Thursday May 11th 2023

Most of today’s weather was a clone of yesterday. It was sunny and humid with a high temperature a little above ninety. Late in the afternoon the similarity ended. The thunderstorms that missed this area yesterday were much closer today. The sound of thunder with dark clouds were in the north east and the south east sky. The brunt of the storms never arrived here. Just three or four minutes of very light rain after the majority of the storms had moved on. There is a chance of additional rain later tonight from the west.

Today was my last visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom for the spring. I’m moving out of the central Florida area tomorrow. I was up early with a plan to get to the park early, but the traffic gods had other ideas. On the morning news the traffic report indicated that there was a major accident at the intersection of US 27 and US 192. Traffic was stopped in all directions to resolve the issue. Unfortunately, there is no viable route to Disney from here that doesn’t go through that area. I delayed my departure until 9AM. When I got to the intersection traffic was moving but the turn onto US 192 was blocked by down power lines. All of the traffic had to find alternative routes. Most of the traffic just went to the next intersection and reversed direction. I chose to go about three intersections south and proceeded east on local roads through various neighborhoods. Other knowledgeable drivers took a similar approach. The bottom line is it took additional time.

I got in line for the Safari ride at 10:15AM with an indicated one hour wait time. It was a good safari. The wait time was about right and the animals were cooperative. There were a lot of animals close to the safari truck. Including one ostrich that might just have been too close. The lady in the row in front was close to a full on panic trying to climb into her husband’s (?) lap to get away from the side of the truck the ostrich approached.

After the safari I wandered around the park looking at the various animal exhibits and the flowers in bloom. My timing for the shows was wrong and I wasn’t really looking to ride any of the attractions. Both the Lion King show and the Finding Nemo show have gaps near the lunch hour that I was caught in. I got some lunch to take a break from the heat and recharge my energy. After lunch I made another half lap of the park. The wait time for the safari was over an hour so another ride wasn’t in the cards. I gave up around 2PM and headed for my RV home. It was a good visit to Animal Kingdom.

Late this afternoon I completed a few of the travel preparation tasks, but more than usual remain for tomorrow morning. I plan to leave around 11AM tomorrow, but have until 1PM to check out. It is about 130 mile to my destination in the St Augustine area. I am planning more of a cross country travel day as opposed to an Interstate highway travel day.

Wednesday May 10th 2023

The temperature continued to climb today. It peaked across the ninety degree mark at 91 or 92. The sun was bright in the sky all day. Only a few fluffy clouds appeared from time to time. The forecast late in the day thunderstorms didn’t fall in this area. There are more thunderstorms forecast for tomorrow.

I spent the afternoon at Disney’s EPCOT. This is my favorite of the four Walt Disney World theme parks. It is particularly fun to visit during the International Flower and Garden festival that is going on now. I spent several hours walking around the park enjoying the colorful flowers and topiaries. I rode a couple of rides and watched the Voices of Liberty acapella group a couple of times, but my real reason for the visit was the atmosphere.

Here are some of the beautiful and colorful sights from my visit.

Tuesday May 9th 2023

There was a little more humidity today and a couple more degrees of temperature. The TV weather talkers said there were areas that reached ninety degrees today. I wouldn’t be surprised if this area was one of them. Tomorrow is forecast to be warmer.

This was a low activity day to rest up for another theme park visit tomorrow. That doesn’t mean I didn’t do anything. I took a short hike around the state park. There has been a lot of brush work since I was here twelve weeks ago. In some areas the brush has been completely cut back to ground level. In others, particularly in the campground, the brush has been cut back to about two feet high. That way it continues to provide a barrier to pedestrians, but allows clear sight lines. It was probably done soon after I left in early February since the area is very green with new growth. It looks good.

The campground hasn’t been full the nights I’ve been here. Most of the sites are occupied by short stays. The equipment is often on the light side. It ranges from one person tents to folding trailers. The number of sites occupied by bigger equipment like mine or even larger is in the minority. Tonight of the sites I can see from mine two are empty, two have small tents and one has a converted box trailer. It is a very different atmosphere than during the snowbird season.

Monday May 8th 2023

There was very little wind today, but otherwise it was very similar to the last couple of days. The result of the lack of wind was a less comfortable day. The temperature peaked in the upper eighties, but it felt warmer.

My plan for the day was a visit to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I didn’t get a particularly early start and arrived at the theme park about ten o’clock. It was a long walk in from the parking lot without a lot of other people. I was hoping that was an indicator of a slow crowd day. As soon as I arrived in the park I was proven wrong. It looked like a very crowded day as I headed toward the Chinese theater.

One thing I wanted to do on this visit was ride the Star Wars Rise of the Resistance attraction. The wait time has always been very long on previous visits. I checked the Disney My Experience App as I was walking in from the parking lot and it indicated the ride was temporarily closed. When I got to the ride entrance the side indicated the wait time was eighty minutes. I bit the bullet and got in line. About half an hour later the line started to slow down. The app once again indicated the attraction was down. Fifteen to twenty minutes later the line started to move again, but too fast. They were dumping the line having given up getting the ride going anytime soon. I did get a Lightening Lane pass to a second tier ride anytime during the day as a consolation “prize”. Eventually I’ll get a chance to ride the attraction.

The crowds really became a problem at that point. Everywhere I looked the waits were over an hour. My timing was also off for the shows. Everyone was either a long time away or just loading. I finally managed to get a seat in one of the last groups for the Frozen sing along show. The comedy of the historian story tellers is always fun to hear. The songs get old fast. After that I was able to use my Lightening Lane pass for Toy Story Mania. The first time I passed by the Lightening lane was backed up a long way. My score on the arcade shooting game was terrible.

By this time I’d been in the park for about four hours and looped around the park at least twice. The Rise of the Resistance attraction was still not open. I gave up and decided to return to my RV home. While I enjoyed my visit, it is a good thing I have an Annual Pass to Disney World. If I had to pay the full daily entry price, I would have been disgusted. It is not that I didn’t enjoy my visit. I just didn’t get to do much.

Back at the state park I walked around the campground a couple of times. The water level in the two small lakes near the campground is way down from my last visit in February. The turtles and alligators are still thriving. This evening there were two alligators trying to steal the catch of the fishermen on the dock.

Sunday May 7th 2023

It was another nice day with one element that complicates a travel day. The wind was very strong out of the east. Luckily I didn’t have a long distance to travel. There were still a couple of gusts that I really felt. Like the last few days the temperature peaked in the mid eighties.

I finished packing up this morning and pulled out of the KOA just before the 11AM checkout time. Once again I needed to kill time before checking into my next stop. Checkout time at Lake Louisa State Park is 1PM, so it isn’t a good idea to arrive before that time. They’ll let you check in early if the site is empty, but in my experience on a Sunday afternoon many people checkout at the last minute or even late. My choice was to return to the rest area on Interstate 4 nine miles west of US 27 that I used for the same purpose on Thursday. I spent two hours in the parking area nibbling on snacks and chasing random information on the internet. The return trip back to east on I-4 to US 27 north took extra long. There was an accident that backed up traffic for several miles. I arrived at Lake Louisa State Park at 1:45PM. So overall I took almost three hours to go twenty miles up the road to my new destination.

I’ll be at Lake Louisa State Park until Friday. The weekends are all fully booked. I plan to continue to visit the theme parks while I’m here, but also get in some hiking around the state park. It is nice to be back in a natural setting after two plus weeks in rather congested RV resorts.

Saturday May 6th 2023

The wind was stronger today, but the overall weather remained very nice. The wind kept the temperature down. It peaked in the mid eighties and went down quickly late in the day.

I spent a lazy day around my RV home getting a few tasks accomplished. After moving Thursday, going to a theme park on Friday and moving again tomorrow, I needed a relaxing day. I watched a lot of TV and walked around the RV park a couple of times.

Surprisingly there were many new arrivals at the RV park today. Several came in at about the same time and were parked on neighboring sites, so I’m going to assume they are traveling together. Another clue is that they were all from states in the mid west. It is not unusual to see two or three RVs traveling together, but this was a group of five or more.

The clearing of the land next to the park for condos or apartments is really going to change this park. The pine trees and brush that used to occupy the site provided a buffer from the noise of the road and blocked some of the lights at night. Right now there is the sound of earth moving equipment during the day. I guess the buildings, once built, will provide another form of buffer from the road. Unfortunately, many RV parks in Florida are getting development very close. I haven’t actually seen any that have gone out of business recently to allow development. That kind of change took place in the 1990s in the central Florida area.

Here are some more pictures of the fireworks from yesterday’s visit to Magic Kingdom. These were taken with my phone. It captured the fireworks a little differently than my Canon camera.

Friday May 5th 2023

The nice weather continued today. The only change was the wind direction. It is now out of the east bringing a little more moisture off the Atlantic Ocean. The temperature peaked in the upper eighties.

My day began with some grocery shopping and ended with a trip to Disney’s Magic Kingdom. Overall it was a very busy day filled with traffic. I left my RV home just before 4PM with a plan to get to the Magic Kingdom in time to watch the 5PM Flag Retreat Ceremony in font of the railroad station on Main Street. It is only about 16 miles to the parking lot, but I didn’t take construction and traffic into my calculation. The best routes have ongoing construction. I made it to the parking lot by 5PM, but it took another twenty minutes to get across the Seven Seas Lagoon to the Magic Kingdom. The ceremony had just ended when I arrived.

Crowds were much better today than Monday. The wait times were all significantly less. I got to ride some of the more popular rides with reasonable wait times. Peter Pans Flight was listed at 50 minutes, but was a bit less. Haunted Mansion was thirty minutes. Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin was twenty minutes early in the evening and only ten just before the fireworks, so I rode it twice. The Journey of the Little Mermaid was listed at twenty minutes, but it was a walk on. Walking the entire length of the queue without stopping took more than a couple of minutes, but it was a lot shorter than twenty minutes.

I watched the fireworks from behind Cinderella castle. It doesn’t give you the whole light show on the buildings and the perfect framing of the fireworks above the castle, but it is much less crowded. You are actually surrounded by fireworks. The small stuff close to the castle is on one side of you and the big aerial bombs are in the other.

The trip home from the Magic Kingdom took longer than trip to the kingdom. The big hold up was getting to the parking lot. The lines for the monorail and ferry boats were both long. I can only imagine how bad it would have been right after the fireworks. I waited close to an hour before I departed.

Thursday May 4th 2023

There was a little less wind and a little more humidity today. The sky remained mostly cloud free, so the sun was able to heat the air into the upper eighties. Staying out of the sun was key to remaining comfortable outside.

I was up early to allow plenty of time to finish packing and depart Tropical Palms RV Resort before the 11AM checkout. My timing was pretty good. I turned in my key card at the gatehouse at 10:59AM. The only hitch in the departure process was squeezing into the dump station. The branches along the dump side of the facility were hanging a little low. I had to stay well away from the branches and the necessary hole in the ground. That meant I had to put out additional sewer hose to accomplish the dump.

Three miles down the road was my first stop. I filled the motorhome’s gas tank with one hundred and ninety plus dollars worth of liquid gold. The station was a trade off of five cents a gallon more for ease of access. The only down side is it was a quicker than normal stop. There was a high credit card authorization limit so I only had to pass the card through the machine once. I was trying to wast time until I could check in at my new location at 1PM. It was around 11:30AM when I finished my gas stop.

I took a very winding route toward my destination using local streets. I reached the Interstate 4 and US 27 intersection where my destination is located at noon. Instead of proceeding to the campground I got on I-4 westbound. About 8 miles down the road is a rest area that proved to be a good parking location for an hour. I returned eastbound on I-4 to my destination shortly after 1PM. Overall I managed to travel double the actual distance in about four times the amount of time it should have taken to travel fifteen miles.

I’ll be at the Orlando Southwest KOA until Sunday. I was last here at the beginning of February. There has been a big change since then. The big lot beside the campground has gone from pine trees to brown dirt. The area is filled with big earth moving equipment working on site prep work for condos or apartments. Nobody seemed to be sure. I’ll probably find out next year.

Wednesday May 3rd 2023

Today’s weather was a repeat of Tuesday. It was a bright sunny day with lots of wind and low humidity. This is the third day with very similar conditions. The result is a heightened fire danger. Most of central Florida has Red Flag warnings issued. Tomorrow and Friday are expected to be similar. By Saturday the humidity and rain potential returns.

On my alternating day schedule for theme park visits today should have been a day at one of the theme parks, but it is also my last full day at this location. I chose to focus more on doing errands in the area and getting ready to move tomorrow. One of my goals today was scoping out a gas station to fill the motorhome’s tank. The station I’ve used in the past is in the opposite direction from the most logical direction of travel, but it still seems to be the best bet. It has easy access, doesn’t seem to be too busy and isn’t outrageous with its prices. I’ll just travel on local roads most of the way rather than Interstate 4. My biggest problem tomorrow will be killing time. I have to be out of here by 11AM and can’t check in at my destination until 1PM. From experience I know both places are rather strict. I have to stretch 15 miles into two plus hours of travel.

Traffic along the tourist part of US 192 in Kissimmee was horrible this afternoon. The good news is the area is looking more prosperous than it has the last few years. There are fewer empty parking lots and buildings for lease. With increased business comes more traffic. I managed to stop at every light going east and then again returning west. The traffic lights can also be a savior. I wouldn’t have been able to turn into Camping World without the help of the traffic light cycle. As it is I had to wait several minutes. It wasn’t worth it. I didn’t buy anything. Although they did have lots of mattresses for RV beds. I’m just not in the market for one.

Tuesday May 2nd 2023

The weather continued its current run of warmth, wind and low humidity. The temperature climbed a few degrees above yesterday’s highs into the upper eighties and the blustery wind continued.

Today turned into a low energy kind of day. After yesterday afternoon at Disney’s Magic Kingdom, I was tired last night. Walking from one side of the theme park to the other and back a few times all the time dealing with crowd navigation took more out of me than I thought. I was slow to get up this morning and really didn’t want to do much all day. I got a few chores accomplished and took a few walks around the RV park, but I didn’t get involved in any big tasks.

This RV resort emptied out on Sunday and more on Monday, but today it seems to be filling up again. I like that people are arriving to make up for the departed residents. On Monday as the last few RVs that had been here when I arrived departed, I was feeling left behind. It is a strange feeling that has no real justification since I never even talked to any of them, but it tends to happen occasionally. This time perhaps it is because we all “survived” last weeks episodes of severe weather. I have a couple of more days here before I move on.