Today was a real wash out. The mist and half hearted rain of the last few days gave way to the real thing today. Starting early this morning a medium to heavy rain fell on the roof of my RV home. Sometimes it got a little lighter and sometimes it was a little heavier, but it continued most of the day. For a few minutes between 3PM and 4PM it drop down to a mist. The forecast calls for more heavy rain into the middle of the night.
An afternoon stroll in the rain.
I didn’t do much today. It wasn’t a day for walking and driving would have been an unsafe challenge. The rain was just too much. I stayed inside my RV Home all day and watched the action outside my window. The rainiest day in a long time was the chosen by my neighbors to clean out their motorhome. Plastic garbage bag after bag came out and went into the back of a suburban. It made periodic trips toward the front of the park. I am assuming they were trips to the dumpster. I don’t know where all the stuff came from in the small space, or really what they were doing. It just filled some time this afternoon watching the action.
The wet weather continued today. In fact, it got progressively worse as the day went by. Overnight there was no noise on the roof of my RV home. That means it was either dry or a very lite mist. This morning there were intermittent periods of mist. Every time the mist returned it was a little closer to real rain. By about 1:30 the precipitation was continuous light rain with occasional periods of moderate rain with the wind to go with it. Overall it was a rainy day.
I tried to proceed with my plans for the day despite the rain. Last week I made a reservation for today at Disney’s EPCOT. If I hadn’t made the reservation I probably wouldn’t have gone. The hassle of canceling the reservation or just ignoring it never really crossed my mind. Equipped with a rain coat and hat I arrived at the park a little after noon when the precipitation was still in the mist stage. I entered the park filled with a sea of people in plastic ponchos.
I was able to walk through the Journey of Water Inspired by Moana and visit the aquarium at the Living Seas before the rain arrived. When I came out of the Living Seas building it could no longer be called mist. I quickly got into the next building to stay dry. The Living with the Land ride didn’t have more than a couple of minute wait. There is nothing like a nice boat ride in the afternoon. Next up was visit with Figment on the Journey into Imagination with Figment. Crossing the few hundred yards to the Imagination pavilion was my first adventure in real rain for the day.
One of the reasons I wanted to visit EPCOT today was to see the Christmas decorations. Unlike the rest of Walt Disney World, they aren’t all up yet. EPCOT is still in the final week of the International Food and Wine Festival. The Festival of the Holidays doesn’t start until the day after Thanksgiving. The main Christmas Tree at the entrance to World Showcase was put up this week and the Christmas tree at the American Pavilion is up, but most of the country specific decorations don’t seem to be up yet. Although I did see a holiday teapot and teacups at the United Kingdom pavilion. The Christmas decorations in the greenhouse section of the Living with the Land ride were not turned on yet. A worker was in the process of doing some additional decorating in that area.
New Figment Meet and Greet
My original plan was to remain at EPCOT until dark to see the decorations after the lights are turned on, but with all the decorations not up yet and the ever increasing rain that idea was canceled. Once I left the Journey into Imagination ride building the rain was in full force. I walked around the entire World Showcase looking for opportunities to get out of the rain. The crowds of people in plastic ponchos filled the walk ways. My thought that it might be less busy was a complete bust. The wait times at the two big rides were over an hour.
My rain coat and hat were keeping me dry enough, but there weren’t any good places to get out of the rain. I thought about getting Fish & Chips for lunch/dinner at the Yorkshire County Fish Shop, but I would of had to use a trash can in the rain for a table. The rain continued to get harder downgrading the overall experience as the day went by. I gave up and returned to my RV home by 4PM.
The wet weather that began on Monday continued today. Yesterday’s heavy mist continued into the night. This morning some real rain took over. It wasn’t a downpour, but it was a steady rain on the roof. The afternoon was back to cloudy with a few more periods of the misty precipitation. The forecast calls for this wet weather to continue until the weekend.
Most of my day was spent inside doing a few chores, raiding the refrigerator too often and chasing random information on the web. I managed to get in a couple of walks between the rain drops. The second one was cut a little bit short by the returning precipitation. The birds seem to be enjoying the rain. I think the wet ground has brought the bugs they eat closer to the surface.
The rain and clouds made the end of the daylight portion of the day come sooner than usual. Darkness seem to arrive about an hour earlier than expected. Right now the forecast calls for the let up in the rain to continue into tomorrow morning, but then the level of rain is forecast to get heavier. I have a reservation at Disney’s EPCOT. I think if I wear a raincoat I should be OK.
The day began shrouded in fog. The morning TV weather talkers were discussing areas of mist to the north and east of here. At my RV home, the fog lifted to a cloudy day, but it was unclear what the real weather forecast should be.
I had a reservation at Disney’s Hollywood Studios today. This is my least favorite of the four Disney theme parks in Walt Disney World. It is always crowded with long lines and many of the rides don’t agree with me motion sickness wise. Still, I like to visit occasionally to see what’s new and do some of the things I like.
It was just before noon when I arrived at the theme park. The weather looked a little brighter than earlier in the day. The crowds looked heavy and the wait times for rides were long. My first impression of the Christmas decorations was favorable. They looked very pretty in the daylight and probably looked even better after dark.
My first attraction of the day was the Frozen Singalong. They add a Holiday flavoring this time of year. It still tells the Frozen story as usual, but the entire cast is joined by Olaf at the end to sing Holiday songs. Since it is a singalong the audience is encouraged to join in. The puns and comedy of narrators is fun.
When I returned outside from the theater after about half an hour, everything was wet. I’m not sure if it rained hard while I was inside or if it was just the heavy mist that was currently falling. It clearly had been going on long enough that people had broken out or bought clear plastic ponchos. The world had changed while I was in the theater. Based on the confusing morning weather forecast I assumed it wouldn’t last long so I continued on toward my next attraction.
The Rise of the Resistance Star Wars ride only had a fifty minute wait time. This ride has been open for several years and I have not had an opportunity to ride it yet. The wait time is usually ninety to one hundred and twenty minutes. My criteria for waiting is one hour. If the published wait time is under that value, I’ll try and wait. The last time I tried, the ride broke down while I was in line, but today the fifty minute wait was very attractive and successful. I was actual finished with the ride in fifty minutes.
After being “captured” on Rise of the Resistance.
It is a very fun and immersive ride. The premise is your a recruit for the resistance being transported to a secret base. The First Order intercepts your transport and takes you prisoner on the first part of the attraction. On the second half of the ride you escape and return to safety. It is filled with interactions with actors and lots of technology. At the very end your ride vehicle enters a “escape pod” and becomes a motion simulator to get you back from space to land. I’m glad it was a very short motion simulator escape. A little longer and my dislike of motion simulators would have kicked in. Overall I really enjoyed the ride. That last part will lower my desire to ride it again. My threshold for waiting is probably down to thirty minutes.
When I returned to the outside world after going to space, the mist was even heavier. I went in search of some lunch, but got very wet on my way. The lunch I found was at home. It didn’t make sense to continue to get wet waiting in long lines. If I was on a day ticket, I would have pushed on, but since I can come back anytime without spending any more money it just made sense to go home and dry off. Getting to ride Rise of the Resistance made it a successful day.
It rained most for most of the night, but the day was just cloudy and humid. The temperature climbed into the low eighties. The week ahead is forecast to be cooler with a higher chance of rain each day.
Along the Van Fleet Trail
I finally got out to the Van Fleet trail for a hike today. The Van Fleet trail is a converted railroad track that stretches about thirty miles north south from Polk City to Groveland Florida. It is a very flat and straight paved path that is designed for bicycles and people. There are a limited number of access points along the trails path. Today I walked out and back on one section in the middle of the trail. Based on the trail markers my round trip distance was only about five miles.
Most of the other users of the trail today were bicyclists. I only saw a couple of other walkers. On previous visits, I have passed a lot more walkers. Today’s cloud cover made the walk comfortable, but didn’t help highlight the foliage. For Florida, there was some nice color along the way. I also didn’t see any real land based wildlife. In the past I have seen deer, but not today.
In the big swampy area that surrounds the creek that separated Polk County from Lake County I had a few water based wildlife sightings. There were a couple of turtles on a downed tree and one good sized alligator in the water. The lighting really work against me taking a picture of the gator. For some reason the picture thinks the alligator is brown. The water was muddy, but the gator was the usual gray color.
There was a thick layer of fog covering the RV park his morning. It was a clear indicator of just how humid it was. During the middle of the day the sun peaked in and out around scattered clouds. It was a very hot and humid day in the high eighties. As darkness approached so did the cloud cover. Before sunset it had been completely blocked by cloud cover. Around 6PM the first real rain to fall on central Florida in a few weeks arrived. It rained for almost an hour and more showers are expected overnight.
I was out and about for a couple of errands and some touring during the sunny part of the day. It is to bad I couldn’t wait until today to buy gas. The price per gallon was down about seven cents from yesterday. I really don’t understand the high volatility in the price.
One of my errands took me into Home Depot. That place is in full Christmas swing. The number and variety of blow up Christmas decorations was truly overwhelming. The big thing this year seems to be animal blowups of dogs, cats, rabbits, raccoons and such in scarves and ski hats ready to decorate your yard. The aisles of the store were also filled with displays of tools on sale as early Black Friday entries. I’m glade I didn’t have to navigate a cart or shopping carriage through the mess. It really looked like an obstacle course.
The RV resort had a ceremony to honor veterans this morning. It was near the front of the park in front of the flag. It was consistent with the character of this park. Instead of people walking up and standing around or sitting in chairs they brought. There was a semicircle two or three golf carts deep of people listening to the speaker. Everything social and business oriented at the is park seems to center around golf carts.
There was an increase in humidity and a decrease in wind today. The result was a much cloudier but hotter day. The temperature peaked in the upper eighties, but it still managed to stay dry. This area has now been added to the moderate drought area in the state. The water level in the retention ponds in the park reflects that fact.
Today was the day to replenish a lot of things I was running low on. First on that list was gas in the tank to be able to run all my errands. I got caught at the top of the roller coaster of gas prices today. Ever since I arrived in this area it seems like the price of gas goes up and down in swings of about thirty cents or more. Earlier in the week the price of gas was at $2.85 a gallon. Today it was anywhere from $3.05 to $3.20 a gallon. I filled up at one of the higher priced stations paying $3.16 a gallon. It was necessary. I don’t know were the bottom of my gas gauge is on my new car. I probably had 2.5 gallons still in the tank, but who knew.
Traffic was also a real challenge. I was out during the middle part of the afternoon when school is usually getting out, but the schools in this area had the day off. Even so, traffic was extreme. It took several cycles to get through ever traffic light I encountered. These areas in the middle of the afternoon haven’t been this busy. It must be the Veterans Day holiday making this into a three day weekend for many people.
The Walmart in Haines City was also busy. The fact that the kids were out of school was also evident. There were lots of little kids hanging onto the sides of carriages while others were running away from harried parents. I managed to get what I needed, get through the checkouts and return to the long lines of traffic to return home. Even taking a different, more through the neighborhood, route home I found the long lines again before I got home.
They are building a lot of new housing developments and lots of apartments being built in the area. There are a few road developments going on to support the added residents. One of the bigger problems is on Interstate 4. They are working on widening the road, but the few miles up to the resort area and into Orlando are still a big bottleneck. Traffic stays off the interstate to avoid the construction as a result the local roads backup.
I went to see the decorations at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom today. They changed from Halloween to Christmas during the nights of November 1st and 2nd. I waited a week to make sure they were all ready before visiting again. The first Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas party separate admission special event is tonight, so they better be ready. The party also makes it a good day for low crowds since the park closes early for the party.
It was a few minutes after noon when I arrived at the park. People were starting to line up on Main Street for the first parade of the day. I wandered around town square and looked at the Christmas decor while I waited for the parade. All of the creative scarecrows for Halloween have been replaced by toy soldiers and a huge Christmas tree in the center of the square. Main Street going up toward Cinderella’s castle was lined with Christmas Wreathes, festive garland and ornamental lamps. The whole area is very well decorated.
I remained on Main Street for the Festival of Fantasy Parade. This parade has been around for a number of years and showcases the Disney Princesses, Characters and music. It is a fun parade. The town square area of Main Street is the end of the parade that starts in Frontier Land. You have to wait a minute or two after the parade to navigate up Main Street into the rest of the park.
The rest of my day at the park was filled with a lot of waking around, a couple of rides and a show or two. One ride I had never ridden until today is the Tomorrow Land Speedway. It just isn’t something that an adult that drives a car every day needs to wait in line to do. Today it was only a ten minute wait, so I gave it a try. It was a struggle. I think the car I had was plague with a bent steering mechanism. It really didn’t want to go in the direction I turned the steering wheel. I don’t think I’ll be riding the Speedway again.
I did enjoy the Country Bears show for the umpteenth time. Those talking hillbilly bears can sing a mean song. Even the raccoon that lives in the top hat can carry a tune. I used to enjoy the Christmas version as well, but they don’t do that anymore. It will be interesting to see what the announced update to the show brings.
As I expected for most of the afternoon the crowds were manageable. At four o’clock the people with tickets for the party can enter the park. The crowds start to pick up. Regular day guests, such as myself, have to be out of the park by 6PM. I started to make my way home at 4PM. Rush hour traffic caused me to take a longer route that had less stop and go traffic. It took about three times as long to get home.
It was another nice Florida fall day with the high temperature reaching the low to mid eighties. Once again the day began with the overnight temperature in the very comfortable sixties. There was only a scattered covering of clouds throughout the day.
All day yesterday I was waiting for a notice that a couple of packages from Amazon had been delivered to one of the nearby lockers. That notice finally came in about 8PM last night. My first task after breakfast this morning was to go pickup my packages from the locker. Other than dealing with the expected traffic that was an easy task.
One of the purchases I was waiting for was a USB Wifi device for my laptop computer. The built in Wifi on my primary picture editing and blog writing machine stopped working last week. I bought the thirty dollar replacement part to get back on the air. While it was broken, I had the added task of moving the files via SD card to my Chrome book computer to upload and publish the blog every night. The added step, while not difficult, added another ten to fifteen minutes to the task.
Once I got home with the new Wifi device, I plugged it in and turned on the computer. Nothing changed. The new device was recognized, but it was not operational. I started to dig into the issue in more depth. My intuition was telling me that it probably wasn’t a hardware problem, but rather a software problem. Digging into various menus, dialogs and using a few command line tricks I remembered from way back, I found a software switch that wasn’t thrown. Once I toggled the switch the original interface started to work and the new one complained that it wasn’t unique. How everything got fowled up in the first place is a mystery, but I had Wifi again. I’ll put the device away as a backup and keep plugging along with the nine year old computer’s original part.
It was very satisfying and kind of fun getting the laptop back up and running, but my computer tasks weren’t done. During the time my laptop was off the internet a backlog of updates accumulated. There were so many that I decided to make sure my data backups were all up to date before allowing the accumulated updates to be installed. The primary things that needs backup on my computer are all blog related. I keep two different backups of all of the pictures I take and the blog text. I don’t usually have enough internet bandwidth to make cloud backups of all my pictures, so only select pictures get cloud backup. External drives and USB sticks get all of the data.
All of the computer maintenance tasks took several hours. During the backup and updates there was a lot of time I could do other things, but I had to be available to watch for problems and kick off the next part of the process. My original plan for the day was to go to one of the Disney theme parks late in the afternoon into the evening, but I got lost in my computer maintenance task. There is always tomorrow and I get to use only one computer to create and post my blog tonight.
Today’s weather was a repeat of Monday. The winds were low the humidity, while increasing, was still manageable and the overall temperature peaked in the mid eighties. Overall, it was a very nice day.
I can tell that I have adapted to standard time, since I didn’t wake up early this morning. In fact, I got a very slow start to the day. It was after ten by the time I finished my shower and started on breakfast. I continued on a very slow pace into the early afternoon drinking coffee and catching up on a few chores. When I finally got moving most of the daylight was over.
Walking around the RV resort today I saw signs of a transition from Halloween to Christmas. Most of the people who had decorated for Halloween had removed their decorations from their homes and golf carts. A few people have started to decorate for Christmas. Some candy cane lights and big wreathes are now heralding the season at a couple of sites. I imagine most of the Christmas decorations will arrive after Thanksgiving.
The usual compliment of birds were around the parks retention ponds. They have a lot more bank to forage for food along. The water level has gone down quiet a bit since I arrived here. There is about a six foot area of dried mud between the green grass and the water. That tracks with the fact that it has only rained for a few minutes total since I arrived. Last year at this time I was buttoned down here for hurricane Nicole. It dropped plenty of rain, but thankfully not much else.
Rob's Rambling Road Trip 