Tuesday January 2nd 2024

It should have been obvious to me. My campsite is in the woods. The sun doesn’t reach my RV until it is higher in the sky. As a result, the temperature inside my RV home doesn’t rise as quickly. This morning it still felt dark at 9AM. The sun didn’t start to warm the inside until after 10AM. Even with electric heat on breakfast was chilly. I refuse (for no good reason) to put the gas furnace on for a few degrees. On the opposite end of the day, the trees blocked the sun earlier than sunset. It was getting dark about an hour before the actual sunset.

Today I walked the trail along the river closer to the entry of the state park. I drove to the parking lot for the “rapids” and walked the trail from there. I saw more wildlife today. There were lots of turtles on logs and I even saw one small alligator on the far bank. Several verities of water birds were along this stretch of river and one interesting surprise. A Red Shoulder Hawk flew into a tree over the river and watched the world go by for a few minute while I took its picture.

There was a lot of turnover in the park again today. It may have even been more extensive than yesterday. By this evening the departing visitors had been replaced by new occupants of the sites. The site beside me was one of the turnover sites. The new residents arrived in a motorhome around 2:30PM. They started setting up outside more than you usually see with a big motorhome. In addition to the outdoor rug which is relatively common, they put a table cloth on the picnic table and started to string lights around the site. They even wrapped the lights around a tree. I don’t know how long they plan to stay, but I hope it is more than overnight.