Saturday June 10th 2023

The day began partly sunny allowing the temperature to climb into the mid eighties before noon. During the afternoon the clouds increased rapidly and looked and felt like it would rain at any minute. A line of storms formed just to the west of here and moved to the east late in the afternoon. This immediate area lucked out. There was a gap in the line of storms in this area. Only some light rain fell.

My exercise today was a walk along US 301 toward the center of town. There is a nice concrete sidewalk that is set back a good distance from the highway traffic. The campground is located in a gap in the line of retail locations. Right next door is a strip mall with a Tractor Supply, Aldi and a few other stores. North of that are more stores and another strip mall. The area appears a little more lively than it did when I took a similar walk two years ago. New businesses are opening and the ones open have customers. I was a little surprised at the number of businesses that are not open on Saturday afternoon, but that seems to be common in smaller communities.

The campground is filled with weekend activity. Kids are riding bike along the campground roads and folks of all ages are enjoying the pool. Several travelers arrived to today increasing the weekend occupancy a little. I know they are travelers because none of the ones I saw were from Florida or nearby states. One was from California and another from Illinois. There were also two rental motorhomes among the arrivals. I think the rental companies must give out KOA directories with the rental agreement. I always see them in KOAs.

As I’m finishing writing this blog entry I can here another thunderstorm in the distance. My first paragraph in this entry may have jinked me. From my weather radar app it looks like this one won’t miss. Time to close the windows.

Friday June 9th 2023

It was partly cloudy to start the day, but the weather went downhill from there. The temperature climbed to about 90 before the full cloud cover arrived. Shortly after noon the sky to the south started to darken. The first of today’s thunderstorms started to form. It sky got very black to the south and the weather radar showed very intense storms in that area. This area was spared any precipitation or wind. Our turn was around 5PM. A line of storms moved across the area from the west toward the east. This set of storms brought some wind, lightening and about half an hour of rain. Once again this area was spared the worst. According to the TV weather talkers most of the severe storms passed to the north and into the city of Jacksonville and St. Johns county. The good news is all the storms lowered the temperature into the seventies.

The last couple of days the tree service work has provided entertainment. Today the sound of a chainsaw before 9AM caused annoyance. I was awake, but was resisting the urge to get out of bed. The chainsaw noise pushed me into the start of my day. I don’t think the tree service company was back. Instead, I think the campground staff was attacking the logs that were left behind. Later in the day I saw a golf cart pulling a utility trailer filled with logs.

This evening the park is in weekend mode. There is a higher level of occupancy, more kids and a generally higher energy level. Most of the weekend visitors are from Florida or Georgia, but there are a few travelers in the mix as well. This is my second weekend here since memorial day weekend. The level of occupancy has gone down each weekend. I suspect it may be up next weekend since it is Fathers Day weekend.

Wednesday June 7th 2023

The day began with a light rain on the roof of my RV home about 7:30 this morning. There was no wind and it wasn’t heavy enough to come in the open windows, so I rolled over and went back to sleep. An hour later the actual rain was over, but it continued to spit moisture off and on most of the morning. During the afternoon the sun attempted to make an appearance. The temperature peaked in the mid eighties.

The entertainment in the park today was a tree service. They were here to cut down several trees. One tree was clearly almost dead. The others looked healthier, but may have been in poor condition as well. One of the trees was very close to a site with a trailer on it. The bucket truck had its bucket over the trailer to work on the tree. I am very glad that wasn’t my site. They still have work to do picking up the dropped big sections of the trees. Maybe they will be back tomorrow too finish up and possible take more down.

I’ve seen tree work in campgrounds quiet a few times in the course of my Rambling Road Trip. One reason is that the trees need to be kept cut high enough to allow thirteen and fourteen foot clearance motorhomes and fifth wheel trailers to pass under. The park also needs to make sure that old or damaged trees don’t fall on equipment or worst yet people. The most elaborate tree work I have seen in a campground was last February in Fort Wilderness. The staff closed two sites for two nights to provide plenty of time for a service to cut down a tree that was more than three feet in diameter. In addition to bucket trucks one of the tree service workers free climbed part of the tree with spikes and straps. I wasn’t there when the big sections came down, but I bet it made a bit of noise. Everything was cleaned up and gone by the time I returned from the theme parks that night.

Tuesday June 6th 2023

The temperature peaked right around the average for this time of year. It was just under 90 degrees this afternoon. I think there were more clouds in the sky than forecast which kept the temperature down a little from the low nineties forecast. The good news is it didn’t rain.

The sounds of the campground really caught my attention today. I wrote about the sounds of the trains in a previous blog. It is possible to hear their approach as the whistles sound at each road crossing and then listen as the sounds fade as the train moves away. There are also a lot of other well defined sounds at this campground.

In the evening into the night the sounds from the retaining pond take over. A continuous symphony of noise from the what I think are frogs and other amphibian life entertains. It goes on for a few minutes then abruptly stops. A minute or so later it gradually begins again. One brave voice is quickly joined by others until the symphony resumes.

When morning arrives it is the birds turn to entertain. The whistling and chirping has a more melodious sound than the night time entertainment. Some of the birds are really produce an impressive tune. Other birds just put out a single note or two which is replied to by other birds and it repeats over and over. Is it pure communications or a courting tune? Only the birds know for sure.

Later in the day the sounds of the campground are dominated by the human element. Most of the people have retreated indoors. To stay comfortable they crank up their air conditioners. The AC compressors and fans make up the afternoon sound. When I’m out walking I get accustomed to hearing them, but you really notice the quiet when they cycle off.

Monday June 5th 2023

It was another nice weather day. The breeze was out of the northeast keeping the temperature below the normal high for the day. Despite almost full sunshine all day the temperature only reached the low to mid eighties. The normal high is around ninety degrees.

Today began earlier than expected. One of the weekend visitors to the campground that hung on into Monday decided that six thirty in the morning was the appropriate time to leave. Unfortuneately for me they were on the site behind me and my windows were open. The bangs and boops associated with hooking up combined with the less than quiet conversation woke me up far before I intended. For no good reason it messed up my entire day. I just never seemed to get into a normal gruve all day.

After spending the weekend ignoring the daily chores, today was a catch up day. I cleaned out the sink of dirty dishes and generally picked up around my RV home. I need to do a load of laundry, but I didn’t get to that task. After my mid morning walk that extended into the strip mall next door today, I just wasn’t in the mood for chores anymore. This morning’s lost sleep turned into a half hour nap this afternoon and a general lack of focus for the rest of the day.

Sunday June 4th 2023

The weather I expected yesterday happened today. It remained mostly cloudy and dull all day. Around noon a brief shower developed to wet things down a bit. The rain lasted ten to fifteen minutes, but the darkness and threat lasted about an hour. It was followed by the only appearance of the sun all day. Within another hour the storm clouds were back to threaten rain. On a positive note, the clouds and wind kept the temperature in the high seventies.

About half of Friday’s weekend arrivals left today. I expect the other half will leave tomorrow. The people that leave their rigs here during the week cover up things, turn over chairs and generally pick up before leaving late in the afternoon. I think there are about ten sites occupied by people with that behavior. Other sites are occupied by temporary workers in the area. They leave before I get up every morning and return in the evening. Everybody else in the regular sites doesn’t fit one of my patterns of behavior, but they are obviously here because they want to be.

Around the perimeter of this park are park model RVs. These are best described as small one bedroom manufactured homes. I think the majority are lived in full time by retires. They have extensive landscaping and show pride of ownership. The others are probably snowbird homes. Several have golf carts covered and bungee corded to protect them from the elements, but no other vehicle. It looks like an “I’m not home” give away to me. The bottom line is there is a real change in atmosphere and energy level in the park when it transitions from weekend to weekday mode and back.

I spent another relaxing day reading, watching TV and walking around the park. I am disappointed that the retention pond at the back of the pack isn’t attracting or keeping around many birds. I have only seen a few during my stay so far.

Saturday June 3rd 2023

It was a cloudy morning that didn’t bode well for the rest of the day. The hour by hour weather forecast called for thunderstorms in the afternoon. By afternoon the sky was blue and there wasn’t a rain storm in sight. Today’s thunderstorms were all south of here. The temperature peaked in the low to mid eighties.

This wasn’t a particularly blog entry worthy day. I didn’t do much other than walk around the RV park a few times. Most of my time was spent reading and chasing random pieces of information on the internet. The park is busy this weekend, but nothing like the holiday weekend. The biggest impact of the additional residents I feel is the slow down of the campground WiFi. During the week it has acceptable speed. On the weekend nights it is close to unusable. Uploading the pictures for this blog entry was a very slow process. I was about ready to switch to cellular data, but the transfer finished before I powered that option up. By noon tomorrow everything will be back to weekday levels. Checkout time is 11AM.

Friday June 2nd 2023

Yesterday was definitely the best weather day of the week. Today was OK, but it represented a retreat from the peak conditions achieved on Thursday. There was more cloud cover and a little more heat today. The temperature peaked in the mid eighties. The TV weather forecasters are happy. The tropical system in the gulf became the first named tropical storm of the hurricane season, but it is moving south away from Florida as they expected. There is no need to react … Yet.

Instead of waking up to the sound of lawn mowers this morning it was a pressure washer. I was awake and up, but today was rec hall cleaning day. About mid morning one of the park staff started up a gas powered pressure washer to give the building a rinse. The building is about two sites away, but I don’t have a direct view. The noise was loud enough and odd enough that I had to check out its origin. I was a bit disappointed that the strange noise was just and ordinary pressure washer.

This afternoon people were busy arriving for the weekend. The park staff was very busy escorting each new arrival to their sites. In most parks I really appreciate the escort. It allows me to concentrate on driving through the cramped campground roads rather than trying to find my site. The escort is also helpful with directions when I have to back into the site. This campground really doesn’t need the escort as much as others. The sites are well organized with good signage and most are pull thru sites. Still, the park staff knows the tricks and often routes people to their sites via less obvious, but easier routes. Thinking back, I don’t ever recall not being able to find my site in a campground. I have gotten out and walked around a bit to scope out the area and find my site a time or two. A couple of wide open flat parking lot type campgrounds out west come to mind.

Thursday June 1st 2023

It is hard to believe that June has arrived. Florida weather forecasters are talking about the start of hurricane season and the potential of the first named tropical system of the year forming in the Gulf of Mexico. I am very weather aware to the point of obsessed, so I can’t really crank my level of awareness up for hurricane season. My bottom line is if one is coming, I’m going. This is a period of weather change that makes the forecasts inconsistent. Yesterday the forecast for today was for lots of rain. It was easily supposed to be the worst weather day of the week. It turned into the best weather day of the week. The sun dominated the battle with the fluffy clouds and a nice north wind kept the temperature under control. It peaked in the low eighties.

This was mowing day in the campground. It is my least favorite day. The big commercial lawn mowers are very noisy machines. The operators wear hearing protection but people like me that are only a few feet away get subject to the whole decibel level. Today wasn’t as bad as some. They didn’t start until after 9AM and in was only the lawn mowers. They didn’t come around with the equally noisy string trimmers and leaf blowers.

Landscape work seemed to be contagious today. A tree service was working on trimming the trees along the power lines in the area. They seemed to be doing a good job disrupting traffic with big bucket trucks and producing piles of tree limbs waiting to be chipped. Leaving the campground was a challenge while the tree trimmers were near the entrance.