Monday March 18th 2024

The sky was filled with a thick layer of clouds this morning. The latest cold front was here. There was a little rain during the morning and a thunderstorm in the early evening. The rest of the day was comfortable with a high temperature in the low eighties. Tomorrow is forecast to be clear again, but the temperature will be ten plus degrees cooler.

Traffic got in my way again today, but it was a different issue. I had to deal with Interstate 75 traffic. It normally has very heavy traffic through the Bradenton and Sarasota area. Road construction just complicates the issue. Northbound traffic is slowed and delayed by the work on the new bridges across the Manatee River. The river forms the northern boundary of the Bradenton Sarasota corridor. On the southern end of the corridor, there is construction at the state route 72 interchange. That construction manages to keep southbound traffic trapped in the corridor as well.

Today I got caught in the interstate 75 traffic traveling northbound several miles before the bridge construction. I resorted to something I don’t often do. I asked my GPS for an alternative route. It found a route through the Lakewood Ranch development area that was advertised to be twenty five minutes shorter today. Lakewood Ranch is a massive development area that includes all kinds of housing and business located on the east side of Sarasota and Bradenton. The new housing development near Lake Manatee State Park may even be considered part of the Lakewood Ranch development area. The GPS route through the developments wasn’t without its problems. There were several areas of construction and lots of traffic lights, but I managed to get back to my RV home without major traffic issues on the route.

The state park is back in sleepy midweek mode. Now we just need a trash pickup before it gets busy again. Dumping my trash into the dumpster this morning was one of life’s little challenges. I had to use the dumpster cover to squish the bags down into the dumpster. I think they usually come twice a week to pick up the trash.