Ocala, FL to Venice, FL

Anxious to get to our Florida home we had picked up some yogurt for breakfast at a nearby Publix last night and we were on Interstate 75 by 8:00 this morning.  The sun takes its time to get up here in the Sunshine State and there was land vapor again today.

We are not in Maine anymore and FL sure does love billboards.  In a one mile stretch there were 15 or more.

There was a quick splash of color.  Looks like a stray maple growing in a wet spot.

Nice to be reminded that there are a lot of beef creatures in FL.

Again this morning not sure where the traffic is hiding.

The temperature was about 85 degrees so we stopped at the Bradenton rest area and took our coats off.  Thanks to Allan's RSU24 IT buds he had a gift certificate to Central Maine Harley Davidson and purchased a rack for the top of the tour pack giving us a place for our jackets when every other spot is full.

Now this sign made me smile...

This is the nearly finished home of our friends Dawn and Rick who currently live in NH.  It is 1/2 mile from our house.  They are leasing it back to the builder as a model home for the next 3 years. By that time they hope to have employment here and make the move to being year round Venice residents.

And we made it to Queen Road.

Doesn't look like anyone is living here.  Guess that is a good thing.

Also looks like there are a couple of palm trees that need trimming.

We are pleased to share that the Subaru needed some air in her tires and the battery cables reconnected.  She started right up.  Now I just need to remember to look for this green Subaru when I park it and not the blue one that we left in Maine.

A stroll around the back yard and we discovered twin mangos and a large bunch of bananas.

We have checked in with our neighbors Bessie and Betty.  They both had a good summer.  Betty assured me that her pool has been calling my name.

Our departure was May 16 and

we returned on October 12.

We are thankful for the great friends who put us up along the trail (Dave and Sue, Eric and Elaine, Tierney, Don and Sue) the unbelievably sunny weather, and the safe ride that we had during our travels.  Today we traveled 168 miles. Our journey took a total of 12 days.  Our entire trip south was 1,948 miles.

It has been my pleasure to share our travels with you.  If you have read this blog please send me an email, allanordeb@gmail.com, or mention it on Facebook.  I can determine how many hits the site gets daily but unless you contact me I don't know who read it.

I am planning on seeing the sun set into the gulf tonight and if I do I will post a picture here.

And as we sat watching the sunset, eating our dinner, a stealth seagull swooped in over Allan's shoulder, from the back, and snatched his piece of calzone right out of his hand...  

Some years ago he lost a donut on Clearwater Beach to a seagull and swore off eating at the beach.  He may decide to take that oath yet again.

News Flash:  Don't feed the birds at the beach.  Some day they may snatch your food.

Allendale, S.C. to Ocala, FL

We were up and ready to go by 7 this morning.  The sun was still working on getting up.

Allan had found out about this diner and we stopped for breakfast.  It nearly broke the bank.  My one egg and biscuit was $1.20.  

Right after breakfast we entered Georgia.  It still wasn't all that light out.

If they are not growing cotton or soybeans they are growing pine in neat little rows.

The sign on this was hard to see but I thought it said something about textile.

I'm not sure if it is a Saturday morning thing after those big "Friday Night Lights" football games or everyone was where they wanted to go for the 3 day Columbus Day weekend but they were not on the road this morning.

What?  Florida already...

We have been traveling on 301 for two days and the sights have pretty much been the same all along this route.

But wait, we are in FL now and look what I found! Guess we aren't the only folks getting an early start on winter warmth.

Not quite sure what this farmer was up to.

Laurie I think this is a sign for Jai-Alai.  Guess they have it in northern FL. 

Looks like they play high school baseball here also.

As we entered Ocala we were greeted by many horse farms and stables.  There was a sign that said "Horse Capital of the World".

We located a Day's Inn by Interstate 75 and landed for the night. The only rooms available were smoking rooms.  It was 90+ degrees and we had ridden 314 miles.  We decided we could manage for one last night on the road to be in a smoker's room.  

We unloaded and started to settle in.  We discovered that the lights didn't work and the air conditioner seemed sporadic.  I called the desk and she offered us another smoker's room.  We moved and one light works, the refrigerator doesn't, the TV was out but Allan realized that the cable was unhooked and the entire establishment is without a working ice machine.  I suspect that corporate will be getting a "love" note from Mr. Metzler.

We will be eager to get going in the morning.  We have about 165 miles to travel to arrive in Venice.  I checked tonight and the water temperature is 82!!!

Durham, N.C. to Allendale, S.C.

With the temp at 60 we departed Durham at 7:30 am hoping that it isn't years and years before we see Don and Sue again.

While we were there we learned that Don has been asked to become a member of the Durham "Real Bearded Santa's". Congratulations!

And we are off...

It wasn't long before we drove past a NC high school football field. EHS football fans look at those bleachers!

We made quick work of getting to South Carolina as the temperature rose.

Not to be outdone by NC look what we pass soon after entering SC, another high school football field.  It is in behind a field of cotton.

We drove by 100's of acres of cotton fields and at one point there was a sign that said Cotton Trail.

He even slowed down so that I could get a close up picture.  We are pretty sure that some fields had been picked because once and a while cotton bolls were scattered about the side of the road like they had blown off a truck.

No we didn't go to the SC Cotton Museum.  At this point we are just getting from one place to the other and enjoying the scenery.

We first saw this plant growing in fields in Maryland and I guessed that they might be soybeans.  Upon closer inspection of a field growing behind a McDonald's in SC that is still my guess.

 Wonder what my farmer friends think?

And since pretty much these are the two crops growing in this area I wonder if they grow them in rotation?

Laurie this is the closest to Tara that we came.  There were several locations where there were long tree lined unpaved driveways that could have lead to the real Tara but you know how Allan feels about taking the bike on dirt roads.

Not quite sure what these places do but I suspect it has to do with grain.  We saw a half a dozen or so of these.

As you can imagine we were wondering what was going on when we saw this dust cloud up ahead.  It turned out to be a large piece of farm equipment harvesting something.  Just didn't notice what in all the dust.  The truck on the side of the road was a huge dump truck.

And there were plenty of places where we saw hay bales.  The really big round ones.  And a cow here or there too.

It wouldn't be SC without Palmetto Palms.

We traveled a little further than we had planned and were looking for lodging as we approached Allendale, SC.  We drove by sad little town after sad little town.  Their tiny main streets had many more stores unoccupied than occupied.  As for the motels they looked like they had been closed for 20 or 30 years!  When we got to Allendale we found the Allendale Motor Court with its shiny new sign.  That was the extent to the new and the shiny.

We stayed in this room in the corner.  Our neighbors didn't keep us up because I am not sure that anyone else stayed there.  Just let's say we asked to see the room before we paid.  The nice lady walked us to the room and squirted a can of air freshener as we walked in and checked it out.  We found it a bit stuffy with old and tired fixtures but clean.   We decided to stay.  Then we tried the internet and it didn't work and the internet on our phones didn't work either. I stepped outside and was able to get a call out to Ma assuring her that all was well.

It is always nice when there is a restaurant on site...  But it is even nicer if it is open.  It has been sometime since this place served a meal.

We traveled  293 miles and at 3:00 it was 90 degrees!!!