This Running Journey: Across the Country and Back

When I take a long trip like this one was I try to make notes throughout the trip because I know that if it wasn't for notes and pictures I wouldn't remember a lot of things that I saw, did or thought while traveling. One note I made myself when I was in Cocoa Beach was relevant throughout the entire trip: "Remember - Other people may not be on vacation". That was just a reminder to be flexible with my plans because they often had to change on the fly.

On the way to visit my sister, Carol I had most of the day to kill. The family in Florida was back at school and work and Carol was working that say so I just checked the map and decided to visit places along the way. The first was a State Forest that showed there was a "headquarters" where I thought I might get information. Unfortunately my GPS took me literally into the forest where I wound up on a logging road and decided to find someplace else to visit. I went to Dade Battlefield State Park where a battle took place during the Seminole Wars. There wasn't a lot to see but it was still worth the stop.

Before leaving I found another park that wasn't out of the way and decided to make another stop. I was hoping since I had just left one state park that my entry fee would cover the second one as well. Nope! The government is going to get their money. I'm still glad I stopped it was a nice quiet, pretty natural area.

I still had some time to kill so I did what I usually try to do and looked for a used book store near Carol's and I found one that the woman had owned for over 30 years. I had a nice visit with her and of course bought some book. Then I ran a couple of errands and went to Carol's. The irony was that while I was killing all of this time she had decided to get off work early and was at the laundromat. I drove there and we visited while waiting for the laundry to finish. We ate a really good Mexican restaurant that night.

We spent the next day working to get a start on helping Carol clean out a storage shed so that she could downsize. We had a really good BBQ lunch that included fried appetizers including my favorite, okra and then went back to the house to hang out with Jack and get a picture of Flat Stanley with Carol before I headed out on the next leg of my trip the nest day.

My next stay was going to be in Ft. White, Florida with Fred and Leah at their cabin on the river. Because they weren't going to be there until late afternoon and because Carol had to go back to work I had the luxury of another day to just drift north, stopping where and when I wanted. I first drove over to Tarpon Springs where there is a huge Greek influence. The area is famous for sponge divers.

My next stop was near Weeki Wachee where I saw a place that I could mail Flat Stanley home. I had already packaged him with a U.S. map and his post cards from the trip. The best thing though was that the mail facility was also a really nice used book store and it was attached to a restaurant where I was able to get a country fried steak breakfast and good coffee.

The rest of the trip to ft. White I spent stopping at whatever looked interesting. I stopped at Fort Island and then at the Suwanee National Wildlife Refuge. The funny thing is that other than birds and a crab I didn't see any wildlife but as soon as I got back on the main road I stopped to move a turtle from the road and almost ran over a coral snake. I've learned to always be aware because you never know where the wildlife might make an appearance.