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.

Friday May 27th 2022

I got up at the normal time this morning to a cloudy, but bright day. The weather forecast still called for the cold front to arrive by mid day. As the morning went by it got darker and the wind picked up. The weather radar showed a line of heavy rain along a southwest to northeast axis moving toward my location from the west. An hour later the storm had still not arrived. The weather radar now showed a gap in the storms in my area. I decided it was safe to go out for some touring in the area. About 1PM as I was getting in the car to begin my tour the sky opened up in rain. A line of horizontal rain kept me in my RV home for the duration. The heavy rain was over in a very few minutes. A light rain continued for about an hour. The sun came out to finish off the day, but my plans for touring the area never returned.

My theory that most of yesterday’s arrivals at the campground were here for weekend wasn’t as correct as I thought. This morning about a third of the overnight guests departed. This afternoon a new set of arrivals filled the empty sites and more. The campground isn’t full, but much closer than last night. This time the majority are all probably here for the weekend.

There are lots of signs of the holiday weekend around the park. Since yesterday the campground staff has decorated with red, white and blue bunting and little American flags. Notices have been posted listing breakfast, BBQ and recreational events this weekend. This evening a fire was burning at the communal fire ring and many people were gathering to enjoy it. The swimming pool, shuffleboard court and other recreational facilities were getting used more than I’ve seen in any of my previous stays. There is a very different vibe this weekend.

Thursday May 26th 2022

The latest cold front approaching from the west got closer to the area today. It was a cloudy and very humid day with very little wind. The line of storms at the leading edge of the front is due to arrive before midnight. Tomorrow is forecast to be a mostly rainy day.

I am trying to realign my sleep pattern a little. Over the last week or so I’ve got into a late to bed and late to rise pattern. To break that trend I got up early this morning despite not getting to sleep until 2AM. As a result I was in a sleepy fog most of the day. I did a lot of reading and internet surfing trying to avoid taking a nap. The goal is to move my bed time to the other side of midnight.

The campground started to fill up in the afternoon. I suspect most of the arrivals are for the long weekend, but some may be just for the overnight. There are more occupied sites than there were last weekend. I don’t expect the park to fill up for the weekend. This campground is nice with plenty of sites. A holiday weekend in the “off season” isn’t likely to fill it up. That is one of the reasons I’m here.

Most holiday weekends I stay at places that are not big weekend draws. One reason is I don’t usually remember to book the holiday long enough in advance. Also, I don’t need to be at a place with crowds when I can visit during the week when there are fewer people around. Reviewing where I’ve stayed over the first six plus years of the Rambling Road Trip on Spring and Summer Holiday weekends, I have only been in popular family long weekend locations a few times.