manatees I’ve been hearing about. For a few minutes I could see the noses of two manatees break the surface to breath. Most of the time they seemed to be deep to avoid the boat traffic. This evening one of the otters was entertaining as it found and ate its dinner.

Mock Stern Wheel River boat out of Fort Meyers heading east bound in the lock.

Leaving the lock to the east.

Turning around just east of the lock.

Entering the lock westbound.

Ready to be lowered for the westbound transit.

An interesting stern wheel excursion boat out of Fort Meyers delayed my departure from the campground. I had to watch the unusual sight pass through the lock going eastbound. Then it turned around and passed back through the lock westbound. If it hadn’t turned around it would have gotten trapped in the river since the locks stop working at 5PM until 7AM. Their were quite a few people on the excursion that wouldn’t want to get stuck forty miles inland from Fort Meyers.

When I finally made it to the Walmart about twenty minutes to the east, I was less than impressed. It’s a relatively new Super Walmart, but it had a lot of empty spots on the shelves. Some of the stuff I wanted to get wasn’t available. I departed with food basics like bread and meat. The smaller sizes in the paper goods aisle were empty. I don’t have room to store the large economy size package of paper towels, for example. In the non-food area, a replacement water hose and sewer chemical weren’t available. Because of these deficiencies this Walmart didn’t get all of my business. Another Walmart down the road will probably get the missing business.

Otter after consuming a fish. I think he/she is looking right at me. I’m too far away to be considered the next course.

Tomorrow I’m going to a spring training baseball game in Port Charlotte. It’s about a seventy miles away so it will be a long day.

Tonight’s sunset.