Friday June 30th 2023

Last night there was a thin haze covering the moon. This morning it made the blue sky gray. The TV weather talkers reported that the smoke from the Canadian wildfires had reached northern Florida. Thankfully, the air quality issues hadn’t arrived since the smoke was remaining at high altitude. Even with the sun partially obscured the temperature was still in the low nineties.

Most of my day was spent getting used to my new vehicle. I loaded it up with about half the stuff I took out of the old one. There is probably more that needs to be loaded back in, but I’m going to try and eliminate some of the trash. Once it was loaded I took a drive. The first thing I need to remember is to put the key fob back in my pocket after I open the door. I won’t need it again until I get out of the car. Pushing a button while stepping on the brake to start the car is easy enough to remember, but for some reason pushing the button at the end of the trip to stop the car doesn’t seem natural. All of the blind spot indicators, lane departure warnings and other “advanced” safety devices are going to take some getting used to. Today was interesting and I don’t even have all of the systems turned on. Time to go back to reading the owners manual.

Traffic was very heavy today. I think most of it was associated with it being Friday on an extra long holiday weekend. Even the local roads in southern Georgia had heavy traffic. I had it in mind to stop along the river in St. Mary’s GA, but all of the convenient parking spaces were filled with cars and empty boat trailers. It looked like a lot of recreational fishermen were getting an early start on the weekend. The town had also started preparing for the holiday activities by erecting some temporary structures.

Around the campground today the opposite to what I expected took place. Instead of filling up a little more for the weekend, the park seemed to empty out. Many of the long term residents packed up their RVs and departed for the weekend or longer. They leave their big grills, rugs, potted plants and patio lights. Just the big RV and the people leave. The result is new sight lines open up across the park.

Thursday June 29th 2023

It was another dry day with manageable humidity. The partly cloudy sky allowed the temperature to rise into the mid nineties. Overall it was a nice day.

Over the last few months it has become obvious that my exploration has been constrained by my Honda CR-V. I don’t trust it to get me where I want to go and back without something breaking. The result is I’m continually doing a risk vs. value trade for every potential trip away from the RV park. Getting maintenance performed while traveling is not always easy. First finding a good place to have it serviced is a challenge. I usually end up using national chains or franchises like Firestone or Pep Boys. Second, it is very hard to leave the vehicle for service. I don’t have friends at every stop that could give me a ride and very few of the service locations are within walking distance of the RV park.

At the end of April or beginning of May I planned a stay near a Pep Boys to get the brakes replaced and as it turns out I also got the struts replaced. It was a significant investment that I hoped would raise my confidence level in the vehicle. Within a couple of weeks other sounds, squeaks and groans were back to work on my automotive paranoia. Added to all of these issues most of the rubber gaskets around the windows were breaking down and more significant to Florida in the summer, the air conditioning was also problematic.

The bottom line is I was ready for a new car. The Honda CR-V was almost twelve years old with 132K miles. In the past I always traded for a new car after five years, so I was well over due for something new. The issue is that the number of vehicles capable of being four down towed behind a Motorhome has gone down over the last few years. I did the research and settled on a Chevy Equinox.

Over the last week and a half since I arrived in the Jacksonville area I have stopped at several Chevy dealers. Most had an Equinox or two in stock, but they weren’t really what I wanted. Today I stopped in at yet another dealer. This one had four models to choose from and I found a suitable choice. Four and a half hours later, most of which was spent after the sale setting up the My Chevy app and a bunch of other questionable value stuff, I drove away in a brand new 2023 Red Equinox.

Wednesday June 28th 2023

It was a little less humid than yesterday, but the actual temperature was a degree or two warmer. The result was a slightly more comfortable day. The weather trend is increasing temperatures every day this week.

Both of my walks today were back to full length. I worked at the beginning of the week to update my hydration to make sure I was OK out in some of the heat. It seems to have worked. As a reward for my return to walking, the ducks were back. They disappeared on Monday coincident with the landscape crew mowing the grass. Today they were back in their usual places along the banks of the front retention pond. They take advantage of the trees to stay out of the sun and the water to keep cool as well.

Interstate 95 had stopped traffic when I ventured out on some errands this afternoon. I spotted the traffic issue soon enough and took local roads instead. The traffic was bad on the local roads as well. It might have been easier to suffer the stopped traffic on the highway. There is major construction two exits south at the intersection of Interstate 95 and 295. If anything happens in the construction zone everything gets backed up.

Tuesday June 27th 2023

Today was forecast to be warmer and wetter than Monday. It achieved the warmer with a 97 degrees high temperature and feels like of 108. Most of the area didn’t get any thunderstorm relief. The original forecast had most of the afternoon wet. This area got one brief thunderstorm at sunset. It dropped the temperature by almost 20 degrees for a little while. Sill, overall it as hot.

The Florida Air National Guard decided to wake me up around sunrise this morning. A couple of fighter jets took off from the airport for a morning of maneuvers. It seems the smaller the jet the louder the jet. In this case I suspect they were in full afterburners. A while later they passed overhead again in a different direction, just a bit higher. They really like to make noise.

I got my two daily walks in despite the heat. They were a little shorter than normal though. The ducks and geese are still missing. I thought it was yesterday’s lawn mowing that drove them away, but maybe it is the heat. There are cooler places than the park’s retention ponds.

Monday June 26th 2023

There have been a number of days with highs in the 90s already this year, but today’s 95 degree high really felt like the true arrival of summer. The remainder of the week is forecast equal to or above today’s temperature. The cloudy and rainy days of the last week makes it all the more notable.

Today was lawn mowing day in the RV park. While it was just as annoying as ever, the grass really needed to be cut. The week of warm rainy days gave the grass a big kick start. After all the noise of the mowers and trimmers the park looked very nice. One downside is the lawn mowers seemed to have scared all of the ducks and geese into hiding. I didn’t see any of them on my walks around the park today.

I took advantage of a trip to Walmart for groceries this afternoon to get into some real air conditioning. If I only run one of the two AC units on my RV home I can only keep the temperature in the 80s while there is direct sun on the outside. Running both units is much louder and doesn’t make any significant change. Once the sun goes down it is possible to keep things very comfortable. Most days I just open the windows and turn on a couple of fans. The moving air works fine as long as I’m not doing a lot of physical activity.

The RV park seems to be gaining residents. I expected the last of the weekend residents to depart his morning, but I only saw one RV leave. This afternoon and evening there were at least four arrivals within view of my site. Assuming there were arrivals in other areas of the park that represents a significant gain. I wonder if it the approaching holiday or the arrival of summer vacations in the north.

Sunday June 25th 2023

The sunshine won the battle with the clouds today. The temperature climbed to around 90 degrees. Surprisingly, the humidity wasn’t extreme and the wind was very light. It didn’t rain at all today.

I think it was a fairly comfortable day outside, but I didn’t really experience it. I bought into the TV weather talkers warnings that today was going to be hotter than the last week. They really seem to work on a fear model. I took a quick walk early this morning and another one close to sunset. In between I settled down in front of the TV to watch the PGA golf match from Connecticut and a couple of sappy Christmas movies on the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries channel. I let the AC keep the interior comfortable enough that I dozed off a couple of times during the afternoon. Who knows if I’ll sleep tonight.

Saturday June 24th 2023

The weather pattern was different today. It was more traditional for the season in Florida. The morning was partly cloudy with plenty of sun. In the afternoon a couple of different lines of thunderstorms passed through. The morning temperature peaked in the mid to upper eighties and the afternoon was a few degrees cooler. The one constant between the morning and the afternoon was the moderate to high humidity.

This wasn’t a very blog content inducing day. For some reason I wasn’t tolerating the humidity well. I retreated inside with the AC on most of the day. My first attempt at a walk was cut short by the first line of thunderstorms and my second was not as long as I would normally walk. Consequently, I have fewer photos include and fewer observations to comment about.

One interesting thing took place while I was hiding inside. The ice cream truck came through the park. It was loud playing “Pied Piper” music like used to be very common. It seemed to be very successful drawing people from across the park to buy its wares. I didn’t venture out to see what they were selling. It was stopped near my RV home for about ten minutes serving customers. Over an hour elapsed before I heard it return from the back of the campground. It most have done a good business.

Friday June 23rd 2023

The crazy wet weather pattern continued today. Sometime before dawn it started to rain and continued into the morning. During the early afternoon things dried out a bit, but the weather still threatened to dump more water from the sky. In the late afternoon a couple of actual more common for the season thunderstorms passed through to drop the temperature a little while doing nothing to the high humidity level.

I notice today that many of the dogs left in the RVs while their humans are at work aren’t cooped up all day. A woman kept walking by my RV home with a different dog every few minutes. Finally I noticed here stop at the RV next door and emerge with yet another dog to walk. Clearly she is providing a dog walking service. It is good to know the dogs aren’t stuck in the RVs all day.

The RV park changed moods this afternoon. People showed up at some of the RVs that were empty most of the week. New residents arrived to occupy some of the empty sites. In general the population of the park increased and people seemed to be more active this evening. If that activity level continues tomorrow then the park will clearly be in weekend mode. Now if the weather would cooperate.

Thursday June 22nd 2023

This weather pattern is getting annoying. It seems like it is impossible for the forecasters to get very specific. The waves of moisture coming across the southwestern quadrant of the country guaranty there is going to be rain during the day, but they can’t isolate the where or when until shortly before the rain event. In a normal summer time pattern they know when the sea breezes off the Atlantic or the Gulf are going to stir up a storm, so they can use terms like morning, early afternoon, evening, and overnight to give you an idea how to plan. Right now, we get phrases like “There is a 80% chance of rain tomorrow.”

It rained off and on overnight and most of the morning. Sometimes it was heavy and other times not much more than a mist. The problem was it really wasn’t outside activity weather. In the early afternoon it looked like it was drying up. I tested the conditions with a walk around the front part of the RV park. I stayed dry and a little blue sky even appeared above one of the low flying airplanes. After a pause at my RV home for some lunch, I started my walk toward the back part of the park. I didn’t get very far. A new rain shower chased me back into my RV home for another hour or so. This evening there was actually a little sun, before darkness arrived, but there is more rain forecast overnight.

This is food truck night in the RV resort. Every Thursday on a rotating basis a food truck is here from five to seven. I’ve stayed at other parks that do something similar and I haven’t seen a lot of people taking advantage of it. This park seems to be the exception. Perhaps because many of the residents work all day a lot of people seemed to stop at the food truck at the front of the park as they returned for the day. There was a line several people deep when I walked by this evening. I had already had my evening meal.

Wednesday June 21st 2023

It really wanted to rain today, but it was mostly dry. It rained a little early and a few three to five minute cloud bursts through out the day. Most of the time it just looked like it would rain any minute. The clouds did serve to keep the high temperature around eighty.

I got more of my setup tasks completed today. The only one remaining requires me to scramble around on the ground. I’m waiting for it to be dry long enough to put the tire covers on. This is a task that I only do for a longer stay when the wheels are exposed to the southern sun.

This park is very quiet during the day. Most of the residents are off at work and others are inside their RVs with the AC running. Around four people start returning home and you see people out walking dogs and kids playing outside their RVs. This is a temporary living location for people from all over the country. On my walk today I saw license plates from many different states. It seems like the number of out of state plates vs. Florida plates is an equal match. When the weekend comes, it will be interesting to see if there are many weekend residents.

On the wildlife front the Canadian Geese have moved from the big front retention pond to a smaller one near the back of the park. That keeps all of their dirty calling cards away from the campsites. The ducks still hang out near the front retention pond. I don’t see as many flower blossoms on naturally growing plants, but there are plenty of blossoms on potted plants that people are using to decorate their sites.