Monday September 4th 2023

It is hard to believe the unofficial end of summer has arrived. When I was a kid in the northeast we always went back to school the Wednesday or Thursday after Labor Day. Now it seems they start before Labor Day to give them more flexibility with “snow” days during the school year. Here in Florida and I think elsewhere in the south, the kids went back to school the first or second week of August. The difference is they finish the year at the end of May rather than the end of June as in the northeast. Still the school year seems to be the reason I think of Labor Day as the end of summer.

The campground emptied out at a steady pace today. All of the weekend visitors packed up and departed for home or their next destination. Since checkout time in this campground is a very generous 3PM, a few campers hung on to the last minute. Tonight the close to sixty RVs are down to fifteen or twenty. I suspect the people who like to avoid holiday traffic will go home tomorrow. The campground is quiet tonight and the smell of campfires is missing.

I am scheduled to leave on Friday. My original plan called for spending the weekend at the KOA in Perry Florida. The town was right in the path of the hurricane. I don’t want to go into an area cleaning up after a disaster. Today I found a site at Silver Springs State Park in Ocala for Friday to Monday. It was available because of a cancellation. The park was full when I checked a few times before booking the KOA in Perry. Now I have to cancel the KOA reservation. I thought that campground might be reaching out to cancel reservations, but their web site seem to be encouraging people to come despite not having all of their utilities and amenities. Is that greed or a desire to provide a service?

The sunset the last couple of nights have been beautiful. Last night there were fewer clouds making a very bright sunset. Tonight the clouds provided a lot of reflection on the relatively calm lake surface. Both nights sunset pictures were interesting.