Saturday September 24th 2022

Today’s weather was a repeat of Friday. It was a very nice day with low humidity, a nice breeze and a high temperature in the mid eighties. The sky was blue with an occasional white fluffy cloud.

My adventure for the day began at the gas station. I stopped to fill the tank in my SUV, but had a hard time getting the pump to work. It was very frustrating. Since the price per gallon was a few cents higher than another station I passed earlier in the day, I decided to head for the other station. At the next station I discovered that I forgot to put the cap back on my tank. This wouldn’t have been a problem if my cap was still tethered to the car, but the little plastic cord had broken some time ago. When I take the cap off I put it on the roof of my SUV. The cap was gone.

After I finished filling the tank, I drove the two miles back to the other station. There was a chance I could find the cap and I did. As I drove into the station I spotted my gas cap in the driveway to the station. There was just one small problem. One or more cars had managed to drive over the cap. It was a mass of shattered white and gray plastic and some mangled metal. It was time to buy a new cap.

The first auto parts store I found was closed for the day. I checked Walmart, but they don’t carry them. It was time to ask Google to find other auto parts stores. There were two near my campsite that were open. O’Rielly Auto Parts had what I needed. The new cap even has a new tether to keep me from a repeat of this tragedy.

The approaching tropical system is still a big concern. The track changed a little to the west today shutting off a few of my options. The entire state of Florida is now in the cone of uncertainty. The governor has expanded the state of emergency to all of the counties in the state. The storm is far enough away that the track is likely to change a few more times before it gets here. I decided that I probably won’t be able to avoid the storm, but I can minimize the impact by getting inland. I booked a campsite in Forsyth Georgia on Interstate 75 between Macon and Atlanta for Tuesday to Saturday. I ran to this location in 2016 to avoid hurricane Mathew. The good news is the sites are relatively sheltered by terrain and they are not in the trees. The bad news is Forsyth looks like it is right in the middle of the current storm path prediction, but after the storm weakens to a tropical storm. I’ll continue to monitor the forecast closely. An earlier departure from here is always possible and if a better destination develops that can change too.

Friday September 23rd 2022

It was a little cooler today than yesterday. The high temperature was in the upper half of the eighties which is about normal for this time of year. The breeze was out of the east at a moderate pace. I continue to watch the track of the future hurricane. It is looking more like I will bail out of here on Tuesday a day early. The question remains if I’ll run north toward Atlanta or west toward Pensacola. Any thoughts of going south deeper into the Florida peninsular or east toward the Atlantic are gone. The storm could impact the entire peninsular if some of the tracks are to be believed. Florida has issued emergency orders for 24 counties in the path. I am not currently in one of them. Tomorrow’s reports out of the hurricane center should provide more details.

I was surprised to find this campground filling up for the weekend. When I was here two years ago at this time of year, I recall a rather empty campground. Starting in the early afternoon a stead flow of arrivals kept the park roads busy. I have neighbors on both sides tonight. The attraction may be the BBQ Festival at the state park about a mile up the road. It is apparently one of the bigger BBQ events in Florida this fall. The event started today and concludes tomorrow. Traffic near the festival was heavy today.

Besides watching the weather forecasts and reading, today was another regular chores day. I got some cleaning accomplished, but I still need to undertake a major decluttering event. My couch and passenger seats have turned into storage spots for lots of random things.

Thursday September 22nd 2022

Today is the first day of fall, but we also had near record high temperatures in the area. The temperature reached 95 in Tallahassee. It was in the low nineties here to the southeast of the capital. At my campsite under the trees it was a comfortable day.

The longer term weather is more of a concern to me. The tropical storm season is ramping up after being relatively quiet for most of the summer. The area of concern the forecasters are talking about is still off the northeast coast of South America, but the weather models call for it to enter the Gulf of Mexico toward the beginning of next week. Today the various tracks from the model runs are showing my current location in Florida’s Big Bend right in the middle of the area of concern.

It is early to make decisions to avoid the storm’s track, but I need to continue to monitor the forecasts. Apparently the water in the Gulf of Mexico is very warm which would allow the storm to strengthen quickly. I spent some time today researching my options. Right now I don’t know what direction to move. I’ve checked availability at various locations in many directions. My guess is I will have to move Tuesday or Wednesday. Currently, I’m booked here until Wednesday, but will move if necessary regardless. I just need to know which direction. Strangely enough the right direction may be deeper into the southern part of the Florida peninsular. The problem with that is my options are limited should the next wave of storms coming off the coast of Africa head for Florida.

I have had to do react to storms before. I am concerned, but not worried at this point. As of now my next reservation is at the end of October for the entire month of November. Between now and the end of October I expect to move a lot to stay out of the various storm paths. If the tropics are quiet I’ll stay in one place longer. While they are active, I will remain flexible.

Other than weigh my options I spent most of the day doing various chores and getting a little reading done. The computer I’m writing this blog entry on also got some attention. I have had Microsoft updates paused while I was away from a strong Wifi connection. At this KOA, I have a good Wifi connection so everything is getting updated. Maybe it will run better tomorrow.

Wednesday September 21st 2022

Fall may be arriving tomorrow, but today’s high temperature was above normal for this area. It was a nice sunny day with a good breeze from the east that pushed the temperature into the low nineties.

My campsite is under several tall leafy trees. They really keep the sunlight from making direct contact with the ground around my RV home. The result is it is very dark and quiet. Sleeping in this morning was very easy. Even if it wasn’t a slow travel recovery day, I’d have gotten a slow start to my day.

Breakfast was complicated by the fact that I was out of bread and muffin mixes. Finding things to go with my morning coffee resulted in a little more formal a breakfast than usual. I scrambled a couple of eggs. It also set my mission for the day; grocery shopping.

After taking the bicycle and rack off my SUV to get it in touring trim. I headed into town to the local Walmart. This is a smaller store, but I found the bread, meat and Orange Juice I needed. Of course, I bought a few other things too. This Walmart seems to have been stocked by someone with a contrarian perspective. If an aisle of product was typically laid out from left to right. This store would lay it out right to left. For example; the meats usually go right to left with hamburg, beef, pork, and chicken. This one went chicken, pork, beef, and then hamburg. I found similar switched order in other areas of the store. Can you tell I’ve been in too many different Walmart stores?

Tuesday September 20th 2022

My two weeks at the Eastbank Campground on Lake Seminole was up today. I worked off and on all morning to get ready to leave. I pulled out of the campground around 1PM for a little over a one hundred mile drive to Perry Florida. Basically I traveled from an area northwest of Tallahassee to an area about the same distance to the southeast of the capital city.

It was not the best travel day I’ve had. The motorhome engine was running very rough at the start. It seemed to get better after a few miles. Maybe because of that or just a little bit of paranoia I was hearing lots of rattles and odd noises along the way. Continuing with the theme when I stopped for gas my credit card was refused for the second authorization. This isn’t unusual, but it hasn’t happened in a long time. I ended up with only three quarters of a full tank of fuel. The issue with the credit card was cleared up later with a reply to a text message.

My travel woes continued with heavy traffic going around the north side of Tallahassee on Interstate 10. Traffic never came to a stop, but all of the weaving in and out by cars trying to enter and exit the highway made for slow and unsafe conditions. Later in my journey I had an alarm from the monitor for my towed car auxiliary brake. I had to pull over and check the brake. It required a power off and restart to clear the alarm and presumably get the brake working again. This has never happened before so I am not sure what caused the issue.

I arrived at the KOA in Perry Florida after 3:30PM. Check in went fine, but my day’s surprises weren’t over. When I tried to hook up my water line, I discovered I had left my water pressure regulator at my previous campsite. I’ve only done this once before and that was at the same campground when I was evacuated for Hurricane Sally. That time I got my water pressure regulator back when I returned from evacuation a few days later. This time it’s gone for good. I used and older pressure regulator that is suffering from diminished flow. It will do until I can buy a new one.

Monday September 19th 2022

Today is my last full day at the Eastbank Campground on Lake Seminole. It was another very nice late summer day. The temperature climbed a little from the last few days. The peak temperature was in the high eighties.

My walks around the campground were a little more challenging today. It was lawn mowing day. The mowers seemed to be in the areas I wanted to walk through resulting in a change in my course. Lawn mowing in campgrounds continues to be a nuisance. The park really needed a good mowing. The park looked like it needed mowing when I arrived thirteen days ago. Today they had grass to mow that was almost a foot tall in some areas. On previous visits I think they were mowing weekly. I suppose it may be a cost savings exercise, but the people doing the mowing are employees so the only savings would be for fuel.

I don’t have to rush to checkout tomorrow. Checkout time is 3PM and I only have a couple of hours to travel. The late checkout may be my undoing. Knowing I have plenty of time tomorrow, I haven’t done as many prep tasks today as I normally complete on the day before travel.

Sunday September 18th 2022

Today’s weather added a little to Saturday’s great weather. The wind was a lot stronger today out of the north. The temperature reached the upper eighties, but the wind kept it comfortable.

It is NFL football season, so there is always a game or two to watch on Sunday. I watched bits and pieces of three games today. In between I got in my three walks around the campground and some cooking.

My cooking adventure was a pizza party for one. Every now and then I get ambitious and create a pizza from base components. I use a pizza dough mix and bottled pizza sauce, but I assemble all of the parts and cook it. Today I made a sausage pizza, so I had to cook that as well. It turned out to be tasty even if it was heavy on the mozzarella. I had a little bit of pizza with my cheese.

Since it was the end of the weekend there was a lot of turn over at the campground, but I was surprised to see many of the sites occupied by new residents this evening. Last week the beginning of the week was very slow around the campground. It doesn’t look that way tonight. Maybe the better and slightly cooler weather associated with the arrival of fall is having an impact.

Saturday September 17th 2022

The brief rain shower overnight gave an early warning to the slight change in the weather. It was more humid today, but blue sky and sun still dominated the weather. The temperature peaked in the mid to upper eighties. A nice breeze kept everything comfortable during the day and it still ended with a beautiful sunset across Lake Seminole.

Other than three walks around the campground and one of the overgrown trails, my day was filled with routine chores, reading and watching TV. The simple chore of cooking breakfast proved that my toaster will live for a while longer. Overall it was a very relaxed day.

Thursday September 15th 2022

The nice weather trend continued. Today was very similar to the last few days. It was bright sunshine, blue sky and low humidity all day. The temperature peaked in the mid eighties.

My daily breakfast usually involves my toaster. It may be used to turn bread into toast or heat an English muffin to golden perfection. This morning I loaded the bread into the toaster on the counter and sat down to my coffee and the internet. Moments later I was startled by the smoke detector and the smell of acrid smoke. Setting off the smoke detector with the toaster has happened before, but the acrid smoke rising from the toaster was a new experience. It was time to clean the toaster.

My toaster is stuck to the counter with 3M mounting tape so I don’t have to pack it away before each move. It has been that way since 2018. I use the sliding tray under the toaster and occasionally the vacuum cleaner to empty the crumbs. I’m not sure the last time it was emptied. The acrid smoke called for a more drastic cleaning. I unstuck the toaster from the counter, turned it over and shook the contents into the sink. It looked like half a loaf of bread in crumb form came out. Ok, nearly a cup. Along with the crumbs was a twist tie and a little piece of plastic wrap. I’m assuming the plastic wrap was the source of the acrid smoke. I’ll use the toaster for a couple of days to make sure it’s working before I stick it down again. Worst case is I need to buy a new toaster after a decade or more of use.

New RVs are arriving for the weekend. I don’t think the campground will fill up, but it will likely be the most occupied it has been since I arrived. Many of the new arrivals have brought their boats. The activity at the boat launch has increased and the sound of outboard motors can be heard during the day. There isn’t any place to keep the boats in the water, so they get loaded back onto their trailers after every use. The available parking in the campground is filled with trailered boats.