Monday August 28th 2023

Today was decision day. I determined when the weather forecasters started talking about the tropical system in the gulf that I would move out of its path if it was a threat. The conditions I established for staying here were a tropical storm with a path east of here or possible a category 1 hurricane a little further to the east. Anything else would mean “run”. I also set today as the decision day. Right now it looks like it may be a category 3 hurricane with a path too close for comfort.

I made a reservation for two nights at an RV park about 100 miles to the west. I’ll leave sometime tomorrow. There is plenty of time because the storm is forecast to reach this far north Wednesday morning. On Thursday I plan to return here. So far I haven’t figured out the book keeping for all of this. I’m not sure if I just keep my current reservation or if it gets canceled and I need to make another one. Finding a staff member to answer that question has proven difficult.

One of my least favorite noises in a campground woke me up this morning. It was lawn moving day. They got started before 8AM eastern time. This campground is located in the eastern time zone, but right across the lake is the central time zone. Cell service comes from the other side of the lake, so my cell phone is on central time. The TV stations are also from the west and therefore on central time. It really gets confusing at times.

The campground emptied out more than I expected this morning. There were only four of us in residence until this evening. Half a dozen or so RVs arrived late in the day. I think they are only here for the night and will move on out of the storm zone tomorrow. The arrival of more RVs along with the commentary of the local TV weather forecasters cause me to second guess my decision to run. That uncertainty is why I established conditions for moving early on in the lead up to the storm. I will be happy when I’m in my alternate location and even happier when I’m back here and the storm is long gone.

Sunday August 27th 2023

At the beginning of the day it was just an area of weather interest near Cancun Mexico. This evening it is called Idalia and is likely to hit the Florida big bend as a category 2 or higher hurricane. That is a little too close for comfort. I’ll be moving west out of its path unless something significant changes by morning.

The open questions are when do I move and where do I go. Forecast wise I should be fine departing on Tuesday, but the park authorities here may have other ideas. I learned from a park host that the rangers will be meeting in the morning to discuss how the park will deal with the storm. They could close the park tomorrow or Tuesday. My second question is where do I go. This morning I identified a commercial park sixty miles west on Interstate 10. This evening that area was included in the storm inpact area. I am now looking at other options further away. Tomorrow is a day of decisions.

While I was waiting for the storm and the forecasters to contribute to my destiny I did some exploring in the area. One element of the exploration was to make sure my car had a full tank of gas. The motorhome has enough to get to safety, but will need a fill up to return here after the storm. My drive while successful with respect to gas, was frustrating. I let a couple of cars into the road in front of me from a church. For the next ten plus miles I was stuck behind a Sunday drive by the little old lady that only drove to church and back or so it seemed. Exceeding the speed limit was not close to possible.

Walking around the campground this afternoon was a lonely activity. Occupancy was down to seven campers. A few others arrived this evening. My second walk of the day was cut short by the sound of thunder and some threatening clouds. It only rained lightly for a brief period of time, but somewhere nearby there was a good storm. The sound of thunder was in the air for close to an hour. On the positive side, the temperature went from the high nineties to the mid eighties.

Saturday August 26th 2023

The actual temperature today was shown at 100 degrees today. The humidity wasn’t bad and there was a little breeze so the feels like temperature was “only” 111 degrees. Walking outside wasn’t uncomfortable, but doing the few outside setup tasks I had remaining was very sweat inducing. By the peak of the temperature I was hibernating in the AC.

This campground isn’t very full. There were about fifteen campers here last night and about twelve tonight. I was here about two weeks later last year and it had more visitors. There don’t seem to be any out of state travelers here right now. When I checked in yesterday, it was a self service activity. I found my packet of material and signed a register before occupying my site. The gate was not staffed even though they seem to have there full contingent of work campers.

Walking around the park today, I saw lots of changes. They have done lots of little maintenance tasks like repairs to steps and railings. The vegetation along the side of Lake Seminole has been trimmed way back. It is possible to reach the water in a lot more areas. There were also a lot of nice wildflowers in bloom and a few birds making noise for attention.

I’m not sure what the next few days are going to bring. I may need to move somewhere on Monday. A tropical system is anticipated to form in the Gulf of Mexico. Right now it is still an area of investigation, but once it forms it will move quickly north in the gulf. It seems to still be a guessing game on the path and intensity. Right now I’m on the far west side of the bubble of uncertainty. That would be fine for a tropical storm or maybe even a cat 1 hurricane. Any track further west toward me or more intense hurricane means I need to move. Monday morning seems to be the decision point, unless park management has other ideas.

Friday August 25th 2023

I set the TV to come on at 7AM to wake me up to prepare for travel. After rolling over a couple of times I was up at 7:30 to start packing and preparing to travel. One thing that took more time than usual was dumping the tanks. Since I will not have any sewer hookup for the next two weeks, I flushed the black tank thoroughly. It adds about a half an hour to the overall process. It was just before the 11AM checkout when I departed my site.

Based on yesterday’s scouting I headed north opposite my intended direction to the first exit off of Interstate 75 in Georgia. Gas was even cheaper today than yesterday. I filled the tank at $3.35 a gallon. The price of gas on my intended path was $3.69 and $3.89 a gallon. The short detour to Georgia was well worth the effort. Each county in Florida has its own tax rate on gas, but they are all higher than in Georgia.

I continue to be very cautious towing the new car. Everything seemed to go fine today, but I’m not sure the charge line from the motorhome is working. I will get my multi meter out and chance that down while I am here. I am still very paranoid during my travel day. Every little bang, squeak or jerk gets my attention quickly. The motorhome may also have a few new performance issues that I need to deal with.

After one stop for an hour or so to delay my arrival time to account for the 3PM checkout time, I arrived at the Army Corp of Engineers Eastbank campground. It is part of the Lake Seminole recreation area. The campground is located just north of the state line in Georgia, but the nearest town is Chattahoochee Florida. I have stayed here for a couple of weeks each year since 2020. This is the third time I’ve been on this particular site. It is not a huge campground with 63 sites, but it is very relaxing with a lot of scenery along the side of the lake.

Thursday August 24th 2023

After the activity and tension of yesterday’s travel I really slept last night. I don’t think I moved from the time I fell asleep to when I woke up just before 9AM this morning. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to sleep that late tomorrow morning. I am moving on again on Friday and checkout is at 11AM.

I spent the morning with a second cup of breakfast coffee and my tablet reading the news headlines and watching a couple of YouTube videos. In the afternoon I did a little re-familiarization touring of the area. My mission was to scout out a gas station to fill the motorhome tank tomorrow. The station with the best access had the highest price at $3.89 a gallon. Another station with poorer access had gas at $3.69. I’ve bought gas there in the past, but it was a challenge. The cheapest option is in the opposite direction from my route. Gas is $3.49 a gallon at the station just over the state line in GA. It is about a ten mile detour which is about a gallon and a half of gas. Since I’ll be putting in about fifty gallons it is worth the detour.

This campground is used as an overnight stop by travelers. Last night there were a dozen other RVs around me. By checkout time this morning, I was one of only three RVs remaining. By 2PM the park was filling up with the next set of overnighters. While the park was near empty the birds were having a good time in the retention pond. I took the opportunity to take a few pictures while I walked around the park. The young birds particularly liked the shade provided by the gazebo.

Tomorrow I’m moving another hundred and twenty miles to the west. I’ll be at on the side of Lake Seminole for a two week stay. It is another campground I’ve been to before and is a nice relaxing place to stay.

Wednesday August 23rd 2023

My long stay at Pecan Park RV Resort on the north side of Jacksonville ended this morning. It was a busy morning getting ready to travel. I took my time hooking up my new car for towing. I checked all the connections twice and followed the towing prep instructions in the owner manual line by line. Checking the lights was a bit of a challenge as a solo traveler. Once I get some confidence in the connection I’ll revert back to my usual process of just using the four way flashers as a continuity tests. Installing the auxiliary towed vehicle brake was a also a little different than my previous care.

I pulled out of my site at 11:30 about a half an hour after the documented checkout time. On the way out of my site the car brakes locked up for a few seconds. I stopped the motorhome in the site across the road and checked everything out. Most likely some of the cars fancy safety features though the car was going to hit the motorhome and applied the brakes. I continued on carefully. The brakes may have tried to lock up again before I was out of the park, but not to the point that I needed to stop. It took a few miles before I became comfortable that things seemed to be towing successfully. I wanted to stop at the rest area on Interstate 10 to check everything out again, but it was closed for paving. I continued on toward my destination. At the exit for the campground I heard unexpected noises and stopped on the side of the road to check things out once again. Once again I could find nothing wrong and continued on to the campground.

Looking back at the experience I think the early brake lockup can be addressed with an adjustment to some settings. The second issue I don’t know what to think. Looking back at it I think it was unrelated to the towing issue. It may have been a noise from inside the RV that took me by surprise and caused a minor panic. I’ll look for other issues tomorrow and test things out again on Friday.

I am at the Jennings KOA Holiday in Jennings Florida on the side of Interstate 75 just south of the GA state line. I’ll be here for two nights before moving on again on Friday. This is a campground I’ve been at before and enjoyed. It is a little hotter here without the mitigating influence of the Atlantic Ocean. It was in the nineties and very humid when I arrived at 1:30PM.

Tuesday August 22nd 2023

This was my last full day in the Jacksonville area at Pecan Park RV Resort. I’ve been here since the end of June. It was a long hot stay, but it was reasonably productive. My primary task of buying a new car and getting it setup to be towed behind my motorhome was accomplished. That was the reason for the long stay. I was also able to get a few other things accomplished that are hard to do when you move every week or two. It was nice being able to get Amazon deliveries right to my site. There are still several motorhome maintenance tasks that I need to accomplish. I’ll try to fit those in as I continue my travels.

It was a warm day with the high temperature in the low nineties. Most of the day was overcast, humid and without a lot of wind. The sun came out often enough to make being in the sun very uncomfortable. I had several outside travel preparation tasks to accomplish that I tried to do early before it got hot and late after the sun was lower in the sky. It was a partial success. There are a couple of more tasks that I need to do in the morning before I travel. Checkout is at 11AM.

During the middle of the day I made my final grocery run in Jacksonville. I have enough supplies for a couple of weeks if I need to go that long. Significant supplies are more than twenty miles away from each of my next two stops. The Walmart wasn’t as busy this afternoon. My refrigerator, freezer and cabinets are now full.

I have about 115 miles of mostly Interstate driving to travel tomorrow. This will be my first time towing my new car, so the hookup procedure will be a little different. Hopefully the Chevy Equinox will tow as well as my Honda CR-V did. I am nervous about the experience and will probably stop more than a few times to check things out. The distance was also calculated to breakup a longer travel day. After a couple of night stay and any necessary regrouping, I’ll move on another 120 miles for a two week stay.

Monday August 21st 2023

It was a nice day. The sun dominated the sky most of the day. A gentle breeze out of the southeast blew most of the day. The humidity was about normal for the season as was the high temperature in the low nineties.

I continued to work on my end of a long stay get ready to travel again tasks. There are a few less items cluttering up the inside of my motorhome now. I also got the extra dishes back into the cabinet. After I wash them they often get placed on the counter behind the stove to dry. If I’m not observant they tend to accumulate. The inside is getting close to ready for travel, but I’ve still got a few outside tasks to accomplish. Hopefully I’ll get to them tomorrow morning before it gets hot.

Today’s longest task was the laundry. I got everything assembled and drove to the front of the RV park. There are two laundry facilities each with five washers and five dryers. The one at the back of the park seems to have more competition for access. The facility was empty when I arrived, but shortly after I got three of the five machines loaded someone else arrived. These are credit card only machines with very picky card readers. It takes several attempts to get it to accept the card. Overall it took two hours before I was back in my RV home. Putting all the stuff away took the better part of another half hour. Laundry is not hard work, just long duration work.

Overall it was a busy day. Tomorrow will be another task filled day. I have the outside travel prep tasks to do and I’d like to get some groceries before moving on Wednesday.

Sunday August 20th 2023

I must have been really tired last night. This morning the area outside was wet. It must have rained overnight, but I slept through it. The day began overcast with the threat of more rain at any time. Toward the middle of the afternoon the sun started to break through and warm the humid air. The temperature peaked around ninety degrees. It was just a few degrees below the average for this time of year.

The end of my two plus month stay here is coming soon. On Wednesday I resume my rambling road trip with a bunch of primarily two week stays. Today I began to get things back in travel condition. There is a lot to pick up and put away. I do more overall setup for a longer stay and early in my stay I didn’t put some things away after I used them with the thought that I’d use them again. Most of those things never got touched again. For example, in my first week here I used my slow cooker for pot roast. Instead of putting the cooker back in the corner of the under sink cabinet, I put it on the floor behind the drivers seat. Now I have to put it away before I can drive the RV.

There are other chores that I’d like to do once more before I leave. This RV park has a better laundry facility than my next couple of stops. I want to strip the bed and wash the sheets etal. While I have several sets, there isn’t room to carry the dirty sets around for long. Another chore to complete is restocking the refrigerator and pantry. There is a big Walmart and other grocery stores nearby. It will be about three weeks before I’m near a good sized Walmart again.

I walked around the entire perimeter of the RV park today. It is about two miles since the back areas is a long way from the front section. Usually I only do about half the park at a time. The back area is almost full right now, but the front area has plenty of empty sites. The outside activity level was fairly high today since the temperature was reasonable and it was a weekend day.

Saturday August 19th 2023

It was another beautiful weather day just like Friday. The temperature was around the average in the low nineties. The humidity was moderate and the breeze in the afternoon was strong enought to make everything comfortable.

I made a return visit to St. Mary’s Georgia this afternoon. It is probably my last visit to the riverside town on Georgia’s southern boarder during this stay. There wasn’t a lot of action at the boat launching area, but judging by the number of empty boat trailers it was very busy in the morning. The tide seemed to be close to high by observation and the tide “clock” in the park indicated that it was about an hour after high tide. Lots of people were wandering around observing the activity just like me.

There has been a lot of turnover at the RV park today. Two or three long term residents that I thought were fixtures departed today. It is surprising how quickly things can change. I suspect Saturday is a good turnover day for people that work during the week. The bigger change today was all the new arrivals. I counted ten and I’m sure there were many that I missed. The park looks to be between half and three quarters full. There are about 338 sites if my map reading and addition are correct.

I got my last Amazon delivery for a while this morning. This RV park allows delivery direct to your site by shipping companies. Other RV parks collect everything at the office. You have to get it from the office staff. Yet another set of parks and campgrounds just don’t allow delivery. Most of the time I use Amazon lockers, but they are size limited. Today I got new shoes among other things. Since the shoes were the same brand and size as I bought last time it was a low risk online purchase.