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.

Thursday November 28th 2024

Happy Thanksgiving!

I christened the kitchen and dinning area of my base camp today. I took the opportunity of the holiday celebration to cook a significant meal for one. A turkey breast with a few of my favorite sides were the object of my cooking adventure. It went well. With more prep space than my RV home, I could actually use more pots and pans to do more in parallel. Overall it was a good meal and I have plenty of leftovers for the next few days.

The Amazon delivery drivers, UPS drivers and Fed X drivers all now my base camp well now. I have gotten one thing or another delivered each day the past week. Today was the first day without a delivery, but I got one delivery at 6:30 last night and have another scheduled for tomorrow. Most of the deliveries have been little things like place mats for my table and an indoor TV antenna. The antenna was an experiment that proved to be successful. I get better reception with the indoor antenna than the old outside pole mounted antenna even with a powered booster.

The biggest delivery was a recliner from Wayfair. The UPS delivery guy got it in the door for me and I was able to assemble it in short order. It is good to have that purchase complete. The most impressive delivery was last night’s. I got another one of the photos I took on the Rambling Road Trip printed on canvas. This is a very large picture of a desert landscape at Lost Dutchmen State Park in Apache Junction Arizona. I had it printed at 30×40. It may be too big for my living room, but I don’t mind. It is a beautiful landscape.

The cable guy is scheduled for tomorrow. The plan is to get internet installed at the base camp, not TV. The internet connection will fill the connectivity gap and also satisfy most of my TV entertainment needs. I still have my Directv subscription for my RV home and it is accessible over the internet. Up until now I’ve been using cellular data to stay connected, but that is both slow and limited.

Sunday November 24th 2024

The weather has been cool and windy the last few days. The daytime high temperature reached the seventy degree mark plus or minus a couple of degrees. Once the sun sets the temperature dropped quickly through the sixties into the fifties. It was even in the forties one morning. All of these weather issues resulted in a break in my furniture building activity. The wind was the chief culprit. Getting things done outside under my carport was like working in a wind tunnel at times.

I have actually reached equilibrium at my base camp. I have bought and built enough stuff to live comfortably. The sense of camping out is gone. There are still things to be built or bought, but the rush is over. I bought a recliner from Wayfair and a floor lamp from Amazon. These items took the living room out of the camping phase into the living phase. I don’t feel that I have to dedicate most of my time each day to furnishing my base camp anymore. A few more days dedicated to leisure are in my future.

Today had a little bit of recreation. I took a hike in the nearby wildlife refuge. The conditions were great to walk around one of the little ponds. Some of the wildflowers were in bloom, but I was disappointed by the lack of water birds in the area. I wish a heron or egret was around to satisfy my bird itch.

This evening I took another walk. This one was around the neighborhood. The park is a little less populated today than it was a week or so ago. Many of the people that had returned are gone again. I assume many went back north for the Thanksgiving Holiday. At least, that is what my neighbor across the street did. They drove back to Michigan. The park still isn’t showing signs of decorating for Christmas. One or two homes scattered here and there around the park have put up a few things. The weekend after Thanksgiving is a classic milestone for decorating, but it seems more and more people are getting a head start. The fact that this park is probably following a classic pattern is a good thing, just surprising.

Thursday November 21st 2024

The lead phrase in the TV weather talker script today was “The coldest temperatures since February”. The high temperature for the day was just over seventy, but the real cool temperature came after sunset. It was below sixty by 7PM and it continues to drop.

The dropping temperature got in the way of my enjoyment of Disney Springs this evening. I went in search of dinner and some evening entertainment. The ambiance set by the Christmas decorations and various roving entertainment was top notch. Wandering around was easy as the crowd was down probably because of the temperature. Unfortunately, wandering or shopping inside was about all you could do. It you stopped moving or sat down outside, the wind added a chill that was hard to take.

I did a complete circuit around the shopping and entertainment district. There were lots of Christmas flair around the area. In the main shopping area “snoap” was falling. The soap flakes make very realistic snow as they are blown off the roofs of the shops. Around the area brightly decorated Christmas trees lite the pathways and roving entertainers add to the overall atmosphere.

It was a brief but fun experience. Finding food that I could eat inside without a long wait proved impossible. It was just too cold to eat outside. Similarly, it was too cold to sit and watch the entertainment. My visit to Disney Springs became a lot shorter than I planned. I am going to try and get back again during the Holiday season, but it gets very crowded as Christmas approaches.

On the home furnishing front, I finished staining and applying polyurethane to the unfinished table and chairs I bought through Amazon. I am getting a little better at applying the poly, but I am still not an expert. The finish still shows a few blemishes that probably relate back to an incomplete sanding job. Over time I’ll stop seeing the issues and I’m not sure if anyone else will anyway. In addition to the two chairs I bought and finished I have two high end folding chairs that will bring the number of chairs up to four if I ever need to seat more than one or two which is highly unlikely. Better to be prepared.

Sunday November 17th 2024

The last coat of polyurethane went on my headboard yesterday. One of today’s tasks was attaching it to the bed frame. There was one hiccup in that task. The bed frame I built with mattress in place was too heavy to move. On the carpeted bedroom floor it also wouldn’t slide. I made a run to Lowes for something thin and hard to go under the bed legs. My plan was to get a four foot section of Masonite, but found a better solution in a piece of hardboard intended to be used to make a white board. When cut into four strips about six inches wide and slide under the bed legs, I was able to move the bed frame away from the wall and attach the headboard. My bed is now finished and doesn’t look too bad.

Today’s other task was finishing the two dinning room chairs I bought from Amazon. Each chair came in eight pieces in need of stain and polyurethane. By the end of the day I had all sixteen pieces stained. Trying to stay out of the direct sunlight is a challenge. The stain drys fast in the direct sun and it is hard to see the areas that haven’t been hit with the stain. I need to stop staining or applying polyurethane by mid afternoon. The sun is too intense in the late afternoon.

The unfinished table gets the stain and poly treatment next. Rain is in the forecast for Wednesday, so I need to get stuff inside by then. The furnishing of my base camp is coming along slowly. I got a framed canvas of one of my Rambling Road Trip pictures via UPS on Friday. It was a test of the printing service. I hung it on my bedroom wall. It looks pretty good. I am going to have a couple of landscape photographs printed on canvas next and maybe a bird picture or two.

I keep waiting to see Christmas decorations around the resort, but so far the only decorations are the Thanksgiving style decorations that have been added to the front gate. It is basically a garland of fall leaves. My guess is most of the Christmas type decorations will arrive right after Thanksgiving.