Thursday November 30th 2023

The cold spell was over today. The temperature climbed into the upper seventies under a bright sunny sky. Each day through Sunday is forecast to be warmer with an increasing chance of rain.

Taking advantage of the good weather, I set out to tour Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Most of the Kennedy Space Center is part of the refuge, but the part that is open to the public is north of the space center. I generally stop at the wildlife refuge once a year, so I am pretty familiar with it.

To get to the public area of the refuge I drove north along the mainland to the far side of the city of Titusville before crossing back onto Merritt Island. I was greeted by two huge message boards. They usually contain warnings about closures of the whole area do to upcoming launches. Today, they contained notice about more specific closures. The wildlife drive I expected to take was closed and the bridge that provided access to the northern exit from the refuge was also closed. My visit was restricted to the boardwalk at the visitors center.

It was nice walking along the boardwalk. I saw a few turtles taking the sun in one of the ponds and several colorful wildflowers. Birds and larger mammals were all in hiding. The boardwalk is showing its age. Some of the boards are spongy and the foliage is creeping into the path. The water level under the boardwalk was also a little higher than usual.

Back at the campground this afternoon I noted that there had been a very large turnover today. Many of my neighbors were new and there was a line of RVs waiting to check in. Last week around the holiday most of the sites were occupied by people with Florida license plates. This week the mix is starting to favor out of state plates. There are more than a hand full of Quebec plates. Usually most of the Canadian plates are from Ontario, but this time French speaking people from Quebec seem to be present in a greater number than any other out of state license plate.

There were two cruise ships in port today. Even one is enough to attract lots of cars filled with people in the afternoon to watch the ships set out to see. There is even one woman who live streams the departures on YouTube, TikTok or some social media platform. I’m not sure which. She has been there every day I have watched the ships depart. Today both ships departed in quick succession. Small craft traffic was light allowing them a to depart without any drama. The sheriffs boat didn’t have to chase any boats out of the way.