Monday October 24th 2022

My short stay at Jetty Park was up this morning. Checkout time from the campground was noon. The added hour from the usual 11AM checkout allowed me to do things a little more leisurely. I still got started at 7:30AM as per my normal moving day start time, but took several breaks. Just before noon I was at the dumping station emptying my tanks in preparation for my drive into the greater Orlando area.

My route to the southern suburbs of Orlando is pretty straight cross country through ranch and farm land until I reach St. Cloud on route US 192. From there west it is three lanes of traffic between more stop lights than anyone needs. I barely get up to speed before I have to start slowing down for the next light. It was a two hour drive, but more than half the time was in the last third of the distance. This is the same route I always use between the coast and the Orlando area. I was a little concerned that it might not be available this year. The route crosses the head waters of the St. John’s river which has been at flood stage along various portions of its flow since hurricane Ian. The water was still high and areas that should be dry were flooded, but the roads were all open and in good condition.

I am staying at the Kissimmee South RV Resort in Davenport Florida. It is a 55+ resort that is primarily for long term stays in RVs and even longer ones in mobile homes. The sites are close, but the park has some nice ponds and plenty of amenities. The location is good and the monthly cost is cheaper than many Florida RV parks. I plan to enjoy many of the tourist attractions in the Orlando area. In particular, I plan to make use of my annual passes to Sea World and Disney. It will me nice not to move for an extended period.

Sunday October 23rd 2022

Today was another great weather day in the same model as the previous couple of days. The temperature peaked in the mid to upper seventies. It was much warmer inland where the northeast breeze didn’t have the moderating effect of the Atlantic Ocean.

This was a very big turnover day at the campground. All of the weekend residents packed up this morning and departed by the noon checkout. This afternoon many new campers arrived to take their place. I think there are more people here tonight than there were on my arrival day last Sunday. For some reason all of the activity around me had the opposite impact on my behavior today. Instead of heading back to the mainland for groceries, I just chilled around the park.

The birds and cruise ships got the attention of my camera this afternoon. There were only two cruise ships in port today, but there were plenty of birds. The first cruise ship to depart had to get started without both of its escorts. The sheriff’s boat was diverted to deal with a medical emergency of some form that was brought in by boat to the boat launch area near the campground. The two deputies from the boat handled the issue until other deputies and the fire department arrived. Then they returned to their boat and headed off at high speed to assist the Coast Guard boat crew. There seems to be something interesting going on every day.

This is my last full day here. I’m moving to the Orlando area tomorrow. I wish I could have gotten a longer stay here, but the weekends seem to book way in advance. This site was not available for the weekend when I first looked, but was probably the subject of a cancellation before I checked successfully. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a longer stay next fall.

Saturday October 22nd 2022

The weather today was terrific. It was a little bit of an improvement in the temperature category from Friday with a little bit less cloud cover. It was a great day for a walk on the beach.

The tide was right for a long walk on the beach today. There was enough partially dried packed sand between the high water mark and the breaking waves to allow easy walking. I set out along the beach heading south from Jetty Park. There are miles and miles of beach before the shore is broken by the next inlet. I walked about 1.5 miles south before I returned home. The medium rise condominium buildings, time shares and hotels along this section of beach are set back by a line of sand dunes. There were plenty of people out today. People were engaged in all kinds of activity all along the beach. Some were in the water and others were staying on shore. A good number of people were walking the beach just like I was.

The campground is busy this weekend. There are a few empty improved sites with electric and water, but the bulk of the empty sites are the unimproved sites with no hookups. I have a couple in a tent on one side and another group in a tent trailer on the other side. Both of my neighbors were enjoying the start of the weekend well into the overnight hours last night. Conversations that you can’t really here, but know people are talking are my nemesis to sleep. That was my night even with the windows closed. They probably stopped around 2AM and started up again around 7AM.

There were only three cruise ships in port today. Carnivals biggest cruise ship the Mardi Gras was parked at terminal 3 near the location of my RV home. It towers over everything when it is berthed there. I went over to the inlet around 4PM to watch it use its side thrusters to move away from the dock into the channel and out of the port. It was followed and hour later by the Disney Fantasy from deeper in the port. This Disney ship only played two melodies on its horns as it passed all of the people gathered to watch the ships set sail. There were almost as many people lined up to watch the cruise ships depart as there were on Thursday to watch the rocket launch.

Carnival Mardi Gras

Disney Fantasy

Friday October 21st 2022

Today’s weather was an improvement on yesterday’s just OK weather. There were fewer clouds today with a little more temperature and wind. The temperature peaked in the mid seventies with low humidity.

There were five cruise ships in port today. This is the home port for three and the other two were on Ports of Call for longer cruises. Usually there is a well orchestrated plan for their departure. They’re scheduled for departure a half an hour to an hour apart. The Sheriff’s boat and the Coast Guard escort the big ships down the inlet and out to sea. The escort chases the small craft away from path of the big ship. They have to deal with everything from boats the size of floating bathtubs to big sailboats. There are also two pilot boats in use to shuttle the pilots between the ships.

Today things didn’t go according to plan. The first ship scheduled to depart at 3:30PM was the Carnival Liberty. It was docked at terminal 3 near the campground and the closest terminal to the ocean. I think the idea is to get it out of the way to provide more room for ships and small craft to maneuver. Today there was some form of medical emergency on the dock when the ship was scheduled to depart. The rescue squad and an ambulance had to attend to someone. I think it was probably a dock worker, since all of the gangways to the ship were retracted. The ship’s departure was delayed close to an hour.

The escort boats moved on to the Royal Caribbean Independence of the Sea for its departure while the emergency services people handled the issue on the dock at terminal 3. It was berthed deeper in the port at Cruise Terminal 1. Before it got underway the Casino Ship Victory arrived at terminal 2. The daily fishing excursion boats were also arriving home about this time. Things got really busy. Eventually the Independence of the Sea moved slowly past the Liberty and on out to sea.

The Carnival Liberty finally got its chance to depart next. Usually the ships turn around before they dock in the morning so they are heading out to sea. Today the Liberty had not turned around. It was tied up pointing deeper into the port. I think they was to perform maintenance on the port side of the ship while it was docked. The bottom line is it had to travel deeper into the port to the turning basin to get enough room to turn around. By the time it got turned around and headed out to sea it was around 5PM.

The next ship out was the last of the ships home ported at Port Canaveral. It was Disney’s newest and biggest ship the Wish. It’s only issue with departure was a little bit of a late start. In typical Disney style instead of a simple blast of its horn as it departed port, it serenaded us with Disney song melodies on its horns. I think it went a little overboard with half a dozen or more different tunes. Everything from “It’s a Small World” to “Beauty and the Beast”.

The last ship that I watched depart was the Holland American Nieuw Statendam. It made its way down the inlet with the setting sun in the background. I didn’t wait for the last ship to depart. It was getting dark and cold.

While waiting for the cruise ships to depart, I got a few nature pictures of birds, flowers and one of the members of the feral cat colony.

Thursday October 20th 2022

It was warmer than I anticipated this morning. The inside temperature only got down into the low sixties. Probably because some cloud cover remained overnight and the ocean water is still very warm, it didn’t get as cold in this area as some of he inland areas. The day remained cloudy with a few breaks now and then. Today’s high temperature was a little better than Wednesday peaking in the low seventies.

The big event in this area today was a Space X Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. I have been lucky enough to watch launches from here before, but I didn’t think I was going to get the chance during this stay. When I booked my reservation a couple of weeks ago there were no launches scheduled this week. I guess the Starlink Internet Satellite payload and the Falcon 9 booster came together quicker than planned. Yesterday I saw the warning sign about the launch for boat traffic departing the port. A quick check on the internet and I knew that I had to be in a good observation spot for 10:50AM today.

There were a lot of people lining the banks of the channel, the fishing pier and the beach to watch the launch this morning. This is not a particularly special launch so the number of people was manageable. I have been here when a lot more people were gathered to see the launch. The weather today wasn’t the best for watching the rocket high into the sky. You had to catch it as it passed through gaps in the clouds. The sliver of fire rose from the land, passing through a lower layer of clouds before flying in the clear for a few seconds. Shortly after the sound of the engines reached my location the rocket disappeared into the clouds for good.

I enjoyed watching the launch, but it wasn’t the best I’ve seen. The best Falcon 9 launch I’ve seen was on a clear night. It was possible to watch the rocket high into the sky. The Falcon 9 Heavy launch which has three boosters strapped together was a much more spectacular ball of fire, and I got to watch two of the boosters land after the launch. Probably my most memorable launch was in the early 90s. I had the opportunity to see a Space Shuttle launch from the beach a few miles south of here. My memory, which may be exaggerated by time, recalls a much bigger sphere of fire moving quickly into the upper atmosphere.

There was only one cruise ship in port today. The Carnival Freedom was docked deep in the harbor. Carnival seems to set sail early. Shortly after 3:30PM it started sounding its horn to announce it was getting underway. It slowly made its way down the channel to the ocean. It cleared the jetty between 4 and 4:30.

Wednesday October 19th 2022

The wind began to blow about 1AM last night. It continued into the day today. This morning there was a heavy cloud cover preventing the sun from warming things up. It was still well below seventy at noon today. During the afternoon a little bit of sun started to break through the clouds, but the temperature still remained in the sixties. Tonight the cloud cover has departed and the temperature has already started to drop. It is going to be unseasonably cold tonight.

Today was a sweatshirt day and with the wind, that almost wasn’t enough. I even saw one couple all bundled up in winter coats, with hoods up and at least one of them had gloves on. Cold weather in Florida is met with strange responses. This kind of temperature with strong northern winds is more common in late December and January. The average daily high temperature in October is in the low eighties.

Port Canaveral was quiet again today. There were no cruise ships in port. The freighters and tankers deeper in the port looked to be different from yesterday, but the change happened overnight. All day there were ships in the anchorage off shore waiting for their turn in the port. This evening a strange looking vessel appeared from the haze on the horizon. Using full zoom on my camera it became clear that the craft was a returning drown ship carrying a spent Falcon 9 booster rocket from the weekend Space X launch. I waited until close to darkness, but it didn’t enter the port. I got too cold to keep waiting. There will be another one returning over the weekend if tomorrow’s launch happens on schedule.

Tuesday October 18th 2022

The first half of the day was filled with sunshine allowing the temperature to climb. The second half of the day was overcast keeping it from getting too warm. As the cold front passed through the area a line of thunderstorms passed out to sea south of here. Overall it was a nice weather day.

I spent the day relaxing around the park watching the activity coming and going from the port. It wasn’t a busy day during the daylight hours, but several large ships are in the anchorage off the coast waiting for their dock to become available. None of the Port Canaveral based cruise ships were in port today, but Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas made a port call today. It arrived for one of its stops on a seven day sailing out of New York around noon. Tonight at 9PM it continues on to the Bahamas. Usually you have to be up before dawn to see a cruise ship arrive in port.

The wildlife is also an interesting target of observation. In addition to all of the different birds, the squirrels can be quite entertaining. People have been feeding them so they are way too tame. While I was sitting on a bench one of the little rodents jumped up on the seat next to me and stared at me waiting for a handout. It didn’t get anything so it scurried away after a few seconds. In past years there have been feral cats wandering around, but so far this year I haven’t seen any.

The great event of the day was the arrival of a medevac helicopter. It came in low over the campground and landed in the empty overflow parking lot for the boat launching area. The noise and vibrations were extreme. The copter was only a hundred feet or so above my RV home. They transferred a patient from an ambulance to the helicopter before it took off. Thankfully, the takeoff wasn’t over the campground.

Monday October 17th 2022

I was starting to enjoy cooler temperatures, but yesterday reversed the trend. Sunday’s temperatures were close to records in some areas. Last night the temperature slowly got down into the low seventies, but it was difficult to sleep. Today was partly cloudy with an off shore breeze that kept the temperature in the eighties. The humidity was high once again and potentially severe thunderstorms were forecast for late in the day. Some rain fell in this area, but the strong storms passed to the north and south of this area of coast as they moved out into the Atlantic. I turned the AC back on when the storms arrived. Tomorrow is a transition day and Wednesday and Thursday are forecast to be well below normal temperatures.

This morning I woke to the sound of equipment moving about complete with lots of backup alarms. It turned out that a big Carnival Cruise Lines ship was docked nearby. The new cruise terminal 3 was completed a couple of years ago next to the campground, but because of COVID it hasn’t been in use during my visits to this park over the last two years. This morning was the first time a ship was docked at the terminal during my stay at Jetty Park. The huge ships makes it seem very close. Around noon, when new passengers started arriving, I could see the video on their huge screen and hear the music being played to welcome the passengers. Shortly after 3PM the Carnival Liberty started blowing its horn and preparing to depart. I walked over to the waters edge to watch the departure. About 5 minutes after it cleared the port the Royal Caribbean Independence of the Sea departed from deeper in the harbor. I could not hang around to see the Disney Wish depart, because it was starting to rain as the line of storms approached.

Wandering around the campground, fishing pier and beach today I saw some evidence of the resent storm. Work crews were busy filling in a deep hole on the back side of the seawall just before the fishing pier. The hole was behind a jog in the side of the channel that exposes the area to the full force of wind and water coming in from the open sea. It was easy to visualize the water breaking over the seawall and doing lots of damage. By the end of the day the hole was filled with boulders and gravel. I think I heard that they planned to top it with concrete similar to other areas of the sea wall.

There is a holding area between the parking area and the campground. It is depressed area of grass that is about five feet lower than the surrounding ground. Usually it is a nice area of green grass roped off from the rest of the parking lot and play area. Today the depression is filled with brown dead grass from extended exposure to salt water. Some of the surrounding area is also brown so it was full to overflowing for awhile. Overall the area fared pretty well considering the destruction the storm caused in other areas.

Sunday October 16th 2022

The day started cool in the mid sixties, but warmed up quickly. I started my packing in a sweatshirt and ended dripping sweat in a short sleeve shirt. I pulled out of the Sun Outdoors St. Augustine RV park at 10:50AM ten minutes before checkout time. My travel day was relatively short. It was only about 125 miles south along Interstate 95 to Port Canaveral.

My first stop was only an exit away from my starting location. An adventure in filling the gas tank began. There is a Flying J complete with dedicated RV lanes. When I arrived one lane had two RVs in line backward from the normal path. The other lane had a FedX delivery truck that looked like it had finished fueling and was about to depart. I pulled in behind the delivery truck. After about five minutes had passed one of the drivers from the other lane told me that the driver had been there for at least fifteen minutes and was just talking on his phone. The other driver had been waiting behind him where I was before moving to the other lane from the opposite direction. He had asked the guy to move on, but had been ignored. I really can’t back up to change plans without disconnecting my towed car, so I was stuck. When I asked the driver if he was broken down, I was informed “I can park where ever I want”. He was still on his phone. A Flying J worker was aware of the issue, but wasn’t willing to intervene. It took another ten minutes before the FedX driver moved to another part of the parking area. Clearly he was just being an “ass”.

Once I pulled up to the pump, turned off the engine and prepared to pump some fuel, the saga at the pumps wasn’t over. The card reader wasn’t working. I had to go inside to prepay. That meant I had to estimate how much I was going to spend. I had about a quarter of a tank by the gauge, so I decided on $150 as my prepay amount. That was a very conservative guess. I didn’t want to over pay, since it would probably be lost money. The alternative would be to leave my Credit Card unattended with the cashier inside. That wasn’t going to happen. The bottom line is I didn’t fully fill the tank, but I got close.

The rest of the trip down Interstate 95 was uneventful. I arrived at Jetty park shortly before 2PM after killing some time at a rest area. Setting up in the heat was no fun. It seemed to bother me more today than normal. Later in the day I took my first walk over to the inlet to the port. I was rewarded for my exercise with the view of a departing cruise ship.

Saturday October 15th 2022

It was another cool start to the day. It was in the low sixties this morning. By the afternoon the temperature was a little north of eighty. There was a little more wind than Friday, but the humidity remained low.

Today was a slow chores day. That translates to lots of down time, but getting a few things accomplished around my RV home. During that down time I caught parts of a few college football games and a little bit of the baseball playoffs. This is also my last day here. I got a few of the day before travel tasks accomplished and started to pickup the clutter inside.

The campground is in full blown weekend mode. There are lots of small groups of two or three families cooking together and enjoying a fire in the portable fire pits. There aren’t a lot of kids in the park this weekend. I only saw one group riding bicycles around the park. Bigger kids called adults were busier with their bikes. There were a lot of very noisy motorcycles. If you ever wondered what’s in the back of the toy hauler trailers, it is more often than not a motorcycle or two.

With two weeks to go before Halloween, I expected to see more decorations. There only seems to be two sites with blow up pumpkins and ghosts. This is the type of campground that I would expect to see a lot more. Maybe everybody is saving there decorations for the last weekend of the month. This park has a lot of events planned.

Tomorrow I’m driving about 125 miles south to Jetty Park on the water at Port Canaveral. I have about 3 hours between the checkout time here and the check in time there. I plan to stop for gas and probably will kill some time in a rest area too. The drive is relatively simple; right down Interstate 95.