Sunday March 6th 2022

It was another sunny and windy day. The temperature peaked in the mid eighties. Overall, it seemed to be a little cooler than Saturday. Much needed humidity is expected to arrive tomorrow as the wind moves from the east toward the southeast. Currently, the fire danger is very high.

Looking back at my last few blog entries, it would appear I’ve become obsessed with the wind. This is the first campsite in the open I’ve had since fall. All of my campsites so far this winter have been in the trees. A windy day in the woods is a lot different from a windy day in an open field. This campground is on the bank of the Okeechobee waterway. Not only does the waterway allow the wind to travel at ground level, but the surrounding area is pasture land or flood plain area. There is very little to divert the wind. In this area the wind behaves similar to the wind in the wide open west. The wind the last few days hasn’t been bad, just constant. It has kept the overall heat bearable. Continually gusty winds are far harder to deal with.

This was a lazy day. It was a two cup of coffee morning as I caught up on my internet reading. My first walk of the day was shortly afternoon. All of the Sunday departures from the campground had already checked out. I counted only ten empty sites out of fifty one. That is just another indicator that this isn’t a weekend destination. It is a place for travelers from northern states to stop. Today I saw more than one RV from each of Ohio, Wisconsin, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts in the campground.

There were plenty of people fishing today just like yesterday. I didn’t see anyone land a fish, but I saw several being carried away when the fishing was over. The area just below the dam seems to be a very productive fishing hole. In addition to the people on the fishing platform, boats creep up to the line of buoys that mark how close to the dam you can get. The fishermen on the boats cast well into the water discharge area. I’m surprised there aren’t a lot of crossed lines with all the angles people are fishing from.

Saturday March 5th 2022

Today’s wind was even stronger than yesterday. It built up to around a 20mph sustained wind out of the east late in the afternoon with gusts even higher. From a cooling perspective it was needed. The record high temperatures of ninety were tied in some locations in the area. Here, in the middle of the peninsular, the wind kept the temperature in the mid eighties.

Everything I did today was impacted by the wind. While out walking it was a constant battle to keep my hat on. If it wasn’t for the bright sun, I would have abandoned the hat. I think the birds even stayed in more sheltered areas because of the wind. The usual compliment of birds was depleted. Trying to work around the outside of my RV home was also a challenge. The wind was blowing over chairs and pushing doors closed right out of my hands. The wind will be back tomorrow to keep the temperature down, while keeping activities limited.

There were a lot of people in the park to fish today. The churned up water in the outflow from the dam is a popular Snook fishing area. I am not familiar with the species, but looked it up on the internet. It is endangered and therefor highly regulated. In this area a fisherman can take one fish between 28 and 33 inches a day. They apparently grow to be much bigger. I saw a couple of fish caught that were considered “keepers” by the fishermen. They were probably snook, but I didn’t ask. My knowledge of fish spices in southern areas is poor. I can identify the ones that also exist in the northeast, but after that I am a poor guesser.

Only a handful of campsites turned over today. The campground was pretty quiet during the middle of the day. People were either out for the day or hiding out in the shelter of the wind and shade from the sun. As night fall arrived the wind decreased a little and people got out to walk dogs and get their exercise before the long night.

Friday March 4th 2022

It was another bright sunny day with scattered clouds. The only change from yesterday was a stronger wind from a more easterly direction. The temperature stayed in the low eighties. Overall it was a very nice day as long as you kept everything anchored down.

There has been a lot of turnover in the campground the last couple of days. After the 11AM checkout time a third or more of the fifty one sites were empty. By the end of the day they are full. Most of the RVs in this park are travelers. The out of state plates easily out number the Florida license plates. That pattern holds for the recent arrivals as well. It doesn’t appear to be many if any people that are here just for the weekend. They are either here for a single night or a stay longer than the weekend. This campground is very different than the Florida state parks I’ve been staying in for the last ten weeks.

Besides walking around the park and taking pictures of birds, flowers and boats, I got a few chores done today. Taking pictures is far more enjoyable. I am probably taking pictures of the same birds over and over, but they continue to show up in a new light or angle. Tonight’s sunset picture wasn’t as nice as yesterday. Most of the clouds had disappeared from the sky before the sunset.

Thursday March 3rd 2022

The warm and dry weather trend continued today. The mostly sunny sky with a breeze out of the northeast resulted in a high temperature in the low to mid eighties. It was a very comfortable day.

I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. At least figuratively speaking. Today was lawn maintenance day at the campground. Around eight this morning it started. The sound of gas powered mowers, trimmers and edgers invaded the quiet overnight hours. Judging by when I turned off the TV last night, I should have slept at least another hour. The noisy early start to the day was just the first annoyance of the day.

On my first walk of the day I watched another catamaran pass through the lock. This one was eastbound or upstream. While watching the water fill the lock I got stung my some kind of bee. It got inside the leg opening in my shorts and trapped by the force of my phone in my pocket. The result was the first bee sting I’ve had in years. It was just above my knee. I was in real discomfort for a few minutes, but by afternoon I had forgotten all about it.

Later in the day, while catching on chores around my RV home, I managed to bang my knee on the corner of the refrigerator. The impact was just right to trigger a reflex reaction and another brief period of pain. I’m counting this as the third annoyance of the day. So far it is only a three annoyance day, but they have all come back to me as I search for something to write about in this blog entry.

Tonight’s sunset was very pretty. There were just enough cloud cover in the western sky to make the red sunset pop.

Wednesday March 2nd 2022

Yesterday ended with a clear sky and stayed clear overnight. The day began with bright sunshine and a breeze out of the northeast. The breeze kept the overall temperature under control today. It peaked in the low eighties. The forecast calls for it to get warmer all week topping near ninety on Sunday.

Today I made it a point to watch for boats passing through the lock. Shortly before noon I spotted a catamaran coming down river toward the lock. I walked across the dam to the observation area on the side of the lock to follow it through. The boat turned out to be out of Bermuda. The couple on board must be spending the winter in Florida. It was the only boat I saw lock through during the day.

I’ve been picking up on an odd vibe at this campground. At most public campgrounds people keep to themselves or one or two groups traveling with them. They are polite and open to conversation, but not invasive. Here there seems to be much more familiarity going on. It more closely resembles a commercial campground with long term residents. I overheard one departing party being wished safe travels and a promise to see them next year. It sounded like they are here at the same time every year. My neighbor greeted me shortly after I arrived with a small inquisition that seemed to imply she wasn’t happy to see me on the site beside her. It was an attitude of ownership or entitlement that seemed very out of place. Usually the two week stay limit keeps these types of things at bay. Late this afternoon an email from the campground office confirmed part of the problem. It was reminding people in the campground that there is a two week limit and that changing the name of the person on the registration is not an appropriate action to avoid the stay limitation. They don’t seem to be planning on kicking people out, but imply they will be attempting to enforce the rule more diligently. Clearly there is a problem, but I’m not part of it.

I saw many of the same birds today. They seem to have their favorite spots for getting a snack or full meal. An occasional small feud over territory takes place when one bird gets to close to another, but for the most part they wander around in harmony. I took more pictures of the birds today.

Tuesday March 1st 2022

The weather I experienced on Monday morning in northwest central Florida was here in south Florida this morning. It was cool and cloudy with an occasional period of drizzle this morning. Around 2PM the sun made its first appearance of the day. The high temperature was in the low seventies.

My day was focused on getting settled in and refreshing my knowledge of the park. I stayed here four years ago at about this time of year for two weeks and briefly in the fall of 2020 when I was running from hurricane Eta in the Keys. That last stay was for one night rainy and windy night. I didn’t have much time to check anything out.

This campground is located on the south bank of the Caloosahatchee Canal at the Ortona lock. The canal is a widened part of the Caloosahatchee River that flows from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico at Fort Meyers. Together with another canal on the east side of Lake Okeechobee it forms a cross Florida waterway. On my visit four years ago there was a lot of boat traffic in the canal. This year one of the locks on the section east of the lake is closed for maintenance, so the number of boats using the canal is way down. It is not currently possible to use the canal to cut hundreds miles off the journey between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.

Between the campground on the south bank and the lock along the north bank is a dam. During the day it is possible to walk across the dam to an island in the canal that serves as the south side of the lock. When boats are using the lock it is interesting to watch them be raised or lowered. Today I didn’t get to see any boats in the lock, but a least a few did go through while I wasn’t watching. I saw them leaving the lock area.

In the middle of the campground a small creek, irrigation ditch or drainage ditch, depending on your point of view, empties into the river. It is a feeding location for lots of different types of birds. This time of year many of the birds are in matting plumage. They are all spiffed up to attract a mate. Included in the birds was one very pretty Great Blue Heron.

Monday February 28th 2022

It was a travel day, so I was up early. The warm weather of the past two plus weeks was missing. A cold front was moving in keeping the morning temperatures in the fifties and low sixties under a very cloudy sky. I traveled south in the cloudy conditions for the first 150 miles before the sun started to break and the temperature climbed. Passing through the boundary between cool and warm weather was a windy event. My RV was pushed around on the highway by the wind for the last hundred miles or so. The temperature climbed into the eighties.

I managed to get on the road by 10:30AM. Once I reached Interstate 75 traffic was heavy. Every lane had traffic moving at the speed limit or above all the way from the Ocala area to the Sarasota area. At least it was better than the northbound lane. It was stopped in several areas. South of Sarasota the traffic let up a little. Changing lanes to maintain a steady pace became possible.

I arrived at the Army Corp of Engineers Ortona South campground after four and a half hours of straight driving. The one gas stopped I planned to make was a congested mess, so I arrived at my destination with a quarter tank of gas. I’ve stayed here a couple of times before. It should make a nice home for the next two weeks, but it is a different kind of park than I’ve been staying at for most of the winter. My site is out in the open without shade or any real break from the wind. I will probably have to turn the Air Conditioner on during the afternoon on the hot temperature days to come.

Sunday February 28th 2022

The fog rolled in overnight and held on well into the morning. It was near 10AM before a sunny blue sky was overhead. Even with the slow start the temperature got to the mid eighties. A cold front is forecast to arrive late tonight or tomorrow morning. Some rain is possible tomorrow.

This is my last full day at Rainbow Springs State Park. I’ve enjoyed my stay, but I am ready to move on. On my walks today I took many of the same pictures I’ve already taken. The one thing that was different was the antics of the people. During the entire length of my stay the kayak and canoe launch was used as it was designed and the beach area next door was used for the occasional swimmer. Today people didn’t seem to get it. During my first walk several boaters were using the beach area to launch their kayaks while the nice easy boat ramp next door was empty. Later in the day I found the exact opposite situation. People were swimming from the kayak ramp while a canoe and a pair of kayaks were trying to land. The beach with a sandy bottom wasn’t getting used.

I spent most of my time between walks getting ready to travel tomorrow. It will be a long travel day, so I want to get an earlier start than I’ve been getting on my last few moves. I’ll try to get on the road by 10AM for my two hundred and sixty mile drive. Most of the trip will be southbound on Interstate 75. It is not the shortest route, but it should be the easiest driving. I have about fifteen miles to travel before I get on the Interstate and another forty to fifty miles after I get off the Interstate in the Fort Meyers area. The shorter routes cut both of the corners off, but go through many towns with lots of traffic lights.

Saturday February 26th 2022

Central Florida was the warmest area in the continental United States today. Even south of here in the Miami area wasn’t as warm. The high in this area was in the upper eighties. There wasn’t much wind and the humidity was high making for a rather uncomfortable day for February.

I was up early this morning to make another attempt to book a reservation for next winter in another Florida State Park. My attempt last Wednesday was unsuccessful. Today I was successful booking a two week reservation in the Orlando area for the end of January into the beginning of February. I will have to book 3 nights in a commercial park to fill the gap between reservations, but that can wait a few weeks. My outline of a plan for next winter is completely blown up, but I’m getting reservations at some nice parks nonetheless.

The early start to the day resulted in a lazy pace for most of the morning. It wasn’t until close to noon before I got out for my first walk of the day. My neighbors were busy with a very elaborate process of packing to leave. They have a big diesel motorhome that they pulls a box trailer. In the trailer they carry kayaks, a golf cart and two big motorcycles. The box trailer is so big they had to park it in the reception area parking lot. I won’t miss the noisy motorcycles at all.

The river was just as busy and congested today as it was last weekend. Today seemed to have more paddle boards than kayaks, but they were all having fun. I spent a long time sitting on a bench watching the fish in the clear water. The ones near shore weren’t as big or exotic as the ones the snorkelers and scuba divers were seeing out in the middle of the river. One women who came in from snorkeling was very excited about the big gar she saw. At only a couple of feet it wasn’t very big for the species, but I let her thing it was huge.

Friday February 25th 2022

The overnight temperature only dropped a little below the sixty degree mark. This allowed the daytime temperature to rise quickly to the mid eighties high for the day. There were some clouds in the morning, but by the end of the day it was a clear blue sky.

I am not particularly susceptible to allergies, but sometimes the pollen level will get to me. Today was one of those days. As soon as I stepped out of my RV home, my nose got congested and my eyes started to tear up. I’m not sure what particular pollen was in play, but something was in the air. A breeze came up later in the day and cleared the air enough that I wasn’t feeling the impact anymore.

The campground is transitioning into weekend mode today. There was a lot of turn over this morning. Many of the rig that departed have been here since before I arrived. Once again the key feature of the new arrivals is the paddling equipment. They may be staying in tents, vans or small RVs, but they have plenty of kayaks, canoes and recreational equipment. The river will be a zoo again this weekend.

It was late in the afternoon before I had the energy to take the first real hike of he day. This morning I only walked to the river and back, but before sunset I walked the main trail system out behind my campsite. I hoped that the late hour would bring some of the area wildlife out of hiding. There are plenty of signs of animals bigger than squirrels, but they were still in their daytime hide outs. Even the water birds along the river were not around this evening.