Friday January 11th 2019

The temperature roller coaster reached its low point last night. It was in the forties inside my RV this morning. I turned on the electric fireplace and went back to bed for an hour. I still needed to turn on the propane furnace when I finally began the day. The temperature climbed quickly. It was above seventy around noon.

This was a moving day. I only had forty miles to travel, but I hadn’t gotten a head start yesterday. I had all of the outside tasks and many of the inside tasks to complete this morning. There were a couple of additional tasks this morning. A stop at the dump station to empty my holding tanks was necessary and the only practical location to connect up the towed car was in the picnic area parking lot half a mile away.

Once the RV was close to ready for travel, I drove the car to the picnic area parking lot and walked back. Any other location on the narrow campground roads would have blocked traffic while I got everything ready for travel. It only added a few minutes and I got some exercise. Back at the campsite, I finished up making the RV road ready and drove over to the dump station. My tanks were little more than half full after two weeks of living without a sewer connection. A little more conservation and I can easily stretch the tanks longer.

By the time I got the motorhome and towed car all hooked up it was after noon. I left Little Manatee River State Park at 12:15PM. Taking the slow route north, I arrived at the Hillsborough River State Park northeast of Tampa around 1:30PM. This turns out to be an older state park with narrow roads and campsites designed in an era where tents were the most common type of equipment. Most of the sites have been upgraded to have plenty of room for modern RVs, but they aren’t the most level sites.

I’m backed into an odd shaped site for the next week. My RV is not fully level, but it’s good enough that I don’t feel the slant inside. When I took a walk around the campground, it became apparent that my site is one of the worst in this part of the campground. Lucky me. I’m surrounded by tall trees and a swamp twenty or thirty feet away. The swamp shouldn’t be a problem. There isn’t much rain in the forecast. The trees are a bigger problem. I don’t have satellite access for my DirecTV. The more than sixty over the air channels will have to keep me entertained.

Thursday January 10th 2019

As predicted the temperature got down into the forties last night. It was fifty three inside my RV home when I got up this morning. The sun warmed the interior, but outside it never got much above sixty all day.

One advantage of the cold overnight temperatures, is the touring opportunity it creates. The manatees don’t like cold water temperatures. To stay warm many manatees congregate at the Tampa Electric power plant in Apollo Beach on Tampa Bay. The discharge water from the power plant keeps the water temperature in the eighties.

I arrived at the Manatee Viewing Center across the channel from the power plant shortly after eleven. Quite a few other people had the same idea. There was no room in the main parking lot. By the time I’d made a complete circuit of the lot, the staff had closed the lot and opened the overflow lot about half a mile south. I was in the first hand full of cars to park in the overflow lot this morning. The walk back to the viewing center was good morning exercise.

At the viewing center I found it was low tide. The water around the viewing platform is not deep enough to support the manatees when the tide is out. All of the big critters were out in the deeper water away from the platform and nearer to the discharge outlets. Near the platform the water was full of good size tarpon. The smallest was over three feet long and some were probably over five feet.

The viewing center also has a 900ft walkway along the side of the channel. Today there were a couple of Black Tip sharks circling around in the water looking for lunch. There were also tarpon and other good size fish visible in the water. The sharks were looking for smaller prey than the visible fish.

Overall, I was disappointed by the visit. The low tide made the manatee viewing difficult and the fish viewing didn’t make up the difference. If I hadn’t seen the manatee up close on other visits, I probably would have been content. The walk back to the car wasn’t as interesting as the anticipation made the walk to the viewing center.

Tomorrow is moving day. I’ve started to do some of the inside tasks tonight, but have the bulk of the preparations to complete tomorrow. I have less than one hundred miles to travel and will try to leave between noon and one.

Wednesday January 9th 2019

The temperature didn’t get as low as I had expected last night. It was in the high fifties when I got up and it warmed up quickly once the sun broke through the overnight clouds. The warmth didn’t last long. The cold front passed through the area around noon with out any precipitation. The wind got stronger and started to drop the temperature. I expect tonight’s weather forecast of lows in the forties to come true.

I started to explore the Robinson Preserve park in Bradenton this afternoon. Two years ago I had an opportunity to explore the preserve in depth. The trails through the marsh land and along the Manatee River are a good way to get some exercise and see some of natures wonders. Today, my visit was cut short by a need to meet friends for lunch. During my short visit I saw a couple of birds on one of the platforms built for Osprey nests. I want to believe I saw a pair of nesting Osprey, but I wasn’t close enough to be sure and my zoomed camera picture didn’t help much.

At lunch we were entertained by a variety of water birds. The Pelicans were particularly impressive. One pelican was patrolling the dock from one end to the other. Pelicans are clearly the leaders of the harbor bird residents. The patrolling pelican only decided the water was safer when a small dog took exception to its presence.

Getting home from the west side of Bradenton was a real challenge. The drive time traffic caused grid lock. It often took multiple light cycles to get across an intersection. Over an hour and a half after I started home I arrived back at the campground. That was about three times the time it took to get there. The remnants of the setting sun were lighting the western sky when I arrived at my campsite.

Tuesday January 8th 2019

Today was another perfect weather day. It’s cool when you get up in the morning, but the sun warms the day into the low seventies. Once he sunsets the temperature drops quickly. Tonight it is forecast to be in the forties.

A late night yesterday resulted in a slow start to today. It was well past ten by the time I was fully active and engaged with my breakfast coffee. My RV home must have sensed my lethargic state. The toaster set off the smoke detector to really get me moving. It doesn’t take much to set off the smoke detector when the door and windows are all closed. Luckily the alarm has a silence button, but I really should replace it with the kind that isn’t as sensitive to cooking smells.

Shortly after noon I made the fifty minute drive south to Sarasota to get in some visiting with friends before I leave the area on Friday. Traffic cooperated today. The construction zones I have to pass through were not an issue and there weren’t any accidents or broken down cars. The interstate around here seems to be a magnet for traffic issues. Coming north this evening it took over an hour with traffic and other incidents.

Monday January 7th 2019

It was cool enough in my RV home that I had to turn the electric fireplace on to remove the chill this morning. Once the sun got up high enough the temperature warmed up quickly into the low seventies. It will be down into the low fifties or high forties tonight.

Today was a little different than recent days. It started with a very similar walk in the state park, but ended at a musical. I went to the musical play Something Rotten at the Van Wezel center in Sarasota with friends. The play is a parody of musical theater set in Shakespeare’s time. It was very entertaining, but it pushes the boundaries of a farce to new extremes.

I got back from the theater late, so this blog is going to be very short.

Sunday January 6th 2018

Today was a slight improvement on yesterday’s very good weather. The temperature peaked around seventy under a bright sunny sky. The only real difference was a little less strength in the wind out of the north.

My main focus for the day was NFL football. Starting with the pre-game show at 1PM, football was on the TV. I’d watch it intently for a while then drift into other activities until the excitement of the crowd or announcers drew my attention back to the game. Both games were interesting with a little help from curious officiating.

The other activity getting my attention during the football games was 2019 travel planning. My progress is slowed by all the new territory along my travel route. The part of the plan I have figured out is through areas that I was either in during 2017 or considered traveling through. The plan picks up some of the places and attractions I didn’t get to explore or would enjoy repeating. The new territory in Oregon and Washington requires more research. First I need to discover what’s available and do I really want to visit. The final decision is how do I get there and how long do I stay in each area.

During the time between the games I took a bike ride around the park and down a random dirt cart path to the Little Manatee River. Today I found some additional wildlife. A few turtles were doing their thing in the sun on logs in the river. These turtles were a little more skittish than some I’ve seen in the past. When I made a little too much noise along the bank about twenty feet away they quickly slid into the river.

Saturday January 5th 2019

The above normal temperatures of the last week or so gave way to a cooler day today. The high temperature was just under seventy degrees, but the sun was shining brightly most of the day.

Last weekend the Little Manatee River State Park was full of campers with canoes, kayaks and boats. This weekend the equestrian part of the campground and the day use area was full of horse trailers. These weren’t your little squeeze in a couple of horses trailers. These trailers were designed for multiple horses and gear. I counted fifteen trailers, but there were likely more. Around the trailers horses of many sizes and colors were tied up. I imagine the horse trails through the park were well traveled today.

My big accomplishment for the day was restocking my food supply. Many other people had the same idea. The Super Walmart in Sun City Center a few miles to the north was very busy. In a couple of the aisles, I got stuck in shopping cart grid lock. Three carts traveling parallel in one direction can’t get by two side by side carts going the other way. Who was going to back up first? Common sense was not in abundance. I even got my cart run into once.

Yesterday’s rain raised the river level a little, but it is still down from a week ago when the run off from the major rainstorm before Christmas was still apparent. I take the three quarter mile hike along the trails to the river in hopes of seeing some wildlife, but so far I haven’t seen much. A few birds and an occasional squirrel is about it for wildlife.

Friday January 4th 2019

The weather roller coaster reached its pinnacle and is on the down slope. The day started cloudy and went downhill. Early in the afternoon the wind picked up and a darker cloud bank was on the western horizon. As night approached the rain arrived. It rained hard for a few minutes, but soon leveled out as occasional light rain. The high temperature tomorrow is forecast to be twenty degrees cooler than the last few days.

Once again today, my activities weren’t blog inspiring. This morning I lingered over my breakfast coffee while reading the latest news both real and curious on the internet. When I finally got around to leaving the campground the wind was really howling. On the interstate it was difficult keeping the car in one lane, but considering the heavy traffic it was rather important.

Thursday January 3rd 2019

I had to look at yesterday’s post to know the day of the week to put at the top of this blog entry. The holiday’s and other non-standard activities have really gotten me out of sync. It doesn’t seem to be universal. The traffic on the roads clearly had a back to work flavor today combined with the people traveling home after the holiday. Driving around was a real challenge.

Once again I don’t have a lot of blog worthy content. I spent the morning watching all of my neighbors pack up and leave the campground. The vacant sites were all full by the time I got back from my trip down to Sarasota this evening. Getting back after dark is a real experience. The roads leading to the park are narrow and oncoming traffic doesn’t always dim their lights as they approach. It gets even more interesting once I enter the park gate code and proceed the 3 plus miles to the campground. The road is narrow and twisty and I expect to see an animal or two pop out of the woods at any minute. Thankfully, it hasn’t happened yet.

Wednesday January 2nd 2019

Today was another great weather day in the Tampa Bay area. The temperature reached a near record high level. Tomorrow is forecast to be similar before the roller coaster starts back down on Friday.

On the exercise and experience front I did some more exploring of the state park. I rode my bicycle around and did a little hiking. The Little Manatee river level is down about a foot from the weekend. I haven’t seen any wildlife of note, but the views of the river are very picturesque. The vegetation overhanging the banks and the trees reflecting in the smooth flowing water make some spectacular panoramas.

The mental challenge for the day was working on my 2019 travel plans. I want a more though out plan this year. My goal is to have all of my major stops figured out and locked in. That means I need to pick the areas of interest, determine how many days it will take to explore the area and find good places to stay. Then I need to understand how long it will take to move between the areas of interest along with where to stay on the way.

I leave Florida at the beginning of April. So far I’ve blocked out my extended stops through the end of June. Blocked out means I know the general location, dates and duration. I haven’t necessarily determined the specific campgrounds. There is also a fair amount of flexibility in the travel between blocks. I want to finish blocking out the rest of the summer before I start locking things in with real reservations. The reservation window for many of the places hasn’t even opened yet.

My destination for the 2019 summer travels is the Pacific Northwest. Specifically, I want to visit the Oregon and Washington coasts. During April, I’ll stop in New Orleans, Huston and western Texas possible at Big Bend National Park. In May, I’ll start moving north with stops in Las Vegas, and along the Interstate 15 corridor in Utah. During June, I’ll move west through Idaho into Oregon along Interstate 84. My extended stops will be in the Boise area and along the historic Oregon trail in eastern Oregon. To continue the plan I need to decide if I go straight to the Oregon coast or turn south at Portland before heading for the coast. Discovering all of the possible things to do is fun but a lot of work.