Wednesday May 17th 2023

Today seemed to follow a summer weather pattern. It was a humid day with thunderstorms moving back and forth across the Florida peninsular. There was the sound of thunder nearby late this morning, as the storm line formed a little west of here and moved inland. This afternoon around 3PM the thunder returned. This time it brought heavy rain with it from the west as the storm line returned and headed out into the Atlantic. The rain lasted about an hour before everything started to return to normal.

I was finally able to sleep in this morning. Both Monday and Tuesday morning the landscape crew managed to force me to leave my bed before I really wanted to. On Monday it was lawn mowing that started before eight in the morning. Tuesday morning the same crew was back with string trimmers and leaf blowers to “finish” the job. I know it has to be done and it is cooler in the morning, but it doesn’t allow one to sleep in. Since it still gets down into the high sixties or low seventies over night, I prefer to keep the windows open rather than run the AC. This tends to exacerbate my annoyance.

Once I did get up the threat of rain and then the actual rain kept me at home all day. I held off leaving the campground when I heard thunder in the late morning. About the time I figured it wasn’t going to rain and make travel difficult, the sky was starting to darken again. The second hesitation was the right decision. I wouldn’t have enjoyed being on the road in the downpour and doing anything outdoors would have been impossible.

Around 6PM I got in my daily walk around the campground. There were still a few puddles along the sides of the road, but the road surfaces were dry. Unfortunately, the heavy rain caused many of the flower blossoms that I like to take pictures of to fall off the plants. The opportunities that were already slim were even slimmer after the rain.

Tuesday May 16th 2023

As I’m writing this blog entry I can hear the sounds of thunder to the west. A a late in the day line of thunderstorms is approaching. Up until now it has been another beautiful day with a high temperture around 85 degrees.

I drove back to the east side of US 1 to another park near the inter-coastal waterway. Today I hiked the trails in Vaill Point Park. It is on the south side of the same creek I visited yesterday. The trails in this park are all paved walking paths. There are a few pavilions, an overlook and a fishing pier along the tails. There may have been other structures, but I had a big enough challenge navigating the trails I walked. I didn’t see any map and there were no direction signs. It was a maze you could easily get lost in. On a positive note, it was well shaded and the views were fantastic.

Back at the campground this afternoon, a Snowy Egret decided to visit the park’s retention pond while I was on a walk around the park. I stood by the pond and watched the bird for a few minutes. It made a full circuit of the pond’s shore looking for food. Every now and then it would dart forward to grab something tasty. After about a loop and a half it move on to another place.

Later in the same walk I found another Hibiscus plant that was in bloom. I really think they missed this plant and the other one I found earlier in my stay. The majority of the Hibiscus plants are all severely pruned. I understand that the plants will turn into massive bushes if they aren’t tended to occasionally.

Monday May 15th 2023

Today’s weather was a clone of Sunday’s. Overall it was a nice sunny day with high a temperature in the upper half of the eighties. There were no thunderstorms today, but some are in the forecast for later in the week.

This afternoon I drove to a little county park on the side of a creek leading into the Matanzas River. The river is the Intercoastal waterway in this area between the mainland and the barrier islands. The park is primarily a boat launch area, but it also has a paved trail and some benches. The tide was out so the water level was low. There were mud flats and what looked like oyster beds in view. I walked the trail along the creek and sat on the bench and watched the birds on the far side of one of the tidal flats.

The RV park continue to empty from the weekend crowd today. Everybody was up early since today was lawn mowing day. They seemed to get started before eight this morning. I could hear the sound of the mower in the distance as early as 7:30. Before I dragged my sleepy body out of bed the lawn mower sound was right outside my open windows. I let the sounds of a nice hot shower block the noisy lawn mower sound, but my day began a little sooner than I wanted.

Sunday May 14th 2023

Today began overcast just like Saturday, but the day didn’t follow the same course. The overcast transitioned to a bright sunshiny day. There were very few clouds in the sky all afternoon. The temperature peaked in the upper eighties.

This was another lazy day. I spent most of my the day reading and watching TV. On my walks around the park I found a lot of empty sites. The weekend residents really cleared out. A lot of the remaining residents are travelers. The cars and RVs have license plates from all over the country. In addition to the full time RV states of residence of Texas and South Dakota there were RVs from California, Missouri, Arizona, Oregon, Wisconsin and New York. Just to name a few. The majority of the Florida license tags are locals, but a few, like me, are also full time RVers.

On my walks around the campground I carry my camera to capture pictures to include in the blog. At this park that usually means flower blossoms. In the past there have been many Hibiscus plants in bloom. This year all but one Hibiscus plant has been pruned back to the base. Yesterday I included a picture of one blossom on the remaining bush and tonight I’ve included the other blossom. There just aren’t a lot of colorful blossoms right now.

Saturday May 13th 2023

The day began with an overcast sky, but there was no rain in the forecast. While I was out on my first walk of the day in the early afternoon, the forecast turned out to be overly optimistic. It started to rain when I was about as far away from my RV home as I could be and still be in the campground. By the time I got home it was raining at a steady rate. Over the next couple of hours it rained and rained some more. Sometimes it was very hard and other times it was just a light rain. There was no wind or thunder and lightening. As evening approached the sky cleared.

I spent the day decompressing from yesterday’s travel. Other than a few additional setup tasks around my RV home it was mostly a very lazy day. In addition to the rain shortened walk I took another one later in the day. Both walks were focused on observing the changes to the park since my last visit last summer. There have been a lot of improvements. My first observation was that some of the park roads had been repaved. The road was filled with broken pavement and pot holes last year. Now it is a smooth surface, but not all of the runoff issues have been solved. There were still a few good size puddles after the rain.

The biggest change seems to be improvements to some of the sites. Many of the sites that were gravel last year have been lined with brick pavers. They look very nice. It also explains why there were fewer price categories when I booked my site. By upgrading the sites they were able to group the sites into a higher price category. I know I’m paying more this year than last, but haven’t done the research to figure out exactly how much. I’m guessing it is close to twenty percent more. That increase might explain why there are more vacant sites this weekend than I remember from last year at about this time. There also seem to be fewer long term residents.

Friday May 12th 2023

Today was another sunny and humid day. The temperature climbed to around 90 degrees again. Getting packed up was a drippy affair. I was sweating heavily. Once I was on the road the air conditioning in the motorhome cab kept me comfortable from the heat and humidity, but the sun was another issue. If I wear sunglasses I can’t really monitor the dash or backup camera. If I don’t wear the sunglasses the glare is horrible. I end up with the sunglasses on my head most of the time and lower them when I need to see through the glare.

I departed my site at Lake Louisa State Park a couple of minutes after 11AM. By the time I got through with the dumping station and drove to the entrance over two miles away it was closing on the noon hour. I arrived at my destination in St Augustine around 3PM. In between I had all kinds of excitement.

On today’s journey I missed turns, made wrong turns and had to do an emergency swerve. My plan was to take Florida route 19 most of the way northeast across the state from Clermont to Palatka. The first problem was missing the turn from US 27 onto Florida 19. At the next major small city of Leesburg I turned east on FL 44 intending to intersect with FL 19. It worked, but not without grief. Leesburg is in Lakes county Florida. All of the big lakes make simple directions confusing. After turning east I found myself on the southbound side of US 441 and my GPS compass said I was going northeast. It is all because I had to go around various lakes, but I got back onto FL 19.

Next up for today’s excitement was the wrong turn. Trying to navigate through Palatka I attempted to follow FL 20 to get to US 17. It wasn’t a well marked route. When I came to an intersection with a bigger road I thought I’d reached US 17 and turned right. As soon as I completed the turn I knew I was on the wrong road. A fairly empty Dollar store parking lot saved me. I went in one entrance and out the other back on my intended route. Next up that route was a railroad underpass that was closer to my height limit than I’d like. It was 14 feet six inches. My radio antenna scrapes at thirteen feet.

The final issue had the potential of being the most dangerous. Coming around a blind corner on a two lane city road, I was taking up most of my lane of the road and the oncoming traffic was a little bit on my side of the center. Luckily another road slanted off to the right at the peak of the corner. I swerved into the side road. All kinds of stuff inside the motorhome went flying, but no damage was done. I took the next left back onto my intended road. Not a fun incident.

Thursday May 11th 2023

Most of today’s weather was a clone of yesterday. It was sunny and humid with a high temperature a little above ninety. Late in the afternoon the similarity ended. The thunderstorms that missed this area yesterday were much closer today. The sound of thunder with dark clouds were in the north east and the south east sky. The brunt of the storms never arrived here. Just three or four minutes of very light rain after the majority of the storms had moved on. There is a chance of additional rain later tonight from the west.

Today was my last visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom for the spring. I’m moving out of the central Florida area tomorrow. I was up early with a plan to get to the park early, but the traffic gods had other ideas. On the morning news the traffic report indicated that there was a major accident at the intersection of US 27 and US 192. Traffic was stopped in all directions to resolve the issue. Unfortunately, there is no viable route to Disney from here that doesn’t go through that area. I delayed my departure until 9AM. When I got to the intersection traffic was moving but the turn onto US 192 was blocked by down power lines. All of the traffic had to find alternative routes. Most of the traffic just went to the next intersection and reversed direction. I chose to go about three intersections south and proceeded east on local roads through various neighborhoods. Other knowledgeable drivers took a similar approach. The bottom line is it took additional time.

I got in line for the Safari ride at 10:15AM with an indicated one hour wait time. It was a good safari. The wait time was about right and the animals were cooperative. There were a lot of animals close to the safari truck. Including one ostrich that might just have been too close. The lady in the row in front was close to a full on panic trying to climb into her husband’s (?) lap to get away from the side of the truck the ostrich approached.

After the safari I wandered around the park looking at the various animal exhibits and the flowers in bloom. My timing for the shows was wrong and I wasn’t really looking to ride any of the attractions. Both the Lion King show and the Finding Nemo show have gaps near the lunch hour that I was caught in. I got some lunch to take a break from the heat and recharge my energy. After lunch I made another half lap of the park. The wait time for the safari was over an hour so another ride wasn’t in the cards. I gave up around 2PM and headed for my RV home. It was a good visit to Animal Kingdom.

Late this afternoon I completed a few of the travel preparation tasks, but more than usual remain for tomorrow morning. I plan to leave around 11AM tomorrow, but have until 1PM to check out. It is about 130 mile to my destination in the St Augustine area. I am planning more of a cross country travel day as opposed to an Interstate highway travel day.

Wednesday May 10th 2023

The temperature continued to climb today. It peaked across the ninety degree mark at 91 or 92. The sun was bright in the sky all day. Only a few fluffy clouds appeared from time to time. The forecast late in the day thunderstorms didn’t fall in this area. There are more thunderstorms forecast for tomorrow.

I spent the afternoon at Disney’s EPCOT. This is my favorite of the four Walt Disney World theme parks. It is particularly fun to visit during the International Flower and Garden festival that is going on now. I spent several hours walking around the park enjoying the colorful flowers and topiaries. I rode a couple of rides and watched the Voices of Liberty acapella group a couple of times, but my real reason for the visit was the atmosphere.

Here are some of the beautiful and colorful sights from my visit.

Tuesday May 9th 2023

There was a little more humidity today and a couple more degrees of temperature. The TV weather talkers said there were areas that reached ninety degrees today. I wouldn’t be surprised if this area was one of them. Tomorrow is forecast to be warmer.

This was a low activity day to rest up for another theme park visit tomorrow. That doesn’t mean I didn’t do anything. I took a short hike around the state park. There has been a lot of brush work since I was here twelve weeks ago. In some areas the brush has been completely cut back to ground level. In others, particularly in the campground, the brush has been cut back to about two feet high. That way it continues to provide a barrier to pedestrians, but allows clear sight lines. It was probably done soon after I left in early February since the area is very green with new growth. It looks good.

The campground hasn’t been full the nights I’ve been here. Most of the sites are occupied by short stays. The equipment is often on the light side. It ranges from one person tents to folding trailers. The number of sites occupied by bigger equipment like mine or even larger is in the minority. Tonight of the sites I can see from mine two are empty, two have small tents and one has a converted box trailer. It is a very different atmosphere than during the snowbird season.

Monday May 8th 2023

There was very little wind today, but otherwise it was very similar to the last couple of days. The result of the lack of wind was a less comfortable day. The temperature peaked in the upper eighties, but it felt warmer.

My plan for the day was a visit to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I didn’t get a particularly early start and arrived at the theme park about ten o’clock. It was a long walk in from the parking lot without a lot of other people. I was hoping that was an indicator of a slow crowd day. As soon as I arrived in the park I was proven wrong. It looked like a very crowded day as I headed toward the Chinese theater.

One thing I wanted to do on this visit was ride the Star Wars Rise of the Resistance attraction. The wait time has always been very long on previous visits. I checked the Disney My Experience App as I was walking in from the parking lot and it indicated the ride was temporarily closed. When I got to the ride entrance the side indicated the wait time was eighty minutes. I bit the bullet and got in line. About half an hour later the line started to slow down. The app once again indicated the attraction was down. Fifteen to twenty minutes later the line started to move again, but too fast. They were dumping the line having given up getting the ride going anytime soon. I did get a Lightening Lane pass to a second tier ride anytime during the day as a consolation “prize”. Eventually I’ll get a chance to ride the attraction.

The crowds really became a problem at that point. Everywhere I looked the waits were over an hour. My timing was also off for the shows. Everyone was either a long time away or just loading. I finally managed to get a seat in one of the last groups for the Frozen sing along show. The comedy of the historian story tellers is always fun to hear. The songs get old fast. After that I was able to use my Lightening Lane pass for Toy Story Mania. The first time I passed by the Lightening lane was backed up a long way. My score on the arcade shooting game was terrible.

By this time I’d been in the park for about four hours and looped around the park at least twice. The Rise of the Resistance attraction was still not open. I gave up and decided to return to my RV home. While I enjoyed my visit, it is a good thing I have an Annual Pass to Disney World. If I had to pay the full daily entry price, I would have been disgusted. It is not that I didn’t enjoy my visit. I just didn’t get to do much.

Back at the state park I walked around the campground a couple of times. The water level in the two small lakes near the campground is way down from my last visit in February. The turtles and alligators are still thriving. This evening there were two alligators trying to steal the catch of the fishermen on the dock.