Sunday March 21st 2021

The sun was in short supply today. The day began with very heavy cloud cover; almost a thick fog. It took most of the morning for the sky to start to lighten. The sun made an appearance shortly after noon, but it didn’t last long. Clouds moved in from the gulf as the afternoon went on. The temperature only made it into the low seventies.

I made another attempt to find the Wild Turkey Strand Preserve this afternoon. Today I was successful, but it took a little luck. There are no signs on the main road. I knew it was on Rod and Gun Club Road just a short distance off highway 82. By luck, I spotted the road sign for Rod and Gun Club Road. I came on it a lot quicker than I thought I would. The construction on this section of highway 82 was already complete.

The Wild Turkey Strand Preserve is a Lee County park on land that once was part of the Buckingham Army Air Field. The former World War II air field and gunnery training facility was decommission by 1947. There are a couple of old reinforced cement buildings on the property that were probably used for ammunition storage. Information placards in the park discuss the history of the site.

The developed portion of the preserve contains a 1.8 mile loop trail that is a combination of paved pathways, boardwalks and dirt trails. Many sections of the dirt trails are under water during the wet season. Today I didn’t get my feet wet. The worst area was just a little muddy off to the side of the trail. I think the trail would have more wildlife to observe when more water is present. The only significant flying objects I saw today were the jets on final approach to Southwest Florida International Airport. There was a steady flow of low flying aircraft. I didn’t see any Turkeys or the usual Ibis, Egrets or Herons. There were also lots of warnings out on the main highways about the area being panther habitat. Luckily, I didn’t see any of those either.

The one creature I did see that I could have gone without crossing paths was a snake. It was enjoying the diminishing sun in the middle of the trail. I’m not familiar with all the different types of snakes in Florida. While I thought it was probably a non venomous species, I gave it plenty of room. I waited for a few minutes and then resorted to tossing pebbles at it to get it to move off the trail. None of my tosses landed very close, but it eventually got the idea and moved along.

I enjoyed my visit to Wild Turkey Strand Preserve, but probably won’t be back. The hike around the 1.8 mile loop was the enjoyable part. The lack of any good bird and animal viewing sites is the disappointing part about the Preserve.

My return route to the campground was a wide arc to the west. I went into Fort Myers and north along the Tamiami trail to North Fort Myers before turning inland back to my RV home. On my journey I passed the spring training home of the Boston Red Sox and the Minnesota Twins. The Red Sox were in the middle of a home game loss to the Pirates. The Twins were not playing at home. The JetBlue Park at Fenway South home to the Red Sox parking lot only had a small number of cars, but lots of attendants and security. Attendance is restricted to 24% or about 2400 people.

Saturday March 20th 2021

Today was a cool day for this area. The day started in the low fifties and was slow to warm into the low seventies. For the beginning of spring in this area the over night lows are usually in the mid to upper sixties and the daily highs are in the low eighties. Tomorrow will be a little warmer followed by a fairly steep climb in temperature over the remainder of the week. Ninety degree days are possible at the end of the week.

Getting motivated this morning under the cloudy sky was difficult. It was after noon when I got out for my first walk of the day around the campground. On the walk I met an aquatic visitor to the campground. Usually during my winter stay in Florida I go to various places to see the manatees. This year many of those places are closed so I haven’t seen any manatees this winter. Today a manatee came to visit me. The banks of the river around the campground and dam are lined with water plants. Apparently they are a delicacy to the manatee. This animal would push into the grass then raise its head out of the water to nibble on the plants. The big aquatic animal would graze for a couple of minutes before disappearing under the water only to appear again a few feet away. This went on for an hour or more.

Other than a second walk later in the day, I pretty much spent the day watching television, reading and napping. It was an overall lazy first day of Spring.

Friday March 19th 2021

The cold front passed through the area with only a little rain and no thunder and lightening. It brought a much less humid day with a little cooler high temperature. The high for the day was in the upper seventies. Tomorrow will be cooler in the low seventies.

My goal for the day was a visit to the Wild Turkey Strand Preserve. The county web page leads me to believe the park is in the sweet spot of natural areas that I like to visit. The web page also warned about road construction in the area. They weren’t kidding. The construction and barrel ally detours prevented me from finding the park. I didn’t find the appropriate intersection or see any signs for the preserve. Before I knew it I’d driven out of the county.

I drove southeast from Fort Meyers to Immokalee in Collier County before turning west back to Interstate 75. Overall I drove a big loop of about 100 miles over the course of three plus hours. I saw lots of road construction and new housing developments. This area looks like it is the next area of Florida to have a building explosion. Narrow roads are getting expanded into big three and four lane roads in each direction. Traffic engineers are creating some very interesting intersections for traffic control. At one point today, it took three sequenced traffic lights to get through one intersection. I had opposing traffic on the left and on the right. The extra traffic signals were needed to allow traffic to cross the oncoming flow. It was even more complex than the increasingly common practice of switching the lanes at Interstate intersection to avoid turns across the oncoming traffic.

The the price of gas took another jump in the last couple of days. I paid $2.89 a gallon today. A couple of week ago gas prices jumped 16 cents. The bad weather in Texas got the blame. Over the course of the next week or so the price went back down a couple of cents. Today the price was up about 5 cents from Wednesday. Once again I bought gas a day or two too late. It is hard to believe I bought gas for $1.99 in December.

Thursday March 18th 2021

Another of this winters steady stream of cold fronts is coming through tonight. Foreshadowing the approaching front today was very windy, but otherwise a warm and humid day. The temperature peaked in the upper eighties. Tomorrow it is forecast to be in the low to mid seventies after the front goes through.

Somehow today turned into a chores around my RV home kind of day. It is all because I had to clean up a spill after breakfast. That little mishap triggered a session with the vacuum cleaner and the sweeper. Once I was finished with the floors I moved on to a few higher surfaces. For such a small space my RV home attracts a lot of dust and dirt.

Between my chores and other mundane tasks like preparing food and eating, I took a few walks around the campground checking the activity in the lock and observing the wildlife around the river. The campground had more turn over today. I assume the open sites will be occupied by weekend visitors. There was still one empty site during my last walk just before night fall. The park attendants were already preparing to lock the gate. Once locked you need to open a combination lock on a chain to enter or exit the park.

Monday March 15th 2021

It was tough to drag myself out of bed this morning. Between the time change and an early start yesterday I really wanted to sleep in, but today was a travel day. I had a few hiccups getting ready to travel. It was 12:45 when I pulled out of the park.

The almost dead battery bank that I first admitted was an issue last month became even more of an issue this morning. Once I disconnect from the power pedestal at the campsite, I had absolutely no twelve volt power in the coach. The engine battery was still fine, but there are a few things you don’t suspect run off the coach batteries. For example, the radio didn’t work and I couldn’t lower the power window. Everything worked out OK, but I can’t procrastinate replacing the battery bank any longer.

A little road closure was the next complication to today’s travel. I had ninety miles to travel south to the Fort Meyers area. Most of the route was on Interstate 75. Shortly after I got on the interstate, the message boards started talking about congestion and a road closure. I learned later, a cement truck ran into other trucks and turned over on the highway north of Port Charlotte. All traffic was getting detoured to US 41, the Tamiami trail, in Venice. The backup was almost back to Sarasota ten miles or so north of Venice.

I read the signs soon enough and I know the area well enough that I had options. The Tamiami trail is heavy retail and residential with traffic lights every time you blink. My destination was east of Fort Meyers nearer the middle of the state. I chose to turn inland from Sarasota to the city of Arcadia FL before turning south. It added about ten miles to my journey. The down side is that many other people choose a variation on this option. Traffic on the narrow road was heavy. I had one exciting moment passing a slow unpredictable car in my slow to accelerate motorhome. On coming traffic was getting close by the time I got by the car. I think he may have actually accelerated as I was passing.

I arrived at WP Frankin Corp of Engineers campground around 3:30PM. The last time I was here was in the fall of 2016. The park is located on the north bank of the Caloosahatchee River at one of the dams and locks that makes the river navigable across the state. I’m here for thirteen nights.

Saturday March 13th 2021

The beautiful weather continued today. The high eighties temperature is almost ten degrees above the seasonal average. It really contributed to my lazy day.

I didn’t do anything blog worthy today. The day was a combination of eating, walking around the park, and sleeping in various combinations. First, I woke from sleeping to eat breakfast. After breakfast I took my first walk around the park. There were more departures today than I expected. Next up, it was time to eat again followed by a nap. This was my big meal of the day. I grilled a couple of boneless pork chops and microwaved some rice pilaf. My late in the day walk to the day use area and boat launch followed. None of the wildlife subjects for pictures were anywhere to be found, but there were plenty of people taking advantage of the nice weather to roam around the park. A little TV watching and a sandwich were next on the day’s agenda. Once I finish this blog entry I’ll be back to the TV.

Friday March 12th 2021

Today’s weather was just a little better than Thursday. The temperature peaked in the mid eighties with less wind. I decided it was a beach day.

After a leisurely breakfast, I set out to visit the Gulf of Mexico. Anna Maria Island is located about 25 miles to the west of my RV home. Traffic was heavy heading into the city of Bradenton, but it kept moving. On the other side of the city center traffic got slower with each passing mile. When the road narrowed to a single lane, the traffic became stop and go.

After crossing the first causeway I stopped to search for a trail. I knew from a little map research that a trail into the Robinson Preserve Park started along the highway. I found a trail that looked promising at the start. A few hundred feet into the brush it became less likely, but I continued to follow it. The trail turned out to dead end the edge of the water. It appeared to be someones favorite fishing hole. Along the way back I spotted several side trails that ended at empty homeless camps.

Continuing on my slow journey toward Anna Maria Island, I passed an area that was far more likely to be the trial I was looking for. Parking wasn’t readily available and traffic continued to be my biggest concern. Exploring this trail will have to wait for another trip. The traffic speed was down to around am average 5mph, but mostly stop and go. It didn’t improve once I got onto the island. The north bound traffic was totally stopped so I turned south toward Bradenton Beach. Around the bend about 100 yards the south bound direction was stopped as well. I stuck it out until I got to the next road back inland. Close to an hour later and 2 miles I turned inland without stopping at any of the beaches. How close to normal these conditions are is a mystery to me. The media continues to say that the usual spring break crowds are not here, although the number of travelers is as high as it has been all winter.

Back at the campground this evening the park continues to fill up with weekenders. The drag strip down the street is at full volume. The weather for the weekend and the first half of next week is forecast to be warm with gradually increasing humidity.