Thursday January 8th 2026

Today’s weather was the first day in a while that could reasonably be called normal. The early days this week started foggy and ended cloudy. This was the first day that was sunny all day. The temperature even reached 80 a few degrees above normal.

The other thing that is back to “normal” is the traffic. The heavy pre-holiday traffic is gone, but the normal winter snowbird enhanced traffic remains. The traffic inside stores like Walmart has actually gotten worse. They have reduced the number of staff assigned to checkouts so it takes longer to get out of the store.

I’ve been focused on chores around my base camp this week. They seem to pop up out of nowhere and take longer than intended. Today an overfilled draw decided it needed to brake the draw slides. It may take a contortionist to fix it. All of the little things combined have kept me from getting to Disney. The crowds were back to an acceptably level on Monday, but now they are back up to high levels for Disney’s Marathon weekend.

The other thing keep me busy and a little bit frustrating is setting up a new computer. While I enjoy the overall task, getting things like my picture editing software running in time to publish this blog has been a challenge. The new version doesn’t support the batch commands I developed for the previous version. It is impossible to explain, but it has taken three computers just to get one little blog entry published.

Sunday January 4th 2026

Note: My January 1st blog entry is now posted and available.

The temperature this weekend has returned to normal. Last weeks sixty degree high are back to the mid seventies. Higher temperatures are in the forecast for later in the week. The downside is the bright sun has disappeared. Each day has been cloudy at best and Saturday evening even included some rain.

Rain is really needed. The central Florida area particularly near the Gulf coast are in a drought. Pond and lake levels are down. I watched a particularly difficult boat launch today. The drop off at the end of the ramp came too soon for the boat trailer tires. The guy managed to get everything out, but it took a lot of power and spinning wheels. Another example of the low water level, here at the park, is the visible island in the middle of the retention pond. It is usually fully submerged. Finally in the drought indicators is the ban on fireworks in the county. New Years Eve was quiet.

The weekend has been relaxing. I accomplished a few chores, but others have been deferred. My bougainvillea plant is back in a rapid growth phase. It hasn’t needed attention for over a month, but it needs a “hair” cut again. It looks good from a distance. Up close it looks shaggy. Trimming it is easy. Picking up the clippings and taking them to the park’s dumpsters is another matter.

Thursday January 1st 2026

This post is being posted on January 3rd and back dated to the 1st. Sleep got in my way on New Years day.

Happy New Year

My New Years day focused on a tradition I’ve had since childhood. Watching the Tournament of Roses Parade has been a requirement. In the early 60s my parents took me to some of their friends with a color TV to watch the parade in “living color”. This was quite an event that lasted several years until we had a color TV of our own.

In the mid 1990s I took a tour to the Los Angeles area to see the parade. A lot of it was a disappointment. The hotel was on the other side of the county. We had to leave around 4:30AM to get to the parade route before 6:30 or 7AM when they shut the streets down. The bleacher seating was crowded cold aluminum that you were pretty much stuck in for a couple of hours before the parade even started. Then you got to watch two plus hours of parade from a viewing location inferior to the TV view by far. The seats were probably one hundred feet from the actual floats.

The best part of the parade tour was viewing the floats parked after the parade. You can get up close enough to see the actual flowers and mechanics of the floats. A few years after my tour experience I was back in the LA area. This time I only went to see the floats being decorated and the post parade viewing. I watched the actual parade on TV from my hotel room. This was the best of both types of viewing.

Watching this years parade on TV I felt bad for all the spectators. Waiting for and watching the parade in the rain must have been terrible. It was just cold the year I sat in the grandstands.

Sunday December 28th 2025

The let up in traffic density on Christmas day was as expected short lived. Over the weekend the stop and go traffic returned. I spent most of the weekend doing chores around the base camp with only a few ventures out into the traffic.

Today I made a stop a Walmart for a quick fun food update. In this case the plan was to buy some bakery items, some oranges and maybe other nice to have items. It doesn’t matter since I never got out of my car. The parking lot was busier than any day leading up to Christmas. I went up and down several parking aisles without finding anything within reasonable and safe walking distance. The only spots I found were at the far end of the lot where people don’t park according to logical rules and other vehicles weave in and out of the parked cars at high speed.

Here at my base camp there is a bit of an increase in arrivals for the winter season. Two motorhomes that have sites on my road arrived over the weekend. Their arrival reminds me of the RV traffic southbound on Interstate 95 through the Carolinas and Georgia this time of year. People tend to wait until Christmas is over and then head south as fast as they can. In previous years the almost continuous flow of southbound RVs has been impressive. I think all of the roadside RV parks fill up every night the week or two after Christmas. I suspect Interstate 75 is the same.

Thursday December 25th 2025

Merry Christmas

It has been a slow week. I have stayed home at my base camp whenever possible. Road traffic was terrible. Route 27 traffic in front of the park was intermittently filled with three lanes of stopped north bound traffic followed by three lanes of stopped southbound traffic. The traffic light system was clearly overwhelmed.

On Monday I had to force my way through the traffic to get groceries at Walmart. It took close to an hour to travel the approximate mile and a half that usually takes about ten minutes. Inside Walmart was busy, but the chaos was controlled. Walmart had a full complement of staff on duty and all the checkouts were open. I was able to complete my shopping and get back into the road traffic without waiting too long. My refrigerator is still overstocked four days later.

Today was another slow day by choice. I didn’t do anything special, but did leave the base camp. As expected traffic was very light. It was easy to drive to the nearby nature preserve for a leisurely walk around a pond. It has been about a month since I used the preserve for my daily exercise. Places with sparkling decorations have been getting preference. Today there were a few nice wildflower blossoms to catch my attention.

Sunday December 21st 2025

Today may have been the first day of winter, but the temperature peaked around 80 again today. The normal high is in the low to mid seventies. The above normal trend is forecast to continue most of the week.

This evening I took a drive to check out some of the decorations in the area. My specific destination was the community of Celebration. It is planned community that Disney developed a few decades ago. They no longer have any involvement, but the community is still very active when it comes to celebrating seasons and holidays. Many houses decorate over the top and there is a Christmas village in the center of town.

Touring Celebration seems to be more popular than I expected. Traffic throughout the residential areas was stop and go. It never got above 10mph and all of the four way stops kept it even slower. Finding a parking space near the Christmas market in the downtown area proved impossible. I wandered around several blocks lined with filled parallel parking spots without success.

I spent about an hour making my way through the community. The decorations were nice, but the traffic made it difficult to enjoy them. I couldn’t really take my focus off the traffic. I made a couple of futile attempts at pictures, but motion ruined each attempt. I am not sure if I saw all the community had to offer for decorations. There were plenty of side roads I didn’t turn onto.

Maybe I’ll try some of the housing development closer to my base camp over the next few night.

Thursday December 18th 2025

Today was the last day I could visit Disney World this year. My annual pass goes into a blackout period until January fifth. That isn’t a problem. The crowds during the blackout period are so bad I don’t want to be there. They were bad enough this week that I didn’t get to do everything I wanted.

This afternoon I set out to checkout the Christmas decorations at Fort Wilderness. It was a challenge. I arrived at the Magic Kingdom when all the guests for the after hours Christmas Party event. The line for security was long and the next line for the monorail was even longer. I chose to turn left and take the ferry across the Seven Seas Lagoon. The ferry departed when I was still 100 feet away. I caught the next one ten minutes later.

Once I arrived at the Magic Kingdom entrance, I boarded the launch to Fort Wilderness after a ten minute wait. The ride to the campground was uneventful on a full boat. The regular Magic Kingdom day guests were returning to their RVs. It looked like the worst of my journey to the fort was over, but I got one more surprise. It was raining lightly when I got off the boat.

The Christmas decorations were as over the top as usual. I think I am a little early since the holiday falls near the end of the week. Many people may be arriving with their decorations this weekend. There didn’t seem to be as many decorated sites. I wandered around a few loops before I gave in to the drizzle and made my way back to the parking lot.

Sunday December 14th 2025

On Friday afternoon I made my Christmas visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Most of the decorations are more subtle and very natural, but the Christmas tree at the entrance is very impressive.

My favorite Christmas element at Animal Kingdom is the Merry Menagerie Puppet show that runs pretty much continuously during the daytime hours in the area in front of the Tree of Life. The life size puppets of winter animals interact with each other and the guests. They are particularly good with little kids in strollers. Musicians with steel drums and violins keep the spirit of the season alive with seasonal music. I saw polar bears, penguins, reindeer, a fox and arctic turns. The little kids really liked the baby penguins.

I spent over an hour wandering around the Merry Menagerie show area. The toured the animal areas around the tree of life. I never made it out to the Safari. It had a long wait time so it will wait until my next visit. It is a rare visit that I don’t ride the Safari.

Thursday December 11th 2025

On Tuesday I made my first visit to Disney’s EPCOT since the Christmas decorations went up this year. Lines were long at the attractions so I mostly walked around looking at the decorations. I need to return to see the decorated gardens in the Living with the Land ride to be fully satisfied with my EPCOT Christmas experience. There is no way I’d wait 50 plus minutes for a ride that is usually a walk on when it isn’t decorated.

Here are some pictures from my visit.

Sunday December 7th 2025

The winter cold and wet weather that most of the country is experienced has arrived in Florida. Over the last few days very little blue appeared in the sky. Rain started as an occasional event and progressed to heavy prolonged rain. This evening lightening with immediate ground shacking thunder claps became the focus. Additional rain with lower temperatures are in the forecast for the next few days. It is just enough to discourage outdoor activity.

I committed to a couple of poinsettia plants for my inside Christmas decoration. They are pretty and will not take up storage space after the season. I looked for a bigger plant for outside at Lowes today, but didn’t find anything I was happy with. Over the next couple of days I’ll check out other stores. A couple of blowup Santa Clauses have shown up elsewhere in the park.

Today was also grocery shopping day. I’ve been putting off the chore all of last week, but finally ran out of a couple of vital items. Oatmeal without milk to help it go down isn’t the same. Sunday afternoon at Walmart isn’t a place you should really consider, but I was in need. Today the inside of the store wasn’t that out of control. They had plenty of staff working and weren’t trying to refill shelves at the same time as shoppers were unstocking them. The real issue today was in the parking lot. With the rain everyone wanted to park near the building. If it looked like a car was about to depart the next three car all stopped and waited. The resulting log jams lasted more than a few minutes. The backups allowed me to get a good parking place even though I was heading for a distant spot at the time.