Sunday December 11th 2016

It was a cloudy dreary day. I met my planned departure time from Jetty Park of 10am. I arrived at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort around noon and my site was ready. By 2PM I was ready to start checking out Walt Disney World at Christmas time. The decorations at the various resorts and parks is the attraction. The crowds are a distraction.

This post will be mostly some of the pictures I took today. I went to the Disney Springs shopping area with a stop at the Animal Kingdom Villas on the way.

Setup on site 223

Christmas Mickey and Minnie Mouse have taken up residence in the front of my RV home.

Christmas tree at the Fort Wilderness Settlement

Animals on view at the Animal Kingdom Villas.

One of several Christmas trees at Disney Springs. This one is in the West Side area.

Rolling Piano travels through the Town Center area of Disney Springs. The woman at the keyboard was playing and singing Christmas songs.

Toy Soldier and friend greeting people at the Christmas tree lighting ceremony

Characters in Flight balloon as the moon tries to break through the clouds.

Christmas Tree in the Town Center area of Disney Springs

More Disney touring tomorrow.

Saturday December 10th 2016

Today was a rest and relaxation day. Tomorrow I move on to Fort Wilderness at Disney for 5 nights. I need to be well rested for the adventure to come. This was a good day to do nothing. The temperature got up to around 70 and the wind was a little lighter than yesterday’s gale.

Kite Boarders gliding over the surf.

My exercise for the day was three walks. The first was over to the beach to check out the action. I could see large kites in the air from my campsite. It turns out there were several kite boarders working the wind and the surf. That had to weave in and out around several people on sailboards. Watching the kite boarders go airborne when they hit the waves just right is quite a show.

Tree in bloom

Closeup of blossom.

On my way back from the beach I passed a flowering tree in full bloom. I don’t recall seeing it before and I’m confused by what might be in bloom this time of year. The tree, big bush or vine in a tree, what ever it is, has very pretty flowers. I think I should know what it is, but it isn’t adding up for me. I took several pictures and will continue to Google for an answer.

Norwegian EPIC leading the Disney Fantasy out of port.

The cruise ships took there time leaving port tonight. They were listed as departing at 4PM, but they didn’t get going until almost 5PM. The wind tonight was more from the east than last night, so the ships didn’t have as much impact on the ships departure. There were two Carnival ships that bracketed the Norwegian EPIC and the Disney Fantasy in the departure order. The Carnival ships are always having a party on deck as they depart the port. The Disney ship usually blows its horns to the tune of “When you wish upon a star” and the Norwegian EPIC in all its huge hulking majesty just glides along. Most of the passengers on the EPIC are on their private balconies. I still have no interest in taking a cruise as a captive on the seas, but clearly Norwegian is more my speed.

In between walks I’ve been doing the day before departure prep work. Going over to watch the cruise ships one last time prevented me from doing all of the outside tasks before dark. I’ll have a few more things to do outside tomorrow, but I’ve got more of the inside stuff done than usual. I am targeting my departure for ten.

Friday December 9th 2016

The sun finally came out just before sunset. The clouds that dominated the sky for most of the day kept the over night cold in play all day. The temperature barely made it to 60 and the wind was constant out of the north. It was not a short sleeve shirt and shorts day. It was a long pants sweatshirt and windbreaker kind of day.

The flags were out straight in the wind.

This morning I ran some errands and toured the area a little. I was hoping that it would warm up by the time I got back to the campground. It didn’t happen that way. I added a jacket layer to my sweatshirt for my outdoor activities. I went for a walk over to the beach but didn’t walk down the beach. The wind was blowing the sand hard enough that any exposed skin got irritated.  Even the Great Blue Heron was hunched up to keep out of the wind.  I restricted my walking to short walk around the campground.

On a nice day, time to pose for a closeup.

Today, all bunched up against the wind.

Late in the afternoon the sun came out. I bundled up again to watch the cruise ships depart port. While I was waiting for the ships to get underway I watched the bird races. For some reason all of the sea birds were flocked together. It was like Pelican races going by about 20 feet off the ground. They seemed to be coming in off the ocean in waves. I didn’t see any sign that the birds were circling. It looked like every wave of birds was a fresh group.

One wave of Pelicans racing into the port.

The leader of the flock.

One of the cruise ships had difficulty getting away from the pier. The north wind was keeping it pressed to the dock. A tug boat was used to help pull it into the channel. The cruise ships usually don’t need any assistance. I bet that ships captain was annoyed at needing assistance. It was probably as much safety related as maneuverability.

Cruise ship coming down the channel while the Pelicans raced in.

After the cruise ships departed I returned to my RV home for the night. I have new neighbors tonight. The park has filled up a lot for the weekend, but it still isn’t full. In addition to the local area people, there are many rigs from Canada. I think there are more Canadian license plates than states other than Florida. Not a big deal, just a curiosity.

Thursday December 8th 2016

The weather is about to change in this area of Florida. Today was sunny in the low seventies, but the forecast for tomorrow has the high remaining in the 60s. The cold weather in the rest of the country is reaching down into Florida.

My focus today was on chores around camp. I discovered an accumulation of dust on the far side of the bed that told me it was time for more than just a cursory pass with the broom. I got the attachments for the build-in vacuum out of the basement storage and got down on my knees in the bedroom with the business end of the suction hose. I proceeded to work my way to the front of the rig. I try to sweep frequently and use the vacuum every couple of months, but this is the first time I’ve crawled around under the bed overhang and got into similar places in the main room.

Pelican floating in the boat basin

The next step was an attempt to get the rug from the bathroom clean. It is a light color rug that I probably should put through the laundry regularly, but it isn’t something that I think about. I went at it with a hose and brush out on the picnic table. It’s still drying this evening, so I don’t know how successful I was at cleaning it. I’m inclined to replace it with something darker that fits into the bathroom space better than this rug.

Big container ship arrived in the port overnight.

On my walks about the campground and beach area today, I noticed that the ships in the port have changed. They seem to move in and out during the night. Unless they have to sound their horns for some reason, you don’t know anything is going by. During the day you can often see ships and barges in holding patterns off the coast. I presume they are waiting for available space at a pier.

Wednesday December 7th 2016

After yesterday’s rain today was not as humid and the high temperature was only in the 70s. It was a beautiful day. The highlights of the day were a long walk on the beach and a rocket launch this evening.

Florida Stork

This morning I drove inland into the wetlands that make up the headwaters of the St. Johns river. I was looking for parks or boat launching areas that had wildlife. I found a couple of areas on the water to check, but only came up with a few black birds making noise. There were also a couple of merchants offering air-boat rides on the river with promises of seeing alligators and other wildlife. I don’t need a noisy boat ride to find gators, I saw plenty down south a couple of weeks ago.

Jetty Park Beach with Casino ship entering the channel to Port Canaveral

Back at Jetty Park this afternoon, I took another long walk on the beach. This walk was the longest yet. There were many folks from the condo that line the shore sitting out on the beach, but there were fewer walkers than other days. The ocean was churning up a lot of seaweed today. In some areas each breaking wave brought more dark brown seaweed up onto the beach. The birds were enjoying the seaweed bounty. Something in it made a worthy meal.

When I got back to the park from my walk, the beach parking lot was starting to fill up with the cars of people getting ready for the rocket launch at 6:53pm. It was close to 4 hours prior to the launch. I returned to my RV home to eat and wait until closer to the launch before returning to the beach area. When I got back the parking lot was overflowing.

I had scouted out a good vantage point for watching the launch. It was on one of the boardwalks out to the beach. It was still available when I got there, but I was soon joined by others. The rocket launch was for an Air Force wide band communications satellite. It was being launched by United Launch Alliance on a Delta IV rocket from launch complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Station. This particular rocket configuration has 4 solid rocket boosters attached to the main rocket engine. It is one of the bigger Delta rocket configurations.

I have seen two other launches. They were both daytime launches. The first was in the early 1990s. I had the opportunity to see a Shuttle launch from down the coast from here in Melbourne beach. The other launch I watched was from Titusville a few years ago. That was a much smaller rocket that I don’t remember too much about.

Delta IV booster as it climbed out of sight.

This was my first night launch and from closer than the other two events. At the expected time the area of the launch pad glowed orange and then a ball of light moved up from the glow. The rocket was a long way up in the night sky before the rumble of the rocket engine from the launch reached my viewing location. Shortly after the noise passed the glowing object in sky got smaller until it looked like a bright star. Looking back toward the launch pad some of the rockets smoke trail was visible in the moon light. In some ways that was more impressive than the glowing object disappearing from sight.

I enjoyed watching the launch. I’m glad my stay at Jetty Park and the launch happened to coincide. My memory of the shuttle launch many years ago are more impressive. Twenty plus year old memories many be embellished, but I think this was a big firecracker by comparison.

Tuesday December 6th 2016

The big event of the day was the rain. This morning was a fine day. The sun was out and the temperature was up in the high 70s. As the morning progressed the wind got very gusty and the sky to the northwest was darkening. It was clear that storms were coming.

In the early afternoon the front arrived. Over the next 3 hours line after line of storms brought heavy rain and strong winds. Some of the storms had thunder and lightning, but the rain was the main event. The sound on the RV’s roof was a continuous roar. It was so loud I couldn’t turn the TV volume up high enough to hear clearly. The roads and low areas of the campground developed pools of standing water.

Some of the weather reporting stations in this area haven’t had measurable rain since the hurricane passed through in early October. It has been one of the driest Novembers for the region. The area was in need of rain, but this probably was too much too quickly. The evening news reported some areas got around an inch of rain from the front that passed through.

I think the workers here at Jetty Park deserve the credit or blame for the rain. This morning a shipment of roofing supplies arrived. Shortly before the rain began they started working on the bathhouse roof. When the rain started they had the shingles stripped off one side and several sheets of plywood decking removed. They had quite a scramble to cover things up and get off the roof before the lightning arrived.

A new pose for an old friend

Hopping from rock to rock

The storm front had passed before sunset. I took my late afternoon walk around the park and over to the beach. Naturally, there were not a lot of people around but it was a nice late afternoon. The usual birds were out in their usual places. I’m convinced I’ve taken one Blue Heron’s picture 50 times already. It isn’t overly concerned with people and you can get within a few feet of it before it will run, not fly, away.

Monday December 5th 2016

It was even warmer than yesterday. The temperature reached the lower 80s and the humidity made for uncomfortable conditions. There were two ways to avoid the heat and humidity. Stay out of the sun, but in the breeze blowing in off the ocean or stay inside in the air conditioning. I took advantage of both.

Where’s my fish?

Today’s focus was errands and chores, but I did get to check out the beach and channel on a couple of walks. Two cruise ships and a new cargo ship were visible in the port. Several additional coast guard boats were also patrolling the port. I’m not sure if the new cargo ship is the cause or something else. They were not around later in the day.

Around the camper I dumped the tanks, took out the trash and generally picked up around the rig. For errands, I went shopping for food and propane cylinders for the gas grill. I found a Lowes to shop for the propane cylinders and possible a new gas grill. I struck out on both accounts. I still haven’t found a gas grill I like and the cost of the propane cylinders seemed excessive. My next stop was Walmart. I found the propane cylinders for a dollar and a half less, unfortunately I also found other stuff to buy. If I spent the extra buck and a half at Lowes and went home I’d of spent less money. Until next time that is. One item I bought is a cheap LED Christmas tree that I’ll put up for the Holiday once I reach my next stop.

In between all these activities I got some planning accomplished. I booked a campsite for the month of March in Arizona. The campground is about halfway between Tuscon and Phoenix. I had been looking at places in the Mesa and Apache Junction eastern suburbs of Phoenix, but those places had issues. Most of the places are huge manufactured home communities that have a few RV sites. They are located in built up heavily congested areas. There are lots of them, but the few I could talk myself into liking were already booked at this late date. The Silverado RV Resort in Eloy Arizona seemed much more my style. It’s about 50 miles from the Mesa area and about the same distance to Tuscon.

I know have a site booked in Florida for the month of January and a site in Arizona for March. The month of February will be a travel month. Once I get west of Mobile Alabama, I’ll be in new territory. Figuring out how to get from here to there is part of the challenge that I enjoy. The complicating factor of winter weather makes detailed planning a bad idea. The route is fairly simple, Interstate 10 most of the way, but where to stop and for how long is very much dependent on the weather, traffic around the cities, my mood and things to see along the way. I’ll be working on ideas and alternatives over the next month and a half.

Sunday December 4th 2016

Today was another unusually warm day for the area. It was in the mid to upper 70s with bright sunshine and a light breeze. The current weather pattern is forecast to break tomorrow night with rain on Tuesday.

I watched the weekend residents pack up and leave the campground this morning. There are plenty of available spaces in the campground again. I don’t understand the number of empty sites. At similar time of year in the past this place has been full or close to it. I thought there weren’t many open sites when I made my reservation back in May, but that could have been my understanding of the reservation system. The other possibility is the vacancies are caused by the hurricane. The campground was closed for almost a month after the storm. Reservations for those periods were canceled. Maybe there were long term reservations that were canceled.

Lingering damage from Hurricane Matthew in the campground is still visible. Some of the street lamps are either down or have shattered bulbs. The laundry facility in the east end is closed. It looks like the machines took on a bit of water. The fence around the maintenance facility is missing many plastic slats and a few trees have newly cut branches. Overall, the campground seems to be in good shape considering this is the location that the storm made its closest approach to Florida.

Blue Heron wading in the Banana River.

Sailboard rider in the Banana River

I went grocery shopping in Merritt Island this afternoon. There are stores nearer, but the trip gave me an opportunity to stop at a couple of the parks on the Banana River. At Kelly Park I had a good time watching the sail boarders and kite surfers on the river. There is a board rental and training facility at the park. I doubt any of the people I was watching were students. Some of the riders were doing some impressive riding.

Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Sea.

Rear view of the Oasis of the Sea as it leaves port. Note the open rear, the interior state rooms balconies get some daylight.

Back at the campground, I joined the throngs of people from the area at the side of the channel to watch the cruise ships depart. There were only two ships tonight, but there were many more people than yesterday when five ships departed the port. My big attraction was the Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Sea. It is the second largest cruise ship in the world at this time. It isn’t a lot longer than the other big ships, but it is a little wider and much taller. I counted 10 decks above the top of the traditional hull. The more pedestrian Carnival Valor that preceded the Oasis of the Sea out of port only had six. It looked like a big huge box top of a ships hull. From the rear you can see that it is a hallow box. Inside balconies on interior state rooms are visible.

I think I’ve seen all of the ships that call Port Canaveral their home port. When they pass by I’ll still stop and watch, but I don’t think I’ll be planning my day around seeing them leave port any more. While I didn’t intend to, that is what I’ve been doing this weekend.

Saturday December 3rd 2016

Today’s mid 70s temperature with a lots of sunshine made a good day for a walk on the beach. That’s exactly what I did. I took another walk south along the ocean into Cocoa Beach and back.

Caught by a breaking wave.

Checking out the fishing

There were a lot of walkers and sunbathers on the beach today. The breeze made the air temperature a little to cool for many people to be swimming in the water. A few people were trying to surf and a couple of guys were trying to get their kite surfing systems going. Their basic problem was the wind direction from off shore. Getting enough distance from shore to allow the kites to work was proving difficult.

Cruise Ship AIDAvita at the dock nearest the campground.

Late this afternoon I joined many others at the side of the channel out of the port to watch the cruise ships depart. There were five ships in port today. Four are based here and one little ship stopped here as a port of call on a longer voyage. The little visitor was 680 feet long, but the local ships are over 1000ft long. One of the local ships, the Norwegian EPIC, is the ninth biggest cruise ship in the world. Tomorrow the Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas is in port. It is the 2nd biggest cruise ship in the world.

Norwegian EPIC is very boxy. It is the ninth biggest cruise ship in the world.

The big ships came down the channel about fifteen minutes apart. They were escorted by the coast guard and the sheriff’s boat. The visiting ship was moored close to the mouth of the channel near the campground. It didn’t depart until after six, almost an hour after the other ships cleared the port. It was getting dark and cold so I didn’t wait. It did a good job announcing when it left with horn blasts. I watched it glide by from the window of my RV home.

Friday December 2nd 2016

Today was almost 20 degrees cooler than yesterday. It probably broke 70 degrees at some point during the day, but for most of the day it was in the 60s. The day started out even cooler with the overnight lows in the 50s. I’m not complaining, just observing. These temperatures are a couple of degrees cooler than normal, but so much better than what it’s like in the northeast.

I didn’t do anything special today. This afternoon I took a drive north to the Daytona Beach area. I didn’t have any specific destination or plans. It was just a drive to check out the area. My biggest observation is that traffic is heavy. The volume of out of state tags is increasing. When combined with the locals and the holiday season, the roads are getting crowded.

My only stop was at Walmart. I’m looking for a cheap little Christmas tree. I want something like the foot tall artificial tree I had last winter. It needs to be cheap, because I’ll throw it away after the holiday. I don’t have room to truck it around. It’s bad enough that I carry a few old ornaments and Christmas Mickey and Mini Mouse. They’ll come out of storage soon.

Disney Cruise ship passing by the campground as it departs Port Canaveral

Sailboat inbound for Port Canaveral passing the Disney Cruise ship leaving the port.

I got back to camp just in time to see the Disney Cruise ship depart port. The Royal Caribbean ship had already departed. Looking across the campground to the cruise ship in the channel continues to remind me just how big these things are. I walked over to the beach to watch the ship sail out of site.