Sunday June 23rd 2024

I have come to the conclusion that the weather forecasters are incapable of predicting when rain will arrive during the central Florida summer. At the beginning of the day today rain was predicted with various levels of probability from 11AM until nightfall. As 11AM approached the forecast was moved out to 2PM and then 4PM until about 9PM. It actually rained in this area around 5PM for half an hour at most. This changing forecast has been the case every day for the last couple of weeks. There are just too many variables and the showers tend to be very scattered. When the sun was out the temperature climbed to the low nineties with high humidity making it feel like it was over 100 degrees, but mot of the day some clouds obscured the sun keeping the temperature in the mid to upper eighties with the same high humidity.

Why do people bring golf carts to the RV resort when they are only going to be here for a week or less? Since I prefer to walk a lot, I can’t see the value. It gets particularly bad when the golf cart doesn’t behave. In the last few days I’ve seen two different golf carts getting towed back to their sites. This morning the one next door only seemed to need charging.

This RV resort has a 10 MPH speed limit. Most golf carts don’t have a speed gauge and many are driven with the pedal to the metal. From past experience I think that is well above the posted speed limit. The quiet moving vehicles can be a real menace to walkers. It is interesting that many RV resorts I’ve been in have rules against electric bicycles for these very safety reasons. Probably because the resort staff uses golf carts for day to day operations they don’t have any rules against them other than the driver must be licensed. Some parks do require the golf cart be insured as well. As electric bicycles get more common, I suspect the parks with restrictions will relax a little. This park doesn’t have any issues with electric bicycles. One even broke down in the street across form my RV home a couple of weeks ago. You’d think they could pedal or walk it home, but the male member of the couple walked home for a truck while the female member of the couple guarded the bikes.

The bunnies were out again on my evening walk. The grass looked to be pretty tall again in the area they were nibbling.

Saturday June 22nd 2024

Today’s sky was threatening from the time I got up until darkness arrived. The forecast agreed. At least a 20 percent chance of rain was listed for every hour of the day. Toward late afternoon the chance of rain climbed above the fifty degree mark. What it boiled down to is lots of little pop up intense storms. I don’t think any rain fell on my RV home, but I drove through several while I was out. This is likely to be the pattern in this area through the summer. Today when the sun was blocked by clouds it was a comfortable, but humid day. When the sun hit you directly, it was hot with a feels like in the triple digits.

I did chores in the morning followed by random driving style wandering in the afternoon. I drove to the Winter Haven area in search of a park on a lake which turned out to be a boat launch with nothing remotely resembling a park. It was still a nice drive although traffic in the Lego Land area was intense. I think the theme park emptied out when a rain shower passed trough.

Back at the RV resort this evening I took my usual walk. It is surprising how full the park looks this weekend compared to the end of April. There are no massive empty areas. Most of the sites I can see from my site are full. The exception is the site immediately next to me. I suspect it is marked as out of service. They took the picnic table away a week or so ago to fix it.

Friday June 21st 2024

The lawn crew was back to finish the job of mowing the park this morning. I got woken up to the sound of a gas string trimmer outside my bedroom window. While I appreciate that the lawn got mowed, did they have to wake me up so rudely? It managed to really screw up my morning. I was dressed and drinking my first cup of coffee, when I realized I forgot to take a shower.

It was a very overcast morning with a forecast for rain in the afternoon into the evening. The rain forecast was very much a Florida summer day forecast. After letting the forecast get in my way the last couple of days, I just took a “damn the torpedoes full speed ahead” approach today. I drove north into Lake County and walked around in some of the county parks around the lakes in Clermont and a little way north. The rain cooperated to the extent that it only rained while I was driving. The brief downpours required the maximum setting on my wiper blades, but it was over in a minute or two. While I was out walking everything was dry.

The rain didn’t fall on my RV home while I was out. It was nice enough to wait for me to get home. The five minute burst of rain on my RV home happened while I was eating dinner. Later, as the sun was setting, the sky started to clear for the first time all day. Tomorrow seems to be a repeat of today weather wise.

Thursday June 20th 2024

This morning was a cloudy and dull weather day. In mid afternoon about five minutes of big rain drops fell light a fanfare for the arrival of the sun. The remainder of the day was sunny and windy. The high temperature for the day was right around the ninety degree mark.

This was a three act day, except the final act was different than planned. The first act of my daily activities was completing a few chores around the RV. The clutter was starting to get ahead of me. I spent an hour or so putting things away and catching up on the dishes. The drain had a few too many food crumbs accumulated to flow properly. Getting everything unplugged took a few extra minutes.

My second act of the day was a few errands. Traffic was moving pretty well today. One surprise was the price of gas. It is sixteen to twenty cents higher than it was this past weekend. With my errands complete I returned to my RV home to drop off a couple of things, before going to Disney’s Magic Kingdom for the evening.

This is where my plans changed. As I was killing time to sync my arrival at the park with the 5PM flag retreat in the Magic Kingdom, I fell asleep. Watching the flag retreat wasn’t going to happen and my overall enthusiasm for a late afternoon and evening visit to the Magic Kingdom didn’t wake up with me after my nap. Instead, I cook some dinner and took one of my usual walks around the RV resort.

Tonight there were more squirrels around the park than rabbits. I saw close to ten different squirrels but only one rabbit. The grass did get mowed today in the area I have been seeing most of the rabbits. That is probably why they are elsewhere. As far as the lawn moving goes, it looks good where they mowed. Unfortunately, they didn’t mow in my area of the park. All the rain has produced a lot of tall sparse and shaggy grass in my area of the park. I wonder when they will get to it.

Wednesday June 19th 2024

In this blog entry we continue the saga of fighting with the weather. When I went to bed last night the forecast called for rain shortly after the noon hour. I planned to get up early (for me) and go to Disney’s Animal Kingdom for the morning. Well, I got up late and the weather had its own plans.

While I was eating breakfast I started watching a YouTube live stream video from Walt Disney World. The YouTube channel ResortTV1 was in the Disney Parks trying to ride all the rides in one day. They started at 7:30 and planned to end at 1AM Thursday. The rain caught them at 10AM. It started at my RV Home a half an hour later.

The updated forecast called for rain through mid afternoon. My updated plan was to head for the parks as soon as the rain passed through the area I was aiming for 4PM. That time came and went. It was almost 6PM before a little bit of blue started to appear in the sky. By then getting to Disney and into the park wouldn’t happen until 7PM or later. Tomorrow is another day.

I continued to watch the YouTube stream from ResortTV1 all day. I’m still watching it now as I write this blog entry. The rain and ride breakdowns have kept them from succeeding in their challenge to ride all the rides, but they are still very entertaining and I think they are having fun.

Before dark I got to take a walk around the RV resort. It is the first time I was out all day. All of the bunny rabbits were out this evening. The rain over the last couple of days really caused the grass to grow. The rabbits were having a real feast eating the tall grass. They better eat quick. Tomorrow is lawn moving day.

Tuesday June 18th 2024

Today’s weather was pretty much the same as the day before. It was a cloudy with a strong wind out of the east. It looked like it might rain at any time, but the only rain we got was a very brief shower in the mid afternoon.

For some reason I was operating in low energy mode today. I slept fine overnight, but also managed to doze off several times during the day as well. Eventually I forced myself to get out for a grocery run.

Walmart was busy today. Just finding a parking place was a bit challenging. A big tent has been setup in the parking lot. I assume it is to sell fireworks for the fourth of July. Inside the store there were plenty of shoppers and an excess number of employees in the aisles. For some reason there was a least one set of employees in most every aisle straightening out the shelves. They weren’t stocking the shelves just bring the stock from the back of the shelf to the front. There were a couple of other employees sweeping the aisles with big brooms. Maybe they have an inspection coming.

Checking out was a time consuming task today. They had plenty of lines open, but the average grocery cart was three quarters full. It took longer than normal for each customer to get checked out. I didn’t check the time, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was twenty minutes to half an hour.

Monday June 17th 2024

Today looked a lot like yesterday with fluffy clouds that blocked the sky most of the time. Unlike yesterday it wasn’t as humid or as hot and the forecast didn’t call for any rain. The temperature even peaked in the upper eighties below the usual high for this time of year.

The bad news about the weather is the forecast was wrong. It rained while I was out on my walk around the RV park. I had to take shelter for about half an hour under the roof at the shuffle board courts near Lake Davenport. This is the first day in a while that my walk around the park got to that far away point. Over the last few days the weather either rain or heat have kept my walks closer to home.

I was surprised to see a couple of more resident changes in the lower area of the park near the lake. Two RVs that I assumed would be there all summer were gone. They will be back. Their flowers and patio structures are waiting for them. One RV that departed a month or so ago is back. I am not sure for how long, since they don’t seem to be setting up camp much other than watering their extensive flower gardens. The coming and goings during the summer at this park seems to be interesting to observe. In general, the park is much more active now in the middle of the hot season than it was at the end of the snowbird season. Most of the RVs seem to come in for a week or two.

Up in my area of the RV resort, another RV that was here when I arrived has returned. They are not on the same site, but they are easy to recognize. They seem to overflow their site. They park cars on the paved area and on the grass. A big screened porch structure takes up more of the grass. Last night the only place they seemed to be able to find to sit was behind their RV. Unfortunately, the place behind their RV they chose was in the road. It was difficult for cars trying to make the turn onto my road. They had to maneuver to avoid them. The park security golf cart stopped by their site later in the evening. Some of the behaviors seem to have changed, but why was it an issue in the first place. They clearly weren’t in a safe place.

Sunday June 16th 2024

Today was a lot like yesterday both weather wise and with my activities. It wasn’t a very blog content worthy day. After a slow morning reading and watching some TV, I headed out for a few errands in the mid afternoon. The sky was filled with fluffy white clouds with a few gaps for sun when I entered Target for a little shopping (looking). Upon exiting the store a few minutes later, the same clouds were now dark near black and stretched high into the air. A thunderstorm was forming practically overhead.

During the warm season winds blow in off the Atlantic and off the Gulf of Mexico. When the winds meet somewhere in the middle of the Florida Peninsular storms form. Where they form depends on the strength of the wind from each direction. Today they seemed to meet a little east of my RV home. I made it home before the storm hit. Heavy rain, wind, thunder and entertaining lightening lasted for about an hour. The cloud to ground lightening in the distant sky are interesting to watch as long as you don’t consider the potential damage and danger they represent.

While I was out this afternoon I filled up the gas tank. Gas prices are down a little from the last time I filled the tank. I filled my tank at the nearby Race Trac for $3.19 a gallon. I saw gas as low as $3.09 later in the day. A couple of weeks ago it was over $3.39 a gallon. The price volatility remains a thing to watch.

Saturday June 15th 2024

I fell into the fear the forecast mode again today. This morning the hour by hour forecast for this immediate area called for rain starting in the 11AM hour. The sky was filled with clouds this morning, so it seemed very possible. Eleven came and went without any rain. The updated hourly forecast called for the rain to start at 2PM, but the forecast kept moving out until a little rain arrived shortly after 5PM.

The 5PM rain was very light and brief. It didn’t live up to the build up. I thought I’d dodged another one, but before 6PM arrived the rain, wind, thunder and lightening arrived with a great deal of ferocity. For the better part of the next hour the sound of rain on the roof of my RV home was a continuous roar and the coach rocked a bit in the wind too. I think this may have been the strongest daytime storm I’ve experienced at this site.

The storm moved out quickly. It seemed to go from downpour to nothing like turning off a faucet. I was able to take a walk around the park before dark. There was plenty of evidence of the rain. Sand and leaves along the side of the road were scared by water channels. The smaller drainage pond at the bottom of the hill was filled with water. It will likely be dry again by morning. The bigger drainage ponds just had a lot of dark mud like runoff on the grass, but no standing water.

The bottom line of all this was the ever changing forecast caused (allowed) me to do next to nothing all day. I watched a little TV, read some blither on the internet and watched the weather forecast change. Combined with a few light chores and some cooking it made for a full day.

Friday June 14th 2024

Today’s weather forecast called for a low chance of rain late in the afternoon. The morning and early afternoon were very humid with lots of sun. Not wanting the weather to control another day, I headed off to Disney’s EPCOT in the afternoon.

I have wanted to see the new section of the park that opened on Monday. The weather has interfered with my plans each day this week. The Communicore Hall and Communicore Court Yard opened Monday. It is the final section of the re-imagined and reconstructed Future World Area that has been under construction for years. This area includes includes event space, a meet and greet area for Micky, Minnie and Goofy and an outdoor stage surrounded by a court yard. Currently there is an Encanto inspired show on the stage during the day. Overall the area has a lot of seating and shade, but the show wasn’t my cup of tea.

The humidity made wandering around EPCOT very uncomfortable. The lines at all the drinking fountains were long. I spent most of my time indoors and never reached the World Showcase part of the park. Shortly after five a big dark cloud appeared in the northeastern sky. I decided it wasn’t worth getting soaked by the afternoon rain and headed for the parking lot. My RV home is located to the west of the Disney park. I managed to get home without driving in any rain. From home I watched the storm clouds thicken over the EPCOT resort. The TV forecasters and my weather radar app showed the storm heading in my direction, but it never got here. It seemed to pass to the south.