The forecast for today called for a one hundred percent chance of rain. It was correct, but it didn’t rain one hundred percent of the time. The day started cloudy and dull with an occasional brief shower and ended with blue sky shortly before sunset. During the day there were two big heavy downpours.
Blue sky and the sun were back before sunset.
I was out driving around when both downpours occurred. Visibility was terrible and traffic was heavy. It wasn’t a fun experience. When I got back to my RV home the rain was over, but you could see areas of massive run off. Inside, I had to mop up water on the kitchen counter. I had left that window open. That was the extent of my activity for the day. Today was a day of rest.
The rain arrived during the night. A strong line of thunderstorms moved across this area from west to east about 2AM. I think it continued to rain off an on for the remainder of the overnight hours. This morning it was mostly cloudy, but it was clear the rain wasn’t over. At least one more line of storms passed through the area during the day. Tomorrow has more rain in the forecast. If it is intermittent like today I’ll be happy, but I fear it is going to be more of a continuous event.
Today was the event I’ve been hanging around central Florida to complete. It was the day for my second Pfizer COVID shot. Shortly after noon I began the drive to the FEMA hosted mass vaccination site at Valencia College on the west side of Orlando. It is about 25 miles from my campsite in Davenport. The trip east on Interstate 4 is through the resort corridor with access to all the area theme parks. Traffic was heavy and the weather was threatening.
The FEMA mass vaccination site in Orange County in the rain. They are only giving out 2nd doses today.
The vaccination site was not very busy. The suspension of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine reduced the facility to only doing 2nd Pfizer shots today. Later in the week they will resume doing 1st Pfizer until they can do J&J again. They are trying to manage how long they need to stay in business. The facility was originally scheduled to close at the end of April. It is currently scheduled to close near the end of May.
After getting my temperature checked and my bar code scanned, I walked through empty tents with empty tables and empty switch back lanes until I reached the tent where the shots are administered. It took less than five minutes from the time I got out of my car until I was heading into the observation tents. The sky opened up and drenched the world outside the tents while I sat waiting to be dismissed. After the appropriate wait my bar code was scanned one last time and I was free to depart. I only got a little wet getting back to my car. I am now officially vaccinated against the virus that causes COVID-19.
The forecast rain stayed to the north most of the day. Only one brief storm passed through this area in the middle of the afternoon. The area north of Daytona Beach over to Ocala has received over five inches of rain since Thursday night. The next two days are forecast to be rainy in this area.
The other night the light bulb in my table lamp died. I brought the lamp with me from my house. It is stuck to my buffet cabinet beside my dinning table and is attached to a timer. It is my primary source of light each night. Today’s mission was to buy a replacement bulb. The one that burnt out was a compact florescent. I haven’t shopped for replacement bulbs in years. Everything I found at the local Walmart was an LED bulb. That’s fine, but there are a bunch of new descriptors that I wasn’t sure about. The box described small, medium and large sockets. They also used the words cool, bright and daylight in the description. By examination it was easy to determine I wanted a medium socket, but how do you judge the brightness by the arbitrary descriptor words. I choose a Daylight bulb with the equivalent of sixty watts in the old standard of brightness. It actually only uses 8 watts of power. So far, I’m satisfied.
The campground was close to full this weekend, but it emptied out a lot this morning. I was expecting another week without nearby neighbors and a generally empty campground. When I got back from shopping this afternoon, I was surprised to see several new neighbors. New guests continued to arrive all afternoon. The campground isn’t quite as full as last night, but it is close. I’m more confused about how empty the place was last week.
The rain is still to the north of this area. Today’s weather was similar to yesterday. It was mostly cloudy with high temperatures in the mid eighties and lots of humidity. The rain is still in the forecast, but probably not until later tomorrow.
Looking north along the Van Fleet Trail from Polk City Trail head.
I spent some time today on the southern section of the General James A. Van Fleet State trail. This 29 mile stretch of former railroad track starts in Polk City near Interstate 4 and travels north to Mabel west of Clermont near state route 50. I’ve traveled much of the trail on my bicycle over the years. Today I walked north and back from the southern trail head in Polk City for a round trip of about 4 miles. This area of the trail is through ranch land and woods. I saw many domesticated animals, lots of wild flowers and a few vultures. Here are some of the pictures I took today.
Rain was in the forecast for today. The day started cloudy, but instead of getting darker it got lighter as the morning progressed. Enough sun to cast a good shadow got through the high clouds by midday. Today’s rain remained north of here in the Marion, Lake and Volusia county areas. The current forecast has the front remaining north of here until late Sunday. The first part of next week is forecast to be very wet. Over three inches of rain is in the forecast.
Yesterday when I was out driving around in the area south of my current location, I saw a sign for Catfish Creek Preserve State Park. A little internet research identified the area as the Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek Preserve State Park. Today, I set out to explore the park. It is located in the middle of nowhere east of Dundee and north of Lake Wales. The only developed area that I found was a small dirt parking lot with an outhouse, a picnic table and sign board describing the trails. It was easy to miss.
The park is made up of sand hills and scrub vegetation. There are several miles of trails originating from the parking lot. Most of the trails are wide with deep soft sand which appears to be great for horses, but lousy for people. The trails go up and down little sand hills about twenty feet high. The maps indicate there were ponds and wetlands further along the trails, but I didn’t last that long. It was very uncomfortable walking. I gave up after about half an hour and returned to the parking lot.
Back at the campground this afternoon the park came to life. New RVs arrived every few minutes to fill in many of the sites that were empty all week. I now have neighbors close on both sides. It has gone from nobody around to lots of people walking and talking all over the place.
Yesterday was the best weather day of the week. Today began the downhill slide of the current weather roller coaster. There were high clouds blocking the sun this morning. As the day progressed the cloud cover got thicker. It kept the temperature down into the low to mid eighties. Rain is forecast for tomorrow.
I set out this morning driving south. My goal was to find a place to take a more scenic walk than around the campground. Years ago this area along US 27 was all citrus groves. In recent years the groves have gradually been converted to housing developments and businesses. There are still a few groves and roads with names like Minute Maid Ramp 2 as reminders of the more agrarian times. As you get further south, away from the greater Orlando area, the citrus groves are still prevalent. I knew I was out of the rapidly evolving areas when I found a grove with newly planted trees. It will be another thirty to fifty years before the trees in the new groves are dying off.
My search to the south for a place to take a scenic walk turned up a couple of possibilities, but I need to do a little research first. Returning north I was further east than my RV home and continued on into the Kissimmee area. I stopped at the park in downtown Celebration that I visited a little more than a week ago. Parking is not easy to find in the downtown Celebration area. Most of the parking is along the street, but you are competing with the residents. The area has many condos or apartments with limited off street parking and no garages. I found a place to park in a lot behind some of the businesses that may or may not have been legal. There were signs about a tow away zone, but it didn’t really explain who would be towed. My car was still there an hour later, so I was either lucky or legal.
Young Alligator
Walking around the lake in the downtown area was enjoyable. Some of the bright orange flowers were still in bloom. The young alligator I saw last time was still in the same general area. Today I also had the pleasure of seeing an Anhinga drying its wings and an Egret searching for food in the lake’s runoff. The walking and bicycle trails in Celebration are extensive and interesting. The parking situation makes them most useful for the residents as I’m sure they intended. The whole community is very pretty with lots of narrow tree lined streets with tightly packed homes. The style is a throw back to earlier times. I suspect it is a very expensive place to live with Community Development District costs and HOA fees.
Today’s weather was a clone of Tuesday. It was a beautiful day with a high temperature around ninety. My activities were pretty much a clone as well.
As the day went by puffy clouds started to fill the sky.
My activity level seems to be in a holding pattern along with my travels. I came to this campground to wait out the additional week plus before I get my second COVID vaccine shot. Each day this week has been a combination of chores around my RV home, a drive around the local area and a walk or two around the campground. The walks around the campground are not high on scenery. I try to find interesting pictures to include in each night’s blog, but around here I’m stretching the possibilities.
My challenge for tomorrow is to find a place to stop on my drive besides the gas station which will be the first stop. The ideal place will have a trail to walk and wildlife to photograph. I have a couple of ideas that I’ve been before, but they are a good distance away. I’d like to find a park or other outdoor activity nearby.
The RV park has a very professional dog washing setup.
The weather was beautiful today. The low humidity and gentle breeze kept the near 90 degree high temperature from feeling oppressive. The humidity is forecast to increase the next couple of days, so the heat may start to be an issue.
What wasn’t great today was the noise. I grew up in a city so a noisy environment is a familiar thing. This winter I’ve been in pretty quiet locations since September. I’ve gotten comfortable with quiet. This RV park is located at a major intersection with Interstate 4 southwest of Orlando. Road and traffic noise are constant. They quickly become part of the background. Today a couple of other elements brought the noise of the location to the foreground.
Before I got out of bed this morning a steady parade of police and fire vehicles with sirens blaring passed by. They continued off and on for ten minutes or more. I still managed to get back to sleep after the interruption. While I was having breakfast the next part of today’s noisy environment sounded off. The lawn crew was here.
When you’re a weekend camper you never think about the need to mow the grass at the campground. It gets done during the week. As a full timer you get to experience it every week. Some campgrounds are nice and wait until everybody is awake and some don’t. This campground didn’t start until after 9AM and only mowed the areas that needed it. The really noise part was the guy with the leaf blower. For some reason he walked slowly down the middle of each road blowing the leaves off the paved surface. With all the little leaves on the ground in the campsites it didn’t take long for the roads to be back to leaf covered. The guy with the leaf blower had ear protection. The rest of us didn’t.
Later in the day I experienced another drawback of the location. Traffic on Interstate 4 often turns into a parking lot. I made the mistake of returning to my RV home along the Interstate. About ten miles before my exit, the message boards were warning of a total highway blockage at the exit just beyond mine. Traffic started to slow two miles from my exit. The last mile took over half an hour. Many people were getting off the interstate at my exit to attempt to drive around the highway blockage. They really can’t make the roads big enough to handle all the traffic around here and more people are moving here every year.
The weekend storms were long gone this morning. It was a bright sunny day with low humidity and a high temperature in the low eighties. There was over three inches of rain in some reporting sites around the area yesterday. The rain is needed. The area is still several inches below average for the year. The long term forecast is calling for more rain over the next couple of weeks.
Blue blossom of the day.
After all the difficulties associated with yesterday’s move, I was not that energetic today. I got most of the setup tasks that I skipped in yesterday’s rain completed. I still need to connect the sewer line, but my tanks are in good shape capacity wise. Beyond those simple necessary tasks I was not in the mood to do much.
I took a couple of walks around the campground for exercise and as an attempt to shed my lethargy. The extended stay part of the campground is emptying out. Many of the snowbirds have returned to their summer locations. The regular part of the campground is also emptier than I expected. The combination of midweek and the pandemic seems to be impacting the occupancy. Earlier in the year I had an email advertisement from the park offering a minor incentive to stay here, so they may be having a hard time filling campsites. It will be interesting to see how busy the park is this weekend.
I only had 20 miles to travel today, but it was one of the worst travel days I’ve had in five and half years on the road. Both the weather and a couple of mechanical annoyances contributed to the high stress travel day.
The sun made an appearance shortly after sunrise, but it didn’t last long. By 9AM a line of wind with a little rain passed through the area. The forecast indicated that the main wave of storms was a couple of hours away right when I planned to finish my travel preparations. I decided to start early and find somewhere to stop along my twenty mile route so I didn’t have to pay an early arrival fee. The first mechanical annoyance of the day got in the way of that revised plan.
For some reason my main slide room and the leveling jacks would not work. I couldn’t bring the slide in or raise the jacks to travel position. This specific problem hasn’t occurred before. I tried the solutions I’ve used in the past for similar problems with out success. My next step was checking the fuse array. The hydrophilic pump used for both mechanisms is protected by a twenty five amp DC breaker. Everything looked alright, but somehow I did something to make the darn thing work. It was raining again by the time I got the slide room in and the jacks into travel position.
I continued to prepare for travel in the rain until it became clear that the thunder and lightening had arrived. Safety dictated that I sit out the storm inside my RV home. A couple nearby lightening strikes with accompanying thunder proved the correctness of the decision. Forty five minutes later the thunder and lightening were over and the weather radar indicated that a lull in the storm front was approaching. It was also getting close to checkout time.
I got drenched finishing up the departure process. Hooking the car to the motorhome was a challenge. I attempted to complete the task in the road in front of my site. A puddle and difficulty getting the car lined up straight behind the RV complicated the task. It took a little longer than normal, so I got even soaked.
Site 31 at the Orlando SW KOA in Davenport after the rain.
The drive wasn’t without its challenges too. I had to keep the windshield wipers on full the whole drive. Visibility was also difficult and I had some kind of noise coming from the dashboard that I haven’t heard before.
Once I arrived at the Orlando SW KOA in Davenport I had to setup in the rain. The original forecast indicated that the storm front would be through the area by 2PM. They were wrong again. It rained hard until about 6PM. At least I didn’t run into any really heavy winds or hail. Both were associated with some of the storms in the area.
Rob's Rambling Road Trip 