Monday January 11th 2021

Today was my first travel day of the new year. For a change it was good travel weather. It was a warm cloudy day with only a little wind.

Hooking up to depart Lake Manatee State Park isn’t easy. I have to move the car to the day use area so I have room to hook it up to the motorhome. Then after walking back to my site I can finish getting ready to depart. Before I can drive the motorhome to the car, I have to stop at the dump station to empty my holding tanks. Today it took over half an hour to wait for two vehicles ahead to dump and move on. It was three minutes after the 1PM checkout as I pulled out of the park.

I chose to avoid Interstate 75 and stay on US 301 for my travel day. The interstate is usually very heavily congested during the middle of the work day. I probably made the wrong choice. I had to deal with the backup caused by two accidents, two construction zones and several miles stuck behind a school bus. The number of traffic signals was also a pain to deal with. It took a little over an hour and a half to complete the sixty five mile drive.

I’m at Hillsborough River State Park for the next two weeks. This is my second visit. The park is located northeast of Tampa on US 301. It is an older park with narrow roads and weirdly shaped campsites. The site I’m on was very difficult to get backed into. It is on a narrow bend in the road and is angled poorly for getting backed in. A neighbor was nice enough to assist with directions. It saved having to get out of the drivers seat and check clearance around the motorhome multiple times. The site I had last time I was here was equally awkward. The location, near Tampa, is what drew me back. I had planned to attend the Tampa RV Super Show this week when I booked last February. With the pandemic, I won’t be keeping that plan even though the show is still on.

Sunday January 10th 2020

Today began even colder than Saturday. The inside temperature was 49 at 8AM. The outside was likely a few degrees cooler. Unlike yesterday it was a bright sunny day with a very light breeze. It still took a long time to warm up to the day’s high in the low sixties. The average for this location at this time of year is another ten degrees higher around 72 degrees. Maybe tomorrow.

I needed to stock up on food today. Tomorrow is a travel day, so my next opportunity would be Tuesday or Wednesday. When did Sunday become the primary shopping day of the week? It sure seems that there are more people in the store when I shop on Sunday than other days of the week. Today Walmart was crowded inside and out. I had to park a long way away from the door, but the exercise is good for me. Inside the aisles were congested making it hard to maintain distance. The good thing is masks were being worn. Most of the checkout registers were staffed, but each had a line of three or more customers. It might have taken as long to checkout as I spent going up and down the aisles.

I took may last walk through the state park and down to boat launch this evening. Tomorrow I’m moving about seventy miles north to the greater Tampa area. I’ll be at another state park for two weeks. I’ll be back to this state park in seven weeks. Checkout time at both locations is 1PM, so I’ll need to leave here close to checkout time. That gives me plenty of time in the morning to pack up. Tonight I’ll make sure the dishes are clean and a few of the big things are put away.

Saturday January 9th 2021

Today turned into an inside day. The outside temperature remained in the low fifties and a wind out of the north kept the comfort level even lower. It was also an almost totally cloud covered day. The sun made a few random appearances for five to ten minutes at a time, but it wasn’t enough to raise the outside comfort level or heat the inside of my RV home. To add to my discomfort the wind direction was hitting my RV home just right to seep inside via vents and gaps in the slide room gaskets.

I know the fifties isn’t really cold. If I was still in New England, I’d be welcoming the temperature as a winter heat wave. Even a couple hundred miles north of here, I’d be satisfied with highs in the fifties. The problem in this area is the roller coaster we’ve been on. My body and mind don’t seem to get acclimated. One day it is in the high seventies and a few days later it is back in the fifties. It is hard to plan and hard to dress for the day.

Lucky for me there were plenty of football games on TV to keep my attention inside. This is wildcard weekend for the NFL. The games today have kept my attention. Tonight is the big game for people in this area. Tampa is playing Washington. It is the first play off appearance for the Bucs since 2007. The team is packed with talent. It will be interesting to see how far they get in the playoffs.

Today was only a one walk day. Between watching the games and cooking my evening meal, darkness arrived before I got out for the second walk of the day. It’s getting dark later, but not enough for today’s activity.

Friday January 8th 2021

A cold front passed through the area last night with a little rain. It left behind a cloudy day with a few brief periods of sunshine along with lots of wind. Being parked under a tall Live Oak with lots of Spanish Moss is nice most of the time, but not on a windy day. Leaves, nuts, small branches and the Spanish Moss all seem to come crashing down on the roof of my RV home. Nothing is big enough of heavy enough to do any damage. The problem is the moss gets hung up on things on the roof like antennas and vents. Once the moss is stuck it seems to trap some of the other falling items. Then the wind comes along and noisily drags the moss with its trapped junk across the roof. A trip onto the roof to clean things up is in my future.

While I was out driving around in the Bradenton area today, two interesting changes from my first drive of this stay early last week were apparent. The first was the price of gas. On the first of the year the price went up about twelve cents. The rapid change probably means a tax increase, but I haven’t heard or read anything about it. The other change I knew about. A nearby county park that I visited on the 30th with plans to return is now a COVID-19 drive through vaccination site. Tom Bennett park is now filled with message boards, orange barrels, white tents and parking areas for people to wait while being monitored for side effects. They are doing a steady business.

Today’s walks around the state park required an extra layer of sweatshirt. There seemed to be even less activity than usual. Curiously, the type of people in the campground for the weekend has changed. It is no longer Florida families out for a weekend with friends. It seems to be back to travelers from northern states. There are a lot of New York, Michigan, Ohio and other northern license plates around the campground. It seems that some of the post holiday snowbirds are coming to Florida after all. I don’t think it is anywhere near normal though.

Thursday January 7th 2021

Today started cloudy and cool and ended cloudy with the approach of rain. In between there was an hour or so of partial sunshine. The high temperature was about seventy. Another cold front is passing through the area tonight with some rain. Tomorrow will be cooler and windy.

I didn’t do much today. The cool morning temperature kept my energy level low. I took my usual two walks around the park, but there wasn’t much to see. No one was fishing in the lake and most of the wildlife seemed to be in hiding. At home I did more pondering and research for this years travel. I still haven’t had a eureka moment that identified a fun destination that I can look forward to. The research will continue.

Without getting political, I don’t have anything of substance to write about in this blog entry.

Wednesday January 6th 2021

Today was another beautiful winter day on the Florida Suncoast. The temperature was about the same as Tuesday, but it was a little less humid. The high temperature peaked in the low seventies.

Variety of Boats

I spent a very peaceful afternoon at the Emerson Point Preserve on the north bank of the Manatee River where it empties into Tampa Bay. The nature preserve has trails and observation areas on both the Tampa bay side and the Manatee river side of the point. It was nice to see the various types of boats in the water and the bird life in the area.

Birds of the Preserve

After three hours at peace in the preserve I got back in my car and heard all about the chaos in Washington DC. I’m glad I didn’t get caught in front of the TV when all of the action started in the capital or I wouldn’t have gotten out at all. I much prefer the pleasures of nature to the news and opinions being reported.

Wild Flower Blossoms

Tuesday January 5th 2020

It was cold overnight. The inside temperature in my RV home was in the fifties around 7AM. I pulled the bed covers a little tighter, went back to sleep and let the sun warm my RV home. When I finally rolled out of bed after 9AM, I turned on the electric fireplace to finish warming the interior of my RV home. By noon the outside temperature was in the sixties on its way to an upper sixties high temperature for the day.

My day was dedicated to chores around the RV. I picked up some of the weeks accumulated clutter, washed the dishes and did some general cleaning. The small size of my living quarters makes it easier to pickup and cleanup, but it doesn’t go away. On both sides of my domestic focus I took a walk around the state park. The late morning walk didn’t show much sign of life in the park. People were either out for the day or inside keeping warm. I think the animal life was also hiding. By my second walk of the day around sunset there were a lot more people out walking. The wildlife was still missing, but many domestic animals in the form of dogs were out for a walk with their people.

Even though the length of the daylight portion of the day is starting to get longer, the nights continue to seem long. Once I’m inside with the curtains lowered, I’m usually oblivious to what’s going on outside. Often I get up in the morning to find I have new neighbors. Tonight was an exception. A converted school bus is now on the site next to mine. It has the loudest backup alarm I’ve heard and it took fifteen minutes or more to get settled. The noise interrupted writing this blog entry, so I could check out the commotion outside.

Monday January 4th 2021

I think reality has caught up to my expectations. I’ve felt as though the holidays were over since I moved to this campground last Monday. Now they really are over. The entire atmosphere has become more tranquil. The noisy camping groups with lots of barking dogs and active kids have departed. The new occupants of those sites are couples and singles that are away during the day or at least are much quieter. The number of people using the day use area and boat ramp has also decreased significantly.

The weather has also come full circle. The daily high was below the seasonal average today. The bright sunny day only got the mercury up to the mid sixties. A strong breeze out of the north also blew much of the day. Tonight is forecast to be in the low fifties at best. I have my electric fireplace on to ward off the chill inside my RV home.

The cool weather and the tranquility of the campground resulted in a very lazy day. I lingered over an unusual second cup of coffee this morning while reading news and various blogs on the internet. The TV in the background was in the middle of the noon news program when I came up for air. A walk to the lake in the brisk air resulted in a little activity for the day, but didn’t encourage any additional activity.

This afternoon was another summer travel research session. I need to answer all kinds of simple questions. “What are the major things I want to see?” “Where can I stay near the attraction?” “what else is in the area I’ll be staying in?” “How long should I stay?” It can be a real balancing act. I want to stay in one place as long as I can, but I don’t want to run out of things to do and see on the second day of a two week stay. The real problem is many of the places I like to visit to fill time and relax don’t make the usual web sites. To find lake front county parks with hiking trails or regional bike paths you really need to dig deep. Sometimes it’s a matter of investigating what a green area on the map is all about, or reading someone’s blog with a nice trip report. I can really get lost following the rabbit down its hole. So far I’m still accumulating facts and getting ideas.

Sunday January 3rd 2021

Today may have been Sunday, but the sun was missing all day. I woke up this morning to a racket on the roof of my RV home. A pair of squirrels were having a battle on the roof. I think the contest started in the tree that overhangs my RV home, which they fell or jumped out of onto my roof. The battle continued for a minute or two then they must have jumped off. A little while later I saw a chase back up the nearby tree trunk. Not long after that with a loud bang on the roof the battle resumed. There was no way I was going to sleep in.

The day started foggy. Around 9:30 the leading edge of the cold front passed through with about half an hour of rain. The storm wasn’t severe, just wet. It remained a very cloudy day. They were just high enough that you couldn’t call it fog. The temperature remained in the high sixties. Tomorrow is forecast to be cooler.

For exercise this afternoon I went for a walk in another of Manatee County’s nature preserve areas. The Neal Preserve is a boardwalk, trail and observation tower near the bridge to Anna Maria Island. I was hoping to find some wildlife, but I didn’t see any in the preserve. Along the side of the waterway that parallels the Manatee Road there were a few pelicans, but they were all huddled up against the weather.

The remainder of my Sunday afternoon was dedicated to watching NFL football games. Today was the last day of the regular season with many playoff implications associated with the wins and loses. It is amazing that the NFL completed a full season of games given the pandemic. They had to move games around a bit, but all the games were played. On with the playoffs.

Saturday January 2nd 2021

Today started with a foggy morning. As the day went by the fog lifted to a cloudy day and then a little bit of sunshine broke through in this area, but to the west near the gulf the low clouds remained all day. The temperature reached the high seventies as the area braces for the approaching cold front.

The cloudy weather altered my plans for the day. I had intended to drive out to the coast and wander around in the nature preserves and beaches. That outing will have to happen another day. My focus for the day turned to planning for my 2021 travels.

In the overall pattern for my Rambling Road trip this is an east coast year. What exactly that means in our pandemic dominated world is questionable. How quickly people get vaccinated and conditions improve will make a lot of difference. Right now, the further north one travels the greater the number of restrictions.

My current thoughts keep my travel slow and restricted to the southeast this year. I’m thinking about staying in Florida until after Memorial Day. It will be getting hot in Florida by then. The higher altitude of the mountains in northern Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Kentucky would get the bulk of my visits during June through September. I’ll make a few visits to lower altitude, but the few degrees cooler temperature in the mountains will be welcome. After dodging tropical storms this year, I don’t plan to return to Florida until late in October.

Within the framework established by the general area of the mountains of the southeast, I need to make specific plans. Do I travel in a clockwise loop north along the west side of the Appalachian mountains then back down the east side or the reverse clockwise loop. A zigzag route crossing the mountain chain multiple times might be more efficient, but wear and tear on the motorhome and my nerves isn’t worth it. Once I decide were I want to be for the Forth of July and Labor Day holidays the direction of travel becomes clearer.

I want to spend time in Great Smoky Mountain National Park and along the Blue Ridge Parkway. If I get into Virginia, Shenandoah National Park is another good place to visit. Similar to 2020, I plan to avoid cities and indoor attractions. That takes many possibilities off the list. This brings the secondary level of locations and outdoor attractions into the planning process. The problem is I need to do research to identify what those attractions might be.

For popular areas I’m already behind schedule booking reservations. I may need to book shorter stays at multiple places. Last year at this time I’d already made several reservations. They all got canceled, but at least I had them. I’ve got reservations from now until the middle of April. Booking the rest of April and May in Florida should be easy. I’ll do that as I continue to research the rest of the year.