Tuesday April 9th 2024

This afternoon I visited Disney’s EPCOT. The International Flower and Garden Festival is in full swing. It began at the end of February and runs through the end of May. I left this area for north central Florida before it started this year. This is my first visit to the International Flower and Garden Festival for 2024.

The Flower and Garden Festival is my favorite EPCOT festival. All of the brightly colored flower blossoms transform the park. The open areas are transformed into a symphony of color. In addition to the flower beds, EPCOT gardeners present intricate topiaries of Disney characters. This year I saw a couple of new ones and old ones enhanced in new areas. The butterfly house also seemed to be a larger or at least different shaped tent this year.

I got to the park at 4PM with the intent of seeing some of the International Flower and Garden Festival, riding a few rides and having Fish and Chips for Dinner in the UK pavilion. For the most part, my visit went as planned. I wandered around the front part of the park checking out the topiaries and flower beds. The park wasn’t busy so I was able to walk onto several rides including Living with the Land, Soarin and the Seas with Nemo.

Once it was time for supper I mobile ordered my Fish and Chips from the Yorkshire County Fish shop. It was ready by the time I walked to the UK pavilion. The fish and chips is usually great, but tonight my serving had a little too much greasy batter on the fish. There was about as much crispy greasy batter as there was fish. I ended up eating the fish out of the batter with a fork, but the whole meal seemed to just sit in my stomach. My energy for exploring the park waned with the heavy meal. I was back at my RV home by 7:30. EPCOT will still be there another day.

Monday April 8th 2024

This was the “Great American Eclipse” day if you listen to the news media. In this area of Florida the percentage of totality was around fifty percent. I more or less forgot about the eclipse after listening to the morning news. During the time of the eclipse, I stopped at Disney Springs to wander around the entertainment and shopping district.

All around the district people were pausing and looking at the sun through special glasses. There were a lot of excited people. That is when I remembered that a special solar event was in progress. If you didn’t know an eclipse was happening there were no real indicators. The sun wasn’t as bright, but the overall brightness was similar to a cloudy day. In August of 2017 I was in Utah during the eclipse. The percentage of totality was closer to eighty percent at that time and it only got a little darker than normal. I documented that story on the Rambling Road Trip here.

Disney Springs wasn’t very busy today. The upper two levels of the Orange parking garage were almost empty. The strong east wind kept the balloon ride from functioning and the chop on the lake made riding the amphibicars less than desirable, but the kid’s carousel had a couple of takers. There was plenty of room in the various stores to wander around and look at all the “junk”. I succeed in getting in and out of the stores without buying anything. The entertainment doesn’t start until five or six in the evening. I’ll visit in the evening another time.

Back at the RV resort this evening, it looks like a few more RVs have departed. I’m not located and oriented in the right direction to see the RVs depart. When I walk around is the only time I get a real look at the lower section of the park. I get a little better look at the upper section when I drive in or out. My guess is by the end of the month the departures will slow down and the occupancy will stabilize.

Sunday April 7th 2024

This was a very laid back getting on with life kind of day. I finally got around to grocery shopping. I started to get short on supplies last week. The first day I thought about making a grocery run was Thursday, but I kept finding better things to do until today. If I had really thought it through, I would have found something else to do today as well. Once in the Walmart in Clermont, I remembered that Sunday is not the best day to go grocery shopping. The store was loaded with shoppers. The good thing is the checkouts were well staffed.

I deliberately went to the Walmart in Clermont. It is about fifteen miles north of my RV home, but I passed another Walmart, an ALDI and a Publix in the first mile. My reason for the extra miles was to check out the area. Even though this is my first time at this RV resort, I am very familiar with this area. To get to the Walmart, I passed by Lake Louisa State Park that I last stayed at in February. Not a lot has changed since that visit to the area. Traffic wasn’t bad today until I got to the Walmart. The parking lot was a zoo.

Back at the RV resort with my groceries, I was able to cook dinner without thawing something from the freezer. Of course several of the items I purchased went straight into the freezer to offset the things I’ve used in the last few days. The freezer was looking emptier than I’ve seen it in quite a while.

I took one late afternoon walk around the campground. Included in the walk was a stop at the area on Lake Davenport. There are chairs in the shade of the trees along the shore. They provided a nice place to enjoy the breeze off the lake and watch anything going on. This afternoon there wasn’t much.

Saturday April 6th 2024

It was a beautiful clear day with very low humidity and a gentle wind out of the north. The result was a very comfortable mid seventies day. Tomorrow is forecast to be a little bit more humid and less windy resulting in a warmer day. The trend will continue as the wind gradually moves to the south. It may reach ninety by Wednesday before the next front.

I woke up a little stiff after yesterday’s move. Somewhere during getting ready to travel and setup at this end I over did it a little. My right hip says OW when I get started from a sitting position. It didn’t stop me from completing the day after travel setup tasks like taking the bicycle off the car, but I did differ going grocery shopping until tomorrow.

I took two walks around this RV resort. It is huge. There are close to 900 sites some with park model homes permanently situated. I would estimate about one third to one half of the sites are now empty. The snowbirds that occupied the site during the winter have returned to the north. There are still plenty of license plates from northern states and Canadian provinces. Some of the resort window tags I saw have departure dates at the end of this month. There are also a number of RVs that are probably getting used for temporary living arrangements. Most of these have Florida tags but seem to be away during the work day.

My site is located on a hill to the west of the entrance. On the far south east corner of the resort property is the club house, one of two pools and a lake front area. The resort has a narrow section of land of Lake Davenport. This morning I saw a couple of boats with people fishing and this afternoon there were several personal water crafts racing up and down the lake. The conclusion is the lake is use for lots of things.

Friday April 5th 2024

It was a dry day with low humidity and the temperature was in the mid seventies. These are good characteristics for a travel day, but mother nature had to add in one more ingredient. There was a strong wind out of the west. The gusts added to the constant wind made keeping the motorhome in my lane difficult at times.

I got packed up without much difficulty this morning. It was around 11:30 when I departed Myakka River State Park in Sarasota Florida. With a destination in the southwest suburbs of Orlando most of travel was on Interstate highways. Traffic and construction delays made the trip more difficult than your average interstate drive.

As soon as I got onto Interstate 75 in Sarasota, I was in slow moving traffic caused by the heavy volume. Traffic eased up a little in the southern part of Bradenton, but soon slowed down again for the construction over the Manatee River. When it cleared out again north of the Manatee River, I made it up to highway speeds for first time. Most of my journey to that point was under 20mph.

Heavy traffic continued into the Tampa suburbs before more construction slowed traffic down to a crawl again. It continued all the way to Intestate 4. My average speed through the Plant City and Lakeland areas was above sixty and a few cars were able to go at the 70mph speed limit. The quick drops from highway speeds to slow pace necessitated that I keep my speed down and the distant in front of me up.

The last slowdown was leading into the Orlando area. The traffic usually backs up a few miles before you get to US27. Today was no exception, but it seemed even slower today. Once I was proceeding north on US27 my traffic woes for the day were over. I arrived at Lake Magic RV resort at the intersection of US27 with US192 around 2:30 in the afternoon. Three hours to go 130 miles isn’t too bad given the conditions. It seemed like it was a lot longer.

Thursday April 4th 2024

The humidity and temperature were down and the wind was up out of the north. It was a beautiful post cold front day on the Florida Gulf Coast. Yesterday’s rain was in the past allowing the temperature to peak in the mid seventies under a bright sunny sky.

Today was my last day to visit the alligators and birds of Myakka River State Park. I am moving on tomorrow. The alligators had new places to climb out onto the river bank now that the water level is down almost a foot since arrived two weeks ago. I walked the trail at the front of the path along the river. There were a couple of gators on the bank on my side of the river. I haven’t seen that before, but I gave them plenty of distance. The birds seemed to be scarce during the middle of the day.

As sunset approached I walked up to the bridge over the river for the last time this visit. Only one alligator was out of the water, but plenty were in the river with their heads out watching. A few more birds were around, but mostly well in the distance.

I really enjoy this park. There is always wildlife to observe. You can count on seeing alligators and water birds. Occasionally you see other animals. This trip I saw a couple of turkeys and a few deer, but not as many as I’ve seen on previous visit. I also didn’t see any wild pigs on this visit. Even the dug up ground that indicates their presence was missing this year.

This afternoon I got most of the outside chores prior to travel complete. I still have to dump the tanks and stow the hose outside. Inside I’ve got most of the items I can do ahead of time complete. Tomorrow a one hundred and thirty mile travel day back to the Orlando area. There is no real time constraints on travel. I probably leave around 11AM. Traffic is likely to be heavy.

Wednesday April 3rd 2024

The day began cloudy and very humid. It got worse from there. The temperature climbed into the low eighties as the cloud cover increased. The cold front arrived in the 4PM hour with lots of heavy rain and a little bit of thunder and lightening. Some locations in the area got over an inch of rain before the precipitation ended around 8PM. With the passing of the front the temperature dropped into the sixties.

Today’s weather kept the alligators in the water. A few gators poked their heads above water to watch the world go by. The birds were back in the shelter of the woods during the heavy wind leading up to the storm. After the worst of the front passed the birds returned to the water in the light rain.

The weather cut down on my exercise today. I got in one short walk early, but the rain was still coming down when as sunset approached. To check on the alligators and birds, I drove to the bridge over the river on the park road. I got a little wet taking pictures of the birds. The alligators were still playing shy.

Tuesday April 2nd 2024

The humidity is climbing ahead of another cold front tomorrow. It wasn’t the most comfortable day as I wandered in the park. The temperature was only in the mid eighties, but the humidity made it feel warmer. It is a matter of getting acclimated to Florida humidity as the seasons progress into the warmer zone.

The level of the water in the river has gone down significantly in the week and a half I’ve been at Myakka River State Park. On the river gauge near the front of the park the water is about eight tenths of a foot lower than it was when I first arrived. That is about ten inches of vertical water height. It becomes much more significant where the river is spread out across shallow ground. Many areas of the river bank are now dry and major sections of back channels and diversions are now dry or isolated from the main river flow. One thing this does is give the alligators more places to get out of the water. They don’t seem to be as concentrated at the bridge as they were earlier in my stay.

I had to stop in the park office to get the new gate code this morning. Last night when I returned to the park after the gate was closed, I couldn’t get in. The code was changed on April 1st and the new code they gave me at check in wasn’t correct. Since I was blocking the entry trying to get in last night, the car behind me took mercy and provided me with the code. Before I got in a truck arrived with the duty ranger, so I guess I wasn’t in danger of being locked out. It was a head scratcher for a couple of minutes.

The wildlife on my last walk of the day was disappointing. I walked the three quarters of a mile to the park road bridge over the river. Usually there are still a few gators on the river bank and some birds around. Tonight, just before sunset, there was only one gator almost out of the water. The number of heads in the river was also down. The birds were sparse as well. I still want to see a few deer like I have on past visits.

Monday April 1st 2024

It was another beautiful day. A little more humidity added to the bright sunny day brought the high temperature into the mid eighties.

A level of tranquility returned to Myakka State Park today. All of the people that came to the park for picnics and sightseeing over the weekend have departed. There was plenty of room to park in the parking lots and the park road was easier to navigate. The birds seemed to be a little more comfortable on the near river bank rather than staying away from the side people frequent. The alligators were a little on the shy side today. Not a lot were out on the river banks.

Later in the day I drove along some of the gulf coast communities. There are still plenty of people enjoying the Florida sun. Traffic was stop and go. In the restaurant areas people lined the sides of the narrow roads. Driving was a chore to watch for people crossing the road without regard for traffic.

My last stop along the gulf coast was at Siesta Key Beach to watch the sunset. There were plenty of beach goers remaining on the beach and others arrived for the sunset. Six mounted police officers were also on the beach. It wasn’t clear if they were there for security, an exercise or just to entertain people.