The humidity climbed into the high zone today. The temperature made it to ninety, but it felt like it was around 100 degrees. The weather went from Fall to Summer overnight. The forecast and the continuously moving clouds made the chance of rain high as the day went by. A brief shower finally wet the ground shortly after 5 in the afternoon. The bulk of the storm passed by to the west.
Odd friends.
I stayed in camp around my RV home today. Other than doing a few chores in the morning, I spent most of the day walking around with my camera or just sitting outside in the shade. The campground is still fairly empty during the midweek. The Ortona lock gets a few boats during the day. Everything is very slow, but at least the wildlife is plentiful.
Yesterday’s fall weather returned a little toward the summer side today. There was a little more sun and the humidity increased. The result was a day with a few more degrees on the thermometer and an overall slight decrease in the comfort level. Tomorrow is forecast to continue the trend back toward summer weather. Afternoon thunderstorms are in the forecast.
Acorn supper.
Anhinga
Today’s excursion involved a thirty plus mile drive back to the eastern outskirts of Fort Myers. I stopped at the Franklin Lock and Dam on the way. It was equally as quiet as the Ortona Lock I’m camped at. The campground across the river looked to be a little more occupied than mine. I had considered staying there, but Ortona South has a little more space to walk around as well as more wildlife to watch.
Snowy Egret
When I got back to my RV home, I found the campground a little more empty. Three additional campsites in my side of the campground were empty. A cursory check of the other side looked like it had lost a resident or two as well. I didn’t see any new residents arrive this evening to bring the occupancy back to level. My guess is the campground will start to fill again on Thursday for the weekend.
Limpkin on a fence.
Today I got pictures of three types of herons and saw a fourth in the distance. The Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron and Green Heron all allowed me to take their picture. A Great Blue Heron flew away before I could find it in the camera lens.
The overnight temperature was in the low sixties. The temperature climbed slowly under the cover of clouds today. It eventually peaked in the low eighties. The humidity was low and a gently wind blew most of the day. It was a real fall day.
Blossom of the day
The campground continued to maintain a quiet atmosphere. A couple of more RVs departed this morning and a few arrived in the afternoon. There seems to be a consistent occupancy of around 15 units. The Ortona lock seemed to have one burst of activity today. Perhaps there was one planned time for the lock operation. There was one boat at each end of the lock around noon. They had to wait for more than half an hour before the down (west) bound sailboat was let into the lock. It was followed by an up (east) bound motor yacht. I didn’t see any other action at the lock the rest of the day.
Sailboat heading west down the channel. Boat heading east up river.
I enjoyed walking around the campground carrying my camera. The tri-color herons are here in abundance and don’t seem to mind having their pictures taken. I also got a few pictures of other birds and things. The clouds even thinned out enough late in the day to allow the sun to present a nice sunset.
Between walks I spent sometime online trying to solve my winter reservation issue. I never succeeded making reservations for the three weeks and a couple of day period starting in the middle of January. I have been checking the public parks regularly for cancellations. I prefer the state and federal parks for two reasons. First they are closer to nature which is my ideal style of campground. The other more practical reason is they are less expensive. So far I haven’t been found any cancellations.
Even though most of the cancellations will happen closer to the actual date, I can’t risk waiting too much longer for a cancellation. The commercial parks that are the alternative to the public parks will fill up quickly in the majority of the state. Brand new parks and parks in the north central part of the state may have vacancies all winter long, but they are not well located with respect to my other reservations.
The nightly rates at the commercial parks that have availability are also high. Florida is not a cheap RV destination. The cheapest I can find in the the Orlando area is $72 a night. Along the coasts the nightly rates are even higher. The rates in the central part of the state other than Orlando are a little bit better. The problem is it costs me about 50 cents a mile to travel in my motorhome. A detour of one hundred miles out and one hundred miles back will cost $100. That means the rate would have to be about $15 a night for a week long stay to make it worth the detour.
I’ll pay when it is necessary. In particular I’ll pay a premium for a place like Disney’s Fort Wilderness, because of all the entertainment extras like fireworks that come with the nightly fee. Currently Disney’s rates are about $100 higher than the cheapest places I’ve found in the Orlando area. Right now that is in consideration for some of my three weeks of missing reservation. Filling in around that stay then becomes the challenge. I am giving my self until the end of October to get everything booked. That is the longest I will wait before the risk of having to travel long distances becomes too high.
Today was a cloudy day that kept the temperature in the low to middle eighties. It was nice to have a day that wasn’t very humid and flirting with the nineties. The low tonight is forecast to be in the mid to low sixties. Fall weather is here again.
Ever watchful.
The weekend visitors cleared out of the park before the morning checkout time. Tomorrow isn’t a holiday in Florida. The schools are in session. Walking around the campground in the early afternoon, I counted only fifteen occupied sites out of fifty. Later in the day a couple more RVs arrived. The park remains very quiet and empty.
There are Water Hyacinths in this canal too.
Traffic in the canal was a little more active today. I saw two boats get locked through the Ortona Lock. That is double the number I saw yesterday. The difference in the activity level from the winter level continues to surprise me. Last time I was here in March I observed several lock transits a day many with multiple boats in the lock.
This afternoon I made a run into LaBelle for groceries. The Walmart on the far side of town was very busy. The aisles were very congested with customers and staff stocking shelves. The vacant space on the shelves provided clear evidence that the store had been busy all day. The good thing is that this Walmart had far more assisted checkout lanes than self service. The assisted lanes were even had staff present to work the registers.
As the sun set this Heron caught a fish bigger than its head.
Not surprisingly I slept late this morning after an activity full travel day yesterday. Once I was awake and active it was a lazy day focused on settling in at the Ortona Lock South COE Campground. The weather was cooperative most of the day. It was a partly cloudy day with thunderstorms in the area. Only one storm got near enough to drop a few sprinkles of rain, but the area is flat and open enough that the storms on the horizon are very visible. The temperature peaked in the mid to upper eighties.
Looking west along the Caloosahatchee Canal.
The campground is not full. For someone that usually visits in the winter months that is very confusing. On previous visits the park has been full with very low turnover. Most people that come during the winter come for the two week max stay and even try to get around the rules and stay longer. This current park visitors are mostly weekenders. The park is probably two thirds full.
One of a pair of Limpkins along the drainage canal.The other Limpkin was grooming near the water.
The environment is also different from a winter visit. The Caloosahatchee canal is less active. I think there was only one boat passing through the lock today. The fishing areas along the canal had fewer people fishing and most of them were campers rather than people from the area. The water in the drainage channel that empties into the canal in the middle of the campground was also much more active. In the winter the birds wade in the water to find their lunch. Today, the few birds I saw were hugging the bank and being very careful of the strong current.
As has been the norm of late it was a very hot and humid travel day. I got underway around 12:30 after completing the travel preparation tasks. The outside tasks left me just a little damp from sweat, but once I was in the air conditioned comfort in the cab of my RV home I dried out quickly.
Green Heron
My journey took me east and south into the center of the state just west of Lake Okeechobee. The trip was on state roads and passed through the large towns of Arcadia, Fort Meyers Shores and LaBelle. The traffic and stop lights in the towns was a major annoyance. I made one stop for gas along the way. I chose the station based on easy access. That was about all it had to offer. The pump was one of the slowest I’ve experienced. It wasn’t much faster than a gallon or two per minute and I put in over 42 gallons. As an added insult the price of gas was fifty cents a gallon more expensive than other stations I passed soon after filling the tank.
I arrived at Ortona South Lock Campground shortly before 3PM. My guess is half an hour of that travel time was at the gas station. I’ve been to this Army Corp of Engineers campground several times before. It is a good thing too. The sign on the highway was missing. The last time was in 2021 before hurricane Ian. I don’t know how badly this park was impacted by the storm. When I walk around the park tomorrow I’ll look for indicators of damage.
Site 17 at the Army Corp of Engineers Ortona South Lock Campground.
I’ll be here for two weeks weather permitting. There are two possible developing tropical systems in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. If they decide to head this way I’ll have to move. This area is very open to the wind and subject to flooding. Just one more concern during hurricane season in Florida.
Today was my last full day at Myakka River State Park. As I have each day of my stay, I made the rounds of the various parking lots and trail heads in search of wildlife. Perhaps because the water level was high once again, the wildlife was in short supply today. I saw a couple of deer along the park road, but they were keeping their distance from the actual road. The birds were not plentiful near the points of easy access. I managed to see a couple of egrets and herons flying along the river, but they didn’t land anywhere near my viewing point.
When I walked over to the river near the water level gauge I was surprised to see how high the water level had reached. One area of the path that had been dry since I arrived was in danger of being under water shortly. When I got to the actual gauge I saw that the level was a 0.1 of a foot higher than it was the day I arrived. Last weekend it was much lower at 0.25 of a foot below the level when I arrived. So the water level has fluctuated over four inches while I’ve been here.
When I wasn’t in search of wildlife I was preparing for travel tomorrow. I have a little less clutter inside to worry about this time. Since I am using my water tank for fresh water, while the parks water is consider non potable, I have been cleaning my dishes quickly and efficiently. The result is no accumulation of dirty dishes to deal with. It is rarely a big issue, but even a few less things to deal with is a help. Sunset beat me to the outside tasks. I hadn’t really noticed how early the sun is now disappearing from the sky. Fall seems to really be here.
I have a little over a hundred miles to travel tomorrow. My destination is a Army Corp of Engineers Park east of LaBelle Florida. Thankfully, the government didn’t shutdown so I have a valid reservation. Checkout time here is 1PM, so I don’t have to worry about rushing in the morning. I will try to leave around noon for two hour or so drive. This will be a trip on Florida state roads rather than interstate highways.
Yesterday’s smoke induced haze was gone today. The sky was back to deep blues with white fluffy clouds. There was still a strong wind out of the northeast keeping the almost ninth degree temperature in the comfortable range. Late in the afternoon a rude weather surprise occurred. A cloud burst overhead dropped a lot of rain over a five minute time frame. It soaked the ground and filled the puddles making my second walk of the day a bust.
My attempts to hike the trails this morning were once again impacted by the standing water. The wind pushing the water inland from the lake and river has made it impossible to walk some of the trails that were passable earlier in the week. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that river level an inch or two higher than it was over the weekend, but the gauge is in an area of the river that the rain prevented me from walking by.
Today was laundry day. Each restroom building has a washer and dryer at this state park. The low mid week occupancy makes it easy to find a set available. These machines are even thrifty in their thirst for quarters. It is an only a $1.50 per load. If they were only thrifty with their use of time. It takes about 40 minutes per wash cycle and 50 minutes per drying cycle. Overall the laundry consumed a good chunk of my afternoon. It needed to be done. I don’t know what is available at my next stop. Last time I was there the laundry was still closed because of COVID.
Tomorrow is my last full day here. I move further south on Friday.
The clear blue sky and fluffy clouds of the last few days was missing today. It turns out that the northeast wind was bring smoke from Canada south all the way to Florida. It was a very hazy day. The temperature remained in the mid eighties.
Today was a particularly active day. Most of the day was dedicated to chores around my RV home. I did drive up to Upper Myakka lake in search of wildlife, but it wasn’t the most productive trip. The northeast wind blowing across the lake has pushed the water level up along the shore and in the river. Areas that I was able to access yesterday were blocked by standing water today. The higher water must have made finding food for the birds more difficult. There were less birds around today.
Late in the afternoon I made a walk to the Myakka River area in the front of the park. It hasn’t been a very good viewing area for birds or alligators during this trip, but it is the area where most of the deer I’ve seen were located. Today I saw one alligator swimming in the river and one deer. When combined with the exercise value of the walk, the sightings made for a productive walk.
Today is the start of a new weather pattern for this area. It was sunny with a few clouds all day. A medium to strong wind blew out of the northeast most of the day. Overall it was a less humid day than the last week. The temperature peaked in the upper eighties.
Water Hyacinth
During my stay here I’ve been seeing and taking pictures of the multitude of purple water flower blossoms. I thought they were Water Hyacinths, but wasn’t sure so they remained nameless in my blog entries. Today I decided to verify my thoughts using our old friend Google. Sure enough they are Water Hyacinths, but some of the other information I discovered was surprising. They are considered an invasive species that grow very fast and thick. Often they get so thick that they chock out the light and oxygen for other bottom growing plant life. The plant is native to South America, the only continent where natural predators keep it at bay. Perhaps the most surprising thing I discovered is that it is illegal to posses them in Florida without a special permit. The bottom line is their beauty is offset by the danger they represent to the natural balance of things.
The wind kept the water birds in more sheltered areas. Along the side of Upper Myakka Lake there were waves breaking. The birds can’t forage for food in the churned up water. I saw several Egrets back in the woods and up in the branches of trees. The herons were not in any of the places I looked.
During my last walk of the day I spotted two deer again. I suspect it is the same pair I saw yesterday. Today they were in the middle of the road in one of the older campground loops. Earlier in the day, when I was returning to camp in my car, I saw a buck near the same area. It kept moving away from my car, but I tried to get a picture out the window.
Rob's Rambling Road Trip 