The temperature got down into the upper thirties last night. The inside temperature this morning was in the high forties. I turned on some heat and went back to bed for an hour or so. By mid afternoon the temperature reached the sixty degree mark. Inside the temperature reached the low eighties with the help of the sun and no open windows. Today had a few more clouds and a lot more wind than Saturday.
A few more clouds today.
After a slow breakfast I got out of the park to do some area touring. I needed to block the minor case of cabin fever I felt yesterday from returning today. Traffic was lighter today than it has been. That means you can generally get through traffic lights on one cycle or less. I considered stopping at Walmart for groceries, but the line to get into the parking lot went against my light traffic contention. I’ll go during the week.
Blossom of the day.
My “Sunday Drive” wasn’t too long. I got home in time to watch most of the playoff football game in Detroit. I’m now watching the game in Buffalo. Similar to yesterday, I don’t have any real preference with respect to the outcome. Perhaps I should have cheered for Tampa Bay against Detroit being as I’m in their fan area, but I didn’t think they had a chance. In that I was right. The second game between Kansas City and Buffalo, I want them both to loose. Since that can’t happen, at least it seems to have a lot of scoring.
My day began with the sound of diesel engines. The diesel pusher motorhome beside me started his engine around 7AM. Given how tight the sites are at this campground. The engine noise was coming from less than twenty feet from my head as I lay in bed. It seemed to last forever, but they probably left about fifteen minutes after they started the engine. Once they were gone I could here another engine further away followed by the gas motorhome on the other side of my RV home. For some reason, everyone was leaving this morning.
Another beautiful blossom from yesterday’s trip to EPCOT.
Today was a very clear day. I didn’t see a cloud in the sky all day. There was also very little wind. Unfortunately, there was also an absence of warmth. The day began in the upper forties and didn’t climb a whole lot during the day. The temperature maxed out in the upper fifties. It is forecast to be even lower tonight, but warmer tomorrow.
Most of my day was spent inside my RV home. The TV and remote have been getting a workout. I walked around the campground twice, but that doesn’t represent much distance. From an exercise perspective, it does have a small hill to climb. Late in the day my TV surfing locked onto the NFL playoffs, which I am still watching as I write this blog entry. I don’t have any expectations for today’s games. The favorite won in the first game and will probably win the second.
Yesterday’s cloudy weather with occasional rain continued overnight into today. Around 3PM the occasional light rain turned into a longer period of heavy rain, but there was some real sign of clearing after it finished. The weekend is forecast to be much cooler. Today’s highs were in the mid seventies. Tomorrow it is only going to be in the low sixties.
What do you think this is? It is a zoomed in picture of a small fountain on the Living with the Land ride.
The timing of the rain storm gave me the idea that Disney’s EPCOT would be at a low crowd level this evening. I thought people would leave when the storm hit. With that thought in mind I headed over to the theme park. Getting there was a challenge. The timing of the storm coincided with schools and business getting out. Traffic was backed up on all of the different routes I tried. Once I got to EPCOT the parking lot looked fuller than normal. The parking attendants were directing new cars to openings created by departing guests. Clearly many people had departed because of the rain. Low crowds in the park turned out to be a false hope. When I left later in the evening, the third section of the parking lot that is only used on busy days was close to full.
This polar bear in the window of the Norway Pavilion will be right at home in this weekends cold temperatures.
From the Mexico Pavilion.
Wait times for rides were mostly long. Unlike yesterday, when I didn’t ride any rides, I rode a few of the short wait time rides like Spaceship Earth and Living with the Land. Most of my time was consumed watching shows and checking out the art booths scattered around the World Showcase. The lack of reasonable wait times caused me to leave early. I had planned to stay for the closing fireworks, but by 8PM I ran out of things I wanted to do. Rather than sitting and waiting for an hour or randomly wandering, I decided to return home. There will be plenty of other opportunities over the next few weeks.
It was an overcast, almost foggy day. It was humid and the temperature climbed into the low seventies. In the middle of the afternoon a brief shower passed through the area. Since then, a brief shower seems to pass through every two hours or so.
After a slow start to the day caused by the uncertain weather, I ended up visiting Disney’s EPCOT theme park today. The International Festival of the Arts is in full swing. It is my second favorite EPCOT festival. The International Flower and Garden Festival in the spring is my favorite. This festival has booths showing and selling art work. Most of the art is Disney focused, but there are other depictions as well.
These aren’t visitors they are residents of EPCOT.
There are artists actively creating new works and opportunities for visitors to participate in the development of art as well. For adults and supervised children there is a massive paint by number mural that people fill in colored blocks according to the numbers. Elsewhere in the park children are given chalk to color on the cement walkway very near the location that professional artists are creating formal chalk art. In the American Garden theater people can learn how to draw famous Disney characters from Disney illustrators during the daytime and listen to singers perform Broadway tunes in the evening. There are even artistic food creations for sale in the various food stands around the park.
Chalk art before the rain
Today I mostly just walked around taking in all of the sights. The crowds were heavier than I expected. Wait times for all the rides were long. I didn’t ride any of them. I listened to some of the live entertainment. The Voices of Liberty at the American Pavilion were great as usual.
As I was enjoying my lunch of Fish and Chips at the UK Pavilion the first rain shower of the day arrived. I found a dry place to eat my late lunch, but the rain managed to discourage more exploring of the park. Once I finished eating, I made my back to the front of the park and departed for the afternoon. The festival continues until February 19th. I’ll be in this area the entire time, so I will have ample opportunities to explore the festival in more depth.
The temperature was around fifty this morning and I couldn’t hibernate in a warm bed. I had to drive to the outskirts of Tampa for the first day of the Florida RV Super Show. I wanted to get there before the crowds built, so I was aiming for as close to the 9AM opening as I could manage. I left the campground before 8AM and got to the Florida State Fair grounds sometime between 9 and 9:30. Traffic was very heavy on Interstate 4 and then there was a backup getting into the fair grounds parking area.
I have been to this show several times before. The last time I attended was either in 2017 or 2019. The show is advertised as Americas biggest consumer RV show, but the September RV show in Hershey Pennsylvania makes a similar claim. I have been to that show too. This one is probably bigger, but it really depends on how you measure the bigness. The main thing that makes both of them more significant than all the regional RV shows around the country is that the RV manufacturers rather than the local dealerships are the organizing factor. The RVs are all arranged by manufacturer. One dealer may be showing different manufacturers products in different areas of the show and never actually showing all of the products they sell at their dealership.
The crowd was manageable early in the morning. Later in the day this area was much busier. (This is my only picture without people’s faces. )
In the first couple of hours I was able to move around freely in the chilly air and see a lot of things. My late morning the crowds were growing. You never had to wait long to tour and RV, but the aisles in the vendor, merchandise and campground buildings were wall to wall people. Campers have dogs and dogs are welcome at this show. Outside they are not a real issue. Inside is another thing. Many of the dogs seem to be very intimidated and scared in the packed vendor halls and others were just plain in the way. I really thing they would have been happier getting left at home.
I went to the show to see what is new in the industry, and pick up information on new campground and accessories. It isn’t time for a new RV yet, but I am always looking at future possibilities. I only made two purchases while at the show. The first was a mediocre slice of pizza for lunch and the second was a new cover for my tow bar. My current cover came off in two pieces when I took in off last Sunday.
Overall it was an interesting show and I had a good time. There were lots of changes since the last time I went to a big RV show. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the small role that Camping World had at this show. At past shows Camping World was the biggest dealer organization represented and everyone was wandering around with massive yellow Camping World promotional bags. At this show the General RV family of dealerships had the biggest presence. Smaller Red promotional bags with the General RV logo were the dominant accessory for show goers.
As far as answering the question, “Is this the biggest RV show in the Country?”, I did lots of walking, climbed in and out of a multitude of RVs and I am very tired this evening. It was big enough for me and that’s all I care about. If I was in Pennsylvania in September, my answer would probably have been different.
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.
Apartment construction beside the campground.
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.
Mother Nature didn’t know weather it should rain or not today. The day started with drizzle then cleared up before transitioning to light rain and back to drizzle. More significant rain is in the forecast for the overnight hours with tomorrow being rather similar to today before ending with heavy rain associated with another approaching cold front. This winter in Florida is an unusually wet one. On the good side the temperature was in the low seventies today.
Blossom of the day.Bird of the day.
I got my bicycle unloaded from my car this morning and the vehicle was ready to go with errands and area touring. My first trip was down the road Walmart for groceries. Why did I think that a holiday Monday morning wouldn’t be busy? It was busy mess from the parking lot to the checkouts. In the parking lot people’s cars were blocking the aisles waiting for the elusive spot near the front of the lot. If only they would show that level of patience inside the building. Inside all the aisles were busy with people of all ages from toddlers to senior senior citizens. Those two groups move at much different paces resulting in a lot of near misses. At the checkouts, not all of which were open, there were long lines. I thought I got lucky when a cashier at a closed register waved me over. Except she was walking away by the time I got there. A different cashier that was trying to close took pity on me and checked me out. An so ended my grocery shopping adventure for another week.
The end of the holiday weekend resulted in some turnover in this campground, but not as much as at a state park. The state park campgrounds have a lot more locals enjoying the long weekend. This KOA has a lot more people that have traveled from the north. My neighbors have license plates from Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin among others. Clearly they are travelers or snowbirds here for a few days or weeks. All of Orlando’s attractions are a big draw for this campground. There is also a long term section of the park that has monthly residents where the long term snowbirds stay.
Today was a Florida cold day with light rain in the early afternoon. Not the best weather for a travel day. Packing up in the cool weather wasn’t bad, but the rain began as I tried to get on the road. Thankfully it was a light rain that didn’t require a lot of windshield wiper action. My wiper blades were breaking down from two years of UV light. I have already bought new ones, I just haven’t installed them yet. (shame on me)
This was a stressful travel day. My slideout rooms on the motorhome wouldn’t come in on the first, second or third try this morning. I have had issues in the past, but tapping gently on the relay in the fuse box usually gets the current flowing so they will come in. Today the usual methods didn’t work. I started looking for a mobile RV tech to come out and assist. There are only a few that will take calls on Sundays. While waiting for the camphost to get a list of area technicians, I tried removing and resetting the DC breakers. For some reason, it worked after this and I was able to get underway.
It was well after the 1PM checkout time went I departed the state park grounds. I was fourth in line at the dumping station, so that took the well more than half an hour. The light rain was pretty constant by this time. On a positive note, I was able to fill the motorhome gas tank at a decent price. The roller coaster of gas prices was at a low point today.
Next up on this adventurous day was a traffic backup on Interstate 4 in the Lakeland area. I was in stop and go traffic for less than a mile before coming to the source of the backup. At least three cars had a collision in the high speed lanes. One white SUV was on its roof. It looked like everyone was out of the vehicles. Emergency services had not yet arrived. I passed many speeding vehicle with flashing lights on their way to the accident after I cleared the area.
Site 55 at the Orlando Southwest KOA. My front wheels are off the ground to get level.
I arrived at the Orlando Southwest KOA in Davenport Florida after 3PM. I have stayed here before. The rain was giving way to pockets of blue sky when I arrived. I got setup without any additional issues with the slideout rooms. The next three weeks represent the period that I was unable to book a state park or other public park reservation. I will be at the KOA for two weeks before moving for the third week. These are expensive campgrounds when compared to the public parks, but much cheaper than some of the locations near the coast. My problem is the amenities that drive up the price aren’t things that I make much use of. For example, I don’t need cable TV. I have a satellite. I will use the supplied WiFi, but I can easily make do with my cellular data service. The sites are also generally less attractive. The central Florida location puts me near the theme parks, so more visits are in my future.
It was fifteen to twenty degrees cooler today than yesterday. The high temperature today was in the low sixties. A little bit of rain and a lot of wind came with the passing of the cold front last night. The rain over the last few days has increased the flow in the Hillsborough River quite a bit. The water passing over the rocks up river from the campground in the state park really looks like rapids today. It is living up to its name.
The “rapids” looked a little more challenging today.
While walking along the trails today I saw a variety of creatures today. In the wildlife category I saw one Alligator, two Turtles and one Anhinga. By far the most common creatures were humans. The park, trails and day use area were very popular today. They even had a few organized events today. One was a guided kayak paddle this morning. I didn’t see it happening, but the rental kayaks were in a bit of disarray this afternoon.
This was my last hike along the river for this visit. Tomorrow, I’m moving on after two weeks here. I enjoy the activity along the river. There is something just a little bit different every day, but it is time for a big change. I’ll be in a much more urban environment starting tomorrow.
I got most of the outside travel preparation tasks completed this afternoon. This will give me a little more time to linger over breakfast tomorrow. I plan to leave somewhere around the noon hour. I have about sixty miles to travel.
It rained off and on all night. This morning the rain stopped around 9AM, but it left many puddles to navigate around. The sun never made an appearance all day. Still, the temperature climbed from the high fifties to about eighty degrees my mid afternoon. Another cold front is due to arrive before morning to usher in more cool temperatures. This front isn’t forecast to be as rainy or severe as Tuesday’s storms.
Today I hiked the Baynard loop trail on the far side of the Hillsborough River. It is accessed on via a log suspension bridge. After following the river for a few hundred yards it loops inland then back to the river. Today wasn’t the best day to explore this trail. Last nights rain filled many of the soft and low areas with water. I managed to navigate around all of them with out falling in or getting anything more than the soles of my shoes wet. It was a real challenge at times. Some of the puddles took up fifty feet or more of trail. The adventure didn’t result in any particularly unique sightings, but I can mark it in the accomplished column.
On my hike I saw my favorite Great Blue Heron. It was in one place on my outbound leg and in a little different place on my return trip. Once again I took advantage of how photogenic the bird appears to me. I took several pictures of the bird and its reflection in the calm river water.
Later in the day while I was out exploring the area, I found a Walmart with the intent to top of my supplies. This turned out to be an old Walmart that hadn’t been upgraded with a full grocery section. It only had the easy to maintain grocery essentials. There was no produce, meat or fresh bakery goods available. I managed to get a few things that I needed, but I will need to make a full grocery run on Monday.
Rob's Rambling Road Trip 