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.