Myakka River State Park, Sarasota, FL

My plans for 2014 were changed a couple of times.  I finally settled on wintering in Florida and then going up to Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota for the spring and summer.   Much of what I plan on doing will be repeats, with a few new places added in.

If you notice in the next few blogs, I drove down to Sarasota and then headed back north for a few other parks, then back south again.  Due to some parks being full, I had to do a bit of back tracking!!

Anyway, I am not taking as many photos so some of the blogs may be shorter than normal. 

In early January, I stayed at Myakka River State Park for a week.  I had planned on hiking and biking a lot.  I biked the first 2 days and did a bit of hiking.  One of the bridges is called alligator bridge for a good reason.  On sunny days, you will see many alligator (and other wildlife) from the safety of the bridge.  Below you can see 5 alligators along the river.  

From the bird watching boardwalk I saw deer, feral pigs, Sandhill Cranes, Palm Warblers, a Bald Eagle, gulls, ducks…  I also learned something!!  I always thought that Snipe Hunting was a practical joke.  Did you know there really are Snipes???  Below is a Snipe, I believe it is a Wilson’s Snipe--

Have you ever cooked oatmeal in the microwave and had it run out of the bowl?  It’s a mess to clean up.   While cooking my oatmeal on my fourth day at Myakka, I started doing something else and then remembered the oatmeal.  I ran to the microwave and hit my toe/foot on the bathroom door.  Well the oatmeal was ok, but my toe was not.  For an hour or 2 I was debating going to the hospital to determine if it was broken or just jammed as it had swollen quickly and hurt!!  After reading a bit on the internet, I decided to wait it out as there isn’t too much that can be done for a broken small toe.   For a couple of days I didn’t do too much, then  I had to head out to my next campsite.  Walking wasn’t too bad after the first couple of days, but it didn’t feel good!! For the most part, I have been wearing flip flops but I did find one pair of enclosed shoes that had a lot of stretch to them.  From Myakka River, I headed to Oscar Scherer State Park. 

Note – I am currently at Hillsborough River State Park and my toe is still not right but is improving slowly.   I talked to a retired nurse a couple of days ago and she said it sounded like a broken toe, but said that without an x-ray you really could not tell – I’m calling it a broken toe.  I am not hiking as much as I would like, but biking does not seem to bother it so I have been riding my bike a good bit when the weather behaves.  Tomorrow will be 3 weeks since I hit it.  Next time, I’ll just let the oatmeal run over the bowl!!