Nature Coast of Florida
I went out to take some pictures and it was raining! What a surprise!
But I’m trying to look at the good side of this soggy weather–I have a very luxurious green yard, I don’t have to water it, the aquifer is filling up, and last week when we had a brief bit of sun there were these really cool clouds. Happy Tuesday!
Another rainy weekend. Friday’s plans for fishing were dashed when we woke up to thunderstorms which continued off and on through Sunday. Not much opportunity to get any photos, either. What to do, what to do….
So as we listened to the rain hit the skylights, we decided to settle in and continue with my zombie obsession. Fortunately we had all 3 seasons of “Walking Dead” on our DVR so we finished watching that–for at least the second time. Yeah, just ask me anything about how to kill a zombie. Still raining on Saturday so headed out to catch “World War Z”. What could be better than Brad Pitt and zombies? Nothing. And those zombies can really run! Now, if we only had “Dawn of the Dead” and “Shawn of the Dead” on DVD my zombie weekend would have been complete!
But I ended my weekend with real live living people. Yvonne, Donna and Michelle all came to visit me so we could have a “girl day”. Girl talk, lots of adult beverages, and junk food! And Michelle brought jam! Yeah, that beats Zombies anyday!
So it was a great weekend–rain can’t keep us down!
We’ve had crazy amounts of rain since Friday here in Old Homosassa. It has certainly curtailed any of our outdoor plans! Last week, before the rains came in Terry, Maggie and I made it back out onto the Withlacoochee State Trail and covered another 6 ½ miles–our longest ride yet. It helped that this was also the easiest part of the trail that we’ve covered so far. Flat. Shady. Picturesque. We were happy bikers!
On this ride we started at Wallace Brooks Park, one of Inverness’s many lovely parks. Wallace Brooks is on the shoreline of the Lake Tsala Apopka chain. It’s a small park but when we returned it was busy with all ages taking advantage of the green space and beautiful large trees. A plus to parking at Wallace Brooks is that the lot is shaded.
We always ride as early as possible, but it was already in the upper 80s when we started out. I’ve run and biked on this part of the trail many times there is little elevation change and is shaded with beautiful large live oaks. We spotted 3 sandhill cranes—2 adults and a chick– –within our first mile. For the first time in my many visits to the trail, I saw a horse and rider on the unpaved equestrian side. In addition we came across many dogs with their people, a few walkers and runners, but mainly bicyclists—and most them were couples on bikes. But Terry was the only bicyclist with a dog in his basket.
This portion of the trail goes by Fort Cooper State Park which we plan to visit another day. According to the state park website, there are miles of hiking, bird watching, and– a bonus for us–dogs are allowed!
We took a break in Floral City, enjoyed the pretty gazebo that’s right on the trail, tried to figure out exactly where the original train depot might have been, then turned back for Inverness.
Our next ride will be south from Floral City which will be a new section for all three of us. We’re looking forward to our next adventure!