Thursday March 10th 2022

Today was a muggy day. The humidity has increased and the wind has decreased. The result was a high temperature around 90 degrees, even with a mostly cloudy sky. Tomorrow is forecast to be similar. On Saturday the rain associated with a cold front that has been hovering over central Florida is expected to extend south into this area.

This was lawn maintenance day at the campground. The service is preformed under contract to the local Goodwill organization. I don’t know what the circumstances of the workers are, but they perform the task with the enthusiasm and speed of a sloth in the hundred yard dash. Each worker has a task and a piece of power equipment. One guy gets the riding mower, another gets the push mower, one gets the weed wacker, one the edger and finally one the leaf blower. There doesn’t seem to be any coordination between the workers from that point on. They scatter through the park working and taking many uncoordinated breaks in out of the way places. The bottom line is they get the work done, the park grass is well manicured and it looks great.

The Ortona Lock was very busy today. I watched about five lock openings most with multiple boats in the lock. Ten boats from a Naples Yacht club passed through going upstream toward Lake Okeechobee for the weekend. The group was divided into two separate lock rises. Six boats seems to be the limit for this lock. I also watched one boat from Canada with a language issue understanding directions. The lock master wanted them on the opposite side of the lock than they were setup to use. The hand signals were wild.

Getting the boats into the lock, changing the water level and getting the boats out of the lock takes about half an hour. It seems to be a little quicker lowering the water level. They can open the downriver gate wider without worrying about the turbulent created. Watching all the traffic pass through the lock combined with walking to and from my campsite took a large portion of my day. It was an interesting day.

Wednesday March 9th 2021

The rain storms were even more scattered today. Once again the storms went by to the east and the west. The strong breeze out of the south and southwest kept the humid upper eighties temperature in check. Tomorrow and Friday are forecast to be similar with highs right around ninety. These temperatures are about ten degrees higher than normal for this time of year in this area.

I was up early this morning to make another reservation for next winter. This mornings attempt was unsuccessful. There were only two sites to choose from at the state park I was interested in booking. The cumbersome Web interface software and I suspect an under powered server got in the way. I was met with the dreaded “Site is already booked” message. Not surprisingly my attempts to find a site at other state parks in the central part of the state proved unsuccessful. I’ll need to book a commercial campground to fill in the gap once I get a state park or other public park site booked.

Getting the next few weeks for next winter booked is going to be difficult. Late February and March are prime season. I will have to get lucky at 8AM on the start of each 11 month booking window. The complication is internet access. Once I leave here next Monday, I’ll be staying at places in and around the Everglades that have very poor cell phone service. I’m not sure how I’m going to pull off the necessary minor miracle.

Working on plans for this summer is also full of questions. The ever increasing price of gas is adding to the cost. The increase in gas cost over the last week represents an increase of fifteen cents per mile of travel in my motorhome. Considering that the price of gas hasn’t peaked yet, it is likely the cost per mile will be twenty to twenty five cents above last year. That is between one and two thousand dollars for the year. The price of a night at a campground has also increased over the last two years. Just about every campground has gone up a few dollars. Some commercial campgrounds that were in the low fifties per night in 2019 are in the mid seventies per night this year. The pandemic produced a need for the limited supply of campsites that resulted in an increase in the cost per night. The campgrounds are getting it, they remain full most nights.

I don’t like the increase in cost, but I can adjust to it and absorb the costs. My bigger concern is the availability of fuel. If shortages develop and long lines or worse rationing come into play, I don’t want to be thousands of miles away from places I can hole up with minimum travel. For the winter, those places are in the south. The question becomes should I risk going all the way to the Dakotas this summer? If I don’t go that far north, where do I go?

For today’s activities, I broke up my walks to take pictures of the birds with a run to Walmart for groceries. I’m good with food supplies for another week.

Tuesday March 8th 2022

Today’s rain storms were more scattered than Monday’s. It was a humid day with a high temperature in the mid 80s, but rain was threatening all day. At any point in time during the day dark clouds were somewhere on the horizon. So far today, this area has been lucky and avoided all of the rain.

My day started off by finishing up yesterday’s uncompleted task. The power outage in this area prevented me from writing and publishing my blog entry. I rectified that problem as I finished my morning coffee. Once I finished posting the blog entry I continued with my normal internet reading routine. It was well afternoon before I came up for air and my first walk of the day. My tentative plan to make a grocery run were set aside.

The excitement in the campground today was water not electric. Water pressure kept getting worse all day. By the supper hour there was no water in half the campground. The camp hosts visited every site and delivered the bad news that even though they had reported the problem, no time line for getting it fixed was available. A short outage will be a minor impact to me. I have water in my tank and a working water pump. I wonder if fixing my water pump yesterday had a bad karma impact on the campground water system?

As I finished writing this blog entry, I had a knock on the door. It was on of the campground hosts informing me that the water was back, but it should be boiled for the next twenty four hours. Apparently the pump needed to be primed. Possibly because of last nights power outage.

Monday March 7th 2022

This post is getting posted 12hrs late, because of a power outage.

The string of hot, dry and windy days came to an end. Today was hot and cloudy with lots of clouds. It looked like it would rain at anytime from mid morning on. The actual rain was very hit or miss. You could see a storm off in the distance, but it would pass by to the east or west. When it did rain in this area it was usually very quick. We had several periods of light showers and a few brief periods of heavy rain. They weren’t thunderstorms, but still looked impressive. By 9PM it was all over.

Between the showers I finally got the repair to my RV water pump complete. When I started the task a couple of weeks ago, I set the task aside and went in search of a better tool. After several tool shopping stops without success, I took another approach. I removed some of the insulation and the vacuum cleaner hose that were blocking access. This allowed me a little more space. I was able to get my hand and a stubby screwdriver into position to remove the three screws that hold the pressure switch onto the pump. A few scrapes on my hands and wrist and a few pauses to work the cramps out of my hands and I had the part replaced. A quick test verified success, then I had to work on putting everything back together. I’m left with one last problem with this repair. The screwdriver bit I need to reattach an inside access panel is missing. I need to buy a new square drive bit or dig through my backup tool box looking for a replacement bit.

The other noteworthy event of the day was the power outage. While I was watching the evening news most of the power in the campground went out. Some of the street lights are supplied from across the dam. Everything supplied from the south side of the canal was out. Not knowing how long the outage was going to last, I went into a more extreme conservation mode than necessary. My RV batteries and inverter would allow me to continue as if nothing had happened, but not for the long term. To make sure I had enough power to run the refrigerator well into the next day, I turned off the TV, Computer and excess power users. I think the power came back on around 1AM.

Sunday March 6th 2022

It was another sunny and windy day. The temperature peaked in the mid eighties. Overall, it seemed to be a little cooler than Saturday. Much needed humidity is expected to arrive tomorrow as the wind moves from the east toward the southeast. Currently, the fire danger is very high.

Looking back at my last few blog entries, it would appear I’ve become obsessed with the wind. This is the first campsite in the open I’ve had since fall. All of my campsites so far this winter have been in the trees. A windy day in the woods is a lot different from a windy day in an open field. This campground is on the bank of the Okeechobee waterway. Not only does the waterway allow the wind to travel at ground level, but the surrounding area is pasture land or flood plain area. There is very little to divert the wind. In this area the wind behaves similar to the wind in the wide open west. The wind the last few days hasn’t been bad, just constant. It has kept the overall heat bearable. Continually gusty winds are far harder to deal with.

This was a lazy day. It was a two cup of coffee morning as I caught up on my internet reading. My first walk of the day was shortly afternoon. All of the Sunday departures from the campground had already checked out. I counted only ten empty sites out of fifty one. That is just another indicator that this isn’t a weekend destination. It is a place for travelers from northern states to stop. Today I saw more than one RV from each of Ohio, Wisconsin, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts in the campground.

There were plenty of people fishing today just like yesterday. I didn’t see anyone land a fish, but I saw several being carried away when the fishing was over. The area just below the dam seems to be a very productive fishing hole. In addition to the people on the fishing platform, boats creep up to the line of buoys that mark how close to the dam you can get. The fishermen on the boats cast well into the water discharge area. I’m surprised there aren’t a lot of crossed lines with all the angles people are fishing from.

Saturday March 5th 2022

Today’s wind was even stronger than yesterday. It built up to around a 20mph sustained wind out of the east late in the afternoon with gusts even higher. From a cooling perspective it was needed. The record high temperatures of ninety were tied in some locations in the area. Here, in the middle of the peninsular, the wind kept the temperature in the mid eighties.

Everything I did today was impacted by the wind. While out walking it was a constant battle to keep my hat on. If it wasn’t for the bright sun, I would have abandoned the hat. I think the birds even stayed in more sheltered areas because of the wind. The usual compliment of birds was depleted. Trying to work around the outside of my RV home was also a challenge. The wind was blowing over chairs and pushing doors closed right out of my hands. The wind will be back tomorrow to keep the temperature down, while keeping activities limited.

There were a lot of people in the park to fish today. The churned up water in the outflow from the dam is a popular Snook fishing area. I am not familiar with the species, but looked it up on the internet. It is endangered and therefor highly regulated. In this area a fisherman can take one fish between 28 and 33 inches a day. They apparently grow to be much bigger. I saw a couple of fish caught that were considered “keepers” by the fishermen. They were probably snook, but I didn’t ask. My knowledge of fish spices in southern areas is poor. I can identify the ones that also exist in the northeast, but after that I am a poor guesser.

Only a handful of campsites turned over today. The campground was pretty quiet during the middle of the day. People were either out for the day or hiding out in the shelter of the wind and shade from the sun. As night fall arrived the wind decreased a little and people got out to walk dogs and get their exercise before the long night.

Friday March 4th 2022

It was another bright sunny day with scattered clouds. The only change from yesterday was a stronger wind from a more easterly direction. The temperature stayed in the low eighties. Overall it was a very nice day as long as you kept everything anchored down.

There has been a lot of turnover in the campground the last couple of days. After the 11AM checkout time a third or more of the fifty one sites were empty. By the end of the day they are full. Most of the RVs in this park are travelers. The out of state plates easily out number the Florida license plates. That pattern holds for the recent arrivals as well. It doesn’t appear to be many if any people that are here just for the weekend. They are either here for a single night or a stay longer than the weekend. This campground is very different than the Florida state parks I’ve been staying in for the last ten weeks.

Besides walking around the park and taking pictures of birds, flowers and boats, I got a few chores done today. Taking pictures is far more enjoyable. I am probably taking pictures of the same birds over and over, but they continue to show up in a new light or angle. Tonight’s sunset picture wasn’t as nice as yesterday. Most of the clouds had disappeared from the sky before the sunset.

Thursday March 3rd 2022

The warm and dry weather trend continued today. The mostly sunny sky with a breeze out of the northeast resulted in a high temperature in the low to mid eighties. It was a very comfortable day.

I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. At least figuratively speaking. Today was lawn maintenance day at the campground. Around eight this morning it started. The sound of gas powered mowers, trimmers and edgers invaded the quiet overnight hours. Judging by when I turned off the TV last night, I should have slept at least another hour. The noisy early start to the day was just the first annoyance of the day.

On my first walk of the day I watched another catamaran pass through the lock. This one was eastbound or upstream. While watching the water fill the lock I got stung my some kind of bee. It got inside the leg opening in my shorts and trapped by the force of my phone in my pocket. The result was the first bee sting I’ve had in years. It was just above my knee. I was in real discomfort for a few minutes, but by afternoon I had forgotten all about it.

Later in the day, while catching on chores around my RV home, I managed to bang my knee on the corner of the refrigerator. The impact was just right to trigger a reflex reaction and another brief period of pain. I’m counting this as the third annoyance of the day. So far it is only a three annoyance day, but they have all come back to me as I search for something to write about in this blog entry.

Tonight’s sunset was very pretty. There were just enough cloud cover in the western sky to make the red sunset pop.

Wednesday March 2nd 2022

Yesterday ended with a clear sky and stayed clear overnight. The day began with bright sunshine and a breeze out of the northeast. The breeze kept the overall temperature under control today. It peaked in the low eighties. The forecast calls for it to get warmer all week topping near ninety on Sunday.

Today I made it a point to watch for boats passing through the lock. Shortly before noon I spotted a catamaran coming down river toward the lock. I walked across the dam to the observation area on the side of the lock to follow it through. The boat turned out to be out of Bermuda. The couple on board must be spending the winter in Florida. It was the only boat I saw lock through during the day.

I’ve been picking up on an odd vibe at this campground. At most public campgrounds people keep to themselves or one or two groups traveling with them. They are polite and open to conversation, but not invasive. Here there seems to be much more familiarity going on. It more closely resembles a commercial campground with long term residents. I overheard one departing party being wished safe travels and a promise to see them next year. It sounded like they are here at the same time every year. My neighbor greeted me shortly after I arrived with a small inquisition that seemed to imply she wasn’t happy to see me on the site beside her. It was an attitude of ownership or entitlement that seemed very out of place. Usually the two week stay limit keeps these types of things at bay. Late this afternoon an email from the campground office confirmed part of the problem. It was reminding people in the campground that there is a two week limit and that changing the name of the person on the registration is not an appropriate action to avoid the stay limitation. They don’t seem to be planning on kicking people out, but imply they will be attempting to enforce the rule more diligently. Clearly there is a problem, but I’m not part of it.

I saw many of the same birds today. They seem to have their favorite spots for getting a snack or full meal. An occasional small feud over territory takes place when one bird gets to close to another, but for the most part they wander around in harmony. I took more pictures of the birds today.