Wednesday February 9th 2022

The latest cold front has cleared the area. Today was a bright sunny day with very low humidity. There were no clouds to hide the sun, but the overall temperature didn’t reach the seventy degree normal. The high temperature was in the low to mid sixties.

I was up early this morning to compete for my next two weeks of reservations in a Florida State Park for next winter. There were only seven or eight suitable sites available across two parks in my target area. I had internet problems that did not allow me to connect to the reservation web page. After trying a few things, I gave up with the hope that everyone was having similar problems. Later I discovered that I could connect to the reservation server from my cell phone. All of the sites I could use were booked.

Powering everything down and restarting the computer and the MiFi modem got the internet working correctly. I don’t think the problem was on my end, but rather the Verizon access point I was connected to. With a functional internet, I started my search for an alternative location for the second and third week of January 2023. The first couple of state parks I checked were full. I expanded my search north and found a site at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park south of Gainesville, FL. I have enjoyed my stay there in the past, but hadn’t planned on returning this year or next.

After four days without any significant periods of sun, the turtles in the Silver River were all out getting some sun. I observed several groupings of turtles on my morning walk to the river. The cool temperatures were still keeping the number of kayaks down, but the turtles don’t seem to mind the water craft. They are more skittish when someone approaches along the bank. In my experience, alligators are the exact opposite.

The water birds were also back along the river bank. During the last few cloudy and wet days they have been back elsewhere. They were probably back in the woods were it was a little warmer. I got several nice pictures of a Great Blue Heron.