I went to a moonlight trail ride in the state park last night. It was a fundraiser to help the park finish some much needed campsites. Everything was perfect! The weather forecast suggested rain, but it never happened. The night was warm and there were very few mosquitoes. The stars were beautiful, little points of light as they should be, not the fuzzy blotches we'll be seeing in the summer. Not a typical Florida night!

A friend of mine made dinner for about 25 riders and we all ate under the oak trees before the ride started - homemade beef and barley soup with turkey, bacon and avacado wraps. This guy cooks for most of our fundraisers and his food is always fantastic. I'm trying to encourage him to open a restaurant on the property at the end of my street.

People decorated their horses (and themselves) with glow sticks, some quite elaborate, the reason for the decoration was so the horses and riders could see each other since there was no other lighting. Photography was difficult in the dark, but the shot below gives the idea.




Tonight should be interesting too. Another friend is giving a birthday party for her boyfriend, it will also be outdoors and they are roasting a wild pig.

A Travel Adventure

All was going well until I got to West Virginia. At first I was excited to see snowflakes. Well, that didn't last long. The snow started falling faster and soon there was about 12 inches of the nasty, slippery stuff on the road. My GPS has a murderous sense of humor and directed me to Highway 19, (aka Mountaineer Road - aptly named), up and down mountains, with a stop light in every valley, it seemed. When I finally slid through a red light, (fortunately the cross traffic slid in another direction) I decided to head back 25 miles to the highway - at 5 mph. It took most of the day, it seemed. How big was West Virginia anyway?

In Pennsylvania, the windshield washers froze and by that time the salt trucks had sprinkled their load on the road, so every time a truck roared past, I had to pull over on the shoulder and wash the windows with snow.

Then the cell phone quit.

Then my cell phone data plan disappeared, which meant the GPS no longer functioned. The radio was good company though.

It took 3 days to get to Canada, but I was pretty happy to have gotten there in one piece.

That was the turning point. After that everything went very well

I waved at Henry (a fellow blogger in Hamilton, Ontario) as I passed. Hello Henry!!

I had a very nice visit with my Mum & Dad, and the drive home was easy. I drove to Savannah, Georgia and stopped to take my kids out for breakfast and got home at noon the next day.


Mountaineer Road

Believe it or not, I was really working hard. Well, not hard. And not really working, just driving. I had to deliver a box to Clearwater and took advantage of passing by the fishing piers on my way. This is the best weather we will have all year, so I wanted to get out and enjoy some of it. Next week, I'll be in Toronto. Today's high there was 32F.

There was no shortage of shorebirds!

A quick shot while driving through Clearwater the other day. The picture is in colour, but looks monochrome.
These from my butterfly garden.

And not a great shot by any means, this pileated woodpecker was just too far away.

I expect you can tell that one of my Christmas gifts this year was a fisheye lens! I took this shot outside early this morning. Not a great shot, but I thought it looked kind of interesting. The tree is a live oak and the globs are spanish moss.