Friday December 17th 2021

After three plus days of changeable weather, today was all sun. The temperature in the mid eighties was ten degrees or more above normal. A travel day without rain is a nice change.

I departed Lake Louisa State Park in Clermont at 12:30PM. One hundred and thirty miles and three hours later I arrived at Myakka River State Park in Sarasota. The route is primarily intestate highway, but he traffic was horrible. It seems like every time I travel the route it gets worse. Today there was no let up from heavy traffic and there were several slow downs to crawling speed. Most of the time the speed went from sixty plus to thirty or slower in rapid cycles. This is very hard in the motorhome. I need extra distance to slow and stop if necessary, so I have to leave plenty of room in front of me. Other drivers see that as an invitation to weave into the gap I allow to open. If they knew my stopping ability, they might think twice.

Usually there are a couple of areas that the traffic eases up, but not today. One between Davenport and Lakeland on Interstate 4 was filled with construction that constrains the traffic. The other location south of Tampa and north of Bradenton on Interstate 75 had an accident on the northbound side that slowed everybody on the southbound side to look things over. Overall there were three accidents with plenty of emergency vehicles on the other side of the highway and one flat tire changer on my side. There was more construction near the end of my interstate travels and on the road out of Sarasota to the state park.

Today’s drive was only a 130 miles, but it makes the top ten of bad drives on my Rambling Road Trip. I was happy to be off the road and setup on my site for the next two weeks at Myakka River State Park. After getting a little rest and a little food, I took a walk to the Myakka River to check for birds, alligators and the sunset. There were plenty.