Tuesday January 16th 2024

It looked like it was going to rain at any minute all day. Except for fog in the morning and a few very brief sprinkle it didn’t rain during the daylight hours. About 7:30 as the cold front finally passed from the northwest to the southeast it rained lightly for about ten minutes. The temperature climbed into the upper seventies during the day. Once the front passed the temperature started to drop fast. It is forecast to be in the forties in the morning.

This campground is getting urbanized against its will. A massive apartment complex is being constructed between the campground and the line of retail properties that line route 27 in Davenport. The construction work starts around 7AM and continues until dark. The noise isn’t a major problem, but it does disturb the quiet.

When I first stayed here in 2015, the area was filled with many small pine trees. It looked like the land had been cleared for development, but the project was abandoned. The pine trees were a holding “crop”. As the years went by the trees got bigger and provided a nice buffer between the shops and the campground. In 2022 I started to notice signs of renewed development. Last year while I was staying here there were many big piece of earth moving equipment ripping out the trees and lots of dirt. This year there are lots of new structures under development.

This lot isn’t the only one under development in the area. There are many apartment or apartment like condominiums under development. They have been complaining on TV about the lack of affordable rental properties in the greater Orlando area for a long time. I don’t think most of these are affordable, but there sure are a lot of them. New single family homes increase the traffic issues significantly. These apartments are a much denser housing option that puts ten times as many people in the same space. It doesn’t look good for traffic in the area. No wonder they are working to widen Interstate 4 southwest of Orlando.