Eightball,
Sorry about that, what I meant to say was that you were lucky to have been given VFR clearance on an iffy low visibility VMC day. Obviously, the only way you could be cleared to land on 13/31 would be under VFR.
On many occasions, aircraft are not cleared to land even when the PIC clearly states that the runway is in sight, on a bright, cloudless summer day if ATC declares visibility (from their vantage point) is below minimums, even if it is only due to haze/ smog. This is the reason operators request special VFR. Under Special VFR, asuming ATC grants you the clearance, you may continue under VFR(technically) but with vectors from ATC which usually takes you to the final approach for the landing runway. Unfortunately, this is a privilege which ATC no longer grants. You end up being told to proceed to your alternate.
Of course another alternative would be to request IFR clearance but that would mean that ATC would have to sequence you along with all the other IFR traffic operating out of or into 06/24 and that would cause undue albeit unwanted delay.