Tuesday February 13th 2024

The warm weather trend is over. The temperature only reached the high sixties today with a strong north wind. On the positive side the sun was only blocked by light clouds occasionally.

My afternoon was filled with errands that ended in the vicinity of Disney’s EPCOT. The International Festival of the Arts is still ongoing at EPCOT. I really enjoy looking at the art. I entered the main gate just before 5PM. My plan was to differ touring EPCOT for a little while, by riding the Skyliner to some of the resort hotels for a little touring. The Skyliner is an aerial gondola that departs from EPCOT’s International Gateway. It goes from the back of EPCOT near the France pavilion to the Caribbean Beach Resort with a stop at the Riviera resort on the way. From the main hub at the Caribbean Beach additional lines go to Hollywood Studios theme park and a station in the lake between the Art of Animation resort hotel and the Pop Century resort hotel. The station in the lake was my destination.

I have never been to the Art of Animation or Pop Century before. They are considered the best of the value resorts by most reviewers. The each has over sized decorations around themed buildings. At the Art of Animation the buildings are themed to animated movies like Finding Nemo and Cars. The Pop Century has areas dedicated to the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

After walking around the resort hotels, I returned to EPCOT for a fish and chips meal and to checkout more of the art booths, ride a few rides and watch the nightly fireworks show at 9PM. Tonight I rode Spaceship earth, Living with the Land and Soarin Over California. As I walked around the World Showcase I noticed a few changes in the booths since I was here a couple of weeks ago. Different vendors have taken over in some booths presenting some different styles. The talent and creativity required to produce the art pieces is amazing.

The International Festival of the Arts ends on February 19th. The International Flower and Garden Festival begins in early March. Many of the flowers for the festival have been planted in the broad lawns so they have time to take root and blossom before the festival starts. Some of the topiaries have been put in place as well. I will not be in this area of Florida for the start of the festival, but I plan to visit toward the end of April.

The crowd level in EPCOT wasn’t too bad today. By the time the fireworks started at 9PM as the park closed there were even fewer people. I was able to find good places to view the fireworks even at the last minute.

Monday February 12th 2024

The weather today was in transition. I expected a day similar to yesterday, but instead got a lot more wind and lots of clouds. The day began cloudy, but the sun tried to make an appearance in late morning. Before it could get settled in massive black clouds appeared on the horizon. It looked like rain was approaching. A few drops did arrive, but mostly it was just dark and windy. The sun made another attempt later in the afternoon, but the clouds dominated by the time sunset arrived. The temperature managed to climb higher than Sunday. It peaked at 85 degrees about ten degrees higher than the average.

The uncertain weather influenced my day. I didn’t want to get too far away from shelter, so I stayed at home and focused on a few chores. When I ventured out for a little walking exercise I kept my eyes to the sky. The first big black cloud of the day resulted in a quick step back to my RV home. My other outings during the day were a little more successful. I even managed to get my trash to the dumpster without driving. The dumpster is on the entrance road about a half a mile from my RV home. I think the theory is you can drop it off as you leave, but I made the trip on foot today.

The campground finished its transition into midweek mode. At checkout time there were almost as many empty sites as yesterday. During the coarse of the afternoon all of them were filled. If last week was normal, there will only be a small number of departures each day during the week. The other major difference during the week is the reduced number of people that come in during the day to rent kayaks or fish from the piers. Over the weekend there was a real crowd of fishermen at the rails along the short piers into each “lake”.

Sunday February 11th 2024

The temperature climbed another couple of degrees into the mid eighties today. One more day of warmer than normal weather is in the forecast before another cold front makes its presence known.

I took advantage of the nice weather with another hike along the trails of the state park. Today I walked along the trail on the backside of Dixie Lake. This area is more open than the backside of the Hammond Lake that I walked last week. The state park rental cabins are on top of the hill on this side of the lake. Dixie Lake has more reed growth the perimeter than I’ve seen in the past. I’m used to seeing turtles and alligators taking the sun on logs around the shore. This year I haven’t seen any. Perhaps, all of the reeds make it difficult for them to get to the logs.

The end of the weekend turnover in the campground happened today. I didn’t really notice the mix of campers transitioning from mid week travelers to local weekenders, but it happened. Last night there were several ten campers and other light duty equipment with Florida license plates. This afternoon big RVs arrived to occupy the weekender sites. A couple of rental motorhomes also arrived. That’s a little different. You usually see rental RVs at franchise campgrounds like KOAs.

I am writing this as I watch the Super Bowl on TV. The game is OK and some of the commercials have been interesting, but the extra fancy coverage at the start of the game was out of place. An orchestra playing while the stories about a few players in the game were dramatically told just seemed over the top and unnecessary. Then they had to stretch out the start of the game with two additional musical presentations before the National Anthem. Why, to make more content to sell for ad revenue.

Saturday February 10th 2024

I got an earlier start than normal this morning. My destination was Sea World. It is not easy to get there from here. You have to get to the east side of the entire Walt Disney World complex. It is necessary to go around Disney to the south or the north. This morning I had the added complication of getting out of the state park through a bicycle event. There was either a race or a ralley that filled the roads with bicycle riders. I had to navigate around riders the whole two plus miles of park roads.

It was 10:30am when I entered Sea World. The journey around Disney property, combined with the bicycle traffic on the park roads and the interstate traffic on I-4 it took about an hour. Sea World has two extra events going on right now. The smaller of the two is a few Mardi Gras events, but the biggest activity is a festival that runs to the middle of May. The Seven Seas Food Festival presents food booths selling dishes and drinks from around the world. The food kiosks are very similar to the food booths around Disney’s EPCOT during their festivals. The combination of the two events and the beautiful Saturday weather brought huge crowds to the park.

I was there primarily to see the animals and other sights. The food booths held a small interest, but the lines were long and the prices were high. The one thing I don’t partake in at Sea World is the roller coasters. They always seem to be building a new one. A roller coaster at the Penguin Encounter is currently under construction. The last coaster to open was the Pipeline which is based on surfing. The hook is that the riders are standing upright as the coaster goes up, down. I think it even has an inversion. Not for me.

This morning I enjoyed the Dolphin show and I spent a few minutes watching and listening to the sea lions and seals. They do a very good job begging for food and all kinds of water birds hang around to pick up anything they miss. Once the sea lions get their fill, they retreat to the rocks for a nap.

It turns out I didn’t hang around long. I walked around the entire park at least once. I checked out all of the animal exhibits and watched the Mardi Gras prade. It was disapointing. There were four stilt walkers, six dancers and a four piece marching band. The crowds continued to build as I walked the park. By 2PM I started to make my way toward the exit. Finding my car in the newly reconfigured and paved parking lot was a little more challenging than it should have been. They haven’t added row numbers to the markings yet. I found my car on the first try, but only because I was careful to make note of several external landmarks when I parked.

Friday February 9th 2024

The day started cloudy and drab. It caused me to linger over breakfast before transitioning to indoor chores. The outdoor tasks were put on hold until conditions improved. By noon the sun was out and a wind from the south was bringing in warm weather, but my outdoor tasks were still not on the agenda. The indoor chores were keeping me busy.

Eventually I got out for a hike around the campground and some of the associated state park trails. Today’s walk was a long a path with a lot more interesting wild flowers than Wednesday’s path. The animal and bird life around here is sparse. I have only seen one Egret around the lakes.

This afternoons sunset transitioning from day to night was very reflective. The wind died down and the surface of the lake was glassy smooth. The sun and clouds both reflected off the surface very well. It produced a different kind of sunset.

Thursday February 8th 2024

The weather today was perfect for a visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It was a sunny day and the temperature climbed from the low fifties into the mid seventies.

Animal Kingdom is the perfect park to get some exercise and see some animals without a lot of hassle. The walk from where you park your car to where you start seeing animals and interesting vegetation is usually straight forward. If I get parked in the far side of the parking lot, I might use the tram, but that didn’t happen today. I was in the park after a five minute walk.

To enjoy Animal Kingdom, it is not necessary to wait in a lot of long lines. Walking the trails and observing the various animal exhibits provides exercise, education and entertainment. Today I only waited in one line. The wait for the safari ride was listed at 25 minutes, but was probably less. The 25 minute mark was down from 65 minutes when I arrived at the park. It is all a question of timing.

The highlight of my visit today was on the Maharajah Jungle Trek. One of the big tigers was taking the sun in clear sight from one of the viewing areas. The Komodo Dragon was similarly taking the sun. On the other end of the expectation spectrum was the absence of all the gorillas. They were all behind the scenes in their enclosures.

Today’s safari driver needed driving lessons. He had a very heavy foot on the accelerator. This made for a very jerky ride as he transitioned from stopped to moving and vise versa. Taking pictures from the moving safari truck is always a challenge. The jerky uncomfortable ride made it even more challenging. I still got a few good pictures.

Wednesday February 7th 2024

Today’s weather was a small improvement on Tuesday. There was a little less wind and a little more warmth. The temperature peaked just north of seventy degrees under a bright sunny sky.

My exercise for the day was a hike in the park around Hammond Lake. This is a small body of water that I would call a pond, but that doesn’t seem to be a term in common usage in Florida. The entire hike around the “Lake” was about 2 miles as reported by my Fitbit. The area on the back side of Hammond Lake has changed a lot since I started staying here in 2016. The area has been subject to a number of prescribed burns and was also been hit by a major wind event along the way. The number of trees is much thinner than it once was. Parts of the area were also Orange groves in the past. A few, now wild, citrus trees remain.

It was a nice day for a walk. I met several other hikers and a couple of bicyclists on the trail. The network of trails is also designed for horses, but I didn’t meet any today. The horse rental area will probably be busy this weekend. The same probably applies to the kayak and canoe rental. I haven’t seen any rented in the last couple of days, but they have done a big business on weekends in the past.

The sunset this afternoon was spectacular. I think there may have been smoke or dust in the air to the west. There was a brown tint to the wisp clouds to the west. The reflection created a very deep red sky.

Tuesday February 6th 2024

The sunshine was back today. It was a windy day, but the temperature managed to climb into the mid sixties. Out of the wind and in the sun it seemed much warmer.

This was a transition day. I need to transition from a week plus in a resort campground surrounded by theme parks and other things to do back to a daily living scenario. First on the list was sleeping in. I got more than eight hours of sleep instead of the five or six I got while staying at Fort Wilderness. It wasn’t that I couldn’t sleep while staying there, rather that I wanted to do things early and late in the day. Here there is no real schedule.

Walking around the campground at the time of checkout I found only a few empty sites. That is different from my December visit. At that time there was a lot of daily turnover. The majority of license plates in December were from Florida. Today, I saw a much higher number of out of state plates. Other than that subtlety, not a lot has changed in a month and a half.

My other major activity today was replenishing my food supply. A trip to Walmart solved that problem. It was a typical shopping experience with the usual level of minor frustrations. The store was moderately busy and the staff was busy restocking shelves. It made navigating the aisles problematic, but I got everything I needed.

Monday February 5th 2024

Today’s forecast called for light rain all day. Thankfully, it only rained briefly around 8:30 followed by a few random two or three minute wet spells. The sun even came out briefly during the afternoon.

I got the inside travel preparation tasks accomplished while it was raining this morning. Once it stopped, I completed the outside tasks. Shortly before 10AM I drove my car up to the parking lot at the campground entrance about a mile away and took the bus back to my campsite. I’ll rendezvous with the car in the motorhome to mate them for travel after I leave the site. There just isn’t enough room anywhere else in the park that fits my needs.

I pulled in my slides, raised my jacks and headed for the parking lot at 10:30AM. The only catch is that the chances of getting in to my destination before 1PM were poor and it’s only 18 miles away. My solution is one I’ve used before. I sat in the Fort Wilderness Outpost parking lot until 1PM. It is interesting watching the new RVs arrive and offload there golf carts from trailers that wont fit on their sites. Having your own Golf Cart at Fort Wilderness seems to be one step up the status ladder from renting one from Disney. People seem to think having a golf cart to avoid using the buses is a good thing. The way people personalize the carts to find them in the masses of similar carts is also very entertaining. Putting big inflatable pool toys like swans on the roof seems to be a common decorating choice.

I arrived at Lake Louisa State Park in Clermont Florida a little after 1:30PM. Traffic wasn’t bad. I was on the road for about half an hour. At night when the theme parks empty out, I have spent much longer making the same drive. I was last at Lake Louisa State Park in December. It is a nice park in a good location. I’ll be here for a couple of weeks.

Sunday February 4th 2024

The TV weather talkers oversold today’s rain. All of last week they were talking about heavy rain on Sunday. Accumulations of one to three inches were discussed. It started to rain about when they forecast, but it was very light. By noon the sun was trying to break through. The afternoon was warm and dry. This evening a few light showers have passed through the area. Unfortunately, more rain is forecast for tomorrow and it is my moving day.

During the dry part of the day I wandered around Fort Wilderness again. I repeated my visit to the Tri-Circle-D ranch barn. It wasn’t quite as busy today, but the horses were still in their stalls watching all of their visitors walk by. Most of my walk today was along the beach and back into the woods along one of the canals. There were a couple of pair of ducks and other water birds along my path. It is nice to find less visited areas of the campground that are also less developed.

There was a lot of turnover in the park today. Several sites near me were empty by the 11AM checkout time. I walked through the 300 loop on my wandering. It had even more empty sites. Tomorrow my site will be one of the open one. I will be moving on, but will still be in the greater Orlando area for the next couple of weeks. A return visit to the theme parks is not out of the realm of possibility.

As usual I enjoyed my stay at Fort Wilderness. It is a very nice camping resort even without the theme parks. I probably would have enjoyed my stay even more if I had not decided to maximize my visits to the theme parks, by going every weekday. Dealing with the lines and crowds can be exhausting.