Florida Freedom



4st Leg - 3 July: Arrival in Clearwater, Florida, and the home of Penny and Peter (Penny being my herby soulfriend, and in big part responsible for remaking daSorcy into the current state, so it was impossible to plan FL without planning THEM in). In our usual fashion of 'I had the map and instruction here SOMEwhere' we cruised around the general vicinity for a while, and arrived quite late. Finally fed up with the male 'we are not lost, I know exactly where I am' I got out of the car, and much to my DH's horror, approached a cluster of cops for directions. I found out later that they had some 'cop' business to attend to there, and yes, one should not get into the melee, but it was approaching 10pm and 'one' really didn't care at the time :)

Turned out we DID end up on the wrong Bay Bldv (inconsiderate of them to have two of them, if you ask me), and after finally arriving at the right one I found to my horror there was one mobile home park after the other lining the Bay to GULF blvd (aka #60, if you ever go down there) like pretty pearls on a string.

I realized after a while that the number I had is for the park, not for the trailer, but at least we could figure out which park we were supposed to be in. We cruised up and down and around its pretty rows a few times (I told Jamie just look for the one with loads of plants and planters) and finally, sheepishly, went back to find a gas station with a telephone. We must have caught the poor dears on the way to bed, but in good spirits they let us come in anyway (lol).

Lucky for my frayed nerves, Penny and I just took one look at each other before heaving a sigh of releave (on both sides, I think) and fell into each others arms. Why were we so scared to meet? And Peter is quite the sweetheart, although in true scorpio fashion covers some of it in our so very deadly humor (giggles) that scares the dickens out of uninitiates.

04 July: Beach, beach, and more beach was the first thing on everyone's mind the next morning, and even though we were totally exausted, we set the alarm for breakfast - which, by the way, consisted of lovely crisp bacon, omelett, homemade jams and marmelades, and (unbelievable!) Penny even baked the bread herself... YUM!!.

We trudged off to clearwater beach right after, and promptly fell in love. They are not kidding to say:



I have seen many, many beaches all over the world, but so far this one takes the crown. Jamie couldn't agree more and had a beatfic grin on his face all morning. We really did NOT want to go back, especially since Momma gifted us with an overload of seaweed wafting towards shore (a special gift. We were back many times, to never find a single strand afterwards), which promptly put this here herbalist into 'gimme' overload, and shortly all four of us were grabbing up handfuls in a crazy frenzy. Well, yours truly, anyway, the others were quite reasonable. Nothing better than harvesting something, if you ask me.

THAT photo - Beach Bum :)


Seaweed Galore


The Three Musketeers (Dartagnon was taking the picture)


The Beach Bums :) - Heaven on Earth!!
   

The spectacle we made was all the more fun when Penny pointed out some sea LETTUCE, and daSorcy began munching away. I liked it salty tasting as it was, so sue me :) Public reaction was from 'what the heck' to 'ewwwwwwwwwwwww' to 'what is it FOR' (with a few what the hell are you DOING thrown in for good measure) which in turn let to a dozend or so folks being educated on the value of kelp and healthy living and gardening. By the time Peter brought out the third bag I had completely forgotten to modestly hide my butt and bent and jumped every which way when I spotted another cluster, not in the least concerned anymore. I think we provided the entertainment for a few dozend people that will have them talking about us for years to come - lol

We had no intention of leaving the beach, EVER, who could, looking at Eden?



but Penny pointed out that Florida sun is a bit stronger than we might expect, upon which we both haughtily explained that WE would not burn and Jamie exclaimed (I love my man!) that WE had Summerwinds tanning butter, had we not? Besides, what's wrong with pink? I LIKE pink. And we also had loads of Aloe gel. And comfrey balm. And witchhazel. And chamomille spritz. And we needed every drop of it too, by 8pm that night. Penny, the dear, must have chewed half her tounge off all evening, and lasted until almost after breakfast the NEXT morning when she finally broke down and said 'I told you so'.

But that's okay. We had planned to travel and look around the countryside anyway, and cruise over to the famous Neem tree farms... in the true fashion of 'we never get lost', we had a very lovely, if scenic trip and LOADS of fun when we finally got there. I even got slobbered and loved on by half a dozend of giant mutts, and enjoyed the heck out of it! How anyone can get those mistreated brutes to be so gentle is a miracle in itself. That distgustingly slim and petite thing in the middle of the two Amazones is our energetic fireball Miss Vickie:)



Before we hiked over to the eastcoast and my beloved Titusville (well, Cape Canaveral Seashores, actually) and its state park of 40 miles of gorgious nude beach (that REAL tan, remember), we had to take a day off to Honeymoon island. They have a lovely little ferry going over to Caladesi island, one of the top rated beaches in the nation. Bacardi commercial challenged, this I had to see:



So we had accomplished our goal of getting all the sun we could. It was time for us
Read on to the next portion. Finally ALONE (grins) Hunni, MOON ! :)