Sunday April 22nd 2018

Today started off cloudy with a forecast of rain later in the day. The first shower was around noon with a few other brief hard showers during the afternoon. Contrary to the forecasts, it rained less today than Saturday. There is some subtlety in the way they forecast that I’m not picking up. I continue to get surprised by how much rain actually falls compared to the forecast.

View of the clouds and wind blowing along the causeway across the Indian River.

Looking south along the Indian River. Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building is barely visible in the haze.

I drove to the northern part of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge this morning. This area is accessed from an access road across the Indian River from the center of Titusville and another access from the north in Volusia county. The area I was in today is also considered part of the Canaveral National Seashore and the Kennedy Space Center. I didn’t spend a lot of time in the refuge. Not long after I arrived the sky opened up. This is where my incorrect interpretation of the forecast bit me. I assumed it was going to rain hard the rest of the day, so I moved on. The pictures in this blog entry are from my short visit.

A couple of White Ibises

–

My second stop of the day was for groceries at the Super Walmart in Titusville. This Walmart turned out to be one of the stores that is testing the Scan and Go technology. There were many signs advertising the Scan and Go, but I didn’t see any instructions. I saw four or five people actually using the scanners. If it means cost and time savings that get passed on to the consumer, then great, but I suspect it will be used as an excuse not to hire enough staff. What I want to know is how do they train the technologically challenged customer to use the system.

Great Blue Heron standing in the wind and rain.

When I got back to my RV home, I reevaluated my travel plans. I really want to spend some more time in the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, so I have extended my stay here for another couple of days until Thursday. In this case not making reservations way ahead of time worked in my favor. Usually it means I can’t stay where I want when I want.