Myakka River State Park in Sarasota, FL Jan 31 – Feb 14, 2025

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After dumping our full tanks at Koreshan State Park in Estero, we left there around 12:30 pm for a two-hour drive north to Myakka River State Park in Sarasota, Florida. We rolled through their gates at 2:30 pm and started getting set up at our site 2:50 pm.

Our Site

We had a pull-through site with full hook-ups except…non-potable water. The campground has been having problems with high levels of certain radioactive elements in the water for a couple of years. Or at least that’s what testing shows. We were told that it might just be a problem with the Culligan water treatment system they have and that the park is going to have all that removed in the near future to see if it eliminates the problem. In the meantime, they have been advising that you can use the water for cooking, washing dishes and bathing, but NOT for drinking.

We knew when we made our reservations a year ago that this was the situation, so I filled out fresh water tank before we left Koreshan State Park to use for dish washing, showers and toilets, plus we brought a couple of dozen gallons of bottled drinking water with us to use during our two-week stay. The ranger station also handed out gallons of drinking water for those that needed it.

We got set up and I flushed our black water tank with their non-potable water so the tank wouldn’t stink because the temperatures were back up in the mid-80’s…typical for Florida winters. After all, that’s why so many people spend the season down here. I think I noticed a faint glow from the tank afterward, lol!

We always read park reviews (if there are any) and the ones we read for Myakka said there were no AT&T or T-Mobile signals. We found the AT&T signal to be good for us, and the T-Mobile signal was weak but usable for web surfing (however not for streaming). Verizon was also a good strong signal. We have found that many times the reviews are not accurate and this was one of those times.

Myakka River State Park

Myakka River State Park is one of the oldest in the State of Florida, having opened in 1941. It is also one of the state’s largest parks at 37,000 acres. It is located about 9 miles east of Interstate 75 and sits in Sarasota and Manatee counties.

The park is filled with a variety of plant and animal life. During our stay we hiked through forests of tall pine and oak trees, as well as prairies of low vegetation and palmetto bushes. We saw hundreds of alligators and vultures, along with herons, Ibis and even a rare Roseate Spoonbill (from quite a distance!). More common birds like wrens, cardinals, warblers and critters like rabbits, squirrels and raccoons were also in abundance. One squirrel even came up our door steps to beg for food. More on that later in the blog.

There are many hiking trails and we tried to experience all of them during our stay. Unfortunately, two of the most unique ones, the Canopy Walkway and the Bird Viewing Boardwalk were closed due to damage from recent hurricanes. The Canopy Walkway is suspended 25 feet above the ground and 100 feet through the hammock canopy, with the tower soaring 74 feet in the air. That would have been quite an experience!

The main park road runs a length of 6 1/2 miles from the north entrance of the park to the south entrance and it also affords opportunities to view many of the park highlights from the comfort of your vehicle. But there’s nothing quite like getting out and hiking through the trails and nature walks.

There are three RV/Tent campgrounds. Cindy wisely chose the newest (Palmetto Ridge) for our reservation. We walked and drove through the other two and found we definitely preferred the one she reserved for us. Go Cindy! Normally there are boat tours of the river and tram tours of the park, but both were out of service during our visit. The boat tour was not running due to the low water level of the river and the tram tour could not run due to hurricane damage of the normal tour areas.

It was disappointing to have so much unavailable, but understandable. Maybe next year 🙂

For dinner Friday night I made quesadillas and we watched a couple of more episodes from season one of The West Wing that we have on DVD.

Bella and The Dog Statues

Saturday morning we took Bella on a walk through our campground (Palmetto Loop) and the Old Prairie Campground loop, across the main road from ours. Bella LOVES people but she does not feel the same way about other dogs, especially those that are bigger than her. We’ve tried to socialize her over the years, but she still just gets too anxious. We blame Cindy’s asshole brother for letting his big black dog maul Bella when she was a puppy. She’s been afraid of larger dogs ever since.

As we walked through the Old Prairie Campground loop one of the campers had a life-sized statue of a Labrador Retriever sitting by the front door of their motorcoach. The front area was blocked from view by some larger palmetto bushes so you didn’t see it until you were pretty close.

As soon as she caught sight of it, Bella’s hackles went up and she wanted to both charge and run away. We couldn’t help ourselves, we started laughing as she reacted, pulling at the leash and growling. She may have even been more upset that the dog didn’t react, lol, like it was just ignoring her. There were also two small black terrier puppy statues that looked like they were running toward you, so those may have triggered her as well.

It was so funny to watch her that we decided to walk by the site again and this time we videod her reaction. You can laugh with us by watching her in the video for this visit.

Afterward we drove down the main road of the park to get the “lay of the land” of the area. It was the weekend, so there were lots of people in the park. We’ll visit some of these places later in the week when it’s less crowded.

Final Cut Pro

Sunday, after Bella’s morning walk, I spent the day starting to learn Final Cut Pro for editing my videos. I’ve been using iMovie over the years and have become pretty proficient at editing with that, so I thought I would try to step up my creations with a more “professional” level video editing software. There are so many higher level things that can be done with Final Cut Pro to make videos look even better than iMovie, so I’m looking forward to learning how to use it.

In addition to leveling up my videos, it gives me a chance to learn how to do something new. As I get older, I find it helps keep my otherwise dull mind a little sharper by learning how to do new things. It’s one thing to read and learn things as I typically do when researching subjects, but it engages different areas of the brain to learn HOW to do things.

So, hopefully, you’ll see some better video productions from us in the future.

Preparing To Leave Meta

Monday I spent most of the day backing up all my personal Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Messenger account information so that I can close down those accounts. You can read more about my reasons for that on my personal blog.

Cindy is keeping her accounts so she will continue to share The Wandering Wetheringtons’ posts to Facebook and Instagram.

But this is a good time to remind you that you can sign up for our email subscription list and be notified in your inbox as soon as we have a post up. That way you’ll never miss a post. And you wouldn’t want to do that, would you? 🙂

Tuesday, February 4th was “work around Nomad day.” I conditioned the rubber seals, cleaned the windows and little things like that. Plus we pulled out some warmer weather clothes out of the tubs in the bed of Voyager since it had gotten so much warmer the past few days. I also got out some tools and materials I’m going to need soon for an upgrade project I need to do. I’ll post about that when I get it done.

Shark Tooth Capital of the World

Wednesday we drove into Sarasota to get Cindy a FitBit. She is stepping up her exercise and dieting game and the FitBit will assist with that effort.

Then we drove down to the beach at Venice, Florida so Cindy could look for shark’s teeth at the acknowledged “Shark Tooth Capital of the World“. I think she had a lot of fun searching for teeth in the water near the shore. But it seems like you need a special sifting tool to really get down into the sand to find them, and she didn’t have that. Still, she had a good time and she always loves the beach.

We got back to Nomad at dinner time. While eating we finished watching the first season of “The West Wing” and, because they ended on a major cliffhanger, watched the first two episodes of the second season. We watch “The West Wing” and wish we had a President and senior staff like those in this series.

Thursday we hiked the Nature Trail through a hammock of trees that also took us to the Canopy Walkway, which was closed due to hurricane damage. It would have been cool to go up 65 feet above the ground and look out over the hammock and prairie. Cindy enjoyed starting to use her new FitBit to track her steps, etc.

Back at the campground later that afternoon, we helped an older lady named Bonnie who was having trouble with her tongue jack. I used my hydraulic jack to raise her little R-Pod trailer and reset her bar where it should have been on her tongue jack and she was on her way to her site. Good deed for the week done, lol.

Terry Pratchett Biography Review

Friday morning we took Bella and hiked the Meadow Sweet Pastures trail. Lots of beautiful nature to observe as we hiked. When we got back to the campground Bonnie brought us an umbrella as a “Thank You” gift for helping her the day before. She said everyone can use an umbrella. We did not tell her that we already have four of them, two in Voyager and two in Nomad, that we carry around with us. Now we have five. It was a very sweet gesture.

That afternoon I published my review of the Terry Pratchett biography “Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes by Rob Wilkins” over on my reading and writing blog, The Word of Jeff. If you haven’t read it (the blog) yet I hope you’ll drop over and take a look. I have lots of book reviews up and some posts about my writing.

Restful Weekend

Other than some hikes with Bella, our weekend was quiet and restful. I spent it reading and writing; Cindy spent it reading and tatting; and we both spent time together watching some shows we wanted to see.

Squirrel For Breakfast

Monday morning we were sitting at our dinette table eating breakfast and catching up on news on our phones when a movement out the window caught my eye. We were right next to a palm tree and a gray squirrel had climbed up on the branch right next to the window and was looking inside at us while we looked outside at it. I spoke nicely to it, saying good morning and asking what it was doing. It flicked its tail and leaned in closer to the glass. I snapped a couple of photos through the window and the squirrel seemed to be posing while I did so.

Then it darted down the tree trunk to the ground and we thought it was gone because we couldn’t see all the way to the ground from our window. My seat at the dinette sits almost directly across from the front screen door. I was back looking at my phone when a movement at the door caught my eye and I turned to see the squirrel standing on our steps looking in through the screen door!

I told Cindy and she got up from her seat on the other side of the dinette and walked to the screen door. The squirrel jumped back down the steps, but stood on the ground looking up at Cindy through the screen. She made baby talking sounds to it and it quickly climbed back up the steps, pulled its little front paws up to its chest and stared at her through the door. Every time she moved it scampered down a step, but quickly returned when she didn’t open the door.

It was pretty obvious that someone or someones in the past had fed the little critter and it thought we would do the same, especially if it posed like a little Oliver Twist sweetly begging, “Please sir, I want some more” while it stretched one paw out from its chest. We did not.

You can see photos in the album of it and also some video of it on the steps.

South Of The Border

Cindy and I have started looking into the possibility of moving to Mexico in the next 12 – 18 months. We have done a little research and have a lot more to do, but we have identified a few places that look enticing as a place to settle down and stop wandering.

Maybe.

We’ll see.

If you have any experience in traveling to or living in Mexico, we’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Tuesday, first thing in the morning, I fixed the refrigerator door latch…again. The space between the refrigerator and the kitchen island is not quite as wide enough as it needs to be for us. We inevitably bump the handle with our hips as we walk through if we’re not especially careful to squeeze more toward the island side.

Fixing it means taking off the handle and door front piece to insert a little plastic latch piece. It isn’t hard and doesn’t even take that long, but it is something you have to be extremely careful doing so as not to do any further damage. Since this was my second time fixing it over the pat three years I was able to get it apart and repaired in about ten minutes with no further incidents.

Afterward we started to hike the Powerline Trail, but after a half hour in the direct sun we decided to head back and hike the cooler Meadow Sweet Pastures trail. Hiking in the shade under the canopy of trees was much more pleasant than being scorched by the unrelenting Florida sun.

Belated Birthday Dinner

Wednesday, February 12th, I officially shut down all my Meta accounts. We hiked the Weir Trail and enjoyed it.

Later that afternoon we drove over to the Sarasota coast to have Cindy’s birthday dinner…five months after her birthday. In my defense, we were either not near a place with a steak restaurant she would enjoy, or if we were near one we were too busy to have the time for a romantic dinner.

Now was her time.

We had a delicious steak dinner at the Longhorn Steakhouse not far from the beach. We got there around 4 pm and it’s a good thing we did because by 4:30 the place was packed with people. We both got our usuals; a ribeye for her and a filet mignon for me. Our steaks were cooked to perfection and were quite tasty. Dessert was a shared lava cake with vanilla ice cream.

Then we left and took our place in a traffic jam of vehicles headed for Siesta Beach. We wanted to get there in time for sunset at 6:20 pm. We actually got there around 5:35 pm, so Cindy had time to look for shells while we waited for sunset.

Most sunsets are beautiful, no matter where you see them. But sunsets at the beach, where you watch the sun seeming to settle into the water, are especially gorgeous. Cindy loves them and I love Cindy, so I try to make sure we can go see them when we’re near a beach.

We got back to Nomad around 7 pm and began the third season of The West Wing. We really are enjoying the awesome writing and the great performances in this series.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Friday, February 14th is Valentine’s Day AND a travel day for us. I gave Cindy a card at breakfast, but her gift will be arriving during our next stay.

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