Thursday April 20th 2023

It was an OK day to pack up and travel. The humidity was still reasonable even though it had climbed a little from yesterday. As long as you stayed out of the direct sunshine it was a fine day. The temperature peaked in the mid eighties.

I was packed and ready to travel shortly after the noon hour. The traffic even cooperated for the most part. I didn’t get into any stop and go highway travel until I was in the resort corridor southwest of Orlando. It took about twenty minutes to go the last ten miles on Interstate 4. Then I managed to catch all four of the traffic lights on US 192 before I reached my destination.

For the next two weeks I’ll be at Tropical Palms RV Resort in Kissimmee Florida. The resort is located behind the Old Town Entertainment District and the Fun Spot America amusement park. I have stayed here several times before. The last time was last spring about about a week later in April. While I’m here I plan to do some theme park visits and get a few tasks accomplished in the greater Orlando area.

My site is one of the “value” pull through sites. In many ways they are better than the standard back in sites I’ve stayed on during my last two visits. What makes them “value” is the absence of a sewer connection. My holding tanks are big enough that I can go two weeks without dumping. I have been doing that at the state parks all winter long. It turned out to be the right decision in two ways. The value pull through sites are a few dollars cheaper than the standard back in sites and the available standard back in sites I saw on my evening walk were less than desirable. The only down side about this site is my own fault. I parked in just the right spot that a palm tree is blocking all of the signals from getting to my satellite dish. If it becomes a real problem I can always back up the motorhome a foot. That is easier said than done.

Wednesday April 19th 2023

It was another cool start to a low humidity day. The temperature climbed slowly in to the low eighties, before returning to comfortable sleeping weather. Humidity is forecast to return tomorrow.

This is my last full day at Myakka River State Park. It has been an enjoyable stay with lots of opportunities to see wildlife. I’m looking forward to my next stay, but at the moment I don’t know when that is. On Saturday morning I’ll try for a reservation next March. I already struck out on my attempt to book a reservation in December and January.

I walked up the park road to the bridge over the Myakka River after breakfast this morning. The water birds were out today. I saw several Blue Herons, a trio of Egrets and a solo Rosetta Spoonbill. In addition to stopping at the bridge for bird and alligator viewing, I walked out and back on the trail along the far side of the river. A few more alligators, turtles and birds were in the river along the trail.

Between my walks I got a lot of the preparation for travel tasks complete. During my stay here I got an unusual amount of tools and other stuff out of my basement storage. It took about fifteen minutes to find and dig out the tools and more than twice that to put them away again. Most of the things I wanted are well packed away inside plastic storage boxes inside bigger plastic storage bins. When I got the tools I contorted my body into the basement storage area and dug through the bins. To put the stuff back I had to take the plastic storage bins out of the basement storage compartments and carefully repack the contents before stowing the bins back in the basement storage area. It will probably be another year plus before I dig into those bins again.

I have about 130 miles to travel tomorrow. I’m returning to Kissimmee in central Florida. The journey will be on Interstates 75 and 4 through the same areas I drove through on my last two relocations. This is the section of roads that I consider the worst traffic areas in the state. I’m not looking forward to the it.

Tuesday April 18th 2023

The temperature got down to the add a second blanket level last night. It was sixty degrees inside my RV home this morning. By mid afternoon the temperature peaked in the low eighties. The redeeming factor was the unusual low humidity. Overall it was another comfortable day.

There is an annoying combination of construction and traffic in this area. Heavy traffic is common in populated areas of Florida while the snowbirds are around. I understand that and generally tolerate it with a few grumbles (often in this blog) thrown in for good measure. Around this area the added complication of construction makes it seem worse. The major area of construction is along Interstate 75, but there are pockets of work in other parts of the greater Sarasota area. It tends to add an unpredictable amount of time and frustration to every trip.

This morning I avoided the I-75 construction and returned to the nearby Walmart for shopping. This isn’t the best stocked store in the chain, but I can get to it with only a few local construction sites on my route. Getting to the bigger Walmart stores requires a trip on Interstate 75 or a lot of traffic lights with stop and go traffic on local streets. Once again I got all of the significant groceries I needed, but still had a few items on my list for another time.

After a couple of nights with vacancies, the campground seems to be full again tonight. Since it is the middle of the week, most of the new arrivals are travelers. They seem to stop long enough to setup their RVs before heading out. This evening as darkness settled in they returned to the park increasing the activity level all around.

Monday April 17th 2023

About the time I finished posting my blog last night the sky opened up. A line of thunderstorms passed through the area. In this immediate area it was more of a light and sound show than a rain event. It was quiet again when I went to bed, but in the early morning hours the rain began aggressively. It was over by eight and the sun was out by nine this morning. The morning TV weather forecast reported that some locations in the area received over two inches of rain. It is needed. The weather after the rain was great. The temperature peaked in the high seventies and the humidity was down.

During my daily walks the evidence of last nights rain was everywhere. There were many puddles to avoid and a few trenches created by the runoff. Even so the river level still seems to be down from the already low level it was at when I arrived here. It will take some time for last nights rain to reach the river, so maybe the water level will be up a little tomorrow.

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.

Satuday April 15th 2023

The above normal temperature that has been the norm since the beginning of February is back. The temperature peaked just above ninety this afternoon. The humidity was also high leading to uncomfortable conditions. The current forecast calls for storms tomorrow night that should cool things off for a few days.

The state park is in weekend mode. Many of the campsites are occupied by more family holiday style of campers. This includes the unusual occurrence of a car roof top tent camper on a over sized site fit for a class A motorhome. Other campsites have simple RVs, but more than one car to supply it with people. In general the park is more active than during the week. The crowds at the usual wildlife viewing areas are also bigger. Finding places to park at the bridge over the Myakka River seemed to be a real challenge. It wasn’t the safest place of a pedestrian like me either.

I didn’t see a lot of alligators or birds today. The gators seemed to be keeping their temperature controlled in the water. I saw one little blue heron on my first walk of the day, but even the limpkins were missing today. On my sunset walk the gators were scarce and the birds totally missing. In their place were two families of wild hogs. One set was very close to the bridge complete with about eight piglets. The hogs are interesting and the piglets are cute, but I could do without seeing them if they are the reason other critters aren’t around. Basically, I’ve had my fill of wild hogs.

Friday April 14th 2023

The humidity continued to increase today. While the temperature peaked in the mid eighties, the comfort level was far worse. It didn’t take much activity to become drenched in sweat. On a positive note, it didn’t rain.

This wasn’t a great day for blog content. All of the alligators were nose down in the water on my first walk of the day and I didn’t take my second walk of the day. Eating got in the way of walking. Instead I got a nice picture of the colorful sunset from the door of my RV home.

Thursday April 13th 2023

The clouds were gone and the winds diminished, but the humidity was up. The result was a nice day with a high temperature in the mid eighties. The temperature and humidity trend over the next few days is upward.

Today was a pretty standard day for my stay here at Myakka River State Park. The daily pattern is breakfast with some internet reading, followed by the first nature walk of the day. During the afternoon I do chores and run errands. One of those chores is usually preparing and eating some food a time or two. As evening approaches I take my second nature walk of the day.

My first walk of the day was to the bridge over the Myakka River on the main park road. Today I went a little deeper into the park to the walk along the river at the next turnout along the road. The alligators were out of the water a little more today. In one area there were eight or nine gators with their full bodies exposed to the air. This is a big improvement from just their heads. It was also a day for turtles. In addition to the cooter turtles I usually see, a couple of Florida soft shell turtles made an appearance. One only stuck its head out of the water long enough to look around and take a deep breath. The other one was out of the water twenty or thirty feet trying to go cross country somewhere.

I tried to walk back to the bridge on my second walk of the day, but an alligator crossing the road had other ideas. A big alligator walked across the park road just before I walked around the corner. Cars were stopped all over the road to observe the gator. It crossed the road, but decided the forest on the other side didn’t look appealing. The gator stopped with the last of its tail still in the road with its head a little way down the bank into the woods. The way all the cars stopped I couldn’t get by without getting closer to the alligator than I felt comfortable. After taking a couple of pictures I changed directions and walked along the river in the front of the park this evening. The entertainment along this section of river was a heron trying to consume a snake or eel.

Wednesday April 12th 2023

It was very windy and a little wet today. The day was overcast with occasional light showers. The rain was very random, but the wind was almost constant. The east to southeast wind was constant in the teens with a gusts into the upper twenties and maybe beyond. The temperature peaked in the mid seventies.

I tried to time my walks by the weather radar. When it looked like it was going to be dry for a while I set out toward the river. The radar was correct for one walk and not for the other. I got rained on before I got back from my first walk of the day. It was a little chilly on my evening walk, but I remained dry.

There were more alligators on the banks of the river during the middle of the day today. This evening I only saw a couple of noses and eyes above the surface. The majority of the alligators were on the bottom. Even the wild pigs weren’t getting their attention. If the pig family on the river bank this evening was the same one I saw this weekend, an alligator or two got lucky. This group only had five piglets and the other one had nine. I know there are at least three adult hogs, so it is possible there are several families in the woods near the river.

The few birds that I saw on my early walk were all sheltering from the wind. The Great Blue Heron had its neck curled up in flying formation until I disturbed it. I moved on before it flew away. Watching from a greater distance I saw it go back into its relaxed state.

Tuesday April 11th 2023

The wind out of the east was stronger today and the humidity was much lower, but sky conditions and temperature remained about the same as Monday. The temperature peaked right around the eighty degree average for early April. If the forecast is to be believed, conditions deteriorate during the rest of the week. A fifty to eighty percent chance of rain is in the forecast for tomorrow.

This morning’s walk was along the bank on the other side of the Myakka River. I followed the marked and maintained trail south and east from the bridge over the river on the park road. Park staff has cleared many of the downed trees and other debris from the hurricane along this trail. There are still trees that you have to maneuver around. They appear to be difficult and dangerous to take down the rest of the way. The low water level also offers another option around the difficult areas in the grassy low water area. You just need to make sure the alligators haven’t claimed that section of the bank.

Along this section of the river I discovered a couple of turtles using down trees for sunbathing. A young alligator also found a downed palm tree to be a nice resting spot. A little way beyond the young alligator I found some even younger. There was a ball of very new alligators in what might have been used as a nest. They weren’t new born, but certainly not more than a few weeks old. I didn’t see any obvious mother alligator watching the young ones, but there were other gators nearby.

I also saw a couple of additional species of birds this morning. There was a lone Rosetta Spoonbill and a pair of Sandhill Cranes getting there nutrition in and around the river. On other visits, particularly earlier in the winter, I’ve seen many Rosetta Spoonbills here. The Cranes are fairly common in Florida. This is the first time I’ve seen them here.