Misc Photos
Friday In Florida
Shopping in downtown Stuart, followed by a drive up to Fort Pierce along the Indian River. From there we went over to Hutchinson Island to have lunch at the original Hurricane Grill & Wings followed by quick step onto the sand to gawk the Atlantic Ocean before heading home to relax on the lanai. Tough life…
Silver Springs Conservation Area
Just a couple miles south of our hotel was the Silver Springs Conservation Area which has a 2-1/4 mile loop trail with about 2 dozen geocaches. We walked the whole trail, but only grabbed 12 of the caches. We wanted to save the other half for a future visit and besides we needed to get on the road to make it to Palm City in time for wine time.
The plan was to drive south to the turnpike, get on it for 60 miles or so and get back off onto some two lane county roads. By the time we made our way to the turnpike the crowds had dispersed, so we just stayed on the back roads. With the combination of a store bought map, a slightly uncooperative GPS and “rush hour” in Okeechobee we made to Sandy’s with only 15 minutes to spare.
Yikes!
We had the dead and broken branches trimmed from around our house today by a crew that ordinarily would be ice fishing in Minnesota at this time a year. We called a couple local places but either they never returned our calls or told us that it would be at least a couple weeks before they could even think about giving us an estimate. These folks were going door to door with flyers. They were here for over 4 hours and they worked on seven trees total with 4 of them working at death defying heights without a net.
While watching the crew of four guys working we chatted up the owner of the company. He told us he has collected a couple hundred cards from the different tree companies working in the area. While helping clear out Hitchcock Woods he got to talking with someone familiar with the workings of the city and he found out that in the ice storm of 2004 the city collected 80,000 cubic yards of debris and so far from this storm, and they are nowhere near done, as evidenced by the piles of trees lining along our road, they have collected over 800,000 cubic yards…
Empty Christmas Wonderland
Donna and I walked the 1-1/2 miles up to Hopeland Gardens to see the annual light display, but we didn’t go in. We couldn’t. Even though it was advertised as being open on the 24th, it wasn’t. I poked the camera through the fence and took the above photo of the lights that were on and the empty walkways surrounding them.
Horsing Around
Just trying new stuff with the blog. Bigger pictures for one. And I may just do a restyle for the new year…
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1280
South Boundary Morning
It’s the weekend so we opted to sleep in. And sleep in we did, getting out of bed at nearly 8:00 AM. The only problem was, at almost that exact same moment a mile away, the 10k Whiskey Road Race was starting and the course travels right down our little street. Our plan had been to drive to downtown Aiken, get breakfast, drop off some dry cleaning and visit the St Mary’s School’s 25th annual Chocolate Festival, but by the time we were dressed and ready to go the first runners were trotting by our house. This meant that for the next 30-45 minutes hundreds of runners of all shapes and sizes and speeds would follow.
Plan B was implemented, we walked. It was a beautiful fall morning and it is only about 2-1/2 miles one way through very shady neighborhoods and along the low traffic dirt roads of the horse district to our destination. We ended up at the New Moon for muffins and drinks. We used to eat here more frequently, but the prices have gone way up. In spite of that it has gotten very popular, making finding an outdoor table impossible. Reminds me of that old old Yogi Berra quote: “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
By the time we were finished with all our running around we had walked 6.8 miles.