Saturday October 21st 2023

The day began cloudy as the latest cold front moved through the area. By afternoon the sky was blue and the sun was at full seasonal strength. All the front managed to do was lower the humidity level a bit. The temperature peaked in the mid to upper eighties which is a couple of degrees higher than the norm for this area.

After a slow start to the day including a very relaxed breakfast, I got the bicycle and rack off the car. It was ready for exploring and that is exactly what I did. The drive didn’t have any real destination other than to see what has changed since I was last in the area. The whole area south and west of Orlando along US 27 and US 17 and 92 is experiencing lots of growth. There are new commercial spaces being built, new housing developments including lots of apartments and road construction to service all of the development. The road construction made several of the roads I’m used to traveling a real problem. Taking longer physical routes seems to be shorter time wise.

All of my wandering brought me into the Disney World area. On a whim I decided to stop at Disney Springs. A Saturday afternoon is not the ideal time to visit Disney’ shopping and entertainment district, but it has a few advantages too. On weekend afternoons most of the entertainment stages are filled with performers. By night time all of the stages fill up with entertainment. I was able to stand in the shade well away from the stages and watch some of the entertainment. The bands and singers were very entertaining. The dance teams from around the country made up of elementary school aged girls on the main stage were a big draw. Most of the audience was probably filled with the families of the kids. They may have been very good for their age, but the phrase “Only a mother could love” comes to my mind based on my couple of minute of observation. Clearly they were good enough to fund a trip to Disney World from places like Kansas and Wisconsin. Their performance just wasn’t my idea of a show to watch.

The stores were all very busy. The big Disney merchandise store was packed thicker than the shops in the theme parks at closing time. The crowds at the various merchandise racks were two and three people deep and the line at the checkouts was even longer. I wasn’t shopping, just looking. A lot of what I saw was orange and black. There was a lot of Halloween themed merchandise in all the stores. Even the Christmas shop had a large section dedicated to Halloween decorations. To me, there is something wrong with that.

When I got back to my RV home a pair of the resident birds was visiting the are of my site. There are one or two pairs of Sand Hill Cranes that live in the area of this resort. Most of the time they just wander around going about their business, but occasionally they will decide to take flight and make their presence known. They have a very loud voice when they need it.

Friday October 20th 2023

This was a travel day. For once the weather cooperated. It wasn’t hot, windy or rainy. There was perhaps too much glare inducing sun, but dashboard visibility issues are a small annoyance for an overall nice day.

The TV in my bedroom came on at 7:30AM as directed. This is my form of alarm clock. Other than about half an hour for coffee and breakfast, I worked steadily to get on the road. I was in the dumping station as the 11AM checkout time arrived. A few minute later I pulled out of the Ortona Lock South Campground for my 130 mile drive north into central Florida.

All of the journey was on state and US routes. Most of the roads were multi lane and there was only a few short stretches of construction. The first half of the trip was not difficult. Traffic was light until I started to pass through the bigger towns starting with Sebring. In the towns there were numerous traffic lights going through business districts with plenty of big box stores. Drivers don’t know how dangerous it is to jump in line in front of a big motorhome then slow down. There is a reason I keep a lot of space between me and the guy in front. I can’t stop as quickly as they can. There were a few instances of hard braking on my part. The inside of my RV home was a little the worse for the braking, but nothing broke.

Once I reached Lake Wales travel really slowed down. Not only did I have lots of traffic lights to deal with, lots of traffic was added in to the mix for the last 25 miles of my trip. It took multiple light cycles to get through some of the traffic signals. Clearly I was back in the busy congestion of central Florida.

I arrived at the Kissimmee South RV Resort in Davenport Florida about 2:30PM. This is the same park I spent a little over a month at last year at this time. I’ll be here for a month again this year. It isn’t a park I thought I’d make a return visit, but it isn’t bad, just not my preferred style of park. It is a long term 55+ RV community and a mobile home park. When booked for a month at a time it is a good value for what you get.

Just like last year, I’m not in the site I thought I was booking. You are required to select a site on the booking web page, but they clearly state it is not guarantied. The park staff seems to adjust to prioritize by size, duration of stay and returning residents. I’m not on the greatest site. It was hard to get backed in and a power line is preventing me from raising my satellite dish.

I had an audience for the whole backing up and setup activity. My new neighbors had all kinds of information they were anxious to provide, but none of it was related to assisting me with backing up. This was my day for people wanting to talk while I was trying to get something accomplished. I had a talkative neighbor while hooking up my car for towing this morning too.

Thursday October 19th 2023

The temperature and humidity started to climb today. Overall it was still a comfortable day, but the it wasn’t as cool and dry as the beginning of the week. The lower overnight temperature remain. This is the key difference that makes it fall in this part of Florida.

I had a lot of chores to accomplish today. Tomorrow is a travel day so the things I’ve been putting off during my stay needed to get accomplished. I also had to start the packing and rearranging tasks needed before traveling. Throughout the day I did a few chores then wandered the park. This evening I got the primary outside travel prep tasks accomplished.

The whole vibe at the park is changing. RVs continue to arrive occupying sites that have been empty throughout my two week stay. It is as if somebody put out the call to “come on down”. Most of the new arrivals are from out of state. The lawn mowing crew was also in the park today. This is the first time I’ve seen them during this stay. It just added another level of activity to the campground.

Tomorrow I have a 130 mile drive north into the center part of the peninsular. It will mostly be on US 27 up the spine of the peninsular. This is a four lane road with plenty of traffic lights in the towns it passes through. Checkout here is at 11AM so I will have a busy morning. I’ll be in the Orlando area by early afternoon.

Wednesday October 18th 2023

Similar to the last couple of days today started cool. It was around sixty inside my RV home this morning. Unlike yesterday the temperature climbed into the low eighties today. The humidity was still low allowing for a mostly cloud free sky most of the day. The wind was also less forceful today.

On my mid day walk around the campground along the Caloosahatchee Canal I spotted a brown disturbance in the water along the bank. On closer inspection in turned out to be a manatee. It was nosing into the bank to munch on the vegetation along the bank. I watched it for five to ten minutes and attempted to get a good picture of the mammal. It wasn’t really possible, but some shots are included below.

I wonder how the manatee got here. It is two locks and dams from the gulf and three from the Atlantic. It is possible to go through the locks by following a boat, but do they have that instinct. The alternative is it could have been born in the Okeechobee inland waterways and has never been to the open ocean. Either way, it was nice to see the creature in the wild.

The campground has become busy. The middle of last week was very quiet in the park. Tonight there are close to twice as many occupied sites than I recall from last Wednesday night. Last week most of the residents were from Florida. Tonight there seem to be a lot more travelers. I have seen license plates from Nevada, Michigan and Texas just in my immediate area of the park. Is it the change in weather that has caused the increase in visitors or has the winter travel season begun?

Tuesday October 17th 2023

The fall temperatures continued to control the weather. It was in the fifties this morning. The TV weather reporters indicated it was the first time since early March that the temperature was as low. Today’s wind was a little less intense and a more northerly. The result was a more comfortable day with respect to noise as the wind blew trough my slide out room awnings. Yesterday was the absolute worst angle between the orientation of my RV home and the wind direction. Every little change in wind velocity brought a loud rattle and banging.

By noon the temperature had increase to the point that I could take a walk outside without a sweatshirt. The wildlife seemed to be reacting to the change in temperature as well. The birds were not in their usual locations. I only saw a few birds in the distance. Later in the day, when the temperature was back in the mid seventies, a few birds were back in the usual locations.

My weather induced lethargy from yesterday was gone today. I went out for a little exploring in the car before ending up at Walmart for groceries. It wasn’t as busy today as it was back on Sunday the 8th. It didn’t look like there had been a run on supplies. The shelves were a little better stocked. On a positive note this Walmart continues to put real people at the checkouts. There aren’t as many self serve checkouts and several assisted checkouts were staffed. I even found a checkout with a cashier without a line. That hasn’t happened in a long time.

The campground is busier tonight than I expected based on last week. There are more here tonight than there were last night. Many of the current set of residents seem to be here for the fishing. The designated fishing areas around the dam have been very busy the last couple of days. The change in temperature may have brought out the fish and the fishermen to catch them. In addition to the shore based fishermen there have been boats in the river every night competing for the same fish since the weekend.

Monday October 16th 2023

I woke up this morning to temperatures in the low sixties. The high temperature for the day was only in the mid seventies. With low humidity and a strong west wind it was almost uncomfortable outside. The wind was blowing out of the west northwest a fairly strong force with gusts even higher. The result was a chill on exposed skin particularly when not in the sun. The cool weather shouldn’t be complained about, but it is a change that takes getting used to.

The day really got away from me. I had originally planned to do some exploring in the area and buy some groceries today. Somehow it was after 3PM before I thought about leaving the campground. Probably because of the cooler weather my daily activities were a little out of sequence. I took my first walk of the day before breakfast. It was only a short walk, but it delayed the start of breakfast. Once I did get around to breakfast I really lingered over my coffee while chasing information and news on the internet. When I went out for my walk before breakfast, I turned off the TV and I didn’t turn it back on when I got back. Generally I use the change of programming on the TV as an aid in measuring the passage of time. Today I didn’t have that crutch. It was well afternoon before I decided it was time for another walk. Once that was finished it was late to adventure out of the campground.

Around the park more of the weekend residents departed today. Even with the two new arrivals this evening it is looking pretty empty around here. Judging by last week it will be Thursday before the park starts to look lively again.

Sunday October 15th 2023

The weather is in transition. As the day went by the humidity went down and the wind increased. The temperature remained in the mid eighties. The high temperature tomorrow and Tuesday is forecast to be in the high seventies and the overnight low may be in the fifties. Fall is coming back for a few days.

I took a drive east today. This is the first time I’ve actually explored that area in tourist mode. I have only driven through the area on my way to and from this campground. The area starts out with the ranch land that surrounds the campground and transitions into a more crop oriented area. The big crop appears to be sugar cane. The crop lines both sides of the road in some areas. The community of Clewiston on the south shore of Lake Okeechobee has a number of things named for or related to sugar cane.

Lake Okeechobee is the big natural attraction in the area. It is a lake that has been substantially formed by dikes that traps the runoff of water from the Florida Peninsular on the east side of the central ridge that flows toward and into the Everglades mostly via the Kissimmee River. The dikes help the lake work as a flood control for the agricultural areas to the south and east. Hurricanes used to cause massive flooding and loss of life. To get to the lake you need to climb the dike from level ground. The water is actually above the level of the surrounding land.

I stopped at John Stretch Memorial Park, a Palm Beach county park. There was a cricket match on a purpose built pitch. I’ve seen similar cricket matches before, but I surely don’t understand the game. It looks like some bizarre combination of baseball, Crockett and badminton all rolled into one game to these uneducated eyes. I only watched a few minutes before climbing the nearby dike to get a look at Lake Okeechobee. The lake didn’t really impress, but the Lake Okeechobee Scenic trail (LOST) looked like a nice place to ride a bike along the race shore during a cooler time of year.

When I got back to my RV home the days departures had completed. I was surprised to see that most of the tent campers were not among the departures. Most of the departures were by RVs that had arrived during the week. It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow.

Saturday October 14th 2023

After three or four days of mostly cloudy weather, today was a sunny day. Only a few fluffy clouds dotted the horizon. The humidity was a little lower, but the temperature climbed just short of ninety with a resulting feels like temperature near 100 degrees.

The campground got a little more active today. New campers arrived including several tent campers. The sites aren’t ideal for tents, but it is possible to find some grass behind the cement pads to setup a tent. Rain isn’t in the current forecast so the tent campers should be able to enjoy a fine weekend.

The boaters were also busy on the Caloosahatchee canal. The Ortona lock had to operate several times today. It even had a commercial tugboat along with a pleasure craft in the lock at the same time this morning. Granted during the winter the lock gets more action with all the boaters crossing the Florida peninsular from Fort Myers on the Gulf to Stuart on the Atlantic or vice versa. I suspect most of the traffic this time of year is local or people going from Fort Meyers to Lake Okeechobee for a few day get away.

Friday October 13th 2023

Yesterday’s humidity and wind turned into rain overnight. I woke up several times to the sound of heavy rain on the roof. With daylight the rain was gone, but if anything the humidity increased. There was plenty of rain in the area, but most of the storms went around my location. The only rain was late in the afternoon. The edge of a storm to the west hit with a glancing blow. The high temperature was in the low nineties, but the thick humidity made it feel much hotter.

My mission for the day was to replace my cell phone. My three year old phone was getting progressively worse. The battery was holding less charge with each passing week and the display had developed some persistent artifact. The new Google Pixel 8 phones became available yesterday. Today I made the thirty mile trip into Fort Myers to get a Pixel 8 Pro from the Verizon store. I would have preferred to buy the phone straight from Google, but the logistics of receiving a package overly complicates things. The purchase process wasn’t difficult, but I wasn’t impressed. I knew what I wanted and the sales rep didn’t have anything to do but ring up the sale. Still he saw fit to try a hard sell on device insurance at more than $17 a month. I had to say no more than half a dozen times. He even had the great suggestion that I just get it and stop it after four or five months. Then he tried to up the anti even more by offering to sell an all electronic device insurance package. After another half a dozen “NO” statements from me, I finally got my new phone and was out the door. Whatever amount of commission on the insurance he wanted was still in my pocket.

Once I got home getting the new phone set up was another challenge. It really wants you to have an internet connection other than the mobile data on the phone. I ended up sitting in my car with the motor running using the mobile hot spot it provides. It is still mobile data but the phone didn’t know it. A half an hour and one phone call to the Verizon Tech support automated help line to get the phone activated later I was up and running. The last two times I’ve bought a new phone at the Verizon store they have done all this for me. The commission deprived sales droid I had today couldn’t be bothered. There are still a few setup things like pairing my earbuds with the new phone that remain to be done. So far I’m happy with the new phone.

The campground has filled up a little for the weekend. It still isn’t as full as it was last weekend. The humidity and the uncertain rain in the forecast may be the issue.

Thursday October 12th 2023

It was windy today. The wind played a role in everything. There was a sustained wind about 20mph out of the south. When you add in the gusts up to 40mph, it was a blustery day. The other element of weather that came with the south wind was humidity. The temperature climbed into the low nineties, but it felt like it was in the low hundreds.

The wind made everything more difficult. This campground is located on the south bank of the Caloosahatchee Canal. The terrain leading up to the bank from the south is all open cattle land. There is next to nothing to block the wind. Wearing a hat is not in the cards. It wouldn’t stay on. In fact just trying to walk in a straight line is complicated. The birds that I have been finding rather frequently the last few days were harder to find today. Most of them were missing, but the few I spotted were in different, more sheltered locations. Driving today was also complicated by the wind.

A 20mph wind with 40mph gusts isn’t a lot of wind in other areas of the country. Out west windier conditions are not unusual. Here in Florida wind is usually a short term event associated with thunderstorms and other severe weather. Hurricanes are the exception. They bring very heavy wind for a day or two, but generally speaking from April through October it isn’t very windy. The winter months are the windy season. I guess that means Fall is here and winters around the corner. Someone just forgot to tell Mother Nature to turn down the heat.

As predicted a few more RVs arrived to add to the occupancy for the weekend. I suspect there will be a lot more tomorrow. The weekend weather forecast shows a positive trend, so it may draw other local campers out. At the very least the weather is not going to cause anybody to cancel.