Sunday September 15th 2024

The sun made a bigger presence today than the last couple of days. It was still fairly cloudy in central Florida with a brief rain shower shortly after sunset. I was on the west coast of the peninsula today and it was sunnier. Once again the temperature hovered around the ninety degree mark with lots of humidity.

I took a trip to the Sarasota Bradenton area today. Friends from up north were down for a quick visit, so I made the trip over to visit with them. Traffic crossing the state in Interstate 4 this morning was challenging. It seemed like each of the three lanes of traffic was filled with cars all the way from Orlando to Tampa. The trip south from Tampa to Sarasota was only a little bit better. Luckily all of the construction zones were quiet on a Sunday. Coming home this evening the traffic wasn’t any better. These interstates are major arteries within the state.

Today’s traffic was normal weekend travel combined with some of the usual truck traffic. There are many warehouses along the Interstate 4 corridor. Among the warehouses there are several Amazon fulfillment centers and at least one Walmart.com equivalent. All of these have been built over the last few years. The area used to be open pasture lands and wood filled areas. This is one more example of the ever increasing density of developed land in Florida.