Saturday October 24th 2020

Today was my last full day at Collier-Seminole State Park. Tomorrow I move on another 170 miles or so to the Florida Keys. Other than my regular thrice daily walks, most of my activities today were focused on getting ready to travel.

My biggest preparation tasks was a grocery run. I suspect that grocery stores in the keys may be small and widely separated. After today’s trip to Walmart, I should be all set for the two weeks I’ll be there. It has been over twenty years since I visited the Keys, so I could be all wrong about the shopping. Either way, it’s better to be prepared than in need.

The weather tomorrow could be much better. A tropical depression is forming into a tropical storm just west of Cuba. Bands of thunderstorms associated with the system are already impacting south Florida. Most of the storms missed this area today, but tomorrow is likely to be different. The worst of the weather is heading into the Gulf of Mexico well to the west of the Florida peninsula, but I expect tomorrow’s travel to be a rainy mess.

I’m really still learning about hurricane seasons. I thought south Florida was safer late in October. It turns out this is the most likely time for storms to impact south Florida. Last month I was up in the panhandle of Florida during the peak vulnerability for that area. My guess is the only hurricane safe place is north of Georgia and west of the Appellation until the middle of November. Of course, some of that area is getting an early snow storm this weekend.

As I predicted the campground is almost full this weekend. This campground is located just the right distance from the Miami and Fort Lauderdale metro area for a weekend family outing. There are a lot of tents and small RVs in the park this weekend. Perfect size units for the occasional weekend camping outing. With the weekend campers come the bicycles, scooters, kayaks, and canoes. Saturday is a very busy day at the campground.