Blogs from St Petersburg, Florida, United States, North America - page 3

This last log is about Bob's love -- steam trains. The first batch are from Steamtown, Scranton, PA, including the trolley, and the second batch of photos are from Strasbourg, PA, Amish country where some earlier photos were taken out of the train window. So far in our travels, Bob and I have ridden 20 different trains, almost all steam, some trains several times. The PHOEBE SNOW ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN -- (from Wikipedia) Rail travel around the year 1900 was not pleasant. After a long trip on a coal-powered train, travelers would frequently emerge covered in black soot. The exception to that rule were locomotives powered by anthracite, a clean-burning form of coal. The Lackawanna owned vast anthracite mines in Pennsylvania, and could legitimately claim that their passengers' clothes would still look clean after a long trip. ... read more

We left whilst the Ray's were in the lead. After the game we headed out to St Petersburg. St Pete is a cute little town by the water that Alyson would like to move to as soon as she has the mullah and can find preferably a one bedder in her price range. I could see why. It’s by the water with all these boats but people don’t take each other too seriously you can see them riding around on bikes, kids climbing the banyan trees and intricate statues scattered around the place. Mix it up with a couple of cute cafes and a church that is docked on the water, which also floats out on the water, particularly for marriages and such and I can understand why Alyson would come and live here. We grabbed ... read more

This is our second stay at Fort De Soto Camp Grounds and third visit to the park. We didn't revisit the historic Fort, because there were things we hadn't done on our other Fort De Soto ports of call. We lucked out with a gorgeous, naturally landscaped "water" site with a pristine little beach. We found the pontoon boat ferry running between Fort De Soto and Egmont Key worth the $20 ticket. The only person who lives full time on the island is the lighthouse keeper. The island has changed over the years thanks to erosion and tropical storms. A fort used during the Spanish American War to mine the channel makes for interesting ruins. The beach is beautiful and if you go, bring a shelling container. What is it about shells; we have tons; and ... read more

Next destination was Aiken,South Carolina,where a former Hotchkiss and Yale classmate,Charlie Beaumont and his equestrian spouse,Heidi have a horse farm.Heidi runs a travel agency that specializes in African safaris and set up my trips to Africa several years ago.I had never been to this part of the country and was definately a different world.This is, and has long been, a winter headquarters for horse lovers.It is flat,lovely country and is about horses,horses and more horses.Beautiful farms and gorgeous animals,two of which(Cullen and Mattie(?) ) belong to Heidi.She rides and trains there most of the winter.They normally live in western Conn. and have a place in the Cayman islands,where Charlie does alot of diving.The town of Aiken is quite lovely and struck me as a small Savannah-tree lined streets,old southern homes,etc.... read more

Since the Blogs are about one month behind and New Year is approaching,I thought I would try to catch up today. After leaving Conn.,I headed thru NY,Normally I go down the saw Mill River Parkway on the west side,but I know there are some very low bridges there,so I avoided it because of my height(10ft.6in.).Even trying to follow the commercial routes,I suddenly zipped under a bridge that said "10ft.11in.!!!!!)Fortunately the next exit had a nice cop parked at it,waving me over,for obvious reasons.He directed me around the corner to rte 95 thru NYC and over the GW bridge.Even though I avoided losing anything of the roof there,I did manage to have a metal ventilation cap fly off on the washboard section of the NJ Turnpike near Newark.Fortunately it didn't hit anyone and ended up on ... read more