Sunday April 16th 2023

The temperature continued to climb today. It peaked a few degrees into the nineties with a little more humidity than Saturday. The showers that were forecast to start near evening are now anticipated just before dawn tomorrow. Overcast with a high chance of rain is the current forecast for Monday. It should be a cooler day.

This was a very low energy day for me. I have managed to get my sleep pattern skewed into the night once again. I’m heading for bed late and consequently want to sleep in. I force myself to get up so I can break the pattern, but it leaves me dragging for much of the day.

It was afternoon before I took my first walk of the day. The alligators were hiding and the birds weren’t plentiful. My path today was along the river toward the entrance to the park. Today’s featured activity seemed to be fishing. There were several families along the bank fishing and picnicking. I am not sure what kind of fish are in the river and I didn’t see anyone catching anything either.

The campground has vacancies tonight. I suspect the number of travelers in the area is down now that spring break is ending. The reservation and occupancy pattern seems to be complicated. At the opening of the eleven month reservation window all of the sites get reserved for long periods like a week or two. During the time leading up to the start of the reservation many reservations get canceled or modified. People traveling to the area tend to pick up those sites for a night or two at a time. This fragments the occupancy, but as long as there are plenty of travelers the sites get filled. It doesn’t do me much good when I try to make a reservation, although I will continue to try and figure out the system.

On my second and last walk of the day I walked up to the bridge over the Myakka River on the main park road. People were gathered to watch the wild hog families, but I was more interested in getting my daily dose of alligator sightings. Most of the alligators near the bridge were in the water, but one smaller one was on the bank almost under the bridge. The other alligators out of the water were a long distance from the bridge. I didn’t think it got too hot for the alligators, but during the day there weren’t out on the banks. This evening it was a little cooler and the alligators were on the bank.