September 2020 - Back to work as the campground reopens, Everyday Life & Frogs are disturbed......

September 2020

Well, I don't have a lot of pictures for this month. We really didn't do anything except take care of the campground.  I think we both became very despondent as the days dragged on.

The Campground office and Autoskills reopened on the 3rd and we were hopeful that we would follow very quickly.  

We decided to go and fill our propane tank while we had a chance.  This involves taking the motorhome to the propane station, which in turn meant packing everything that moved away.  We hadn't moved the "house" since the beginning of the year, so Bryan took it for a ride around the base to give everything a workout.  He filled the propane tank and then returned.  We parked in a different site as we wanted to see if we could get a satellite signal, in a spot that was open with no trees.  We haven't had a signal for a few months and it seems it's the dish, but we wanted to make doubly sure.  It is the dish, or wiring between the dish and the receiver.  Bryan will need to work on it some more, but not until the weather cools off as it's on the roof.

Then we cleaned off our site, which had accumulated some mud from the rainwater washing dirt down, and under our rig. As Bryan was cleaning that off he disturbed some frogs that had made their home in the mud.  They were so cute and I felt sorry for them but I'm sure they'll make themselves a new home.

It seemed like a lifetime before the campground opened on the 11th. It wasn't soon enough for us.  We spent a couple of days before opening, cleaning sites and buildings. The gazebo had a thorough spring, or was it fall, cleaning.  We checked power pedestals for cobwebs and insects, and got rid of both.  We had a few lizards scoot out of their hiding places, as we checked breakers.  One frog was so still I thought he was dead, so I got a stick and poked him gently.  He moved very begrudgingly from the place he had obviously decided was home.  A wasp nest was treated a little more carefully, as I asked Bryan to deal with it.  Wasp spray to the rescue. Bryan used the blower to clean off the sites.  We were ready.  Opening started slowly with only 1 or 2 coming in the first couple of days.  It was taking a while for word to get out that we were open.

We didn't mind as we had been informed that our replacement camphosts would not be here until the 28th October and we were aware life was about to get busy with campers arriving and departing on a daily basis and no-one to share the responsibilities that come with that. No days off for us, we were going to keep busy.

The weather is still in the 90's which doesn't help.

It got busier and we managed to survive from day to day.  It was good to see new faces and watch the campground come to life again but it was exhausting to not get a break.  We wanted to get back to our 5 days on, 5 days off with another couple. It was not to be, at least not this month.

Bryan went for a pre-op for his hand operation next month, and they moved the date forward a week. It will be good to finally get that done as the cyst has been getting bigger and is uncomfortable.

We celebrated our anniversary by getting Red Lobster take out and managed to eat it without any incidents in the park, thank goodness.

By the end of the month we were counting the days down until the 28th October.  It can't come soon enough.  Don't get me wrong we love being camphosts and helping people, but it has just been too long, and too much with not having a break. 

Coronavirus Update

As at:      Cases USA  Cases Florida  Deaths USA  Deaths Florida                      

Sept 1st   6,071,971         631,040       184,629             11,521                      

Sept 30    7,216,828         706,516       206,615             14,488           

On September 27th the global coronavirus death toll topped 1 million.

On September 22nd, the USA surpassed 200,000 deaths. 

The USA had 23,216 deaths in September, dropping from 30,309 in August.

Florida had 3,157 deaths in September, dropping from 4,555 in August.

On September 25, the USA surpassed 7 million cases. 1 million new cases in 25 days. Increase in cases had dropped slightly per day compared to August.

On September 27th, Florida passed 700,000 cases. Averaging 2,857 a day.  Dropping from 4,600 in August & approx 10,000 in July.

On September 30th, we had 275 cases on base, as opposed to 237 at the end of August, and 267 at the end of July. The increase was probably due to the opening up of facilities on base. Lets hope that it flattens off in October.

Duval County (the county we are in) had 30,548 cases, 394 deaths and 1,140 hospitalizations. An increase of 4,088 cases, 140 deaths, 187 hospitalizations from August 31st. 😟   However the monthly increases in all, were lower than the figures between July and August, so there is a downward trend. 😀

Things are still not good but the figures are going down for the second month.  Let's hope this trend continues.