Today was another higher than average temperature day in the mid nineties. The heat index was calculated in the low 100s. There wasn’t a lot of wind, but there remained high level forest fire smoke haze in the sky. Outdoor activity was a sweaty affair.
Morning visitors to my site. They were in the shade under the tree beside my RV home.This evening the geese were all gathered by the park clubhouse.Does this bird have an attitude or just an itch?
This wasn’t a very blog worthy day for activities. I made one stop at a boat launch along the Nassau River while I was out, but I found nothing going on or worthy of a photograph. Most of my day was focused on chores around my RV home.
The smoke from the northern forest fires drifted a little further south today. It was over the Jacksonville FL area as a high altitude haze. The overall impact was minimal. The haze may have saved a degree or two on the thermometer, but it was still hot. Amazingly, there were no thunderstorms this afternoon.
This afternoon I drove to the Cedar Point area on the southern part of the Nassau River tributaries. It was low tide. The Egrets were taking advantage of the lower water level to catch some yummy food. As I walked along the exposed sand, I saw some of their intended lunch. There were lots of little inch or smaller crabs running from hole to hole. Every foot fall I made scattered a few more.
It was a nice breeze in the open marsh area. A few people were out fishing in boats and one guy was using a cast net. I don’t know much about that form of fishing, but it looked pretty futile in that location to me. I spent about an hour wandering around and watching the nature. On the way back I stopped at another area, but I didn’t have bug spray. Before I got ten feet away from the car I was surrounded by bugs. I retreated to the inside of the car only to find that a good handful followed me home. Luckily, they didn’t seem very interested in biting. There are a few additional bug born diseases flying around this summer. A few cases of malaria have been reported in Florida. It has been many years since that last happened. I noticed that this RV park is spraying regularly, so there shouldn’t be any problems around my RV home.
The heat dome that the TV weather talkers have been talking about for the last week or so is now here. This week record high temperatures are possible in the Jacksonville area. Today it was in the mid nineties until the afternoon thunderstorms arrived around 4:30PM. I’ll definitely have to run the AC all night. I prefer the quit of no AC when possible.
I made it north to St Mary’s Georgia today. Gas was about fifteen cents a gallon cheaper and the walk along the river was enjoyable. There was a little more breeze along the river so the heat didn’t feel as bad. All of the mooring balls I could see in the river were filled with big sailboats and it looked like there were several on anchor lines at the edge of the mooring area. Some of the boats were impressive. The temporary landing area was filled with dinghies. The restaurants and shops looked busy.
It was between boats to the Cumberland Island National Seashore so there weren’t to many people roaming around the park lot for the National Seashore wasn’t full. I image most people would rather explore the island in during cooler temperatures. A few other people were wandering along the river shore like me and a few people were sitting in the shade watching the world go by or the kids play in the playground. Overall I didn’t see anything earth shatteringly new, but I had a good visit.
When I got back to the RV park the landscapers still hadn’t finished the weekly mowing. The lawn mower that was left under the tree behind my RV site three hours before was still there. It was another hour or so when rain was threatening that some came and retrieved it. I don’t think they had more to do than basic mowing today so they took their time.
A little over saturated picture of an Impatience blossom.
The weather and I were not in sync today. I missed the TV weather this morning, so I had to depend on the internet hour by hour forecast. When I first checked the page it called for a one percent chance of rain in the early afternoon with a high probability for remainder of the day. I checked again later in the morning only to find that rain was out of the forecast for this area. That set my plans for the day.
The lower blossoms on this tree are starting to blossom.
I planned to drive up to St. Mary’s Georgia to visit the river community and more importantly get gas in the car. Fuel is a few cents cheaper in Georgia. Today’s dance with the weather continued. A severe thunderstorm warning for that area of Georgia was announced shortly after noon. Checking the weather app again showed that rain was once again predicted for my area. The bottom line is I stayed at home all day.
The weather didn’t keep me from resuming my twice daily walks around the RV park. My first walk was in the morning, but the second had to wait until the potentially sever line of storms passed through this area. The rain was very loud on the roof for close to an hour. The geese had a new friend this morning. An Egret was proudly standing in the middle of their flock. On my second walk after the rain the geese and egret were gone, but the pair of ducks remained.
My favorite lily plant had a new blossom when I passed by during my walk after the rain.
I didn’t sleep well last night. Whatever I had woke me up every hour or so for a visit to the bathroom, a drink or just a repositioning. This morning I didn’t feel bad, just tired.
To be safe I’ve stayed inside all day letting the air conditioning keep me comfortable. I also took a couple of naps and have been drinking plenty of fluids. I think whatever was ailing me is in the rear view mirror, but tonight should tell the story. I’ll probably take it easy and drink plenty of fluids again tomorrow.
Today was the six month mark from my first set of open dates next winter. That meant that I could try for reservations in the Army Corp of Engineers parks in south Florida. I wasn’t successful, but it was probably my own fault. It has been a while since I used the booking software and fumbled around pushing the wrong buttons. I’ll try again after giving it a few days, so I don’t have to find a one or two night stay.
It was a hot and humid day. I did chores around my RV home most of the day. The afternoon thunderstorms arrived a little early around 3PM. They were very loud on the roof for short period of time, but they continued with light rain until after the supper hour.
I took my one walk of the day before sunset. It turned into a short walk. Either I caught some form of summer cold or just reacted badly to the humidity. I returned to my RV home and went to bed very early. I didn’t write this blog entry until Saturday.
Today was another day with limited blog fodder. It warmed up into the low nineties quickly and there wasn’t very much wind during the day. I stayed in the air conditioned comfort of my RV home most of the day.
Another blossom on the stray lily plant.
I took one short walk around the RV park late in the day. There was a storm on the north and eastern horizon that looked like it would arrive at any minute. So far, it still hasn’t arrived. It must have been moving in the other direction. It served as a good excuse to cut my walk short. In reality I didn’t have the motivation or energy for a long walk.
Black clouds on the horizon late in the afternoon.
Today began with thick fog and ended with a partly cloudy sky. In between the temperature climbed to the low nineties. Today’s thunderstorms remained well to the south of this area. It was a hot sticky day.
I didn’t do a lot of blog worthy activities today. This was a chores day around my RV home, but I still got in two and a half walks. The half walk was a trip to the dumpster with a couple of days of accumulated trash. Most people seem to drive their trash to the dumpster, but I prefer to use it as an opportunity to get some additional exercise.
Around the park the landscape contractor was back to work on trimming the hedges between sites. They didn’t seem nearly as efficient with this task compared to their mowing efforts. One guy was moving along fairly quickly cutting the hedges. Two other guys came along in a truck pulling a dump trailer. They would get out with rakes and pick up the bigger pieces cut from the hedges. The individual leaves seemed to get left behind. A good wind and a major down pour will be needed to finish the cleanup job.
It was a much drier day today than Monday. The sun was still hiding behind the clouds most of the day, but the rain was limited to a few widely scattered storms. It was a good day for a road trip.
I set out on what turned into a two hundred and fifty mile round trip drive. My destination was Ocala Florida to arrange to get my new car setup to be toad behind my motorhome. The Hitching Post in Ocala is one of two places in Florida that I would consider getting the job done. Many RV dealers will do the job, but they don’t have a lot of experience. The Hitching Post does several a week. At busy times of the year they do two every day of the week except Sunday. I’ve got an appointment for the beginning of August to add the base plate for the tow bar and wire the lights in my new Chevy Equinox.
The shop is a little over one hundred miles away, but I took the long way south. I followed Interstate 95 to Daytona Beach before turning inland on State Route 40. Traffic wasn’t bad and route 40 is a nice drive through the Ocala National Forest. The only problem with this route is crossing through all of Ocala to get where I needed to go. I returned home on the more direct path provided by US 301. Unfortunately, I drove through some rain on this part of my journey.
While I was in Ocala I stopped at the Ocala Wetlands Recharge Park that I last visited in January. There is a lot more ground water in the holding ponds today than there was in January. The ducks, herons and egrets were plentiful. The pictures in this blog entry are all from my walk in the recharge park.
Most of the day was an inside activity kind of day. It started to rain shortly after the breakfast hour and continued through the dinner hour. Some of the rain was heavy with plenty of wind, thunder and lightening, but most of it was just a steady rain.
This was lawn mowing day in the RV park. They got started in my area of the park before 9AM and didn’t get finished before the rain began. The guys got really wet. Not only did they get wet riding the mowers, they got even more wet trying to unclog the wet grass from the mowers. I suspect it took longer to do less today.
A day’s worth of cooking.
I didn’t get out for my morning walk before the rain started. Instead, I watched TV and read to fill the time between indoor activities. One thing I did was cook a pot roast for dinner and the next few days of leftovers. Other than browning the meat and preparing the vegetables, most of the work was done by the slow cooker. Around 5PM I had a nice meal.
The rain stopped and the sun made a brief appearance after 6PM. I got out for my only walk of the day. There was a lot of dodging puddles involved in the walk around the front section of the RV park. The 6PM hour is one of the times during the day that a steady stream of landing aircraft are passing overhead. When you are outside it is impossible to ignore the noise of the passing planes. Tonight was no exception. At least five went by during my walk. The geese were plentiful along the bank of the retention pond. They were huddled in two different groups. The ducks were taking refuge with one of the groups of geese.
Here comes the next jet in the landing pattern.Passing overhead with the landing gear down and flaps extended.
Rob's Rambling Road Trip 