Tuesday July 3rd 2024

Today’s weather was a clone of Monday right down to the threat of storms early that didn’t materialize. The storms held off until 9PM. During the day the temperature climbed into the mid nineties with plenty of humidity and very little wind. The feels like temperature made it to around 105 degrees Fahrenheit.

Tomorrow is a holiday with most everything open, but for some reason I was operating under the theory that stores would be closed until Monday. I went grocery shopping at Walmart and bought more than I usually do. The supply was intended to last until the world reopens. I know this is all wrong, but it does represent my behavior.

Walmart was very busy. The food section looked as busy as the day before Thanksgiving. All of the aisles were full of regular shoppers, Walmart online pickers, and stock people refilling the shelves. In some areas it was very congested. At the checkouts an interesting inversion was happening. The self service lanes had a long line, but all of the “assisted” checkouts were open and many didn’t have any line at all. Given my impression that there was no shopping for a while I spent more on groceries today than I can remember.

Walking around the RV resort this afternoon I spotted more instances of Independence Day decorations. There are more instances of small American flags placed near some of the resort buildings. It is nice that they are decorating, but these little flags look a little strange.

Tuesday July 2nd 2024

I seem to be obsessed with lawn mowing. Over the years I have often commented in this blog about how annoying RV park lawn mowing activity can be. Recently I’ve been commenting on the need or lack there of for a good mowing in this RV park. A couple of days ago, in this blog, I asked when they would get around to mowing the grass in the RV resort. The answer was today.

This morning while I was preparing breakfast I heard the sound of a lawn mower. Sure enough a mower was cutting the grass behind my RV. My breakfast got delayed as I watched the guy mow the grass. Why? I don’t know, but for the next half hour or so I sat in my chair and watched the guy go back and forth across the field. Eventually, I got back to brewing my coffee and baking my muffins. The next thing I know, I was watching the lawn get mowed around my site and between neighboring sites. If the oven bell didn’t go off I might never of gotten back to breakfast. Later in the day a guy with a string trimmer came around to work on the edges near the RVs and what not. Still later a guy with a blower came around to clear the cut grass off the concrete pads.

Today’s fascination with lawn mowing really put an egg beater into my rough plans for the day. The morning was the only part of the day that dry outdoor activities were probable. It was shortly after noon by the time I was ready to leave my RV home and the black clouds were on the horizon. Today’s plans were made up if things I might do, not had to do. Inclement weather has a way of turning might do into some other time do.

As it turns out the rain never fell in this immediate area. The area toward Disney and the area south of here likely got clobbered. At the RV resort I was able to get in my usual walks. I was surprised to see one odd patriotic decoration. Someone, I don’t think it was park staff, put two small American flags along the walkway to one of the bath houses.

Monday July 1st 2024

It is hard to believe that the year 2024 is half over. I spent the first three months traveling around Florida and the second three mostly in one place here in central Florida. The remainder of the year will probably be a mixture of both sitting in one place and traveling on short hops. I really haven’t been making many hard travel plans, just a few nights here and there. This is the lowest level of travel preparedness I’ve had since before the pandemic.

Today was a very nice day. The humidity and chance of rain was much lower than any day in the last two weeks. The sky was blue without many clouds all day and the temperature only climbed slightly north of ninety degrees. There is the possibility of some rain overnight.

Walking around the RV resort today I saw several (4 I think) RVs from California. They are all new arrivals in the last week. Each of them are families with kids judging by the bicycles and other outdoor recreation paraphernalia. One is most likely a family relocating to the area based on the UHaul box trailer in their front yard. I started wondering about how long they have been on the road. It is about 2400 miles from here to Los Angles. At a steady fast, but not rushed, pace of three to four hundred miles a day that would take six to eight days. Most likely, you’d stop often and spend multiple nights in some places. That would stretch things out to close to a month. My quickest and longest relocation was from Florida to Phoenix Arizona in six days. That was a task for a solo driver that I haven’t repeated on other east west or west east trips. The next east west trip from Florida to Albuquerque New Mexico had eight stops over thirteen nights. Slower is always better.

On my second walk of the day, the friendly rabbit and the frighten statue of a rabbit were out and about. The friendly one lets me get within about ten feet before it gets ready to run and stares me down. If I stand still, it will eventually go back to its business of eating. The one I call a statue freezes before I even see it. From about thirty or forty feet away I watch it not moving a muscle. If I look the other way for a couple of seconds, it takes the opportunity to travel like lightening into the brush. They are still fun to watch.

Sunday June 30th 2024

I was expecting a similar weather day today to yesterday. The day began a little brighter, but the clouds moved in quickly and the afternoon rain approached as well. Once the rain began yesterday it continued into the evening. Today the rain stopped around 4:30 and the sky cleared. Soon the clouds were all gone and the temperature and humidity were down.

I spent a lazy day doing a few chores around my RV home and a little bit of touring around the area. Expecting that I wouldn’t get a chance for a walk around the RV resort with my camera, I stopped at the Lowes home improvement store to take a few pictures of the blossoms in the garden center. The pictures in this blog entry are from that stop.

It turned out I was able to get an evening walk around the RV resort in. This was the first full length walk around the park I’ve been able to complete in several days. The changes were subtle. Water from the storms over the last few days accumulated in some of the lower holding areas. The grass throughout the area has turned very green and is getting quite tall. Thursday is the usual lawn mowing day, but it is a holiday this week. I wonder when the grass will get cut.

In general there are more occupied sites than there were a couple of months ago. The extended weekend coming up starting on Thursday the 4th will probably bring more people to the park. A couple of long term residents took their rigs away for a short “vacation”. At least that’s the easy conclusion when you see a site without the RV, but all of the outside paraphernalia still in place.

Saturday June 29th 2024

Today began with a little more sun than Friday, but it was still humid. As the morning went by the clouds increased. By noon it was a heavily overcast day with storm clouds in the distance. The thunderstorms arrived around four and continued until about seven.

I was out running errands south of my RV home when the storm arrived. Watching the air to ground lightening as I drove north toward home was a combination of dread for what I might find when I got home and awe at the spectacle nature was providing. There was just a lot of water on the ground when I got home.

The rain kept me from taking my early evening walk around the RV resort. That also took away my last opportunity of the day for capturing some pictures for this blog entry. I stepped outside my RV home in a light rain to see what I could find for pictures that describe the day. Rain falling in a puddle seemed to be appropriate and the wild lush green grass along the side of the concrete RV pad shows the impact of all the rain. The grass was brown and very stringy a little over a week ago. Today it is dark green and in need of mowing. This weather pattern will probably be in place most of the summer.

Friday June 28th 2024

Today’s operative word was “humid”. It was overcast all day so the temperature was manageable. The temperature varied from the high eighties to about ninety, but the humidity was constantly high. The transition out of air conditioning was like hitting a wall of very hot air. Late in the morning a few brief periods of rain passed through quickly. The real culmination of the humidity came around 5pm when a two plus hour rain storm with lots of rain, thunder and lightening commenced.

My day was filled with chores and errands. Yesterday’s fun stuff at EPCOT was in the rear view mirror, but I’ve included a few pictures of the flower blossoms I enjoyed seeing.

Thursday June 27th 2024

The rain showers were a little more scattered today. They also came on schedule and departed as forecast as well. The showers started around 2:30PM and ended before 6PM.

I used the rain schedule to my advantage. I went to Disney’s EPCOT for dinner this evening and stayed for the Luminous A Symphony of Us fireworks show. Dinner wasn’t fancy. I returned for the Fish and Chips at the UK pavilion. It was better tonight than the last time I had it.

After dinner I walked around the World Showcase and visited a few attractions before the 9PM fireworks show. I was impressed by the art exhibit at the American Adventure called Portraits in Courage. It is a series of Oil Paintings by former president George Bush of US Military personnel. His style isn’t precise, but it gets the point across.

Shortly before 9PM I lined up around the lagoon with everyone else for the fireworks. The afternoon rain cleared the park out a lot. There was plenty of room in some of the better viewing areas.

Wednesday June 26th 2024

The temperature climbed into the mid nineties under a sunny sky this morning. As the afternoon arrived so did the clouds. Starting with fluffy clouds they soon turn more menacing. At various points in time dark black clouds would appear around the area. Sometimes the storms would emit thunder or show a bright flash of lightening. It was all in the hands of luck if you got caught in some rain or not. Today I didn’t.

My food supply was getting pretty low today. I didn’t have any bread for toast with my coffee or for lunch time sandwiches. In fact, even my supply of coffee was getting low. My freezer still had a few options that could be thawed, but the main part of the refrigerator was very sparsely populated. This afternoon I made the necessary food run.

The low supplies at home caused me to break one of the common rules. You should never go food shopping while hungry. I came home with breakfast pastries, mini donuts, eclairs, and cupcakes in the sweets and carbs line. One or two would have been plenty. In the primary protean area I bought a piece of steak, hamburg and more sandwich meet. While these are common purchases, the portion size I purchased today was on the bigger end of common. The rest of the stuff seemed to be fairly normal when I unpacked the bags into the refrigerator and cabinets.

Walmart was very busy this afternoon, but they had plenty of staff at the checkouts. There were actually more “assisted” checkouts in use than self checkouts percentage wise. Walmarts in this area get plenty of tourists. They stock the food side of the building with a lot of snacks and drinks. In the clothing area they have a fare selection of Disney merchandise and the pharmacy area seems to have areas focused on travelers issues as well. Today I was behind one family at the checkout that was clearly stocking a vacation home. Their shopping cart had snacks, drinks, microwavable items and Disney tee shirts. The only health items in the cart was some fruit. Seeing tourists in the store isn’t unusual. On several occasions I have seen apparent tourists speaking unknown languages basically gawking at the size of the store and the varieties of selections.

My daily walk this afternoon and evening was broken into two shorter walks. The threatening weather didn’t give me the confidence to explore beyond easy return distance. The black clouds seem to have a mind of their own.

Tuesday June 25th 2024

This was a lazy day. I got a few chores done, but not much else. The weather was threatening off and on all day. The temperature peaked in the low nineties with lots of humidity.

Here are a couple of pictures from my late afternoon walk. Heavy dark clouds without rainfall had recently passed overhead and cooled things off for a few minutes.

Monday June 24th 2024

On the positive side, today was a warm sunny day. The down side was the high humidity and the changing prospect of thunderstorms throughout the day. At one point in the middle of the afternoon the forecast showed the chance of rain for the remainder of the day at zero. That was overly optimistic. A line of strong thunderstorms arrived from the west around 8:30 in the evening.

With the rain seemingly under control I planned to spend the evening at Disney’s Magic Kingdom. It took about an hour to get from my RV home to the main gate. It has been taking from half an hour to a forty five minutes. Tonight I caught a lot of traffic getting to Walt Disney World and then getting across the Seven Seas Lagoon to the park from the parking lot at the Ticket and Transportation center took extra time as well.

The park wasn’t extremely busy, but it was hot. Outside queues in the sun were a no go for me. I walked up the west side of the park through Adventure Land into Frontier Land. The wait times at Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean were long, so I continued walking right by. My first stop turned out to be dinner at Columbia Harbor House. The menu has changed since my last visit. The fried shrimp I had was a new menu item. It was OK, but I probably won’t order it again. To make up for the fried shrimp I got a Hot Fudge Brownie Sunday in Tomorrow Land.

After a ride on the Tomorrow Land Transit Authority People Mover and a visit to the Mickey’s Philharmagic show I spotted a big dark cloud with lightening flashes on the western horizon. I made the decision to head for home. I could skip from indoor attraction to indoor attraction, but in an electrical storm the evening fireworks were probably not going to happen.

I got home by 8:30 with the rain associated with the line of storms just starting. It got progressively worse over the next hour. The lightening was really impressive (scary) and the sound of rain on the roof was intense.