Wednesday November 2nd 2016

Today started with an early morning rainstorm. I got up long enough to make sure it wasn’t raining in any of the open windows then went back to sleep. By the time I finished my morning shower the sun had returned to dominate the sky. It was a partly cloudy day with a temperature that peeked a little above 80 degrees.

Since my time at this campground ends tomorrow, I spent some time today making reservations. Tomorrow I will move about 5 miles to the St Johns RV Park for a week. I also made a reservation in the Tampa area for the month of January. I’ll be staying at the Tampa South RV Resort from the end of December until the end of January.

With the exception of 5 days at the end of next week, I have reservations at various places in Florida until the end of January. I will be crisscrossing the state a few times over the next couple of months. From here in the St. Augustine area I’ll head for the Fort Meyers area on southern Gulf coast for two weeks. That will be followed by 12 days back on the Atlantic coast in the Port Canaveral area. I cross back to the center of the state for a few days stay at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground, followed by two weeks at Lake Manatee State Park just east of Bradenton Florida back on the Gulf coast. I remain in that area for the month of January before I head west toward Arizona.

The other major task for the day was laundry. I got caught up on that little duty in between finding the places to make the reservations and watching TV. Actually, the TV is on for background. Today in particular, I’d be hard pressed to tell you what was on the TV. My focus was on other things.

This afternoon I took a drive along the coast north of St. Augustine toward the Jacksonville area. Route A1A in this area is only a sand dune or line of houses on the dune from the Atlantic. As expected, this area had more evidence of hurricane Matthew’s impact. The piles of debris along the road were higher and they contained more building and household debris. More significantly may buildings had spray painted “X” in a box symbols on the front. I believe this means the structure is not suitable for occupancy. From the street side they don’t look to bad, but a couple that I could see the ocean side didn’t look that good. It looked like most could be repaired and some construction was already underway.

Looking south along the Atlantic Ocean north of St Augustine FL. Beach is flat with the sand pushed into the dune or off the beach.

Surf in the Atlantic north of St. Augustine

I ended up going to just south of Jacksonville Beach. It was to far north. I got stuck in Jacksonville commuter traffic getting home. I’m trying to decide if I want to go back to the Jacksonville Beach area over the weekend for the Sea and Sky Airshow. The Blue Angels are the featured performers. Without a static aircraft display, I’m not sure there will be enough to keep me interested.

Back at my RV home this evening I started the travel preparation process. I put the bicycle rack back on the SUV and loaded the bike. The gas grill and the outside chairs have been stored in the basement. After I finish this blog post I’ll pack up the computer for travel. In the morning I will try to work slow