Tuesday May 14th 2024

I woke up this morning to learn there was a tornado watch in the counties north of Orlando until 1PM. Last night I was under the impression that today was going to be a dry day. A line of thunder storms was moving in from the Gulf of Mexico and would be in this area by noon.

This was a winter style storm front with summer time temperatures. It was a potentially dangerous situation. It was humid and cloudy all morning. Near noon, massive dark clouds appeared on the western horizon along with the sound of thunder. Not long after that a lot of very strong wind rocked my RV home as the leading edge of the line of storms hit my RV home broadside. Later in the day I saw a couple of wind damaged temporary signs out on the main highway. The storm lasted about half an hour with heavy rain falling the whole time. The cloud cover thinned during the afternoon and the sun filtered through to warm the day into the low eighties.

Most of my day was focused on chores around the RV. The clutter that tends to accumulate during a long stay is starting to get noticeable. I spent some time putting things away and considering the need to vacuum and possible even wash the vinyl floor. The outcome of my consideration was “not today”. I really need to do a full “spring cleaning” before summer arrives.

My walk around the park today was about four hours after the rain ended. There were still several big puddles remaining in the lower area near the lake. The flower beds left behind by departed snowbirds have started to show signs of neglect and the rain seemed to hasten the dropping of blossoms. These flower beds have been the source of many of my flower pictures in past blogs. Today there was nothing photogenic remaining in the beds.

Monday May 13th 2024

Today was another day of waiting for the rain. The day began very cloudy and humid. A strong breeze out of the southeast kept the temperature down, but if you were out of the breeze the humidity was oppressive.

Unlike yesterday and similar days in the past month, rain actually arrived. Around 3:30 in the afternoon light rain fell on the roof of my RV home for a couple of minutes. Once again I was asking if that was all there was to it. Today there was more to come. The sound of thunder to the southwest was constant for the next hour. It was followed by a real thunderstorm. It was short but filled with heavy rain. The rain wont do a lot to help the long dry spell in the area, but it did wash the dust off my car. More rain is forecast later in the week.

Before the rain I got in a little shopping. It was mostly for groceries, but I also managed to buy a couple of shirts to replace ones that I threw away recently. Lately I’ve been buying inexpensive quality shirts that probably wont last the years of wear I got out of the ones I threw away, but finding stores with good quality shirts is a challenge.

As far as grocery shopping goes, I got everything I wanted with one exception. I didn’t buy onions. I cook with onions often, so I go through them quickly. Today I found one onion in the entire Walmart produce section. It was in the loose vegetables section. The area for bagged onions was empty of all varieties. There were plenty of potatoes just no onions. The shipment most not have come in.

The thunderstorm kept me from getting in my daily walk around the RV park. That means I am going to be surprised by departures and other changes when I get to my next walk around the park.

Sunday May 12th 2024

I allowed the TV weather prognosticators to get me all excited about the prospect of rain. The day began cloudy and proceeded to get even darker as the morning progressed. Around noon the sound of light intermittent tapping on the roof of my RV home indicated that it was trying to rain. The long awaited and needed rain seemed to be starting. A few minutes later the sounds were gone and looking outside didn’t show any sign of moisture on the concrete or roads. The expected rain storm was a bust. There is another chance tomorrow.

Most of the grass in the RV resort is now brown and dry. The few exceptions are at the long term residents sites who have taken on the task of watering the grass around their sites. These sites are little islands of green in the sea of brown. The question remains if the site residents will also take on responsibility for mowing. The park wide landscaping crew hasn’t used a mower in several weeks. They seem to be focused on trimming alone.

The drought conditions should change when the true summer weather pattern arrives. Right now the absence of rain has resulted in brush fire warnings in many areas. The current conditions don’t qualify as an actual National Weather Service drought since the weather is consistent with seasonal normal behavior. Still, the TV weather talkers are sure talking about rain with anticipation. The summer rain pattern begins toward the end of the month.

On today’s walk around the RV park I found more RVs closed up with the outside stuff tied down. A couple of sites with lots of outdoor patio stuff were now empty of the accompanying RV. The RV was off to cooler climates, but the site and sometimes the golf cart were waiting for the return. Everybody has their own schedules. I’m just continuously surprised by the ones that I thought were staying for the summer transition to gone so quickly as they do.

Saturday May 11th 2024

The temperature peaked in the low nineties a few degrees below Friday. Every morning there is a small chance of rain forecast in the late afternoon to early evening, but by mid day it is clear that rain is not going to happen. The drought in this area continues.

The pictures in this blog entry are from yesterday’s visit to EPCOT. All of the flowers in bloom during the International Flower and Garden Festival make the park beautiful. It is one of the reasons the International Flower and Garden Festival is my favorite festival at my favorite Disney World park. This year they seem to have a lot of flower beds planted with more complex blossoms like flowers in the lily family. They still have plenty of beds with impatience, geraniums and similar flowers. All of them lend color to the overall environment.

Friday May 10th 2024

Most of the day a layer of clouds kept the sun from fully warming the air. It only reached the low to mid nineties today. Late in the day the clouds started to thin and the temperature climbed the rest of the way to the days highs.

I was off to Disney’s EPCOT late this afternoon for a meal and some entertainment. The parking lot didn’t appear to be particularly full, but the crowds inside seemed to be heavy. Wait times for attractions were also long. I wandered around checking on the flowers, butterflies, topiaries, the entertainment and generally people watching. For dinner, I had a BBQ Brisket sandwich with french fries and onion rings at the Regal Eagle restaurant in the American Pavilion. The sandwich and fries were great, but the onion rings not so much.

I took plenty of pictures over the five plus hours I wandered around the park. I’ve included many here.

Thursday May 9th 2024

The sky was clear blue all day. This allowed the temperature to climb into the upper nineties. A constant breeze made it a comfortable day despite the high temperature.

Once again my day was not very blog entry worthy. I attempted to do a few errands that involved wandering in and out of some stores. Back at my RV home I took my usual walk around the RV resort. The only surprise was a tree I hadn’t paid any attention to turned out to be a Magnolia that is now in bloom. I had a little success getting a picture or two of the blossoms.

Wednesday May 8th 2024

The temperature peaked in around 95 degrees late this afternoon, but it felt much cooler than yesterday’s 90 degree high. There was a lot more wind today and the humidity was average. The trend is forecast to continue through the end of the week. Tomorrow may be the warmest day of the week pushing at the 98 degree high for the date.

Today turned out to be a chores around my RV home kind of day. I got a little bit of cleaning and decluttering done. The tanks also needed dumping. That little chore is quick and easy but always has a tiny bit of risk associated with it. I always check the connections and hose position before pulling the valves. Another task I need to accomplish is washing the windows. The outsides have developed a film of dirt. I keep hoping for a period of rain to tackle that task, but I’ll probably have to dig a squirt bottle out of storage to complete the task.

Walking around the RV park today, I noticed a lot more changes in the occupancy level of the park. The rate of departures seems to have slowed down, but a new pattern has developed. A lot more RVs have been closed up for the summer. Their slide rooms have been retracted. The outside patio furniture stowed away. In some cases golf carts have been covered and strategically placed to shelter from sun and wind. The sewer and water hoses at some RVs have been disconnected and stowed. These are all obvious signs of an RV in storage, but not everybody wants to be obvious. In a couple of cases neighbors are parking their cars to make unoccupied RVs seem occupied.

Tuesday May 7th 2024

My plan was to go to Disney’s Animal Kingdom this morning, but I got a late start to the day. Animal Kingdom is always better early or late in the day. The animals are more active during those times of day. Today was also a very warm day. The temperature peaked just above ninety degrees. The weather pattern is still not a true summer pattern, so the coastal wind patterns were not available to keep the conditions mitigated.

Since the Animal Kingdom was scheduled to close at 6PM, a late afternoon visit wasn’t in the cards. I arrived at the park around 2PM. It wasn’t very busy. The wait for the Kilimanjaro Safari was listed at 5 minutes, but was essentially a walk on. They were only loading from on of the two truck loading platforms. Many of the animals were as expected sleeping in the shade. Others were probably back stage in their air conditioned enclosures. Still, plenty of animals were available to entertain including the baby elephant.

After riding the safari, I walked the Gorilla trail. The zebras and hippopotamus were all in view. The gorilla family had just returned outside from an afternoon nap in their air conditioned home. They were very energetic. The little ones were trying to harass their elders into playing without a lot of success.

I consider the safari and the gorilla trail the heart of the Animal Kingdom park. Once I completed touring those exhibits I considered my visit to the park a success. Today I walked around other areas of the park, but I started to feel the temperature. There aren’t a lot of air conditioned areas in the park that aren’t gift shops or restaurants. To get relief from the heat, people were huddling in the shade and in dark corners all over the park. I decided it wasn’t worth the heat to continue wandering around the park during the heat of the day and returned home a little earlier than planned.

Monday May 6th 2024

The mercury is climbing in the old thermometer or the digits are climbing in the newfangled electronic thermometer. Either way you look at it it is getting warmer. Today’s sky was filled with lots of fluffy clouds and only a slight chance of an afternoon rain shower. The temperature peaked around ninety degrees. Warmer days are in the forecast for the rest of the week.

I went to the big outlet mall near Disney today. It was my first visit. I’ve been to the older outlet mall at the north end of International Drive near the Universal theme parks before, but today was my first visit to its newer sister mall. The outlet mall on Vineland Drive has been there for many years. It is just new to me.

It is very popular place. On a week day afternoon I had a hard time finding a parking space. There were lots of people walking the maze of walkways between shops. This is the first mall I’ve ever seen roped off lines outside the doors of shops. The biggest line was understandable at the Disney Character Warehouse, but they were common at other stores as well.

My intent was shoe shopping. The pair I wear most of the time is nearing the end. I’ve been buying shoes from Amazon the last few years, but thought I’d check a few of the outlet shoe stores. What I found were shoes slightly higher in price than Amazon, but with a store “sale” of buy one get another pair of equal or lesser price for half price. This seemed to be the approach at all the shoe stores in the outlet mall. I don’t need two pair and I wasn’t wowed by anything I saw. I think its back to shopping at Amazon.

Sunday May 5th 2024

Last night and this morning the weather forecast called for the day to follow the summer pattern. A line of thunderstorms would pass through the area some time from the afternoon to early evening. I tried to plan my day around it except Mother Nature had other ideas. The revised forecast around the noon hour didn’t call for any rain in this area. The rain was going to stay north and east of Orlando today. For the most part that is what happened. The only sign of rain in this area was a big black cloud that passed by to the north with a few dribbles of rain about 6PM. The drought continues.

My original plan was to use the rainy period for grocery shopping and push my outdoor activities into the other parts of the day. Despite the improving forecast, I still shortened my outdoor activities and went grocery shopping in the late afternoon. Walmart was busy. There were plenty of people that checked their patience at the door and forgot to use common sense while going up and down aisles looking for food. It is a common problem that I’m not immune to either. Today evidence of the behavior was in full force. Congested aisles only get more congested when people tried to enter when others are trying to exit in parallel. One of these days I’ll remember not to go grocery shopping at Walmart on Sunday afternoon. Still I managed to get everything I needed.

Once I got back to my RV home and put the groceries away, I attempted to take my long walk of the day. As I got further and further from my RV home the big black cloud to the north got more and more ominous. I had to make a decision to believe in the weather forecast and continue my walk or cut it short and return home and close the windows. I decided to honor the threat and returned home. The dribble of rain was over by the time I closed the windows.