Piers

Today's walk involved two fishing piers and the Port Charlotte linear park along the Peace River. It's not quite as nice a walk as the waterfront in Punta Gorda, but it was new territory for me and my brother. The crisp blue sky from the weekend has given way to a partly cloudy one, which is apparently spill over from the southern edge of the massive winter storm that is threatening the place that I really live with 12 to 18 inches of snow tomorrow night. If it weren't for the fact that OSLO and the COTU are there, I'd be pretty happy about this. Be careful, family.

Free Parking

There was a bocce ball tournament going on at the local beach this afternoon, and it had attracted a crowd, including Mr. MooHoo and myself. It should have been a real money maker for the county, who runs the place and charges for parking, but both of the machines that are set up to receive money were out of order. Or at least that's what the signs said.
We got in a three mile walk, starting about here, without ever straying far from the water's edge. Along the way we passed the house where my Granddaughter's first car was parked. Her great-uncle MooHoo checked it out, and --- sorry COTU -- declared it to be the wrong vehicle for her. It's a truck. And not 'The Beast' kind of truck, either. A big old heavy tough truck.
Still, it is purple. (For those who are curious about this sort of thing, yes Mr. MooHoo is wearing shorts. We haven't had a lot of shorts wearing weather this year, but we've had it now for two days in a row this week.)

Man on a Bench

Time in a Bottle

There was a little bit of frost in the swamp this morning -- nothing epic and nothing froze, but it was a chilly start to the day.
It eventually warmed up nicely into the low to mid 60's. We took a 14 mile bike ride in the middle of the day, and generated enough endorphins to last through supper. It was Mr. MooHoo's first trip to Ollie Pond Park, though he has ridden much of the route in earlier years.
Supper was good -- we've been working under the theory that veggies are our friends, and had plenty of them with a little protein on the side. Sunset is a little after six here. It was a good day.

Orange is the Theme for the Day

Yesterday started out sunny, then turned windy ahead of a storm front. I took a short ride to the beach, and called it good enough. We delayed our trip to the airport by about an hour, having received text messages from our incoming guest that an equipment replacement was taking place, and he would be delayed. The rain had moved in by the time we got back from the airport, but the real nasty stuff held off until after supper. A tornado warning was issued for Charlotte County around 8 pm. There was no damage in this part of the county, as far as I know, though there were reports of two tornadoes touching down -- one in North Port and the other out near Boca Grande. The only impact here was the inch and a half of rain that fell overnight and into this morning. Things started out a little soggy today, to say the least.
We ventured out a couple of times during the day -- we acquired provisions for Greek salad and feta fish for our evening meal, and took a longish walk to the new Walgreen's. (Longish by my standards, at least.) The sun has returned, and the weather looks promising for outdoor activities for the next several days.

Cooler than Average

A little slice of that cold weather that has been torturing the mid-west and great lakes region made its way south overnight last night. Nothing epic, but this part of Florida had freezing temperatures in the inland (farm belt) locations early this morning, again. I waited until after lunch to ride, by which time it had warmed up to 52 degrees. Yup, I had to dig into my suitcase of courage for cold weather gear once again.
I tried a new route today to an old destination. My usual path to Ollie's Pond Park requires that I cross two bridges like the one pictured above. It's a narrow, two lane, high traffic stretch with no pedestrian walk way or paved shoulder. Cars routinely exceed the speed limit on this part of Edgewater Drive by 10 or more mph. Today's route involved just one bridge crossing on Edgewater. It also took me past the Kiwanis Park walking paths, where I swung into the parking lot long enough to get a photo of some typical Florida vegetation. It's a nice spot and there were several cars in the lot, so people were taking advantage of the shelter from the wind provided by the trees to take their walks.
Today's winds weren't too bad -- 12 to 15 mph while I was out. Much better than yesterday's 20 to 30 mph winds. I'm considering renaming the Auckland Rule (if you don't ride in the wind, you don't ride). Somehow the 'Florida Rule' doesn't have the same zing to it, though.
As usual, my turn around spot was OPP. It really is a pond, and thus it has its share of pond scum. It is home -- or at least a temporary home -- to lots of birds. They seemed especially noisy today. Mallards, mostly. Maybe they were chatting with each other about how cold it is up north, and how glad they are that they are currently residing in Florida. In the end, the new route added a couple of miles to the ride, and involved some awkward bridge crossings in other locations. Still, it was interesting to take a routine ride and ride significant pieces of it backwards. It always surprises me how different things look when you come at them from a new direction.

OPP

It's been a while since I've posted any new photos from my bike rides. There is a definite pattern that has emerged in my biking this year -- nearly every ride seems to include Ollie's Pond Park. In fact, it is my turn around spot so often, it seems like it deserves its own acronym, like the PSPS and the WOOS. So it will now and henceforth be referred to as OPP.
I took these photos on either Sunday or Tuesday -- it rained all day on Monday. This is the south side of OPP, above. All these were taken from the seat of my bicycle, by the way. Most of them while I was actually riding.
The street that runs along the west side of OPP looks at this bridge and path. (above)
And this is the view from the north side of OPP, again above. Sometimes I add a loop to the ride, and go further west, sometimes further south. Last weekend I did both in the same ride, and ended up knackered. But I still rode the loop around OPP.
This photo is from today's ride, about the halfway point -- it's about a half mile from OPP. The downside of riding the same route so often is that all of my ride photos look pretty much the same. The upside is that I've got this 14 mile ride thing down pat. Now all I need to do is ride it in the hour and a half it deserves. (Yes, I really do ride that slowly.)

Winter Is Easier Here

Sometimes -- OK, often -- JB tells me stuff I didn't know. I didn't know that winter was the windiest time of year, even in Florida, until he told me. (I suspected it, though.) He also told me that wind power goes with the cube of wind speed. Sounds right to me.
Yesterday I got tired of waiting for the wind to die down -- see paragraph one -- and I was determined to get out for a bike ride. It wasn't exactly warm -- 45 degrees is probably shorts weather in Michigan and Minnesota about now, but it's a bit cool for bike riding, unless you're dressed for it.
Do you know what this is? This is my suitcase of courage. I dug deep into it -- it has all of my cold weather biking gear in it. I rode for about an hour and called it good enough.
Today was about 10 degrees warmer than yesterday, and quite a bit less windy. This afternoon I rode over to Ollie's Pond Park again -- so about 15 miles. That's a long ride for me this time of year. OSLO likes to see a few pictures of Florida landscapes now and then, and we never see Spanish moss hanging off of a Florida pine tree where she lives.
The sun sets at about 5:55 at this point. The days are getting longer.

Perspective

I had a really nice bike ride today. There were a few small issues. I nearly got hit by a car. I rode over broken glass. And I got chased by a dog. (I made it all the way to the Myakka River, photo below, without incident. It was the trip back that got dicey here and there.)
But the good news is that I was being vigilant and saw that the a** wasn't looking in my direction as he made his turn into my lane, and I reacted quickly enough to get out of his way. None of the glass stuck to my tires, and I outrode the dog. (It was near the end of the ride, my legs were tired, and the dog was persistent. So I am proud of that one.)
In truth none of these are rare situations for a bike ride, and I got to ride my bike outside in 68 to 72 degree weather on a sunny day with light winds. (That's a brush fire, and the smoke isn't being blown away, it's going straight up, a sure sign of light winds.)
My favorite places to ride are currently covered in snow, so these will have to do for now. Good enough.

January on the Big Lake vs. Ollie's Pond

The Accounting Professor sent me a video clip yesterday. She must think that I miss that beautiful, cold, white, cold and frozen landscape. About the time that she was taking that video, I was taking this photo. (It was about 70 degrees here.)
The Ollie's Pond Park sign was my turn around spot on my bicycle ride yesterday. It's about 6 miles from the house by bike.

I'll have to say that the winter lake is an impressive sight. But.... do I miss it? A little. Do I wish I was there? Not so much. Anyway, thanks Lynne. I appreciate the thought.

Nothing to Blog Home About

You might call this a post holiday dry spell. The flurry of activity that surrounds the holidays, traveling and visitors makes this first week in January seem pretty tame. Or maybe lame. Even lunch seems pretty much like last year's lunch. Still good, and the addition of mushrooms, green and wax beans to the 'stone soup' is a good one. But there's a limit to how many words I can write about soup.
It's not for lack of trying, though. Yesterday it rained pretty much all day, and I took my camera with me on a walk around the mall. (Ewww.) Dry well.
There have been a few bike rides, as you might expect. This photo is from a variation of the Rock Creek loop, where I took the hybrid along the walking trails in Kiwanis Park. That was cool. All 8/10 of a mile of it. (Note the use of fractions.) So I'm still eating, and walking and occasionally riding, and I thought I'd check back in with you. Eventually a good story will present itself, and I'll be back. I think.

Clean Slate

Last week was a pretty good week for exercise for me. I biked about 21 miles, and walked somewhere around 10. So on most days, I got outside for a half hour to an hour. If I were making New Year's resolutions, that would be one of them. I don't have the energy level of the COTU, though. Here they are playing virtual tennis on the courts at Sunrise Park on the last day that they took me for a walk.
Here's a 9 second video of the same activity. Only X.Logan and Paranormal Expert ended up in it, but you can see the other shadow in the corner. (Sorry, D.)




Yesterday afternoon the five of them packed up and left, leaving us bereft. If it wasn't for laundry and bill paying and furniture moving, I'd have had nothing to do all day today.....
So I took my first bike ride of the year. It was overcast, but warm enough for shorts. As you can see from the surface of the lake, there was very little wind. Some sun would have been nice, but I was out on a bike on January 3rd, so I have nothing to complain about.
I've posted photos of this sign before, but it bears repeating. We live in alligator habitat down here.
This is what is behind the sign. I didn't see any gators, so I continued on. The ride was similar to the Rock Creek loop, except I added one more bridge on the way out, requiring (duh) one more bridge crossing on the way back. I rode far enough to feel just a little tired by the time I got back. I'm calling it a good start to the year.