Monday June 19th 2023

There was bright sun and blue sky this morning to get ready to travel. I was up early to start the final packing for an 11AM checkout. One of the things I had to clean up was the material I received when I checked in three weeks ago. It turned out to add a lucky hour to my checkout time. The material indicated that checkout was now noon. I’m pretty sure it used to be 11AM.

I pulled out of the campground at 11:45 for my seventy mile drive. Ten of which are the result of taking a longer route around a lot of road construction at the intersection of Intestate 95 and 295 in Jacksonville. I arrived at Pecan Park on the north side of Jacksonville about 1:30PM. It was a successful travel day, but it had its challenges.

About twenty minutes into the journey I started to see dark clouds in front of me. The cars approaching from the other direction all had their headlights on. I was clearly headed for one of the forecast thunderstorms. It wasn’t long before I was battling a strong wind with even stronger gusts. The majority of the wind was hitting me broadside on the drivers side of my rig. Staying in my lane took two hands on the wheel and a lot of concentration. After a couple of minutes of wind, rain was added to the equation. The windshield wipers got cranked to the max to allow forward vision. If there was a safe place to get off the road, I would have taken it, but the safest alternative was to proceed carefully. The worst was over in about ten minutes. It continued to rain off an on for the rest of my travel day.

My last visit to Pecan Park was last June. I think it is more expensive this year. The park doesn’t seem to be as full this year. In addition to travelers it is used for long term stays and temporary living situations. There are about ten rental cottage style park model RVs. The remainder of the three hundred plus sites are concrete pads for RVs. Part of the park is very near interstate 95. The other part that I’m in is under the runway approach for Jacksonville International Airport. There are lots of low flying planes. I recognized several of the RVs from previous visits. There are clearly some long term residents.