Day Off

You know you’re in Florida when the weather forecast for tomorrow includes a “Wind Chill Advisory”.  This is defined as “Very cold wind chills expected.  Wind chills in the lower 30s for several hours”.  In the north, the lower 30’s in January would be considered a warm day.  And I’ve never heard of such a thing as a “wind chill advisory”.  Wind chills below zero are just stated as a matter of fact. 

The weather did change abruptly overnight.  It poured rain for a few hours during the night, making the dirt road into the camp almost impassible due to the enormous puddles. Most of the area of the camp, however is more sandy, so it looked mostly the same other than the sand being a bit wetter than yesterday.  It kind-of gave this area a more tropical rain forest feel, as all the live oak trees with tons of moss hanging from them are now dribbling water.

The standard work week for the SOWERs is four days a week, with Fridays off, so we had a free day today.  We slept a little later, had a more leisurely breakfast, took a walk and flew the drone for a while.  We then started up the RV and headed into town.  It was the first time this RV has been moved in four days, something that’s unusual for us.

The nearest “big city” is Clermont, just about a half-hour southeast of here.  At a population of 43,000, it’s nowhere near the size of the biggest cities in Florida, but has all the big-city traffic and busy-ness.  It is a bit of a bedroom community for nearby Orlando, and also relies on tourism.  The Citrus Tower, a spire that pokes above the city-scape, is its most prominent feature.  To me, this seems like a relic of the past; most citrus these days comes from California, and in our travels, we have driven by exactly one citrus orchard that appears to be actively farmed.

Clermont does have all the normal chain stores, including the grocery store, Aldi, so we come here for food supplies.

Clermont is also situated between two  fairly large lakes, Lake Minneola and Lake Minnehaha.  We stopped at the Waterfront Park on Lake Minneola for a bike ride.  Clermont has a network of several walking/bike trails that run around the lake and throughout the city.  These 10-foot-wide paved paths are an easy ride and a great way to see some of the city, including the historic downtown area.  We rode for perhaps 20 to 25 miles on this trail, seeing the lake from several perspectives, some downtown areas, residential areas including higher-end homes where just the lanai is probably larger than my entire house and includes complete outdoor kitchens and what appeared to be a climbing wall in one case.

The trail is considered “easy” as it should be for a flat, paved trail, but we appreciated the electric bikes because of the wind, which was whipping the lake into a froth and sending lots of leaves skittering across the trail.

This trail also passes the Lake Hiawatha Preserve, a surprisingly large park with lots of different activities--dog parks, playgrounds, disc golf, trails, picnic areas, fishing, and more.  Clermont may be busy, but it does have some decent green space.

We also hit up a couple thrift stores and grocery stores while we were in town.  Egg prices continue to spiral upward.  Aldi was completely out of them, and Walmart had a dozen eggs for $4.69.  But you could get a box of 18 cage-free eggs for $4.29.  Figure that one out.

We got back to camp and had dinner with one of the other SOWER couples.  Dinner and some nice conversation, then back to the RV where we spent the remainder of the evening talking on the phone with our kids.  I guess they do miss us when we’re gone.