Tuesday April 23rd 2019

The warming trend continued today. It was a few degrees warmer and a little more humid. The temperature peaked in the mid eighties. The trend is forecast to continue until Friday when another front passes through with a little rain.

Today is my last day in St. Mary’s Georgia for this trip. I spent some time today on the river in historic downtown St. Mary’s. There is a lot of construction going on to upgrade the area and fix damage from the 2016 and 2017 hurricanes that passed through the area. It was a nice day to watch the construction and the activity on the river.

Tomorrow I’m moving back to north central Florida. I’ll be in the Starke Florida area for the next three weeks. After that I begin my summer travels in the west. I spent time today working on my itinerary and reservations. The important Memorial Day holiday weekend reservations are in Albuquerque NM. I’ll spend about ten days to get there from Florida. I will probably take a route heading northwest from the Dallas TX area, but can always stay on the southern route on I-10 through Houston, San Antonio and El Paso. The weather will drive that decision.

After Memorial Day in Albuquerque, I’ll stop at Lake Powell on the Arizona Utah border again. Then move north through south central Utah and stop for a longer visit at Bryce Canyon National Park. From there I’ll move north along Interstate 15 in the Salt Lake City corridor. Right now my plan is to stop for three nights in the Provo area and another four nights in the Brigham City area before heading northwest into Idaho. I only plan one stop at Twin Falls Idaho before moving on into Oregon. My paper calendar is getting well scribbled on and erased as I try to lock in some dates crossing Oregon. When I first started looking at places in Oregon and Washington, the booking window for the parks I wanted to stay at hadn’t opened. Now it has been open too long so I’m juggling other options.

Monday April 22nd 2019

There were a few more degrees added to the high temperature today, but otherwise it was a repeat of Sunday’s beautiful weather. The temperature peaked in the upper half of the seventies with very few clouds, low humidity and a gentle breeze.

Today was a shopping day. I drove to a big shopping area near the Jacksonville airport. There is a Walmart a lot closer to my RV Home, but it doesn’t have the myriad of other stores that surround the Walmart near the airport. In addition to groceries I need some new footwear and possible other new clothes. In the end, there were too many stores and none of them were right for my needs. I may visit the outlet malls in the St. Augustine before I leave the area.

The campground is not as full tonight as it has been. I’m not sure if the snowbird travel season has let up or if it’s just a lull in the migration. Even though there are fewer sites occupied tonight there may be more people in the campground. One of the big red touring bus camping dormitories is parked here tonight. It pulled in around 5PM. The driver and assistant with a little help from the passengers got the living quarters opened and started to prepare their evening meal. I counted about twenty people in the group. It looks interesting, but sleeping in the little coffin like bed space each passenger gets isn’t that appealing. The front half of the bus looks like an ordinary tour bus, but the back is a series of bedrooms across the bus stacked three high with access from the passengers side of the bus. They also have to use the campground restrooms. I’ve seen these buses every now and then on my Rambling Road Trip. I still haven’t figured out much about them. They seemed to be marketed to travelers from Europe judging by the language I couldn’t understand.

Easter Sunday April 21st 2019

The overnight temperature got down well below normal for this area at this time of year. It was in the forties when I woke up, but by the heat of the day it was in the mid seventies. Overall, it was beautiful day. I spent the day enjoying the nice weather outside on my patio with a few walks around the park thrown in for exercise.

I saw something a little out of the ordinary in the campground this morning. About half a dozen little kids were all dressed up running up and down the park roads. They were corralled a few minutes later by adults in shorts and tee shirts, but armed with a camera. It was Easter picture time. A few minutes later a big white rabbit arrived on the scene. I don’t know if it was planned or by coincidence, but someone in the campground was dressed in a bunny suite. The white rabbit was added to the picture taking.

By noon the campground was as empty as it has been since I arrived. All of the weekenders and travelers had checked out. I was surprised that it didn’t fill up as much this evening. There are plenty of empty spaces for a change. The ebb and flow of travelers along Interstate 95 would be an interesting study.

Saturday April 20th 2019

Today was the day after the storm. The severe weather front was off to the east and the local weather was dramatically different. There was a strong wind out of the west under sunny a sky. It was a nice day, but it was cold. The temperature didn’t make it into the seventies.

Driving around the area the damage caused by the storm was evident. I saw many downed tree limbs and even a few whole trees on the ground. People were busy cleaning up after the storm. Piles of branches and storm debris adorned the street side in residential areas. The amount of material downed by the storm was surprising. Thankfully, it looks like there wasn’t a lot of substantial damage.

The wind was really creating a lot of wave action on the St. Mary’s River. The direction was such that there was a long open area for the wind to build the waves before they reached the bank in the downtown St. Mary’s area. The floating docks were moving up and down on their pilings. The sound of metal, concrete and wood rubbing disrupted the quiet atmosphere of the historic town. The other requirement to enjoy a walk along the town’s waterfront was warm clothing. Their were quite a few people out and about, but they were all dressed for winter.

The campground emptied out a little more than I expected this morning. I thought there were more weekenders in the park. It turned out that there were a lot of travelers that moved on today. They were replaced by more travelers tonight. Even so, the campground is in holiday weekend mode. The older kids got entertained with a hayride and the younger ones got pulled around in little train cars by a golf cart.

Friday April 19th 2019

Today’s weather was very entertaining, but not very enjoyable. The day started with very filtered sunshine and plenty of wind. It wasn’t long before it started to get very gusty. While I was outside my RV home I heard a large dead branch snap in a tree a couple of hundred feet away. It fell on a power line leading to a cottage. The line didn’t snap but they had to call the utility company to get it removed. That was just the beginning.

Shortly before eleven the forecast severe weather started to move into the area. A severe thunderstorm warning for the entire Northeast Florida and Eastern Georgia area was issued by the National Weather Service. The TV stations started continuous storm coverage as the front moved into the viewing area from the west. They were reporting winds as high as seventy to eighty miles per hour. Tornado warnings were issued for areas west of Jacksonville with some reports of damage. As the storm front moved east the warnings and high wind reports moved closer to my location.

I started to make preparations for the arrival of the storm. The most susceptible items to wind damage are the slide out room awnings and the satellite dish. I put the dish down into its travel position and got the inside ready to bring the slide out rooms in. I held out hope that the storm would weaken as it moved east. Just before noon the TV announced another tornado warning. This time it was for my area. At about the same time my cell phone went off with a tornado alert. I brought the two slide rooms in, locked the RV door and walked over to the campground bathroom facility. I don’t think it would qualify as a good shelter in the case of a strong tornado, but it was better than the RV. Several other park residents including a few of the work campers with two very scared dogs also took shelter in the bathhouse.

The storm passed about a mile to the north. A funnel cloud was reported in the air along Interstate 95. There was damage to a furniture store building and several cars in that area, but it was caused by strait line winds. It didn’t get very bad in the campground. Most of the wind was high in the trees. A few small branches and lots of pine cones came down. It was just an ordinary rain storm fifteen minutes after it started.

The rain continued until about three in the afternoon. The sun even made an attempt to brighten up the area. The actual front passed through the area around six with a little more rain and some wind. All is calm this evening.

Thursday April 18th 2019

Humid weather has returned. The temperature peaked in the mid 80s, but the humidity made it feel a lot warmer. There was some cloud cover and occasional periods of wind that made the heat tolerable. A low pressure system with accompanying cold front is due tomorrow. The TV weather forecasters have been talking up the potential for severe weather for a couple of days.

This was an RV living type of day so this blog entry isn’t the most entertaining. My primary task was getting the laundry done. This campground has two laundry facilities. Last time I was here most of the machines in one of the facilities were broken, but this time they were all working. You need to pay attention to the task when using public laundry rooms. If you leave stuff in a machine after it has finished its cycle, people have been known to empty the contents onto a counter or worse. It hasn’t happened to me since I pay keep watch on the overall process. The down side is the laundry takes at least 2 hours of almost dedicated time.

The rest of the time today was consumed with other household and maintenance tasks around my RV home. The TV was on all the time, so I got a good dose of “reporting” on the Mueller report. It’s hard to understand how each sentence of the report can rapidly be interpreted multiple contradictory ways. I remember a time when the news reports labeled things as “editorial” view or “analysis” when they started to express a particular view point. Now days every talking head is expressing a viewpoint. You need a score card of networks and personalities to know how to interpret the news. The internet complicates it further with the need to have a sensational headline to get you to click on the link. They really don’t care if the story reflects the headline or if you read the story. They get credit for the “click”. I guess I’m old fashion, I like to hear facts that I can interpret myself. End of soap box opinion.

Wednesday April 17th 2019

Today was a travel day. Conditions were about a 7 on my scale of conditions suitable for travel. A perfect travel day is cloudy, so there isn’t any glare, and the wind isn’t blowing to cause RV handling issues. Today was partly cloudy with a light wind. The temperature peaked around eighty.

I got on the road at 10:30AM with a little more than a quarter tank of gas. I’d scouted out a gas station with easy access on my way north. When I got there I found the gas price to be twenty to thirty cents more than other stations in the area. I chose to continue on despite my preference to fill up before it gets into the last quarter of the tank. When I finally bought gas in the St. Augustine area at a station I’ve stopped at before, I paid forty cents a gallon less than I would have at the place I skipped. Even at that price, I only put in one credit card pass of $75. The price of gas at my destination just over the state line in Georgia is usually cheaper. It turned out to be five cents cheaper. Of course it may be higher by the time I fill the tank next week on my way out.

I’m back at the KOA in St. Mary’s Georgia just over the state line from Florida. Once again this campground is my holiday weekend safety net. Finding an available campsite for the Easter weekend was difficult. I probably could have stayed longer at the Seasons in the Sun RV Resort, but I’d already extended for one week and I was getting hitch itch to move on. This park has some road noise from nearby Interstate 95, but overall it’s a nice place to stay. I’ll be here until next Wednesday.

Tuesday April 16th 2019

It was another fine day with just a little bit more humidity than Monday. The temperature peaked around eighty and it cooled down quickly after the sun set.

Today was my last full day on the Space Coast. Tomorrow I move a little further north for a week. As usual, I really enjoyed my stay in this area. It has a diverse selection of terrain and other attractions to explore. In addition to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Reserve and the Canaveral National Seashore, Brevard county has a number of parks. Many of the parks are along the waters edge. In addition to the Atlantic Ocean there are parks along the Banana and Indian Rivers. In addition to the nature exploration opportunities there is the occasional rocket launch and the action in Port Canaveral. People make a regular habit of watching the cruise ships leave port every evening.

My exploring today took me back to the central part of the county. I returned to Kelly park on the Banana River. There was less action on the water today. The vendor renting sailboards and other wind oriented water craft was not doing much business. I suspect the wind direction was not favorable, but it was comfortable to sit on shore and watch the ripples on the water.

This evening I got a head start on packing for tomorrow’s travel day. The bicycle rack and bike are back on the car and the gas grill is ready to be stored away. In the morning I’ll dump the tanks and finish the travel prep. I plan to be on the road around 11am.

Monday April 15th 2019

The humidity that built up over the last few days was gone this morning. The temperature was back in the high seventies to low eighties with the wind lighter and more from the north. It was a very refreshing and comfortable day.

This morning I got caught up in watching more of the north bound exodus from the RV park. A departure today or tomorrow will still get people home in the north before the Easter holiday. Over the weekend I watched a lot of preparation. One couple spent the weekend packing a big rented box truck with all the stuff from their site. I saw them loading potted plants, a gas grill, various outdoor lawn furniture and the wooden steps they were using to get into their trailer. Who knows what they added when I wasn’t looking. This morning they hooked up the fifth wheel trailer to their pickup and followed the box truck out of the campground. I don’t know if everything was going north or if some of the stuff was going to a storage yard.

The other observation about the departures is the popularity of the people leaving. Some people have a continuous flow of visitors as they pack up while others pack in solitude. When they’re hooked up to leave additional people show up to say goodby and watch them pull away from their site. The popular folks don’t seem to get very far. When they stop at the office to check out, they seem to be their longer than most. The others pull away with a wave to anybody they pass and are in and out of the office in a couple of minutes. Is this a measure of the community in the RV park or is it an indicator of the cliques that exist?

After watching the morning exodus I went back to the Merritt Island NWR for some more exploring. I walked the trail behind the visitors center again. There weren’t as many wild flowers in bloom, but there were a few turtles visible in and around the pond. The other improvement over last week was fewer visitors. I was able to walk the trail and stop at the viewing areas without being in the presence of dozens of people. I only saw about a dozen other people total.

Sunday April 14th 2019

Today’s weather started as a repeat of the last couple of days. The overnight clouds gave way to sunshine with a strong breeze. The temperature peaked in the min eighties. The difference came in mid afternoon. A line of strong winds and showers moved through the area. There wasn’t any thunder and lightening, but the wind was very strong and gusty for about an hour.

The weather found a new way to get in the way of my activities today. The main storm area is three or four hundred miles north of here. It caused the Masters Golf Tournament tee times to be moved up. They started play at 7:30 this morning and the TV coverage started at 9 or 9:30. As soon as I found the golf on the TV my day got turned upside down. I was going to go out in the late morning and return to watch the golf in the mid to late afternoon. Instead I started watching golf at 9:30 until Tiger Woods won his fifth Masters in the early afternoon. It had just enough drama and excitement with Woods involved that I pretty much stayed glued to the TV.

After the golf, I managed to grill a couple of Italian Sausages for lunch. The local weather started to get in the way at this point in the day. The wind picked up and the rain started. I had to retreat inside and close a few windows. The closed windows required the AC to be on which combined with the rain on the roof required the TV volume to be turned up. By around 4:30 the weather was on the upswing again, but any thoughts of leaving the RV resort were gone. I settled for a walk around the park.