Monday April 25th 2022

Today was a short travel day to Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground. As is the norm for travel days I was up before 8AM. The checkout time was 11AM, so I had plenty of time to get ready. I pulled out of the Orlando Southwest KOA right at the checkout time.

I had completed the early online check into Fort Wilderness on Saturday with a request for a noon check in. They only promise 3PM, but as I was approaching the Disney area I got a text message with my site number. When I arrived at Fort Wilderness I went directly to my site. I was setup a few minutes after noon.

My plan was to visit the Flower and Garden Festival at EPCOT today and stay until closing time to watch the Harmonious night time show. It didn’t happen that way. I arrived at EPCOT shortly after 3PM and started wandering around checking everything out. Not only is the park filled with flowers and topiaries for the Flower and Garden Festival, but many things have changed since my last visit in the spring of 2019. Most of the old Future World area is filled with construction walls and a few completed new buildings. There was lots to see and lots of other people doing the same thing. It was very busy.

My first mistake of the day was my decision to ride Test Track. The regular standby queue had a seventy minute wait, but the single rider line was much shorter. The single rider line is used to fill in gaps created by the size of parties in the regular line. The ride got stopped for maintenance twice while I waited, but I was in a ride vehicle in about twenty minutes. My day turned sour on the ride. Some rides cause me to become motion sick. This one has come close in the past. Today it came a little closer. For the next hour and a half I was not a happy camper. I slept through the ten minute Awesome Planet film by design and I had an early dinner. These activities got me back close to normal, but I was tired.

I completed a loop around the World Showcase and road a few more rides like Finding Nemo and Living with the Land. By 8PM I was starting to really drag, so I decided to skip the night time show and head back to my RV home. It took almost an hour on a packed bus to get home.

Sunday April 24th 2022

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain on the roof of my RV home. It wasn’t in any of the forecasts I had heard, so it was a surprise. Before I could get up and close the windows it stopped only to start again a half an hour later. The second burst of rain was as short as the first. The first half of the day was cloudy with occasional sunshine. A few more very dark clouds passed through the area before the clouds gave way to complete sunshine with lots of wind. The temperature peaked in the low eighties.

Wandering around the campground today I found several changes since my stay last year. None of the changes involved improvements to the sites. Instead they moved the dog walk and added an agility course to the compound. The old fence was removed and the area reseeded. There is also a bounce pillow in the field near the new dog run. I don’t remember this kids entertainment contraption, but it could have been there. Roles of artificial grass were waiting to be used in more improvements to the recreational elements of the park. None of these “improvements” have any value to me. I would prefer they repaved the roads, fixed broken concrete patio pads and generally improve the infrastructure.

Tomorrow I am moving on. Once again it is a very short move for a little longer stay. Next up on my Rambling Road Trip is a four night stay at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground. It is less than twenty miles away. Unlike my last quick visit to Fort Wilderness in January, I plan to visit the theme parks this time. I have park reservations at each of the four theme parks starting tomorrow through Thursday. The last time I was in any of the theme parks was spring of 2019. A lot has changed since then. It is likely to be a very busy week.

Check out at the KOA is 11AM. I’ve requested a noon check in at Fort Wilderness, but there is no guaranty. I may be waiting in the outer parking lot until 3PM or later. It all depends on how fast they process the sites once people leave. Fort Wilderness also has an 11AM checkout.

Saturday April 23rd 2022

Today was a travel day. My week at Lake Louisa State Park was up. It would have been nice to stay longer, but additional days were not available when I booked. Since I want to stay in the central Florida area for another couple of weeks, I only moved about 20 miles south to the KOA in Davenport.

I did a good job of dragging my feet getting ready to travel today. I managed to depart my site five minutes before the 1PM checkout time. The drive south on US 27 was uneventful. Traffic was heavy and I wasn’t in a hurry so I traveled slowly in the right lane all the way. It is a good thing I didn’t have a long travel day. The wind out of the east was broadside to my direction of travel. It often required two hands on the wheel. I arrived at the Orlando Southwest KOA between 1:30PM and 2PM. I’ll be here for two nights.

I have used this park for similar purposes in the past. It is good for a few nights stay between other longer stays. The sites are close together and not huge, but it is a good location, generally clean and well managed. Last April was my last visit after spending two weeks at Lake Louisa State Park. I was here for more than a week while I waited for my second COVID shot time slot. The campground is a lot more popular this year. The front of the campground where I’m staying is almost full tonight. Last year I kept wondering where everyone was.

The weather pattern is starting to change. The humidity is increasing and the chance of rain is too. I don’t plan on doing much tomorrow other than convincing myself that it is a Sunday. This is my last confusing and unusual Saturday travel day during this stretch. I’ve been thinking it was Sunday all day today.

Friday April 22nd 2022

The weather pattern established over the last couple of days continued today. The day began cloudy gradually giving way to partial sunshine. The dominant weather feature was the wind. It was very strong out of the northeast and east. The temperature peaked near eighty.

Unlike yesterday I didn’t let the less than perfect weather change my plans. I got the active part of the day started around 11:30AM executing the plans I originally intended for Thursday. First up was a stop at Camping World in Kissimmee for a new reflective sun shield for the front window of my RV home. The one I’ve been using for the last couple of years has fallen apart.

This Camping World location has been here for more than forty years. It was one of the first Camping World locations outside of Bowling Green Kentucky long before the current corporate monopoly acquired the catalog based store. The store has changed and expanded several times over the years. Another change took place since my last visit. A large portion of the floor space is now dedicated as a design center. The merchandise aisles have been moved all around in a layout that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but I’m not a retail designer. I found what I was looking for on the second pass around the store and resisted the urge to buy things that I don’t really need or are cheaper elsewhere.

My second stop of the day was at Disney Springs. The retail and entertainment venue was really busy. All of the stores and restaurants seemed to have plenty of customers. I lucked out on the timing of my stop for Fish & Chips at Cooks of Dublin. There were tables available outside and I only had to wait behind two other groups to order. While I was eating the line extended out the door. The Fish & Chips are worth the wait.

I walked around the entire Disney Springs venue checking out a few of the stores and I paused to listen to one of the High School music groups preforming this afternoon. There are many groups from schools in the northeast enjoying Disney during spring vacation week. The group I listen to was from Pennsylvania.

When I got back to the campground late this afternoon, the occupants and the atmosphere had transitioned to weekend mode. There are a lot more kids and tent campers. Walking around the campground before sunset was a challenge dodging bicycles, scooters and footballs in flight.

Thursday April 21st 2022

The day started cloudy creating a very gloomy mood. There were a few sunny breaks later in the day and the wind picked out of the east. The temperature peaked in the high seventies which is a little low for this time of year in this area.

The unexpected weather impacted my day. My day started very slowly as there was nothing to encourage me to get out of my RV home. I had planned to head into the tourist area of Kissimmee today. Instead I dragged myself out of the RV for a walk around the campground in the early afternoon. The campground was in its midday lull in occupancy. Today’s departures had happened and the new arrivals were yet to show up. The good news was the Washing machine was available. Over the next two hours I completed washing and dying my last load of laundry.

My second walk of the day was a little longer. I hiked around Hammond Lake. That is a lot less impressive than it sounds. It is only about a mile along a very flat wide path. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get moving a little more quickly in the morning and execute today’s plan a day late.

Wednesday April 20th 2022

Today’s weather was a mix of clouds and sun with a lot of wind out of the east. The temperature was in the upper seventies overall. If you were in the direct sun sheltered from the wind it was much warmer.

I was out of sync most of the day. Until I typed the first line of this blog entry, I wasn’t sure of the day of the week. Uncertain if it was Thursday or Wednesday I had to use the computer’s calendar to verify it was Wednesday. All of this probably reflects back to the unusual act of relocating on Saturday. I move again this Saturday.

Today was a minor RV maintenance day. One of the lift arms on an overhead cabinet lost a rivet. Rather than seeking out and replacing the whole part, I decided to replace the rivet. I had everything I needed, but it was a challenge getting all of it together. First I found a pop rivet in a bin of small parts and fasteners I carry. The egg crate like divided bin was inside a bigger plastic storage bin inside my RV’s larger basement storage locker. My next challenge was to find the pop rivet tool to insert the rivet.

To understand the challenge, you need to know that I probably carry too many tools. They are separated into three tool boxes and a couple of bins for a small number of bigger things. I carry a wide assortment of common tools in a tool box that travels in my car. My tools for electrical type tasks are in another box on the drivers side basement of my RV home and the other less common tools are in a third box on the passenger side basement of my RV home. The rivet tool I needed was in the latter box that I haven’t looked in for a couple of years.

To complete the task I also needed my drill to make the hole bigger. The drill was stored in yet another location. It took about half an hour to assemble all the required elements followed by two minutes to complete the repair. Another fifteen minutes was consumed putting the tools away. The satisfaction of knowing I had the parts, locating the parts and making the repair was enough to offset the nagging “Why do I carry all this stuff?” question I keep asking myself.

I sandwiched my maintenance tasks between a couple of walks around the campground and other areas of the park. There is a lot of daily turnover in the park. Unlike during the winter, many of the occupants are in small tents and less formal equipment than big RVs. I’ve seen several tents that went with bicycle riders and a hammock camper that was completely exposed to the elements. It creates a different atmosphere in the park.

Monday April 18th 2022

Today’s weather was far from comfortable. Yesterday’s late day severe thunderstorms missed this immediate area. Most of the rain fell to the east in the Orlando and Kissimmee areas. This area stayed cloudy and humid into the morning hours. There was a brief period of sunshine in the late morning to the early afternoon, but most of the afternoon was cloud covered hot and humid in the mid eighties. Just before sunset the clouds magically disappeared and the humidity started to drop. The front most have made it through the area.

I ventured out of the park this afternoon without a real plan or destination, but soon found a purpose for my travels. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve gotten out of sync with my grocery shopping. Instead of one or two visits to Walmart. I made what amounts to one and a half grocery shopping trips. The half trip just replaced a few key items that proceeded to run out again before everything else, so today I restocked everything with am unplanned stop at Walmart.

I didn’t expect the store to be so busy. Maybe people put off shopping on the holiday to celebrate or just be with family. Every aisle was filled with shopping carriages and people. You really needed your patience to navigate the store. I almost got run over by impatient people on more than one occasion. At least the staffed checkout counters were all open, even if they had three or four people in line.

Back at the campground I took a long afternoon hike around Hammond Lake. There are many different wildflowers in bloom along the trail. During my January visit to the park they were experiencing their first freeze of the winter. All of the blossoms disappeared, so it is nice to see them back.

Sunday April 17th 2022

I went through today at a slower pace than I’ve been following the last few days. It was a very slow and steady start to the day during which I had to remind myself it was a Sunday. Moving on a Saturday is unusual and really has me out of sync. I have one more Saturday move coming up at the end of this week before I get back to moving on week days.

It was a hot and humid summer like day with thunderstorms in the forecast for the late afternoon into the evening. As of the early evening the storms have crossed the area to the north and the south of here. Only a few drops of rain have landed on my RV home. The forecast influenced my plans for the day and I decided to stay at home and get settled.

I walked around the campground a couple of times. Nothing much has changed since I left the park at the end of January. This was a big turnover day in the campground. At the 1PM checkout time more than half the sites were empty. They all seem to be full tonight. The one of the big changes from my January visit was all of the water lilies in bloom in the lakes. I got mildly obsessed with taking pictures of the lilies and have included too many in this blog post.

Just because I decided to take it easy today doesn’t mean I didn’t get anything accomplished. In addition to cooking a nice steak with baked potato for Easter Dinner, I got an accumulation of laundry washed and dried. I kept the washer and dryer at the bathhouse busy for close to three hours.

Saturday April 16th 2022

I was up early this morning to prepare for my travel day. A sink half full of dirty dishes necessitated the early start. It was a very warm and humid day so I tried to take my time getting ready to travel. I pulled out of Myakka River State Park at about 12:15PM.

Traffic was very heavy all the way. It took extra time to get through the Sarasota and Bradenton area. The road can barely handle the volume of traffic under normal conditions and the few construction zones thrown in for good measure probably doubled the usual travel time through the area. The pace picked up to speed limit speeds until I was approaching the Orlando area. In the usual area traffic came to a halt. It took almost half an hour to go two miles to the US 27 exit.

I arrived at Lake Louisa State Park in Clermont between two thirty and three in the afternoon. It was at least an hour later when I set the microwave clock at 3:57PM. The state park was busy with many day use visitors, but the campground seems quiet. I was surprised to see a couple of empty sites nearby this evening.

The traffic wasn’t the only issue on the trip. About halfway to my destination I spotted a green blob on the drivers side window. A couple of glances between watching the traffic identified it as a green toad two or three inches long. I started to wonder why the wind wasn’t blowing it away. Another glance resulted in the realization that it was on the inside of the window. After a few seconds of wondering how it got in and how do I get it out, it launched itself from the window to the top of my head. Trying not to panic in traffic I shook my head violently back and forth to get it to move on. It did, but onto my back. The next question in my mind during the few seconds from hell was: “Is it inside my shirt or outside?”. It must have been outside, but I have no idea where it is now. There is a hitchhiking toad loose in my RV home and I still don’t know how it got in. My only guess is it came in on top of the main living room slide out room.