It has finally started to be the kind of weather we've been looking for. High 40's to low 50's overnight warming up to the mid 70's during the afternoon.
Yesterday was a day of not doing much. Tina went into town around 11:00 AM to get her hair done while I got the road bike ready for a ride. I had my gear on and was ready to head out when I thought to look at my chain. It had rusted almost solid from being out in the rain and not being ridden since we left. Oooopps. Silly me. So I got the WD-40 out and some rags along with an awl and started breaking it loose and getting it back in shape. Forty minutes later I had a bike I could ride again.
After testing the gears I headed out of camp for the three mile ride into town. Seeing the car on the main drag I stopped in to tell Tina I was on the road, made an appointment for a pedicure and got back on the bike to continue my ride. There is a nicely paved trail that runs from north of the Anclote River, through Tarpon Springs, down through Palm Harbor, Clearwater and on into St Petersburg about 25 miles away. I went south through Palm Harbor for about seven miles and turned around. Reversing my route, I went through Tarpon Springs and out north of town to cross the Anclote River and into the Pinellas Nature Preserve. Lots of trails for mountain bikes. After exploring the area I returned to town and rode back home for lunch - figure I rode about 20 miles. Nice for a summer ride in January - heheheh.
Tina got home a little later and looked very nice with her tinted highlights and a hair cut. After lunch we got the shells out of the trunk and laid them out on the picnic table so we could sort them and discard the ones not worth keeping. I cleaned up several small Florida Fighting Conches. Later in the afternoon we got our fishing gear and the dogs and went down to the beach to try a little fishing. We weren't very successful because the tide was out, we couldn't get out into deeper water and all the eel grass and seaweed on the bottom. But Tina got to practice casting and I spent some time relearning fishing knots.
Later after a nice salad and steaks we walked back down to the beach to watch the sun set over the Anclote River. Beautiful colors swirled amidst the clouds. Really spectacular.Sunday the 25th
We dedicated our morning to some household chores. Tina took all the laundry to the local laundromat while I emptied the holding tanks and flushed the system. My last task was to boil some eggs for potato salad. I went online hoping to get a fool proof method for boiling the eggs. After Tina returned with the laundry we had lunch and put things away while the eggs cooled. After lunch we peeled the eggs and Tina made potato salad and put it in the fridge.
Having no further chores we decided to try fishing from one of the nearby park docks. We drove into town to get bait, preferably fresh shrimp. Unfortunately, everyone is out of fresh so we picked up some frozen shrimp and headed for the mouth of the Anclote River and the county park. Before getting to the park Tina spotted a pair of nesting Osprey so we stopped and took pictures. Arriving at the park we found a parking space and walked to the beach looking for the fishing piers. No luck, wrong park. Lots of people though. Back on the road we drove another half mile past the power plant and found the correct park. We got out and walked out on the pier. It was crowded with people fishing and people watching people fish. Although there were lots of lines in the water, there weren't any fish being caught. We decided to wait until tomorrow when the tide would be in and there wouldn't be so many people on the dock. Walking back towards the car we stopped to visit with a couple bird watching. There were four or five egrets just off the beach along with one lone "Lesser Blue Heron".
Returning to camp we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing with our books and cool drinks then had a leisurely dinner of fresh potato salad, sliced ham and chocolate chip cookies for desert. Tomorrow we'll try fishing again.
To see all our photos, click on the following link:
1 comment:
Beautiful! And warm weather for the next few days too.
Post a Comment