We just spent 11 days at Trimble Park in northern Orange County, FL - about 45 minutes from Disney. We stayed here just a few days last year, mostly while we were actually on a cruise ship for my sister's 40th birthday, so we didn't get to properly appreciate it.
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| Our beautiful wooded campsite! |
Unfortunately I managed to pick one of the few campsites with an obscured view of the lake, but we could still see it, and being close to the bathhouse was a definite plus since we had no sewer - I *think* this is the longest we've ever gone without a sewer connection. We stayed here longer than we normally would to reset our travel schedule to Tuesdays (a much easier travel day than anywhere close to the weekends in the Orlando area).
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Obscured lake view
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While we were here we enjoyed hiking around Trimble Park and some neighboring parks.
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A small alligator seen from the dock near our campsite
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The lake as seen from another dock on the hiking trail
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Cycling along the Lake Apopka North
Shore trail, with one of a TON of
anhingas visible in the background |
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At the Mt Dora Lighthouse
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The boardwalk at Palm Island Park
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Tropical storm Eta hit while we were staying at Trimble Park. I have to admit I was pretty worried, what with all the warnings about mobile homes and whatnot. We took in all of our patio furniture, lashed down the bikes, closed all the awnings, and even brought in our slides to protect the fabric-like slide covers. I was pretty nervous all night long, but the crazy strong winds didn't rock the RV at all. I guess we're just too heavy! The next morning we woke up to branches and palm fronds down all around, but no damage to our property. We survived our first large weather event in the RV!
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The storm position the next
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Palm fronds down everywhere!
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While we were here we learned a LOT about our new limited data plan. I think I mentioned before that we had to give up the amazing unlimited AT&T plan for the Togo Roadlink....they figured out it was TOO good a deal. We're now on a data-only plan from Cricket Wireless. The connection speeds have been great and we have no complaints there...but it's amazing how many little things you don't think about eat up data! We've gone into our computers to reduce allowed data usage (for those of you with Windows 10...that's under "Data Usage" in the Settings), disabled app updates on our phones (we update them when on free wireless while out and about), and set low resolution on all of our streaming accounts where we can (Netflix, YouTube, etc). We go into a local library to download anything large for our computers or tablets...speaking of which, quick segue...
The Mt. Dora Library (close to Trimble Park) is one of the neatest libraries I've been in. It's a nice facility, and they have a butterfly garden, a velociraptor display, and...most incredibly...cake pans that you can check out!! I've never seen the like. Super cool.
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Velociraptor
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Cake pans! In a library!!
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Back to data usage...despite our best efforts, we were just blowing through our data plan. Granted, initially we used a bunch of data before we figured out how to limit everything, but even after flipping all the switches I just mentioned, we blew through an additional purchased 15GB in just one day (!!!!!). We finally figured it out though...the XBOX! We hadn't had the XBOX on in quite a while because we mostly only use it to play DVDs, and we didn't use it at all while in quarantine and didn't turn it on much at Fort Wilderness or Sherwood Forest because we had free cable if we wanted entertainment. However, once we reached Trimble Park we decided to watch some DVDs to conserve our data...and the impudent little device went and downloaded the long-amassed updates for all its games and apps in the background while we watched our no-data DVDs!! I'm not sure the size of all the updates, but the one that killed our extra 15GB was a 60GB update for the Halo Master Chief Collection. 60GB!! It really drove home that the majority use case for the XBOX, computers, and the like is to have an unlimited data connection, so the devices and the software suppliers don't think too much about data. Well, thank goodness we FINALLY figured that out, and went in to the XBOX settings and told it to start operating offline. We'll get the XBOX updated sometime later. For anyone out there contemplating a limited data plan...make sure you go into the settings for EVERYTHING you have that connects to the internet ever and limit or turn off data usage! Leave no device unexplored!
Our last big event at Trimble Park was a SpaceX rocket launch at Kennedy Space Center! We went to see the Crew-1 launch - the official beginning of regular manned space missions to depart from the US. This was a very different experience from the launches we saw earlier in the year due to COVID-19. Earlier in the year we bought a package that took us on a crowded bus to a crowded viewing platform. This time we bought a package that guaranteed us a spot of ground in a large staff parking lot in the main visitor complex (i.e., that we could walk to from the main parking lot). This was also our first nighttime launch - SUPER cool. The rocket was incredibly bright, and we could even see the firing of the thrusters (?) on the stage 1 part that came back to land on a platform in the ocean.
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Countdown clock at the space center entrance
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| Livestream projected on a building next to the parking lot |
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Crew-1 climbing into the sky
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This was an exciting 11 days! And we left with the gray tank only 67% full!
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