Wednesday September 20th 2023

The day began very similar to yesterday. It was cloudy with a very rain threatening overall atmosphere. The main difference is that today the treat was carried out. A couple of showers passed by shortly after midday, but did not drop any rain on my location. Around 4PM the rain along with wind, thunder and lightening found me. It has rained off and on since then.

After breakfast I made my way through the center of Bradenton to the west side and on to the Robinson Preserve Park. The 600 acre coastal salt marsh preserve is located at the southern side of the entrance to Tampa Bay. It contains hiking trails, kayaking opportunities, an observation tower and usually lots of birds. Perhaps because I usually visit during the winter and spring, I am used to seeing more bird life and people in the park.

Today I hiked to the observation tower for a high level overview of the preserve before continuing on to the coastal area. I usually make a full circle around the marsh, but the rain threat caused me to cut the hike short and return the way I came. Most of he bird life I were Ibis searching along the banks of the marsh for their next meal. It really was a disappointing hike from a picture taking perspective.

I stopped at Tom Bennett county park on my way home anticipating another picture of a Rosetta Spoonbill or Sandhill Crane. Unfortunately, they weren’t in residence today. I got pictures of the usual Egrets and Herons instead.

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.

Monday September 18th 2023

I woke to light rain on roof during the early morning hours. After closing a couple of windows I went back to sleep. When I woke up this morning the sun was out, but the TV weather talkers were calling for showers moving through before noon. For once, they were on target. A heavy rain shower moved through the area about 11:30AM. The afternoon was sunny and warm allowing the temperature to return to around ninety.

Walking around the state park today I saw a lot of progress on the various projects that are underway. It looks like the work at the boat launch has been completed. There is a new connection from land to the south side floating dock. The concrete work at the small pavilion in the day use area seems to be finished as well. The park staff removed the forms and cleaned up the loose cement. I think they may be back to do some grading around the new surface, but the cement work is done. The power pedestal work continues. The electrician was working on the last site this afternoon. I think the next step is to cement in the new pedestals.

I needed to get a few groceries this afternoon. The Walmart is very near Tom Bennett Park that I visited last week. I made another visit to get walking in at another location and to see what bird life is visiting the park today. Today it was a pair of Roseate Spoonbills that caught my attention. These are very pretty birds.

On my walk around the Disc Golf course at Tom Bennett park I came around a corner to find a pair of sandhill cranes blocking the path. They were on each side of the paved path about ten feet apart and about ten feet from me. These are big birds that could do a bit of damage if they decided they didn’t like me, but they didn’t seem to have any issues with me. Still, I wasn’t going to walk between them. I waited until they were both on the same side of the path before I walked by about four feet away from them.

The stop at Walmart for groceries was anticlimactic. The store wasn’t very busy on a Monday afternoon. The shelves seemed to be well stocked and grocery shopping was easy. They even had enough staffed checkout lines that I didn’t have to wait more than a couple of minutes. It was a very successful grocery shopping experience.

Sunday September 17th 2023

There were a few more clouds in the sky today keeping the temperature a few degrees cooler than yesterday. A gentle breeze and a little lower humidity kept the day in the comfortable range. The temperature peaked around ninety and even though the sky threatened at times it remained dry all day.

Today turned into a football watching day. I wasn’t glued to the screen, but a game was on the screen from 1PM onward. None of the games were riveting, but they kept my attention for a few plays then I would do something else only to come back to the game during a later series of downs. The Sunday night game between the Dolphins and the Patriots is on the TV now. While it is the game I have the most interest in, it looks like it will be the most lopsided score wise. The Patriots are just a shadow of their former selves in the Tom Brady years.

The weekenders started to leave the park early this morning and continued to leave right up to the 1PM checkout. My guess is the park was about half full and about half of those departed today. I’m in a cluster of about five occupied sites. The sites that are closed for electrical work and a few empties make up the rest of this camping loop. It really has an empty campground atmosphere.

The day use part of the park got a lot of use today. There was a group using the big pavilion for a cook out and several of the other tables were getting used by families. By evening the area was empty and the birds returned to the beach area. During my last walk of the day I sat at a picnic table near the beach and took pictures of a couple of herons that were looking for their evening meal along the shore of the lake.

Saturday September 16th 2023

For most of the day the weather was consistent with the past few days. As the afternoon progressed the threatened thunderstorms started to materialize. At first the storms remained at a distance, but as darkness approached a few rain drops started to fall on the roof. Although there was plenty of thunder and more wind than earlier in the day, it only rained enough to dampen the ground. It was over in less than five minutes.

My big adventure for the day was a trip to Tom Bennett County Park. This is an urban style park with a playground, sports fields, disk golf and other organized sports. It also has trails around ponds and marsh land with plenty of bird life to entertain. All of the bird pictures in this blog entry are from today’s visit to Tom Bennett Park.

In addition to my trip to the county park, I got in two walk around the state park. While near the beach area today, I started to ponder the meaning of signs. The remainder of this paragraph and the next one are a rhetorical soapbox rant. There are three signs that say Swimming Area, No Fishing, Pets Prohibited. Do people miss these rather large and numerous signs, or do they just chose to ignore them?

Earlier in the week I saw people walking their dogs along the beach area. Granted there was no one using the beach, but why do they think someone made the rule? Today there was a man and boy fishing along the beach. All of there equipment was on the bench right beside the sign. I would think that fish hooks left on the beach or in the water in front of the beach from broken lines would be rather dangerous. Not to mention fishing seems to attract alligators which are bad for the pets violating the rule and any future swimmers. Once again I wonder how these folks justify ignoring the signs. I am not in a particularly confrontational mood, so I don’t consider it my job to enforce the rules. It is even possible they have permission to break the rule or some kind of special knowledge. Still the signs were put up for a reason and I shouldn’t have to know why they were put up to decide if I am going to follow the rule or not. End of rant and I’m off my soapbox. Please enjoy the bird pictures.

Friday September 15th 2023

Here at the campground the weather was very similar to the last few days. It was very humid with the high temperature reaching the mid nineties. Elsewhere in the region is wasn’t as nice. I was driving north of here along Tampa bay when a shower developed over the bay and moved inland. Other than being an outdoor adventure killer it wasn’t a problem. The storm moved inland quickly and it dried out equally as quick, but I was already well on my way back to my RV home. It never rained here at the state park.

The park staff and outside contractors were very busy in the park today. It looks like half of the camping loop I’m staying in is closed for electrical work. This morning a couple of guys with a jack hammer broke up all the concrete around the base of the power pedestals on sites 16 to 30. They also dropped off a cardboard box with a new power pedestal at each site. This afternoon an electrical contractor started working on replacing them. As the campground started to fill up for the weekend, those sites were not used. Even with fifteen sites out of the mix, the campground doesn’t seem to be full.

The other construction in the park that I had already discovered made progress today. Concrete was poured around the pavilion in the day use area. They didn’t use a classic cement truck, but rather a truck that seems to mix on demand in smaller amounts. Tonight the area is surrounded by construction warning tape.

At the boat launch area they made progress replacing the cement ramp leading to one of the floating docks. The concrete is getting replaced by an elevated wood ramp. I wonder what happened to the concrete. I don’t recall any issues when I was here last spring.

Thursday September 14th 2023

It was another nice, but hot day. The temperature was a couple of degrees above normal in the mid nineties. The humidity remained high and the sky was clear most of the day. The feels like temperature was around 100 degrees. It didn’t rain in this area during the afternoon or thus far in the evening. The forecast is for a higher chance of rain each day going forward through the weekend.

Today wasn’t a very blog content worthy day although I did get a few pictures. I got caught up in reading last night and didn’t get to bed at a reasonable time. The result was a very late start to the day and a general lazy day to follow. It was after 10AM when I started my first cup of coffee. My first walk of the day was after noon in the heat of the day. I walked through the day use area to the boat launch and back to the camping area where I walked around both loops. It was a real workout in the heat, but I didn’t notice it until I got back to my RV home dripping in sweat.

My second and third walks of the day were much shorter. I only went to the beach in the day use area and the boat launch area. At the beach I had a photo session with a Little Blue Hereon. What I assume was the same bird was at in the grass along the lake during each walk. It didn’t seem to mind me taking pictures as long as I didn’t get close. Here are some of the better pictures.

Wednesday September 13th 2023

The humidity continues to remain high. The temperature climbed into the low nineties. Putting the two together equals a really uncomfortable day in the sunshine. Sitting in the shade with a little bit of a breeze is still the best way to spend the day short of inside with air conditioning.

Today was my day to be reminded how heavy and slow local traffic is in the Sarasota Bradenton area. It isn’t even snowbird season yet and the volume of traffic results in it taking more than one light cycle to get through many traffic lights. Interstate 75 which passes by north to south on the east side of both cities has had various parts under construction for years. Right now the construction is at the bridge over the Manatee river in the north and at Clark road at the south in Sarasota. In between the interstate is just busy, but at the two ends traffic crawls. I tried a few short cuts I’ve learned over the years, but I don’t think I saved any time because of the volume of traffic.

I found more construction going on in the state park. Today there was an excavator parked at the boat launch area. A part of the ramp to the floating dock is missing and the area is taped off. Maybe that is going to get worked on with the excavator. In the day use area, they made more progress putting in forms to extend the cement floor of the pavilion. It looks like they are ready for cement. I am still not sure why they are extending the cement pad.

Tuesday September 12th 2023

It was a very humid day without much wind. Combined with high temperature in the low nineties it was a very uncomfortable day. Late in the day into the evening there was the sound of thunder in the area with dark clouds and lightening on the horizon. Most of the storms formed east of here and moved east after they formed. It didn’t rain here.

Since I was so tired yesterday, I went to bed early last night. This morning I was up earlier than normal and took a walk around the park before breakfast. The campground was pretty empty last night. I counted seven occupied sites out of thirty in my loop. I haven’t checked the other loop of thirty campsites yet. The park staff has done some maintenance since my last visit in April. They have painted new site numbers on the pavement along the side of the park road and new gravel has been added to some of the sites. Currently they are doing some cement work on one of the pavilions in the day use area.

This was mostly a day to settle in and relax. I took two additional walks around various areas of the park during the day. The water level in Lake Manatee is a little higher than I’m used to seeing. The walkway onto the floating docks at the boat launch area are close to level rather than a walk down to the dock. There are warnings posted about possible blue green algae in the lake. That may be the reason I didn’t see anyone using the boat launch. Possibly it will be different when the weekend arrives.

Monday September 11th 2023

The heat and humidity made for an exhausting travel day. As with any travel day it had its challenges. The first started shortly after I pulled out of my site shortly before 11AM and finished at my arrival at Lake Manatee State Park around 3PM.

I had my first issue with dumping my Black holding tank when I stopped at the dumping station on the way out of the campground. After connecting up the dump hose and opening the valve nothing came out. Since there was no one waiting behind me and it was a quiet period, I got out a hose and connected it to the flush line. After about half an hour of flushing and dumping I got the tank partially emptied. The gauge still indicated more than a little in the tank. I added a few gallons of water to the tank before travel. My goal was to provide something to slosh around during my drive. When I arrived at my destination my first stop was the dump station to see if the holding tank constipation was cured by the water laxative during the drive. It seems to have been successful.

Traffic was heavy on Interstate 75, but probably not worse than normal. Once I was south of the Florida Turnpike the real heavy traffic near Ocala thinned out until I reached the intersection of Interstate 275 north of Tampa. Traffic the rest of the way was very heavy, but it never backed up. Even the bridge construction over the Manatee River north of Bradenton didn’t cause a backup today. The last eight miles of the journey on state road 64 wasn’t any better. I had to lock up the brakes to avoid one idiot driver. I’ll be finding displaced stuff inside the RV for the next few day. The bottom line is the drive took my full attention.

I finished setting up for my stay by 4PM. I’ll be here for two weeks assuming mother nature doesn’t send a hurricane this way. This deep in the Florida peninsular I’ll need to react and run from a hurricane quicker than in the northern part of the state. Currently there is nothing threatening this area in the pipeline.