Saturday September 10th 2022

It was another day with weather that couldn’t make up its mind. Most of the day was overcast with a very low ceiling. During the middle of the day a little rain arrived, but didn’t stick around. It was just enough to drive everyone inside. Most of the Florida panhandle is getting rained on. Some of the areas near the coast have received several inches of rain the last few days. This area seems to be located on a seem in the bands of rain. There is a lot of rain to the west and even more to the east. I am not going to complain.

The weather seems to have impacted occupancy at the campground this weekend. The campsite markers at this campground have tags to indicate reservation dates and duration of occupancy. On my walk today I saw at least half a dozen empty sites that were supposed to be occupied. Oddly, there are also a large number of sites that are scheduled to be occupied starting Sunday. There may be more people in the campground at the beginning of the week than there were this weekend.

The weather also seems to have kept the people with boats on land. There are several trailered boats in the campground rather than hosting fishermen in the lake. It looks like good fishing weather, but the lake is large. Getting caught in the middle if a thunderstorm develops wouldn’t be a good thing.

Friday September 9th 2022

The weather forecast called for a rainy day, but they got it wrong. Most of the day was a similar overcast to the last couple of days. In the late afternoon a light rain arrived and continued off and on into the evening. Overall the temperature climbed into the mid eighties before crashing into the seventies when the rain arrived.

Most of my day was filled with cleaning and maintenance tasks around my RV home. In between I got in two walks around the campground. The third was canceled for rain. A few more campers arrived for the weekend as the day progressed. There will still be plenty of sites for any last minute arrivals, but there may not be any room in the trash dumpsters. On my second walk of the day I took a large bag of trash to the dumpsters and had a hard time getting it to fit. I’m betting that a trash pickup was missed this week because of the holiday.

There was more wind today so the bugs were not as big a problem. The wind may have also discouraged the birds from this side of the lake. The only thing I found worthy of pictures today were lots of wild flowers.

Thursday September 8th 2022

It was another hazy overcast day. There was plenty of humidity, but without sun the overall temperature stayed in the mid eighties. Later in the day a little more wind developed to lift some of the hazy and keep the temperature comfortable. In the evening a brief rain shower passed through the area to mar the full day of dry weather.

This seems to be a bug season in Florida. I’m not sure what the bug is swarming. It isn’t the classic love bug, but it got all over the front of my motorhome during the drive on Tuesday. Yesterday I saw many of the bugs plastered on the side of the park information kiosk. Today I had the displeasure of walking through a couple of swarms. They don’t seem to bite people, but they will land on you and hang around until you brush them off. It really is annoying. So far I haven’t had more than a couple get inside my RV home.

The campground is in mid week empty form. There were only about fifteen rigs in the park last night out of almost seventy sites. A few departed today and a few others arrived. I expect to see many more tomorrow for the weekend.

Wednesday September 7th 2022

Today was an overcast day with extreme humidity. The actual temperature didn’t get out of the eighties, but it felt a lot warmer. The next few days are forecast to be on the rainy side.

Today was a travel recovery day. I really didn’t have a lot of energy. I got the rest of my setup tasks completed. This includes bigger things like taking the bicycle and rack off my SUV to simple things like getting the coffee maker out of its travel location. None of them take a lot of time, but I don’t feel settled until they are done.

This is an odd location in time and space. The campground is located in the eastern time zone, but the cell towers are on the other side of the lake in the central time zone. As a result my primary time source is an hour off of reality. To make it more confusing most of the TV stations I receive here are from the central time zone as well. That means in the morning all of the programs are an hour off, but in the evening they are aligned with my eastern time zone expectations. I just have to pick a time zone and stick to it.

The campground isn’t particularly full. There was a little turnover today. The reservation tags on the site markers indicate it will be busier this weekend. This is just a relaxing spot on the side of the Lake Seminole, a reservoir made by the Woodruff Lock and Dam on the Chattahoochee River.

Tuesday September 6th 2022

Humidity and sun are two things that make for a tiring travel day. Rain and wind are worse, but the humidity makes a few minutes of activity a very damp experience. The sun adds to the heat and necessitates sun glasses while traveling. I didn’t experience any wind or rain today.

I started my long travel day with my departure from Champions Run RV resort in Ocala Florida just before checkout at 10:45AM. Buying gas was the first thing on my agenda. Yesterday I scoped out the local area for a gas station with easy access and a decent price. I found a station that with a $3.33 per gallon rate. This morning it was $3.39 per gallon. The fluctuation in price is frustrating. On my route today, I saw prices as high as $3.69 per gallon. The price I paid was pretty much the lowest, so I did good.

It was a long slow travel day. I had 225 miles from Ocala to Lake Seminole on the Georgia Florida border to travel. The majority of my route was along Interstate 75 and Interstate 10. Traffic was light most of the way. The route was through the hilly part of Florida. There also isn’t a lot of sights to see along the way. The road is lined with trees, an occasional field and not a lot of developed areas. I find it very monotonous and seems to last forever.

I arrived at the Eastbank Army Corp of Engineer Campground on Lake Seminole between 2:30 and 3PM. The campground is located in Bainbridge Georgia just over the state line from Chattachoochee Florida. I’ve enjoyed my stay here in the past. I’ll be here for two weeks.

Monday September 5th 2022

There wasn’t as much wind today. The result was a more uncomfortable day. The low nineties temperature felt much warmer. Late in the day a few brief showers developed overhead. They were more of a cloud burst that ended before the sun even got blocked by the clouds. The result was a very nice rainbow in the eastern sky.

This morning the campground emptied out with a steady flow of departing RVs. Two of my neighbors were gone before I raised the shades this morning. Others just pulled out as the 11AM checkout time arrived. The park staff was very busy checking the newly emptied sites. The park was back to looking empty by afternoon, but not quite as empty as midweek. I am leaving tomorrow and I suspect others will be too. Avoiding the holiday traffic on the interstate is a good reason for leaving the day after the holiday. When I passed under Interstate 75 this afternoon, the road was heavily backed up. The traffic appeared to be very stop and go.

I made two excursions out of the RV park today. My first trip was for groceries. My next stop will be much further away from supplies, so I decided to stock up before I travel tomorrow. Walmart wasn’t extremely busy, but the poorly stocked shelves indicate it might have been earlier in the day. I managed to get just about everything on my list. The couple of things I didn’t get won’t be missed.

Later in the day I made one last visit to the Ocala Wetlands Recharge Park. There were a few more people in the park today, but the ducks were hiding. I saw a few Ibis, a Blue Heron and a couple of turtles to make up for the ducks.

Sunday September 4th 2022

With the exception of a little more threatening conditions toward the end of the day, today’s weather was very similar to Saturday. The temperature peaked around ninety degrees with a moderate breeze and plenty of humidity. The late day dark clouds threatening thunderstorms never materialized in this area.

The party atmosphere at the RV park continued today. A handful of RVs departed this morning, but for the most part it was the same group of party participants as Saturday. The pool party with DJ continued. They replaced the BBQ food truck with a pizza truck. Today’s big events were Rock Panting, Watermelon Eating contest, and a golf cart parade to end the weekend activities. Nothing was exciting enough to draw my interest, but I did watch the golf cart parade go by. With all the horns it was impossible to miss.

I spent most of the day in a relaxed mood. There were several car races on TV to keep my attention. This is the last Sunday until late January that NFL football will not dominate Sunday TV. I’m sure I’ll be watching a lot of games, but it is nice to watch some different things like racing while the opportunity is available.

Saturday September 3rd 2022

Weather wise today was a clone of Friday. The temperature was around ninety with plenty of humidity and a nice breeze. The rain missed this area today.

The RV park was incredibly different today. When I raised the blinds this morning I was surrounded by other RVs. Up until last night the sites near me were all empty. Along with the occupancy comes activity. There were people all around. Kids were riding bikes and scooters along the road and plenty of walkers were out as well. The park pool was full all day as people swam to the music from a DJ. A food truck and a farm stand were onsite to provide additional options. I got text messages throughout the day announcing other activities like bingo and karaoke. Other than providing something to watch, the increased activity didn’t change my day.

I stopped at the Ocala Wetland Recharge Park again for some exercise this afternoon. It was very quiet at the park. I didn’t see any other people walking the trails and most of the birds seemed to be hiding out in the tall grasses. The few ducks I saw were out in the green algae covered water.

Friday September 2nd 2022

Today’s weather was a better version of Thursday’s. The partly sunny conditions lasted for the entire day. The afternoon rain showers stayed away from this area. The temperature peaked in the low to mid nineties with high humidity, but there was a nice breeze most of the day.

The holiday weekend has arrived. Starting around noon today there was a steady stream of arriving RVs. Last weekend there was a bounce in occupancy of five to ten RVs. I’d guess from fifty to one hundred RVs arrived today. Each arriving RV gets escorted to their site by a work camper in a golf cart. A good percentage of the arriving RVs have their own golf cart to unload once they get to their site. As the day went by the number of golf carts going up and down the park roads exceeded the volume of cars.

The RV resort has a lot of activities going on this weekend. I haven’t seen any published schedule, but every couple of hours I get a text message about something else that is about to start. So far I’ve taken note of a Disc Jockey that will playing loud music at the pool all day each day Friday to Monday. They also announced a balloon toss tournament and the inflation of a kids water slide. It looks like it is going to be a busy weekend around here.

Thursday September 1st 2022

The day started very similar to yesterday. There were scattered fair weather clouds with lots of humidity and a gentle breeze. The temperature climbed quickly into the low to mid nineties. The similarity ended in the mid afternoon. Yesterday the thunderstorms missed this area. Today the storms seem to form right on top of this area. About 3:30 a very angry storm hit. The rain was a continuous roar on the roof and the wind gusted enough to shake my RV home. It was a half an hour of hold on and hope it ends soon.

There were lots of changes in the campground today. The start of the new month seemed to be a departure day for some of the longer term residents from the far end of the park. I’m not sure, they may have been work campers that got the park open and up and running. Later in the many new RVs showed up at the park. I’m guessing this is the start of the long weekend guests. There were more new arrivals than I’ve seen at any point since I arrived last week. It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow.

The pictures in this blog entry are from another stop at the Ocala Wetland Recharge park. My stop today was shortened by the approach of the inclement weather. Only a few minutes after I arrived the white fluffy clouds turned dark and ominous. I hurried back to the protection of my car for the trip home. It was only a couple of minutes after I got home that the sky opened up and the heavy thunderstorm began.