Another Week at E.G. Simmons

My last blog was posted on Wed 1/23 which was our last warm day until Fri 2/01. In addition every day was very windy so it would be no fun to try canoeing out in Tampa Bay or taking long bike rides.

So we decided to relax here and enjoy not being home dealing with the Polar Vortex.

For a break we took our RV on a shopping trip to Sun City Center, which is only 9 miles away. This is an old Dell Webb. 55 years old and up, community where everybody drives golf carts like in the Villages. The traffic was terrible but we got to Aldi, Walmart, Walgreens, Home Depot and Belles. We were happy to be back in camp and out of the congested area.

They rent kayaks here and they have a nice canoe trail marked with signs like above so you don’t get lost, which would be easy to do around the mangrove islands.

When you are out in the bay you can see the power plan that we rode our bikes to, last week. It looks so close but a long time ago we tried to paddle over to it and found out that we took all day to paddle there and back and never did see any Manatees.

Our Friday’s 4 mile paddle is shown in Red. We paddled down the bay on Saturday, it was not as interesting and there was a lot of boat traffic out on the bay. It was about a 3.5 mile, 1-1/2 hour paddle. It was sunny & hot.

Here are the actual weather records for the period when we were at E.G. Simmons campground. The only temperatures that were above normal are shown in Red.

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SUN 1/20 Actual Temp 68° /45° Windy Hist. Avg. 70°/51°

MON 1/21 Actual Temp 66° /36° Windy Hist. Avg. 70°/51° Biked 6 mi

TUE 1/22 Actual Temp 73° /43° Windy Hist. Avg. 70°/51° Biked 13 mi

WED 1/23 Actual  Rain 81° /50° Windy Hist. Avg. 70°/51° Biked 23 mi

THU 1/24   2”  Actual 73° /54° Windy Hist. Avg. 70°/51°

FRI 1/25 Actual Temp 63° /43° Windy Hist. Avg. 70°/51° Biked 8 mi

SAT 1/26 Actual Temp 63° /43° Windy Hist. Avg. 70°/51°

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SUN 1/27 Actual Temp 52° /45° Windy Hist. Avg. 70°/51°

MON 1/28 Actual Temp 63° /43° Windy Hist. Avg. 70°/51°

TUE 1/29 Actual Temp 66° /39° Windy Hist. Avg. 70°/51° Shopping

WED 1/30 Actual Temp 60° /46° Windy Hist. Avg. 71°/52° Biked 6mi

THU 1/31 Actual Temp 65° /48° Windy Hist. Avg. 71°/52°

FRI 2/01 Actual Temp 75° /46° Calm-PC Hist. Avg. 71°/52° Canoe 4 mi

SAT 2/02 Actual Temp 77° /52° Calm-PC Hist. Avg. 71°/53° Canoe 3.5 mi

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It looks like the cold spell is over and we plan to leave after the Super Bowl on Monday morning 2/04.  We will head inland and south to try to get a campsite at Pioneer Park It is a county park, on the Peace River in Zolfo Springs. On 02/07 we have reservations for two weeks at W.P. Franklin, Corps of Engineers campground, by a lock and on an island in the Caloosahatchee River near Ft. Myers, FL It looks like the weather will be in the 80’s when we get there.