Today had a high temperature in the high eighties with plenty of humidity. The clouds and sun had a battle for dominance which ended in a draw. The clouds deposited a tiny bit of rain, but the sun evaporated it before it had a chance to get anything wet.
There isn’t much to do at this campground. You can only walk around the pond looking for an alligator so many times before getting bored. Today I drove back to the west a few miles on the Tamiami trail stopping at some of the Big Cypress National Preserve roadside pull outs. I enjoyed another deep water area with lots of alligators and a hike along a boardwalk into a Cypress Swamp. Here are some pictures from my adventures.
Little Blue Heron foraging along the side of a deep water canal.
Suddenly something in the water gets the bird’s attention.
Start the “Jaws” music an alligator has the Little Blue Heron in its sights.
The Little Blue Heron saw the threat and moved further up the bank.
This big “guy” decided it was time to take some sun on the side of the canal. These creatures look prehistoric.
Today’s weather is pushing the summer weather a little. The temperature was around 90 degrees with high humidity, lots of sunshine and very little wind. Luckily with the setting sun the temperature dropped to good sleeping weather.
The Midway Campground is well named. It is midway between Naples and Miami on the Tamiami trail.
As I expected before I got here, this area is not the best for modern electronic conveniences. I have intermittent Verizon Cell service. The voice service seems to bounce between 1 and 2 bars. The data service can be 4G level one minute then non existent the next. I managed to get yesterdays blog entry posted. It only had a couple of pictures and it took an extra long time to complete. I don’t know what will happen tonight with all the pictures in this blog entry.
My RV home across the pond in the center of the Midway Campground.
Wildflower blossom of the day.
Dragon Fly.
The over the air TV signal is also intermittent. I can have as few as one channel or as many as 50 when all the sub-channels are included. Most of the time I only have an NBC, PBS and Spanish language station. All of the channels are out of the Miami and Fort Lauderdale area. It is a good thing that my DirecTV satellite is working. I’m watching a lot of HGTV and Food Network shows.
I spent most of the day at the campground. The pond in the middle of the campground is reported to have two resident gators. So far I’ve haven’t seen two at the same time, I’ve only seen an alligator in two different places at two different times. One was last night across the road from my site and this morning was near a group of picnickers at the end of the lake. The gator was very interested in what they were grilling.
An Egret and three gators in the canal at the Oasis Visitors center. The alligator on the right is trying to sneak up on the egret.
The Egret is planning its escape. Moments later it took off to the left.
To got my alligator fix for the day at the Oasis Visitors Center for the Big Cypress National Preserve. The center is a mile or two west of the campground on the Tamiami trail. It has a deep water section of a canal between the road and the visitors center that is great habitat for alligators. The canal has many gators to observe and most of them were active.
It was a long travel day. I was up early to prepare for an early departure. Still, it wasn’t until 9:30AM that I pulled out of Payne’s Prairie Preserve State Park. With one stop for gas along the way, I was on the road for seven hours. This was one of the worst travel days I’ve had on the Rambling Road Trip.
Traffic was very heavy along the entire 350 mile journey. Getting through the Ocala area was the first slow down, but it was minor compared to the congestion ahead. Just north of Tampa the traffic slowed down and got heavier. It didn’t let up much south of town. Just before the interstate 275 beltway returns to Interstate 75 north of Bradenton, traffic transitioned into stop and go mode. I didn’t track the mileage, but it took well over an hour to travel to the south side of Sarasota. Previous trips through this area as recently as January usually took less than thirty minutes. Other than two exits in Bradenton under construction, I could find no reason for the congestion other than the volume of traffic.
Site 12 at the Midway Campground.
The next major slow down was only a four mile stretch in the Punta Gorda area for an accident. It took half an hour to get past the scene. All that remained when I passed was the hazardous waste clean up crew. After driving in heavy traffic through Fort Meyers I had to slow down for another accident. This one was a box truck that drove off the road into a tree. It didn’t look like it was very bad, but it did slow my speed down to a ten mile an hour or so average. Once I was south of Naples it was a steady sixty mile an hour drive on the one lane in each direction Tamiami trail across the state.
Thunderstorm approaching from the east.
My destination was halfway across the state at the Midway Campground in the Big Cypress National Preserve. I arrived at 4:30PM and got setup before the threatening clouds to the east arrived. I saw plenty of lightening in the clouds, but they didn’t produce any rain in this area. This campground has about twenty five sites around a small pond. They warn you when you arrive and with many signs that alligators are the natives in the pond and bears in the woods. So far I’ve seen a gator on the band of the pond across from my site. If I see a bear, I hope it’s further away.
Today was another nice day. The temperature got into the mid seventies under a mostly sunny sky. Once again the forecasters called for a chance of rain, but it never materialized.
This is my last day at Payne’s Prairie Preserve State Park. I rode my bicycle down to the visitors center observation tower again today. There were not any wild horses or bison in the area. I guess I’m lucky to have seen them at a distance on other days. The people looking for them today were just disappointed. Later in the day near the Lake Wauberg recreation area I saw a couple of deer.
There is no problem seeing squirrels. They are everywhere.
On the errand side of the day’s activities I made a drive over to Green Cove Springs to pickup my mail before I leave the north central Florida area. It was about a sixty five mile drive one way, but still easier than finding a general delivery mail post office. On the way back I stopped at Walmart to stock up on groceries. My next stop is in the middle of nowhere.
She is waiting for her smaller, possibly younger companion. Together they continued into the bushes.
Tomorrow I have a three hundred and fifty mile drive to the Big Cypress National Preserve. It is basically in the Everglades just north of the National Park. The campground I’ll be staying in for the next two weeks is in the middle of state on the Tamiami Trail. It is about fifty miles from civilization on the east and the west. I don’t expect to have over the air TV service and I’ve read reports of very poor to non-existent Cell Phone Service.
I don’t know if I will be able to publish the blog every night. If I don’t have cell phone data service I’ll prepare the blog entry daily and publish when I travel into cell range. I suspect I’ll be closer to the coasts where the service is every couple of days. Any Email or phone messages will be similarly handled.
My plan is to get an early start tomorrow. The trip shouldn’t be difficult. It is mostly on Interstate 75. If I don’t encounter any traffic issues I should be on the road from six to seven hours which is longer than I like to travel, but necessary tomorrow.
Either I can’t understand a weather forecast anymore or the forecasters are getting it wrong. The forecast for one hundred percent chance of rain turned into a half an hour in the middle of the afternoon. I think the weather forecasters are fascinated with the extreme. They implied it would rain all day all across the region. What we got is a fast moving front that lasted less than half an hour in many areas. The temperature peaked in the mid seventies under a mostly cloudy sky.
Paynes Prairie from the Observation tower at the visitors center. The bison and wild horses are way out near the tree line. There seems to be more water on the prairie than before yesterday’s rain.
Since it was dry this morning I resumed my search for wildlife in the park. I drove the car down to the observation tower at the visitors center. My bicycle seat was a little wet to ride the mile and a half. The visible area in front of the observation tower didn’t have bison or wild horses to see. With the help of binoculars it was possible to identify moving large animals to the far right of the visible prairie. They were too far away to be sure if they were horses or bison, but I think there were both. Overall, I think there was more water in the prairie after yesterday’s rain.
One of many wild flowers in view today.
Wild water flowers.
Wild flower blossom of the day.
A perfectly formed blossom that fell to the ground.
Back at my RV home I got hooked on watching the congressional committee show. It really was a political show. Each “side” had a prescribed order and scripted text. The TV networks had there spin catchers ready to turn any new or slightly different information into headlines along the bottom of the screen. Channel surfing brought all kinds of conflicting perspectives based on the headlines. The whole thing reminded me of watching the Watergate hearings when I was in High School History class. I didn’t know what to make of the process then and I sure don’t now.
Yesterday there was only one bird swimming in this location. A few seconds after this picture all but three of the birds dived underwater in unison.
After the brief period of rain I took a walk down to the Lake Wauberg recreation area. There wasn’t anyone around except all of my bird friends. I took some more pictures of what are probably the same birds.
The last week of great weather turned sour today. Around 9AM it started to rain. In rained at a steady medium pace until late afternoon. I didn’t expect much rain today. The forecast called for a low chance of rain today with a higher chance tomorrow. Now the forecast calls for a one hundred percent chance of rain tomorrow.
I watched TV and researched travel plans while I waited for the rain to let up. It was after four before I ventured out into the campground. I still needed my raincoat for protection from the residual rain in the trees, but I got in some exercise. There was one lone fisherman out on Lake Wauberg judging by the single boat trailer in the parking lot. Even the bird life was very lethargic after the rain. One little diving bird was swimming in a large circle in the calm water. It would dive occasionally only to surface and continue its circuit. A Great Blue Heron was calmly standing on the rail of the fishing pier ever vigilant. I think it’s the same one I’ve seen the last few days. All of the sightings have been in the same area. Today I didn’t spook it. I was able to take several pictures from different angles.
Swim, Dive, repeat.
“I’m king of the pier!”
There have been more showers since I got back to my RV home, but it hasn’t been as continuous as earlier in the day. Knowing that it will be rainy tomorrow, I’ll probably be out driving around looking for something dry to do.
The weather pattern has changed. Today was a sunny day with a high temperature around seventy. It was a nice day, but so different from last week. Tonight, I need the electric fireplace on for a little heat in my RV home.
Today’s wild flower blossom.
This morning I hiked the Bolen Bluff trail. It is located in a part of the state park accessed from the trail head a couple miles north on US 441. A loop trail goes from the highway to the edge of Payne’s Prairie where a spur trail goes down onto the prairie. The loop trail was through a heavily forested area that overlooks the prairie. I didn’t see any wildlife on the loop trail although there were signs that the bison and wild horses have been in the more open sections of the forest. The spur trail onto the prairie was a disappointment. The water level is so high that only a few hundred feet of the path were accessible before it became covered with water. I didn’t see any of the big three of prairie residents; wild horses, bison or alligators.
View of Payne’s Prairie from Bolen Bluff.
The trail into the prairie became flooded after a very short distance.
After the hike I drove around the area for a while before returning to my RV home for lunch. Toward evening I took a bicycle ride to the Lake Wauberg recreation area. I found my day’s supply of wildlife on the excursion finishing off with a deer sighting on my ride back to camp. The deer and I were within fifty feet of each other when we both stopped to stare at each other. I tried to get a picture or two but they came out blurry in the low light. After about a minute the White Tail Deer took off into the woods.
The weather roller coaster that has been in place in Florida this winter has spent the last few days at the top of a high hill. This area has been experiencing ten to fifteen degree warmer than normal days. Today the roller coaster car has passed the peak. It wasn’t a bad day, but it wasn’t as nice as the last few. The day was mostly cloudy and much windier than any other day I’ve been in the area. In the middle of the afternoon a line of showers moved through. It didn’t last long, but dropped a lot of water. All of the pollen that was blanketing the flat surfaces ended up in green slimy puddles. The low eighties temperatures prior to the rain dropped into the mid seventies for the rest of the day.
The strong wind pushed the sailboats on Lake Wauberg around at a very fast pace.
The campground emptied out this morning. All of the weekenders departed by the 1PM checkout time. As the afternoon progressed new residents arrived, but it was a much quieter set. There weren’t as many gatherings around campfires or loud conversations going on. Saturday night, I had neighbors still talking around the fire at 2AM.
Egret on the boardwalk railing looking for its next landing spot.
The tree branch was a little less stable than the boardwalk, but the food was better.
Still trying to stay on the branch.
I was busy hiking, biking, taking pictures of wildlife and watching TV today. The bison were nearer the observation tower this morning. I was able to get a little better picture. During the afternoon rain storm I got hooked on watching the NASCAR race from Atlanta, so it wasn’t until near sunset that I got back out with my camera. The wind had gone down considerably and the birds seemed to be hanging out around the lake.
Great Blue Heron in the swampy weeds.
Same Blue Heron a few minutes later “hiding” in the brush. During the couple of minutes I watched it didn’t move a muscle. Is it sleeping?
A Little Blue Heron in the water along the lake front.
The above normal weather continues in this area. It was a partly cloudy day with high temperatures in the upper eighties and a high dew point. The TV news reported that Gainesville FL had the highest temperature in the country today at a record 91 degrees. I continue to resist the urge to turn on the Air Conditioners in my RV home. So far the fans have been enough, but from the sounds I’ve been hearing my neighbors haven’t all taken the same course.
I was back to riding my bicycle around the park and hiking some of the trails. The bison were visible from the visitor center observation tower this morning. They are far enough away that I still need to zoom and crop my pictures to really identify the objects as bison. In general, my camera was very busy today. Bellow are some of the pictures I took.
Blossom of the day
White Pelican and a few friends in the lake.
Bison in the tall grass of the Prairie. This is a cropped version of a well magnified picture during a cloudy part of the day.
Today was a cloudier version of Thursday. There were very few periods of sunshine, but the temperature still managed to set records in the area. It was in the mid eighties here.
Wildflowers line the path to the observation tower.
I completed Thursday’s grocery shopping today. With my cell phone in my pocket I drove into Gainesville and found the Walmart Super Center. It wasn’t far from where I gave up my search Thursday. This Walmart gave me a new experience. I’ve commented in the past that Walmart is turning checkout clerks into online order fillers. Today I found out what they do when there aren’t any online orders to fill. While I was waiting in line to check out in a long line at one of the only open checkouts, I was approached by one of the order fillers to check me out. Provided I was paying with a credit or debit card, she was prepared to use her remote scanner to check me out. She proceeded to scan and bag all of my purchases. It was faster than waiting in line, but slower than it would have been at a dedicated checkout counter. At least Walmart doesn’t have the staff sit around and wait for an online order to arrive.
There is a population explosion of squirrels. Every little noise I hear coming from the woods seems to be a squirrel.
Back at the campground this afternoon I didn’t do a lot of exploring. I was still feeling the after effects of my Thursday bike rides and hikes. It was a little more activity in hot humid weather than I’ve had in a while. Using the car, I stopped at the visitor’s center observation tower to check for interesting wildlife on the prairie. Other than a few white birds way out in the water, it wasn’t a very successful observation. Toward evening I walked over to Lake Wauberg in search of another nice sunset. The cloud cover didn’t make the prospect look likely and the bugs were out in force. I let the bugs chace me back to my RV home before I got eaten alive.
Rob's Rambling Road Trip 