Tuesday May 11th 2021

This was a slow day. I got a few chores accomplished and just hung around my RV home. The weather was threatening all day. Late in the afternoon a line of showers passed through. It last about an hour from first rain drop to last.

Florida is in transition from a winter weather pattern to a summer weather pattern. The periodic cold fronts that pass through the state form northwest to southeast is the winter pattern and the afternoon showers crossing the state based on the strength of the sea breeze. There is another cold front coming tomorrow night, but in the mean time the heat of the day is causing the summer thunderstorm pattern.

Usually I experience the summer pattern in August and September when I return to the state from my summer travels. Every year my departure from Florida seems to get later. In 2016 I departed in early April and was in New England before May arrived. The next year I headed west at the end of February to spend March in Arizona. By the middle of May I was already in Idaho. In 2018 I left Florida at the end of April and was in Michigan near the end of May and slowly heading back south before going north again in the fall.

In 2019 I departed Florida in the middle of May and made a quick dash across the south. I spent Memorial Day weekend in New Mexico and the fourth of July in Washington state. Last year I didn’t spend the winter in Florida. I was in Las Vegas from November to March before going to ground for the months of April and May in Arizona to sit out the pandemic stay at home orders. By the Memorial Day weekend I was starting to gradually move north and east.

This year I planned to stay in Florida until the end of May. I thought it was going to take that long to get the COVID shot, but that task was accomplished by the middle of April. Technically, I’ll be in Georgia on the 24 of May, but the campground is within spitting distance of the Florida state line. My summer journey begins at that point. Now I just have to figure out where I’ll be staying beyond the general category of the Southern Appalachians.

Monday May 10th 2021

I woke up to the sound of lawn mowing this morning. While I slept a little late, it was still before 9AM when the rude noise started coming in my windows. I know they have to mow to keep the area looking nice, but the noise always seems to get on my nerves. It doesn’t really make a difference what time of day they mow. It hits my mood in a negative way and I have no idea why.

The Atlantic coast was much quieter today. All of the traffic and overflowing parking lots were gone. I found plenty of room to park at all of the parks and beaches along route A1A south of St. Augustine. My destination was the beach beside the Marineland aquarium. It was low tide so there was plenty of beach to explore. At high tide the beach is narrow. The area has several rock jetties that are mostly under water at high tide. They are intended to help prevent beach and dune erosion and preventing the inlet to the north from filling with sand.

It was very hot and muggy while I was at the beach. Looking back to the northwest toward my RV home, the clouds were thickening and darkening. Rain was not high on the forecast, but it sure looked like it might happen. I had not thought to close my windows and vents, so I started back after less than an hour roaming around the beach area. As I got closer to my RV home I could see the storm clouds were still a good distance away. I took a slower route back through the old town part of St. Augustine.

I was back in my RV home for about five minutes when the rain started to fall on the roof. In the two minutes it took to close the windows and vents the rain increased from a gentle shower to a loud roar of falling rain. Two minutes after that it was over. It remained cloudy and threatening the rest of the afternoon and evening. The forecast increases the chances of rain each day for the next three.

Sunday May 9th 2021

It wasn’t as cool last night, but it still encouraged a good nights sleep with the windows open. The daytime conditions were much warmer and more humid than Saturday. The only comfort saving condition was a strong breeze.

The RV park was a hustling cacophony of activity this morning. All the weekend residents were packing up to depart. Loud diesel engines and the grinding electric motors on jacks and slide outs kept the quiet away. It continued from shortly after 8AM until the noon checkout time. Later in the afternoon, when I turned from my day’s adventure, the atmosphere was completely different. The quiet was welcoming and obvious.

I usually don’t venture out of the RV park to obvious tourist destinations on weekend days. For some reason I ventured out today. I started to wonder about the sanity of that decision when I was waiting in traffic for the third green light to get through the first major intersection. It was so slow that I expected to find an accident blocking the road, but it was just the volume of traffic. Eventually I got clear of the traffic near the main roads and into only moderate traffic on the barrier island south of St. Augustine.

My plan for today’s outing was a stop along the Atlantic Ocean and maybe a walk on the beach. In my head, this is a shoulder season without many tourists looking to use the beach. In practice half of northeastern Florida seemed to be at the beach today. Traffic along A1A was a continuous line. As you approached every beach access the sides of the road were lined with parked cars. The parking lots were completely full and enterprising merchants were charging $10 to use their parking lots. I kept driving south to Flagler Beach before turning inland and returning to my RV home on the Intestate. There was never a real opportunity to stop.

The RV park is in its midweek quiet state. During my late afternoon walk I saw almost half the sites were empty. All of the hibiscus pictures in this blog entry were taken during the walk.

Saturday May 8th 2021

It was unusually cool overnight. I had to pull up the blanket early in the morning to stay warm, but it still turned into a beautiful eighty degree day. The humidity and warmer temperature is forecast to return tomorrow.

My destination today was the Deep Creek Conservation area run by the St. Johns River Water Management District. There is a 2.7 mile loop trail in the northern section of the conservation area that I wanted to explore. It turned out to be a nice exercise hike. I had hoped to have a nice wildlife exploration hike, but I didn’t find any significant wildlife. The most plentiful member of the animal community present were insects. In some areas the swarms of bugs were very thick.

The trail is mostly a wide grass lined path on high ground. It passes through swampy areas and pine forests as it meanders through the ground between the trail head on the highway and the St. Johns River. In a couple of areas I was glad it was a dry time of year. The trail was filled with mud that I needed to carefully negotiate. I thought I might find wading birds or other water fowl in the wet areas, but nothing was visible. Sounds from deeper in the swampy areas indicate there was life somewhere in the swamp. I enjoyed the walk, but I don’t think it warrants another visit.

The conservation area is only about twelve miles southwest of the RV park, but I took the long way home. I drove north along the east bank of the St. John’s River along a road lined with Live Oak trees draped with Spanish Moss. There were homes on the east side of the road and long docks out into the river on the west side of the road. It looked like a throwback in time. My return to the campground was about thirty miles.

Friday May 7th 2021

The weekend has finally arrived. I thought Thursday was Friday until near the end of the day when the wrong TV programs showed up on TV. This morning I was back to thinking it was Saturday until the regular weekday morning TV programs showed up. The TV must be my calendar. Whatever day it was, the weather was perfect. It was a bright sunny day with low humidity and a high temperature around eighty.

Today’s errand was getting the oil changed in my Honda CR-V. I like to use Valvoline Instant Oil change franchises or Jiffy Lube as a second choice. I had planned to get the oil changed in the Orlando area where there were plenty of both franchises, but didn’t get around to it. The count down percentage indicator on my dashboard came on while I was on the Space Coast. The options in that area were poor and in this immediate area they didn’t seem much better. This afternoon I drove 40 miles to the western suburbs of Jacksonville to the nearest Valvoline Instant Oil change. It’s worth it to go where I know what to expect and they have at least some of my vehicles history. In addition to the oil change I also had them change the serpentine belt. Ten years and 125 thousand miles put a few cracks in the old one. A broken belt is one of the last things I need.

Traffic on the highways was heavy. Trying to avoid the traffic I came back on secondary highways. The substitute for traffic seemed to be school zones and school buses. It took longer to get back to my RV home and wasn’t much less intense. The Friday afternoon congestion continued into the RV park. There was a line of RVs checking in. Navigating to my campsite at the back of the pack was delayed by two new arrivals backing into their sites. The weekend is here.

Thursday May 6th 2021

The operative action today was dodging rain drops. The forecast called for rain and thunderstorms during day. The TV weather talkers were really trying hard to sell the approaching rain, but they weren’t using the term severe. It was cloudy when I woke up this morning. Around 11AM the sound of rain on the roof arrived and I hurried to close windows and vents. There was a steady medium to heavy rain for about half an hour before it seemed to stop. It returned a few more times before everything dried up around 3PM. The sun made a brief appearance before sunset.

During the first lull in the rain I headed out for groceries. I managed to get to the Walmart in South St. Augustine without needing the windshield wipers. My first stop in Walmart was in the automotive section. The rain reminded me that I needed new wiper blades in addition to groceries. Shopping took longer than normal. I wasn’t very organized today. It seemed like I kept selecting products that needed something on the other side of the store to go with it. Checkout took a long time as well. The good news is I was inside long enough to avoid another big rain storm. It was only raining lightly as I pushed the cart of groceries back to my car.

My luck dodging the rain drops ended back at my RV home. While I was walking the fifteen feet of travel between the back of my car and the door of my RV to unload the groceries, the sky opened up with another shower. This on my have been the heaviest of the day. I got soaked. It is a good thing the temperature was in the seventies.

Late in the afternoon, I got in a walk around the campground. It is filling up for the weekend with lots of Florida tagged RVs. During the week there have been many out of state plates, but still no Canadian ones. I’ve seen exactly 3 Canadian plates in Florida this winter because of the boarder issues associated with the pandemic.

Wednesday May 5th 2021

Today turned into a travel recovery day. I had some thoughts of getting started with a few of the errands I need to accomplish while in the area, but the heat and humidity met me head on this morning. The muggy conditions won. It was another record high temperature day in the area. The temperature peaked in the mid nineties about ten degrees above normal.

I managed to finish up the outside setup tasks that I didn’t do yesterday before it got over the top uncomfortable outside. I wasn’t drenched in sweat after completing them. The only other exercise today was a couple of walks around the campground. The first was around noon and the second was near sunset. Two thirds of the campground is in the shade of many tall old trees. Unfortunately, given today’s heat, my site is in the third that doesn’t have many trees. Based on two days of observation, the park tends to fill to near capacity every night, but looks empty shortly after the noon checkout.

The rest of my free time during the day was dedicated to planning. I need to commit to my next stop or two before the memorial day weekend. I’m leaning toward one stop, but I’m open to two stops if I can find a really nice place for a few days. Right now I know where I can reserve all eleven open days. Weekends are the problem. It is fairly easy to find Tuesday through Thursday availability.

I’m also working on June and July. The places I’m looking at don’t take online reservations which slows things down. Right now, I’m waiting for a couple of calls to be returned. Verizon cell service in this area isn’t the best, so I may have missed a return call. I’ll have to try again tomorrow. I have never been of doing business over the phone. The business model that asks you to call and leave a message to be returned is unfriendly and filled with problems. When they don’t call back it is even worse.

Finally, while I’m in this planning mode, I’m considering spending the month of November at this RV park. I want to do a few longer stays to break up all the every two week moves I need to make during the winter to enjoy the Florida State Parks. This campground is in a good location with some nice sites and amenities. On the down side the cell service isn’t great and not all sites have a clear satellite view. The other down side is the good available sites are in the higher price tier. I’ll make up my mind before I leave here. There are other RV parks in northeast Florida.

Tuesday May 4th 2021

Today was a travel day from the Space Coast to the First Coast. Tonight I’m about ninety miles further north in the St. Augustine Florida area. For the first time in a long time it wasn’t a rainy travel day. I ended up just as wet. The humidity and ninety plus degree temperatures resulted in a sweaty mess. Today’s high temperature was about ten degrees above normal. Jacksonville tied the record high at 93 degrees.

I pulled out of the Titusville KOA a little before 11:30AM. My fist stop was for gas. When I arrived in Titusville on the 25th of April gas prices were on there way down. I chose not to fill the tank before I parked thinking the price would be lower on my departure day. The plan would have held if I left before the weekend. This morning I found gas prices more than twenty cents higher than Friday. When you add in the seven cents surcharge to use a credit card at the station I had easy access to, the price was more than thirty cents higher. I only put in about twenty five gallons. Once again I’m betting gas will be cheaper when I hit the road again on the thirteenth.

I arrived at the Compass RV resort in St. Augustine shortly after 1PM. The last time I was here was this past November. I’m in the newer Oasis section of the park with reasonable space between sites. The drive up Interstate 95 was uneventful. As usual the traffic got heavy around Daytona Beach, but I was able to maintain speed around 65 while other traffic moved by me well above the 70 mph speed limit.

Monday May 3rd 2021

The proximity to the Atlantic Ocean is the only thing keeping the local temperatures out of the nineties. Inland temperatures were in the low nineties. In this area the high temperature was in the upper eighties. The humidity still made it uncomfortable. The typical summer evening line of thunderstorms passed through west to east cooling things off a little.

I ran a few unsuccessful errands today. I stopped at Home Depot in search of a couple of screws to fix a hinge, but didn’t find anything better than what I have. The second objective was to find a place to get my car’s oil changed. There are none of the chains I usually use in the local area and I didn’t like the looks of the local versions I found. An oil change will be at the top of my list at my next stop.

For today’s recreation I stopped at one of the parks along RT 1 in Titusville. The Kennedy Point park has a boat ramp and picnic area that looks out on the Indian River. The massive Vehicle Assembly Building at the space center is visible on the far side of the river eight to ten miles away. Traffic in the river today was very light. I didn’t see any boats in motion or the dolphins that are occasionally visible. The breeze off the river in the shade of the tree cover helped deal with today’s heat.

This is my last full day on the Space Coast. I’m moving north to the St. Augustine area tomorrow. I got most of the outside tasks accomplished late this afternoon before the thunderstorms started. Tomorrow I’ll do the inside tasks and complete the outside tasks. I hope to be on the road shortly before the noon checkout.

Sunday May 2nd 2021

As forecast a summer weather pattern has arrived. It was very humid today with a high temperature in the upper eighties. It was in the nineties inland. Some of the area experienced afternoon thunderstorms.

I was up early to make another reservation for next year in a Florida state park. There is less demand for sites in April so I was successful on my first attempt. My reservations for next winter are pretty much all set, but June through November of this year is a still a mystery. What that means is I’ll be staying at expensive campgrounds near the interstates rather than public campgrounds or resorts near attractions. I really need to start committing to my summer travel plans.

The campground is back to a comfortable decibel level. The weekenders are gone and the activity level has been dramatically reduced. Generally, I don’t get annoyed by the increased activity, but this weekend was particularly bad. In addition to all the kids running, playing and screaming at each other, the parents seem to be particularly exasperated. There were more parents yelling at their kids, their spouses and the world in general than I normally hear in a campground. One family a few sites down started yelling at the top of their lungs before they were even fully parked Friday night and never stopped before they departed this morning. The moon and stars must have been in a bad alignment, because their was a lot more bad behavior than I usually encounter.

The weather caught me off guard today. Even though I knew the forecast for thunderstorms this afternoon, I forgot to close the vents and windows in my RV home before going out for the afternoon. While I was on my way north to the Daytona Beach area I ran into lots of black clouds. I was soon surrounded by bad weather and in the middle of a rain storm. That’s when I remembered the open windows. I made a U turn and hurried home. My RV home was still in the bright sunshine. It never rained in the area around the campground.