Monday September 14th 2020

The impacts of hurricane Sally have started to arrive here in the southwest corner of Georgia. The day began with heavy cloud cover. The sun never made any appearances today which kept the temperature down even though the humidity remained high. For most of the day the storm with all of the really nasty weather remained off the coast more than seventy miles from here. The center of circulation was even further out in the gulf. As the day went by the weather radar showed the rain shield reaching inland. Shortly after 4PM a band of rain rotating around the system moved into the area. Heavy rain fell for an hour or so. The noise on the roof of my RV home was a steady roar. Since about 6PM there has been only occasional light rain. More is clearly on the way as the storm circles this area with a radius of one to two hundred miles.

So far there hasn’t been heavy wind in this area. The current forecast keeps most of the wind in Mississippi and Alabama. As the storm wraps around to the north of here the wind will pick up, but much of the strength of the slow moving tropical system will have dissipated by then. Rain is the main concern in this area. By the time the system moves away on Friday, over five inches of rain may have fallen.

As you can probably tell from the previous two paragraphs, I’ve been monitoring the approaching storm pretty closely. Between the weather channel, the internet and the local TV stations I’ve been keeping up to date on the track of the storm. I’m in a good location. The path of the storm will be well south, west and north of here. Even so, I’ll be watching all of the storm coverage again tomorrow.

Sunday September 13th 2020

It was one more sunny day with thunderstorms starting around 4PM. Today’s storms were a little stronger than the last few days. The tropical moisture off to the south feed the line of storms passing through the area. A severe storm warning was out for this area most of the late afternoon.

Tropical storm, soon to be hurricane Sally is going to do a “do-si-do” with this area according to the current forecast. It will pass south of here a hundred plus miles away going east to west, then turn north near New Orleans followed by a turn back to the east once its another hundred plus miles north of here. My location is completely out of the cone of uncertainty and all of the tropical system warnings. The forecast calls for another three to five inches of rain in this area.

Assuming things don’t change overnight, I plan to stay here. Any of the places I might move to are going to be getting heavy rain as well. Who knows how well a different location will deal with all the rain. Here, I’ll probably be on a little island surrounded by standing water. The grass area on the uphill side of my campsite fills with water during each thunderstorm, but it drains quickly when the storm ends.

I watched some NFL football on TV today. Thankfully, the announcers weren’t as fixated on COVID issues as the broadcasters during yesterday’s college games. None the games I had access to were of specific interest. They were just enjoyable games. One thing I observed along the COVID lines was different compliance with masks by the coaching staffs on different teams. As I understand the protocol all of the coaches must wear masks at all times. On some teams, the coaches on the side lines had the masks down around their necks not on properly. I wonder if the NFL will fine them. They put a lot of effort into developing and reaching agreements on a safe protocol. You would think following it would offer the best chance of completing the season without major disruptions.

Saturday September 12th 2020

The weather has settled into a regular pattern. The day starts cloudy followed by breaks in the clouds by mid day. Around four in the afternoon a thunderstorm or two moves through the area. By 5:30 or 6PM the sky is starting to clear again. The pattern developed on Wednesday and has continued since. A new tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico may put an end to the pattern.

When I decided to be in Florida during September and October, I knew I’d have to be in tropical storm and hurricane awareness mode. Today a tropical disturbance over the Bahamas yesterday became a named tropical storm in the gulf off the coast of Fort Meyers called Sally. As of tonight the cone of uncertainty around the track has my current location on the very eastern edge late Wednesday or early Thursday. It would have tropical storm level winds near 40mph at that time. The bigger concern is the rain will start Tuesday and continue through late Thursday.

I’m watching the forecast closely. I’ll need to make a decision to stay or run by Monday morning. It is a slow moving storm. Right now, I’m incline to stay. I think I’m in an OK location, but will try to verify that with the campground hosts tomorrow. If I were to run, I’d go east away from the storms path. It is still going to be a very wet few days anywhere in Florida or Georgia I might end up. The best case scenario would be for the storms path to continue to move west.

Besides watching the weather, I watched a little college football on TV. The thing that caught my attention, more so than the game, was the discussion of COVID related issues by the commentators. Most of the down time between plays seem to be dedicated to convincing the audience and maybe themselves that it was OK for college kids to be playing football during a pandemic. Tomorrow the NFL is back with a full Sunday schedule. I wonder if a similar litany will be delivered.

Friday September 11th 2020

The weather didn’t live up to the forecast today. The TV weather talkers predicted a lower chance of thunderstorms than Thursday, but the whole area has been thoroughly wet down tonight. After a cloudy start the sun broke through for a couple of hours before the thunderstorms moved in around 4PM. By the time the rain let up a couple of hours later there were deep puddles all around my RV.

At least the rain is a relief from the bugs. This area is experiencing two invasive bug species. The first is common throughout Florida twice a year. This is the September outbreak of Love Bugs. They hatch, lock onto a mate and swarm around long enough to complete the deed. I ran through a few small swarms on my way here. They make a mess of the front of the RV that needs to be cleaned up before they harm the paint. Since I’ve been here a swarm or two has appeared every afternoon. They don’t bite. They are just an annoyance.

The other invasive species is more unique to this location. The park has a problem with Argentine Ants. You are warned when you check in to keep power cords and hoses off the ground. They also recommend that you spread insecticide around your tires and level jacks. Basically, make it as hard as possible for the ants to get into your RV. I’ve done all of the recommended preventive measures and remain vigilant. I’m at the point of over reacting to any bug I see moving. The heavy rain keeps the ants away, but also washes the insecticide away. The Argentine ants also don’t bite people. It is my understanding that they go for grease and sweets. If they get inside I’ll have a real problem getting rid of them.

Thursday September 10th 2020

The more tropical weather that has been slowly moving in from the east coast finally caught up with me today. The day began partly sunny and humid and concluded with lots or rain and a little thunder and lightening. The rain arrived in two parts. The first heavy thunderstorms arrived shortly after 4PM with lots of thunder and lightening. The second wave arrived shortly before 9PM with less noise, but plenty of rain. It is still raining as I write this blog entry. The weather radar on my phone indicates it will be raining into the night.

I finished setting up for my two week stay this morning before exploring the park. The sixty five sites in the park are only sparsely filled. I expect it will be much busier over the weekend. There is a lot of open space between sites filled with green grass and an occasional tree. It is a very pretty campground.

Lake Seminole boarders the west side of the campground. Thus the name Eastbank campground. This side of the lake created by damming the confluence of the Flint and Chattahoochee rivers is filled with water plants. There is plenty of open water from the middle toward the west bank that supports recreational boat use and I think some commercial boat traffic. There was a USCG buoy tender cruising back and forth this morning. People fishing from boats seem to favor the edge between the clear water and the plant filled water. That is probably a drop off to deeper water where the fish gather.

Wednesday September 9th 2020

Today was moving day. I left Jennings Florida at the 11AM checkout time. The check in time at my destination was specified at 4PM. You can usually cheat that time as long as the site is empty, but I’d read a comment or two on the internet about that not being possible at my destination. The online reservation system indicated that the site I was destine to occupy was reserved for Tuesday night. I needed to arrive after the 3PM checkout time to minimize the potential for issues.

The Google maps route to my destination was only 120 miles long. To stretch a drive of little over 2 hour into 4 plus hours was my challenge of the day. I stopped at three different rest areas and two gas stations. At each rest area I spent from half an hour to an hour before I got bored and moved on. The two gas stations were at the same exit. The first one I tried was very busy. Getting to a pump was a real challenge. The gas station across the street was empty with a similar gas price, so I went across the street. I arrived at my destination around 3:30PM and had no problem getting checked in. For a short drive, it seemed like I’d been driving all day.

I’m at the Eastbank Campground on Lake Seminole in the southwest corner of Georgia for the next two weeks. To get here you need to drive through the middle of the nearest town of Chattahoochee Florida. This US Army Corps of Engineers campground is in a unique location on the east bank of Lake Seminole near the dam before the water flows into the Apalachicola river. The lake and the Chattahoochee River that flows into the lake form part of the boarder between Florida and Georgia. The east west boarder turns north south in the middle of the dam. The lake and rivers also form the dividing line between the eastern and central time zones. I’m in the eastern time zone, but the cell tower my phone is using is in the central time zone. Consequently, the time on my phone is off by an hour. The other temporal confusion is caused by the TV stations I can receive. Most of them are from Alabama in the central time zone. Oh, the little challenges life on the road creates.

Tuesday September 8th 2020

Today began earlier than I wanted. An older diesel pusher motorhome parked on the site beside mine last night just before dark. Just before seven this morning they started the loud diesel engine on the motorhome. They ran it for a few minutes then shut it down. The brief quiet was broken by the sound of doors slamming and other loud banging. A little later the loud diesel started up again. They ran the motor for about fifteen minutes before they pulled out of the site. I was wide awake and out of bed before 7:30AM.

This was another big departure day from the RV park. Most of the weekenders left yesterday, but a few stayed until today. When combined with the overnight residents, there was a steady stream of departures this morning. By checkout time there were only six rigs left in this part of the campground and two of those were long term park hosts. I expected to see more people arrived late in the day for an overnight stop, but it didn’t happen. There are only six RVs in this area of the park tonight.

One of the scattered showers in the forecast found the RV park this noon. It happened while I was out, so I only know about the storm from the aftermath. When I got back to my RV home from a grocery run, there were small branches on the roadway and lots of big puddles. Just getting into my front door required tip toeing through standing water. It was almost sunny when I left and when I returned. Sometime during the two and a half hours I was away it must have really poured.

I stocked up on groceries today, because I don’t know where I’ll find supplies at my next stop. Tomorrow is a travel day. I’m moving about 120 miles west on the Florida Georgia state line. It’s one of those days where the travel time is much shorter than the gap between check out here and check in at the new place. I’ll be looking for rest areas and other easy parking areas to kill time during the trip.

Monday September 7th 2020

Today’s weather was very similar to Sunday. Thunderstorms were in the forecast for late in the day. Instead of rain the sun broke through the clouds when the thunderstorms were expected to arrive. This area didn’t get the scattered thunderstorms. They are in the forecast again for tomorrow.

Since today is Labor Day summer must be over. Growing up and living most of my life in the northeast that thought was deeply entrenched. School always started right after the holiday and the temperature started to drop a little everyday. In other parts of the country it isn’t as cut and dry. School starts as early as the first week in August and the temperature doesn’t start to drop for another several weeks.

I’ve managed to experience a form of fall every year I’ve been on the road except 2016. I was in this area that year dodging hurricanes and sweating in the heat. In 2017 I was in Utah and Northern Arizona where altitude substituted for latitude to produce a fall like experience. The following year of 2018, I was back in New York and New England for a real fall experience like I experienced every year of my life through 2015. Last year I started to experience fall right after Labor Day in Oregon and out ran the weather heading south to Las Vegas. Fall caught up with me in Las Vegas after a couple of weeks.

I don’t expect to experience anything identifiable as fall this year. Before the temperature starts to change in northern Florida, my plans have me located in the Florida Keys. The tropics begin only a couple of degrees of latitude south. It’s not going to get very cool until I’m back in central Florida in December. Next year I’ll have to find some form of fall.

Sunday September 6th 2020

The weather was in transition today. The day started cloudy and ended with thunderstorms. A little bit of blue sky was visible during the day, but the sun never managed to cast any shadows. Clouds and thunderstorms are in the center of the forecast for most of the week.

Other than a less than exciting drive north into Georgia, most of my day was spent reading and watching TV. It was a lazy day.

Saturday September 5th 2020

Today was the hottest day of the week. The temperature reached the upper nineties with enough humidity to have a reported heat index of 106. It really wasn’t as uncomfortable as other days I’ve experienced this summer. The difference is all in my head. I spent most of the day inside my RV home enjoying the AC.

The time I spent outside was on walks around the pond checking out the birds and swatting at the swarming bugs. There are several different kinds of bugs ranging from tiny to dragon fly size. None of them seem to be inclined to bite, but the little ones want to land on you and crawl around. It’s the worst when I stop moving to take a picture of the birds. There are bench seats all around the pond, but sitting for more than thirty seconds isn’t practical.

A few of last nights campers departed this morning, but even more arrived this afternoon to replace them. The people staying for the weekend seem to out number the travelers, but not by many. Last year I was in Corvallis Oregon for the labor day weekend and the year before I was on the side of Lake Ontario in New York state. Both of those campgrounds were further from the interstate highway. They were full for the holiday weekend. The attraction in Corvallis was a college football game and Lake Ontario was the attraction in New York state. This park doesn’t have similar draws, at least not this year.