Thursday January 29th 2026

The Florida temperature roller coaster is back on the down slop. Morning lows in the twenties are possible this weekend. That will be a little uncomfortable, but as the daily highs dropped Wednesday was a good day for a visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

It was in the low sixties on Wednesday afternoon. A perfect temperature for walking around the park and for the animals being active. During the summer months the animals are very lethargic or they are hiding in the trees. On Wednesday the bigger animals were much more active. Only some of the birds, like the flamingos were huddled together in the sun.

On the safari ride the giraffes and white rhinos were particularly active. Each species seemed to want block the trucks path. It lengthen the time for the ride considerably. The animals have the right of way. The best active animal on the safari was the male lion. He was up walking around for a little bit while we were in the area. All three lions are usually just lying around on the rocks.

Most of the park wasn’t very busy. The only ride with a real wait was the Dinosaur ride. This weekend is the closing date for the ride. It will be remade into an Indiana Jones ride as part of the conversion of Dino Land into Tropical America Land. I decided I didn’t need one last ride on the bouncy vehicle through time to capture a dinosaur. The wait was too long. My memories from past rides will have to be enough.

Sunday January 25th 2026

The last few days have been above normal weather wise in central Florida, but my attention has been on the media coverage of the ice, sleet and snow storms impacting most of the rest of the country. I don’t miss the winter storms. There is about five minutes of pleasure associated with a winter storm. Everything is clean and quiet when you are safe from the freshly finished storm, but then you have to clean it all up in the freezing cold.

Saturday’s exercise was at Lake Eva Community Park in downtown Haines City. It has a nice walking trail along the lake shore along with the usual recreation opportunities you would expect to find a a lakeside park. Other people were enjoying a party at one of the pavilions and fishing from the dock. I was hoping to find a few wading birds lakeside or in the reeds, but had to settle for a pair of ducks.

Snow was also the operative word on Sunday for the NFL AFC conference playoff game between the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos. Before the game I thought it was a good thing the game wasn’t in New England. The stadium is in the middle of the area with a two feet of snow forecast. The game in Denver didn’t start with snow, but ended with heavy snow. It was coming down so hard that neither team could score. The Patriots won because they were in the lead before the snow started. I am looking forward to the Super Bowl.

Thursday January 22nd 2026

On Wednesday I made my first visit to Walt Disney World of the year. I was blocked during the holidays because of my “cheap” pass level. The blackout ended on January 5th, but high crowd levels because of the Run Disney marathon followed by cold temperatures kept me away.

The International Festival of the Arts began while I was staying away. It is a favorite of mine. I had to get started visiting the festival at Epcot. It ends before the end of February. A lot of other people must have similar thoughts. It was very busy in the late afternoon and got heavier after dark.

I visited the majority of the art booths and made a complete circuit of the World Showcase. At the UK Pavilion I grabbed my usual Fish and Chips dinner and at the American Pavilion I caught the end of one of the Disney on Broadway shows. Many of the food booths that are open during other festivals are replaced with Art booths for this festival, but there are still plenty of food choices.

I am not sure there are as many Art kiosks this year. The booths that have offered statues and castings in previous years seemed to be missing. Other booths seemed to be in new locations with more display space. The displays of Broadway musical costumes, sets and paraphernalia was impressive as was the chalk art on the walkway to the World Showcase.

I’ll bw back for more visits over the next month.

Sunday January 18th 2026

On Friday I got an early start for the drive to Tampa for another visit to the Florida RV Super Show. It was a colder morning than I realized. The car started as usual. I put it into reverse and backed into the road. That’s when I noticed that I didn’t have a clear view forward. The windshield had a thin layer of frost. I am no stranger to frost. I lived in New England for nearly 60 years. It just never occurred to me to check for frost in Central Florida. The defroster cleared the frost in short order once I found the right button to push. The dashboard temperature display read 33 degrees.

I arrived at the RV show closer to the opening hour than Wednesday and was able to park closer to the entrance. By the time I departed, the parking fields were densely packed. It was a busier day than Wednesday even though it was far colder. The dogs were also back. On Wednesday I didn’t see as many uncomfortable pups accompanying their humans as I have seen and commented on in previous years. On Friday they were back in force trying to keep from getting trampled while their human’s attention was elsewhere.

My goal was to revisit a few RVs I thought had promise as downsized options. I also discovered a whole new area of the show I hadn’t found on Wednesday. The show increased in size significantly this year. The new area of the show wasn’t well advertised and located in an area that wasn’t accessible in previous years. People new to the show probably found it easier than those of us assuming we knew all the show areas.

I successfully revisited a few RVs figured out a few things and eliminating some specific brands. I learned long ago not to expect correct answers about the RVs from sales staff unless they are from the factory. There are a few of those available, but most of the sales staff are temporary staff hired by the dealerships. At best the temporary staff have generic RV knowledge. I think some of them come from a pool of used car salesmen. Some of the answers I’ve overheard from other peoples questions are outrageous.

My next steps in the search process will be online. I need to check details on the various RVs and on the possible dealers to purchase it from. Dealer location isn’t much of an issue. Getting what I need for a good price is primary. I believe that the “show price” is available most of the time. In my opinion the dealer is spending more money to be at the show than they spend getting a unit for sale at their dealership.

Saturday and Sunday at my base camp were focused on the NFL playoffs. The Patriots won, so I’m happy.

Thursday January 15th 2026

This week started with the temperature a little above normal and is ending Florida cold. Today’s daytime high was in the fifties. Tomorrow morning’s temperature is forecast to be right around the freezing point followed by another day in the fifties.

On Wednesday of this week, before the temperatures got cold, but with rain threatening, I went to the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa. This is advertised as the largest RV show in the country. It has most of the RV manufacturers in North America represented along with a few from Europe. The show represents the first time the public gets to see the new models.

I’ve been to the show many times since 2015. If I was on the East coast and there wasn’t a pandemic ongoing, I went to the show. Most of those years I was only curious about new RVs. I was more interested in accessories and campground information. This year my focus is back on RVs. I want to acquire my next RV to resume the traveling portion of my Rambling Road trip. Now that I have a base camp here in Central Florida, it time to downsize.

I arrived at the Florida State Fairgrounds around 10AM. It was about an hour later than the 9AM opening time I was targeting, but traffic was still backed up over a mile onto Interstate 4. The parking fields were only about half full from what I could judge. Once I got inside it was busy, but I’ve seen it worse. There was still plenty of room to walk without getting trampled or run over by a golf cart. According to my Fitbit, I walked about 6 miles, but I didn’t see everything and went into very few RVs.

This show is big on entertainment. Musicians, clowns, jugglers, acrobats and probably a few other novelty acts were scattered throughout the grounds. The one place there was no room for them was in the halls of merchandise and sales booths. They were jammed full of people trying to buy and learn about all the gadgets.

As intended, I came away with a lot to think about. I certainly haven’t reached any conclusions, although I have eliminated a few things. Since the admission ticket is good for two days, I’m going back tomorrow. I still have to pay for another day of parking. Parking used to cost more than the show admission, now it is a few bucks cheaper.

Sunday January 11th 2026

The NFL wildcard football games had my attention all day today. An indoor activity was a good choice for the day. Outside it was overcast and windy. I suspect the cloud layer was at a very low level, but the temperature was comfortable.

Saturday was the best weather day of the weekend. I took advantage of it to take trip to the Atlantic coast. It is about eighty miles with two primary options. One way takes advantage of the toll roads and the other goes through the downtown portions of Kissimmee and St. Cloud. I took the slow route out to the coast and returned via the toll road. Both were less than ideal. Traffic was heavy on both routes.

After stopping at various parks and pull offs along the coast, I arrived at Port Canaveral as the last two cruise ships were setting sail. I watched the Norwegian Joy and the Disney Treasure set to sea. They are truly impressive vesicles, but I have no interest in being a captive resident. No cruises for me.

Between the departures the charter fishing boat Orlando Princes returned to port. It looked like thirty to forty people were on the fishing trip. The displayed catch didn’t seem that impressive. Most of the fish were small and could easily have been caught from the piers along the coast. Still, the arrival of the fishing boat provided some additional entertainment.

Thursday January 8th 2026

Today’s weather was the first day in a while that could reasonably be called normal. The early days this week started foggy and ended cloudy. This was the first day that was sunny all day. The temperature even reached 80 a few degrees above normal.

The other thing that is back to “normal” is the traffic. The heavy pre-holiday traffic is gone, but the normal winter snowbird enhanced traffic remains. The traffic inside stores like Walmart has actually gotten worse. They have reduced the number of staff assigned to checkouts so it takes longer to get out of the store.

I’ve been focused on chores around my base camp this week. They seem to pop up out of nowhere and take longer than intended. Today an overfilled draw decided it needed to brake the draw slides. It may take a contortionist to fix it. All of the little things combined have kept me from getting to Disney. The crowds were back to an acceptably level on Monday, but now they are back up to high levels for Disney’s Marathon weekend.

The other thing keep me busy and a little bit frustrating is setting up a new computer. While I enjoy the overall task, getting things like my picture editing software running in time to publish this blog has been a challenge. The new version doesn’t support the batch commands I developed for the previous version. It is impossible to explain, but it has taken three computers just to get one little blog entry published.

Sunday January 4th 2026

Note: My January 1st blog entry is now posted and available.

The temperature this weekend has returned to normal. Last weeks sixty degree high are back to the mid seventies. Higher temperatures are in the forecast for later in the week. The downside is the bright sun has disappeared. Each day has been cloudy at best and Saturday evening even included some rain.

Rain is really needed. The central Florida area particularly near the Gulf coast are in a drought. Pond and lake levels are down. I watched a particularly difficult boat launch today. The drop off at the end of the ramp came too soon for the boat trailer tires. The guy managed to get everything out, but it took a lot of power and spinning wheels. Another example of the low water level, here at the park, is the visible island in the middle of the retention pond. It is usually fully submerged. Finally in the drought indicators is the ban on fireworks in the county. New Years Eve was quiet.

The weekend has been relaxing. I accomplished a few chores, but others have been deferred. My bougainvillea plant is back in a rapid growth phase. It hasn’t needed attention for over a month, but it needs a “hair” cut again. It looks good from a distance. Up close it looks shaggy. Trimming it is easy. Picking up the clippings and taking them to the park’s dumpsters is another matter.

Thursday January 1st 2026

This post is being posted on January 3rd and back dated to the 1st. Sleep got in my way on New Years day.

Happy New Year

My New Years day focused on a tradition I’ve had since childhood. Watching the Tournament of Roses Parade has been a requirement. In the early 60s my parents took me to some of their friends with a color TV to watch the parade in “living color”. This was quite an event that lasted several years until we had a color TV of our own.

In the mid 1990s I took a tour to the Los Angeles area to see the parade. A lot of it was a disappointment. The hotel was on the other side of the county. We had to leave around 4:30AM to get to the parade route before 6:30 or 7AM when they shut the streets down. The bleacher seating was crowded cold aluminum that you were pretty much stuck in for a couple of hours before the parade even started. Then you got to watch two plus hours of parade from a viewing location inferior to the TV view by far. The seats were probably one hundred feet from the actual floats.

The best part of the parade tour was viewing the floats parked after the parade. You can get up close enough to see the actual flowers and mechanics of the floats. A few years after my tour experience I was back in the LA area. This time I only went to see the floats being decorated and the post parade viewing. I watched the actual parade on TV from my hotel room. This was the best of both types of viewing.

Watching this years parade on TV I felt bad for all the spectators. Waiting for and watching the parade in the rain must have been terrible. It was just cold the year I sat in the grandstands.

Sunday December 28th 2025

The let up in traffic density on Christmas day was as expected short lived. Over the weekend the stop and go traffic returned. I spent most of the weekend doing chores around the base camp with only a few ventures out into the traffic.

Today I made a stop a Walmart for a quick fun food update. In this case the plan was to buy some bakery items, some oranges and maybe other nice to have items. It doesn’t matter since I never got out of my car. The parking lot was busier than any day leading up to Christmas. I went up and down several parking aisles without finding anything within reasonable and safe walking distance. The only spots I found were at the far end of the lot where people don’t park according to logical rules and other vehicles weave in and out of the parked cars at high speed.

Here at my base camp there is a bit of an increase in arrivals for the winter season. Two motorhomes that have sites on my road arrived over the weekend. Their arrival reminds me of the RV traffic southbound on Interstate 95 through the Carolinas and Georgia this time of year. People tend to wait until Christmas is over and then head south as fast as they can. In previous years the almost continuous flow of southbound RVs has been impressive. I think all of the roadside RV parks fill up every night the week or two after Christmas. I suspect Interstate 75 is the same.