Thursday December 28th 2023

The rain that had been forecast all week arrived last night. Around 10PM it started to rain lightly. It continued overnight, through the morning and into the early afternoon today. Around 2PM the rain dried up and the sky started to lighten. For a few hours this afternoon outdoor activities were possible, but another line of rain arrived as the sunset.

With the clearing sky, I got out of the campground for a drive to Bennett park. I wanted to take a few pictures of the big wading birds. They had other ideas. After walking all of the paved trails, I only saw one Anhinga. The birds might have been visible from some of the grass trails, but they were a little wet for my tastes. The sixteen hours of light rain filled many of the low lying areas.

Traffic this afternoon was heavy. The backup to get on Intestate 75 northbound was about a mile long. Thankfully, I wasn’t getting on the intestate. From Bennett park the northbound lanes on I-75 are visible. They were filled with stop and go traffic. There is construction on the road north of the congestion and there is a large regional outlet mall at the next exit. Both of those are known to cause backups. Traffic on the the visible area of the southbound lanes was also very heavy, but it was moving at highway speeds.

There was a big turnover in the campground today. The people that came in for a few midweek nights started to give way to the weekenders. I suspect that the couple of sites that seem to be empty tonight will fill up tomorrow.