2023 Winds Down

 The grandson and I took a walk around the neighborhood this evening, fresh air and exercise are good for us.  He’s moving into a dorm next week for the semester, working on his adulting skills.  Wow, time sure does slip away.

Alligator Alley

 I didn’t know if I should title this Everglades, Sawgrass, Big Cypress Natural Preserve, Alligator Alley or Road Trip.  It was a good day, back and forth across the southern tip of Florida on the “new” and then the “old” Alligator Alley.  Also known as I-75 and Highway 41.  With friends.  I learned some stuff — I can now identify sawgrass and cypress trees, for example. Birds and alligators galore. I stood on the beginning (or end) of the Florida National Scenic Trail, and hiked a short bit of it.  Fair warning, that end of it is incredibly swampy.  Beautiful stuff to see though.  Hard to express in words, so I’ll switch to photos.  Also inadequate, of course.  Starting with the pre-departure donut stop.

Three people, seven donuts.  Sounds about right.

Amazing stuff.

Goal

 Chasing numbers.  I’ve done it for years, perhaps as motivation, or a way to keep track.  Eventually it’s just what I do.  Today I finished up my biking goal for this year with a short ride to Spring Lake Park and Kiwanis Park.  This year’s rides began and ended at the front door of the Florida house, but covered many miles in Michigan and a few in Minnesota.  2,023 miles in 2023.  Good enough.

I haven’t decided what I hope to do in 2024, it always requires some thought.  As it should.

Photo Tuesday

 Yesterday I crossed the 2,000 mile mark for the year on my bicycles.  My neighbors and I went to supper at Perkins later for free pie Monday.  It’s a thing.  Today I added more miles to my Florida bike — it’s approaching its own milestone of 20,000 miles.  There’s a lot of history with that bike.  And I now need just 7 miles to reach my goal for this year.  I wore 4 layers today when I left — all my cold weather specific gear is in Michigan, so I had to improvise.  I was mostly warm enough, no small feat given that it was 47 degrees last night and will be tonight again.  I believe I mentioned weird weather.  Not terribly unusual, truthfully, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen it this cool for this long here.

Unusual Weather

 It’s been several days in a row of weird weather here as I try to finish up the miles for my biking goal for the year.  Two days with wind gusts over 25 mph while I was out on my bike cut my rides short.  So I’m still 33 miles from finishing— but with over a week left of my stay here this month, it’s still possible to get there.  (2023 miles is this year’s goal.  Yes, last year’s was 2022.). Yesterday was both windy and rainy, so I didn’t even try.  My phone blasted a tornado warning around 3a.m. this morning .  Local weather guy says Port Charlotte had winds of 51 mph overnight and a 3.1 foot storm surge.  High tide was about 4:45 this morning, my first look at the water was about 7:00 a.m.  Shortly after sunrise I stepped out of my lanai to capture these images.  Here’s how our back yards looked then.  My dock is under water, and the lake is over the seawall in the back yards.

It’s been interesting.

Semi Nomadic Grandmother

 The title of this post is my grandson’s most recent description of me.  He has a point.  I’m on my second trip to my place in Florida this “season”, as it’s referred to here.  I’ll be returning north around Christmas for a while, but northern winters hold very little charm for me anymore.  Some photos:

Clouds can really enhance a sunset.

A pelican on my neighbor’s dock.

A map showing the earliest sunset times across the US.  Note that we have passed that date, and sunsets are now getting later.  Yay.

Watching the sun set from my neighbor’s dock.

Another view of the pelican.