October 2020 - An Operation & Noisy hotel stay, State Park, Visit from friends & showing them around, Finally Free & an alligator!!

October 2020

We started off the month much the same as September.  Greeting new arrivals and checking out departures at the campground.

Sunset

The birds still came to visit.  I love watching them.                             

October 6th - 8th, 2020

The time finally arrived for Bryans hand operation.  It got cancelled in May and this was the earliest they could reschedule due to Covid.  It was at Lake City, Florida, which is just over an hours drive away. We decided to get a hotel room for two nights, to save us having to get up really early the day of the operation, and driving back after the operation. It also meant we got at least one day without having to worry about the campground. Having an operation is a pretty drastic step to take to avoid work though!!!  I wouldn't recommend it.

On the way to the hotel we drove to Madison Golf & RV Resort to have another look at it.  They have the office building open now, so we spoke to them about a monthly spot. They had a couple of openings for February and we liked one of the sites so we ended up booking there for the month of February 2021.   As I said in a previous blog they include a golf cart and free golf if you book a site for a month. We would have gone there as soon as we are replaced later this month, but we have annual doctor appointments to get done before we can leave and these go through January.

We got to the Best Western at Lake City.  It is a very nice hotel with a separate living area.  Of course first stop was the bath!!!!  I had my Radox with me and boy, was I in heaven.  The one thing I miss in the motorhome is soaking in a bath.

The next day, 7th, we were up early to get Bryan to the hospital. At least they allowed me in with him. I haven't been able to go to any of his other appointments with him.  Of course I had to wear my mask and have my temperature checked before going in. I got my sticker to say I had passed inspection, ha!!ha!!  

It was strange as usually I have been allowed to wait with him while he's getting prepped and then wheeled to the operating room.  They did wheel him by the waiting room on the way to surgery though so I could wish him good luck.

Sue in the waiting room

Thankfully the surgery didn't take long, although it seemed an eternity.  They wheeled him back past the waiting room and he was already conscious.   Everything had gone well. It wasn't long after that, that they told me he was ready to go, and I was allowed back to get him and take him back to the hotel.

We hadn't been back at the hotel long when we got new people in the room next door. The kids were running up and down the corridor outside the room and there were loud voices inside the room.  We just looked at each other, and figured the kids were hopefully just running off some energy after a long day in the car.

We had take-out for dinner and ate in the room. As we were eating, the noise from next door was getting worse.  The kids were still running around. Doors were getting slammed, and there were threats of killing someone. Hmmmmm. Bryan went to the front desk to complain, and they said they would address it with them. The desk offered to move us, but I really didn't want to move all our stuff for 1 night. 

It quietened down for about 30 minutes before it started again. We ignored it for a while and at about 10pm when it still was going on, we called the front desk. They sent someone up to talk to them and it quietened down again. We heard someone say, "You're going to get us thrown out again". However, the quiet didn't last long.  It wasn't continuous but it would be silent, and then there would be a terrific bang, where they had hit a wall, or slammed a door. Each time it startled me, and made me jump. Eventually at around midnight, the intervals between the slamming/shouting were getting less. We decided to go to bed and try to sleep. There was one more incident that made me jump and then thankfully it was quiet.

We were both so thankful that this hadn't happened the night before, when we had to get up the next day for Bryans operation. 

The next day we checked out. It was a lovely hotel and we would probably stay there again. Hopefully without the noisy neighbors!!!!

On the way home we stopped at an old battleground, Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park

We didn't spend long there as Bryan really didn't feel up to much walking, but what we saw was quite interesting.  They do a reenactment every February, so we may come back for that as we will be in the area then.

We got back to the campground, and checked into the office to let them know we were back.  They told us that one of the camphosts that was due to arrive on the 28th was going to start early and would be here in a couple of days. Yippee!!!, we may finally get a proper day off. We were excited!!!

October 14th - 16th

We were looking forward to our good friends, Johnny & Kathy, arriving as they passed through the area, on their way to their new site further south in Florida. 

We hadn't really planned on seeing them the first day they arrived, but we decided we wanted to go and say hello.  So we went to their campground and spent a couple of hours catching up with them

The next day they came over to our campground as we were "on duty".  I made us Lasagna and we all had dinner together.

All of the pictures are courtesy of Kathy, as we were so busy chatting we didn't take any pictures.  So thank you Kathy for all the following pictures.

Our Site

Sue welcoming a new camper.

Kathy got some pictures as we took them on a tour of the base.

Heritage Park, Display of planes

Park by Officer Housing

Officer Housing

The next day we picked Johnny & Kathy up and took them out to Kingsley Plantation.  We were lucky as the grounds have only just reopened after Covid.

If you follow our blog, you will probably remember that we've been here a few times.  It is one of our favorite places. Again thanks to Kathy for the pictures.

Bryan by a "tabby" built slave quarters

Plantation House

River behind the Plantation

Unfortunately we found the path down to the small beach overgrown and I was sad that the turtle is no longer here.  I believe it died.

This house was on the road to the plantation.  Look at the trees. I'll bet it's spooky at night.

Love this picture

After visiting the plantation it was time for lunch. We took J&K to the Sanddollar, our favorite seafood restaurant next to the Mayport ferry.

After lunch we went for a drive to the base at Mayport and showed them the RV Park there.  We also saw some ships.

We had a lovely day out. They were leaving the next day so we said our farewells.  Hopefully we'll see them some more, now that they'll be in Florida.

October 18th was our first official day off, since July 3rd.  It felt so good to not have to worry about the campground.  We have had a few days out, but always had to come back to watch the campground. 

We had a lot of rain and the water was really high down by the swing.

The rain helped the mushrooms grow.

October 26th we finally had a full campground, apart from two non sewer sites. It was good to see the campground full again.

October 27th the other new camphost came in, although she doesn't officially start until tomorrow, and she will be gone for part of the day for an appointment.  Tom, our boss, wants Bryan to train her, so we will get with her on the 29th.

October 29th - We spent time with both the camphosts, going over things again with them, and then officially handed our keys over.  Woohoo we are done, at least until next year.  We anticipate staying in this campground until mid January though, but purely as paying guests.

October 30th - I was taking some time out and relaxing on the swing.

An alligator swam by. He was chillen, just like me!!!

Coronavirus Update

As at:      Cases USA  Cases Florida  Deaths USA  Deaths Florida                      

Oct  1st    7,273,244         709,144       207,605             14,619                      

Oct   31    9,075,777         802,547       230,009             16,969           

 

The USA had 23,394 deaths in October, 23,216 deaths in September, dropping from 30,309 in August. Unfortunately the number of deaths from September to October leveled out and didn't continue to drop.

Florida had 2,481 deaths in October, dropping from 3,157 deaths in September, and 4,555 in August. The number of deaths in Florida per month, continued to decrease.

On October 16th, the USA surpassed 8 million cases. 1 million new cases in 21 days.  Unfortunately, cases increased slightly per day compared to September. Compared to a slight decrease between August and September.

On October 30th, Florida passed 800,000 cases. Averaging 2,941 a day. Increasing slightly from 2,857 a day in September, but still significantly lower than July(10,000) & August(4,600).  

On October 31st, we had 391 cases on base, as opposed to 275 at the end of September, 237 at the end of August, and 267 at the end of July. Unfortunately, a larger increase between September and October than the previous months. 

Duval County (the county we are in) had 35,256 cases, 523 Deaths and 1,287 hospitalizations. 

An increase of 4,708 cases, 129 Deaths, and 93 hospitalizations from September 30th. However the monthly increases in Deaths and hospitalizations were still on a downward trend from previous months. Unfortunately there was an increase in cases over September, but still lower than August.

 

Unfortunately, cases have gone up as people seem to be relaxing. Let's hope that this levels out.