Thursday April 7th 2022

I woke this morning to a bright white sky. The sun was blocked by a layer of clouds, but they were thin enough that a lot of light came through. The other prime element of the days weather was the humidity. The moisture in the air needed to be cut just to walk through it. The weather was the main influence on the overall day.

The animal life in the park was hiding from the weather. All of the alligators were in the water. A few were swimming, but most of the visible gators only had their eyes and snout above the surface. The bird life was not out in the open area. The trees and tall grass provided a little more shelter from the strong wind than the open river bank. The only animal life I saw on the river bank was a single turtle that had used its limited energy to climb onto a log.

Midway through the afternoon the cold front arrived. I was driving in downtown Sarasota at the time. Conditions were not ideal. The rain fell sideways from the wind, visibility was poor and traffic was heavy. The storm front lasted for a little over two hours. On the other side of the front, the temperature was ten to fifteen degrees lower, the wind let up and the humidity was gone.

Back at the campground this evening there were plenty of big puddles and a few downed clumps of leaves. Overall it was much more comfortable weather. The next few days are forecast to be in the seventies with plenty of sunshine and lower humidity.

Wednesday April 6th 2022

It was another warm day with high humidity and wind out of the south. The clouds were thick enough to hide the sun more often than they allow the sunshine to reach the ground. The temperature peaked around ninety degrees. The cold front with the potential for severe weather arrives tomorrow.

Perhaps it was the heat and humidity or just my mood, but it was hard to get motivated today. I spent extra time finishing my breakfast coffee and catching up on my internet reading. My quasi plan to make a grocery run was abandoned for today. I started my first walk of the day well after the noon hour. The alligators and wading birds may have been in a similar mood. They were few and far between today. I think the absence of continues bright sun kept the alligators off the river bank and in the more constant temperature of the river water.

It is interesting to listen to people’s reactions to the alligators they see. In particular they can’t seem to get a handle on size. I am clearly not an alligator expert, but I have picked up a few facts from trusted sources over the years. What I would consider average gators are often exclaimed as big or huge by other people. When a truly big gator is in view they often declare it’s length to be eight or nine feet. In my view most of the full grown gators in the river are seven to nine feet long and some of the big ones are near twelve feet long. The small, young ones, don’t seem to hang out in the river with the big ones. This is the start of mating season, so the big males won’t tolerate the smaller males well. They can get aggressive.

Tuesday April 5th 2022

There was a strong wind out of the south today. It helped keep the outside temperature a little more comfortable than Monday. Overall the high temperature was near ninety with plenty of humidity.

Today I drove deeper into the park in search of the elusive wading birds. At the boardwalk designed to aid bird watching near the north end of the lake all I found were tourists. The birds were nowhere to be found. In the past there have been many varieties of birds out in the lake. I walked out to the end of the boardwalk looked around for birds and walked back in just like all the tourists.

My other stop was at the concessionaire area in the park. The boat rides into the lake are not running because of the low water level and the tram ride only runs on the weekend. They were doing some business renting bicycles, but I didn’t see anyone renting kayaks or canoes. The low water level is also an obstacle to paddling.

Since I was here in December a major watershed restoration project has been completed. They removed the weir at the entrance to the Myakka River that attempted to keep the water level constant in the lake. It had been mostly bypassed in recent years, but a major project during the first part of this year removed all of the old weir, regraded the river banks in the area and allowed for the free flow of water into the river. The alligators that used to congregate in the area have moved to other areas. They may return with higher water levels. The wildlife that hasn’t moved is all the Rosetta Spoonbills that hang out in a set of trees on the far side of the river close to the location of the old weir. The trees were full of the pink and white birds.

Later in the day walking to the river from my campsite I found a few more birds. A Great Blue Heron seemed to be posing for my camera. One minute it was looking right at me from the far bank and the next it was giving me a left profile picture followed by a right. Near the bridge over the river on the main park road a pair of Limpkins were busy foraging for food between pauses to squawk at each other. Alligators continue to be everywhere along the river.

Saturday April 2nd 2022

I woke this morning to a campground shrouded in a thick fog. Yesterday’s humidity was still very present. It was after nine before the fog gave way to a bright sunny day.

Today was a travel day. I prefer not to travel on Saturday’s, but that was how the reservation search worked out last May when the booking window opened. My attempts to get a reservation from the twenty ninth on finally resulted in success on the 2nd. As a consequence my next two moves are also on a Saturday.

I was ready to travel long before I needed to depart. It is always a timing challenge to make sure you don’t arrive before the previous occupants of the site have departed. I departed the Midway Campground in Big Cypress National Preserve shortly after 11AM and arrived around 2PM at Myakka River State Park.

Traffic was heavy on Interstate 75. The stretch from Naples to Fort Meyers was filled with lots of entering and exiting traffic and a few impatient drivers weaving in and out of traffic in an attempt to get to their destination a few seconds before the rest of the traffic. Even the stretch of road from Fort Meyers to Sarasota had plenty of traffic, but with fewer exits the volume was a little better behaved.

I made one stop in Fort Meyers for gas. Two hundred plus dollars later, I had added a little more than fifty gallons to fill the tank. The price per gallon was reasonable compared to what I paid in the Miami suburbs on Monday, but compared to last year gas prices are crazy.

As I traveled north the bright sun gave way to hazy sunshine and eventually full cloud cover. The latest cold front to pass over Florida has been fixed over the middle of the state. The Tampa area across through Orlando and on to the east coast has had severe weather all day. As I’m writing this blog entry the rain has started here. It isn’t forecast to be severe, but is forecast to last off and on all night.

I’m at Myakka River State Park east of Sarasota for the next two weeks. I’m on the same campsite I had in December. A quick wander around the park indicates that the water level is a lot lower than December. This is the near the end of the dry period in Florida. The park also seems to be less busy. I didn’t find a line at the entrance station and I think there are a few empty sites in the campground. I’ll explore more over the next couple of weeks.

Friday April 1st 2022

The weather trend toward more hot and humid weather continues in this area. The temperature peaked around 90 degrees. Outside there was enough wind that it was tolerable, but the temperature inside my RV home, even with the windows open and the fans blowing was very uncomfortable.

This is my last day in South Florida this winter. I’ve been in the Big Cypress Preserve or Everglades National Park since the fourteenth of the month. I’ve seen plenty of alligators and birds. Tomorrow I’m moving north about one hundred and seventy miles to the Sarasota area. I’ll be at Myakka River State Park for the next two weeks. There should be plenty of alligators and birds there as well.

The weather conditions in the central and northern part of the state haven’t been as nice as I’ve experienced in South Florida. The various cold fronts that have passed west to east have dropped a lot more rain from central Florida north. There was a tornado warning this morning in the greater Orlando area and a tornado touched down the day before in the panhandle. I hope things have cleared out a little as I move into those areas.

I’ll be back in this area again next winter. That wasn’t part of my original plan, but as I struggled to find reservations in Florida State Parks, I found more success as I moved further south. This area has a lot to offer in the way of interesting terrain and wildlife. The only down side is the need to drive to the different areas. Not a lot is in walking distance of any of the places to stay.

Today I drove back to the Oasis Visitors Center. There are a very large number of alligators in the canal in front of the visitors center. I don’t think they stocked the canal with gators, but they did make the habitat very attractive. There is a combination of deep water, shallow water and side banks for taking in the sun. I counted more than twenty alligators this afternoon, but some were moving so my count might be off.

I plan to get on the road around 11AM, so I don’t get to my destination before checkout time for the current occupants. The expected challenges along the way include finding a stop for gas and the possibility of running into a thunderstorm or two. I need to do my Google Maps investigation on gas station access before I got to bed tonight.