Friday March 3rd 2023

There were a few more clouds in the sky today, but the sun still won the battle for dominance. The temperature climbed into the mid eighties just like the past few days. The big difference today was the wind. A very strong wind out of the east blew until shortly before sunset. It was a hat catching day. I had to hold onto my hat a few times to keep it on my head and I participated in a catch that hat contest that another guy started against the wind. He recovered his hat after a fifty foot or more chase.

I slept in this morning. The battle for a state park reservation for next winter will resume tomorrow. There weren’t any good options available this morning. I had a leisurely paced breakfast this morning while watching many of my neighbors pack up to leave. The weekenders arrived in the afternoon to fill the empty sites.

In the early afternoon I ventured out along the Tamiami trail to the east. I was looking for another hiking opportunity that is identified on the map. Unfortunately it is currently closed. I ended up back at the Marsh Trail in the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge. The birds didn’t disappoint me. Probably because of the wind they were in different locations, but there were plenty of them. Today I didn’t see any Rosetta Spoonbills, but there were a pair of Brown Pelicans to observe. The trail was very busy. I had to wait for a parking space in the relatively small lot.

Thursday March 2nd 2023

The smoke clouds from the prescribed burns that were overhead as Wednesday ended were gone this morning. The strong wind out of the south was probably the reason. There was a deep blue sky with only a few clouds late in the day. The temperature climbed into the mid eighties just like the last few days. We are in a great weather pattern, but today may be the last day. A cloudy day is forecast for tomorrow as a front passes west to east north of here.

I ended up working on my computer most of the day. It started with another failed attempt to book a reservation for next winter and progressed into a maintenance session. A complete backup of all my data was overdue. I maintain regular backups of my pictures, blog text and other things I create on USB memory sticks, external drives and cloud storage for some items. My internet access isn’t reliable enough to depend on cloud storage alone. Today I created two complete backups on external drives. With a measure of confidence that I wouldn’t lose anything important, I started to delete stuff in an attempt to improve performance. It was a combination of a trip down memory lane and some real computer sleuthing. Overall, once I get in the mood, I really enjoy this time of activity. It isn’t quick. After I get through with this blog entry, I’ll continue sorting through files, moving things around and deleting the junk.

In between sessions at my keyboard I took a couple of walks around the state park and cooked a little more complicated meal than usual using my slow cooker. It was a real stay at home kind of day.

Wednesday March 1st 2023

Today’s weather repeated the last couple of days. It was in the mid eighties with lots of sunshine. Most of the day there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Late in the day an artificial cloud filled in from the north and west. The smoke from a prescribed burn to the north started to approach this area. It managed to accentuate the sunset to a colorful extreme.

I had another frustrating morning trying to book next winters Florida State Park stays. Because February is a twenty eight day month, I had four days of newly available sites to pick from this morning. The last three days of January 2024 and the first day of February were available. Still I didn’t have any luck. These conditions are probably the worst throughput challenge the software needs to handle. The web interface was behaving differently than I’ve seen it before. This morning it reported the web site wasn’t available. It looked a lot like some networking geek was manually preventing the system from overloading like I’ve experienced in the past. Once I did make connections all of the available sites I was looking for were in the process of being booked. I think I’m still missing the optimal way to use the system, but the software interfaces is still a piece of crap. Not getting a site in a fair contest is one thing. This is just a pain in the …

The great adventure of the day was another short drive into the outskirts of Naples. I needed to pick up a package at an Amazon locker. In this area many of the Ross stores have lockers. It was a simple task easily completed and I was back at the campground. I learned not to return in the middle of the afternoon. I got stuck at the ranger station behind three RVs checking in. Before I got through the gate two other RVs were behind me. Even though all of the arriving RVs are already registered and paid, it still takes a while for each RV to get

Tuesday February 28th 2023

Today’s weather was pretty much a clone of Monday and that isn’t a bad thing. It was a beautiful weather day. Once again the temperature peaked in the mid eighties.

My day began with frustration. I was up early to attempt to book a Florida State Park stay for next winter. For the second two week interval in a row I stuck out booking a stay at one of the popular parks. Between the new software and perhaps an increased demand, I am having difficulties earlier in the winter than I’ve ever experienced before. Usually I experience difficulties for March or February but this year it is with January. I am going to have to get creative which may mean moving into the cooler weather areas of the state.

The only other major activity for the day was a grocery run. I was out of milk, non frozen meat and a few other things. Based on what I came home with, I wasn’t all that desperate for groceries. I had fewer bags than usual and I spent a bit less. Even so, I seemed to have everything I needed. It looks like I’m eating differently causing me to use things at different rates. I’ll be within five to ten miles of a grocery store for the next three plus weeks so it will be easy to get anything I need.

My walks around the campground today didn’t result in any nice wildlife pictures, but I made a point to get a sunset picture or two. There were a lot of other people with a similar goal.

Monday February 27th 2023

It was a little bit cooler today, but it was still above normal. Along with the continuous breeze it was a very comfortable day. The temperature peaked in the lower half of the eighties.

I split the day between catching up on chores and a little touring. The morning was for chores and the afternoon for touring. I drove along the Tamiami trail to the main Big Cypress National Preserve Visitors center. Unlike the Oasis visitors center near the Midway campground I was at last week, this visitors center doesn’t have alligators. Instead it has a boardwalk along the mangrove lined marsh where you can often see manatees swimming. There weren’t any today. The best I saw today were a few purple blossoms.

On the way back I stopped at the Marsh trail of the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife refuge again. Yesterday I walked the whole three mile round trip out the trail and back. Today I only walked a short way to the observation tower. The majority of the wildlife are in that part of the trail. Today the Rosetta Spoonbills were hanging out in front of the observation tower.

The campground had more turnover today than it did yesterday. There was a steady line of departures starting before eight this morning. The campground hosts were very busy checking the sites as each became empty. By night fall the campground was full again.

Sunday February 26th 2023

It was another beautiful day in south Florida. A steady breeze kept the above normal temperatures from being oppressive. The high temperature for the day was in the mid eighties.

I expected the campground to have a mass departure this morning. It wasn’t as dramatic as I expected. While a lot of people did leave early, others hung on to the 1PM checkout time. I think some even paid for the extra night so they could leave late in the afternoon. There still weren’t as many empty sites as I expected. Maybe more will depart tomorrow.

For exercise and entertainment today, I ventured back to the east on the Tamiami trail to the Ten Thousand Island National Wildlife Refuge Marsh Trail. This trail is a gravel road into the marsh to access some monitoring equipment. A viewing tower, benches and informational signs have been added to make it a nice trail. It is an out and back trail that goes about 1.5 miles into the marsh. There are mangroves and water on both sides of the trail.

Today, most of the wildlife was along the first half of the trail. I saw lots of varieties of birds, an alligator and a turtle in a Heron’s mouth. I took plenty of pictures.

Saturday February 25th 2023

Then TV weather forecast last night presented a very hot picture for today. It didn’t turn out as extreme as they indicated. The temperature only reached the mid eighties under bright sunshine. If the temperature set records, it wasn’t here.

The campground has been very active today. There seem to be several extended family groups occupying neighboring sites throughout the park. The closeness of the sites makes this park ideal for gatherings. That combination resulted in lots of noise and activity. On one walk around the campground, I passed three different corn hole games.

At the water access many kayaks and small boats were launched as evidenced by empty roof racks and boat trailers. The actual boats were all out of site down the narrow channel in the mangroves. I walked out a trail that paralleled the channel behind the mangroves. The trail went from wide and well traveled to narrow and impassable in a few feet after I’d walked a quarter mile or more. I only managed to get a few brief glimpses of the water through the mangroves. The purpose of the trail to nowhere is a mystery.

It was a relaxing day overall. I seemed to alternate between eating and walking. First there was breakfast followed by a walk to the water access area. Then there was lunch followed by a walk around the campground loops. After another light meal, I returned to the water access area to check for evening wildlife action. The same Great Blue Heron seemed to be in the same branch of a tree as last night.

Friday February 24th 2023

The temperature continues to set record highs in various reporting areas around Florida. In this immediate area there were enough clouds to keep things comfortable. Just as it started to warm up a cloud would block the sun long enough to keep the temperature from spiking. The temperature peaked in the mid to upper eighties. This trend is forecast continue for the next week.

I spent the day getting re-familiar with Collier Seminole State Park. It was the fall of 2020 the only other time I visited this park. The only significant difference is the occupancy of the campground. In the fall it wasn’t full every night, but this time of year availability is in short supply. This is an old style campground. Many of the sites are small and close to other sites. In the middle of the camping loops the sites are very random in location. The back of one site is often very close to the side of another. My site is on the outer side of the loop which is better spaced with bigger sites. Even so, I had to use extensions to reach both the electric and water hookups. In modern designed sites power and water hookups are better located for today’s RVs.

Access to the water is a good walk from my site. I haven’t measured the distance, but it seems to be about a half mile away. The water is tidal. It seems to rise and fall about four feet judging from the floating docks. A channel leads to the Gulf of Mexico west of Marco Island. It is several miles long. The canoe and kayak rental doesn’t seem to be open, but many of the campers seemed to come prepared with their own equipment.

The park also has several historical displays. I will revisit those over the next few days. I doubt that what was history two plus years ago has changed. Revisionist history usually only applies to concepts not artifacts.

Thursday February 23rd 2023

While the north is getting snow and ice this area of the south is having a mini heat wave. Today’s high was in the low nineties. The good thing is that the temperature still gets down into the high sixties overnight. The bad news is today was a moving day. It is never fun to move on a hot and humid day.

I departed the Big Cypress National Preserve just before the noon checkout. It is difficult to stretch it out to the last minute. Once you get started with travel preparation tasks it is hard to slow down. The problem was finding a place along the way to kill some time. I didn’t want to arrive at my destination before checkout time. Finding a place to park my 55 feet of motorhome and towed car is a challenge. Today I ended up making two U-turns while driving in an exaggerated oval before finding a place to hand out for a half an hour. Basically I killed half an hour driving and another half an hour parked at a roadside rest area on the wrong side of the road.

I arrived at Collier-Seminole State Park on the eastern approach along the Tamiami Trail to the Naples Florida area at 1:30PM. This is the park that didn’t reopen after hurricane Ian until January. I was concerned that I was going to have to find an alternative, but the park is OK for the most part. The older of the restroom buildings is still closed for repairs. The other two newer and elevated restroom buildings are open. One trail is also marked as closed. The campsites seem fine. I’ll check things out tomorrow.

Wednesday February 22nd 2023

There was a strong breeze out of the east this morning. It continued most of the day generally improving the weather conditions. The wind prevented the fog from settling in this morning and kept the temperature under control during the day. The actual temperature peaked around 90 degrees, but the breeze kept the comfort level in the manageable area.

An alligator showed up in the campground pond today. That is not unusual. I expected to see one during my stay. The story the campground host told was unexpected. Apparently, the gator was spotted by a camper walking in from the canal on the other side of US 41 during the night. I know they are nocturnal roamers and the mating season is approaching, but I sure wouldn’t want to meet up with one in the middle of the night. This afternoon the gator was on the bank at the far end of the pond.

I got my daily dose of gators and birds with another stop at the Oasis Visitors Center down the road. Today the gators became very active when a tractor trailer truck pulled up along the road beside the canal. The slow moving truck caused all of the alligators on that side of the canal to get in the water and swim away. Either the truck blocked the sun or caused enough of a rumble in the ground to disturb the gators. It took a good fifteen minutes before the alligators gradually started to return to their favorite sunning spots.

The birds didn’t seem to mind the disturbance of the truck or the swimming alligators. The Great Blue Heron and Great Egret continued to stare at the water looking for a wayward fish and the Cormorants continued to dive and swim to get their lunch. There was a lot of activity in the canal.

At the campground the regular daily turnover of sites continued. The site behind me has been occupied the last two nights by a guy camping in a minivan from Pennsylvania. He has a bed in the back of the van and a big box fan setup to blow air into and around the van. Other than that it looks like a tent camper without the tent until you look closer. The occupant is mobility challenged. He uses a wheeled walker to get around and I think I saw a wheel chair as well. He uses the van to drive to the bathrooms and is probably sightseeing during the day.

This is my last day at the Big Cypress National Preserve Midway Campground. Tomorrow I move back west to the outskirts of Naples. It is going to be another day trying to find a way to kill time on a short travel distance day. Checkout here is before checkout at my destination. Finding a place to stop along the way with a big motorhome is a challenge. Hopefully my destination doesn’t enforce the 3PM check in time.