Saturday April 2nd 2022

I woke this morning to a campground shrouded in a thick fog. Yesterday’s humidity was still very present. It was after nine before the fog gave way to a bright sunny day.

Today was a travel day. I prefer not to travel on Saturday’s, but that was how the reservation search worked out last May when the booking window opened. My attempts to get a reservation from the twenty ninth on finally resulted in success on the 2nd. As a consequence my next two moves are also on a Saturday.

I was ready to travel long before I needed to depart. It is always a timing challenge to make sure you don’t arrive before the previous occupants of the site have departed. I departed the Midway Campground in Big Cypress National Preserve shortly after 11AM and arrived around 2PM at Myakka River State Park.

Traffic was heavy on Interstate 75. The stretch from Naples to Fort Meyers was filled with lots of entering and exiting traffic and a few impatient drivers weaving in and out of traffic in an attempt to get to their destination a few seconds before the rest of the traffic. Even the stretch of road from Fort Meyers to Sarasota had plenty of traffic, but with fewer exits the volume was a little better behaved.

I made one stop in Fort Meyers for gas. Two hundred plus dollars later, I had added a little more than fifty gallons to fill the tank. The price per gallon was reasonable compared to what I paid in the Miami suburbs on Monday, but compared to last year gas prices are crazy.

As I traveled north the bright sun gave way to hazy sunshine and eventually full cloud cover. The latest cold front to pass over Florida has been fixed over the middle of the state. The Tampa area across through Orlando and on to the east coast has had severe weather all day. As I’m writing this blog entry the rain has started here. It isn’t forecast to be severe, but is forecast to last off and on all night.

I’m at Myakka River State Park east of Sarasota for the next two weeks. I’m on the same campsite I had in December. A quick wander around the park indicates that the water level is a lot lower than December. This is the near the end of the dry period in Florida. The park also seems to be less busy. I didn’t find a line at the entrance station and I think there are a few empty sites in the campground. I’ll explore more over the next couple of weeks.