Monday June 26th 2023

There have been a number of days with highs in the 90s already this year, but today’s 95 degree high really felt like the true arrival of summer. The remainder of the week is forecast equal to or above today’s temperature. The cloudy and rainy days of the last week makes it all the more notable.

Today was lawn mowing day in the RV park. While it was just as annoying as ever, the grass really needed to be cut. The week of warm rainy days gave the grass a big kick start. After all the noise of the mowers and trimmers the park looked very nice. One downside is the lawn mowers seemed to have scared all of the ducks and geese into hiding. I didn’t see any of them on my walks around the park today.

I took advantage of a trip to Walmart for groceries this afternoon to get into some real air conditioning. If I only run one of the two AC units on my RV home I can only keep the temperature in the 80s while there is direct sun on the outside. Running both units is much louder and doesn’t make any significant change. Once the sun goes down it is possible to keep things very comfortable. Most days I just open the windows and turn on a couple of fans. The moving air works fine as long as I’m not doing a lot of physical activity.

The RV park seems to be gaining residents. I expected the last of the weekend residents to depart his morning, but I only saw one RV leave. This afternoon and evening there were at least four arrivals within view of my site. Assuming there were arrivals in other areas of the park that represents a significant gain. I wonder if it the approaching holiday or the arrival of summer vacations in the north.

Sunday June 25th 2023

The sunshine won the battle with the clouds today. The temperature climbed to around 90 degrees. Surprisingly, the humidity wasn’t extreme and the wind was very light. It didn’t rain at all today.

I think it was a fairly comfortable day outside, but I didn’t really experience it. I bought into the TV weather talkers warnings that today was going to be hotter than the last week. They really seem to work on a fear model. I took a quick walk early this morning and another one close to sunset. In between I settled down in front of the TV to watch the PGA golf match from Connecticut and a couple of sappy Christmas movies on the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries channel. I let the AC keep the interior comfortable enough that I dozed off a couple of times during the afternoon. Who knows if I’ll sleep tonight.

Saturday June 24th 2023

The weather pattern was different today. It was more traditional for the season in Florida. The morning was partly cloudy with plenty of sun. In the afternoon a couple of different lines of thunderstorms passed through. The morning temperature peaked in the mid to upper eighties and the afternoon was a few degrees cooler. The one constant between the morning and the afternoon was the moderate to high humidity.

This wasn’t a very blog content inducing day. For some reason I wasn’t tolerating the humidity well. I retreated inside with the AC on most of the day. My first attempt at a walk was cut short by the first line of thunderstorms and my second was not as long as I would normally walk. Consequently, I have fewer photos include and fewer observations to comment about.

One interesting thing took place while I was hiding inside. The ice cream truck came through the park. It was loud playing “Pied Piper” music like used to be very common. It seemed to be very successful drawing people from across the park to buy its wares. I didn’t venture out to see what they were selling. It was stopped near my RV home for about ten minutes serving customers. Over an hour elapsed before I heard it return from the back of the campground. It most have done a good business.

Friday June 23rd 2023

The crazy wet weather pattern continued today. Sometime before dawn it started to rain and continued into the morning. During the early afternoon things dried out a bit, but the weather still threatened to dump more water from the sky. In the late afternoon a couple of actual more common for the season thunderstorms passed through to drop the temperature a little while doing nothing to the high humidity level.

I notice today that many of the dogs left in the RVs while their humans are at work aren’t cooped up all day. A woman kept walking by my RV home with a different dog every few minutes. Finally I noticed here stop at the RV next door and emerge with yet another dog to walk. Clearly she is providing a dog walking service. It is good to know the dogs aren’t stuck in the RVs all day.

The RV park changed moods this afternoon. People showed up at some of the RVs that were empty most of the week. New residents arrived to occupy some of the empty sites. In general the population of the park increased and people seemed to be more active this evening. If that activity level continues tomorrow then the park will clearly be in weekend mode. Now if the weather would cooperate.

Thursday June 22nd 2023

This weather pattern is getting annoying. It seems like it is impossible for the forecasters to get very specific. The waves of moisture coming across the southwestern quadrant of the country guaranty there is going to be rain during the day, but they can’t isolate the where or when until shortly before the rain event. In a normal summer time pattern they know when the sea breezes off the Atlantic or the Gulf are going to stir up a storm, so they can use terms like morning, early afternoon, evening, and overnight to give you an idea how to plan. Right now, we get phrases like “There is a 80% chance of rain tomorrow.”

It rained off and on overnight and most of the morning. Sometimes it was heavy and other times not much more than a mist. The problem was it really wasn’t outside activity weather. In the early afternoon it looked like it was drying up. I tested the conditions with a walk around the front part of the RV park. I stayed dry and a little blue sky even appeared above one of the low flying airplanes. After a pause at my RV home for some lunch, I started my walk toward the back part of the park. I didn’t get very far. A new rain shower chased me back into my RV home for another hour or so. This evening there was actually a little sun, before darkness arrived, but there is more rain forecast overnight.

This is food truck night in the RV resort. Every Thursday on a rotating basis a food truck is here from five to seven. I’ve stayed at other parks that do something similar and I haven’t seen a lot of people taking advantage of it. This park seems to be the exception. Perhaps because many of the residents work all day a lot of people seemed to stop at the food truck at the front of the park as they returned for the day. There was a line several people deep when I walked by this evening. I had already had my evening meal.

Wednesday June 21st 2023

It really wanted to rain today, but it was mostly dry. It rained a little early and a few three to five minute cloud bursts through out the day. Most of the time it just looked like it would rain any minute. The clouds did serve to keep the high temperature around eighty.

I got more of my setup tasks completed today. The only one remaining requires me to scramble around on the ground. I’m waiting for it to be dry long enough to put the tire covers on. This is a task that I only do for a longer stay when the wheels are exposed to the southern sun.

This park is very quiet during the day. Most of the residents are off at work and others are inside their RVs with the AC running. Around four people start returning home and you see people out walking dogs and kids playing outside their RVs. This is a temporary living location for people from all over the country. On my walk today I saw license plates from many different states. It seems like the number of out of state plates vs. Florida plates is an equal match. When the weekend comes, it will be interesting to see if there are many weekend residents.

On the wildlife front the Canadian Geese have moved from the big front retention pond to a smaller one near the back of the park. That keeps all of their dirty calling cards away from the campsites. The ducks still hang out near the front retention pond. I don’t see as many flower blossoms on naturally growing plants, but there are plenty of blossoms on potted plants that people are using to decorate their sites.

Tuesday June 20th 2023

Today was a rainy day. I heard the sound of rain on the roof of my RV home shortly after sunrise. It rained steadily well into the morning with the occasional rumble of thunder before transitioning to off and on status into the early afternoon. The remainder of the afternoon could have gone either way, but it stayed dry until a line of thunderstorms passed through around 7:30PM. During the dry part of the afternoon the temperature peaked in the low eighties. The weather forecasters are calling this a “winter” weather pattern. All of the storms are moving from west to east across the entire southeast. Maybe it will all change tomorrow since it is the first day of summer.

Most of my day was spent inside my RV home, but I did get some of the settling in tasks completed during the lull in the rain. I have a couple more to do once I’m confident it will be dry for an hour or so. The biggest arrival issue at this park is getting used to the sounds of low flying jet airplanes. You can hear them all and feel some of them. From past experience I know that you eventually get accustom to the noise. Today a few of the faster, lower ones still got my attention.

Monday June 19th 2023

There was bright sun and blue sky this morning to get ready to travel. I was up early to start the final packing for an 11AM checkout. One of the things I had to clean up was the material I received when I checked in three weeks ago. It turned out to add a lucky hour to my checkout time. The material indicated that checkout was now noon. I’m pretty sure it used to be 11AM.

I pulled out of the campground at 11:45 for my seventy mile drive. Ten of which are the result of taking a longer route around a lot of road construction at the intersection of Intestate 95 and 295 in Jacksonville. I arrived at Pecan Park on the north side of Jacksonville about 1:30PM. It was a successful travel day, but it had its challenges.

About twenty minutes into the journey I started to see dark clouds in front of me. The cars approaching from the other direction all had their headlights on. I was clearly headed for one of the forecast thunderstorms. It wasn’t long before I was battling a strong wind with even stronger gusts. The majority of the wind was hitting me broadside on the drivers side of my rig. Staying in my lane took two hands on the wheel and a lot of concentration. After a couple of minutes of wind, rain was added to the equation. The windshield wipers got cranked to the max to allow forward vision. If there was a safe place to get off the road, I would have taken it, but the safest alternative was to proceed carefully. The worst was over in about ten minutes. It continued to rain off an on for the rest of my travel day.

My last visit to Pecan Park was last June. I think it is more expensive this year. The park doesn’t seem to be as full this year. In addition to travelers it is used for long term stays and temporary living situations. There are about ten rental cottage style park model RVs. The remainder of the three hundred plus sites are concrete pads for RVs. Part of the park is very near interstate 95. The other part that I’m in is under the runway approach for Jacksonville International Airport. There are lots of low flying planes. I recognized several of the RVs from previous visits. There are clearly some long term residents.

Sunday June 18th 2023

I am going to take a risk and say there was no rain today. Last time I wrote a similar statement at the beginning of the bog, I had to retract it before I finished writing the blog entry. It was a mostly sunny day with plenty of humidity and a high temperature just above the ninety degree mark.

I got a few errands done today and made another stop at Walmart for groceries. The most important thing on today’s list was a few gallons of water. I have been going through it fast in the last few days. I also got some pastries and desert items. In hind sight I was probably hungry at the grocery store. Many of the things I came home with were on the junk food or sweet side of my usual diet.

I took my first walk of the day after I got back to the RV park. The campground emptied out of the weekend crowd while I was out. It hasn’t gone down to mid week level, but it is down from Saturday nights peak occupancy. I suspect it will go down more tomorrow. The birds were missing from the retention pond today, so I didn’t get any bird pictures. The last few days the same few birds have been hanging around. There are still plenty of squirrels willing to pose for a picture.

This is my last full day at the KOA in Starke Florida. Tomorrow I’m moving on. I’ve been here a little over three weeks. That is two weeks longer than I originally planned. I extended my stay twice to get my Inverter issue worked on. So far, that problem seems to be fixed. Check out time here is at 11AM tomorrow. I’m only going about sixty miles, so it will be a short travel day.

Saturday June 17th 2023

I was surprised to wake up to the sound of rain on the roof this morning. Last night’s forecast called for afternoon and evening thunderstorms, not morning storms. It turns out most of the early day storms moved across the Florida peninsular south of here. This area caught the northern edge of the storms. From about ten to six it was a very nice mostly sunny day. The temperature climbed to ninety degrees. Around six the rumbling of thunder started to develop to the west. The rain is falling harder now than this mornings episode. It is forecast to continue most of the night.

The morning rain woke me earlier than expected, but the gloominess kept me in slow mode all morning. Eventually I got out for my first walk of the day. The park is in weekend mode so not a lot of people departed this morning. Later in the day more travelers arrived to add to the occupancy of the park. I think it is pretty close to the Memorial Day weekend for occupancy.

This afternoon I finally got around to doing the laundry. I bought the laundry detergent I was out of on Monday, but have managed to procrastinate since then. Getting it accomplished here is cheaper and more convenient than at my next stop so it makes sense to get it done now. I didn’t have a huge amount of laundry to wash. Even so, it took over two hours of more or less dedicated effort to get the job done. The laundry facility is not far from my site and it is safe to leave the machine unattended. These are older machines that don’t have a digital timer and there isn’t a sign indicating the length of wash cycle. After thirty minutes I walked back to check on status and it hadn’t reached the spin cycle yet. After forty minutes the wash was complete. For drying, I checked after forty five minutes and it still wasn’t done. I opened the door and pulled stuff out after fifty minutes so I still don’t know how long the drying cycle could have taken. Getting the clean clothes back to my RV home and packed away in the draws and closet took additional time. The bottom line is “Laundry takes time” even when you don’t have multiple loads.