Saturday, December 29, 2007

West Central Florida

    DSCN6419 copy DSCN6406  DSCN6433Weeki Wachee Springs is 60 years old. It is Old Florida, with the feel of a roadside attraction. The mermaids don't stand out beside the road and wave the motorists in for a show anymore though. Darn it. It's mostly for kids now. I sure would have liked to have seen it when I was a boy of about 12 or so. Wooooeeee. Now I think the college age girls are just cute, in a sexy kind of way. I'd better stop before I get into trouble.

DSCN6563 A brave bird at Homosassa Springs

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Any alligators down there? We took our first bike ride in ages, on a really nice paved Central Florida trail. We learned soon after we arrived here that Florida is no place to ride on the roads, unless you have intimate knowledge of the backroads, know how to speak Cracker and maybe carry a gun. Maybe that's why they seem to be having success building multi use trails. The trails seem to get a lot of use , which will mean support for more. The only thing we don't like is they are flat flat flat. We miss Mount Lemmon, but I doubt we'd make it far, we're so out of shape. Still we did manage 42 miles yesterday, on another flat trail.

 

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We had a couple of nice short hikes in Potts Preserve, a very nice state wildlife preserve. They make it hard to find for out-of-staters, but I can understand such a populous, touristy state wanting to keep something for the locals. It makes the search all the more rewarding.

Next we head for the Florida Panhandle, where we hope to find fewer people, white sandy beaches, more public lands, and less humidity.

Everglades

We only bussed the Everglades, but it was one of those kisses that linger in memory. It would take at the very least months to develop a relationship the Everglades. Neither swamp nor upland, it is both, but its life blood is a slow moving sheet of water flowing from Florida's highlands (if a couple of hundred feet above sea level can be called highlands). The problem is that we humans, first in ignorance and later with greed, interrupted and redirected the flow of water, and changed, probably forever, the nature of very complex ecosystem. In recent years, at very great expense, an attempt is being made to restore something close to historic flows to the Everglades. Time will tell if it proves out, or not. I'm glad we got a taste of it at least, thanks to our wonderful National Park system.

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Tuesday, December 18, 2007

The Florida Keys

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Turtle roughing it in the Keys

DSCN5604DSCN5679Key West is for the birdsDSCN5673

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Sunset at the end of America.DSCN5789 PC130005

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I didn't need our bikes tuned, thank goodness. He had this tendency to take long breaks until somebody put some folding money in the bucket. slowest bike mechanic I've ever seen!

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This silly six foot tarpon thought my camera was a fish! Almost lost it, and a few fingers too.

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The No Name Pub is thought to have over 100,000 $1 bills stuck to the ceiling. We ate lunch instead.DSCN5866 

 PC140043PC150007 Sharing my one-handed technique for getting a fish off the hook. My grandpa taught me when I was about this little guy's age, a few decades ago.

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The two sides of the Florida Keys

Monday, December 10, 2007

Recreational Vehicle Industry Association show in Louisville, 2007

 

The Tailgater: It had NO beds, just for party time; around $400,000

DSCN5365DSCN5314Motorcycle with sidecar to attract attention to a display.

Lean Mean Amish Machine, our favorite.

DSCN5348DSCN5345  Happy Birthday Winnebago!

We spent three outrageously busy days learning all we could about the RV industry, meeting all the people we've heard about, and eating the great food in the Press Room. It was relaxing to get back on the road, racing winter south.

Another Country

For lots more photos: http://www.newbohemiansnet.spaces.live.com/

We thought we were staying in America when we canceled the trip to South America. Then, at the Tennessee Welcome Center we met a man who wanted to make sure we saw a certain battlefield in Chattanooga, "...in the Northern War of Aggression." I guess we really are two countries.

Other things heard in the South: "I think we ought to nuke the entire Middle East." "Only people who own property and pay taxes should be allowed to vote." and most amazing, "Barrak Obama will impose Islamic Law if elected president." We'd all be living the law of President Bush's church if that were possible under the Constitution. It isn't.

I am confused. It appears that the South Shall Rise Again is no longer a aphorism, but an accomplished fact. Some of them (lots of them?) have separated from the rest of the country. We await a formal declaration of war. Given the success they had (in what I thought was called the Civil War) at picking their battles, they might want to think twice.

We drove longer and faster than usual to get to the Kennedy Space Center to see the Shuttle launch. Luckily we found a wonderful boondock spot at the edge of a wildlife refuge and had four each glourious sunsets and sunrises, surrounded by friendly RVers, wildlife and local fishers. The mozzies left welts that linger a week later, but they are not bad during the day. It's a good thing we found the boondock, the RV parks are outrageously expensive. (Go to Arizona!) After three cancellations due to some sensors, (they probably work as well as our black-water sensors) we gave up and drove south.

Our first bike ride in Florida we were treated to two young men in a pickup suggesting that it would be common courtesy for us to ride on the sidewalk. We were not blocking traffic and the lanes were wide. I suspect it was our bright clothing that offended him. I wonder if bicyclists here learn to wear camo.

The next day we took mountain bikes, rode sidewalks and grass verges and had a wonderful day, including the best hot dog I've had since West Virginia: steamed bun, chilli and coleslaw. Yum. Most of the people we meet are from somewhere else, here for the winter. There seem to be lots of people living in old cars and trucks, sleeping with the mozzies in the managroves I suspect. The homeless don't always show up at shelters to be counted.

After we left the Space Coast, we drove down A1A along the barrier islands, filled with beautiful large and expensive houses, and some very nice county parks and beaches. Each time we stopped at a beach, we began coughing and or sneezing. We thought it was an unusual reaction to salt air, but later learned it is an alergic reaction to a kind of red tide that is driving people from the coast. We both got stung by a blue jellyfish I was trying to get closeup photos of, when a larger wave washed it around our ankles and toes. Vinegar (we learned in Australia) helped, and the sting lasted only a few hours. Now we know why we had the beaches to ourselves, red tide and stinging jellyfish. Lovely still.

We did wonder how many of those beautiful houses will be gone next hurricane. I somehow don't think those people will be living in FEMA trailers. I just hope we don't end up having to pay to rebuild the beach they should not have built on. The barrier islands should be kept as just that, barrier islands, used as parks and wildlife refuges, to protect the inner coast, not covered by houses that distroy the vegetative matte that holds the sand. Money talks, and money buys politicians, and insurance.

Florida will be interesting, already is; stay tuned. I have a lot to learn.