Sunday December 29th 2024

This period between Christmas and New Years is very confusing. Nothing about the days are normal. Traffic on the roads is fierce and unpredictable. Driving in the tourist areas is even more problematic. In addition to the people that are down here for the winter all of their northern guests are on the roads. Then you add in the people that are here just for Disney, Universal and Sea World, you have a real mess.

On Friday I had the bright idea to stop at Disney Springs. My thought process was that early in the afternoon it wouldn’t be extremely busy. I got there later than I wanted and it was busier than I ever would have thought. I had to park in the overflow area usually dedicated to employee parking. It was a long walk in a long line of people into the entertainment and shopping district. The crowd didn’t get any better once inside. It was wall to wall people and got worse as evening approached.

It was an interesting visit, but it didn’t get to do many of the things I wanted. Lunch at Cooks of Dublin was great, but touring the stores was filled with crowds. I had considered taking a bus to one of the Disney resort hotels to do a little more decoration viewing, but my late arrival largely because of the traffic on the roads made that idea impossible. I think that idea will have to wait for another year.

Everything is quiet here at the park. I think a lot of people are traveling for the holidays. The number of golf carts going by my base camp has decreased. My guess is by next weekend the travelers will be back along with many of the residents that haven’t arrived for the season yet. It will be interesting to see if this place gets as active as it is advertised to be.

Thursday December 26th 2024

I spent Christmas day in Sarasota with friends. We had a nice dinner with good conversation and nice rich desert cake. It was an overall good day.

Today I was on a mission to finish the installation of my new refrigerator. I adjusted the shelves to allow a little more room for tall items and made a run to Walmart to restock the items that probably spoiled in the old frig and the time between appliances.

Walmart was worse today than any of the days leading up to Christmas. In addition to the line of people returning purchases the food aisles were jammed with shopping carts and people. Did people run out of food on the holiday or did they neglect food shopping during the days before Christmas? The lines at the checkouts were also long. At least they had all of the registers open. I think my relatively small shopping event took longer than most of my bigger shopping days.

I didn’t get a chance to return to my furniture building projects in the last few days. I have all the pieces cut for my end table, but need to do a lot of assembly, gluing and sanding. Then it is time for the hard part of staining and applying a few coats of polyurethane that looks good. The weekend is forecast to be rainy, so it may be a few days.

Tuesday December 24th 2024

Merry Christmas

This blog entry is an extra to my current two a week schedule. I thought I’d reflect on all the “gifts” I have been buying for myself this year, as well as wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

The transition from a full time traveler to a periodic traveler with a base camp has resulted in a lot of purchases this year. In addition to the base camp itself, I have been buying lots of things to fill up the interior. I am pretty close to finished. Some of those things like the canvas prints of some of my road trip photos are fun, others like pots and pans are just necessary. The latest purchase was another necessary one, but not an expected one. My refrigerator gave up its valiant fight over the weekend.

The twenty plus year old appliance wasn’t one of my favorites. The small side by side forced me to stack stuff and push stuff deep into the box. It was very hard to know what you had. I knew it was going to be my first replacement, but I didn’t expect it to be so soon. The last couple of weeks it has been getting noisier. Over the weekend it stopped cooling. Luckily my dislike of the old one caused me to do some early refrigerator shopping. I knew what I wanted when the old one gave up the ghost. On Sunday I bought an LG French Door with bottom freezer from Lowes for delivery on Christmas Eve.

Today was filled with emptying the old one, followed by waiting for the delivery guys. They arrived in the expected window shortly after the noon hour. Unfortunately, the type of water connection I have was not to their liking. It is apparently one that Lowes doesn’t allow them to connect up. While they were calling their dispatcher to figure out what to do I got out my tools and did what they couldn’t. By the time they put me on the phone with the dispatcher to “explain” the issue I had eliminated the problem. They brought the new one in and took the old one out. All they could do for installation was plug it in to power. I connected the water after they departed with the old unit. Getting all the food loaded up was the hard part of the whole exercise. I still need to weed out the stuff that probably spoiled and rearrange the shelves for more optimal use.

Over the last few days the park got into Christmas decorating. I thought it was going to remain rather dark, but there are quite a few decorations up now. Some sites are still dark, because the residents haven’t returned yet. Many snowbirds wait until after Christmas to head south. Some of the ones that arrived earlier have also returned north for the holidays. My neighbors across the street from Michigan were only back from a trip north over Thanksgiving for about a week and a half before heading out again. I don’t think they are going to the same place, but it is still a long road trip for the holiday.

Thursday December 19th 2024

With Christmas getting closer it is time to stay away from the theme parks until after the holidays. This is the worst time of year for crowds. On Monday I made my last visit until January 6th or so. My mission was to see the holiday decorations at the resorts along the Walt Disney World Monorail. Once I saw how bad the parking was at the Ticket and Transportation Center, I decided to add in a visit to the Fort Wilderness campground so I wouldn’t have to return later in the week.

My first stop was Disney’s Polynesian Resort hotel. It doesn’t decorate a lot. To keep with the south seas theme the Christmas decorations are subtle. There are twinkle lights and bows around the lobby, and one Christmas tree about twelve feet tall.

The Christmas tree at the Grand Floridian Resort is huge. It occupies the center of the lobby atrium and is several floors high. Not to be outdone size wise, a large ornate gingerbread house occupies the end of the lobby. Everyone comes to the Grand Floridian to see the gingerbread house and listen to Christmas carols being played on the grand piano.

The third stop on my monorail resort hopping was the Contemporary Hotel. In an attempt to compete with the Grand Floridian, they have a gingerbread mural of Cinderella’s castle. It is colorful, but not as ornate or technically challenging as the Grand Floridians ginerbread house. The contemporaries primary Christmas tree is outside the building along the drive way approach to the main entrance. It is the most colorful of the trees I saw on Monday.

From the Contemporary, I took a boat ride to Fort Wilderness. Most of the decorations at the campground are put up by the campers. Many campers return every year and attempt to outdo their previous year’s efforts. The 16th of December is a little early to get the full display. Many of the Christmas campers don’t arrive until closer to the holiday. There were still a lot of dark campsites and a few empty ones as well. I walked around five of the camping loops near the boat docks at the settlement and enjoyed the efforts that the campers put up.

Sunday December 15th 2024

Traffic has been my nemesis the last few days. Generally, I am used to the traffic patterns in the area and know when to avoid certain areas, but things have been a little different the last few days. Some of the differences are the result of holiday traffic, some because of the influx of more seasonal residents and one major problem is the result of construction. Road work that shuts down one lane of the three north bound lanes of route 27 about a mile and a half from here really backs things up as soon as I leave the resort. It has taken more than double or triple the normal time to get through the area. A couple of times that I’ve tried to avoid the area, I’ve gotten stuck in school traffic.

Another area of traffic concern is the eastbound section of Interstate 4. The most direct path to Disney and other things in the resort corridor is I-4, but at certain times of the day it has an average speed of less than twenty miles an hour for several miles. Usually the middle of the day is OK. Today it wasn’t. The problem is further complicated by not knowing what the conditions are until you are committed. There are several alternatives other than the interstate, but once you’re on it your stuck. Today’s journey to Disney Springs took about double what it should have.

As expected, the Disney Springs shopping and entertainment district was busy today. I went before dark to avoid the worst of the crowds. Parking wasn’t bad. I was able to park in the main garage. In past years, I have had to park across the street in the overflow and employee parking garage. There were lines to get into some stores and restaurants. The checkouts at all the stores had lines as well. I went primarily for the atmosphere and I wasn’t disappointed. It was very festive and the people seemed to be in a holiday mood despite the crowds. After wandering around the Springs for about 3 hours I headed home via a different route. It was also filled with traffic of unknown cause.

Thursday December 12th 2024

I am trying to get my Walt Disney World Christmas viewing in before the blackout period on my annual pass kicks in the middle of next week. Only the most expensive annual pass isn’t blacked out during the Christmas holiday period. The crowds are already terrible and will only get worst. On this evening’s visit to EPCOT I parked in a part of the parking lot that I have never parked in before. Inside the park it didn’t seem excessive, but wait times were long.

My first visit to Disney this week was on Tuesday. I went to Hollywood Studios for the first time in a long time. It is my least favorite park of the four. I kept my focus on enjoying the holiday experience. In addition to checking out all the decorations, I attended the Christmas version of the Frozen Ever After sing alone. The addition of holiday songs to the Frozen sing alone adds a festive atmosphere. Wait times on Tuesday evening were horrible. At 6PM the wait time for Rise of the Resistance was 230 minutes. The park was only open for another 3 hours (180 minutes). I didn’t ride any of the attractions and departed long before the park closed.

Today I made my second visit of the week to Walt Disney World. This visit had two objectives. The first was to see the Christmas version of Living with the Land called Glimmering Greenhouses. All of the twinkling lights added to the plants in the greenhouses make a beautiful display.

The other objective was to checkout the decorations at the EPCOT area resorts. I left EPCOT via the back International Gateway Entrance and walked to each resort. Each hotel lobby had a version of their usual decorations. The gingerbread carousel at the Beach Club resort remains the most intriguing decoration, but the Santa Claus display made out of chocolate at the Dolphin hotel gives it a run for its money. The Boardwalk hotel also has a beautiful Christmas tree outside.

Sunday December 8th 2024

I finally got to visit the Christmas festivities at Sea World on Saturday. I have allowed the weather to influence my last few attempts to visit the park. Saturday wasn’t the warmest day, but I was bundled up enough to stay warm even after sunset. I arrived at the park a little after 4PM and stayed until a few minutes after the 10PM closing time.

My focus at Sea World was primarily the Christmas shows and decorations. I only visited a few of the regular areas. The first show on my agenda was the O’Wondrous Night show. This can best be summarized as a musical comedy telling of the birth of Christ. It contains puppets, animals and a choir that dances and sings lots of songs primarily in a gospel style. The puppeteers also sing. Toward the end of the show the puppets get replaced by live animals. There were goats and sheep, a donkey, doves, lamas and/or alpacas and finally camels. It is a fun and interesting show with minimal staging and lots of energy.

The Sesame Street Christmas parade of Muppet characters was a good filler while I waited for the next more adult entertainment. I recognized the characters as belonging to Sesame Street, but don’t ask me to name them. I know Elmo, but that’s about it. The parade is more of a song and dance show. Once the parade route is filled with the floats with characters, they stop and the characters start dancing in the street.

The final show of the night was an ice skating show. There are about eighteen skaters. They include an ensemble group of twelve, an ice dancing pair, a pairs skating duo and a male and female solo performer. I needed to be in the stands more than half an hour ahead of time to get a decent seat. Once the show starts it is very fast paced. The half hour show was over quickly and was followed by a few minutes of fireworks. It is nice to have a seat to watch fireworks.

The traffic getting home was a nightmare. Once I cleared the Sea World traffic, I picked up the Disney World Traffic. It was followed by more random traffic at my exit off of Interstate 4. It took over an hour to travel a distance that is a little over twenty minutes on the rare occasions that traffic isn’t an issue.

At the base camp, over the last few days I’ve continued to work on the night stand for my bedroom. It is now completely assembled, stained and gotten its first coat of polyurethane. In needs two or three more coats of poly before I declare it done. I’ve already started planning the end table to go beside my sofa in the living room. That is the next project.

Thursday December 5th 2024

Every year during my Rambling Road Trip that I was in Florida for the winter I spent early December in this area. The reason is Christmas at Disney World. The holiday decorations and special events are all enjoyable experiences. Despite the cold weather over the last few days I have been to Disney twice and will visit the parks and resorts several more times before the holiday blackout period for my pass comes into play.

The parks usually aren’t excessively busy the first couple of weeks of December, but this year seems to be different. On Monday, the crowds at EPCOT were hard to navigate. It seemed to have a lots of large family groups in attendance. Invariably, big groups stop in the middle of the walkways to debate their next destination. Getting around them is a continuous challenge except for the people in Electric Convenience Vehicles (ECV). The ECV is like a bowling ball and the people are the pins scattering to allow the fast moving barely under control vehicle to pass. I saw this a couple of time on Monday.

I made one loop of the park in the afternoon to check out the decorations and enjoy some of the entertainment. The model trains at the Germany pavilion were decorated for the holidays with fake snow, Christmas trees and figurines of people celebrating. I was just in time to catch the Voices of Liberty at the American Pavilion. They were in their colonial period costumes and were singing Christmas songs.

All of the attractions had long wait times. To kill time while I waited for darkness for the Christmas lights, I took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom for a quick walk around. The primary park was just as busy as EPCOT. It was just as hard to navigate. I got to watch the flag retreat, but I wasn’t able to do much else. As the sunset, I returned to EPCOT for a fish and chip dinner at the Yorkshire Fish House before making another circuit of the World Showcase pavilions.

On Wednesday I visited Magic Kingdom deliberately. It was just as busy as Monday, but I got to ride a couple of rides, see the lights and have dinner. This time it was fried shrimp at the Columbia Harbor House.

In between trips to Disney I’ve been building more furniture for the base camp. The current project is a bedside table. I have in mostly assembled. It still needs to be sanded, stained and polyurethaned. It has been slow progress. The cold temperature make the usable outside work time short. The temperature hasn’t gotten out of the fifties until the afternoon and the sun is in my eyes by 4:30.

Sunday December 1st 2024

The temperature is running cooler than normal right now in central Florida. Compared to most of the rest of the country it is still very comfortable, but the current conditions add a few complications to daily activity. I let the weather prevent me from going to Sea World this weekend. The problem is dressing for the weather. You need lighter clothes during the day and warmer clothes at night. That presents a minor logistics issue. You either need to carry a backpack with a sweatshirt inside, get a locker for the sweatshirt or go back to the car for the warmer clothes after sunset. After all that, a sweatshirt may not be enough. Sea World involves a lot of setting outdoors for shows. What is good enough while walking isn’t always enough for low activity. Hey, I’m used to the warm weather and probably a little lazy too.

I guess I’m really getting settled into life at the base camp. I got internet installed on Friday. The tech got it done quicker and cleaner than I thought. I turned one of the cabinets in my living area into a network cabinet. It holds the cable modem, the WiFi router, a network disk drive and lots of power and cables. I replaced the shelves with metal grates to allow for airflow and punched some holes in the top and bottom of the cabinets. I may need to add a small muffin fan for better airflow, but for now it works. Having a high speed internet connection is a nice luxury I haven’t had while on the road.

Today I started the ultimate task of commitment to my base camp. I started to change the locks. When I moved in I had one key to the front door locks and four keys to the back door locks. My goal was to change the locks so I had only one key and add an electronic lock so I could get in without a key. My research led me to a Kwikset lock set solution that allows me to rekey the locks to use the same key and provide a keypad deadbolt. The keypad I chose is battery operated, but low tech. It does not use Bluetooth or WiFi and does not require a smart home hub. I got the front door lock changed today and will tackle the back door next. The front door is a standard residential door. The back door is a little more complicated. It is closer to an RV door than a regular house door and opens outward.