Friday, Feb 28 - Normally the last day of Feb., but one more to go given this is a Leap Year. Just what we need, an extra day of winter. Which is what we have here in Florida. We have another cold front, so the heater is on, the furnace has been working, and although it's going to be another sunny day, the temp is going only into the 50sF. Down to 1F tonight. But it's only temporary, as next week promises to be back to normal.

So we haven't been doing much. It rained all day Wednesday, so we were confined to barracks. Yesterday we managed to get in a little 15 km bike ride, and sat in the sun reading, despite a quite cool breeze from the north. Today we hope to venture a little further, as it should be a little warmer.

The main excitement yesterday was having a red-shouldered hawk land on our skylight. We were having breakfast, when all of a sudden there was a clatter on the roof. I looked up, and there was a hawk, having a drink from water that had accumulated on the skylight. And he stayed there for several minutes, long enough for us to observe him as close to a hawk as you'll ever get, and to take a few pictures. I'll post a few of them right now.

As low-key birders (meaning we love chasing after our feathered friends, but don't get too serious, like keeping a life list), this was very exciting. He is a beautiful bird, one we think we'd seen sitting on a tree branch the day before. But to have him this close for several minutes was quite a treat. The third photo shows him looking down to see what we were having for breakfast. Guess Gail's All Bran didn't appeal, as he left a couple of minutes later.

Other than that, we await the arrival of grand-daughter Anna on Sunday evening, and hope the weather is much better for her visit. She'll no doubt inject some life into the humdrum existence of these old codgers. All for now. More later. Stay tuned.

Wed., Feb 26 - We were about to go for a bike ride, when the rain started. And is it ever coming down now, with even a little thunder thrown in for effect. We could float away if this keeps up, although it's supposed to ease off before long. Folks in parts of Mississippi have been dealing with a lot of flooding, and southern Louisiana has also had a lot of rain, so maybe it's just as well we stayed in Florida this winter.

We moved here to Homosassa on Monday, into a park we haven't tried before. It's quite nice, right on the river, so we're pleased with the location and facilities. But yesterday it threatened to rain most of the day, and finally got started in the later afternoon. And didn't really stop all evening. We managed to get a good walk in before it started, but then we were confined to barracks, as we are now. Rain to continue until this evening, then sunshine and cooler for a couple of days. Should be nice by the week-end. Not really complaining, as for the most part, we've had pretty fine weather.

Our last couple of days in New Port Richie were pleasant enough. I did a long ride on Saturday, 54 kms, so the next day we took it easy. We went back to Tarpon Springs, did a little 25 km ride, then wandered the town, had lunch at Mama's, bought a sponge, watched the tourists, loads of them. It's a busy town, the sponge industry the main attraction (Spong Capital of the World), so it was a good diversion for our last day in the area.

We had a short drive to come here on Monday, so stopped off at the Weeki Wachee Springs State Park. This is a very popular site, mainly because of the Mermaid Show that has been running here for decades.The spring has a pool 400 feet deep, fed from the aquifer, with crystal clear water. An ex-navy frogman discovered the place's potential, so started an entertainment centre that features swimmers dressed in mermaid suits, who perform for an audience behind a large glass wall. They carry oxygen hoses, and do a quite remarkable 30 minute show 2 of 3 times a day. There are about 8 females, and a couple of males, who run through several routines involving underwater acrobatics, a story line that tells the history of the place,  a skit about the invasion of algae, with a guy dressed up like a blob descending upon the mermaids. They speak to the audience, or rather lip-sync, but very convincingly. They also eat and drink underwater, which I wouldn't try to do. I have enough trouble these days eating at the dining table.

It's a little hard to describe, so I'll post a couple of photos that may convey the performance. The park is quite well set-up, with boat rides on the river available if you get there early enough (we were too late at 11:00), and they also have a reptile show, which was pretty basic, but okay. There's a good restaurant for the basics, and several colorful peacocks roaming the grounds, one of which gave us a full display. So it was a good stop, and worth a visit if you're ever in the Weeki Wachee area north of Port Richie.

We met an interesting fellow here in the park yesterday, a retired guy from Colorado, who is just getting used to not working. He and his wife were in the ski hill business in the mountains for 40 years, but had to slow right down as a result of an accident he had two years ago. He slipped on the edge of a slope, and went down end over end quite a distance. He managed to climb up and go home, but next day and the days that followed became very painful. Turned out he'd broken a major disc, the second cervicle, which resulted in a couple of tricky surgeries to patch him up. Lucky he didn't end up a paraplegic. He said he's broken nearly every bone in his body over his life-time, having been a bit of an adventurer, so finds having to slow down difficult. No more skiing, as the result of a fall could be catastrophic. He's lucky to be alive, and wakes up every morning acknowledging that fact.

Still pouring! So I'll post a couple of pictures. The first shows one of the mermaids doing her thing. Each carries an oxygen hose, which they use very efficiently, and they are able to control their position underwater by controlling their inhaling and exhaling somehow. Breathe in oxygen, and descend. Breathe out, and rise. Beyond this landlubber to know just how it works, but it's quite impressive. They do two costume changes during the show, as you can see in the second and third pictures, which is also pretty amazing for a 30 minute show, considering they have to exit the pool, change,  and come back in very quickly. Takes me 15 minutes just to get into my bathing suit.

The bottom two pictures show the bottom and front of Mr. Peacock. He was really strutting his stuff. There were 3 or 4 hens heading for the exit as we were leaving. The word was out that the male was feeling amorous, and they wanted nothing to do with it.

That's about it for now. We hope the rain lets up so we can get on our bikes and go over to The Shed, our favorite watering hole, for a beer and french fries. Sunshine tomorrow, so we'll get there eventually. Thinking of and missing our friends and family back home. More later. Stay tuned.

Saturday, Feb 22 - The weeks do roll by, as there's only one more week left in February. It's been a strange week weather-wise, as we were in very warm and humid weather during the early part of the week, until Thursday evening, when a cold front rolled in. If there were iguanas around this neck of the woods, they'd be falling out of the trees again. Hope it's warmer over at Lake Worth where the iguanas are in fairly large numbers. This morning the temp was 43F upon our rising, so the furnace was on overnight, and the little electric heater is still going as I speak. Warmer tomorrow.

We've had a good stay here. On Tuesday, we had a highlight day, as we drove to Tarpon Springs, got on the bike trail there heading towards Clearwater, and just as we got started, there were Tom and Betty Garrity. They'd ridden from Clearwater to meet us, and did so much more than half-way. That's their style...go go go. We had a lovely leisurely ride to a very neat restaurant, the Ozona Blue Grilling Company, right on the water, complete with a swimming pool. Bring your swim-gear, and you can have a swim during or after lunch. Bring the kids, and let them have fun in the water while you dine. What a neat concept.

We did a lot of catching up on many things, including a bit of planning for the 2022 DND Reunion we're charged with organizing. Then we rode on towards Honeymoon Island, thinking to check out the beach, but ran out of time, so turned about, said our farewells, and concluded a really nice day with two great friends.

Thursday we had a slow leak in Gail's front tire to deal with, so found a bike shop via the internet, and rode to downtown New Port Richie, which we'd never done before. It's about 10 kms from here, all urban riding, but we managed, got the tire fixed, did a little tour around the lovely park in this rather nice little town center, had some pizza, and headed back. I carried on to the nearby Starkey Park, and did a good ride, ending up with 51 kms for the day. And then the cold front came in. We went to the country music show some of the residents put on every Thursday evening, and that warmed us up.

So yesterday, cold and windy, hunkering down, reading a book, a walk by Lar over to the shopping center to get some supplies. And last night we attended a concert right here in the park, a father-son-daughter trio called the Marlinaires. Could they ever entertain! The dad is one of 6 sons, from Indiana, whose father was big-time in American music, playing with many famous people, like Chet Atkins. All 6 sons ended up in the music business, playing all over the States as group for 40 years. This son decided to set up his own group with his daughter and wife, and was then joined by his son, who took Mom's place when he got out of the military. They put on a great show, the Dad in particular an amazing musician on guitar, fiddle and banjo. Plus singing, some good humour, some patriotic stuff...a really great show for the older set. I checked their schedule, and they perform nearly every night in the winter season, at legions, r.v. parks and so on, around the Tampa area.

This morning we went to a pancake breakfast put on by the residents of the park. Everything that is going on here is organized by the park residents, and there's a lot of it. A great spot to stay if  want a sociable place to spend the winter or part thereof. Very friendly folks, some from Ontario. In fact, we met one fellow from Picton, who has been staying here for about 4 years His name is Maurice Yarrow, a former Cement Plant employee. Met his wife last night, Cecilia, who was a Champion. We remembered each other from school. They're good friends of Dr. Janice Istead, who is down here not far from this park, apparently.

I'll probably do a ride today, Gail a walk. Our Grand-daughter Anna is doing her audition for entry to Mohawk College's Music Program, so we have our fingers crossed that all will go well. That's our main preoccupation for the day. So that's it for now. We move on in two days to our old favorite, Homosassa. We're trying a different r.v. park, so hope that works out. All for now. Stay tuned.

Tuesday, Feb 18 - We've moved! We're back in the New Port Ritchie area, at Orchid Lake Park, one that we discovered last year and enjoyed. Good weather today, so it looks like a fine day to go for a bike ride. We'll drive over to Tarpon Springs, sponge capital of the world, and hit the Pinella Bike Trail, so that we can meet friends Betty and Tom Garrity for lunch. They'll bike from their place in Clearwater, so that's what you call meeting friends half-way, which we should always try to do, no?

A bit about last week, because we managed to do something interesting each day. We mentioned the very nice state park that we visited, Koreshan SP, which has a nice little river, the Estero, running though it. So we went back, rented a canoe, and paddled up and down the river for a couple of hours. It was very peaceful, a quiet river, narrow, slow-flowing, so great for two people who don't always agree on who should be doing what on which side of the canoe. As the captain, I found that my mate didn't always follow my orders. But I shouldn't have been surprised, cause that's usually the case with most things we do. A good day, with the canoe ride sandwiched in between two 10 kilometer bike rides.

Next day we dared to ride the urban bike trails all the way to the beach, about a 12 km ride. And a nice beach it is, as dear friend Marian Elllis well knows, as she's spent quite a lot of time in this area. It reminded us of Portugal on the Algarve. As you came down the stairs onto the beach, there was a considerable crowd of people, all bunched into a relatively confined area. As you walked either direction along the beach, there was hardly anyone. Just like Portuagal, where the people clearly wanted to be where lots of other people were. Nice beach, nice walk on it. That's it for me and beaches. Gail had a swim in the rather cool water. Good for her. I cheered her on.

We went back to Koreshan Park once again on Sunday, because they had a Farmer's Market going on. As well, some of the old buildings were open, with demonstrations going on, of baking, machining, and in particular, blacksmithing. I want to focus on the latter. The blacksmith was in the process of demonstrating a range of the elements involved in the trade, and set about creating a snake, which he fashioned out of a straight steel rod. He patiently explained everything that he was doing very clearly and in an interesting way, not overwhelming us with too much detail. In front of him was a young boy, about 7 or 8 years of age, between his parents, watching intently everything that the blacksmith did. Not only that, he had very mature questions about the process, which the smithy answered respectfully and patiently. At one point, the young lad said "I could watch you all day long".

As the snake took shape, the smithy involved the lad for the final stage of the process, handing him a brass brush used to polish the finished object. "Now that it's done, come back in 5 minutes after it's cooled, and you can take it with you," said the smithy. The whole thing was a beautiful example of good teaching. When the family left, I told the smithy he should go into teaching. He does do a bit of that, teaching adults, so I told him of my former role, and that if I'd had the opportunity, I would have hired him for sure. He was very appreciative of the feedback.

All of this also drove home the thought that hiring teachers could be much improved if we could ask them to teach a lesson before making a decision about their suitability for a position. So much more meaningful as a screening process than an interview and paper qualifications.

Funny thing is, my camera has stayed in the r.v. for most of last week. Not sure why. Guess when we're biking so much, it's a bit of a hassled to deal with a bulky camera. But I did get a few shots at Corkscrew, so I'll try to post a couple.
One, the big otter and his scat on the boardwalk in Corkscrew. Second, find the beautiful painted bunting in the bushes. And third, Gail's new slogan on a t-shirt I should have bought for her.

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

Friday, Feb. 14 - Happy Valentine's Day to everyone.

We've had three interesting days here in the Bonita Springs area, so today's rest and catch up day. It's quite warm today, probably going to themid 80s, and humid, so this morning everything was wet, inside and out. But we persevere.

We found a nice area to bike, so on Tuesday, headed out, and ended up in a very nice state park about 9 kms from our r.v. park. Koreshan State Park is located right next to the Tamiami Trail, a major highway that runs parallel to the I-75. The Trail is extremely busy, but once you get 300 meters west of it, you're in a lovely quiet park. The interesting thing about the Koreshan Park is that the property was once owned by a cult or clan, headed by a charismatic guy who brought his followers and ideas from Chicago to set up a New Jerusalem. He envisioned eventually having millions of people centered here, all following his ideas of what a perfect world would look like. At one point, he had a couple of hundred people living and working and sharing life in this area, starting in the late 1800s. There are still quite a few of the original buildings on the grounds, but after several decades of decline, the whole thing was sold to the State to set up a park.

We wandered about the trails, visited the old buildings, and watched a video that described the history of the people who lived here when the cult was going full tilt. It declined, by the way, because the charismatic leader was beaten badly by a sheriff and his deputy, which caused him to fade away. And with his lack of leadership, the whole thing fell apart.

Once of the nice features of the park is the Estere River, a quiet and peaceful flow that goes through the park and on to the Gulf. So yesterday, we biked back, rented a canoe, and paddled up and down the river for a couple of hours. It was quite lovely, a couple of manatees there to greet us, a large gator giving us the eye, and a fine great blue heron watching us as we floated past. That little trip, with the 18 kms of biking, got us home ready to settle down to do nothing for the rest of the day, although the tireless Gail did two loads of laundry just to cap things off.

On Wednesday, we drove to one of our favorite places in Florida, Corkscrew Swamp. It's a great facility, with a 2.5 mile boardwalk that allows you to wander through the area very comfortably. Dave MacKay will remember this place, as we came here for the first time with him and Sue a number of years ago. It's just a lovely peaceful area to wander about, looking for wildlife, enjoying the surroundings. There were quite a few birds, although not huge numbers, and you had to look hard to find them at times. The highlight is getting a sighting of painted buntings, beautiful little birds of multiple bright colours. We were lucky enough to see a half dozen of them at one of the feeding stations. We also saw a large otter, who came up on the boardwalk right in front of us to have a massive poop, and then hobbled along and disappeared, favoring an injured leg. What else? A marsh rat, a first for us, a coon wandering about in the swamp (much nicer place to see him than in our back yard), and the usual gator.

Getting there wasn't bad, as it's about an hour away; but coming back, I made the mistake of taking the Tamiami Trail, which was totally clogged. It was stop and go for several miles, so took almost twice as long to come home. Should have taken the I-75. I keep saying, "There are just too damned many people in Florida!", which is true, especially of popular areas such as in the Naples-Fort Meyer area, Tampa area and Orlando area. That's why we like our less crowded areas like Lake Worth, and Homosassa.

Anyway, not to complain, but it does give us pause as to where we'd like to spend future winters. Arizona and Texas have a lot of appeal, as they have wide open spaces, and except for the urban areas, aren't nearly as crowded. Food for thought for next year.

That's enough for now. Hope you have a nice Valentine's Day. Maybe we'll go out for lunch to note the day. More later. Stay tuned.

Tuesday Feb. 11 - We have moved on. We're now over on the other side, not far from Naples and Fort Meyer, at Bonita Springs. We're in an older r.v. park, but it's okay, as it's close to Corkscrew Wildlife Center, which we really like. So we'll go there, and possibly to Sanibel Island as well, where we can do some cycling. It means uprooting the rig, but it's not a big deal to do so. That was the nice thing about Lake Worth. We could do what we wanted without having to pack up.

A couple of interesting things. I had a little dental problem, so after getting it fixed up, I commented on the fact the dentist, a sweet gal named Dr. Lam, and her assistant were both wearing masks. I jokingly implied they were doing so out of concern for the Corona virus. Not at all...standard practice in their office when dealing with patients. But the Corona outbreak has created a problem that affects their practice. Their suppliers have run out of masks because of the panic that seems to be happening, resulting in severe shortages. Dr. Lam has been trying to find new sources without luck, and said if the problem isn't corrected, she'll have to shut down her office. Who'd have thought!? That could be a big factor in many health facilities.

Second thing. We've been riding the circuit around the lake, and have established a nice relationship with two homeless guys that I've mentioned previously. I've supplied Red with several novels, as he's quite a reader, and we always have a little chat when we hit their corner on the trail. So last ride, we had to say good-bye, wish each other well, knowing we might not see these two interesting guys again.  We left with laughter, so it was okay. You might think it's curious that they're allowed to set up on a very public site, but they've been there for almost two years, so obviously don't bother anyone. Not too far from there is a rather large tent town, within the confines of the park, hidden behind tall hedges, and it seems to be quiet most of the time, although well patrolled by the park security people. We also see quite a few folks on the trail with their bikes and packs, but again, we've never had one negative incident from any of these people. Just sad that there are so many of them.

On Saturday we went to the big Southern Florida Garlic Fest. It's a big show, complete with major rides, tons of booths peddling various wares, art, jewellery, you name it. There was a great line-up of booths with distinctive garlic-based food, plus a big band-stand, featuring a variety of musical acts throughout the day and evening, with the Wailers ( a descendent band from Bob Marley days) the finale. Big crowds, probably 20,000 each day. Neat that it was close enough that we could walk over.

We wandered about, had some good food (I had a garlic pulled pork plate and Gail had garlic scampi), and took in the Wailers until our feet told us it was time to walk back to our camper. I'd download a picture or two, but the signal in this old park is just too weak.

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

Friday, Feb. 7 - A big rain this morning, but did that dampen our spirits? Not much. We just think of our homeless friends, trying to stay dry, and can't complain at all. The fellow I've been supplying with books is named Red, and he's always positive. His partner, a black fellow who is always in his lounge, seems somewhat less cheerful, but he's always friendly and ready to greet us as we ride by. They survived the deluge okay, so weren't complaining. I gave Red another book, this one a Harlen Coben, which he hadn't read before. So all is well in that quarter.

We departed from our usual routine yesterday by riding to the beach. We hadn't done it before, as we are usually content to do the circuit around the lake. However, we thought it foolish to be here as much as we have been and not check out the waterfront. So over we went, riding the urban trails (i.e, sidewalks, for the most part), up and over the big bridge that crosses the inland waterway (nearly blew us off our bikes at the top, as there was a very strong wind), and on to the beach.

And what a nice beach it is. Surfers, kite surfers, swimmers, loungers, wanderers, all enjoying this lengthy beach area. There's a casino, a vibrant bar on the pier, all the things the folks who go to Cocoa Beach enjoy. Seems to be pretty much the case all the way up the coast. We wandered about, went out on the pier, had a beer at Benny's on the Beach, and worked our way back home midst the traffic. A good day. Pictures to follow.

Aside from that, we spent this rainy morning planing the rest of our lives (assuming they end when the kids head back home after March Break). We're never this well-organized. Disturbing to me! But with Anna (grand grand-daughter) coming at the beginning of March, we felt we should have some sense of where we'll be during her stay with us. So we've booked two different places at Homosassa, our old favorite area in Florida, followed by a week in the Eustis area (not too far north of Orlando). So we've actually filled in our schedule until March 21st. Unheard of for us.

This week-end is the big Annual Garlic Festival, right here in an area adjacent to our campground. The Wailers are the Saturday night headliners, appropriate, as much of the music seems to have a reggae flavor. This is a big area for Hispanic people, so we expect there will be a lot of them in attendance, which they claim should be close to 40,000 for the week-end. So we'll spend some time there, trying some garlic goodies and enjoying some reggae. You never know what these old grey-heads will end up doing. No doubt the music will be loud and hearable right from our campsite, but we'll go have some fun.

A couple of pics to follow. First, one of my buddies, doing a tai chi manouver., graceful, balanced, full of concentration Amazing birds, these pelicans...my favorites down here. Second, Gail enjoying s Stella in the bright sunshine at Benny's on the Beach; and third, the lovely expanse of the Lake Worth Beach area. That's all for now. Stay tuned. More later.

Tuesday, Feb. 4 - Here we are in February. The winter months are sliding along, with folks at home enjoying an especially mild time of it, for the most part. Why did we leave? Well, it's sunny, breezy and around 25 today, so I guess that's a good reason.

We're back at Lake Worth, after a very nice week-end with our dear friend Joyce in Palm City. We arrived on Friday, having dealt with the Miami area traffic for a good part of the day. Maybe it was because the Super Bowl was played there on Sunday. But the traffic was really heavy. We got off the Turnpike, which was packed, to I-95, which was packed, and looked for relief on highway 1. But there is no real relief, because although the traffic was a lot less, the whole highway is built up, from Miami all the way north. So eventually got tired of red light after red light, went back up to 95, and found it not too bad.

We had a pretty laid back time with Joyce and Lily, her little white doggie. There was a little tension, as the roofers have removed the tiles over the entire house, and had left the underlay, awaiting the delivery of the new tiles. Would it leak? Saturday proved that it's leak-proof. It poured most of the day. And all was dry inside, much to Joyce's great relief. So we were relaxed enough to go over to Total Wine, a huge booze shop, where we did our duty to keep the economy going. Sunday, we went to Beall's for shopping. And bought supplies for the Super Bowl. Which was a super game. I was betting on the Chiefs with my friend Marian, so I'm afraid that she came up short once again. No gloating on my part, as I know the worm will turn soon, and I'll be on the wrong side. But 6 out of 7 is not bad.

Yesterday, the roofers were at Joyce's bright and early, so we left the chaos, controlled as it was, and headed south. We have time before checking in here, so went back to our favorite bird place, and wandered about for a couple of hours. Always enjoyable, and got a few good pics to show for it.

We'll be here for the week, then over to Bonita Springs, near Naples, next week, and back to New Port Ritchie the following week. That latter booking will put us fairly close to Clearwater, where Tom and Betty Garrity are staying, so that we can have a chance to get together for a ride and a beer. After that...maybe Homosassa again. We have to go there for sure for at least a week. And so it goes with the Richardson gypsies.

Biked this morning, and will soon go again. Love the trail here. All for now. Maybe a pic or ten. Stay tuned. More later.
First 4 pics, a series showing a silly wood stork having a bath. He puts everything into it, believe me.
Next, another wood stork, this one coming home from the office just a whole lot later than he should have, so wife, down and to the right, is letting him have it.
Then a cute little marsh bunny...just to break the stork saga up a little.
And a purple gallinule, a bird of lovely shades of...you guessed it, purple.
Back to the storks, this time two of them fighting quite vigorously over a good-sized branch, meant for a nest. The guy on the right prevailed, and was soon tucking it away.
Finally, two shots of the dolphins we mentioned visiting in Key Largo. They are quite amazing, and do tremendous work to help a lot of people. A terrific program.