Today was another great weather day similar to Wednesday. There was filtered sunshine coming through a layer of clouds. By mid afternoon the temperature had climbed from the mid sixties at sunrise to a high in the mid eighties.
Blossom of the day.
After two days of theme park visits, today was a day for chores around the RV. There wasn’t much fodder for a blog entry today. I got some cleaning and decluttering accomplished inside the RV. The most important accomplishment was completing the long delayed laundry. It had almost doubled in volume since I gathered it for my last attempt while I was still at Hillsborough River State Park. Today I managed to get two loads accomplished. It was even about fifty cents cheaper per load.
More RVs than usual departed the campground this morning and many didn’t get replaced during the day. That’s surprising since the weekend is approaching and right now the campground has more vacancies than I’ve seen since I arrived a week and a half ago. The park has several activities planned for the weekend, so I expect it will fill up more tomorrow.
The weather yoyo continues. I had to switch to warm weather clothes today. A few days ago the temperature was hardly able to climb toward sixty. Today the temperature peaked in the eighties. It was necessary to wear a short sleeve shirt and shorts instead of long sleeves, long pants and a sweatshirt.
Crowds on Main Street USA around 4:30 in the afternoon.
My goal for today was to watch the Country Bears Jamboree one last time at Disney’s Magic Kingdom. The last performance of the current show is Friday evening. It will close for an extended refurbishment. The new show will have the bears singing Disney songs in the style of a Nashville Review. The current pun and stereotype filled show will be gone forever.
Flag Retreat Ceremony
I got to the Magic Kingdom at 4PM with a plan to stay until after the fireworks. The Flag Retreat ceremony at Town Square started at 5PM so I hung around and waited for the classic Disney experience. It was patriotic as usual. The Disney band played and the Dapper Dans sang as the flag was lowered.
From Town Square I took the railroad to Frontier Land and the Country Bear Jamboree. In the past each show was only about half full even on a busy day like today. As time is running out for the show every performance seemed to be full. Most of the audience was there to see the show one last time. They really got into it. Just about everybody was clapping to the music and some were even singing along. I’m glad I got to watch the current show one last time and I’m looking forward to seeing what the new show is like.
With my primary reason for visiting the Magic Kingdom accomplished I wandered around the park taking in the atmosphere and riding a few rides. I chose to watch the fireworks from the back of the park along the Rivers of America. The crowds at the park today were heavy, so Main Street was packed. The other advantage of watching from the back is the clear access to rides at the end of the fireworks. I was able to basically walk on to the Haunted Mansion as the fireworks were ending.
I left the Magic Kingdom an hour after the fireworks were over. I thought that would be enough time to clear out some of the post fireworks crowds trying to get back to the parking lot. It was probably a little better than right after the fireworks, but it was still a long process getting from the Magic Kingdom back to the Transport and Ticket Center and then to my car at a distant section of the parking lot. It was more than an hour from the Magic Kingdom to my RV home, but it was a good late afternoon and evening at the theme park.
My plan for the day was a visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park today. The hiccup in the plan was getting up late. You either have to get to the park early to beat the crowds or wait until the wait times stabilize. I started to monitor the wait times on the My Disney Experience App. When the Safari ride got under fifty minutes around 1PM, I headed for the park.
“Hello!”
I entered the park around 2:30PM. The parking lot had more cars in it than I usually see and the crowds inside the park were extensive. I walked the trails around the Tree of Life checking out the animals. Some of the more tropical animals were not in their enclosures. This is not uncommon during the cold periods in the winter. Other animals were taking advantage of today’s warm sunshine. The kangaroos, for example, were all lying in the sun.
When I got back to the Africa area of the park, the wait for the Safari ride was only listed at thirty five minutes. It turned out to be even less. I had a pretty good safari. My front row seat gave me a good view of the animals on both sides and out the windshield. The driver was better than some at stopping long enough to get a picture of the animals. Most of the different species were out and about.
After the safari, I visited the gorillas on the Gorilla Falls Trail. The young gorilla’s were very active while the adults slept or sat stoically. The smallest gorilla was chasing a rabbit around the compound. I think it is a common occurrence. The rabbit didn’t seem particularly frightened. It would run away from the gorilla then come back a minute or so later. The little gorilla would engage in a staring contest with the rabbit through a bush until the rabbit would run around the bush toward and by the gorilla. It looked like a fun game.
Most of the animal viewing opportunities were done by 5PM even though the park was open until 7PM. Basically, there were four rides and one show still open after 5PM. The rides all had long wait times and I’ve seen “It’s Tough to be a Bug” enough.
It was close to ten degrees warmer today, but the sun was missing from the sky. The inside of my RV home was slow to warm up without the sun adding to the warmth and the day generally looked gloomy. It never rained and the temperature topped out just short of seventy.
Stitch has guarded the entrance to the Disney Store for years. Today he was on good behavior and not squirting water at unsuspecting tourists. It was probably too cold.
The cloudy day made it tough to get started today. By early afternoon I got motivated and left the campground. My destination turned out to be Disney Springs. The entertainment and shopping district was not very busy this afternoon. All floors of the parking garage I parked in had plenty of empty space. I suspect the other two garages were similar.
The last time I was at Disney Springs in December it was decorated for Christmas. All of the lights and other decorations made the area very bright and lively. Today it was much more subdued. There were no sparkling lights and the sun was blocked by clouds. Most of the flower beds were filled with darker colored flowers. There were lots of dark red salvia and red geraniums. I finally found some pink geraniums that were a little more lively.
I was surprised to find the Disney store had been reorganized. Major sections seem to have been moved and new types of merchandise added in other areas. Right now there seems to be a focus on merchandise featuring the Stitch character. I noticed this in EPCOT as well. In the Marketplace Co-Op store a three foot Stitch figurine has replaced the Orange Bird figurine that has been near the entrance for more than a year. I found Orange Bird near the back of the store.
After wandering around Disney Springs and stopping into several stores my limited “shopping” tolerance expired. I returned to my car and started the journey home. Unfortunately, the rush hour had begun. I haven’t found a way to avoid traffic to get from Disney to the current location of my RV home. Today it wasn’t bad most of the way home, but the last mile through the intersection of US 27 and Interstate 4 took almost an hour. Traffic during the winter in this part of Florida is “interesting”.
The temperature got down into the upper thirties last night. The inside temperature this morning was in the high forties. I turned on some heat and went back to bed for an hour or so. By mid afternoon the temperature reached the sixty degree mark. Inside the temperature reached the low eighties with the help of the sun and no open windows. Today had a few more clouds and a lot more wind than Saturday.
A few more clouds today.
After a slow breakfast I got out of the park to do some area touring. I needed to block the minor case of cabin fever I felt yesterday from returning today. Traffic was lighter today than it has been. That means you can generally get through traffic lights on one cycle or less. I considered stopping at Walmart for groceries, but the line to get into the parking lot went against my light traffic contention. I’ll go during the week.
Blossom of the day.
My “Sunday Drive” wasn’t too long. I got home in time to watch most of the playoff football game in Detroit. I’m now watching the game in Buffalo. Similar to yesterday, I don’t have any real preference with respect to the outcome. Perhaps I should have cheered for Tampa Bay against Detroit being as I’m in their fan area, but I didn’t think they had a chance. In that I was right. The second game between Kansas City and Buffalo, I want them both to loose. Since that can’t happen, at least it seems to have a lot of scoring.
My day began with the sound of diesel engines. The diesel pusher motorhome beside me started his engine around 7AM. Given how tight the sites are at this campground. The engine noise was coming from less than twenty feet from my head as I lay in bed. It seemed to last forever, but they probably left about fifteen minutes after they started the engine. Once they were gone I could here another engine further away followed by the gas motorhome on the other side of my RV home. For some reason, everyone was leaving this morning.
Another beautiful blossom from yesterday’s trip to EPCOT.
Today was a very clear day. I didn’t see a cloud in the sky all day. There was also very little wind. Unfortunately, there was also an absence of warmth. The day began in the upper forties and didn’t climb a whole lot during the day. The temperature maxed out in the upper fifties. It is forecast to be even lower tonight, but warmer tomorrow.
Most of my day was spent inside my RV home. The TV and remote have been getting a workout. I walked around the campground twice, but that doesn’t represent much distance. From an exercise perspective, it does have a small hill to climb. Late in the day my TV surfing locked onto the NFL playoffs, which I am still watching as I write this blog entry. I don’t have any expectations for today’s games. The favorite won in the first game and will probably win the second.
Yesterday’s cloudy weather with occasional rain continued overnight into today. Around 3PM the occasional light rain turned into a longer period of heavy rain, but there was some real sign of clearing after it finished. The weekend is forecast to be much cooler. Today’s highs were in the mid seventies. Tomorrow it is only going to be in the low sixties.
What do you think this is? It is a zoomed in picture of a small fountain on the Living with the Land ride.
The timing of the rain storm gave me the idea that Disney’s EPCOT would be at a low crowd level this evening. I thought people would leave when the storm hit. With that thought in mind I headed over to the theme park. Getting there was a challenge. The timing of the storm coincided with schools and business getting out. Traffic was backed up on all of the different routes I tried. Once I got to EPCOT the parking lot looked fuller than normal. The parking attendants were directing new cars to openings created by departing guests. Clearly many people had departed because of the rain. Low crowds in the park turned out to be a false hope. When I left later in the evening, the third section of the parking lot that is only used on busy days was close to full.
This polar bear in the window of the Norway Pavilion will be right at home in this weekends cold temperatures.
From the Mexico Pavilion.
Wait times for rides were mostly long. Unlike yesterday, when I didn’t ride any rides, I rode a few of the short wait time rides like Spaceship Earth and Living with the Land. Most of my time was consumed watching shows and checking out the art booths scattered around the World Showcase. The lack of reasonable wait times caused me to leave early. I had planned to stay for the closing fireworks, but by 8PM I ran out of things I wanted to do. Rather than sitting and waiting for an hour or randomly wandering, I decided to return home. There will be plenty of other opportunities over the next few weeks.
It was an overcast, almost foggy day. It was humid and the temperature climbed into the low seventies. In the middle of the afternoon a brief shower passed through the area. Since then, a brief shower seems to pass through every two hours or so.
After a slow start to the day caused by the uncertain weather, I ended up visiting Disney’s EPCOT theme park today. The International Festival of the Arts is in full swing. It is my second favorite EPCOT festival. The International Flower and Garden Festival in the spring is my favorite. This festival has booths showing and selling art work. Most of the art is Disney focused, but there are other depictions as well.
These aren’t visitors they are residents of EPCOT.
There are artists actively creating new works and opportunities for visitors to participate in the development of art as well. For adults and supervised children there is a massive paint by number mural that people fill in colored blocks according to the numbers. Elsewhere in the park children are given chalk to color on the cement walkway very near the location that professional artists are creating formal chalk art. In the American Garden theater people can learn how to draw famous Disney characters from Disney illustrators during the daytime and listen to singers perform Broadway tunes in the evening. There are even artistic food creations for sale in the various food stands around the park.
Chalk art before the rain
Today I mostly just walked around taking in all of the sights. The crowds were heavier than I expected. Wait times for all the rides were long. I didn’t ride any of them. I listened to some of the live entertainment. The Voices of Liberty at the American Pavilion were great as usual.
As I was enjoying my lunch of Fish and Chips at the UK Pavilion the first rain shower of the day arrived. I found a dry place to eat my late lunch, but the rain managed to discourage more exploring of the park. Once I finished eating, I made my back to the front of the park and departed for the afternoon. The festival continues until February 19th. I’ll be in this area the entire time, so I will have ample opportunities to explore the festival in more depth.
The temperature was around fifty this morning and I couldn’t hibernate in a warm bed. I had to drive to the outskirts of Tampa for the first day of the Florida RV Super Show. I wanted to get there before the crowds built, so I was aiming for as close to the 9AM opening as I could manage. I left the campground before 8AM and got to the Florida State Fair grounds sometime between 9 and 9:30. Traffic was very heavy on Interstate 4 and then there was a backup getting into the fair grounds parking area.
I have been to this show several times before. The last time I attended was either in 2017 or 2019. The show is advertised as Americas biggest consumer RV show, but the September RV show in Hershey Pennsylvania makes a similar claim. I have been to that show too. This one is probably bigger, but it really depends on how you measure the bigness. The main thing that makes both of them more significant than all the regional RV shows around the country is that the RV manufacturers rather than the local dealerships are the organizing factor. The RVs are all arranged by manufacturer. One dealer may be showing different manufacturers products in different areas of the show and never actually showing all of the products they sell at their dealership.
The crowd was manageable early in the morning. Later in the day this area was much busier. (This is my only picture without people’s faces. )
In the first couple of hours I was able to move around freely in the chilly air and see a lot of things. My late morning the crowds were growing. You never had to wait long to tour and RV, but the aisles in the vendor, merchandise and campground buildings were wall to wall people. Campers have dogs and dogs are welcome at this show. Outside they are not a real issue. Inside is another thing. Many of the dogs seem to be very intimidated and scared in the packed vendor halls and others were just plain in the way. I really thing they would have been happier getting left at home.
I went to the show to see what is new in the industry, and pick up information on new campground and accessories. It isn’t time for a new RV yet, but I am always looking at future possibilities. I only made two purchases while at the show. The first was a mediocre slice of pizza for lunch and the second was a new cover for my tow bar. My current cover came off in two pieces when I took in off last Sunday.
Overall it was an interesting show and I had a good time. There were lots of changes since the last time I went to a big RV show. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the small role that Camping World had at this show. At past shows Camping World was the biggest dealer organization represented and everyone was wandering around with massive yellow Camping World promotional bags. At this show the General RV family of dealerships had the biggest presence. Smaller Red promotional bags with the General RV logo were the dominant accessory for show goers.
As far as answering the question, “Is this the biggest RV show in the Country?”, I did lots of walking, climbed in and out of a multitude of RVs and I am very tired this evening. It was big enough for me and that’s all I care about. If I was in Pennsylvania in September, my answer would probably have been different.
It looked like it was going to rain at any minute all day. Except for fog in the morning and a few very brief sprinkle it didn’t rain during the daylight hours. About 7:30 as the cold front finally passed from the northwest to the southeast it rained lightly for about ten minutes. The temperature climbed into the upper seventies during the day. Once the front passed the temperature started to drop fast. It is forecast to be in the forties in the morning.
This campground is getting urbanized against its will. A massive apartment complex is being constructed between the campground and the line of retail properties that line route 27 in Davenport. The construction work starts around 7AM and continues until dark. The noise isn’t a major problem, but it does disturb the quiet.
Apartment construction beside the campground.
When I first stayed here in 2015, the area was filled with many small pine trees. It looked like the land had been cleared for development, but the project was abandoned. The pine trees were a holding “crop”. As the years went by the trees got bigger and provided a nice buffer between the shops and the campground. In 2022 I started to notice signs of renewed development. Last year while I was staying here there were many big piece of earth moving equipment ripping out the trees and lots of dirt. This year there are lots of new structures under development.
This lot isn’t the only one under development in the area. There are many apartment or apartment like condominiums under development. They have been complaining on TV about the lack of affordable rental properties in the greater Orlando area for a long time. I don’t think most of these are affordable, but there sure are a lot of them. New single family homes increase the traffic issues significantly. These apartments are a much denser housing option that puts ten times as many people in the same space. It doesn’t look good for traffic in the area. No wonder they are working to widen Interstate 4 southwest of Orlando.
Rob's Rambling Road Trip 