Monday October 9th 2023

The overnight temperature was in the low sixties. The temperature climbed slowly under the cover of clouds today. It eventually peaked in the low eighties. The humidity was low and a gently wind blew most of the day. It was a real fall day.

The campground continued to maintain a quiet atmosphere. A couple of more RVs departed this morning and a few arrived in the afternoon. There seems to be a consistent occupancy of around 15 units. The Ortona lock seemed to have one burst of activity today. Perhaps there was one planned time for the lock operation. There was one boat at each end of the lock around noon. They had to wait for more than half an hour before the down (west) bound sailboat was let into the lock. It was followed by an up (east) bound motor yacht. I didn’t see any other action at the lock the rest of the day.

I enjoyed walking around the campground carrying my camera. The tri-color herons are here in abundance and don’t seem to mind having their pictures taken. I also got a few pictures of other birds and things. The clouds even thinned out enough late in the day to allow the sun to present a nice sunset.

Between walks I spent sometime online trying to solve my winter reservation issue. I never succeeded making reservations for the three weeks and a couple of day period starting in the middle of January. I have been checking the public parks regularly for cancellations. I prefer the state and federal parks for two reasons. First they are closer to nature which is my ideal style of campground. The other more practical reason is they are less expensive. So far I haven’t been found any cancellations.

Even though most of the cancellations will happen closer to the actual date, I can’t risk waiting too much longer for a cancellation. The commercial parks that are the alternative to the public parks will fill up quickly in the majority of the state. Brand new parks and parks in the north central part of the state may have vacancies all winter long, but they are not well located with respect to my other reservations.

The nightly rates at the commercial parks that have availability are also high. Florida is not a cheap RV destination. The cheapest I can find in the the Orlando area is $72 a night. Along the coasts the nightly rates are even higher. The rates in the central part of the state other than Orlando are a little bit better. The problem is it costs me about 50 cents a mile to travel in my motorhome. A detour of one hundred miles out and one hundred miles back will cost $100. That means the rate would have to be about $15 a night for a week long stay to make it worth the detour.

I’ll pay when it is necessary. In particular I’ll pay a premium for a place like Disney’s Fort Wilderness, because of all the entertainment extras like fireworks that come with the nightly fee. Currently Disney’s rates are about $100 higher than the cheapest places I’ve found in the Orlando area. Right now that is in consideration for some of my three weeks of missing reservation. Filling in around that stay then becomes the challenge. I am giving my self until the end of October to get everything booked. That is the longest I will wait before the risk of having to travel long distances becomes too high.