AYC - Day 21 of 30 - Tarpon Springs Sponge Docks

Monday, September 27, Day 21 of 30-day JetBlue All You Can Jet Adventure.

photos: Fishing boats in Tarpon Springs, and Gulf Coast Beach at Howard Park

In Tarpon Springs, Florida, I decide to mail a box home to myself, relieving me of about 5 pounds of unnecessary bulk. It's near the end of the trip, but, even 5 pounds less will be nice for the last week. Just hope the post office holds it with the rest of my mail... keep your fingers crossed.

Bernie and I went to the gulf coast beach at Howard Park. Beautiful scene, but even the breeze off the Gulf can't cut that Florida humidity. Guess I haven't gotten used to it in the last few days. I feel sticky, oh so sticky, I feel sticky and icky and damp...

Then we went into the sponge docks area of Tarpon Springs, for lunch at Hellas Greek Restaurant. There are many Greek Restaurants in Tarpon Springs, but Hellas is Bernie's favorite, and the food was really good. I had a Gyros and he had a Greek salad.

Greek sponge divers began harvesting sponges in Tarpon Springs about a hundred years ago. I'm not sure how much sponge harvesting is still done, but there is lots of fishing in this area, and lots of Greek food.

Also, I didn't exactly ask, but I don't think the sponges live in a pineapple under the sea... at least not as far as I know.

AYCJ, Day 19, Florida Road Trip continues

Saturday, September 25, Day 19 of my 30-day JetBlue All You Can Jet Adventure.

Lake Placid, Sarasota, Tarpon Springs.

Soggy Cereal, Love Bugs, Gulf Coast.

photos: the beach at Sarasota, evidence of love bugs

Morning with Lou and Beverly in Lake Placid, Florida. Coffee is brewing, so I put a little milk in a white mug, to await the finished brew. I leave it on the counter, and go to another room for a few minutes. When I come back, there is an empty white mug on the counter, but my mug with the milk in it is missing. I see Beverly drinking coffee, and figure she has the mug with milk in it, so I'll just get more from the fridge. But she didn't have milk in her coffee, so I am puzzled.

I mention that I had set aside a mug. She said she poured some dry cereal into a mug, then poured it back into the canister where they store the dry cereal. I paused, and thought.... uh-oh. Then she said it was strange because some of the dry cereal seemed wet. Uh-oh, I thought again. The mug was white, so you might not automatically see a half-inch of milk in it. Turns out that's what happened. Bev didn't realize there was milk in the mug. She poured some dry cereal into the mug, then poured it back into the canister... with a whole new box of dry cereal. I picked up the canister and looked at the clear plastic bottom, where a small but noticeable amount of milk sloshed around the previously dry cereal.

Oh no, my little bit of milk in a mug has just ruined an entire new box of cereal. I explained to Bev that there was milk in that mug and that she must have poured it into the canister of fresh, dry cereal. As we figured out what happened, we laughed, because it was an unusual sequence of events that led to this little kitchen debacle. I felt bad, but Beverly took it in stride, with an "oh well, nothing to be done about it now" attitude that I wish I could adopt more often.

As we sat at the table sipping our coffee, Lou went into the kitchen and in a few moments, we heard his voice say, "Beverly, some of the cereal is wet." Yes, well... there's a story about that... It was funny, as we tried to explain what happened... the mystery of the soggy cereal. Maybe you had to be there, but if I had intended it as a prank, it couldn't have worked any better. I just never could have thought up something so clever ... hiding milk in a white mug.

With soggy breakfast finally finished, I finished packing to move on to the next Florida stop. After finalizing some hotel and car reservations for the final 2 days of this adventure, I was ready to continue my Florida Road Trip.

On the road again, I traveled on Highway 70, heading west to the Gulf Coast. It was a two-lane road, and there was occasional traffic, but much of the time it was almost like a private highway. I searched for radio stations playing songs I could sing along to, which is one good reason for traveling alone I suppose.

Then I hit an area of the highway I decided to call "Bug Alley". All of a sudden, I realized I was having to look around the quickly multiplying bug splots on my windshield in order to see the road. More and more dots and splots appeared. "What am I driving through?"

As I stopped at a light in the town of Arcadia, there were black bugs flying around my car. I have since learned that these are Love Bugs, because apparently when they mate, they fly around attached together. I couldn't tell if I was seeing single or double love bugs, but ... I kept my windows closed. No love for the love bugs here.

Arriving in Sarasota, I followed directions to the home of my Uncle and Aunt, Joe and Arlene. I hadn't seen them for quite a few years and they look the same as I remember! We had a good visit, catching up on family news. Arlene and I drove to the Sarasota beach and had a nice walk in the powdery soft sand. Back at their house, they very helpfully provided glass cleaner and a squeegee and cleaned all the love bugs off my windshield, which I'm very grateful for, because I believe it is good to be able to see through the windshield when you're driving. It would have been nice to spend a bit more time but this whole trip has been like that, it's 30 days of travel, but just short times at each place.

Back on the Florida highways, heading north, through Tampa, and up to Tarpon Springs, land of sponges.

Day 18 AYCJ, Friday Sept 24, Lake Placid, FL

Photos: on the Canals in Lake Placid, Florida

Friday, September 24, Day 18 of my 30 day JetBlue All You Can Jet Adventure

Lake Placid, Florida, a place not many people have heard of. Lake Placid? You're in New York? Nope, Central Florida, south of Orlando, just south of Sebring.

After a lovely leisurely morning with Lou and Beverly, I went out into the canals and lakes, boating with Captain Lou! Not being much of a boater, I helped as much as I could, getting gas in the tank for the outboard motor, lowering the boat down into the water (well, we didn't do that manually, it was an electrical pulley-strap system thingy ... and I'm sure that's the official nautical term for it).

We were off into the canals. It was beautiful, parts looked like jungle, many houses on the canal, with boats in their docks. We headed out into a lake, and Captain Lou stepped on it! We sped across the lake, apparently not going all that fast, but it sure felt fast, especially when the front of the boat... hmm, is that the bow?... anyway, when the front goes up in the air it just doesn't feel right! I kept wanting to lean forward, afraid we'd flip over backwards! But we didn't.

There was a nice breeze on the water, and then it drizzled a little bit. It felt good actually, in the humid air, to have a little drizzle falling on us. So we returned back towards the house, and since it stopped drizzling, we headed the other way down the lagoon, into another lake. I quickly learned that when Captain Lou puts his cap on backwards... hold on, speed demon Lou is about to strike! We sped for a minute across this other lake, then headed back down the lagoon to head back towards home.

Parts of the ride felt like we were on the jungle cruise at Disneyland... except for real... except no elephants or rhinos, real or not. Then it started to drizzle again. Ah, that feels good. Then the drizzle became more of a rain. Well, still feels good. Then it got a little heavier. Oh this is funny, it's raining a little isn't it? With still quite a bit more ground to cover, er I guess I mean more water to cover, before returning to home base, the downpour started. We had no cover over us, the boat is open, so it poured and poured, and we got completely drenched!

"Are we there yet?" I asked Captain Lou. But we weren't there yet. We weren't there yet for several good long minutes of much good hard rain. We started laughing, it was funny because we were like 2 drowned rats! It rained and rained. I guess it's good that there was no lightning. We finally got back to the house, got the boat back in, and Beverly met us with a stack of towels. My shorts and socks were soaked and my shoes are still drying out.

Of course, about an hour after we got back in the house, the sun came out and it was a beautiful day. Hey, let's go out on the boat!

That night we made a delicious chicken dinner. That went smoothly, except after I finished stirring the sauteed spinach, the utensil in the pan suddenly flipped out onto the floor, flinging bits of cooked spinach all over the kitchen. I'm still not sure how that happened, but it may be the last time Beverly lets me help her cook.

AYCJ - Day 17 - Florida Road Trip

Photos: Fort Lauderdale, FL

Thursday, September 23, Day 17 of my 30-day JetBlue All You Can Jet Adventure. Time for my Florida Road Trip. Fort Lauderdale to Lake Placid Florida.

One knows it's humid out when one exits an air conditioned hotel room, into a moist Florida morning, and one's glasses fog up.

It must have rained in Fort Lauderdale last night, everything was wet. And yes, the air was very humid. I had breakfast at the motel, made a waffle, had juice and coffee. Then I got in my rental car, and drove to see a little of the Fort Lauderdale beaches. The Atlantic Ocean looked a little choppy, but it was beautiful.

Got to the freeway that I hoped would get me where I needed to go, and I was right! Made it to Highway 27, and headed north to the Lakes area of Central Florida (south of Orlando), driving through a few rain showers along the way. I'm visiting my friends Lou and Beverly, whom I haven't seen for several years, so it's wonderful to be able to spend a couple of days with them. We went to a great Greek restaurant last night, and I'm enjoying just relaxing and catching up with them. But I'm spending too much time writing at their computer. Still have to see if there's a WiFi place nearby where I can get online with my laptop. But for now, enough computer time!