Friday December 31st 2021

Happy New Year Everyone

Today was a short travel day, but still had all the work to get ready for travel and setting up at my new location. The day started foggy before transitioning to a sunny humid day. The temperature peaked in the mid eighties.

I had plenty of time to get ready for travel. My goal was to depart between 12:30 and 1PM so my site would be available when I arrived. I’d do a little prep work then break for food or TV watching trying to gauge the time as it went along. About noon I put the focus on getting ready to leave. I still left plenty of time in case something went wrong. Once everything was hooked up and in travel mode, I still had time to sit and reflect. I pulled out of Myakka River State Park at 12:30PM.

The trip north to Lake Manatee State Park in Bradenton took forty five minutes. Traffic was heavy all the way. The trip up Interstate 75 kept moving, but the traffic was very heavy. The construction crews seem to have the day off. Driving east from I-75 to the state park I managed to catch every traffic light. Since my last stay in March, road construction has added two new intersections and one traffic light. The development continues to get closer to the state park.

This state park isn’t as big as Myakka River State Park. It also doesn’t have anywhere near as many opportunities to view wildlife. Probably because of that it is usually easier to get a reservation. I’ve been here almost twice as many times as I’ve been to Myakka River State Park.

This is an OK park for access to the attractions in the area. The site I got for this visit has a couple of annoyances, not real issues. My site is near the edge of a group of campers that are here to celebrate the New Year. There gathering place is located further around the camping loop so the noise is muffled some. They will probably be gone by Monday. The other thing is the orientation of my site. The only significant tree at my site is right in the path of my satellite dish antenna. I won’t have any satellite TV for the next two weeks. I’ll have to be happy with some of the sixty plus over the air stations.