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.

Tuesday February 21st 2023

My RV home was shrouded in fog this morning. It was dense enough to obscure the other side of the pond in the center of the campground. Shortly before 10AM the sun started to break through. By mid afternoon the temperature climbed into the upper eighties under a partly cloudy sky. There is enough humidity in the air that tomorrow will probably begin the same way. This weather is about two months early. I could use the cooler winter temperatures a little longer.

This area is behind in rainfall for the year. Some of the swampy areas are drier than I remember them from previous years. Other areas of deeper water, such as the campground pond, seem to be higher. Walking through the Kirby Storter roadside stop area this afternoon the swamp was mostly mud and some of the grass areas that are in water during the rainy season was very brown. The main channel area still had plenty of water, but I only say one turtle rather than several I saw last year. Overall there seems to be a lot of differences in the wildlife this year.

The campground had about a fifty percent turnover today. Most of the visitors stop for only a night or two. Very few come for a long time. There just isn’t enough to do in the area and services are forty to fifty miles away. Those that do stay longer seem to pick up available sites by moving every couple of days.

Monday February 20th 2023

After the light rain ended near midnight the temperature stayed warm overnight. The morning was sunny and very still. The full sunshine and the lack of breeze allowed the temperature to climb rapidly into the upper half of the eighties. Along with the unseasonably warm temperature there was a lot of humidity. It combination was approaching the uncomfortable level.

The first thing after breakfast, I finished my day after arrival setup tasks and set out on a walk around the campground pond. My mission was to see am alligator or two. There are one or two alligators that claim the pond as their home. The campground hosts give out warnings and alligator instructions to every visitor. In past visits to this campground I’ve seen the gators sunning on the bank and even coming ashore to threaten little dogs that are getting walked a little to close to the edge. Today I didn’t see any gators in the pond, although one of my neighbors claimed there was big one out yesterday. I suspect I’ll see a gator or two in the pond before I leave on Thursday, but I was in a hurry.

Later in the day I drove a couple of miles back west on US 41 to the Oasis Visitors center. The drainage canal between the center and the road is always filled with gators. Today was no exception. There were many gators along with plenty of tourists watching them. The parking lot wasn’t quite as full today as it was yesterday, but the available parking spaces were in short supply. The alligators seemed to be more active today than other times I’ve visited. One big one was even very snappy with a smaller one that had the audacity to approach its location. My quest for alligators was satisfied.

Sunday February 19th 2023

The day began bright and sunny. The cool overnight temperature climbed rapidly as I prepared for travel. The temperature was in the seventies by 10:20 when I departed Davenport Florida heading south. It was in the mid to upper eighties when I arrived at my destination 200 miles to the south, but it was a more overcast day. As evening arrived so did a light shower.

My travel day involved dealing with a couple of tight spots. First I needed to go back and forth a couple of times just to get out of my campsite. The way my neighbors parked their cars just made it too narrow to make the turn in without some maneuvering. The net result was that I had to hook up my car after I got out of the site. Luckily nobody needed to drive down the road while I was hooking up. I blocked the entire road.

The second tight spot was at the gas station, but was more of my own making. After giving the station close to two hundred dollars in exchange for more than sixty gallons of gas, the exit from the pump area was blocked by a truck. I thought I could exit through the truck area to the back and headed for a wide aisle in the parking area headed for the back of the station. It soon became clear that my selected route was not a through path. A line of bushes blocked the way. Moving on to plan C, I tried to make a tight turn before entering the dead end aisle. I really didn’t want to unhook the car so I could back up the motorhome. If I made the decision to turn about a foot sooner, I would have been home free. As it is my front wheels climbed the curb and followed it for a few feet while the branches from a low hanging tree scraped the roof. There wasn’t any damage to my RV home or the tree, but it wasn’t one of my better choices.

The remainder of the trip was uneventful and a bit monotonous. I kept looking for hurricane damage as I got closer to the path of both Ian and Nicole. The real damage was closer to the west coast than I was traveling. All I saw were a couple of gas stations with missing plastic from their signs. One thing that broke the monotony was motorcycle groups. This seemed to be a day for a lot of group rides. I passed two different groups. One probably stretched over two miles with all the riders.

I arrived at the Midway Campground in the Big Cypress National Preserve about 2:30 after a little more than four hours on the road. I’ve stayed at this campground several times before. The campground has sites around a pond with an alligator or two in residence. It is located about half way across the state from Naples to Miami. Other than the Big Cypress Preserve there isn’t much around.

Saturday February 18th 2023

It was fifteen degrees colder today than yesterday. The cold front passed through late yesterday with only some wind to show for it, but the temperature went from above normal to below normal. Tomorrow it is forecast to be back above the norm.

I have finally recovered from theme park mode. The 7AM hour passed with me still sleeping. I didn’t feel rushed to get out of bed and get on with the day. Breakfast even included a second cup of coffee. Most of the day was very laid back, but included a few tasks to prepare for tomorrows travel. Specifically, I put some water in the fresh water tank and flushed the black holding tank. I won’t have a water hook up or a sewer hook up for the next four nights.

Walking around the campground again today, I noticed a few other changes since my last visit. They have added a dozen new camping cabins. They seem to still be working on installing them. Some seem to have transport damage that needs to be repaired and others still have extra braces in place to assist in transport. They all seem to look a little different, so I wonder if they are used units that are getting re-positioned to this campground from somewhere.

The park is full tonight. Most of the RVs in the transient part of the park are from northern climates. Most seem to be from the northeast. The Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec augment the US states of New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Virginia are all heavily represented. I am surprised that the Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois and Michigan representation that I’ve seen in other parks in this area isn’t represented this weekend.

I have a long way to travel tomorrow. The 11AM checkout time shouldn’t be an issue. I need to get started as soon as possible to complete the 200 miles before to late in the afternoon. I’ll be traveling south through the center of the state. There will be lots of towns and traffic lights.

Tomorrow night I will be in the middle of nowhere between Naples, FL and Miami, FL. I’ll be there for four nights. From past experience, I know that cell coverage is suspect. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. The blog may not be published on time.

Friday February 17th 2023

The temperature tide the record high for this date in the Orlando area. It was 88 degrees this afternoon. There was a lot of bright sunshine and a strong wind late in the day. The front is forecast to pass through overnight with little to no fan fare. Tomorrow will be cooler.

This campground has had quiet a few improvements since my last visit in the spring. When I was here they had started to build a new playground and were trimming the big low hanging trees. Those tasks have been completed and they have also paved all the roads. Some of the sites have new gravel and most sites seem to have new picnic tables. They still seem to be actively making improvements. A fencing company is currently working around the office and pool buildings.

The other difference is the occupancy of the campground. My other stays have been in the fall or spring. There were many available sites at those times. On this visit all of the sites seem to be full although there was turnover this morning. The occupancy is probably because this is the peak of the snowbird season for northerners in Florida. The other possibility is the holiday weekend. The fact that this is a holiday weekend is a surprise to me. I wasn’t thinking anything about presidents day.

Traffic in the area is also at a peak. This park is located at the major intersection of Interstate 4 and US 27. There are four lanes of traffic in both directions on US27 as well as six traffic lights in about a mile. I waited for two cycles at most of them today. At least half of the cars seem to be from out of state. It makes getting anywhere a much slower process.

I’m still working on catching up on my sleep. I haven’t broken the habit of getting up early and going to bed late that I established over the last week at Walt Disney World. Despite trying to get to sleep earlier and sleep longer I seemed to only sleep the same short amount of time. I’ll try again tonight.