Friday April 20th 2018

Something the weather talkers called a Dry Cold front through last night. The end result is that it’s a little less humid and ten degrees cooler today. There were a few more clouds in the sky with a high temperature in the mid seventies.

This blog entry is going to be short just like my very short travel day. At around thirty five miles it was one of my shortest moves, but I’m not ready to leave the area. The cold weather to the north is my primary reason for dragging my feet. I’m not looking forward to the cold rainy days that seem to be hanging around up north. Sunday and Monday are forecast to be very rainy in this area, but it will be warm.

Site 111 at the Cape Kennedy KOA in Mims Florida.

The other reason to hang around is to see more things in this area. If the weather cooperates, I’d like to visit the Canaveral National Seashore and the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. I’ve been in this area many times, but haven’t gotten a chance to visit those areas. The other thing that may keep me home is walking. My feet are still complaining about the abuse I put them through on yesterday’s walk on the beach.

Thursday April 19th 2018

The weather roller coaster continued. Today was another beautiful day with temperatures about five degrees above the seasonal norm. It peaked in the upper eighties without a cloud in the sky near land. Looking out to sea it looked a little hazy on the horizon.

View of Port Canaveral from the fishing pier near the entrance. A Carnival Cruise ship and several freighters were in port.

Cargo ship arriving into the port.

I was committed to walking down the beach to the Cocoa Beach Pier during my stay here at Jetty park. Today was the day. About 1:30, in the heat of the day, the tide was right for good walking. The water was on its way out providing plenty of packed sand to walk on. I put on sun screen, sun glasses and my hat headed for the beach.

Just to prove I got my feet wet in the Atlantic Ocean.

My next decision wasn’t one of my best. I decided to walk in the edge of the surf, so I took off my shoe and socks before starting down the beach. The water was warm and the wave action was fairly gentle. I was having a good time walking down the beach. Somewhere along the way my feet started to complain. I’m not used to doing a lot of barefoot walking. The Cocoa Beach Pier turns out to be about three miles down the beach. I was on my way back when I decided to put my shoes back on and walk a little higher up the beach. The tide was even further out so the walking was still easy.

Cocoa Beach Pier

This evening I have determined that I have blisters on the soles of my feet and sunburn on the tops. It’s not a serious problem, just annoying. Walking will be a little slow and uncomfortable for a few days. I was assuming that walking in the water would compensate for not having sun screen on the tops of my feet. I guess they were out of the water more than I thought.

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The gulls on the beach don’t seem to be concerned about the people. It is easy to pass within a few feet of them,

This Great Blue Heron knows how to check the fishermen’s buckets for dinner. This bucket was empty.

This dog was having as much fun in the breaking surf as its people.

I enjoyed the walk, but the pier was anticlimactic. It isn’t that long and you have to pay to go out on it. The fishing pier at Port Canaveral is more impressive. There were a lot of people enjoying the beach today. Walking down the beach you can tell where the public access points are because the crowds increase. Many people were in the water, others were playing games on the beach and many more were just taking the sun. The other thing that there were more of than I’ve seen elsewhere are tents. People have setup medium size tents as shields from the sun and possible the wind that wasn’t present today. At least that’s what I assume the whole families gathered in and around the tents were using them for. The college age people going in and out of another tent may have had a different use for the tent.

I’m moving on tomorrow. I couldn’t get anymore time at this popular park. Originally, I was going to travel up to the Jacksonville area and start my way north. With the miserable weather still hammering most of the north, I’ve decided to slow down a little. I’m only going about thirty miles north tomorrow. I’ll wait out the next storm front down here where the impact is rain and wind not cold and ice.

Wednesday April 18th 2018

The wind was out of the southeast today. That equates to a much warmer day. The high temperature was in the mid eighties. Overall it was a beautiful day. I got a little further south down the beach on my morning walk, but the tide wasn’t cooperating. The amount of available packed sand that it is easy to walk on was very narrow near high tide. When the surf forced me into the seaweed and soft sand I turned around.

I took pictures of the feathered beach walkers this morning.

The big event today was the Space X Falcon 9 rocket launch this evening. People started arriving at the beach parking lot around noon. By launch time the lots were packed. Interest in launches seems to have had a resurgence. I’ve seen several launches over the years. In the early 90s I saw a space shuttle launch and this decade I’ve seen three or four. The last time I was at this campground in November of 2016 I saw a launch. It was nowhere near as well attended. Today’s crowd reminded me of the crowd I was part of for the Space Shuttle launch.

Some of the cars in the parking lot for the launch. The Orlando TV station was also on site with a camera set up.

Watching a Kite Boarder while waiting for the launch.

This ship that had been docked at the submarine dock headed out to sea just before the launch.

I’m not sure what to call this board on wheels with a sail. The guy was really moving fast along the wet sand.

My vantage point for the launch was on one of the boardwalks out to the beach. I wasn’t sure exactly where the launch site was located in relation to the location, so I picked a spot that had a very large field of view to the north. It actually turned out to further inland than I expected. I started taking pictures as soon as I spotted the fireball heading into the sky. By the time the sound of the rocket launch reached me I had already taken several pictures. It was a very clear late afternoon so it was possible to watch the assent for a long ways. The trajectory brought it south and east after the launch making it necessary to look almost straight up to see the last view before it was too small to be visible.

A picture of the booster at maximum zoom and heavily cropped.

Booster with some vapor trail.

All that was left a couple of minutes after lift off.

I hoped to see the booster return to land on the drown ship at sea, but it must have been too far over the horizon. Space X announced on Twitter that the booster successfully landed while I was still hopefully watching for some sign of the booster. The videos I’ve seen of past booster landings have been spectacular. I’ll keep watch to see if I can catch a view of the booster when it returns to port.

People walking back south on the beach after the launch.

Tuesday April 17th 2018

It was a calm cool night, but when the sun came up over the eastern horizon so did the wind. The temperature topped out a little over seventy with a strong wind out of the north. It was a nice day but apparently cooler than the norm for this time of year.

Interesting beach side blossom.

I made a brief foray into town this morning to run some errands. The rest of the day was spent here at the campground or on the beach. I took a walk south on the beach about a mile. It was near high tide so at times the available beach was only forty or fifty feet wide. I judged it too cool to walk barefoot in the surf, so I was walking a crooked line avoiding the breaking waves. Most of the people on the beach this morning were walkers. A few people were taking the sun and a few little kids were testing their bravery in the last few inches of the breaking surf with their parents anxiously watching.

Watch out for the wave.

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Who are you looking at?

The public beach is only a few hundred feet at the northern end of the beach near the entrance to Port Canaveral. After that the shore is lined with time shares and condos. They all have gated access to the beach. The next public access is at Cherie Down Park about three quarters of a mile south of the port. Once you get far enough south near Cocoa Beach there are more roads that end in beach access. Tomorrow or Thursday I may walk all the way to the Cocoa Beach pier. I think I was about half way there today.

Later in the day I returned to the beach at low tide. It would have been a far easier walk on the wide expanse left by the receding tide, but I wasn’t prepared for the weather. It was getting even cooler as the sun got lower in the sky and I didn’t have my sweatshirt. The next couple of days are going to be warmer so I will have other opportunities.

Casino ship on its way out for a gambling session.

Fast moving private motor vessel coming into port.

As far as ship watching today it was a very memorable day. The biggest ship I saw was the casino ship. It goes out once in the morning for about four hours and again in the evening. I’ve seen it many times so I don’t get excited. Watching the Navy patrol boat guarding the Submarine dock or the Coast Guard caution fast moving private craft to slow down are more interesting things to observe.

I keep watching the water for dolphin or other big sea animals but all I’ve seen so far are birds. The gulls and terns are all over the place and the pelicans are here too. The interesting thing is the pelicans seem to move in groups traveling in formation. Most of the pelicans you see are in groups of four or five.

Monday April 16th 2018

The temperature was twenty degrees cooler than yesterday. Along with the lower temperature, the back side of the cold front was also very windy. Just what I didn’t want for a travel day.

This pelican is one of many that welcomed me to Port Canaveral. I considered their presence a welcome, but they may have been telling me to go away.

Since it was rainy yesterday, I had to do all of the outside travel prep this morning. It made for a little more work than usual, but I was on the road by checkout time at 11am. My drive from Kissimmee to Cape Canaveral was cross country. The mapping programs want to take me north to Orlando then East on the toll road, but I know another way. I take route 192 east then county roads through ranch land to get to the east coast. The first stage through the congestion of Kissimmee and St Cloud is slow and tedious. Just east of St. Cloud the county roads are straight and flat with no traffic lights. It took a little under two hours to relocate my RV home. The only issue was the strong wind crossing the open ranch land.

Site 338 at Jetty Park Campground along the side of Port Canaveral.

I’ve been to Jetty Park campground several times before. The attraction is the location, not the campsites. In the area I’m located the sites are really close together. Port Canaveral is the main attraction. In addition to a steady stream of cruise ships there are cargo ships and an occasional submarine to watch. Also across the channel to the north is the Cape Canaveral Air Station and the Kennedy Space center. The third attraction is the beach. It’s possible to walk south along the beach for several miles.

Disney Dream passing by the campground in the Port Canaveral Channel.

The Disney Dream was in the Atlantic by the time I was able to walk over to the side of the channel.

This afternoon and evenings cruise ship departures were different from my past experience. Some left early and others left late. Of the four or more cruise ships in port, I only saw the Disney ship depart. That one might have gone unnoticed if it didn’t play its “Wish upon a Star” horn music as it went by the campground. I’m guessing the odd departure schedule was caused by the scheduled rocket launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Station. A Space X Falcon 9 was scheduled to launch around 6:30. Unfortunately, it was rescheduled for Wednesday.

Time for a swim.

Tomorrow is forecast to be a little warmer after a very cool start. It should be warm enough for a walk along the beach and I’ll be watching for interesting traffic in the port. There are no cruise ships scheduled until Thursday.

Sunday April 15th 2018

The long forecast cold front arrived today and pretty much dominated the day. This morning was very humid with temperatures in the high 80s. The sun never really won the battle with the clouds. By noon the storm clouds were moving in. There were tornado watches and sever thunderstorm warnings all around the area, but not for this specific location. We had a couple of cloud burst style three to five minute rain storms in the mid afternoon then it cleared off for a while. Around six the actual front passed through with a more sustained period of rain. There will probably be more periods of rain overnight, but the worst is over. With the windows closed to keep the rain out, I had to turn on both air conditioners to keep the RV cool. Now it’s starting to cool off outside. The next few days are forecast to be cooler than normal.

Great White Egret lands in the campground.

Despite the weather I got a lot accomplished today. This morning I went grocery shopping. I thought Sunday morning would be a slow time. Boy was I wrong. The aisles were full of shopping carts and the checkouts were all backed up. There were around ten checkouts open at the Super Walmart and each had five or more customers waiting to checkout. It probably took more than a half an hour to checkout. You can only read the tabloid headlines for so long.

Back at the RV resort I caught up on the laundry. The facilities here have fairly new quality machines. The down side is the cost is on the high side at $2.25 per load. These machines only took credit cards. I wish they would orient the card readers for full size people rather than midgets. To read the display I had to kneel down and still had difficulty with the poor display. You basically had to be straight in front of it to read the display.

Shortly after landing the Great White Egret prances across the road.

It was important to get the laundry done before I move on tomorrow. Not all of the places I stay have laundry facilities worthy of using. My next four nights are at Jetty Park in Port Canaveral Florida. The last time I was there, in November of 2016, the laundry facilities were still waiting for repairs after hurricane Mathew. Obviously I’m not going there for the laundry facilities, but to enjoy a few days on the Atlantic coast beach. There is also a rocket launch scheduled for tomorrow evening.

Saturday April 14th 2018

It was another good weather day with high temperatures in the 80s, but the weather front crossing the country will be here tomorrow. The TV weather talkers are already warning of the potential for severe weather Sunday afternoon.

I didn’t leave the campground today. I focused on relaxation by reading and watching TV. The pictures in this blog entry are from yesterday’s visit to Disney’s Magic Kingdom. I also want to share some of my observations from yesterday’s visit to he park. Be warned that I may end up on a small soapbox, so feel free to look at the pictures and skip the speech.

White Egret Along the banks of the River of America

A duck in the River of America

A number of things have changed at the Magic Kingdom since my last visit in December of 2016. The first thing is a much needed change to the traffic pattern at the parking toll booth. People staying at the hotels and campground around Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon no longer have to pass through the tollbooth. They are also working on bridges and overpasses to allow traffic from the hotels to avoid the crowds in the parking area. While this is a good thing, navigating the construction leaving the park at night was a challenge.

The Haunted Mansion

The next thing you notice is a change in security. All security used to be at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom. Security is now across the Seven Seas Lagoon at the Ticket and Transportation area. You need to pass through a bag check and metal detector before boarding the Monorail or ferry for the Magic Kingdom. Going through the metal detector now seems mandatory. If you are arriving at the Magic Kingdom by bus or launch you still need to pass through security at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom. I don’t now if this change was driven by a security concern, a crowd management concern or both, but it makes sense. Visible Disney security at Epcot was a little tighter, but the Animal Kingdom seemed to be the same as my last visit.

Riders on the Seven Dwarf Mine Train roller coaster. No Thank You.

Another place that uniformed Disney security was present that I have not seen before was at the Hall of Presidents. There were two uniformed security officers inside the auditorium. There was not a similar security presence at the American Adventure in Epcot. I’m guessing this was because of the controversy surrounding our current president. As is custom sitting president’s animatronic version is now the last President to speak. He doesn’t say anything controversial, nor does it look much like the President.

Outside of Ariel’s Grotto. I just like the waterfall.

I don’t know what to think about the changes to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The scenario used to be a pirate battle, followed by the pirates dividing up the loot from their raid. One element of that was auctioning off the women captives. The final scene showed the women winning out by chasing the men around the house with brooms and rolling pins. To be more politically correct they now auction off chickens and the women are no longer in chains. In fact one womam is a pirate with a speaking role and is heavily armed. The next scene is still the women chasing the men.

They have traded a degree of historical accuracy for a story that doesn’t upset a portion of the viewing audience. I understand this is entertainment not a history lesson, but does that mean we should change all of the literature in the world that includes similar story lines. The next step after literature is the historical record in non fiction works. Worst of all the story in this entertainment ride is now disconnected. If I’d never seen the older versions all I’d be asking is “Why do the women chase the men with rolling pins in the next scene?”

Similarly, I guess that no one has protested the shooting gallery attraction in Frontier Land yet. How quickly will Disney remove that once the protests start? Is Buzz Light Year’s Space Ranger Spin next? It contains shooting lasers at targets as one of its prime elements. I think they should just plaster warnings everywhere that the content of this ride may contain Socially or Politically incorrect content. Don’t participate if you are concerned. That’s what they did to mitigate the dangers associated with Alligators. Anywhere there is water Disney has put up signs warning about Alligators and Snakes.

My bottom line is that these issues are all important. I’m just not sure making changes at a theme park are appropriate responses to bigger problems.

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Friday April 13th 2018

Today was the peak of this stretch of good weather. It was a sunny day in the mid 80s. Tomorrow a cold front starts to approach. It isn’t scheduled to pass through here until late Sunday, but some of the impact will start arriving tomorrow.

Cinderella’s castle.

Late this afternoon I visited Disney’s Magic Kingdom. I road some of the not quite thrill rides and checked out the sites in the park. My real goal was to see the nighttime fireworks show. Since it’s late as I’m writing this entry, most of this blog entry will be pictures. I’ll share some of my thoughts on what I saw in tomorrows blog.

Revised scene on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Disney made it more politically correct than historically accurate. The woman in red is now a pirate rather than a captive being sold.

Looking across the River of America

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The undersea world of Ariel.

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It;;s A Small World

Happily Ever After Fireworks

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The castle is lite with all kinds of different color scenes for the fireworks.

Thursday April 12th 2018

Today’s weather was beautiful. The humidity was low and the temperature was in the mid seventies. It would have been a good day for being a tourist, but that wasn’t in my plans. The last few days I’ve been getting up earlier than my normal to compete for reservations in various Florida State Parks next March. That in itself is not a problem, but staying up watching TV until 2AM or later complicates things. When I got home from Epcot last night I was exhausted. I dozed off watching TV shortly after finishing yesterday’s blog entry. When I woke up to go to bed, I knew that today had to be a day of rest.

It turns out there are two alligators in the retention pond. Here they are in the shallow waters near the bank of the feeder creek.

I got up this morning after 10AM. It probably would have been later if my neighbor didn’t wake me packing and leaving the campground. The site next door is a popular site. My first neighbor left on Sunday to be replaced by the one that left today. Shortly afternoon another RV arrived to fill the site. The rest of the campground hasn’t been as busy. On Sunday and Monday the campground really emptied out. Last week it was near full. This week it has been around half full. It looks like the weekend will draw more people to the resort.

The atmosphere at the resort this week is more aligned with my previous experience. Last week the park was full of vacationers. They were much more inclined to be hyper active. People young and old were always on the move. Some used cars, some golf carts others bicycles and skateboards. You’d think a vacation should be relaxing, but people need to pack as much into a few days as they possibly can. This week there are still golf carts and bicycles around but they are moving at a more sedate pace and usually have adults at the wheel. The other big difference is the noise level. It is actually quiet most of the time until the sightseeing helicopter goes over head.

On my walks today it was obvious that the wildlife has adapted to the higher water level in the retention pond. Tuesday’s rain raised the water level a couple of feet. The wading birds have found other locations to feed and the alligators are now taking the sun in the feeder creek that was almost dry last week. The bank area used by the gators for sunning last week is now underwater. One consequence is that there weren’t any birds to take pictures of.

This gator is about five or six feet long.

I plan to get to bed at a reasonable time tonight to reset my sleep pattern back to normal. Tomorrow afternoon I will probably go back to Disney. I’ll check the ride wait times online to see what park it will be. It probably won’t be another visit to Epcot. If I go back to Epcot this visit it will be on Sunday afternoon. The performer at the Flower and Garden Festival Rock and Roll concert series is Rick Springfield. I not only know who he is, but I also think I know a couple of his hits. I had much less knowledge about the performers this past weekend.

Wednesday April 11th 2018

Yesterday’s rain storm continued through most of the night. This morning the sun was shinning bright. All around the campground people were drying out from the three plus inches of rain. On my morning walk I passed several lawn mats that were out in the middle of the paved road to dry out. I didn’t have anything needing drying. There was a big puddle in front of my RV most of the day yesterday, but today it was dry.

Pluto greats everyone just inside the park.

This afternoon I went back to the Flower and Garden Festival at Disney’s Epcot. During the rain yesterday I was checking the availability of Fastpass opportunities at the various Disney parks. There was a Fastpass available for Frozen Ever After at Epcot. This boat ride at the Norway pavilion is very popular. I’ve been trying to ride it since January of 2016. Last year wait times were around 2 hours and Fastpasses went very quickly.

I’m glad I rode Frozen Ever After. It was about a fifteen minute wait even with the Fastpass. The ride is a rework of the original boat ride at the Norway pavilion. The boat still goes backwards at times and there are a couple of drops. I remember lots of trolls and gnomes along the old ride. This ride seems to have a couple of characters from the movie then a dark area followed by more characters from the movie. I felt like the ride I remember had more things to see. This ride was clearly designed for all the kids enamored with the move Frozen. For me, it wouldn’t be worth a long wait to ride again.

The best part of Epcot this time of year is all the color from the flowers and topiaries. Walking around the park to discover all of the interesting flower beds is a good way to get some exercise. I also squeezed in a few more rides including my current favorite Soarin. At the end of the night while everyone was lining the lagoon to watch Illuminations, the wait time was only ten minutes. Hang gliding around the world in a ten minute ride is great fun.

I ended the night watching Illuminations and the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom from the parking lot. Going deeper into the park after Soarin to see Illuminations in all its glory would have been difficult from a time perspective, not to mention the crowds. So I headed for the parking lot after the ride.

Buzz Light Year in front of Mission Space

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Floating flower beds.

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Pumbaa and Timon from the Lion King

Lady and the Tramp

More color

Beauty and the Beast

Captain Hook

Tinkerbell

Tiger

Eeyore and piglet

Winnie the Pooh

Couple of carved bears from Canada.

Daisy Duck with Chip and Dale