Sunday October 11th 2020

Today was a travel day. I’m on a Sunday travel schedule which isn’t the best for checking out of state parks. All of the weekend visitors rush to leave at the same time. I was third in line for the dump station. The guy in front on me probably wasn’t going to use his rig for a few weeks. He was trying to be absolutely certain his black tank was empty. He took a hose inside through a window to fill the black tank with water. Once would have been more than enough, but he did it three times. I must have waited half an hour. My next two travel days are also on Sundays. It will be the middle of November before I’m back to traveling on a weekday. Let’s hope I don’t have similar delays departing.

I left Lake Manatee state park a little after noon. Traffic heading south on Interstate 75 through Bradenton and Sarasota was heavy and the construction that started five years ago is still on-going. It’s just at a different intersection. Fort Meyers to the south wasn’t nearly as heavy. I even managed to buy gas without competition for the pump. A few very brief downpours made me thankful that I had installed new wiper blades on the RV.

I arrived at Collier-Seminole State Park on the Tamiami Trail southeast of Naples a little after 3PM. This is my first visit to this state park. The campground is located on man made high ground in the middle of a swamp. The roads are paved and the campsites are hard gravel where you need to park. If you get off the roads or the intended parking area on the site you’ll sink into the grass quickly. There are lots of ruts to prove it. I got backed in and situated without incident. Overall this travel day had far less drama than two weeks ago. I’ll be here for two weeks.