Friday November 26th 2021

The day after Thanksgiving is a weird day. Everything is different about it. Some of the day’s characteristics are holiday like, some are weekend like and knowing what is open is a real guessing game. The morning TV news anchors were the weekend crews and later in the day the programming became heavily sports oriented. It really had my sense of time based on TV programming thoroughly confused.

Both of the businesses I had an interest in visiting today were closed. I wanted to pick up my mail from my mail service before leaving this area, but they were closed today. Luckily, I checked the web site before driving the twenty plus miles. Second on the agenda was getting my hair cut, but the place I’d scoped out for that medium level torture was also closed. My conclusion, the service industries consider this a holiday.

Today’s weather was also weird. It started out cloudy and only moderately cool, but went on a roller coaster ride from there. As the morning went by the clouds increased from gray to thick and black. It looked like it was going to rain at any minute. The wind was blowing out of the northwest creating a very raw and uncomfortable portion of the day. A little after 2PM the sun started to make an appearance. Before darkness arrived the sky was blue and the sun was bright. The temperature never got above the low sixties.

On my walk around the RV park there was a little more activity than yesterday. There were even a few new arrivals for the weekend. The number of unoccupied RVs still seems to be high. I expect many will be back on Sunday after I’ve moved on. Tomorrow will be a packing day for my Sunday travel day.

Thursday November 25th 2021

Happy Thanksgiving

The day started cool and sunny and ended with increasing clouds. The high temperature for the day was about seventy. It was a nice day overall.

I spent a very quiet day. It was a case of watching the parade on television this morning followed by the dog show and finally NFL football games. In between I managed to cook up a very nonstandard Thanksgiving dinner. I grilled a couple of Brats as the main course. The only thing traditional about the meal was the slice of apple pie with ice cream I had for dessert.

On my walk around the RV park it was very sleepy. Many of the RVs were unoccupied and others were all buttoned up with the residents inside. I saw a couple of instances of on going outside cooking and one actual gathering of people sitting around enjoying a Thanksgiving meal. The other difference was the level of communication when passing other walkers. Usually it is no more than a “Hi” or a nod. Today it was an actual phrase of “Happy Thanksgiving”.

Wednesday November 24th 2021

Today’s official high temperature was in the low sixties. It was about seven degrees warmer than yesterday, but it felt colder. The northeast wind was a little brisker producing a greater chill factor.

This Thanksgiving Eve day has some odd characteristics. The traffic on the road seemed to be more tolerable than yesterday. It was heavy, but kept moving. Here in the RV park it is getting very quiet. Many more residents seem to have departed for the holiday. The number of partially empty sites and RVs with no one home has increased. On my last walk around the park before evening, I didn’t see more than a couple of people out walking. Usually I see many people getting in the last walk of the day or making sure “Fido” is ready for the evening.

This will be my sixth Thanksgiving on my Rambling Road trip. Three of those I had dinner at a casino. The first year I was at the Seminole Casino in Immokalee Florida. The second and forth I was in Las Vegas. I had Thanksgiving with dozens of other people at a casino buffet. The other years I’ve cooked for myself. That’s the plan for tomorrow as well. Other people traveling full time have mentioned joining organized meals at the RV park. I’ve never been at a park with anything planned for Thanksgiving. I probably wouldn’t attend anyway.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.

Tuesday November 23rd 2021

It was a beautiful day today, but not a warm one. The overnight temperature was in the forties and tonight it is already back in the forties. In between the bright sun fighting a north wind raised the temperature into the mid fifties. Outside activities in the wind were a bit on the cool side. I saw a few people wearing winter coats. My only concession to the temperature was a long sleeve shirt under my sweatshirt. I switched from shorts to long pants a couple of weeks ago. Florida winter is here until February.

There are a lot of signs of the approaching Thanksgiving Day holiday around. Out on the highway the traffic has increased. There was another accident on Interstate 95 that slowed the flow to stop and go this afternoon. In the park there are a number of half empty sites. The occupants have taken their RV on a trip, but left a lot of the extras associated with life in camp at the site. There are other RVs without any vehicles around. They are clearly away for the week or extra long weekend. I’ve seen similar behaviors at the RV park I stayed at in Las Vegas for a couple of winters.

The traffic on the highway changed my planned attempt to find the Preserve I didn’t locate last week. Instead I got my exercise with another couple of walks around the RV park. The number of flowers in bloom was down because of the temperature. The Hibiscus I’ve been taking pictures of practically every day in particular were not open in the cold weather. The Little Blue Heron and the Ducks were gathered in the sun along the bank of the retention pond protected them from the north wind. The recently arrived flock of Ibis were using the RV Park fence in a similar way.

Inside my sun warmed RV home between the walks I did some more 2022 travel research. Before I commit to reservations for next winter I need a better idea on next summers travel. The Black Hills of South Dakota are my major focus for next year. I will head north in early to mid May and return to Florida by mid fall. There are lots of other details I still need to work out including the route and what else I intend to see.

Monday November 22nd 2021

The overnight fog gave way to rain shortly after sunrise. A steady rain of medium intensity fell until about 9AM followed by several hours of the gloomy conditions common over the last few days. This afternoon the clearing sky was visible to the northwest, but it seemed to take forever to get here. In the last hour before sunset the sky cleared and the sun brightened the area. The temperature peaked at seventy degrees. The clear sky means there will be nothing to keep the warmth in overnight. The overnight temperature is forecast to be in the low forties.

It wasn’t a good day for outdoor activity. I only got in one walk around the RV park late in the day. Most of my day was spent catching up on chores around my RV home. The inside clutter was in need of another pickup session. The packaging from all of the Amazon shipments I received last week needed to be broken down to fit in the trash. At this park it is necessary to take your own trash to the dumpster. They nearest one is at the entrance to the park so I drop my trash off when I’m driving out of the park.

Also among today’s chores was emptying the black and gray tanks. When I’m parked in one place for a long period of time, I dump the tanks once a week. They are big enough that I easily go two weeks without dumping when I don’t have a sewer hookup. On longer stays like this with a sewer hookup, I don’t monitor how much water is going into the tanks as closely and just empty the tanks regularly.

Sunday November 21st 2021

Today began similar to yesterday. The gloomy weather resulted in a very slow start to my day. It was after 1PM when the sun started to breakthrough the cloud cover. I finally broke from slow mode to active mode about 3PM. During my walk around the RV Park the weather was at its best. The temperature peaked in the low sixties with lots of sunshine. By sunset the clouds were moving back in and the forecast called for “dense” fog overnight.

During my slow morning, I started to think about next winter. The eleven month reservation window for Florida State Parks is rapidly approaching. I generally plan on being back in Florida by he last week in October. If I want to stay in a Florida state park, the reservation window opens one of the days toward the end of this week. My month long stay at this commercial park has also worked out well from a relaxation point of view. This location isn’t ideal for things I like to do in the area, so a different location of a month plus stay would be a possibility.

Another option for the 22-23 winter would be to find a Florida location to stay for several months rather than hopping between state parks. It isn’t too early to start planning. Long term reservations are very hard to get in the popular areas. To have enough things to keep me interested during an extended stay I’d have to be in the Orlando area or on one of the coasts. Those areas book quickly and are more expensive. The same month I spent here in the Jacksonville area is twice as expensive in the Orlando area. Coming up with the right combination of long term stay and moving around to balance the activity level with some consideration to cost is the challenge.

I am now in my last week of my month long stay here in the Jacksonville area. Next Sunday I move down to Port Canaveral for a few nights before beginning my state park hopping for this winter. I’ll be doing mostly two week stays at different state park between now and the end of April.

Saturday November 20th 2021

It was a gloomy day. The clouds were so thick and low that the daily dose of passing aircraft could not be seen, only heard. The sun never made its advertised appearance late in the day keeping the temperature in the low sixties. Tomorrow has a bit more sun and a little less wind in the forecast. The temperature may return to the seventies.

As is often the case, my level of activity reflected the weather. I spent most of my time in side my RV home reading and surfing the internet with a little bit of TV thrown in for good measure. The accomplishment column on the balance sheet of my daily activities was rather empty. Probably only item on the list would be cooking a good meal for dinner. I baked a few chicken thighs in the convection oven. It made a good meal this evening and will provide another meal tomorrow or Monday.

Despite the gloom I got outside for a good walk around the RV park. The Little Blue Heron is back at its favorite spot and the Wood Storks are gone. The pair of ducks were also missing today. The RV park is full for the weekend. There were many arrivals yesterday and only a couple of departures this morning. New arrivals filled today’s few empty sites by late in the afternoon. One thing that I’m surprised by is the absence of Canadian RVs. A few days after the boarder opened there were several Canadians here, but in the last week I haven’t seen any. Maybe all of the sites are reserved not allowing any spur of the moment bookings.

Friday November 19th 2021

The day began foggy with mild temperatures consistent with the season. As day progressed the fog became low clouds then progressed through various degrees of sunshine to end with a clear sky as the daylight gave way to night. The wind also increased as the day went by peaking with fifteen to twenty mile an hour winds out of the northeast during the late afternoon.

My last Amazon delivery from my early week orders came in today. This was the first delivery that actually arrived in a properly labeled vehicle. An Amazon Prime truck arrived shortly after noon with the bulk of my order. I have one more Amazon delivery scheduled for tomorrow. I placed that order yesterday.

Once I had all my freshly delivered treasures inside, I drove out to Cedar Point for a hike. Today’s hike is in the same area I hiked during my first week here in the Jacksonville area. I delayed returning because I suspected the trail I wanted to walk was excessively wet do to the rain and high tidal conditions. Conditions today were dry, but there was clear evidence that the area had been underwater in the recent past.

The Cedar Point loop trail was lined with fallen leaves and branches in a very fall like scene. The blowing wind kept whistling through the branches of the trees in the hardwood hammock. The sound of snapping branches and falling debris kept me on my toes. Nothing fell on my head, but I did see a couple of small branches fall on the trail ahead of my path. I didn’t see any other animal life on the trail and that includes people.

On my way back to the RV park I stopped at Walmart for groceries. I don’t want to go near the place next week. Between the grocery shoppers preparing for Thanksgiving and the Christmas shoppers looking for deals around Black Friday the place will be a zoo. I probably over bought to stock up and avoid another visit next week. The checkout clerk had the habit of putting one item or two if they were the same in each bag. She also tended to double bag for anything over few ounces or requiring refrigeration. I’m pretty sure I had more bags than items when I got home.

Thursday November 18th 2021

The weather was on a downward course all day. It started partly cloudy in the high seventies. By the end of the day the sky was fully clouded and the temperature was well past its peak in the mid seventies. Tomorrow is forecast to be mostly cloudy and about ten degrees cooler than today.

The heavy cloud cover means I’m going to miss the full moon for the third or forth month in a row. At least I took some time to look at the moon last night. The clouds also mean I will not be able to see the partial eclipse of the moon tonight. It is supposed to be the longest duration partial lunar eclipse in 600 years. It is not likely that I would have watched more than a few minutes, since it is happening in the wee hours of the morning, but it sounds like something interesting to get a look at.

I got another Amazon delivery today. This one was also scheduled for tomorrow. Apparently it was fulfilled directly by the vendor. It was shipped from Phoenix via UPS. It was delivered this morning by a man in a UPS uniform driving a U-Haul rental truck. The delivery companies have clearly expanded their capacity with additional vehicles and probably temporary employees. The peak of the delivery season hasn’t arrived yet. I wonder what it will be like getting deliveries in the first few weeks of December.

On my walk around the RV park today I didn’t see the Little Blue Heron. In the area it usually hangs out a pair of Wood Storks were grazing. I wonder if they scared the heron away or if they just beat it to the location. The storks look like bullies, but are probably just another pair birds that like to hang out around Florid ponds.

Wednesday November 17th 2021

The temperature climbed into the upper seventies today. If not for the wind it would have been on the brink of uncomfortable. The humidity and the number of clouds in the sky was also up from the last couple of days.

Monday evening and Tuesday morning I placed a number of Amazon orders. All of the Monday orders were due for delivery on Friday, but the Tuesday morning order was scheduled for today. Late yesterday one of the items scheduled for Friday was moved up to today as well. Just as I was getting ready to leave my RV home, I got a notification on my phone that the two items would be delivered in the next hour. I decided to wait for the delivery so the items wouldn’t be left outside for a long period of time. That was mistake.

The Amazon app kept counting down the number of stops the delivery had before mine, but the time windows for the delivery kept getting further out. Eventually the count down stopped, but the time kept moving. When the packages finally arrived, the reason became clear. The app tracked things to the RV park address, but not to all of the stops within the RV park. The rented Hertz truck carrying the deliveries had passed by my RV home several times before finally stopping to drop off my two items and one for the site a couple of units down. Another Amazon delivery truck, this one labeled to Amazon, was driving up and down the streets in the park less than an hour later. This RV park must be a big Amazon delivery customer. It will be interesting to see what happens Friday. Will my seven remaining packages come on one truck or several?

The point of the last two paragraphs of explanation is I didn’t leave the RV park today. I got caught up in watching Amazon’s tracking system while waiting for something that would have been safe enough to leave outside. I think I’ll feel better letting the delivery happen on Friday and there are still a couple of things I may order before I leave here.