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Published: March 1st 2017
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Sun and Fun
Friday the 24th I left Lake Kissimmee and headed toward Sarasota. I decided to take the back roads and see this part of Florida's countryside. The speed limit is 60 on most 2 lane roads and it is safe to go that speed since there are few side roads and no shopping malls. There are orange groves that smell heavenly, cow pastures and other farms crops all over and it's nice to be in a rural setting.
My GPS took me on some really small roads as we got closer to Sarasota then I was on the BIG roads with lots of traffic and stores. I found the campground Sun and Fun and checked in and was escorted to my site. It was in the middle of a city. There are 1800 sites and "park models" better known as permanent trailers with nice porches attached, in a maze of roads and paths. There are golf carts darting here and there, people walking some with dogs, some without, cars and sometimes campers, cars behind or a boat. Most streets are one way and are very narrow, with the potential of something or someone darting out at any
minute. I am in culture shock.
I met up with Nell and she told me we were having a picnic for dinner with some friends of her's. Nell's brother is here visiting from NJ so we all had a cocktail and headed out through the maze to the other side of the park for dinner. Of course the dogs all came along, it's a very dog friendly community. Nell has 2 labs, a black and yellow and Watson was invited too.
We went to Shirley and Dave's house and were greeted by their dog who has a nicely fenced in yard and was happy to share with 3 others. Watson barked at every dog that went by and started the other 3 going too so it was pretty noisy for a little while til they all settled down.
Dave grilled us delicious pork chops, Nell brought a great salad, there was grilled corn and mac and cheese. Great feast and wonderful company.
Saturday was a beautiful day and we decided to go kayaking. Nell's brother John had only been once and was looking forward to an adventure in the bay. We got in our boats and
headed out into the bay with lots of others. We went around an island with several bird nests and wildlife. On the land side there were beautiful homes with huge boats in their water yard, some with every toy imaginable.
Around the other side was the channel going out into the bay so we stayed far from that. The channel markers had either an osprey nest or cormorants or anhinga sunning themselves to dry their wings.
We took a small channel and were in the mangrove forest, like being in a park in the middle of the city. The water was shallow so we could see little fish and a critter called an upside-down jelly fish. Then we saw a little channel like a stream through the mangrove so we took it. So peaceful inside and quiet. We had to follow it, little choice, but it did eventually lead to a wide open area. However, this did not look familiar to us at all so we followed it around for a while til we saw a bridge, went under it but the channel got smaller and smaller, this was not the way out.
As we wondered there
were fish jumping in the open area like something big was after them. They would leap out of the water 4 or 5 feet high and travel maybe 8 feet in mid air. It wasn't just 1 or 2 , it was 20 or 30 of them not all at once but one at a time, sure wish I had my camera. They were mullet, a small fish that is a bottom feeder and they just jump. Some say it's to rid themselves of parasites, others say it's to get away from predators. I say they just do it because they can.
We wondered around a little more til we found a marker with a number on it at another little channel so we decided to take that and yes, it led us to where we had been before. WOW, that could have been disastrous.
The paddle was lot of fun and we had a peaceful evening.
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