Monday September 5th 2016

Today was a No Labor Day. It was a beautiful day with low humidity and the high temperature in the mid 80s, but I stayed at home most of the day.

The day started slow and never really got going. I turned the TV on in the bedroom and stayed in bed until after 9AM. Then during breakfast I started reading Internet news and blogs. The noon news was on the TV before I finished my breakfast coffee.

This afternoon I went on a mission of discovery. I was looking for a park on a river. The area has plenty of rivers, but I didn’t find any parks. I did discover where the Zoo is located. It’s a possibility for another day.

I also discovered the cruise ship terminals for Jacksonville. A smaller carnival cruise ship was in port. The cruise terminal is located on the north side of the St Johns river. It seems to be in an industrial part of town far from the urban center, but it is near the interstate to the airport.

Another of today’s lazy activities was watching the changes in the RV park. The overnight and weekend campers left my mid day. Many of the longer term residents had taken their rigs out for the long weekend. They started to return early in the afternoon. Toward evening new overnight travelers started to arrive. One difference here is that most of the travelers are Florida residents not a diverse selection of travelers. This park is one of the first or last parks in Florida on Interstate 95 so I would expect to see rigs from all of the eastern states. Then again, smart travelers wouldn’t be here in the hottest part of the year.

Tomorrow is forecast to have similar weather, so I’ve got another chance to get motivated to enjoy it.

Sunday September 4th 2016

This afternoon I visited Fort Clinch State Park on the north end of Amelia Island. It’s about 25 miles north and east of here in an area of Amelia Island that’s more to my liking than the area I was in a couple of weeks ago.

Fort Clinch

The main attraction of the state park is Fort Clinch. It was built starting in 1847 as part of the country’s coastal defenses. The fort is located at the mouth of the St. Mary’s River to protect the deep water port of Fernandina. The port was the eastern end of the railroad going west across the northern part of the state.

Looking through the Sally Port into the courtyard. The period flag is at the center.

View of the fort from high on the rampart.

During the Civil War it was occupied by the south but was soon abandon for strategic reasons to be re-occupied by federal troops. After the Civil War the Fort was put into caretaker status until the Spanish American war. During that brief war, it was again occupied. It became a state park in 1935 but was used by the military again during the Second World War as a base for coastal surveillance activities.

Guns mounted to defend the mouth of the St Mary’s river.

Another view of the interior of the fort.

The facility has been well restored and maintained. You can tour many of the buildings with artifacts from the period on display. Ramps and stairs are available to climb to the top of the walls. Standing beside the cannon aimed at the sea approaches provides a sense of the coverage the fort had. You can walk through galleries in the walls to get a sense of the thickness of the fortifications. In general, it is a very impressive structure that never saw any real action or was every actually completed.

Tidal area in front of the Fort

If I’d planned better, I would have gone to the park yesterday or earlier today. On select weekends throughout the year re-enactments are conducted by volunteers. The first weekend of every month is a re-enactment of Federal Civil War era troops garrisoning the fort. At other times soldiers from different eras and the confederacy are re-enacted.

The weather in the area of Fort Clinch state park was great for a visit today. The sun was out through scattered clouds. A good breeze off the ocean kept the temperature down. Here at the RV park the weather was not as good. It was right on the line between the good weather and a rainy area. Sometimes it would be sunny and sometimes it would cloud over quickly and rain for a minute or two. Tomorrow the line between good and bad is forecast to move further south.

Saturday September 3rd 2016

The weather threatened rain all day with heavy clouds and a few very brief showers. The rain finally arrived at the supper hour. The TV meteorologists say the rain is caused by the “tail of Hermine”. They’ve got to be making this stuff up.

Late this morning I made another visit to the Flea and Farmers market next door to the RV park. It hasn’t improved from two weeks ago. There still weren’t any farmers present. The only vendor selling fruits and vegetables was clearly not a farmer. Everything showed signs of coming from a wholesaler. I came home empty handed.

National Seashore support boats at the dock in St Marys

Sailboat anchored in the St Marys river

Today’s major excursion was to St Mary’s Georgia. This is a historic town on the northern shore of the St. Mary’s river. The river forms the boundary between Georgia and Florida in this area. Two major draws for the town are the mainland facilities for the Cumberland Island National Seashore and the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay. I wanted to learn about the options for visiting the National Seashore.

Watching the river for food.

You need to take a boat out to Cumberland Island to visit the park. There are two boats out and three boats back per day. You really have to dedicate a day or more to see the island. The island is the home to a variety of wildlife including feral horses. The history of the island dates back to the Spanish. The island also played significant roles in the War of 1812, the Civil War and the industrial age with one of the Carnegie homes occupying part of the island. All things that interest me, but I’m not sure I want dedicate a whole day or more right now.

In general, I’m not fully engaged in this lifestyle right now. My attention is divided between the things around me and the sale of the house up north. Why that is the case, I’m not sure. I’m not in travel mode; I’m not in tourist mode; and I’m not in regular living mode. Hopefully, I’ll settle in after the house sale closes.

Friday September 2nd 2016

This should be the last of a weeks worth of blogging about the tropical weather system that became hurricane Hermine. The bottom line is I survived hurricane Hermine. The storm came ashore 160 miles west of here with 80 mph winds about midnight last night, but the time had very little association with how the storm manifested here in Jacksonville.

I spent all day yesterday and most of the evening waiting for something to happen. About 6:30pm the first band of rain and wind associated with the storm came through the area. It got the TV meteorologists excited because there was some tornadic rotation in the band, but it had very little impact to my immediate area. Three hours later another band came through. This one brought more rain and wind and it never really let up until the storm had moved through.

Another 3 hours later, around 12:30, the next band came through. The weather alert radio went off with a tornado warning for an area north of here. Once I reset the radio, I went back to trying to get to sleep. It was not easy, but knowing that the radio would get my attention if another tornado warning occurred, I did get some sleep. Additional heavy bands went through about every 3 hours until noon today.

Clouds to the north after the storm.

The bulk of the wind came this morning. The Jacksonville airport, about 1.5 miles from here, had a peak gust of 46 mph just before noon. By this time the center of the now tropical storm was over 100 miles to the north. Strong winds continued all day, but the sun came out during the afternoon and warmed things up into the high 80s.

This evening I extended the motorhome slide out rooms and raised the satellite antenna. I had stowed these yesterday about 24hours earlier to limit the potential wind damage. I also took my bicycle back off it’s rack on the back of the car. Everything is back to normal.

I think this is the first time I’ve been on the right side of the storm path for a hurricane. This side of the storm is known for having bands of energy with rain, heavy winds and possible tornadoes. The left side of the storm, that I’ve experienced before in New England has heavier rain and less gusty winds and tornadoes. Between the bands on the right side it is possible to get a false sense of security. Prior to the time I got to sleep, I still heard jets passing overhead on their way in for landing at Jacksonville International Airport. I hope they were cargo planes and not passenger service.

Overall the storm didn’t have any physical impact on me or my property. It did cause some emotional turmoil in the form of self anger for not getting out of town when I could. I’d like to think I’ll run next time, but who knows.

Thursday September 1st 2016

It is around 6PM as I’m writing this blog entry. The first wave of wind and rain that is rotating around hurricane Hermine is about 30 minutes away. I’ve spent the day wondering why am I here.

It has been cloudy, calm and very humid all day. The rain has held off to a few short and light showers. I’ve finally found a TV meteorologist that I think I can understand. He is on the non network news focused channel 4. He does a much better job of explaining what is happening and explaining the potential developments that will be coming than the other forecasters on the network channels. Perhaps if I’d been listening to this guy, I’d have known when and where to move to get out of the path of the storm. As I mentioned the other day, if I’d moved at the beginning of the week I’d have moved from the frying pan into the fire. Not moving northwest was a good decision. That is where the storm is currently tracking.

Dull cloudy, but very humid day before the storm.

Other travelers seem to be equally confused or storm challenged. Four new RVs arrived at the campground this afternoon. I’m not sure what direction they were traveling in, but I am surprised that people would stop here before the storm arrived. With my current understanding of the storm I’d get as far south as I could before stopping. However, while traveling it would be very difficult to develop that understanding. I’d probably end up stopping in a strange place as well. Hopefully, this isn’t the wrong place.

I’ve retracted both of the motorhome’s slide-out rooms. This reduces the amount of room in the RV, but it provides one less set of things for the wind to get in and cause damage. At the very least it will make it quieter inside. The flapping of the fabric slide toppers is annoying even in a light wind.

The storm is forecast to last until tomorrow afternoon. It doesn’t even come ashore in the big bend area of Florida until midnight. Bands of wind and rain will be passing through all night and Friday morning. I don’t anticipate getting much sleep.

Wednesday August 31st 2016

I spent most of the day watching the weather forecast and getting ready for whatever it brings. Early this afternoon the darn storm got a name, Hermine. What kind of name is that?

Storm front moving in. After 45 minutes of downpour the sun returned.

It still seems like the media and the local government are preparing for something that the residents of the area aren’t terribly worried about. I talked with a couple of local people today that seemed to boil it down to just another storm. As of 5PM the storm track has moved to the west. This is a good thing according to one TV forecaster and a not so good a thing according to another. I guess only time will tell and even that is changing. The peak of the storm is now Friday morning, about 12 hours later than yesterday’s forecast. I think what I’m not hearing is speculation from the TV forecasters. They just spin the facts hard or soft. It would be nice to know what they suspect will really happen.

I completed a few domestic chores and a couple of prep tasks for the storm. The black and gray tanks got dumped and as a precaution, I filled the water tank with fresh water. Another tank that got filled was the gas tank of my SUV. The motor home gas tank is already filled so the generator has plenty of fuel.

RV park laundry facility.

The major PITA task was doing the laundry. I had enough for three washing machines and two dryer loads. The problems started with the need to buy a money card at the office to operate the machines. The card cost $4 and I loaded $12 onto it. I used all of the stored money, so it cost $16 to complete the laundry. Each load only cost $2, but I screwed up a couple of times. I needed to wash one load twice since I forgot to put the soap in before the door locked. Then one of the dryer loads cost twice what it should have when I didn’t select the type of cycle before the money I had loaded timed out. Overall it took more than two hours to complete. I stayed at the laundry building the whole time as a couple of cloud bursts kept me undercover.

Tuesday August 30th 2016

I’m still in Jacksonville watching the weather. I still don’t believe I’m in any serious risk by staying here. I’m on high ground, the winds aren’t forecast to be to extreme and there aren’t many tall objects to come crashing down. The only real danger is from a random tornado spawned by the tropical storm.

I’m going to use part of this blog entry to attempt to help me and my readers understand my thought process. There are a couple of reasons I haven’t moved. I don’t know which way to run and the TV forecasters are not giving me a consistent understanding of what’s going on.

If I had moved yesterday, I’d have gone north and west. It would have been further from the path of the storm, further from the coast and on the weaker side of the tropical system. I also got the impression that it was less likely the storm would change path in that direction. Good thing I didn’t move. The update this evening says that the storm path has moved that way. If I’d moved south in Florida, I’d be safer now, but yesterday the local forecasters were saying if the path changed it would be toward the south. It is also counter intuitive to move toward a dead end as far as escapes go.

That is symptomatic of my problem with the local TV stations. Even though Jacksonville has a full complement of network and non-network TV stations, several of them are owned by the same company. The CBS and Fox channels share a common news organization as do the ABC and NBC channels. So rather than having four opinions on the coming weather, I only have two from these stations. One is very conservative and fear oriented in its approach and the other seems a little less severe. Which one is more accurate? The whole broadcast approach seems to be “if we scare everybody sufficiently nobody can blame us for not getting the word out. Better err to the bad than fail.” This is the same approach I have observed in New England when it comes to snow storms.

View from the front of the campground. My RV is in the center of the picture at the far end of the short term area. They empty sites in the foreground were filled by 6pm this evening.

There are 150 long term residents at this park. Most of them are easily movable. I have only seen two actually leave the park and I don’t know if the storm was the motivation for the departure. Also of significance to me is that very few of the residents have put stuff away or tied things down. That is consistent with the forecast wind speeds which aren’t much more than those found in many thunderstorms.

I know if this were a hurricane, I’d have moved. As it is the storm isn’t even a tropical storm yet. It will be soon, but it is unlikely to ever become a hurricane. If I’d been here for all the hype and build up last week, maybe I’d have moved. While I knew about the storm last week, it wasn’t until Sunday night that I understood that Jacksonville was in the center of the cross hairs.

The forecasters, that I don’t know how to trust, say the effects of the storm will start to be felt tomorrow.  The main storm will not be here until Thursday.   The current weather pattern has periodic storms coming in off the ocean with gusty winds. It is raining one minute and sunny the next. Basically, that means it is just as risky to move as to stay put.

So, those are my thoughts and observations. I still believe that I’ve made a reasonable decision. If I’m wrong, I’ll leave the RV and head for a shelter. I will have my weather radio set in alert mode from tonight on. I’m not particularly worried, just being cautious. The adventure continues.

The big event for the day was a trip to the post office. Thanks to Google maps, I found a nearby post office about 3 exits south on Interstate 95. The big surprise was the Anheuser-Busch brewery across the street from the post office. I’ll have to go back and take the tour while I’m here.

Monday August 29th 2016

And now we return to regular blogging.

I got back to Jacksonville FL last night. It was a long day of travel. Most of my time was spent waiting for a plane not actually flying. It’s my own fault. I booked a flight with a long layover in Baltimore, then I got to the airport in Boston two hours early. The flights were on time and were in the air about two and half hours total with an hour or so at the gates and on the taxiways. I spent 5 hours in the airports. I got back to my RV home at about 10:15PM after leaving my NH house around 11:30am.

Site the Pecan Park RV Resort.

I returned to cooler weather than I left last week. The temperature peaked this afternoon in the mid 80s with less humidity and more wind. A line of thunderstorms came in off the Atlantic Ocean to cool it down more. The big concern is what the impact to this area will be from Tropical Depression No. 9 that just entered the Gulf of Mexico west of Key West. Jacksonville is currently in the middle of the projected path for Thursday of this week. It is not currently projected to become a hurricane.

The empty sites at the campground

Things have changed a little at the campground. A number of the RVs that were here when I arrived two weeks ago have departed. Since I booked for a month, my site is at the edge of the short term area. Looking across the short term area there was only one unit left this morning. A few more arrived this afternoon. I don’t think the departures are weather related. None of the long term, yet mobile, RVs in the park are leaving. but I am watching the forecast closely. I might pull up stakes and move tomorrow, if the forecast warrants. In what direction and how far remains is unknown for now.

The activity for the day was primarily recovering from travel and restocking the refrigerator. Other than a run to the Walmart Supercenter for a big load of groceries, I spent the day at home.

Sunday August 21st 2016

I got up this morning at 4:30am. The goal was to get to the airport for a 7:05am flight to Boston. I’m spending a week on house issues. I need to get everything finished up by the middle of September to support the closing on the sale.

I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. The security line kept moving so I was sitting at the gate by 5:30. They didn’t start loading for another hour, around 6:30. The flight was just about full and I had a fidgety neighbor in the middle seat so I couldn’t get any real sleep on the first leg of the flight to Baltimore. On the second leg into Boston I got a little sleep, but this time my neighbor thought my ribs were an arm rest for his elbow. Sometime you just can’t win.

I arrived back in New Hampshire about 1PM. So it begins… I won’t be writing a daily blog until next week. So check back next week.

Saturday August 20th 2016

It was a hot day today. After a cloudy start, it turned into a full sunshine from the mid day on. The temperature topped out at about 98 degrees, but not to humid.

My great adventure for the day was to tour Jacksonville’s largest Flea and Farmers Market. It is located next door to the campground. It is held in barn like buildings that seem better suited to horses than people or fleas. There were three long barns of vendors. They had a few fans blowing to try and keep it comfortable, but they failed. It was hot in the buildings.

Pecan Park Flea and Farmers Market. Visible in the picture is about one third of three barns of stuff.

There were merchants selling a little bit of everything. There were several booths selling Chinese tools, a couple of vendors selling cell phone accessories and lots of leather goods. There were a few vendors of crafts and artsy style merchandise as well as a large vendor selling used books.

Perhaps the most unusual vendors were the groomers for people and pets. By that I mean, a barbershop, a hairdresser and a pet groomer all in separate booths. There were a couple of people waiting to get their hair cut and a dog was in the middle of a bath when I went past the booth. It would appear people plan to do things at the flea market.

Outside the barns are attractions for the non-shoppers. A course for All Terain Vehicles (ATVs) was out back that seem to be run similar to a go-cart track. Up front was an Alligator Zoo and a pub in a tent. Other food choices were scattered around the grounds and barns.

I was disappointed that the Farmers part of the market was lacking. First the fruit and produce was at the very back of the furthest barn from the entrance. There were only 3 or 4 vendors selling fruit and produce. One only sold peaches, but the price was high unless you wanted to by a bushel box. Four peaches were $3.50, 2 baskets or 8 peaches were $5.00, but the bushel box was $24.00. I don’t know how many peaches were in the box.

The biggest produce vendor had everything sized in plastic bowls. I just didn’t understand how they decided on the portions. One unit of yellow squash had three or four little squash. It was enough to serve three or four people. On the other hand a single unit of snap peas was only a handful. I guess there was enough for one person.

The flea market is held every Saturday and Sunday. Most if not all of the vendors are long term participants. I’m sure that I’ll be back to really shop instead of just wandering through like I did today. A shopping trip would be much quicker than the hour and a half I spent walking through the place today.