Thursday March 21st 2024

There was a nice blue sky and a bright sun when I got up this morning. By noon the sky was filled with fluffy clouds. As the afternoon progressed so did the cloud cover. The temperature managed to climb from the low sixties to the low eighties. When it was time for my last walk of the day just before sunset a light rain had started to fall. A cold front with severe weather is forecast to arrive overnight and last into Saturday.

I took advantage of today’s good weather to get all of my outside travel preparation tasks completed. Tomorrow is a travel day. It will likely be raining when I finish my preparations and hook up the car. I only have about thirty miles to travel and my destination is another state park with a similar checkout time. That means I need to leave here as close to the 1PM checkout time as I can manage. Dodging the worst of the waves of rain in the forecast will complicate that task.

My neighbors were also scheduled to checkout tomorrow, but they departed in the middle of the afternoon today. I don’t know if it was planned that way or if the weather changed their plans. They were a bit of a challenge to figure out. Not that I was really trying, but in the week plus they have been here I rarely saw them. They walked there dog in the morning, but I’m not sure when the pooch got another outing. What I saw most often was them dragging a noisy portable holding tank behind their truck to the dumping station. They must of had a problem with one of their onboard tanks, because the frequency was very unusual. I think that is the only time their truck moved.

The wind wasn’t as strong today, so I saw more boats out on the lake fishing. There were a few people fishing from the docks at the boat launch as well. I often see people fishing there, but today was the first time I saw them catch anything. One guy caught a reasonable size large mouth bass.

Wednesday March 20th 2024

It was a very nice sunny and comfortable day after a cool overnight. The temperature climbed into the mid seventies after getting down into the forties overnight.

This afternoon I watched the boats returning to port from a day of recreation in the Gulf of Mexico. I parked along the north side of the Venice Inlet. There were plenty of other people taking advantage of the beautiful afternoon fishing in the inlet, sitting on the beach or otherwise enjoying the gulf. The gulf waters were a beautiful green color reflecting in the sun. I hoped to see dolphins in the inlet, but there weren’t any around today. I had to settle for a few brown pelicans.

Traffic getting to and from Venice was the challenge I’ve come to expect in this area at this time of year. Going south to the inlet in the middle of the afternoon wasn’t too bad, but returning north at rush hour was far from a rush. It was just a slow steady crawl.

The midweek quiet in the campground continued today. Only a few sites turned over and the day use area wasn’t very popular. A few people were fishing on the lake judging by the empty trailers at the boat launch, but I didn’t see any boats getting launched or landed.

Tuesday March 19th 2024

The back side of yesterday’s cold front was in place this morning. It was sunny with a northeast wind. The humidity was way down and so was the temperature. Today’s high temperature was barely above the seventy degree mark. The overnight temperature is forecast to get below fifty degrees in this area.

Today was a slow day. It was well into the morning before I rolled out of bed. Breakfast was a slow dragged out meal and in general my motivation to get out and do anything was low. When I finally got out for my first walk of the day, I met a Gopher Tortoise that exemplified my mood. It was slowly plodding along nibbling at the grass here and there. This seemed to be a good day for the tortoises. I think I saw six different ones over the course of my two walks. A couple of the sightings were in the same general area so they may have been the same tortoise. I’m not up on the distinguishing features of a Gopher Tortoise for easy individual identification.

There wasn’t a lot of turnover in the campground today. It seems to be settled in for the week. A quick survey of the orange parking tags hanging from the rear view mirrors of the registered campers shows many people are leaving on Thursday or Friday, but my sample size was too small to be statistically viable. I am probably biased since I’m one of the Friday departures.

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.

Sunday March 17th 2024

The overnight clouds and haze burned off as the morning progressed. By afternoon it was a partly sunny day with the high temperature in the low to mid eighties. Another cold front is due tomorrow and may bring a little rain to the area.

I needed to make a grocery run today. My supply of deserts and snacks was in short supply. When you sit in my RV home the food supply is only a few feet away. It makes resistance by the out of site out of mind method impossible. The best I can do is make sure the snacks are a little better than pure junk food. Today I returned from Walmart with cookies, cup cakes, pastry, and Ritz crackers to fill the snack and desert void. I also managed to get a few other things like sandwich meat and a piece of steak. The steak and a baked potato made a nice Sunday dinner.

The Walmart wasn’t too busy for a Sunday afternoon. I managed to get in and out in a reasonable amount of time. As normal for this visit to the area, traffic was the biggest issue. I made the best of my time today. Before I went to Walmart I got in a good hike on the trails at Bennett county park. It was fairly busy. Several people were using the Disc Golf course, trails and picnic facilities.

The expected Sunday turnover took place this morning in the campground. About half the weekend visitors seem to leave on Sunday and the rest on Monday. The facility was full again before nightfall.

Saturday March 16th 2024

The day began with a thick layer of clouds. As the day progressed the clouds thinned and the sun made an occasional appearance. The cloud layer kept the temperature down from yesterday’s highs. The temperature peaked in the low eighties today.

I wasn’t particularly active today and didn’t produce any blog entry worthy content. I thought it was Sunday most of the day. This entry will be brief and rather random.

The state park was very active today. Both pavilions at the day use area were in use for parties. The volleyball court was even getting used. The boat launch area had boats going in and coming out of the water when I was there around noon. Usually I only see an occasional transition. Today they were waiting in line. In the campground several of the campers had visitors turning their sites into party locations.

I took two extended walks around the state park and the camping loops today. The second was near sunset, but not close enough to make my sunset picture great.

Friday March 15th 2024

The huidity and temperature are climbing. The temperature peaked in the mid to upper eighties and felt warmer do to the humidity. Tomorrow is forecast to be about the same.

After failing to get to Robinson Preserve yesterday, I set out for Emerson Preserve today. It is located across the Manatee River from Robinson Preserve on the north side of the Manatee River where it empties into Tampa Bay and the gulf. It is a little further to the east than its south bank counterpart. The traffic on the north side of the Manatee River, while heavy, kept moving. It wasn’t anywhere close to yesterday’s slow moving parking lot.

Today’s issue happened once I arrived at Emerson Preserve park. There was nowhere to park. Each of the parking turnouts was overflowing with parked cars. I finally found a place to park at the far end of the point. Another car was pulling out as I was circling the lot. This is the first time I remember visiting the park at high tide. Usually there is plenty of sand between land and water to walk around the point. Today the water was lapping at the plant life along the shoreline. Every opening in the mangroves and bushes people were sitting or playing in the water. It wasn’t much of a beach, but people were using it as one.

Back at Lake Manatee State Park later in the afternoon the campground was filling up for the weekend. People were taking walks to the day use area and boat launch into Lake Manatee. I met many more people on my walk this evening than usual. There were also several Gofer Tortoises out grazing along the walkways. I don’t think I was late enough to see the rabbits from yesterday’s walk.

Thursday March 14th 2024

I like staying at Lake Manatee State Park because of its location near Bradenton Florida. When I first stayed here in 2016 the area along state route 64 east of Interstate 75 wasn’t as built up as it is today. The second half of the eight mile stretch of road was mostly dedicated to agriculture. The section of road now has two traffic circles, new gas stations, a Publix Supermarket and new housing developments. The last mile or so of road leading to the state park entrance used to be cultivated fields on both sides. Today it is under development as town homes and tightly packed housing.

All of the development diminishes the value of staying at this park. While it has plenty of trails, they aren’t filled with interesting wildlife and vegetation. It doesn’t make multiple walks along the same trail that enjoyable. The value of this state park is its proximity to other recreation opportunities. The increased development and resulting traffic congestion makes visiting those locations more difficult.

Today I was heading for Robinson Preserve. It is located west of downtown Bradenton along the south shore of the mouth of Tampa Bay where the Manatee River empties into the bay and gulf. It contains trails and salt marsh waterways. To get there from here it is necessary to go through the middle of the downtown Bradenton. It is always a slow drive filled with traffic. Today I didn’t even make it to the middle of downtown. Traffic was backed up beyond my tolerance level. I gave up after spending twenty minutes to go the equivalent of five minute in normal traffic. There was probably an accident, but it might just be spring break visitor traffic. I stopped at Tom Bennett park on my way back to get some exercise and my wildlife fix.

Wednesday March 13th 2024

The temperature is gradually increasing every day this week. The humidity is a little higher today and the wind is little calmer. The result is a high temperature in the upper seventies. Tommorrow is forecast to be in the eighties and Friday may reach ninety.

Today turn out to be a bust in terms of accomplishments, but I had a fun day walking around Lake Manatee State Park on the various trails. I took a few pictures of the foliage and a few small animals.

Tuesday March 12th 2024

Today’s weather was a repeat of Monday’s with probably a little bit of an increase in the high temperature. The temperature peaked in the mid seventies.

This is one of the spring break tourist weeks. The local schools aren’t out this week, but there are enough northern schools taking a break this week to add to the local population. The local public schools in this area are out next week as are other northern schools. The bottom line is an increase in traffic on the roads. Much of the traffic is made up of cars with out of state license plates.

Heavy traffic isn’t that unusual, but the quality of the driving is impacted by all the out of area drivers. Invariably someone is in the left lane when they need to right or in the right for a left turn. How they react is always a guess. Some will almost stop in the middle of the road until they can cross the lanes of traffic. Others will cut quickly between cars at high speed forcing everyone else to slow or swerve as necessary. Very few accept their mistake and continue on until they can recover by reversing direction or complete a detour. It is a dilemma.

While I was out today, I saw examples of all of these maneuvers. I didn’t see any of these events result in an accident, but I did pass one fender bender with police presence. You really have to consider the need verses the risk when you decide to go out on the roads. It also takes forever to go a short distance. The eight miles from the state park back to Interstate 75 takes twenty minutes or more if the traffic lights cooperate.