Monday December 6th 2021

The temperature is climbing out of the normal range for this time of year. Yesterday peaked in the high seventies. Today peaked in the low eighties. Tomorrow is forecast to be a degree or two warmer. It is not something to complain about, but it is taking some getting used to.

Yesterday was a very busy day. I left my RV home a little after 11AM and didn’t get home until well after 10PM. I was at SeaWorld Orlando for a little over nine hours. Taking time to decompress after I got home, I didn’t get to bed until 2PM. Today was a very slow day. I needed to get re-energized. Reading over the picture intense blog post I did last night, I realized that in my hast to get it published I might have given the impression that I didn’t enjoy myself. I had fun at SeaWorld yesterday.

In the twenty five years since my last visit to SeaWorld a lot has changed. In particular the number of huge roller coasters has multiplied. I think there was one the last time I was there. Today there are at least three with another one being built. They aren’t my thing, so I didn’t ride any of them or even make a careful survey. The roller coasters are above and around everything. The park feels more developed and cluttered than I remember. I really didn’t know my way around when I got there and still don’t after 9 hours of wandering around.

All of the shows I saw were great with the exception of the special show with a celebrity guest I wrote about last night. The Orca and Dolphin shows were great. Both focused on conservation and the habits of the animals in the wild. People in the front of the theater got good and wet with all the jumps and splashes the creatures executed. The Sea Lion show was also good, but the sea lions and otters were more like supporting players to the two costumed humans on the stage. The story focused on a tour of a marine science lab.

The best show of the day was the Ice Skating show. It began with a violinist playing Christmas music for the crowd as a pre show. The main show was a half hour with twelve a twelve skater troupe and some featured skaters performing to Christmas music. It was a continuous show with lots of costume changes and changes to the people on the ice. I attended the last performance of the day and stayed in my seat to watch the fireworks that closed the park.

SeaWorld goes all out on decorations. During the day you see lots of Christmas trees and Garland on the building fronts. As night came on the Christmas lights came with it. Everywhere you look, including the middle of the lake, were adorned with colorful lights. Christmas music played all day in the background. Kids could visit and get there picture taken with Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, the Abominable Snow Man and all of the usual Sesame Street Characters.

The worst part of the day was getting out of the park and home. I didn’t know any of the short cuts in the park so I had to follow the mob. Once clear of the entrance gate I it was a long walk to the back of the parking lot. In my car I had a car merging nightmare as all of the cars between me and the exit had a desire to be in front of me. Driving home I had to pass through the traffic leaving Walt Disney World. The state park was asleep as I drove to my site through a little bit of descending fog.

After all that activity and discovery, today was a day of rest.

Sunday December 5th 2021

The day began without yesterday’s fog, but the cloud level was still close to the ground. It cleared off by 9AM and eventually the temperature approached eighty. A front without any associated rain brought clouds midway through the afternoon, but it didn’t result in any real cooling.

Ever since I got back to Florida at the end of October I’ve been seeing ads for Christmas at SeaWorld. It has been more than twenty five years since I’ve been to SeaWorld in Orlando, so I have been planning a return visit. The Christmas celebration seemed like a good time to visit. I chose a Sunday to get the extra Weekend events without the extreme crowds a Saturday might bring. I was wrong on two counts. It was still very busy and one of the added events wasn’t worth the effort.

SeaWorld does Christmas in a big way. They have Christmas trees in the lake with light shows, an ice skating show, a Rudolph the reindeer area, plenty of Christmas lights all over the park, a Parade in Sesame Street Land, an Elmo Christmas Wish show, fireworks at the end of the night and a Sounds of the Season Performance Series. The Performance Series is a concert with “B” list celebrities singing holiday songs, or so I thought. Today’s celebrity was 80s “star” Tiffany. She started her set with one poorly executed Christmas song, then went into her “hits” from the eighties. I don’t know what she sounded like in her prime, but right now her voice isn’t up to it. By the start of her fourth “hit” from the eighties a third of the audience was heading for the door. I was with them.

I saw all the classic animal performance shows. Both the sea lion show and the dolphin show had “issues” with their performers. One of the young sea lions that was only supposed to make a cameo appearance wanted to linger in the tank. They tried a few things to lure him out, but eventually went on with the show. At the dolphin show they also had an issue. One of the dolphins didn’t want to return to the back stage tank when he was expected. The dolphin trainers also took some time to let the dolphin have her fun. The Orca show from all outward signs went off without any issues.

Sesame Street

Sea Lion Show

Dolphin Show

Penguin Area

Orca Show

Christmas Trees in the Lake

Fireworks

Saturday December 4th 2021

The first few hours this morning were shrouded in fog. Before the sun broke through around 9AM visibility was probably best measured in feet. It was difficult to see the RVs a few sites away. Once the fog lifted the sun took over and allowed the temperature to creep into the mid seventies. The next few days are forecast to be even warmer.

My day was spent finishing the setup tasks necessary to be comfortable for the next two weeks and discovering what’s new around the park. I’ve been coming here every winter I’ve been in Florida since 2016. It is a nice state park that isn’t overly developed near all the hubbub of central Florida.

The first thing I noticed while walking around the campground is the removal of a lot of brush. The area around the dumping station has been greatly improved. In other areas the changes is more subtle, but I have the impression that the campground just looks neater. The concessionaire or maybe the friends of the park association have also added some “Eco-tents” for rent to augment the Glamping tents that were added a few years ago. The Eco tents are away from the camping loops near where the horses are kept for the trail rides.

In Dixie Lake the turtles and alligators are still hanging around the fishing pier. During the day they were taking the sun on a couple of the downed logs and this evening the gator was lurking around the fishing pier watching the people fishing and others walking their dogs out onto the pier. In won’t be too long before the alligator gets big enough to be a real problem.

Friday December 3rd 2021

Today was a beautiful day to travel. It was a sunny day with very little wind. The high temperature was a little above the norm in the high seventies. It was just right for packing up and setting up at the other end of travel without working up a sweat.

I did very few of my usual travel prep tasks yesterday. This morning I loaded the bicycle on the car and rig the car for towing before returning inside to get the interior ready to travel. A little after 10AM I drove the car over to the day use area at the beach. I took a very circuitous route on my walk back to my RV home. Another “off schedule” cruise ship was arriving in port. The Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas was returning to port long after the normal dawn arrival. I’ve gone from never seeing cruise ships enter port to watching two arrive in three days.

Once I arrived back at my RV home, I finished up the outside tasks and pulled in the slides. It was about 11:30 when I drove the motorhome over to the day use area parking lot to hook up the car. There is plenty of open space in the parking lot so I could take my time. The roads in the campground are narrow. It would have been very easy to cause a traffic backup while hooking up. I pulled out of Jetty Park on the dot at noon.

The first half of the drive to Lake Louisa State Park in Clermont Florida was easy with only light traffic. The second half of the drive was brutal. Traffic on route 192 through St. Cloud and Kissimmee in the early afternoon involved lots of traffic. I didn’t count the traffic lights, but I’m sure I caught everyone. The drive turned out to be 95 miles. Where I got the 75 mile number I wrote in yesterday’s blog is a mystery. I’ve driven the same route many times before. It hasn’t gotten any shorter. It took two and a half hours to reach my destination.

I’ll be at Lake Louisa State Park for two weeks. It is a frequent stop on my Rambling Road trip in the central Florida area. I was here twice last winter and will be here three times this winter.

Thursday December 2nd 2021

It was another day in the low seventies with lots of sunshine and a gentle breeze. There were only an occasional cloud during the day. More important there weren’t any clouds in the early evening during the SpaceX launch. It was a very nice day.

This is my last full day at Jetty park for this stay. Five days is the longest window I was able to book. That may be a clue to what I find different about this park this year. There seem to be many more short term visitors rather than longer term occupants. The result is two fold. First the park looks very empty during the middle of the day. The other result is in the appearance of RVs at the park. Most people that are only here for a couple of nights don’t put out all of the outside furniture and decorations they might for a longer stay.

The port was moderately busy today. I watched one cruise ship depart this evening. It only cleared the channel a couple of minutes before a fuel barge made it into the harbor. I took a series of pictures to document its arrival.

The big event of the day was the SpaceX launch shortly after dark. There weren’t as many people here to watch as I’ve encountered in the past, but the cars and people lined the waters edge. From past experience I knew where to stand to get a good view. The launch occurs more inland than most people expect. My goal was to get a good picture of the launch. With limited opportunities, I haven’t had much luck getting a good picture of a night launch. My camera still didn’t produce a very good outcome, but my Pixel cellphone did a better job.

Tomorrow I have a seventy five mile drive to Clermont in the center of the state. Checkout here is at noon and the documented check in time at my destination is 3PM. I should be OK as long as I arrive after the 1PM checkout time at Lake Louisa State Park.

Wednesday December 1st 2021

The weather forecast called for a sunny day with a high temperature in the mid seventies and for the most part it was correct. There was one point during the morning that looked like the forecast was all wrong. A big bank of clouds came in off the Atlantic and darkened the sky for more than an hour. Once it passed through, the day was great.

I planned my day around the SpaceX launch schedule. A Falcon 9 was scheduled to launch a set of Starlink Satellites at 6:20PM. This area gets very busy with launch watchers a few hours before any daytime launch. I didn’t want to be fight the lines at the entrance station returning to the park, so the plan was to stay at camp today. SpaceX had other ideas. The launch was re-scheduled for tomorrow at 6:12PM. Now I have to figure out what to do tomorrow. Lesson learned; Don’t count on a rocket launch to happen.

Once the launch was scrubbed, I set out to do a little exploring and make a stop at Walmart for some groceries. The store wasn’t very busy. Who said it was holiday shopping season. The store shelves seemed to be well stocked and the aisles weren’t congested. One strange observation was the expiration dates on many of the products in the bakery section. I saw many items that had a fresh sale expiration of today and they weren’t marked down. They are going to be throwing a lot of stuff away tonight.

There were no cruise ships in port today. The only commercial activity I saw in the channel leading to the harbor was the Casino ship Victory and a fuel barge. The schedule calls for the cruise ships to return tomorrow.

Tuesday November 30th 2021

After a cool night it turned into a nice weather day. The high temperature was around seventy with bright sun and a breeze out of the north. We are in a warming trend. The temperature may be unseasonably warm in the eighties by the weekend.

There was a lot more activity on the beach this morning. The sun bathers arrived in the afternoon, but the morning was dominated by walkers on the beach and surfers in the water. I did a little beach walking before heading over to the fishing pier along the entrance to the port. There are more people fishing this year than I remember from last year. It seemed to be good fishing, but bad catching. I didn’t see any fish caught.

This afternoon I saw something new. A cruise ship arrived at the port. I’m usually still in bed when they arrive between 5-8AM. The Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas arrived at 2PM. It was met by the pilot boat and escorted into port by a law enforcement boat. The sheriff’s boat is there to get other boats out of the way before they get run over. Port Canaveral is some kind of weird port of call for the Anthem. It is on a week long itinerary round trip to the Bahamas out of New York. It departs Port Canaveral tonight around 9PM.

Just before dark another Royal Caribbean ship the Mariner of the Seas departed port. The law enforcement escort had more to do than normal. A sailboat was attempting to enter the port with its sail deployed. I think it was under power, but the sail was slowing its progress into the wind. Once warned off by the occupants of the fast moving sheriffs boat the sailboat turned around the wind caught the sail and it was out of danger in less than a minute. What’s a cruise ship departure without a little drama.

This blog entry is getting posted Wednesday morning and hopefully back dated to Tuesday November 30th. I had computer issues on Tuesday night.

Monday November 29th 2021

Another cold front passed through the area last night. The front brought some light rain during the night that lead to a bright sunny day today. The temperature was cool for the season. It peaked in the low to mid sixties. Tonight is forecast to be the coolest night of the season so far. It won’t be my coldest night of the fall. It was cooler too the north in the Jacksonville area last week. As the week goes by it is forecast to warm up. By Saturday it might be in the eighties.

My focus for the day was getting settled in and exploring any changes to the Jetty Park campground. I stay here at least once or twice every winter in Florida. This year it seems a little different, but I can’t put my finger on the specifics. The only substantial difference I’ve identified is the departure of the food vendor at the beach. The concession stand is empty. In the park this morning there were many empty sites, but new arrivals during the afternoon solved that issue. Last year at this time management was still limiting occupancy due to the pandemic, but it seemed busier than it looked this morning.

It was too cold and windy to walk on the beach this morning. I only saw a few well bundled up people walking the beach. I was fine in the sheltered areas out of the wind, but the beach was out for me today. The beach and much of the park were filled with birds. I saw everything from an Osprey to ordinary Seagulls. In the channel to the port there were many small jumping fish along with a few dolphins exploring the inlet. The dolphins may have been the cause of the jumping fish, but I didn’t see them in the same areas.

The port wasn’t busy during the middle of the day. There was evidence that a couple of changes took place overnight. Two new cruise ships and a freighter arrived. The cruise ships departed just before sunset tonight. Once again there didn’t seem to be as much activity on deck as I’ve see in the past. The Disney Dream did give all of the people on shore a horn serenade. They played a piece of the melody for “When you Wish Upon a Star”, “It’s a Small World”, and two or three others that I could identify but not name. The departing Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas that followed the Dream to sea only gave us a few earth rumbling blasts of her horn.

Sunday November 28th 2021

It was a cloudy cool morning in the forties for finishing the outside travel preparation tasks. I got everything done and was on the road by 10:45. The official checkout time was 11AM and the check-in time at my destination was 2PM.

My five weeks in one location was over. In some ways I was ready to get moving again, but in others I could have stayed in one place for another few weeks. Now that the first move of my winter Florida wandering is over I’m happy to be experiencing new things. There is plenty of activity in the port. Unlike my visit last fall, I’ve already seen several cruise ships depart the port. Judging by the number of people that were lining the ships rails, they weren’t full cruise ships. It is still good to see the port active.

The trip down Intestate 95 was filled with traffic. The beltway around Jacksonville wasn’t bad, but passing by St. Augustine and Daytona Beach traffic got very heavy and slow. It even stopped a couple of times. Given that it was the end of the Holiday weekend, traffic wasn’t terrible. On a positive note, the big truck drivers seemed to off the road today. I arrived at Jetty Park in Port Canaveral about 2:30PM with one stop for gas. My hope that gas prices would be cheaper after my 5 weeks off the road was not fulfilled. At $3.34 a gallon, the price is fifteen cents higher than I could have bought it for at the end of October. Still the price isn’t the worst I’ve paid nor is it the highest around right now.

Saturday November 27th 2021

Today is my last full day in the Jacksonville area. I didn’t think about the holiday weekend traffic when I planned my next stay. The result is that I’m traveling on a Sunday at the end of a long holiday weekend. I usually try to travel on a weekday, but I settled on a Sunday travel day to maximize my time at my next stop. The weekends at Jetty Park in Port Canaveral were all booked when I started looking last spring. I was able to book Sunday through Friday, so that is the reason I’m moving tomorrow.

Today was a bright sunny day with very little wind, but the impact of the last cold front is still in place. The high temperature for the day barely crossed the sixty degree mark. Another front is forecast for tomorrow which will keep the sun behind the clouds and the temperature around sixty once again. I’m moving about 170 miles south. It is forecast to be a five to ten degrees warmer with a little sun.

I spent today getting ready to travel. The morning was focused on the inside of the RV and the afternoon the outside. Even though I’ve tried to keep things from accumulating, the longer stay has resulted in a more work to get ready for travel. Particularly complicated was getting all of the pots and pans back into their storage locations. Anything that I though I might use again during my stay got put aside rather than back in its hiding place at the backs of cabinets and draws. Outside I only had the added task of removing the wheel covers that I put on the tires during longer stays. I have about the normal level of prep work left for the morning before the 11AM checkout time.

Walking around the RV park this afternoon I didn’t see any of the birds I’ve grown accustom to seeing. Maybe the ducks and Little Blue Heron have also moved on. The retention ponds they frequented are down more than a foot from the level when I arrived. All of the pictures included in this blog entry are of the local wildflowers.