Tuesday, January 2 -

This is our pal Lu at the Homosassa River State Park, wishing all a Hippo New Year. Gail and I also wish everyone a Happy New Year.

We had a couple of nice days leading up to NY Eve, as the weather on the week-end was pretty nice, sunny and in the 60s. We rode around the area on Saturday, stopped for shrimp, chowder and a beer at The Freezer (hugely popular spot...always packed), then fries and a beer at the Shed, our favorite watering hole. We sit at the rail overlooking the river and watch about 30 pelicans do their aeronauticals. My favorite bird, so it's always fun.

Sunday we drove over to Inverness, about 20 miles from here, to do some riding on the Whatlacoochie Trail, a 40 mile route that's a Rail to Trail track. Nice ride, although Gail finds it a little boring. However, on our way back, we came upon a group clustered around a man who was bleeding rather profusely, mainly from his head. We stopped to see what was up, and since we were only a kilometer from our r.v., I hustled off and picked up some first aid supplies, then hustled back.  We cleaned the 78 year old man up as best we could, but he had some damage just above his left eye, so one of the group called an ambulance. The responders were there lickety split, so on my way I went. Seems the group were just standing along the trail by their low-boy bikes (loads of them along this trail) and a guy just plowed into the older fellow, knocking him flying. Hard to figure that out!! Guess the culprit was looking at his bike computer, and sailed right into them. No excuse for that, but it proves no matter where you are on a bike, you have to watch what you're doing.

That night was NY Eve, so we took a little libation kit, and went to our rec hall, where a dance was on to celebrate the New Year in. We were welcomed by a couple from New Brunswick and another couple from Chicago, and had a nice time. They had a d.j., who played some good stuff, some not so good, but we danced quite a lot (wouldn't say it was a storm we danced up but not bad for old folks). We faded away around 11:30 so we could go back to our rig to watch the ball drop in Times Square. We managed to last until about 12:30, and then had our first sleep of 2018. Can't believe it's already that year...2018. Remember the Millenial Scare? Seems like only a year or two ago.

The new year has not started well so far as weather is concerned. Cold, cloudy, windy best describes it. We hunkered down inside most of yesterday, and will now go for a walk to the village, as the sun is actually trying to shine. But it was only plus 6 yesterday, and about the same today, with a sleet warning announced for tomorrow. We'll just make the best of it, remembering that it's nothing like it is back home, so no complaining from this quarter. We're here until Saturday, hoping for a warm spell as we head to the Panhandle.

That's it for now. More later. Stay tuned.