Sunday September 17th 2023

There were a few more clouds in the sky today keeping the temperature a few degrees cooler than yesterday. A gentle breeze and a little lower humidity kept the day in the comfortable range. The temperature peaked around ninety and even though the sky threatened at times it remained dry all day.

Today turned into a football watching day. I wasn’t glued to the screen, but a game was on the screen from 1PM onward. None of the games were riveting, but they kept my attention for a few plays then I would do something else only to come back to the game during a later series of downs. The Sunday night game between the Dolphins and the Patriots is on the TV now. While it is the game I have the most interest in, it looks like it will be the most lopsided score wise. The Patriots are just a shadow of their former selves in the Tom Brady years.

The weekenders started to leave the park early this morning and continued to leave right up to the 1PM checkout. My guess is the park was about half full and about half of those departed today. I’m in a cluster of about five occupied sites. The sites that are closed for electrical work and a few empties make up the rest of this camping loop. It really has an empty campground atmosphere.

The day use part of the park got a lot of use today. There was a group using the big pavilion for a cook out and several of the other tables were getting used by families. By evening the area was empty and the birds returned to the beach area. During my last walk of the day I sat at a picnic table near the beach and took pictures of a couple of herons that were looking for their evening meal along the shore of the lake.

Saturday September 16th 2023

For most of the day the weather was consistent with the past few days. As the afternoon progressed the threatened thunderstorms started to materialize. At first the storms remained at a distance, but as darkness approached a few rain drops started to fall on the roof. Although there was plenty of thunder and more wind than earlier in the day, it only rained enough to dampen the ground. It was over in less than five minutes.

My big adventure for the day was a trip to Tom Bennett County Park. This is an urban style park with a playground, sports fields, disk golf and other organized sports. It also has trails around ponds and marsh land with plenty of bird life to entertain. All of the bird pictures in this blog entry are from today’s visit to Tom Bennett Park.

In addition to my trip to the county park, I got in two walk around the state park. While near the beach area today, I started to ponder the meaning of signs. The remainder of this paragraph and the next one are a rhetorical soapbox rant. There are three signs that say Swimming Area, No Fishing, Pets Prohibited. Do people miss these rather large and numerous signs, or do they just chose to ignore them?

Earlier in the week I saw people walking their dogs along the beach area. Granted there was no one using the beach, but why do they think someone made the rule? Today there was a man and boy fishing along the beach. All of there equipment was on the bench right beside the sign. I would think that fish hooks left on the beach or in the water in front of the beach from broken lines would be rather dangerous. Not to mention fishing seems to attract alligators which are bad for the pets violating the rule and any future swimmers. Once again I wonder how these folks justify ignoring the signs. I am not in a particularly confrontational mood, so I don’t consider it my job to enforce the rules. It is even possible they have permission to break the rule or some kind of special knowledge. Still the signs were put up for a reason and I shouldn’t have to know why they were put up to decide if I am going to follow the rule or not. End of rant and I’m off my soapbox. Please enjoy the bird pictures.

Friday September 15th 2023

Here at the campground the weather was very similar to the last few days. It was very humid with the high temperature reaching the mid nineties. Elsewhere in the region is wasn’t as nice. I was driving north of here along Tampa bay when a shower developed over the bay and moved inland. Other than being an outdoor adventure killer it wasn’t a problem. The storm moved inland quickly and it dried out equally as quick, but I was already well on my way back to my RV home. It never rained here at the state park.

The park staff and outside contractors were very busy in the park today. It looks like half of the camping loop I’m staying in is closed for electrical work. This morning a couple of guys with a jack hammer broke up all the concrete around the base of the power pedestals on sites 16 to 30. They also dropped off a cardboard box with a new power pedestal at each site. This afternoon an electrical contractor started working on replacing them. As the campground started to fill up for the weekend, those sites were not used. Even with fifteen sites out of the mix, the campground doesn’t seem to be full.

The other construction in the park that I had already discovered made progress today. Concrete was poured around the pavilion in the day use area. They didn’t use a classic cement truck, but rather a truck that seems to mix on demand in smaller amounts. Tonight the area is surrounded by construction warning tape.

At the boat launch area they made progress replacing the cement ramp leading to one of the floating docks. The concrete is getting replaced by an elevated wood ramp. I wonder what happened to the concrete. I don’t recall any issues when I was here last spring.

Thursday September 14th 2023

It was another nice, but hot day. The temperature was a couple of degrees above normal in the mid nineties. The humidity remained high and the sky was clear most of the day. The feels like temperature was around 100 degrees. It didn’t rain in this area during the afternoon or thus far in the evening. The forecast is for a higher chance of rain each day going forward through the weekend.

Today wasn’t a very blog content worthy day although I did get a few pictures. I got caught up in reading last night and didn’t get to bed at a reasonable time. The result was a very late start to the day and a general lazy day to follow. It was after 10AM when I started my first cup of coffee. My first walk of the day was after noon in the heat of the day. I walked through the day use area to the boat launch and back to the camping area where I walked around both loops. It was a real workout in the heat, but I didn’t notice it until I got back to my RV home dripping in sweat.

My second and third walks of the day were much shorter. I only went to the beach in the day use area and the boat launch area. At the beach I had a photo session with a Little Blue Hereon. What I assume was the same bird was at in the grass along the lake during each walk. It didn’t seem to mind me taking pictures as long as I didn’t get close. Here are some of the better pictures.

Wednesday September 13th 2023

The humidity continues to remain high. The temperature climbed into the low nineties. Putting the two together equals a really uncomfortable day in the sunshine. Sitting in the shade with a little bit of a breeze is still the best way to spend the day short of inside with air conditioning.

Today was my day to be reminded how heavy and slow local traffic is in the Sarasota Bradenton area. It isn’t even snowbird season yet and the volume of traffic results in it taking more than one light cycle to get through many traffic lights. Interstate 75 which passes by north to south on the east side of both cities has had various parts under construction for years. Right now the construction is at the bridge over the Manatee river in the north and at Clark road at the south in Sarasota. In between the interstate is just busy, but at the two ends traffic crawls. I tried a few short cuts I’ve learned over the years, but I don’t think I saved any time because of the volume of traffic.

I found more construction going on in the state park. Today there was an excavator parked at the boat launch area. A part of the ramp to the floating dock is missing and the area is taped off. Maybe that is going to get worked on with the excavator. In the day use area, they made more progress putting in forms to extend the cement floor of the pavilion. It looks like they are ready for cement. I am still not sure why they are extending the cement pad.

Tuesday September 12th 2023

It was a very humid day without much wind. Combined with high temperature in the low nineties it was a very uncomfortable day. Late in the day into the evening there was the sound of thunder in the area with dark clouds and lightening on the horizon. Most of the storms formed east of here and moved east after they formed. It didn’t rain here.

Since I was so tired yesterday, I went to bed early last night. This morning I was up earlier than normal and took a walk around the park before breakfast. The campground was pretty empty last night. I counted seven occupied sites out of thirty in my loop. I haven’t checked the other loop of thirty campsites yet. The park staff has done some maintenance since my last visit in April. They have painted new site numbers on the pavement along the side of the park road and new gravel has been added to some of the sites. Currently they are doing some cement work on one of the pavilions in the day use area.

This was mostly a day to settle in and relax. I took two additional walks around various areas of the park during the day. The water level in Lake Manatee is a little higher than I’m used to seeing. The walkway onto the floating docks at the boat launch area are close to level rather than a walk down to the dock. There are warnings posted about possible blue green algae in the lake. That may be the reason I didn’t see anyone using the boat launch. Possibly it will be different when the weekend arrives.

Monday September 11th 2023

The heat and humidity made for an exhausting travel day. As with any travel day it had its challenges. The first started shortly after I pulled out of my site shortly before 11AM and finished at my arrival at Lake Manatee State Park around 3PM.

I had my first issue with dumping my Black holding tank when I stopped at the dumping station on the way out of the campground. After connecting up the dump hose and opening the valve nothing came out. Since there was no one waiting behind me and it was a quiet period, I got out a hose and connected it to the flush line. After about half an hour of flushing and dumping I got the tank partially emptied. The gauge still indicated more than a little in the tank. I added a few gallons of water to the tank before travel. My goal was to provide something to slosh around during my drive. When I arrived at my destination my first stop was the dump station to see if the holding tank constipation was cured by the water laxative during the drive. It seems to have been successful.

Traffic was heavy on Interstate 75, but probably not worse than normal. Once I was south of the Florida Turnpike the real heavy traffic near Ocala thinned out until I reached the intersection of Interstate 275 north of Tampa. Traffic the rest of the way was very heavy, but it never backed up. Even the bridge construction over the Manatee River north of Bradenton didn’t cause a backup today. The last eight miles of the journey on state road 64 wasn’t any better. I had to lock up the brakes to avoid one idiot driver. I’ll be finding displaced stuff inside the RV for the next few day. The bottom line is the drive took my full attention.

I finished setting up for my stay by 4PM. I’ll be here for two weeks assuming mother nature doesn’t send a hurricane this way. This deep in the Florida peninsular I’ll need to react and run from a hurricane quicker than in the northern part of the state. Currently there is nothing threatening this area in the pipeline.

Sunday September 10th 2023

It was a little warmer and more humid today. The temperature peaked in the low nineties. A little outside exercise is all it took to develop a good sweat. Walking down to the river was not a fun activity today.

The first thing on my non agenda agenda was scoping out a good place to buy gas tomorrow on my way out. I know from experience that the stations near the interstate get very busy and become difficult to navigate with the big motorhome pulling a car. The last time I tried to use them I had to wait for a long time for cars to move so I could get out. I think I’ve identified a better alternative before I get to the interstate. If there isn’t a lot of traffic it will work. I have also identified an alternate location.

On my way back from my scouting trip I stopped at Walmart for groceries. Sunday isn’t my prefer day to fight the crowds shopping, but I was in need of a few things. Specifically I was out of butter substitute and orange juice. Other things that I needed are much easier to work around. As expected the store was very busy and it took a very long time to check out.

I only took one walk to the river today. The monkeys are still in the area. Today they were along the trail and river at the kayak launch. There were a couple of other people watching them when I arrived. They were either braver or more foolish then me as they approached them and tried to interact with the monkeys. I kept my distance and took photos of the monkeys in the trees. I don’t know if it was the monkey activity or the time of day, but there weren’t any birds in that area of the river.

Tomorrow is a travel day. I am moving south to the Bradenton Florida area. It is about 150 miles mostly down Interstate 75. Traffic is always heavy all the way south. I expect it will take three hours if traffic cooperates and four if it doesn’t. Since checkout time here is 1PM I haven’t done my day before outside task preparations yet. It will be a busy morning.

Saturday September 9th 2023

After yesterday’s long day of travel I slept well last night. Still, it was tough to get started this morning. I only have two days to enjoy the park. In the past I have had two weeks. Lingering over breakfast was not in the cards.

I took two walks to the Silver River today. It is about three quarters of mile down a trail that is actually a dirt access road for park vehicles. At the end of the road is a kayak and canoe launch into the river. The water level is a little higher than I’m used to seeing it during my previous visits in the winter. During my morning visit to the river it was filled with kayakers and powered boats. There were even manatee in the water according to the kayakers. I couldn’t see any from shore.

During my second hike down to the river at the end of the day. I didn’t see anyone. The trail was empty and so was the river. Even the wildlife seemed to be missing. After a few minutes of watching the water flow by, I spotted movement on one of the areas of vegetation in the river. Three little well camouflaged ducks started to move around. A parent emerged from the tall grass to watch over them. It wasn’t all that unusual, but it was nice to see some wildlife above the water surface.

The big wildlife sighting of the day happened earlier on my walk back to my RV Home after my first visit to the river. I encountered one of the troops of monkeys in the area. All of the monkeys are ancestors of monkeys put on an island in the river to attract tourists in the middle of the last century. They didn’t know they could swim off the island, reproduce and grow in size. Filming Tarzan movies at Silver Springs may have also encouraged the monkey population.

Every time I’ve visited the state park I’ve been on the lookout for the monkeys. On a previous visit I spotted one briefly on the far bank of the river, but today I got the full experience. Walking back along the path to the campground a monkey crossed the path in front of me. At first I thought it was a medium sized brown dog on the loose. As I continued on the trail I started to hear banging and snapping limbs from high in the trees. I realized the noise was coming from monkeys moving around in the trees. Still, I couldn’t see any of the actual monkeys. Then about ten feet away off the trail a monkey came down a tree and looked right at me before moving away down the trail. It stopped briefly and I got a decent picture. While I stood at a safe distance I spotted a couple of other monkeys that came out into the clear along the side of the trail. Somehow the experience wasn’t what I expected, but it was interesting. I’ll continue to be on the lookout for other troops when I visit this park.

Friday September 8th 2023

I was up early to get ready to travel. The weather cooperated and kept the rain away. My departure was right on plan pulling out between 10:30 and 11AM. I completed the 230 mile drive shortly before 3PM. The travel day had a few events that kept it from being a perfect travel day.

The biggest annoyance of the trip happened in the first hour of travel. I when over a good bump and the radio went off. It tried to come back on only to go off again. The power connection to the radio probably came loose. The pod casts I was streaming over bluetooth from my phone went silent. To keep me entertained I put the phone in my lap and used the phone’s speaker. As long as the road surface was fairly smooth the road noise didn’t prevent me from hearing the pod cast. I’ll have to climb under the dash this weekend to check the connection.

Thirty or forty miles east of Tallahassee on Interstate 10, I started to see evidence of the hurricane. Trees on both sides of the road and median were in distress. Some were uprooted and others were snapped off half way up the trunk. In some areas they came down in the road. Crews with chainsaws had cut the trees back, but the down trees hadn’t been removed yet. It looks like the trees haven’t finished coming down yet. Coming around a slight bend at the top of a rise a tree was blocking the passing lane. There was no warning so it clearly was a new issue that I had to squeeze into the line of traffic in the other lane.

The agriculture check station west of Live Oak on Interstate 10 has been turned into a FEMA staging area. There were big trucks unloading supplies in the middle of the area and lots of RVs and temporary housing around the perimeter. The other thing I saw with my quick glances as I was driving by were a lot of tanker trucks. I don’t know if they were for water or fuel. They really looked out of place.

I arrived at Silver Springs State Park east of Ocala shortly before 3PM. I am on site 23 for the next three nights. I booked this site on Monday so I didn’t have to go into the heart of the hurricane area in Perry Florida. I canceled my reservation at the Perry KOA Holiday when I found this site available. It clearly became available because of a cancellation. All of the sites at the State Park are spacious, but they are in the trees. For shade and comfort that is a good thing. For satellite TV access the trees are not so good. I will have to enjoy regular over the air TV this weekend.