Thursday February 21st 2019

The beautiful warm weather continued today. Once again there were record high temperatures in the area. Gainesville reached a high temperature of 89 degrees. For a change today was mostly sunny rather than mostly cloudy.

Around noon I kicked my self into gear and left the campground heading for Gainesvile about ten miles north. I left so quickly that I didn’t remember to take my phone off the charger and put it in my pocket. This is the second time in a week that I’ve left home with out it. On Sunday there were no consequences, but today it caused a minor issue. When I got into Gainesville I had no way of finding the Walmart Super Center or any other grocery store unless I stumbled on one. I suppose I could have asked some one, but that would be cheating the adventure. I drove around for half an hour before deciding to try again tomorrow. There was better adventure available back at the state park.

Back at the state park I got on my bicycle and set out for the trails around the visitors center again. The fire service was doing a controlled burn on the mile and a half road from the campground to the visitor center. It was an education to ride my bike right through the middle of the activity. They had people setting fires, people controlling the fire and people putting out fires. Most of the fire service people were on foot, but they also had a huge tracked vehicle. I didn’t stop to take any pictures. It was smokey and looked a little dangerous, so I kept riding through the area.

Once I got to the visitors center area, my first order of business was to climb the observation tower and check on any visible wildlife. Today I saw about five wild horses close to the observation tower. I understand there are several small herds of horses and two herds of bison that can occasionally be observed.

From the visitors center I took the Cone’s Dike trail out onto the prairie. You need to pass through a gate in the fence around the prairie after reading big signs warning that you are entering an area with wild animals that you shouldn’t disturbed. You are warned to stay away from any bison, horses or alligators that might claim the trail for themselves.

I didn’t find any animals on the trail. The horses I saw from the observation deck were visible in the tall grass and I saw a small alligator in the water beside the trail. There was plenty of signs of previous animal presence. The horse droppings were rather fresh, but most of the bison scat was a few days or more old. The trail goes about four miles out into the prairie, but was much shorter today. The high water level closed the trail long before I’d walked four miles.

Wednesday February 20th 2019

Today was a cloudy day with a few brief periods of sunshine and a few quick rain showers. The temperature approached and broke records in the area. It topped out in the mid eighties here.

It turned out to a perfect day to fix my satellite dish. The roof was dry, there wasn’t much wind and the sun wasn’t beating down on the white surface. The wire to the receiver head that I replaced in November broke again. I need to be more careful about asking the dish to lock into satellites when it is too close to tree branches. In this case it was Spanish Moss that got caught in the cable as the dish rotated that caused the wire to pull loose from the connector. It broke in January, but I haven’t had a chance to fix it when the conditions were good. It only took half an hour to disassemble the receiver arm and thread a new cable to the receiver head. As I was finishing up the first of the day’s brief rain showers was just starting. I managed to get off the roof before it got slippery. The bottom line is I have DirecTV service again.

For exercise today I road my bicycle to the Lake Wauberg picnic area a couple of time. On the first trip I took the park road and managed to catch a glimpse of a deer as it rain for cover. I had a similar encounter yesterday in a different area of the park. If I get lucky the next time I may see the deer before it sees me. The most entertaining wildlife I actual got to watch on the first trip to the lake were the little geckos or lizards like creatures of some variety. They were all over the boardwalk.

My second trip to the lake was an attempt to get a sunset picture or two. The clouds didn’t cooperate. It was sunny a half an hour before sunset, but as the sun got lower in the sky the clouds moved back in to completely block any chance at a red sunset. An hour later there were stars in the sky. One of these days I’m going to get the sunset picture I’m looking for. I hope it’s worth it.

Tuesday February 19th 2019

It was a better day than the forecast. The temperature was in the mid seventies and it didn’t rain. The day started cloudy and ended cloudy but the sun was bright in the sky during the middle of the day. The bad weather is staying north of here.

I set out on my bicycle to explore this part of Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park. There are other parts that you need to enter from other directions that I’ll get to another day. This morning I road my bike about a mile and half further into the park to the visitors center. It resides on the southwestern edge of the prairie. A number of hiking trails depart this location that I will explore in the next few days. Today I walked a short loop trail and climbed the fifty foot high observation tower.

The view from the tower is vast. The large birds flying about the prairie are easy to see, but trying to make out detail is difficult. I needed my binoculars. Another person on the observation platform with binoculars declared that there was a bison standing in the water to the left of the tower. All I could make out was a little brown dot a half a mile or more away. I took a picture at 12x maximum optical zoom of my point and shoot camera to get a better look. I still needed to do some cropping and digital zooming to really see the bison. The full story of why there is a small herd of bison here is still a mystery to me. That is just one of the many things about this park I hope to learn in the next ten days.

Late this afternoon I was back on my bicycle for a ride to Lake Wauberg. A boat launch and picnic area are about half a mile from the campground. My hope was to catch the sunset over the lake, but the clouds were too thick. The clouds also mean I won’t be able to see the full moon tonight.

Monday February 18th 2019

Today was a hot and humid travel day. Several new record high temperatures were set in the area. It was in the high eighties with full sunshine as I got set up at the Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park south of Gainesville FL. Cool cloudy days make better travel days.

The first order of business after hitting the road this morning was to fill the motorhome with gas. I should have filled it before parking for the ten day stay. Gas was priced at $2.09 a gallon when I arrived on the eighth. The huge gas price signs that advertise for business along the highway are visible from the campground. The price of gas stayed at the low value until Friday the fifteenth. On Friday the price went up to $2.15, on Saturday it was $2.19, on Sunday it was $2.20 and today it was $2.25.

The price rise was going to cost me more than ten dollars by the time I filled the tank, but then the gas station layout conspired to cost me even more money. The way the RV accessible pumps are configured is unique. There is one pump for each grade of gas lined up along the island. I didn’t pick up on this feature right away. I picked the pump that kept my RV from blocking access to other areas of the parking lot. After I passed my credit card through the reader and got the prompt to select the grade of gas, I was surprised to find only one button to select. As I pushed the button I realized I was selecting the highest octane grade at $2.75 a gallon. The pump with regular grade gas was ten feet down the island. I put in ten gallons of high octane gas then moved the RV to the correct pump and repeated the process. The result is I spent more than fifteen dollars more than I would have ten days earlier.

The actual driving was uneventful. I used all interstate highways and squared out all of the corners that the secondary roads would have cut across. Not having to deal with traffic lights and stop and go traffic made the extra distance worth it. The overall time was probably comparable. I was on the road before eleven thirty and off the road shortly after 2PM.

I’m at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park until the first of March. The campground is in an old growth Florida forest on the side of lakes, and Florida prairie which seems to be more of a marsh. There is a lot of water and open space in the area. Once I got my RV home down the narrow tree branch draped road to my site, I’m pretty happy with my new location. A quick bike ride down to the lake was rewarded with a couple of bird sightings that I’ve missed seeing the last few weeks.

Sunday February 17th 2019

The weather forecasters didn’t got it wrong again, but it was another OK day. The morning fog and clouds hung in to around 3:30 in the afternoon. It was a humid day in the mid seventies.

I’ve wanted to visit the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge all week. Today was my last opportunity, so I set out for the swamp after breakfast. Half way there I had a minor panic when I realized I left my phone at home. It’s amazing how uncomfortable I feel when I don’t have the device with me. Never mind that I survive for decades without a cell phone. I wasn’t going to back track twenty miles, so I continued on without it. The only real down side was I had no idea what time it was when I was out of the car.

For something that I’ve wanted to do for a while, I was remarkably unprepared. I only had a vague idea what was available to see. Consequently the boat trips were already booked. Just walking the trails and driving along the roads doesn’t provide a good overview of the swamp. Therefore, there will be a next time. To really see the refuge you need to be staying nearer and visit over several days.

I did see some of the birds I’ve been missing over the couple of weeks. There were a lot of Sandhill Cranes and a Great Egret or two. The cranes were making a lot of noise as they flew around the prairie section of the park. Unfortunately none of them were very close to the observation areas.

Along the canal section of the refuge I spotted a couple of turtles on the far side right away. I thought that was going to be my only amphibian sighting until I checked an area behind the visitors center. On the far bank there was a medium size alligator on the bank and a larger one a little ways away. Watching those gators I almost missed seeing a smaller one right below my location on the near bank. So my observation count was three gators, one turtle, six Sandhill Cranes and an Egret or two.

Tomorrow is a travel day back into Florida. I will be traveling a little over 150 miles to Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park south of Gainesville.

Saturday February 16th 2019

It was an OK day weather wise, but it sure was different from the high expectations the forecasters set. The day began with clouds and a little foggy and ended cloudy. For an hour or two around mid day the clouds broke apart just enough to allow some sun light to reach the ground. It allowed the temperature to get into the mid seventies.

During the best part of the day I enjoyed a walk along the river front in downtown historic St. Mary’s Georgia. There are a number of parks wander through and historic markers to read. I wasn’t the only one out for a walk in the park today. There were a lot of people out for a stroll, a brisk walk or a jog. The river is still tidal in this area and it was low tide. The marsh that lines the north side of the river was a bit of a mud flat, but recreational boat traffic was still moving out in the river.

I’ve been on the look out for big birds. The conditions haven’t been good for spotting the usual Ibis, Egrets, Herons or Pelicans. I still didn’t find any of those birds today. I did see one Gull and an Anhinga. I guess I have to wait until I get further south later this month and next.

Back at the campground this afternoon I finally got the laundry finished before the park filled up with the next set of overnight guests. I had my choice of all four machines. I just wish I knew what the drier is doing with my drier sheets. Last time I was convinced that the sheets were stuck inside something I washed only to be found at the most annoying time. This time I checked every thing very carefully, but I found no evidence of the drier sheets I know I put in the drier. Is the drier eating them? Are they getting turned into tiny pieces of lint?

It is very clear the park is getting filled by people on a quick February vacation from up north. There are several tents, tent trailers, truck campers and classic RVs with plenty of kids occupying sites tonight. Most of them are from Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania. These are states that a single day of hard driving would reach this point by night fall. There are also a few from the other northern states and provinces. It’s fun to observe the different types of rigs and their origins.

Friday February 15th 2019

Today didn’t live up to the forecast. The weather prediction was off, so my idea of how to spend the day was off as well. I was anticipating a sunny day with the high temperature in the upper seventies. What I got was a cloudy day with temperature barely making it to seventy. Cloudy days keep my initiative level low. I stayed inside all morning and didn’t leave the campground in the afternoon.

I still haven’t got the laundry done, but the appliance repair man was working on the broken washers today. When I checked the availability of the laundry room I found one of the machines in pieces all over the floor with a repair man sorting through the parts.

Most of my time today was spent trying to figure out what I should throw out. There is a lot of stuff that I’ve been carrying around the country with me for the last thee years that hasn’t seen the light of day since I loaded them into the RV. Transporting unneeded things that add weight and take up valuable space is not a good idea. I had plenty of available space and weight capacity when I started my Rambling Road trip, but most of the space has been taken by acquisitions along the way. I’m not sure about the weight right now. Once I find the things I haven’t use, the trick is to overcome the reason I decided to bring them in the first place. Once I throw something away it’s gone for good. Things with a sentimental history will probably stay, but the things that only fit the “might come in handy sometime” criteria need to go. So far I haven’t made much of a dent.

The campground is very busy. The number of empty sites at the 11AM checkout time wasn’t as great today as earlier in the week. New arrivals started arriving as early as noon. It’s full again tonight, Some are clearly hear for the long weekend and others are just passing through. One characteristic of the new arrivals is a higher percentage of kids. Next week is a school vacation week in many of the northern states. I suspect some of the late arrivals tonight are making a speed run to Florida for vacation. The trailer in the site next to me didn’t even disconnect from the tow vehicle.

Thursday February 14th 2019

The weather roller coaster is on the up slope. The sun was out most of the day allowing the temperature to reach seventy. Tomorrow and the weekend are forecast to be even warmer.

Today was a domestic chore style day. I tried to get the laundry finished, but found the laundry facility full once again. The other bad sign is the condition of the machines. Two of the four machines, including the one that sounded bad earlier in the week, were labeled out of service. I’ll have to check on the other laundry facility in the park. It is usually much busier.

The second task of the day was more successful. I made a grocery run to the local Walmart Super Center. This Walmart had a large customer base from the submarine base. The number of people in uniform in some areas of the store almost out numbered those in regular clothes. The crowds around the Valentines Day cards and gifts were particularly heavy. In the bulk candy section of the grocery store all of the Valentines Day candy had already been replaced by Easter candy.

My excitement of the day happened after I returned with the groceries. The park was filling up as it does every evening. One motorhome pulling what I thought was a small box trailer parked in a site a nearby. When I went out later I found out it wasn’t a box trailer at all. It was a livestock trailer. The owner had set up a small coral around the back of the trailer. In the coral was an Alpaca or a Llama. I don’t know how to tell the difference without having both types of animal in front of me. The motorhome wasn’t setup yet, but the animal was getting watered and fed.
I’ve been to many campgrounds that have separate equestrian areas, but I never had horses on a site nearby let alone a more unusual animal like an Alpaca. I think half the occupants of the campground walked by to get a look at our strange animal neighbor.

Wednesday February 13th 2019

It rained lightly overnight. By morning it was cool and foggy. The sun worked hard to break through the clouds all day. As the sun was setting along the western horizon the clouds in the sky started to dissipate. It was too late to allow the temperature to rise above sixty. Overall it was a dull and cool day.

The missing sunlight and the cool temperature worked against an early start to my day. I rolled over and went back to sleep in my warm bed at least twice this morning. It was after ten before I got moving, but I had the TV in the bedroom on for more than an hour before getting up. Did my day start when I turned on the TV or when I got up?

The lazy approach to the day was set. I didn’t leave the campground all day. This afternoon I attempted to finish catching up on the laundry. When I walked by the laundry room it was empty so I hurried back to my RV home to collect the laundry. In the five minutes it took to assemble all paraphernalia and walk back to the laundry all four washing machines had been claimed and loaded by one customer. There was no point in waiting since the lady still had stuff to load into the machines. I now have all the laundry stuff sitting by my door waiting for the next attempt.

For a little bit of exercise I walked down the campground access road which parallels Interstate 95 to the end. It is about a half a mile down and back. Watching the traffic on the interstate was the only interesting thing on the walk. I passed one swamp that looked like it should provide shelter for a lot of wildlife, but I didn’t see anything. The absence of large birds in this area like Ibis, Egrets and Herons has been very noticeable. Either it is too cold in this area for the birds or the food they eat. Even down by the river in downtown St Marys I didn’t see any birds. In previous visits to this area at this time of year I don’t remember missing the birds. The big birds really draw my attention. They look stately and regal.

Tuesday February 12th 2019

Today began similar to Monday with fog. By noon the sun was out and the temperature was climbing into the mid seventies. The approaching front caused a few dramatic interruptions to the sunny day, but it still managed to end with the sun shining.

I didn’t do any particularly blog worthy things today. My camera didn’t capture anything to show off either. Soon after the fog lifted I set off for the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. As I drove to the west the sky started to darken. When I reached the town of Folkston GA near the eastern boarder of the refuge, it started raining hard. Visiting a swamp in the rain didn’t appeal to me so I turned south on US 301 and drove a giant loop into Florida and backup to my campsite on the Florida Georgia line. I’ll try and make another attempt before I leave here.

When I got back to my RV home the dark clouds from the west were just arriving. The wind blew hard for a few minutes and a little rain fell, but not as much as I experienced earlier. The TV weather forecast is calling for the real rain to arrive in the early morning hours. Tomorrow’s high temperatures are expected to be ten to fifteen degrees cooler.

Every day I try to think about things to write in this blog. When I’m playing tourist or out exploring it is usually easy. Days like today are more difficult. I don’t like the monotony of writing three paragraphs on the weather. Instead I want to write about Lincoln’s birthday. A brief mention that it was his birthday on the morning news reminded me of grammar school.

Before the powers that be decided to create another Monday holiday called Presidents Day both Lincoln’s birthday on the 12th and Washington’s birthday on the 22nd were celebrated. Washington’s birthday was an actual holiday that we had off from school but Lincoln’s birthday got a lot of attention in the curriculum. When they moved the holiday to the third Monday in February many states decided to call it Presidents Day rather than Washington’s Birthday. Mr. Lincoln got diminished in significance even more. I wonder if his birthday is still celebrated in grammar schools around the USA. Happy Birthday Mr. Lincoln. Not everybody has forgotten your birthday.