Today’s weather was a clone of Saturday’s. It was a bright sunny day with the high temperature right around eighty. The forecast calls for similar weather all week. The only negative is the humidity is on the increase.
Natures Christmas Decorations
My daily walks in the park were separated by watching football on TV today. The park was very crowded and there was a steady stream of cars entering the park. I changed my mind about leaving the park when I saw the line at the gatehouse was almost out to the street. Inside the park the parking areas at the wildlife viewing areas were overflowing even more than they were the last couple of days.
The alligators and water birds were out taking advantage of the good weather. On my second walk of the day I saw some turkeys for the first time on this visit. They were in the same area the deer were in last week.
Today was a beautiful day with a high temperature of eighty. It was about five degrees warmer than average with bright sun and very little wind.
The highlight of my day was a couple of hikes separated by cooking and eating dinner. There were plenty of people out enjoying the park. Some of the conversations I overhear are amusing. There are a lot of wildlife “experts” in many groups of visitors. Hearing the alligators identified as crocodiles is very common. The strength of conviction in some of the pronouncements is the amusing part. I’m not great with bird identifications, but some of the identifications I overhear are wild. The Rosetta Spoonbills are often identified as Flamingos because of their bright pink feathers and the Great Blue Herons get mistaken for “cranes”. Today a pair of Wood Storks got identified as Penguins by one very loud authority from a New York car then corrected to be Pelicans when questioned by another member of his party. My guess is he has never seen either bird before.
The weather is on an improvement path. Today the wind was even calmer than yesterday and the sun was equally bright. The temperature peaked about five degrees higher in the mid seventies.
The number of daily visitors to the park continues to climb. I didn’t venture deeper into the park with my car. Most of the parking lots were full to over flowing with cars. Instead of driving, I walked a good distance into the park checking for wildlife along several of the trails. At the Canopy Walkway bridge there was a line up of people waiting to climb the stairs to walk across the suspension bridge at the tree top level. I’ve done it before so I continued on the trail into the woods.
Today’s conditions were right for the Alligators in the river to be on the bank taking the sun. I probably saw more than twenty along the bank on my walk and a few more heads poking up out of the water. The birds weren’t as plentiful until near sunset.
When I typed the day and date on the line above I had to really think about it. I felt like today was a weekend day. My confusion probably began with my late start to the day. When I first woke up it was in the low fifties inside my RV home. To combat the chill I turned on the electric space heater and went back to sleep. The morning news programs and most of the next hour were over by the time I got out of bed. It turned out to be a beautiful day with lots of sun, a light wind and a high temperature in the upper sixties.
Today was a chores day. Chief among the chores was making sewage run up hill or so the challenge of dumping my holding tanks seemed. At this site the sewage connection is more than twenty five feet from the dump valves on my RV. The connection is also almost a foot above the ground in a poured concrete support block. The intent of the concrete is to keep the opening above any standing water during flood conditions in the park. The combination of the distance from my RV and the height makes it very difficult to establish a supported hose run at a constant pitch. Using two long dump hoses and the supports I have there was still a dip in the hose run and a climb at the end to get to the connection. Since the tanks in the RV were above the connection into the ground it all worked, but getting the last few gallons of sewage in the low points of the hose into the sewer took some persuasion.
I took two walks today. The alligators were back on the river bank and the birds were a little more active. Reviewing my pictures this evening I didn’t find any standouts, but a few nice pictures of birds and gators. Today seemed to be a Great Blue Heron Picture taking day.
Mother Nature looked at the calendar and decided to cool things down. The first full day of winter was the first day in December with a high temperature in the sixties for the Sarasota FL area. There was also a constant fifteen to twenty mile per hour breeze out of the north east. An overnight low in the forties is anticipated.
Not quite a flower blossom, but still pretty.
Walking around the state park today there were more people and fewer animals. Most of the Alligators were in the water with their heads above the surface. Only a few were taking the sun on the river bank. The birds were hunkered down of puffed up to ward off the chilly breeze. The increase in people as the holiday approaches is visible by the steady flow of cars on the park roads and the full parking areas near all of the wildlife viewing spots. The kids have been out of school since last Friday in this area, but most of the visitors seem to be adults from northern states based on the license plates on the cars.
The campground seems to be behaving differently than the overall park. There have been empty sites the last couple of nights. The online reservation system shows the park completely full. Most of the sites in this section seem to be occupied by people staying only a night or two. Other years I think there have been a lot more longer stays. Let’s call it confusing.
The forecast rain arrived overnight. It didn’t sound particularly heavy on the roof of my RV home, but I slept through most of it. This morning I woke to the sound of heavy rain on the roof. Once I turned on the TV, I found the area was under a tornado watch. Once again, I must have slept through the worst of the storm. It didn’t seem particularly bad. When I ventured out after the storm, I found a moat around my campsite and evidence of many dead palm branches and Spanish moss blown from the trees. The day was mostly cloudy with a high temperature in the low seventies. This evening it is raining again. Tomorrow is forecast to be sunny and Florida cold.
Moat across the entrance to my campsite.
Today I was on a mission to find someone to check the tow hookup on my car. When I disconnected the towbar from the car I detected some movement in the base plate that mounts permanently to the cars frame. It should be rock solid. After forty thousand miles of towing the base plate was coming loose. I found A&A Trailer Hitch Center in Bradenton that installs base plates and towbars. They were able to fit me in today once they finished with an install. After taking the front bumper off my Honda CRV, they found one missing bolt, one bolt missing a nut and all of remaining six bolts loose. It was a disaster waiting to happen. Eight brand new bolts later the base plate was rock solid again. They were clearly very busy, but made time to fix my issue. This is definitely a business I’d return to another time.
Before and after my repair mission, I searched the State Park for wildlife. The cooler cloudy weather seemed to keep many of the creatures in hiding. Very few gators were on the bank, but a few heads were above the surface of the water. Many of the birds seemed to be hiding out from the wind and chill of the day. I could see many more white, pink and gray specs in the distant trees than I saw out on the river bank. I still managed to take a few pictures of the birds I saw.
Clouds dominated the weather today. To the north the clouds were thick and dark and to the south it looked like there were more breaks in the cloud cover. Here at Myakka River State Park there were a few short periods of cloud filtered sun. The temperature peaked in the upper seventies. Tonight and tomorrow morning are forecast to be rainy as the latest cold front moves through the area.
In addition to checking out the wildlife around the park, I ventured out to find some food. Getting back to the interstate was a bit of a challenge. Half of the eight mile stretch of road is under construction. Even though the signs indicated that road closures were during the overnight hours, there was plenty of work happening to stop the flow of traffic. Four intersections along highway 72 are getting widened with traffic control getting added. At the interstate major changes are being undertaken to both the intersection and the interstate highway. It looks like a couple of years of work.
My primary goal for the day was getting some groceries. I chose a Walmart further away than necessary. It gave me a chance to checkout changes to the area and it is a bigger store than the nearest one. I didn’t find anything new along the way. The store was busy, but not Christmas busy. Only a few of the staffed checkouts were open, so checkout took longer. I was in the wrong frame of mind for grocery shopping resulting in over buying. Besides not wanting to visit a store until after Christmas, there also exists a small chance of pandemic restrictions being established after the presidents over advertised speech Tuesday. I came home with food that will have to be frozen, but my freezer is already three quarters full.
The overnight fog was slow to burn off this morning. It was shortly afternoon before the sun made an appearance in the sky. Even so, the temperature still managed to get into the low eighties.
I need to get groceries. The last weekend day before a major holiday would seem like a bad time to join the crowds, but the cloudy weather added a little to the positive side of the decision. The arrival of the sun this afternoon threw the balance back to staying in the park and taking a hike. I took a hike along the banks of the Myakka River this afternoon.
Trail along the Myakka River
Both sides of the river near my campsite have trails along the river bank. One is a defined trail and the other is a path that people have developed by continued bushwhacking along the river. It is an interesting time to walk the banks. The river level is low this year. Last year it was a couple of feet higher and on a visit before that it was actually out of its banks. Today the banks of the river were covered in a bright green grass. Just like yesterday I got a lot of interesting pictures.
The above normal temperatures and bright sunny days continue. Today’s high temperature was in the mid eighties. Tomorrow and possibly Monday are forecast to be similar. A cold front with a line of strong storms is on the way for Tuesday.
Myakka River
I spent the day getting settled in at Myakka River State Park. In addition to finishing the setup tasks I did some exploring around the park to visit all of the wildlife. This is one of my favorite Florida State Parks. People share the space with a wide variety of animals.
After three plus days of changeable weather, today was all sun. The temperature in the mid eighties was ten degrees or more above normal. A travel day without rain is a nice change.
Site 54 at Myakka River State Park.
I departed Lake Louisa State Park in Clermont at 12:30PM. One hundred and thirty miles and three hours later I arrived at Myakka River State Park in Sarasota. The route is primarily intestate highway, but he traffic was horrible. It seems like every time I travel the route it gets worse. Today there was no let up from heavy traffic and there were several slow downs to crawling speed. Most of the time the speed went from sixty plus to thirty or slower in rapid cycles. This is very hard in the motorhome. I need extra distance to slow and stop if necessary, so I have to leave plenty of room in front of me. Other drivers see that as an invitation to weave into the gap I allow to open. If they knew my stopping ability, they might think twice.
Usually there are a couple of areas that the traffic eases up, but not today. One between Davenport and Lakeland on Interstate 4 was filled with construction that constrains the traffic. The other location south of Tampa and north of Bradenton on Interstate 75 had an accident on the northbound side that slowed everybody on the southbound side to look things over. Overall there were three accidents with plenty of emergency vehicles on the other side of the highway and one flat tire changer on my side. There was more construction near the end of my interstate travels and on the road out of Sarasota to the state park.
Today’s drive was only a 130 miles, but it makes the top ten of bad drives on my Rambling Road Trip. I was happy to be off the road and setup on my site for the next two weeks at Myakka River State Park. After getting a little rest and a little food, I took a walk to the Myakka River to check for birds, alligators and the sunset. There were plenty.
Rob's Rambling Road Trip 