Thursday February 25th 2021

This campground seems to have more than the usual number of work campers. There is always someone running around in a KOA golf cart or doing some form of work around the campground. The problem is they get started early. Every morning I’ve been here some form of power equipment has greeted the start of the day. This morning I think it was a pressure washer around 8AM.

I’ve noticed similar work camper activity at this park in the past, but there may have been an added reason this time. On my walk around the park I spotted a fifth wheel trailer fully painted in KOA advertisements on one of the sites. Later in the day the couple from that KOA were walking around the park with a clipboard in hand. I suspect they were one of the teams that tours all of the KOA franchise locations to inspect or rate the facilities. Every year franchises try to win awards from the corporation.

Today I got back into summer travel planning mode. I’ve been dragging my feet trying to anticipate how quickly I will be able to get a COVID vaccination. I want to get it done before I leave Florida. This morning at a news conference in Jacksonville, the governor indicated that the eligibility pool will be expanding in March to people of lower ages. They seem to be planning on dropping the age requirement by five to ten years at a time and adding in some significant occupations like teachers. So I should be able to get on a list by April.

With all that in mind I started to plan my escape to the north. My first priority was booking the Memorial day holiday weekend. The other days in April and May don’t represent a problem provided I stay in commercial parks. The weekends are all booked in the state parks. I’ll be just north of Jacksonville over the line in Georgia for the week leading up to and the Memorial day holiday weekend. I’ll leave a gap in my plans during the first part of June in case I need to continue to hover in Florida. The plan is to head up the east coast into South Carolina before veering northwest toward the mountains. How far north I go is to be determined. I want to be in Tennessee in September and the beginning of October. Florida can wait until after hurricane season this year.

On this day last year I left my four month winter hibernation in Las Vegas with most of the year planned and reserved. Within three weeks all of the those plans were falling apart because of the pandemic. This year, with the exception of holiday weekends, I’m only going to plan about a month ahead. It will probably mean more moving with fewer longer term stays and thus a more expensive travel year. The two week planned Florida state park hopping will resume in November.