Monday December 21st 2020

After a less than sunny Sunday, the sun came out this morning. The storm front was well south of here this morning. The temperature was a good ten degrees cooler than Sunday. It peaked in the mid sixties.

My mission for the day was filling the refrigerator and pantry so I don’t have to go near a store until after Christmas. I was a few days to late to avoid the crowds. The cashier at the checkout said that today was the worst she had seen it this year. Things had been pretty quiet during the weekdays until today. The Walmart I went to had only one door open to control crowds and they had staff at the entrance enforcing mask rules. The aisles weren’t extremely crowded, but the checkouts were backed up. With almost all of the lanes open, each lane had at least four people in line. It probably took half an hour to get through the line. I came home with everything I needed and most of the things I wanted. Another visit to the grocery store before Christmas won’t be necessary.

My trip for groceries took the place of my morning visit with all of the wildlife in the park. My evening visit took a little longer. I waited at the bridge over the Myakka River until the sun went down. The alligators get a little more active when the sun stops warming their cold blooded bodies. As the sun set the gators all left the river bank for the water. They were soon invisible deep in the water. I hoped to see more deer on my walk back to my campsite in the growing darkness, but it wasn’t to be tonight.

Sunday December 20th 2020

There was some sun visible in the sky early in the day, but before long it was a rainy day. The temperature made it into the mid seventies before the rain arrived shortly after 2PM. Another cold front is passing through the area. It is forecast to be south of here by 10 or 11PM. In the mean time, it’s raining.

Knowing the weather was going down hill, I got out early to visit all of the gators and birds. Unfortunately, many of the pictures are washed out by the gray sky. Once it started to rain I was locked in my RV home watching football on TV. Here are some of today’s pictures.

Saturday December 19th 2020

Today’s weather was back closer to normal for this area. The temperature when I got up this morning was in the fifties. By the time the sun set it was in the mid seventies. It was a full sunshine day with very little wind. I would call it a very nice weather day.

The pictures in this blog entry focus on Alligators and Great Blue Herons. I took other pictures today, but I seem to like the pictures of these critters the best.

As expected, the volume of visitors in the park increased with the arrival of the weekend. In some areas it became dangerous with pedestrians, bicycles, cars and RVs competing for the same ground. The bridge over the Myakka River is a great place for alligator watching. People often line both sides watching the birds and gators. Cars need to wait and cross the bridge one direction at a time to avoid running people over. Pets and little kids need to be well supervised to prevent further disruptions, but how do you avoid the curious tourist that stops their car in the middle of the bridge to gaze at the gators. Today I observed the negative impact of each of those.

The park roads are narrow, winding and tree lined. The speed limit varies from fifteen to twenty five miles per hour. When a fast moving car comes around a corner and finds bicycles, RVs and other cars in both directions, some quick reactions are necessary to avoid disaster. I thought I was going to be witness to one such disaster when the car in front of me tried to pass an RV on a corner with bicycles and fast moving cars coming from the opposite direction. I really don’t now how disaster was averted, but everybody got through without damage or injury.

Judging by the volume of cars in the parking areas, the park isn’t that busy. Many of the day use areas like playgrounds and pavilions are closed. The parking lot at the Outpost wasn’t full either. The boat and tram rides weren’t full either. All of this is good from a social distancing perspective, but what would this park be like with full parking lots and even more visitors.

Friday December 18th 2020

Today was even colder than Thursday. The daily high was more than ten degrees below normal after getting down into the low forties overnight. The gradual rise in temperature was still in the fifties at noon and peaked in the low sixties late in the daylight hours. I’m not complaining. It is so much worse in the northeast part of the US, but for the Florida suncoast this is unusual.

The wildlife was a little harder to find today. Many of the alligators avoided the sunny river banks and the birds were staying in areas sheltered from the wind. Late in the day with the wind a little calmer the birds were more visible.

The park was “invaded” by the police today. In the parking lot for the Upper Myakka Lake there were around fifty police and sheriff vehicles. The officers were attending some kind of training class that seemed to involve canoes. Later in the day, as I was walking along the main park road to the river, a steady parade of police vehicles each with a single occupant made its way out of the park. I’m surprised the city of Sarasota and the county had enough resources to do their job with so many at the park.

Thursday December 17th 2020

After the cold front passed through last night, today was a bright sunny day. A strong northwest breeze kept the temperature down. The high temperature for the day was in the high sixties.

The change in the weather also changed the visibility of wildlife in the state park. Fewer alligators were taking the sun on the river bank. A couple of alligator heads were visible above the water, but many of the gators were probably in the warmer confines at the bottom. The birds were in areas better protected from the wind.

The pink color of the Rosetta Spoonbills makes the birds really standout among all of the white and gray wading birds. Today one was intent on feeding along the bank of the river very close to my observation position. I took the opportunity to take several pictures. Here are a few of them.

After a couple hours of wildlife viewing in the park, I left the park to check out some of the local area. I ended up in Nokomis at the North Jetty recreation area on the Gulf of Mexico. There were many people sitting in chairs and on benches watching the traffic in and out of the Venice Florida marinas. The northwest wind made any activity on the beach difficult. Not only was it cool, but the sand was also blowing. South of the inlet on the Venice beach lots of people were trying to catch a wave on surfboards. It was a nice visit to the gulf.

On my late afternoon walk around the campground I noted a lot of turnover today. This park doesn’t seem to be as impacted by the pandemic as the last few parks I’ve visited. The park has not reverted to mostly Florida residents. I’ve observed license plates from many other US states including Colorado, California and Washington. More than half of the visitors in my camping loop seem to be from out of state. I think most of them are long term visitors to the state. They’re not here for a Christmas vacation.

Wednesday December 16th 2020

Today began as a nice sunny day, but it didn’t end that way. As the morning progressed the wind started to pick up. By 2PM dark clouds were moving in from the east. It looked like the severe weather front the TV weather talkers had been warning about was going to happen. Around 4:30 the wind picked up even more and the rain started. Ten minutes later the worst was over. It was a non event in this area. North of here in the Tampa area the weather was severe. A tornado was reported in the St. Petersburg area.

Before the weather got bad I got my daily alligator and bird sightings in. I took a hike along the Myakka River. The trail has only recently dried out enough to be used. There is evidence of lots of dead vegetation that floated in from the river. In some areas it is difficult to find the trail. I turned around after about a mile. The weather was starting to look threatening and I really wasn’t sure if the trail continued on along the river.

Whenever I approached the bank of the river I always checked carefully for alligators. The last thing I wanted to do was come face to face with a surprised gator. Luckily for me all of the gators were on the bank on the other side of the river. I did manage to startle and be startled by a few birds including a big Blue Heron. It was a nice walk in the woods, but not particularly different from other areas of the park.

Once again today my camera was busy. Here are some of the other images I captured.

Tuesday December 15th 2020

The sun didn’t make an appearance today until around 2:30PM. The blue sky and sun made a nice end to the daylight portion of the day. The temperature managed to make it into the low seventies.

Uncertainty about the weather and a little laziness resulted in using the car to tour the park late this morning. Riding my bicycle will have to wait for another day. The Myakka River and Upper Myakka Lake show signs of recent high water. The current water level is about normal to a little below what I seen in the past, but much of the grass banks are littered with mud and dead vegetation. One “local” indicated that one of the trails was under water as little as two weeks ago. All of this tracks with the south Florida weather over the last few months. It has had record rainfall.

On my auto tour of the park and my late day walk to the Myakka River bridge I saw lats of wildlife. My camera was busy taking pictures. I’m going to group them by species below.

Alligators

Blue Herons

Great Egrets

Tircolored Herons

Rosetta Spoonbills

Deer

Monday December 14th 2020

Today was a travel day which means it was also a rainy day. All but one of my travel days since September has had some element of rain. Today began cloudy and dull. I got the remaining outside tasks completed while it was still dry. By 10AM it started to rain as the forecast cold front moved through the area. Luckily, it was a very mild quick moving front. The rain was over by eleven thirty and I was able to get packed and on the road sometime between twelve thirty and the 1PM checkout time. All the way west and south across the state the ominous clouds were just to the south. I was traveling along the backside of the front.

Traffic along Interstate 4 and Interstate 75 was very heavy. It never came to a complete stop as I’ve had occur in the past, but there were a number of slow downs caused by the traffic volume. The construction zones didn’t help either.

I arrived at the Myakka River State Park west of Sarasota Florida around 2:30. Getting checked in required more effort than I’ve been experiencing at the state parks during the pandemic. The other parks are all doing the check in while you sit in your vehicle. This park is still requiring you to park and come into the building. I parked, put on my mask and went in, only to have to wait while a couple tried to figure out why the park didn’t have their reservation. Once that little drama was over, I was checked in within two minutes.

I’m on a large full hookup pull through site for the next two weeks. This site is in the same area I’ve stayed in before, but is a completely new experience. I am set up enough to enjoy the evening. Tomorrow I’ll finish setting up for the duration of my stay.

Sunday December 13th 2020

The day began with fog and ended with a high temperature above eighty under a partly cloudy sky. It took a couple of hours for the fog to lift this morning. The sun was fully out by ten and remained for the rest of the day.

As expected most of the weekend campers departed this morning, but the park was not empty. Many day visitors arrived in the park all day. I had to wait behind six cars at the rangers station when I returned to camp this afternoon. By nightfall most of the day use visitors had departed and the empty campsites were filled with new occupants.

This is my last full day at Lake Louisa State Park. Tomorrow I’m moving on to the gulf coast of Florida. I’ll be in the area between Sarasota and Tampa for the next six weeks at three different state parks. From the middle of January through the end of February I’ll be in north central Florida before returning to the gulf coast for most of March. In April I’ll be back at this state park for another two weeks.

On my last walk of the day I went a little overboard with sunset pictures. I don’t expect to be taking many sunset pictures at any of my next few stops. For some reason I really like sunset pictures.

Saturday December 12th 2020

If today’s weather forecast was correct, the TV weather talkers failed to communicate it to me. I was surprised to wake up to a dark cloudy day. It rained briefly while I was having breakfast. Around noon it looked like the clouds were lifting, so I took my first walk of the day. It was warm. The forecast got the high temperature in the mid seventies correct. Not long after I returned from my walk the clouds darkened once more. For next couple of hours a very heavy mist kept everything wet. It wasn’t heavy enough to hear the precipitation hit the roof of my RV home, but it was heavy enough to make noise as it hit the ground from the gutters.

I spent most of the afternoon in my RV home hiding from the rain. A mix of football games and Christmas movies kept me entertained. I find it very hard to watch an entire Christmas movie in one sitting. They are repeated so many times that I eventually see all of the movie. It just might not be in order. Somehow watching the middle before the beginning and then the end doesn’t seem to change all the plot issues the movies contain.

An opening in the clouds appeared shortly before sunset. The area directly overhead and to the north and west was clear. To the south and east thick dark clouds persisted. It provide me with an opportunity for my second walk of the day. The campground remains full with weekend campers. I didn’t see any new Christmas decorations in the park.