Wednesday June 30th 2021

The temperature didn’t get above the mid eighties today. An overcast mostly cloudy day was responsible. It was still very humid and uncomfortable when the breeze wasn’t blowing. The afternoon thunderstorms held off until 7PM Eastern time, but tonight’s storms were heavier than the last few days.

Today was a very slow day in the campground. The maintenance crew was back to finish the lawn mowing. They were focused on trimming today. The large expanses of grass look very nice. Many campers that have been here since before I arrived departed today. Around noon the campground looked very empty, but a few sites filled in as the evening approached. Talking with one of the camp hosts, today is the calm before the weekend rush. They expect a full campground over the weekend and are worried about potential bad behavior. I think that is less of an official concern and more fearful thinking on the hosts part.

I spent more time on the computer doing research today. I have reservations for November through February of 2022, but I’m not sure were I’m going when I leave here in a week. Lots of little issues keep me from making a commitment on direction and duration. Over the next few days I hope to resolve enough of the little issues to formalize a plan of travel for this summer. In the mean time I’m looking at the summer of 2022 already. Planning is such a love hate activity. General travel is fun, but specific travel is a pain in the …

Late this afternoon I got a notice that my Amazon delivery to the locker in Tallahassee is ready. Yesterday’s plan becomes tomorrow’s plan. I’ll be heading into the city tomorrow for errands and shopping.

Tuesday June 29th 2021

Nothing went according to plan today including the weather. The forecast called for a warm and sunny day with only a small window with thunderstorms in the afternoon. That window turned into several hours of light rain from around 4PM to almost sunset just before 9PM. The morning was very humid and the bright sunny allowed the temperature to reach the upper eighties before the rain brought it back into the seventies.

Today was mowing day in the campground. At this park, the maintenance staff is responsible for cutting the grass. Many parks, including Corp of Engineers parks, outsource the job. Here the maintenance staff arrived with lawn tractors in tow to cut the sizable tract of grass. My morning walk was cut short by the swarming mowers and blowing grass cuttings. Not only was it noisy, but it was a little dangerous dodging the fast moving riding mowers as well.

I took another more complete walk after the mowing crew departed. For some reason they suddenly loaded up their mowers onto the trailers and departed. They departed in mid row with large areas of the park unmowed. I don’t think it was the lunch hour or a set amount of time spent mowing. They probably had something else in the greater Lake Seminole area to attend to. Two or three hours after they departed, they were back to finish the job. At least I got one good complete walking circuit of the park before they came back.

My big plan for the day was a trip into Tallahassee. I need to do some shopping and pick up a package from Amazon. The package was do supposed to be at an Amazon locker, but it didn’t arrive on time. The tracking note said the locker was full. Since Tallahassee is about forty miles away, I don’t want to make more trips than necessary. Changing plans, I’ll try again tomorrow. Hopefully there will be room in the locker by then.

Saturday June 26th 2021

Today’s weather followed the normal summer weather pattern for the area. It was a mostly sunny day with high, but not extreme humidity. During the afternoon a fast moving shower came through the area and a couple of others missed to the north and south. The temperature peaked in the high eighties. It was fairly predictable and easy to deal with.

This blog entry is mostly the pictures I took on today’s walks around the campground.

This was a day of leisure. Most of my day was spent reading and watching TV. I took my first walk around the park in the late morning and my second walk after the showers in the late afternoon. At sunset, I took a quick third walk to catch a picture of the sunset over the lake. It doesn’t take long for the exercise to work up a good sweat.

Friday June 25th 2021

As I write this blog entry there are still a couple of hours to the day, but I think I can say “It didn’t rain today”. The humidity was down a little and the clouds were few and far between. Toward evening showers approached the area from the east, but dissipated before they got here. This is the first completely dry day in about a week. The temperature peaked in the high eighties.

I got caught up in chores around my RV home today. Even though none of the tasks was particularly complicated or lengthy in nature, they took up most of the day. I still managed to get in two walks in during the day and prepare a couple of meals. That’s one thing about living a solo life, if it has to be done, I’m the only one to do it. I’m not complaining, just explaining. I like it that way.

Most of my walks are around the campground. There are a couple of trails that are currently closed because of downed trees. I walk to the boat launch area at the northern end of the park along the park roads then return to via the camping loops to the picnic pavilion at the southern end of the park. My campsite is deep in the back of the “B” loop on the east side of the park away from Lake Seminole. The entire loop walk is probably over a mile and includes a hill with a decent incline. The views of the lake are the big attraction.

The campground isn’t as full for the weekend as I anticipated. The two camping loops near the water are mostly full, but my loop is mostly empty. There isn’t a lot of attractions at the campground for kids. There is no swimming and no real playground. There is a horseshoe pit and a volleyball net which make up more of an adult playground. Many of the people that are here for the weekend came with boats to fish in the lake.

Wednesday June 23rd 2021

Today was a travel day. A lot of things went wrong and part of the trip was in a downpour. It was a horrible travel day, but I’m safely setup in my home for the next two weeks at the East Bank Corp of Engineers Campground on Lake Seminole. It is located in Georgia just over the state line from Chattahoochee Florida.

The day began like a normal travel day. The weather was even cooperating. The sun was out, but it was also very humid. The first problem I ran into was an electrical issue. The devices on my dash board that get power from the house battery system were not working. This is related to the dead or almost dead house batteries that I haven’t replaced yet. It has been able to get enough power from the engine alternator, but not today. I tried to start the generator to provide another source of power without success. In hindsight I probably could have gotten the generator to start if I’d plugged the motorhome back into the campground power temporarily.

I resigned myself to traveling without the radio or rear view monitor and continued on with hooking up my Honda CRV for towing. It took two attempts to get everything right without the backup monitor and power to manually apply the towed car brakes. It was close to noon when I departed the Jennings KOA; almost an hour after the official checkout time.

The actual journey can be viewed in three parts. The first part was almost normal. The sun was out, traffic was light and I got used to the electrical issues. I listened to a podcast on my cell phone and used my mirrors more to watch the rear. The second part of the journey was really intense. About thirty miles east of Tallahassee the rain arrived and lasted all the way through the city on Interstate 10. Visibility was very poor. Lights on the cars in front disappeared after a hundred yards and if they didn’t have lights on it was even shorter. Speeds went down to 50mph and slower in some areas.

The third part of the journey was punctuated by an occasional brief shower, but visibility and conditions were much better. I got off the Interstate onto US 90 for the last thirty five miles. There were plenty of indicators that the heavy storm had already passed through the area. There were a lot puddles along the side of the roads and the trees showed signs of getting blown around a little. I hit one low hanging vine or tree branch going under a big tree at about thirty miles an hour. It sounded terrible, but I don’t see any indications of damage.

I arrived at the campground a little after 3PM. By four I was setup and staying dry inside as another rain storm passed through. It sounds like tomorrow will be another rainy day, before the pattern returns to a normal summer one. One or two storms late in the day is better than many storms at anytime during the day.

Tuesday June 22nd 2021

The string of rainy days continued. This morning was the worst of the rainy days so far. Around 8AM the rain began. It was moderate to heavy until early afternoon. There were even a few thunderstorms in the mix. There was a severe thunderstorm watch for the area and a flash flood watch remains in place for just north of here. Rain and thunderstorms are in the forecast for the next two days, but it is not supposed to be as bad.

As the rain was letting up I drove north to the Walmart in Valdosta Georgia. It is about twenty miles away. The store was moderately busy to go with the moderate level of confusion I felt trying to find the stuff I needed. I think this Walmart has already been through the nation wide store refurbishment Walmart announced a year or so ago. The layout was subtly different, there was a lot of new signage and all the refrigerator cases had a new kind of door I’ve never encountered before. I still managed to find everything I was looking for.

By the time I got back to the RV park it had completely stopped raining. I was able to take a walk around the pond. The puddles that were completely covering the road with several inches of rain had retreated enough to walk without getting my feet wet. The resident ducks were still hiding under the bushes, but the regular Egret visitor was back searching for lunch in the tall grass along the bank of the pond.

Tomorrow I’m moving on another 130 miles west. I’ll be staying for two weeks including the Forth of July holiday weekend at the East Bank Corp of Engineers campground on Lake Seminole. I was at this campground last September when it flooded out for a couple of days during Hurricane Sally. Hopefully I won’t have a similar experience this time around.

Monday June 21st 2021

The first full day of summer was more like a spring or fall day. The temperature was only in the low eighties, because the sun never made an appearance. The day started cloudy, but rapidly turned to rain as the morning progressed. A light to moderate rain fell until after 6PM. There was only about an hour during the afternoon that I had to close the windows. The TV weather talkers seem to be calling for a similar weather pattern for the next few days. There is a lot of moisture in the air that Tropical Storm Claudette stirred up as it passed through to the west over the weekend.

Last year on the first day of summer I was in Winslow Arizona. The temperature was just under 100 degrees and I was complaining about the wind. In the last few days it has been over 100 degrees in that area. Reading my blog entries you’d think I was 100 percent obsessed with the weather. I’m probably only about fifty percent weather obsessed. That is too much, but is probably a result of the lifestyle. Living in an RV you always know if it is raining or blowing hard. The sounds on the roof and awnings are loud. Even a very light rain can be heard inside. Also, unless the blinds are closed the rain is in sight all the time. Getting outside my 200 plus square foot RV home is important for exercise, but not in the rain.

I spent the day reading, surfing the internet and watching TV. Tomorrow I’ll probably stock up on food before moving on Wednesday. My next stop is a much greater distance to the nearest Walmart.