This weekend has been filled with a lot of driving, but not a lot of blog worthy content. On the positive side, gas prices are at the bottom side of their oscillation. Regular gas is less than $2.90 right now in this area, but every county is a little different because of different tax structures.
Traffic seems to be gradually increasing as the number of seasonal residents increases. The out of state plates in the Walmart parking lot continues to increase. This week the number of residents in the park that hosts my home base has also increased. As people return the number of cars parked in front of homes increase. I have also seen a couple of U-Haul trucks pulling car dollies in the park. The official start of winter activities in the park is November 1st, but life seems to be getting busier.
We are now entering the peak Hurricane season. Late September into early October seems to be the time of year that storms threaten or impact Central Florida. As long as I pay attention to the forecast, there should be plenty of time to react. Running from threatening storms still seems to be the best approach.
On Tuesday evening I went to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Disney’s Magic Kingdom. This is a separate admission after hours event at the theme park. The party is held on select evenings from the middle of August to the end of October. It has special entertainment including two runs of a special parade, special fireworks, stage shows, rare character meet and greats and spooky enhancements to some rides. Guests are also encouraged to collect candy at designated trick or treat sites throughout the park.
I bought my ticket in August for the Tuesday night event. It turned out to be a sold out night. The only problem was I couldn’t predict the weather. When I arrived at the Magic Kingdom shortly before 5PM there was a downpour in progress, but I came prepared. I had a rain coat packed in my backpack. I needed it just to get from the parking lot to the theme park. The theme for the night was set.
A light to medium rain fell most of the night. Disney did its best to work around the weather, but the weather had an impact. The live entertainment became less live by using recordings, fewer performers and no dancing. The real problems started when it came time for the first running of the parade. I lined up fifteen minutes before show time, but should have lined up earlier for a good viewing area. Starting at show time they announce that the weather was delaying the parade every five minutes until 9PM. By then, I’d been waiting for an hour before they canceled the first running of the parade. The next showing was scheduled for 11:15PM. A full hour of park time was wasted waiting for a parade that didn’t happen.
Tangled Castle in spooky colors
The 10PM fireworks went off on time. The weather was only a very light drizzle. There was no wind and the air was very thick. The weather kept all of the smoke from the fireworks near the ground. Many of the shells were obscured by the smoke. It also didn’t help that I was a little too far down main street from the castle in a less than ideal viewing spot.
Shortly after the fireworks Disney announced the 11:15PM parade was going to start early during a window in the rain. I found a good viewing location along the parade route along with everyone else and waited. My viewing location was in Town Square near the exit to the park. As soon as the parade was over I headed for home. I successfully beat the crowd back to the parking lot. It was around 11:30 when I reached my car and started home.
In between all the waiting for parades and such I went through six or seven trick or treat sites. Disney uses the theaters for shows and restaurants that aren’t open during the party as candy distribution sites. According to the map there were another four or five that I didn’t stop at. Still, I came home with a haul.
I had an Okay time. The rain was a big negative, but even without the rain I probably wont do it again unless I have company. I don’t do waiting around alone well. I need to keep moving.
This is only a short blog update tonight. It hasn’t been a very blog worthy weekend.
I experienced another indicator that this area of central Florida is returning to “winter” mode. While I was having breakfast this morning a car door slammed outside. It was a familiar sound. Either my neighbors don’t know their own strength or the car doors are made of tin. The doors are very loud and somewhat unique sounding. The bottom line is I was startled. The neighbors had been gone since the beginning of June. When I left an hour or so later, they already had their trailer slide room out, their awning down and their patio furniture uncovered.
Today was a west to east kind of weather day. The sun was out overhead this morning, but as I drove west toward Tampa dark clouds, lightening and a little rain was falling. It was a very overcast day with a lot of interesting cloud formations. When I returned home this evening there were plenty of puddles to provide evidence of significant rain. I dodged the rain today. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.
Don’t prune a tree when your having an uncoordinated klutzy day. I decided to cut a few branches from the avocado tree in my front yard. The tree is going to get replaced when I find something appropriate like a hibiscus teased into a tree. Until then, I needed to cut back some of the creep that was starting to cause visibility problems when I backed out. With a small pruning saw, I successfully cut two branches. Karma and or the tree decided to strike on the third branch.
A Disney Bunny
After cutting the third branch I stepped back into the pile of previously cut limbs. In surprise, I recoiled forward into the tree branches. Either a tree branch or the freshly trimmed branch took the opportunity to knock my glasses off my face. In trying to catch the glasses before disaster struck I dropped the branch and managed to prick my thumb on the saw blade. As the futile juggling ended, the glasses were nowhere to be found. After a few minutes of careful searching through the pile of branches, I found my glasses further away than I expected. All of my fears of finding broken glass or bent rims proved unfounded. Everything was intact and I could see clearly again. No one saw this little show, but I think it was probably a slapstick comedy gem.
The pictures in this blog entry came from my Wednesday stop at Disney’s EPCOT. It wasn’t nearly as crowded as the previous Friday. I was able to ride “Living with the Land” and “Soarin” with only a minimal wait. The rest of my visit was taken up by walking around the World Showcase an having an expensive soft serve vanilla ice cream cone. It is very good real vanilla, but $6.50 for a quantity less than a Dairy Queen small is a mental challenge to my wallet. I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again, but …
It is hard to believe that the unofficial end of summer has arrived. Subtle changes are happening. The number of days with high temperatures in the nineties is decreasing. A few days with high temperatures in the eighties and even seventies are starting to slip into the mix. The over night temperatures are also becoming more comfortable. There are still two months or so until real comfortable temperatures become the norm.
Another one of the subtle indicators can be found in the local Walmart parking lot. Since May the majority of the cars held Florida license plates. The winter residents returned to their northern homes for the summer. When I was walking through the parking lot today, close to half the cars I passed had northern state license plates. New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Indiana were some that I remember seeing. The occupants may have only been here for the weekend, but I’m located far enough from the main tourist areas that they likely had homes in this area. My bottom line is that some of the “snowbirds” are starting to return. On the flip side of that position is the continued absence of residents at the park I live in. They aren’t returning here yet.
Disney’s International Food and Wine Festival started on Thursday. I went to EPCOT to check it out on Friday evening. It wasn’t the best time to visit. First, I arrived just after a thunderstorm passed through the area. Parking was at your own initiative. All of the cast members were still taking shelter. Since one of the lots was closed for repaving, I managed to find a spot far northeast section of a lot I have only parked in once before. It was a long walk in.
Second, everyone and their brother had a similar idea to visit EPCOT on Friday night. It was very crowded. The line at security was longer than I’ve seen it since last Christmas season. Perhaps everyone wanted to see Joey Fatone, the Eat to the Beat Concert series entertainment for the evening. The standby lines were very long when I got to that part of the park. Later in the evening, I learned Disney had suffered several power outages that may have caused people to leave other parks for EPCOT that didn’t seem to have the same level of power issues. I didn’t hang around long after having my Fish and Chips for dinner and completing one lap of the World Showcase.
By Wednesday of this week the daily weather pattern had changed enough that a late afternoon trip to a theme park for exercise and entertainment was back in the cards. It was hot but dry. I decided on a return trip to the Magic Kingdom to check on the Halloween decorations. This time they were all up.
The decorations seemed to be the same as last year. I’m sure there were differences, but they were subtle. Scarecrows in various early 1900 outfits line town square. There weren’t any birds around so maybe they work, but I don’t recall ever seeing them in that area of Disney. The most prominent decoration in the park are the Mickey shaped plastic pumpkins that hang from each lamp post. They aren’t scary. They are very happy faced.
With school back in session traffic patterns have changed. On my way to Disney it took longer to get to the interstate than prior to schools resumption, but traffic on the interstate is still OK. The expedite addition of a fourth lane earlier in the year has really helped. Hopefully, it will continue to help during the winter when all the additional traffic is in the area. There are still many traffic bottlenecks in the area that need new roads to solve. Several major road changes are in the planning stage, but it will be several years before they atually get built.
I have been completely out of sync with the weather the last few days. The pattern has the best part of the day from early morning to about noon. The first major storm of the day starts around noon with lots of thunder and lightening. The rest of the day is a combination of light rain and more thunderstorms with a few breaks in between. Unfortunately, I am not in an early in the day activity pattern. I am just thinking about getting active after a lazy breakfast when the storms arrive.
I need to get back to my furniture building projects. The incentive dropped as I reached a comfortable level of existence and the outside working conditions deteriorated. That was last December when the daily high temperatures dropped to the sixties at best and darkness came early. I missed restarting my building activities when the conditions improved in late February and early March. It was soon too warm to work outside again. My next window of opportunity is rapidly approaching.
Not having a place to put my coffee cup down while sitting on my couch the other day raised my interest level in completing my efforts. I have an end table to complete, a table for the front window area and maybe a coffee table for the middle of the living room. The plans I sketched last fall are still sitting on my desk. Each project requires one or two panel glue ups, so they will take some time. I enjoy the tasks, but working outside under my car port area can be a challenge.
I got caught in a strange weather event Wednesday afternoon. The hour by hour forecast was clear of rain and the weather radar app on my phone was clear as well. It seemed like a perfect afternoon to pay a visit to Disney’s Hollywood Studios for exercise and entertainment.
There were very few clouds in the sky as I set out for the park. As I approached Disney property dark clouds seemed to be hanging over the area, but I was still driving in bright sunshine. Suddenly there was a white wall ahead. It looked a little bit like fog, but turned out to a torrential downpour. Even with my windshield wipers on full speed visibility was difficult. It didn’t last long before calming to a steady rain. After waiting in the parking lot for ten to fifteen minutes the sun was back out and all the clouds were dissipating. It didn’t rain again all night.
My visit to Hollywood Studios was short. I didn’t check the schedule before going. There was a separate admission after hours event scheduled for later in the evening. Crowds started to grow and attraction schedules seemed to be altered. I got in my exercise and watched the new Villains show again, but I didn’t have dinner or wait in line for any other attractions. It was still a fun trip and the rain storm made it very interesting.
The weather pattern this weekend was back to oppressive. The national weather service issued a heat advisory on Saturday. Mostly it was high 90s temperatures with lots of humidity followed by the usual afternoon and evening thunderstorms. The difference was the storms lasted a little longer than normal. Transitioning from AC to outside humidity and getting stuck in the rain are the only real discomfort associated with the weather pattern, but I stayed indoors most of the time. The late afternoon rain discouraged by lose plan of going to Sea World.
Between chores around my base camp and errands I watched a lot of YouTube this weekend. There are a few things like live streams from Disney World I watch regularly on YouTube. This weekend I got into binge watching many other things. Many of my viewing choices were base on YouTube suggestions. Since the selections come from Googles surveillance of my search history and other interactions, some of YouTube suggestions were right on the mark. The videos weren’t necessarily very good. Particularly when I have more experience in the subject area than the author of the video like about life in an RV.
Some of the videos are created by people new to camping or living in an RV. They want to pay it forward by providing information to other people new to RVs. Speaking with confidence and authority they describe things as absolutes or revolutionary, but somehow get it just a little wrong. For example, a water pressure regulator is very important, but you install it at the hose bib not at the RV just before the water entry into the RV. One of the things you need to protect from high pressure is the hose. Another video tried to emphasis the value of the commercial plastic leveling blocks designed to go under trailer tires like Lego blocks. For some reason the presenter was insistent that wood blocks couldn’t be used. I’ve never owned a set of plastic leveling blocks and have leveled many different RVs fine. I will not even begin to describe the convoluted process one guy videoed for winterizing his trailer. Why did he need ten gallon of antifreeze? I used to do it successfully with a gallon.
After watching more how to videos on topics I was familiar with, I’d say most of them are accurate but make a big deal about little things. I wonder how much misleading information I’ve got watching videos on topics I was trying to learn.
While the temperature is still running at full summer strength, a few other things are starting to hurry the fall season into existence. First, the kids are back in school. The school bus are stopping traffic and traffic patterns have changed. The second indicator is the timing of sunset. Daylight at 9PM has slipped away it is dark around 8PM and shrinking fast. Last, but significant for the region, is the theme parks are getting ready for Halloween. The home supply stores are already selling blowup Halloween spooks and demons so the theme parks need to catch up.
Bunting on the Ice Cream Parlor
Disney starts its first separate admission Halloween party tomorrow (Friday 8/15) night. Universal begins Halloween Horror Nights on the 28th and Sea World starts its scare the pants off of you “party” Howl-O-Scream on September 5th. Halloween is a big thing around here. I’ve decided to go to the Disney’s Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party on September 9th. It will be my first Disney Halloween party. I hope to enjoy the parades and shows plus lots of “free” candy.
I visited the Magic Kingdom on Tuesday in hopes of seeing some of the Halloween decorations. They hadn’t made as much progress toward Friday’s opening Halloween party. The only real decorations I saw were the bunting on the buildings along main street. None of the scarecrows or lamp post decorations they have had in past years were up yet. I’ll see them during the party I booked or sometime before they go away at the beginning of November.
The other big change was the draining of the Rivers of America in Frontier Land. The whole are including Tom Sawyer Island is being re-imagined into a Cars attraction set in a Pacific Northwest themed National Park. The current attractions closed in the beginning of July and the river is almost pumped dry now.
Rob's Rambling Road Trip 