Friday November 25th 2016

It was a warm partly cloudy day with highs in the low 80s. The morning TV news was reporting on accidents on the Interstate. This worked against my plans for the day. I was already in a quandary about facing the Black Friday traffic. The news report tipped the scale in favor of staying at home today.

Little Blue heron wading by my campsite.

I probably got tricked by the quality of the news broadcasts in this smaller market area. I’ve noticed that the news coverage in areas like this can over cover simple things. A traffic accident can easily be blown into a systemic problem with traffic flow or an investigation into the medical history of the drivers. I suspect the reporters and news producers are trying to get good material for their audition videos at their next job. The use of words like “extreme”, “tragic”, “volatile” and “deadly” seem to be used to convey the opinion of the “unbiased” reporter in every report and the tease for the next story is even more over the top.

A group of White Ibis dining on the river bank.

Once I committed to staying at home today, I went to work on the chores that have been backing up. The first task was the Laundry. It has been a couple of weeks since I did my last load. The volume of clean cloths was going down and more significantly the dirty cloths hamper was overflowing into the laundry bag. This small public campground has one washer and one dryer. It took awhile to complete the laundry. My site is a couple hundred yards from the laundry so I got my exercise going back and forth.

One of a pair of swimming birds that I’ve yet to identify.

I also had a couple of days of dirty dishes in the sink and a weeks worth of appliances out of there storage spots. The slow cooker and the George Foreman grill needed to be put away to give back my limited counter space. I move to my next location in four days. I don’t think I’m going to be using them again at this location. So, a couple of things put away for travel before the last minute is a good thing.

There wasn’t much turnover in the campground today. I think many of the residents were also staying off the road today. It seemed like there were a lot more people around today. Tomorrow may be a big turnover day. I know both of my neighbors are leaving.