Monday June 6th 2022

It was a very humid day with a high temperature in the upper half of the eighties. The first half of the day was sunny, and the second half was filled with showers. I was dripping in sweat packing up this morning.

I departed the campground just before the 11AM checkout. I hadn’t even cleared the first line of campsites before the campground crew was at the site preparing it for the next arrival. They must have been stacked out waiting for me to leave. They shouldn’t have found much to do. I leave the sites clean and in good condition.

My first stop on the sixty mile drive was at one of the gas stations I scouted Sunday. The access was as good as I expected, but the price per gallon had gone up ten cents overnight. I put in one credit card authorization of $175. When I arrived in the area of my destination I found gas fifteen cents per gallon cheaper. I would have been very uncomfortable trying to travel that far on a rapidly emptying tank.

I took a very indirect route today. Check in time at my destination was 2pm, so I had plenty of time. I completely avoided the interstate highway and probably added fifteen miles to the google indicated sixty mile distance. Along the way I encountered two rain showers complete with very black clouds and brief downpours. I arrived at my destination around 12:45 and was able to check in early. They were in the process of assembling my checkin package as I entered the office.

There were only a few sprinkles while I got setup. The first round of storms was west of this area. Around 5:30 the second round of storms hit hard. A thunderstorm with heavy rain sat over the area for about forty five minutes. This evening the rain is gone, but the humidity remains.

I am back at Pecan Park RV Resort. This is the same location that I spent the month of November last year. I have booked and paid for seven weeks at the monthly rate. I will be ahead of the weekly rate after about three weeks, so I’d be comfortable moving on if the opportunity comes up. The nightly rate at this park is close to twice the nightly breakdown at the monthly rate. They really want longer staying guests.

Sunday June 5th 2022

The weather turned out to be better than the forecast called for. There were more clouds in the sky than the previous few days, but the line of thunderstorms passed through the area without dropping any rain here. There was rain to the north and south of here. The temperature peaked in the high eighties.

Today was my last full day in Starke Florida. Tomorrow I’m moving to the north side of Jacksonville. In preparation, I scouted out my departure route today. I was particularly interested in finding a suitable gas station. Finding a station with good access is my primary concern. All of the stations have higher prices than the last time I put gas in the motorhome’s tank. The five to ten cents difference in price between stations is only a minor consideration when looking for a “good” station. I found a couple of good possibilities.

Most of the weekenders departed the campground by the 11AM checkout this morning, but in some ways the park was more alive today than yesterday. This park has a number of workers that stay here during the week, but leave for “home” on Friday. They return on Sunday afternoons. There are also people that leave their rigs here during the week and only use them on the weekends. They don’t have to checkout by 11AM, so the weekend continues for them until Sunday evening. The pool was very busy this afternoon after the line of clouds associated with the thunderstorms in the area moved through.

Friday June 3rd 2022

A little more humidity and a little higher temperature made today uncomfortable. The actual temperature was in the low nineties and the humidity made it seem warmer. Clouds moved in late in the day threatening thunderstorms, but so far none have materialized. The first tropical system of the 2022 hurricane season is heading for South Florida tonight into tomorrow. It should pass across the peninsular without impacting this area in the northeast of the state.

This afternoon while walking in the campground I was almost run over by a fast moving golf cart. Fast moving traffic has always been a problem in campgrounds and the recent popularity of golf carts has only added to the problem. This park has signs indicating a speed limit of 7.5mph and other signs reminding everyone to slow down. One sign in particular says “Only You Can Prevent Speed Bumps.”

For the most part people travel at reasonable speeds in the campground. My guess is people travel at ten to fifteen miles per hour. Trying to stay at 5mph, 7.5mph or even 10mph is very difficult. Most analog gauges in cars don’t even register below 5mph. Golf carts don’t have speedometers and are often driven by people without sufficient driving experience to accurately judge speed. At least at this park, proof of golf cart insurance is required to operate the cart in the park. This seems to keep them from being driven by kids.

I don’t really understand the need to bring a golf cart on every outing. If you are going to be staying at a huge park for an extended period of time it may be helpful. For short stays and at small parks, I think it is more of a nuisance. With the exception of people with physical limitations, What is wrong with taking your time and walking?

It is hard to believe this is the start of another weekend. The campground didn’t fully empty from the holiday weekend until Tuesday. It isn’t filling up much for this weekend. While I didn’t expect occupancy to come close to the holiday weekend, it seems to be much less than the pre holiday weekend at the end of my first week here. Maybe more people will come in tomorrow.

Thursday June 2nd 2022

Today’s weather was a repeat of Wednesday’s. The temperature peaked a little above the ninety degree mark under a sunny sky with a little wind.

The morning got started much better today. There was no noisy lawn mower wandering around the campground to coax me out of bed earlier than I wanted. Better yet I didn’t see any of the electricians randomly throwing breakers to see what happens. They must have finished their survey for the future work. The power did go out around 1AM for a few seconds. I don’t think it was related to any of the electrical work, but it sent the park cable TV system into a reboot and my microwave clock into blinking mode. On a positive note, it got me to turn off the TV and go to sleep.

This was an ordinary day. I did my daily chores and a couple of extra cleaning tasks. My daily walk extended out of the campground into the neighboring strip mall. I wandered through the Tractor Supply store to extend my daily exercise a bit. This Tractor Supply seems to be selling riding lawn mowers well. The front side walk had several more when I first arrived in this area a couple of weeks ago. At an average of four thousand dollars a unit the turnover is surprising. Obviously I don’t have any need for a lawn mower, but I seem to be paying a lot of attention on them between the ones in the campground and at the store.

Wednesday June 1st 2022

Today had more sunshine and wind with a little less humidity. It was a very nice day with a high temperature in the upper eighties. The temperature and humidity are forecast to climb the next few days. There is also the possibility of a tropical storm at the end of the week.

My morning calm was disrupted by lawn mowing again. The guy on the zero turn mower really seems to enjoy his task. He moves very quickly on the very loud mower. The driver has ear protection, but the rest of use have to suffer. When I was watching the guy mowing the lawn I spotted even more possible disruption. The same electricians that were roaming the grounds yesterday were back again today. I spent all morning into the early afternoon expecting the power to go off at any minute. When the departed around 2PM I relaxed a little. I wish the campground communicated better about what is going on.

Today was a day filled with chores around my RV home and a little bit of travel research. When I get into exploring travel possibilities, time flies. One internet search leads to another and before I know it two or three hours have gone by. Today I came up with ideas, but no commitment. Some of the ideas were short term and some were as far out as next summer. I need to put some stakes in the ground so I have targets to look forward to visiting.

Tuesday May 31st 2022

The Florida summer weather pattern of almost daily thunderstorms has settled in. Today the storm arrived from the east earlier in the day than I expected. It was shortly after noon when the storm arrived in the area. I was out searching for the elusive lake that is supposed to be a few miles to the west of town. They sky decided to open up while I was on a dirt road. Fearing that I had left the wrong windows open in my RV home I cut my search short and return to the campground in my now very muddy car.

I found my RV home fine. The worrisome windows in the bedroom were closed, so my bed didn’t get wet in the cloud burst. What I did not find was electricity. There was no power in my part of the campground. It wasn’t caused by the storm, but rather by a group of electricians wandering around the campground turning circuits on and off trying to figure out what was what for a future electrical upgrade. Working with electricity in the rain seems to be a risk I wouldn’t want to take, but they didn’t seem to be concerned. Their task was massively complicated because the original installers hadn’t labeled anything.

I seem to visit this campground when they are having electrical work done. Last year the city was replacing all four of the electric transformers in the park. The power was down from 9AM to 4PM on two days. That was a lot more disruptive than today’s episode. The off season of May and June seems to be the choice time for maintenance.

Not wanting to hang around in my RV home with rain and no electricity I moved up my planned trip to Walmart for groceries a day or so. I found construction work there as well. Areas of the store had been emptied of product probably into big storage boxes located on the side of the parking lot. The actual construction hadn’t started yet, but they were clearly getting ready. I still managed to find everything I needed. I got out of the store after spending a little more than half of what I usually spend. It was a clear indicator that I went shopping a couple of days early.

By the time I got out of Walmart the rain was over. Back at the campground the wandering electricians were gone and my power was back on. I hope they don’t start their actual upgrade work until after I move on next week. Communications of intent are not very good. The park staff could easily have warned people that work was going to happen, even if it was only a general warning for a wide time frame. Talking with the actual electricians this afternoon they were deliberately vague.

Monday May 30th 2022

This wasn’t a very blog entry worthy day. It was filled with lots of little necessary things, but nothing worthy of more than a word or two.

The campground emptied out this morning after the long weekend. A few paid for the extra night (I assume) and left late in the day after hosting friends and family for the day. I suspect a few others will be leaving in the morning. By mid day tomorrow the park will be back to normal mid week occupancy.

One good thing about the departures is the availability of the laundry facilities. With fewer people in the park it was possible to get a machine to do a little laundry. During the week the machines seemed to be used by some of the long term residents and on the weekend by the weekend visitors. Today was the perfect day.

Sunday May 29th 2022

This holiday weekend day was another example of beautiful weather. The temperature was a couple of degrees warmer than Saturday with a little more wind. The temperature peaked in around 90 degrees.

My plan for the day was to watch the car races on TV. First up was the Indianapolis 500 and later in the day it was the Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte North Carolina. The pre-race pageantry at both of these races is one of the highlights of the event. The actual race can get boring if there aren’t crashes or excessive lead changes. Usually, I watch the start and finish closely, but during the middle of the race I just have the TV on waiting for the sound of excited broadcasters.

The Indy 500 opening ceremonies lived up to expectations. The tradition of singing “Back Home Again in Indiana” is always fun to watch. I wasn’t impressed with the NBC announcers covering the event. They seemed to be focused on their scripted interactions rather than the flow of the ceremony. During the race they were OK. The finish of the race after a restart with two laps to go was exciting.

Unfortunately, I missed the start of the Coca-Cole 600. I was watching the local news on another channel. The race is now on the TV as I’m typing this blog entry. I expect the 600 mile race to last until late this evening. Hopefully it will have as good an ending as the Indy 500.

The campground remains in holiday weekend mode. A few RVs departed this morning and a few new ones arrived this afternoon. The fun and games family weekend outing mood continues to be present. I suspect that tomorrow morning as the 11AM checkout approaches there will be a big exodus.

Saturday May 28th 2022

This was a very slow day with very little to write about in this blog entry.

After a couple of days of iffy and humid weather today was beautiful. The humidity was down and the sun only had a few fluffy clouds to contend with. The temperature peaked in the upper eighties.

Much to my surprise the campground is in full on holiday weekend mode. I didn’t think this park would be a big weekend destination for area RVing families. Most of the sites in this campground are filled with Florida RVs for the weekend. During the week it has a mix of travelers from other states. This weekend the park has families with kids from the local area. Most Florida schools ended their year on Friday, so summer vacations are now in full swing.

I am still engaged in full on rest and relaxation. Most of my day was spent reading and watching random TV programs. The only exceptions were during my walks around the campground and the time spent cooking and eating.