Saturday March 9th 2024

The power went out in the campground at 10PM last night. Under normal circumstances that would mean go to bed early. Unfortunately the inside of my RV home was still filled with the warmth of the day. I was going to turn the AC on to bring the temperature down from the mid eighties into the comfortable sleeping range, but with the power out that was not going to happen. While I tried to sleep, I was still awake when the power came back on at 12:40. Lesson learned; don’t let it get too hot inside for sleeping.

Today was also a hot day. In some locations in the area it was the warmest day since last fall. Here it was very humid with the high in the upper eighties. There was also a strong wind that mitigated the heat somewhat. Beyond anything else, for me it was the sudden onset of the hot and humid temperature. I’ve been living with Florida winter temperatures for the most part since December. These temperatures are nothing compared to what is to come as the seasons progress.

This was a finish setup, settle in and get reacquainted kind of day. The state park seemed to be very sleep today. I didn’t see many people out walking. The day use area didn’t have any activity and the boat launch only had a couple of empty boat trailers in the parking lot. Walking around the campground there were a couple of empty sites, but the park is labeled as full. Several of the sites are clearly occupied by spring breakers. They are young people sleeping in multiple tents on the site. I think I heard some of them celebrating the restoration of electricity last night.

I made a provisioning run to Walmart this afternoon. Following the pattern I established in December while I was here, I made a stop at Tom Bennett County Park to visit with the birds and other wildlife. The water level was quite a bit higher than it was in December. The stumps and logs the turtles used for taking the sun in December were underwater today. This park seemed sleep too. The number of other people walking the trails or playing Disc Golf was much less than I anticipated. The strong wind probably explains the lack of Disc Golf players, but what was the birds excuse for not being around the ponds.