Tuesday November 16th 2021

It was another day of amazing cool Florida fall weather. The temperature started in the forties and got into the low seventies under a bright sunny sky with very little wind.

I headed off in the direction of Jacksonville Beach today. The last time I was in the Jacksonville Beach area was five years ago, so I thought I knew the way. The compass on my dashboard indicated I was going in the correct easterly direction, but traffic was heavy and nothing looked familiar. My level of uncertainty was climbing when I saw an enticing sign for the Timucuan Preserve and historic Fort Caroline. I’m always up for wandering a preserve with historic significance even when I don’t know anything about it up front. I set out to find the preserve. I followed the signs as they directed me on a twisting path through business districts, shopping districts and high end residential districts. After several miles of trying to remember every turn of my escape route, I found the start of the preserve. At the first location the gate was closed and locked, at the second a small parking lot was full to overflowing and at the third location I was met with another locked gate. Using the three strike rule, I gave up and made my way back toward the main road. With the ever increasing traffic, I gave up my plan to head for the beach and returned home.

Reviewing the map later, I found how unprepared I was. First, I got off the highway several exits early. The route I followed was very wandering and much longer than it needed to be. The Timucuan Preserve turned out to be very large. The area I found with the locked gates was on the periphery and not the biggest part of the park. If I had continued straight when I made my last turn I would have found more of the preserve. Now that I’m better prepared I can return to the preserve and the beach another day. I know a much shorter route that should also keep me out of the worst of the traffic.

Back at the RV park, I took my afternoon walk. I was surprised at the number of empty sites I observed. The price structure at this RV park is heavily weighted to encourage longer term stays. The per night rate when you book a month is less than half the rate of a single night. The weekly rate is somewhere in the middle but closer to the single night rate. I think that may be the reason the sites don’t fill up every night, but once they are filled you can’t anticipate how long they will stay.

Monday November 15th 2021

The outside temperature this morning was in the low forties. I don’t know what the inside temperature was since I stayed in bed until things started to warm up. The TV weather talkers told me the outside temperature at the nearby airport. The high temperature for the day was a hair over seventy. Another cool night is in the forecast for tonight.

One of the things I planned to do during my stay was some shopping. I have a diverse list of things that I need from clothes and electronics to RV supplies. Most of them are not available at Walmart, so I need to visit a few other stores. Today, after a visit to a couple of other stores, I gave up for now and turned on the computer for some Amazon shopping.

While I’m on the move I usually have to find an Amazon locker or counter to receive packages. Most of the types of parks I like to stay at don’t accept packages. There are usually lockers in big cites or in major tourist areas, but they are limited on the size of the package they will hold. At this RV park the delivery companies, including Amazon, can drop packages off at the individual sites. This makes it very convenient and you can get any size package delivered. My campsite is on the main park road. There is a steady stream of delivery vehicles going by. Some of the distribution sites, including Amazon, are near the airport only a couple of miles away.

Om today’s walk around the RV park, the Anhinga I’ve seen a few times was back. It was in the classic wing drying pose you usually see them in before it flew into a tree on the far side of the retention pond. The Little Blue Heron and the pair of ducks were also present.

Sunday November 14th 2021

The inside temperature was in the low fifties this morning. The bright sunshine brought the inside temperature up quickly, but the outside temperature climbed gradually to a high in the low sixties. It was brisk, sunny fall day. Tonight’s overnight temperatures are forecast to be even cooler. Everything is about ten degrees below the seasonal norms for this area.

Today was a day for chores and watching football on TV. The inside of my RV home has gotten to be cluttered after three weeks in one location. I spent some time today putting a few things away to lower the clutter level a little. The trick will be not getting more stuff out during the remaining two weeks here and work on putting more stuff away before the end of my stay.

I took two walks around the RV park for exercise. The weather conditions were great for being outside. Many other residents of the park were out walking and riding bicycles around the park. Today was the first day I’ve seen so much activity. Most day’s people are hiding out inside their RVs or possibly sitting around outside. The park didn’t seem to empty as much at the end of this weekend like it has been. The winter contingent of long term residents maybe displacing the sites available for weekenders. The other possibility is that people are waiting until tomorrow morning to avoid area traffic. I saw a couple of groups that looked like they were preparing to move on.

My friend the Little Blue Heron was back to posing today. It still won’t let me get real close, but moves around as if posing for pictures to keep an eye on me. Today I got a little to close an it took to the air to get away.

Saturday November 13th 2021

The day began cloudy and warm. The forecast called for improving conditions, but the sky continued to get darker as the morning progressed. At one point a few big raindrops fell on the roof, but it was over before anything got wet. About 1:30PM the sun made its first appearance of the day. The cold front bringing cooler temperatures had pushed through the area.

The gloomy morning kept me inside all morning with my focus on reading the news, both real and pseudo, on the internet followed by whole plethora of other information and stories. I briefly noted the arrival of sunshine, but didn’t venture out of my RV home until nearly 3PM. My daily walk around the park was uneventful. I didn’t even see any of the usual birds in the retention ponds.

I took a second shorter walk around the park just before dark. My goal was to help settle my dinner and try once again to find my bird friends. They still weren’t along the banks of the retention pond. Without new bird pictures, the pictures I’ve included in this blog entry are of flower blossoms I haven’t over used and a peak at the approaching full moon.

The darkness came early tonight. Actually, it is the first night I’ve noticed the return to standard time. My late start to the outside portion of my day is probably the cause. Overall I got less than three hours worth of outside daylight exposure today.

Thursday November 12th 2021

The temperature didn’t drop as much over night giving the day a head start on warmth. The temperature peaked in the upper seventies shortly after noon. Clouds moved in from the south keeping the rising temperature in check for the rest of the day.

Today’s adventure was a hike at the Betz-Tiger Point Preserve. The trail I walked was part of the 7 Creeks trail. The trail was wide and dry which is great for an exercise hike, but the scenery wasn’t great for an entertainment style hike. It was near high tide so the water in the creek was near the banks. I didn’t see any water birds or any squirrels for that matter. I did see plenty of nuts on the ground, so where were the squirrels? There was a lot more trail than I explored. After about half an hour I turned around and returned to my car.

I continued my exercise with a walk around the RV park. It is two miles around the perimeter of the park. I got curious and drove the loop watching my odometer. On today’s walk I saw my first Canadian Snowbird in the park, or at least their car with Quebec plates. It won’t be long before they aren’t so unusual.

The Little Blue Heron and the pair of ducks were in a different part of the retention pond this afternoon. I often see them in the same area with each other, but today they were in a part of the pond near the main road and entrance to the park. I wonder what the attraction is in the different areas of the pond. They also seem to stick with the main, older, retention pond. The newer retention ponds may not have the food sources of the older ponds. I’m a little surprised that the Little Blue Heron has been here for at least three weeks. The Egrets that were around when I arrived have already moved on.

Wednesday November 10th 2021

Today was the last day of the current good weather trend. The sky was bright blue, the wind was calm and the temperature was in the mid seventies. Toward the end of the day the clouds started to move in. There is rain and cooling temperatures in the forecast for the next few days going forward.

I drove up to St. Mary’s Georgia this afternoon to checkout one of my favorite quaint historic river town on the coast. My last visit was at the beginning of June. The town maintenance people were busy cleaning up from the weekend flooding and decorating the trees in the park for Christmas. There were still barriers along the sides of the road that were used to close off areas during the weekend flooding. Today the river was back in its banks, but the water level an hour after high tide was within a few inches of the top of the sea wall.

On the way back I stopped at the Florida Welcome Center on Interstate 95. They have a big banner at the entrance to the rest area welcoming Canadians back to Florida. I actually saw two Canadian license plates on cars in the parking lot. The border officially opened at 12:01AM Monday morning. Google says it is a seventeen hour plus drive from Toronto, so they must have been among the people crossing the border on Monday. Florida tourism is certainly looking forward to the return of the Canadian Snowbirds. The TV news has extensively covered the reopening of the border. So far, I haven’t seen any Canadian RVs in this RV park or on the road. Most RV travelers will probably stop for multiple nights on the way south.

Tuesday November 9th 2021

Today was a slightly improved clone of Monday’s weather. The improvement came in the form of a few extra degrees of temperature. The high temperature for the day was about 75 degrees under a clear blue sky with only a gentle breeze.

The time change along with some bad TV watching habits have my sleep pattern in chaos. I was still wide awake after 2AM this morning. The result is that my energy level today was equivalent to a sleeping snail. There was only an hour or two of daylight remaining when I put down my reading and internet surfing to go out into the RV park for some exercise. By the time I completed mile and a half to two mile walk around the park it was time to prepare some food to fuel my lazy body. This really was a lost day.

The resident Little Blue Heron seemed to be posing for my camera this afternoon.

Monday November 8th 2021

The weather in Jacksonville was back to full sun with a blustery wind. The high temperature was below normal at about 65 degrees. Overall it was a very nice day.

The return to standard time caught up with me today. I was up later last night than usual. This morning between the late bed time, the time change and the fifty degree inside temperature kept me in bed longer than normal. Once I did get up I was moving slower than normal. The earlier sunset also played into my temporal challenge. The sun was setting and the temperature dropping on my afternoon walk around the RV park even though I was earlier than normal.

The area is slowly recovering from the weekend storm. While I was out today I saw a number of areas with cut up branches on the sides of the road. Some roads were still covered with a few inches of water. I stopped at the boat launch area for the Trout River that I stop at frequently. The water level near high tide was higher than I’ve seen on other visits. The combination of higher than normal high tides because of the moon phase with the additional runoff attempting to flow out the river is the primary cause.

I need to fill up my gas tank, but I’m waiting for the impact of the storm to be fully understood. One of he gas stations in southern Georgia that I often frequent was pumping more water than gas on Saturday. More than a handful of cars broke down on Interstate 95 after stopping for a full tank of gas. I’m sure the problem is resolved today, but waiting another day couldn’t hurt.

Sunday November 7th 2021

A light rain continued off and on all night, but things started to clear with the arrival of daylight. By mid morning the sun was attempting to break through the clouds. It took until late in the afternoon for it to succeed. The wind was still brisk from the north keeping the high temperature in the low to mid sixties.

I got out for my first real walk since Thursday. There was plenty of standing water from the last two days of rain remaining around the RV park and the retention ponds were a foot or two higher. As I walked around the park I saw evidence of some wind damage. One RV awning had come lose from one of its support arms and another one was ripped badly. Keeping an awning out during strong winds is always a risk. In the case of the ripped awning, I don’t think anyone was home during the storm. That awning is probably totaled, but the other one may be repairable. That’s one of the reasons I never leave my awning out when its windy or when I’m not around.

My day was spent watching sports on TV. There were a couple of good football games and the NASCAR championship race from Phoenix to watch. The channel change button on my remote got a good amount of exercise as I channel surfed between events.