Tuesday September 19th 2023

Last night shortly after I published my blog entry the weather caught up with me. Since I arrived in the Bradenton area the thunderstorms were missing my location or only hitting with a glancing blow. Last night a full blown storm complete with heavy rain, wind, thunder and lightening hovered overhead for about half an hour. It has been cloudy with the potential of rain at any moment since then. The good news is the temperature stayed under ninety today.

The weather also skewed the start of my day a little later in the morning. It just didn’t seem like it was time to get up. When I finally did get moving it was at a slow pace. I didn’t leave my RV home for my first walk of the day until afternoon. The state park was also in a very lazy empty state. I didn’t see anyone else out walking around and at least two of the RVs that had been here for a few days departed this morning.

I had intended to drive out to the gulf coast today, but the threatening weather caused me to put off the plans to another day. You really can’t get to the gulf coast easily in this area. It is necessary to drive through downtown Bradenton or downtown Sarasota. If I’m going to put in that much effort driving, I don’t want the resulting visit to be in a downpour that obscures any view.

The overcast weather late in the day accentuates the fact that the days are getting shorter. Seems like only a few days ago that it was bright daylight after 8PM. Today it is dark at 7:30PM similar to what it’s like at 9:30PM in the July. Fall is my favorite season, but in Florida early darkness is one of the only indicators.