Trippin' with Susan Straley

   The day after meeting with Camille in Pensacola, I decide to take a day away from touristy go-go stuff.  I decide to write, and cook, and do yoga and exercises in my campsite. It felt good to get some writing done on book three.  The writing helps me feel grounded in some purpose. I enjoy preparing meals outside. At 3:00 or 4:00 I was ready to break out.  I decided to ride right from the park and take sidewalks and streets that were just outside the State Park.  All the neighborhoods were self-contained and full of dead-ends.  None of them led anywhere.  So I just decided to always turn right.  Eventually I would find myself back on the main road again.   There were waterfront properties that must have been destroyed during Hurricane Sally.  Only the driveway and foundation remained.  Other properties still had tarp over the roofs and siding missing. One neighborhood had the requirement that all homes have a standard white fence.  It gave the neighborhood a Disneyland fantasy feel.

April 6, 2020 Each night I sit in my bed and write down the numbers in my diary. Last night it was: World Cases  1,272,860 World Deaths   69,424 US Cases  336,673 US Deaths  9,616 Florida Cases  12,350 Florida Deaths  221 Citrus County Cases  43 Citrus County Deaths 2 I look back and compare from a day or two ago trying to grasp and get my mind around it all and trying to see the bigger picture. Then I write down the things that I am grateful for that day.  Because it's all kind of scary, isn't it? I am grateful for blue sky, and butterflies.  I am grateful for conversations with friends.  I saw a humming bird today in the front garden.  I am grateful for the rain. I am grateful for farmers and grocery store clerks and truck drivers.  They are still working and exposing themselves and when they return home, the expose their families to possible infection. Since I last wrote the Governor of Florida issued a shutter-in-place order.  We are only to go out for

I am back at McDonald's in Key Largo this morning October 18th.  I only have two more days here and I can't wait. But before I get to the whining, let me tell you about the vultures. I had vultures in the title of my last post, but ran out of blog time before I got to the story of the vultures. On Wednesday October 16th I was up before daylight and I packed up in the dark.  Once I turned the corner off the Timiami Trail (Highway 41) and headed south toward the Keys I was in territory that was new-to-me .  The road wasn't as rural as I expected and was mostly just a two lane road with lots of construction. I figured I will never get down this way again, so I should check out Flamingo.  I had wanted to go to Flamingo since I heard about the trip my bike group took there years before George and I moved here.  They had biked the road passing many gator. I stopped at the visitors center on the road to Flamingo and asked if I would see Flamingo there. No, the r