Tropical Traveler - Deb: Out and About - Nov. 11

We have been able to keep ourselves busy since arriving here at our winter home in Venice, FL.

Rebekah and three friends came down for a long weekend shortly after we arrived. I think they all had a fun time and as FL weather would have it the sun shone and the water was warm and wet.

Allan and I enjoy fiddling around the house. We are still doing a bit of "nesting". We like the county library and their books and CD's, beaches, the parks and preserves. Each day we walk for a about an hour which for us is about 3 +/- miles. The timing can depend on how many photo stops either of us make.

We took a few days (Nov. 7-11) and traveled to Gatlinburg, TN with Bill and Chris to visit with Jeff and Lynn. Jeff and Lynn were on their way through to TX. While we were there Allan's sister Terry, who lives in Knoxville, drove over for a day. It was a fun few days but... there was snow in the Smokies and the road had been closed the day before we drove through and it snowed the morning that we left but the road was open. We got a taste of snow and cold.

The weekend of Nov. 22 -23 we drove up to Tallahassee to attend the wedding of a delightful young woman who worked with me at the Beech Hill School some years ago. It was planned as an outside wedding but the weather did not cooperate. Torrential rain the day before and it was anticipated for the day of the wedding so they found an alternate inside location and a grand time was had by all. Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. David and Emily Taylor.

We had a quiet but tasty Thanksgiving here in Venice. We got the smallest turkey we could find and were still enjoying it when it was finally all eaten.

We walked here in Jelks Preserve many times last year.

We never saw any feral hogs but we saw where they had rooted around in the trails making an uneven, watch your step, mess of things. Until reading this notice, this fall, we did not know that they trap them or that we have DeSoto and his army to thank for their presence.

Once again we didn't see any wild hogs but we did see this fella, a somewhat friendly armadillo.

Sunday, Nov. 30 we went for a motorcycle ride to Ellenton, via Interstate 75. There had been a fender bender and we sat in traffic for 25 minutes or so.

This is a photo of Woody's River Roo taken from the bridge over the Manatee River. We had eaten here the day we picked up the new motorcycle last spring.

We stopped in again for lunch and had this great view from our seats. While we were waiting to be served we returned a Face-time call to Jake and the girls that we had missed while traveling. I think they were OK with the panoramic view that I shared... Yes, that was yet again another cold day in Maine. It is always a thrill for us to get to chat and visit with them.

After lunch we headed inland toward Arcadia. We came upon this sight and were a bit perplexed and then we came upon...

acres and acres and more acres of tomato fields,

and acres and acres and more acres of orange groves,

and many acres of strawberry fields. Long before this point we decided it was a migrant labor camp.

This is a truck filled with bins that they put the tomatoes into and then load onto the truck. We saw a sign for Del Monte.

The soil here is questionable at best and I have been reading up on what to "add" to it. Let's just say most of us would call this sand and not soil let alone top soil. It seems to come in two flavors; very light tan or a darker tan. There was no way for us to tell what they might be planning to plant here.

Did I mention oranges...

Keep in mind that your eyes aren't going bad when you look at these photos. We were zipping along on the motorcycle at a pretty good clip and I was clicking away.

These Sandhill Cranes were in a field and I have magnified them and that only enhances the bad case of the blurries. We see them every so often and they are almost always in pairs. On this trip I also came across an open marshland where there was an entire flock but by the time I figured out what I was looking at we were long gone down the road.

And of course most of us would want a good piece of beef to go with our fruits and veggies.

Every so often we head down to the beach to see a sunset.

Terry is visiting for several days and yesterday we walked in Sleeping Turtle Preserve North. It runs along the Mayakka River. We came across several eastern mud turtles. I suspect they were sunning and taking a nap. Allan thinks that they were rehearsing Christmas carols and the choir conductor is the Anhinga on the far right of the log.

Last night we had neighbor Betty over to join Terry and us for dinner. We had a raucous game of 500 Rummy. I was not a very good hostess nor Allan a host. I won and he came in next 25 behind me. Oops, sorry Betty and Terry.

Various sights from our walk today (Dec. 5) on the Legacy Trail from Laurel to Venice and back.

We even saw a bridge angler catch a pretty fish that he proceeded to return to the bay.

I forgot to mention that we built and planted a raised bed. So far we have parsley, rosemary and thyme, sweet peas and zinnias, lettuce, radish, tomatoes, spinach, peas, green beans, and cukes planted.