Thursday August 11th 2022

It was a cloudy morning to finish my travel preparations. Without the direct sun the temperature remained around eighty, but the humidity was trough the roof. Any exertion resulted in copious amounts of sweat. Never the less I was packed up and hooked up for my move by the 11AM checkout time. I cleared the exit as the top of the hour struck.

The travel day had its share of drama. First up I missed my turn onto the west beltway around Jacksonville. I’ve taken that off ramp many times, but today I misinterpreted the signs and was in the wrong lane. I continued north into the city on Interstate 95 to pickup Interstate 10 right in the middle of downtown. Traffic wasn’t bad, but there was a little construction. Overall it was a few miles longer.

The second issue was the weather. I ran into a couple of downpours. They weren’t thunderstorms, but the rain was heavy. It was necessary to turn on the window defroster at full blast to keep the front window from fogging up. Visibility was a challenged during the rain. It was only a light sprinkle when I arrived at my destination, but the middle part of my trip was wet.

I noticed the third element of drama as I was setting up at my new location. This had the potential of being the worst of the set. My living room slide out was out about two inches as the bottom when I arrived. I don’t know if I failed to notice that it was not completely retracted when I departed St. Augustine or if it came out during my drive. It has never come out before and it worked fine when I cycled the controls, so I’ll just watch it closely going forward.

It was just after 2PM when I arrived at my destination. I made one pause for about forty minutes at a rest area along the way to let the storms pass through and to kill time. I am at the Jennings KOA Holiday in Jennings Florida just south of the Georgia state line on Interstate 75. This is a place I’ve stayed before on the side of the Interstate. I’ll be here for a week and a half.

Wednesday August 10th 2022

It was another nice weather day. It was mostly cloudy all day, but the rain was not in the area. The wind direction seems to have changed to a more southern origin. Unlike the last few days with an east wind that caused the rain storms to form just west of here, today’s storms formed well inland and didn’t make it to this area intact. The temperature peaked in the upper eighties with plenty of humidity.

Note to self; stay away from schools on the first day of classes. While I was out driving around this afternoon I encountered two different schools getting out. I think every parent decided to pick up their kids on the first day of school. Cars were backed up in both directions and around corners almost a mile at both schools. Officers were directing traffic and only allowing a few cars onto the school grounds at a time. Priority was also given to the buses some of which were still arriving with the kids already out of the buildings. It really looked like chaos. Hopefully it will improve as routines get established.

This is my last full day in the St. Augustine area. I extended my stay here twice, but I’m running out of interesting activities. Tomorrow I’ll move inland and north for a little more than a week. I want to be out of Florida for most of September and October to have better options if hurricanes start to head this way. Exactly where I’m going is still an unknown.

Tuesday August 9th 2022

I was up early this morning to book my last reservation for next winter. At the eleven month mark, last March, I tried to book a Florida State Park reservation for the two week period starting February 9th 2023. I had no luck, so I decided to switch my focus for that period to the Army Corp of Engineers campgrounds east of Fort Myers Florida. Federal campgrounds have a booking window that opens 6 months from the start of the reservation. That was this morning.

Over the last few days I’ve monitored the availability at my two target campgrounds. As of yesterday it looked like only three sites would be available. This morning there were only two available. I set my sights on the campsite I thought I’d have the least competition over. At 9:59AM approaching the 10AM opening of the booking widow I clicked my mouse on the appropriate field and no dice. Someone else out clicked me. The campsite at the other campground was also gone.

It looks like the number of available sites will increase over the next few days. I’ll try again and again as necessary. The middle of February seems to be a very popular time this coming winter. I will need to make a reservation at a commercial park for a few nights starting on February 9th. A quick check at a few of my standard backups in the central Florida area showed one campground with no availability. Two others had sites available, but the rates ranged from very high at $78 per night to ridiculous at $168 per night. It was less than $70 at the campground expecting the ridiculous amount when I stayed there last May. Disney’s Fort Wilderness campground had available sites for less than the $168 price, so it is a possibility as well. At least Fort Wilderness gives you enough things to do that you can believe your getting your money’s worth. The bottom line is I have some work to do to book the last two weeks for next winter.

School starts in this county tomorrow. I wish I thought about that before deciding to go to Walmart for some grocery shopping. It was very busy. Many of the shoppers included several kids in the party. The shopping carts were filled with back to school supplies and a few cloths. I avoided the special area of the store with back to school supplies, but it looked like a feeding frenzy at an aquarium in that area.

Monday August 8th 2022

The sound of thunder and the specter of dark clouds were all around the area today. It looked like a tropical downpour was only moments away for much of the day, but this area stayed dry. The sun was mostly blocked by clouds, so the temperature remained in the mid eighties.

The daily rain storms during the Florida summer are mostly caused by the collision of wind coming from the east coast with the winds from the west coast of the peninsula. The water temperature in the Atlantic vs. the Gulf of Mexico along with the strength of the wind factor into the location of the developing disturbances. Over the last few days the wind off the Atlantic has been dominant causing the storms to develop inland from the east coast and move to the north and west once they form. Since I’m located about five miles from the coast, I’ve been in the clear. When the wind from the west is stronger the storms move into this area late in the day after they form inland. Obviously there are lots of other factors in prediction of the developing weather, but this simplification helps me understand the forecast.

I needed to shop for some things that aren’t available at Walmart and I wanted to be more tactile than Amazon allows. Before I began the Rambling Road Trip, Target was one of my “goto” stores. On the road they aren’t available in rural America as frequently as they are in cities. There is a Target in St. Augustine, so I took advantage of the opportunity. It has been over two years since I was in a Target.

In my opinion Target stores are more open and uncluttered than similar stores like Walmart. It is easier to find what your looking for and compare one product with another. This store was the exception to my experience. Things were jammed together and disorganized. There wasn’t a lot of open space between rows of merchandise. Overstock or not yet sorted merchandise was in the main aisles. It was somewhat of a disorganized mess. Never the less, I found a couple of items I was looking for. When I left the store I spotted storage containers in the parking lot and a sign on the side of the building saying they were open during remodeling. I didn’t see any real indicators of remodeling inside, just clutter, but I guess they have an excuse.

Sunday August 7th 2022

Today began sunny and ended cloudy. It was just the opposite of the day before. Other than that anomaly to the trend it was a humid day with the high temperature in the upper eighties. Once again the sea breeze kept conditions in the comfortable range.

Some of the weekend residents departed today. If the trend holds, more will leave in the morning. I’ve noticed that many people make a long weekend out of their stay. Another odd, but understandable, behavior is the people that leave for the weekend. Thursday, one of the longer term residents on a site nearby departed. They returned today as if nothing had changed. If you’re living in an RV and want to go away for the weekend, you just take your home with you.

My activity was pretty much a clone of Saturday. Since I though Saturday was Sunday that isn’t surprising. Most of the day was dedicated to relaxing activities around my RV home. The only real tasks to interrupt the relaxation were those necessary to survive. I had to take time out of doing nothing to cook some food and eat it. Night fall arrived sooner than I expected for two reasons. First I was enjoying doing next to nothing and secondarily, it is getting dark earlier.

Fall is just around the corner. I’m starting to investigate where to spend the Labor Day weekend, Columbus Day weekend and the month of November. My winter schedule of reservations at various state parks in Florida begins at the start of December. With the exception of two weeks in February, I have everything booked through late April. The six week reservation window for the two week gap opens next week, so I’ll be trying to fill that opening.

Saturday August 6th 2022

The day began cloudy and threatening. The forecast called for a chance of rain during the morning. It never materialized. As the day went by the clouds started to break up. By the end of the day the sky was clear of clouds. The temperature peaked in the high eighties with plenty of humidity offset by a strong breeze out of the east.

I spent the day in full relaxation mode. Breakfast was drawn out complete with a second cup of coffee. The rest of the day was filled with reading, internet video watching and some television. Most of the day I was under the impression that today was Sunday and tomorrow was Monday. I kept considering different plans for things I wanted to do on Monday. Did I sleep through Saturday?

The campground is clearly less occupied this weekend than the last couple. I’d guess it is only about half full. I counted more than twenty five empty sites in my area of the campground. The campground activity calendar posted near the recreation areas is not heavily populated for the month of August. The month must be historically lower in occupancy.

The beautiful Hibiscus bushes around the campground continue to bloom. Most of the blossoms seem to be a shade of red. They take on different tints as they age, get subject to the sun or get rained on. The park doesn’t seem to have planted any white, yellow or variegated varieties of the plant. Either way, they are very impressive flowers and good candidates for photos.

Friday August 5th 2022

Today’s weather was a lot like Thursday. The strong breeze off the ocean kept the temperature in check despite the humidity. Once again the temperature was in the high eighties. The rain threat was during the morning, but the storm line formed further inland and moved away from here.

The weekend has clearly arrived. While I was out today, there were plenty of recreational vehicles and trailered boats on the move. Traffic also seemed to be a little more impatient. I experienced several cars that felt the need to weave in and out of traffic to keep up a speed greater than the flow. Combined with some intangible feelings, it was apparent the weekend was here.

This is my third weekend at this RV resort. The campground was almost full the first weekend. The fact that a camping group from Georgia was here, may have been a contributing factor. Last weekend it wasn’t as full. There were many scattered empty sites throughout the campground. This weekend seems to have many more empty sites. School has started in all of southern Georgia and many of the districts in Florida also started this week or next. That may be the reason there are fewer visitors this weekend.

Thursday August 4th 2022

There was a strong breeze off the Atlantic Ocean to keep the temperature under control today. The humidity was high, but there were no thunderstorms in this area. The breeze kept the temperature in the high eighties.

Today was a very routine day. I got a few chores done around my RV home and spent the rest of the time doing non productive but very enjoyable tasks. The day went by quickly, but I don’t have anything to write about in this blog entry.

Wednesday August 3rd 2022

It rained loud and hard overnight. Thunder and lightening accompanied heavy rain for nearly an hour in the middle of the night. The day began very humid but sunny. More rain was in the forecast for the afternoon, but as of night fall it still hasn’t arrived.

I drove through downtown St. Augustine on my way to the boat launch on the Inter coastal waterway that was overflowing with cars and boat trailers on Saturday. Parking in the downtown area is scarce. In the area of the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument the spaces had waiting lines. There are parking garages further inland, but I wasn’t prepared for a lot of walking in the Florida Summer sun. The way to find available “free” parking is to park away from the downtown area at one of the parking lots run by the trolley services, but then you have to buy a ticket on the trolley. It has been many years since I explored the fort and I think it will be a few more.

When I arrived at the boat launch area just before the bridge out to the barrier island and Vilano Beach it was busy, but nowhere near as busy as Saturday. A steady stream of boats were launching and landing at the three boat wide ramp today. On Saturday empty trailers were parked along the road and boats on trailers were waiting to get into the parking lot. During the half hour or so I was there fifteen or more boats came and went. They ranged from little boats with small outboards to boats that look to big to be trailered.

The boats were interesting, but the hand full of Egrets hanging out with the seagulls were more interesting. Several of the pier posts had a Great Egret camped out on top. They were in competition with the seagulls for discarded fishing bait off of landing boats. Most of these Egrets were pretty tame. One could walk within a few feet of them as long as you were walking directly at them.

Tuesday August 2nd 2022

The dry weather pattern changed last night with the arrival of rain. It was noticeably more humid today. The day began bright and sunny, but in the early afternoon the clouds started to move in and darken the sky. During the late afternoon there were several brief rain showers. Since darkness arrived there have been many flashes of lightening and roars of thunder. So far heavy rain has not fallen.

This was a lazy day without much activity worth writing about in a blog entry. I got a few chores accomplished, but most of the day was spent reading and watching video on the internet. The pictures in this blog entry come from my main walk of the day before the clouds completely won the day.