Monday June 20th 2022

Today was a beautiful weather day. It was a little cooler than the average June day in the Jacksonville area. The high temperature was in the high eighties with low humidity and a decent breeze off the Atlantic Ocean. Many people around the RV resort were taking advantage of the weather. They were sitting outside and even getting in a little exercise.

I took advantage of the weather by going for a hike in the Cedar Point Preserve. A combination of city, state and federal park area provides a nice location for hiking through hardwood hammocks, coastal pine forest and marsh land along the creeks that feed the St Johns river between the mainland and Talbot Island, a barrier island.

The trail system is extensive. I only saw one other person during the entire two plus hours I was walking the trails. For the most part it was a relaxing walk. There was one moment that got my adrenaline pumping. A deer popped out from the side of the trail about ten feet in front of me. It ran away from me on the trail before turning into the woods on the far side about fifty feet away. It was a startling experience. I wonder how long the deer knew I was coming before it decided to bolt. The whole event was over in ten seconds.

Sunday June 19th 2022

The above average temperatures of the last week were gone today. The cold front passed through yesterday and left a day with lower humidity along with a strong east wind. The scattered fluffy cloud day produced a high temperature just north of ninety. The temperature combined with the east wind produced a very comfortable day.

I was back to my regular daily pattern. The morning was dedicated to breakfast with an extra cup of coffee and catching up on my internet reading. This was followed by my first walk of the day around the RV resort. A few extra Canadian Geese had decided to spend their day around the retention pond. Most days there have been eight to twelve geese. Today it looked like there were twice as many, but I didn’t count them. This group of geese are quiet and not particularly bothered by people getting near them. The down side is they do leave many little calling cards all over the place.

During the time between my walks today, I roasted a piece of pork I picked up at the store yesterday. It provided a good dinner today and will be useful for sandwiches and another meal or two during the week. Unfortunately it also produced enough dishes to fill the sink leading to a never enjoyable dish washing session.

My second walk later in the day had to wait for the US Open Golf tournament to finish. The victory cam down to the last putt on the 72nd hole. A player I never heard of before missed a birdie putt to tie the match with another player I never heard of before. It was an interesting final few holes as all the players I could identify fell out of competition. I guess I don’t watch enough golf anymore.

Saturday June 18th 2022

I woke up this morning shortly after 7AM to the sound of thunder. This is exactly the opposite of what I expected based on the weather forecast. I was expecting a bright sunny morning to heat the air into the upper nineties followed by severe thunderstorms during the afternoon. Instead we got something different.

A line of thunderstorms approached the area from the north this morning. The storms were severe in southern Georgia, but by the time they got to the Jacksonville area they had lost much of their strength. It rained from shortly after 8AM until noon. Occasionally it was heavy rain. In the early afternoon the rain gave way to slowly clearing cloud cover. By late afternoon the sun was out increasing the temperature to the advertised high for the day in the upper nineties.

The rain prevented me from opening the windows, raising the vents and turning on the fans. I had to run the AC all day. On a nice day I try to keep the AC off until evening. There is nothing wrong with being comfortable inside. The down side is when I go outside. The change in humidity and temperature hits you like running into a brick wall.

During the bad weather portion of the day the RV resort was more active than I’ve seen it since I got here almost two weeks ago. New residents arrived to occupy three of the empty sites near me. Later in the day on my walk around the resort I spotted several other new arrivals. I wonder what was so special about today.

Late in the day I made a trip to Walmart for groceries. I have gradually gotten back into a habit of grocery shopping more frequently. For the last two plus years a combination of social distancing concerns and being located long distances from stores have lengthened my average time between grocery visits to two weeks or more. I make heavier use of my freezer than in the past. Since I got back to civilization after my stay in the Everglades in March, I’ve been grocery shopping every six to nine days. Considering that I consciously differed purchases today until my next trip, it may be shopping again sooner than a week this time.

Friday June 17th 2022

It was another day without thunderstorms. The temperature was in the mid nineties, but a breeze out of the northeast kept conditions more or less comfortable. The humidity wasn’t extreme. The current forecast calls for the temperature and humidity to rise tomorrow producing instability in the atmosphere and probably thunderstorms in the afternoon.

Today was another day with lots of little chores, a few walks around the park and lots of relaxing. On today’s walk the geese were missing, but the duck family was still cruising around in the retention pond. Below the surface in the retention pond there were a number of big fish nosing around in the bottom mud with their tail fins breaking the surface. It was very strange to see several two foot long fish of an unknown variety churning the water along the bank. I tried to get pictures, but they turned out uninspired.

There is very little evidence of the arrival of the weekend in the park. A couple of RVs arrived to fill some of the sites near the front of the park, but they only made a small blip in the empty sites in that area. The back of the park with all of the longer term residents remains full. I’m in an area between the two areas that has a few empty sites.

Thursday June 16th 2022

There was more sun than clouds today, but the high temperature managed to stay at the seasonal normal temperature of 91 degrees Fahrenheit. This was largely possible because of a strong wind off the ocean to the east. Tomorrow another Heat Advisory day is expected with a heat index above 105.

I spent my day doing a few chores around my RV home and generally relaxing. I got in a fair amount of reading and too much internet surfing. At fairly regular intervals I was interrupted by deliveries to my neighbors. They got two sets of deliveries from Amazon and one each from UPS and Fed X. Other day’s they have gotten a few deliveries, but today was a bumper crop of delivery trucks.

In addition to the ordinary delivery services, I have also seen a couple of food delivery services in the park. One is the traditional service with the fancy refrigerated truck that looks similar to an old milk truck and the other is a more informal looking service that delivers from Walmart. An ordinary car pulls up and starts unloading regular Walmart plastic shopping bags. As with all deliveries the stuff gets left on the cement pad in front of the RV door. I think some of the drivers knock on the door, but most seem to drop the stuff and run.

Delivery services seem to be very important for many of the residents of the park. They are gone for long hours during the day. I suspect that many have to travel a good distance to their work locations. I hear people leaving as early as 6AM and many don’t seem to be back before 7 or 8 in the evening. There are people here that work construction, some are in the military, a few appear to be traveling medical workers based on the scrubs they wear and my guess is just about any profession may be represented. This park is heavily populated with people in temporary living situations.

Wednesday June 16th 2022

The Weather Service didn’t issue a heat warning for today, but somehow I thought it was warmer than yesterday. The actual high temperature at the airport was 94 degrees Fahrenheit. The feels like temperature was in the low 100s. One difference today was the wind. For the first two thirds of the daylight hours there was very little breeze. Late in the day a comforting breeze developed.

The TV weather talkers have indicated that the current high temperatures and humidity have arrived early this year. Next week is forecast to be even higher. The current pattern is not normal. I’m not really bothered by the high temperature, but it limits some of the things I might consider doing. Multiple short walks during the day have replaced longer hikes. Anything more strenuous than a short walk outdoors is reserved for early in the day or after dark. So far I have not run the AC overnight. I put it on at dusk or earlier if rain forces me to close the windows and vents. Once it brings the temperature down to the point that it is cycling, I turn it off so it doesn’t wake me up during the night.

After two unsuccessful attempts in the last few days, I finally made it down to the boat launch and park on the Trout River. Instead of trying to take a less traveled path, I took the interstate highway the eight miles south. Sometimes it is just easier to go through the construction zone rather than around it. The tide was close to high resulting in high water levels. There were a few people launching boats, but most people were just sitting in their air conditioned cars watching the world go by. I walked around the area for a few minutes and took a few pictures of the birds. Then I became one of the people sitting in the air conditioned car watching the world go by.

Back at the RV resort later in the day I got some more exercise with another walk around the park. There have been a few departures and a few new arrivals. Overall the level occupancy seems to be pretty constant. I’ve come to the conclusion that occupancy is about the same as last year at this time, but more people are staying in the back area this year. Who knows for sure, but it is fun to speculate.

Tuesday June 14th 2022

There was a heat warning in place for this area today. The feels like temperature was forecast to be 109 degrees Fahrenheit. I doubt it got that high. The actual temperature seemed to only reach 93 degrees. This area even dodged the severe thunderstorms that started a little north of here and passed by to the west as they moved on a southwest path. This weather pattern has forecast high temperatures above normal for the next couple of weeks.

I didn’t get a lot accomplished today. While I was out driving around I attempted to avoid traffic and road construction. I ended up on unfamiliar roads heading into downtown Jacksonville. After a U-turn and some stop and go traffic I was back in familiar territory, but never got to the park and boat launch on the river I was planning on visiting.

While I was out I noticed that gas prices had gone up another fifteen to twenty cents since Saturday. Prices in this area are now between $4.75 and $4.90 for regular unleaded gas. That is a lot better than many areas of Florida and the rest of the country. The fact that Georgia is less than twenty miles away on Interstate 95 may be helping to keep the price down in this area. Georgia has suspended its gas tax for a period of time that ends today, so prices may jump again tomorrow.

Monday June 13th 2022

This morning’s TV weather forecast suggested it was going to be less humid today. I think they were over optimistic. It was a mostly cloudy day with very heavy air. A couple of times during the day it released some of that weight as a brief downpour followed by a little bit of sunshine before the pattern repeated. The high temperature was in the upper eighties under cloud cover, but reached the low nineties during the brief periods of sunshine.

I woke up to the sound of lawn mowers. I knew Monday’s were landscape day. This resort publishes the mowing schedule and requests that guests clear the grass areas of their sites to facilitate easy access. They have a crew from a landscape service do the job. When I heard the mowers this morning I assumed they were coming toward my site, but I was wrong. They passed by a couple of roads over from my road. They didn’t get to my site until after lunch. I was in the last section they mowed, trimmed and blew.

Today was a day to get a few chores accomplished. The inside ones were simple to accomplish. Outside was a little more complicated. I needed to dump my holding tanks. The sewer connection on this site is in a depression in the concrete. My right angle sewer hose connection that screws into the plastic pipe in the ground won’t fit, so I can not leave the hose connected. When I need to dump I connect the hose to the RV and wedge the other end into the ground end so it won’t pop out. After I empty my tanks I put the hose back in the RV and cap the pipe in the concrete. Normally, during a stay I connect the hose once and dump the tanks every few days. Here I’m dumping less frequently, because I have to connect the hose each time. The outdoor task was very sweat inducing. My shirt was drenched and everything was dripping in sweat my the time I finished the procedure.

Sunday June 12th 2022

The rain came early today. Today’s forecast called for rain around 3PM, but they forgot to tell Mother Nature. I had to shut the windows, close the vents and turn on the AC before the lunch hour. A short period of heavy rain popped up and turned a bright day into a dark and gloomy one like the throwing of a switch. A pattern of off an on showers followed for the rest of the daylight hours. It was an overall humid day with a high temperature in the low eighties.

The showers got in the way of the things I tried to do today. The first shower arrived as I was preparing to drive down to the river. I never got back to that outing. Trying to get in my exercise walking around the park between storms was also problematic. My first two attempts were cut short by the new storms sneaking up on me. I got a little wet the first time and trying to avoid a similar occurrence on the second walk I cut the excursion much shorter than I needed. The third walk at dusk was shorter, but a success.

On my walks today I started speculating on how long various RVs have been here. The park doesn’t allow the extreme clutter that often indicates long term occupancy. There are a number of sites with small storage boxes and big potted plants, but storage sheds and fancy patio furniture are not allowed. There are a couple of RVs that I remember from last fall and one that I’m sure was here at this time last year. They are memorable for reasons other than the look of the site. The one I’m sure has been here more than a year is a very small motorhome with Oregon plates and a Georgia car, for example.

Saturday June 11th 2022

Today was a two storm front kind of day. It began as a mostly cloudy day with a few short breaks of sun. In the early afternoon the first line of thunderstorms moved through the area. It was even more humid after the storms. The second line of storms arrived as the sun set. The light show from all the lightening was spectacular. A light rain continued after the storm.

I got in a little area touring before the storms arrived. I was watching boaters launch their boats into the river system leading out toward Amelia Island, when I spotted the dark clouds to the southwest. The area to the north and east still looked like fine weather. I was surprised to see the people launching boats to continue without any apparent concern. In hind sight they probably had about an hour, but I wouldn’t have taken the chance. As it was I returned to my RV home to ride out the storm.

I spent most of the day inside my RV home with the AC keeping things comfortable. Before and between the storms I got in a couple of walks around the RV resort. Without a lot of direct sunlight the ducks and geese were active in and around the retention pond. The park residents were also active. Since many of the people staying here work in the community, the weekend is the time to get things around their RVs accomplished. There were many sounds of maintenance and outdoor work tasks. My neighbor on one side was using the time to remove tar from the front of the motorhome and the neighbor on the other side was engaged in some gardening. He transplanted a number of seedlings into bigger pots.