DRIVE DOWN GULF BLVD

Sunday, October 18 – Even though it was overcast this morning, we wanted to checkout Clearwater Beach, Florida, today. What a beautiful beach! Sand like sugar, plenty of parking (Although it was $2/hour.), girls playing beach volleyball, cabanas for rent, and the beautiful Gulf of Mexico to swim in. We only stayed for about an hour. Long enough to walk out onto the pier and squish our feet in the sand.

We then drove down the beach highway through all the small tourist towns to view the high rise hotels that will soon be packed with snowbirds. There's plenty of places to stay, a never ending supply of restaurants, some neat looking bars, and miles of beautiful beach to soak up the sun. You could almost hear the cash registers ringing up the sales.

We stopped in Madeira. This seaport town is the destination for many tourists looking for a place to do some shopping.

Tons of souvenir shops, restaurants, and boats to hire for fishing or parasailing. We had a couple destinations in mind.

They have a really nice boardwalk.

First was the Florida winery and tasting room. We are looking to stock up on Florida wine for our summer wine tasting party. We tasted several samples and purchased one bottle.  Most Florida wine is made from fruit juices and not grapes. Most are just too sweet for our gang of tasters.

Our second destination was the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. We enjoyed a scrumptious lunch of Cajun shrimp and a couple skewers of grilled shrimp. Man-O-Man where they delicious! We hope to find a couple more nice seafood restaurants before leaving Florida.

Is that Forest in his running shoes or an imposter? Run Forrest Run!

Marsha finally got to see several pelicans. They were hanging around the docks and diving into the water for their own seafood lunch. She was a little disappointed she hadn't seen any yet. There were also several dolphins jumping around off-shore putting on a show for the visitors.

There is a huge draw bridge in Madeira. When it went up, everyone stopped to watch.

Another wonderful way to spend the day. We recommend this drive to anyone visiting the area.

We have moved on to Cedar Key for two days. We have one additional post for St. Petersburg to get current with our blog posts. 

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

TARPON SPRINGS

Saturday, October 17 – We continued up the Gulf Coast of Florida this morning arriving in Palm Harbor (Clearwater/St Pete area). We are staying at Sherwood Forest RV Park for three days. We heard warnings about driving over the Bob Graham Skyway Bridge (I-275) crossing Tampa Bay. Everyone said it was pretty scary due mostly to it's height over the water and the low guard rails. Marsha was hoping to go around via Tampa but due to toll roads and congestion, Paul convinced here to “take the bridge.” It was nothing! We've been over many more scarier bridges than that. So, if traveling in the area.....take the bridge!

Sherwood Forest has paved streets and grassy/gravel sites. We do have a patio and 50 amp full-hookups. This is a Passport America park. The volunteers in the office are very nice. There is a very nice laundry room, pool and rec center. There are only a few pull-thrus. We were able to get one.

Site 40A.

Looking right.

Looking left.

After getting set-up in our site, we drove up to Tarpon Springs to check-out “sponge city.”

Tarpon Springs was named for the fish found in abundance in nearby waters. But it also is known as the "sponge capital of the world." After the discovery of natural sponge beds in the early 1900s, Greek sponge divers arrived in Tarpon Springs. The Greek heritage is still strong here. Everyone is speaking Greek! Greek food, pastries, beer, and wine. Pretty neat! We walked around town for a couple hours enjoying the people and doing a little shopping. Even had a delicious Greek beer and a glass of Greek wine.

The very famous Sponge Factory.

Every type, kind, size, shape of sponge anyone would want.

Tons and tons of Greek restaurants.

Newly arrived sponges.

Greek pastries on every corner.

Don’t miss Tarpon Springs. A fun community that celebrates their heritage in many ways.

Paul found a nice paved biking and walking trail running directly behind the Sherwood Forest RV Park. It is wonderful for a morning or evening walk.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

NICE HIKE AND A FEW VISITORS STOP BY

Wednesday, October 14 – We headed two miles down the road from the W.P. Franklin COE campground in Fort Myers, Florida, this morning for a hike in the Caloosahatchee Regional Park.

There are 5-loop trails available ranging from 1.2 miles to .7 miles in length. Unfortunately, a couple of the trails were flooded. We combined several trails together to get a hike of 3.3 miles. We sprayed ourselves up. We weren’t sure if we would run into those pesky mosquitoes or not.

Lots of variation on these trails.

Whoa…turn around.

Resting place OR blood donation. No thank you.

It's been in the 90's here in Florida so we finished the hike soon after 10 a.m. before it got too hot. We returned to the campground to hangout and relax. When we drove into the campground we talked to the game warden working the gate about a possible eagle Marsha thought she saw. Sure enough there is a pair of eagles living in a nearby tree. How neat it that?

Later in the afternoon we were again visited by the manatee Paul saw yesterday. It brought two friends with him for a total of three manatees. It was so wonderful that Marsha was able to see them today. If you'll recall, the first day Paul saw these beauties, Marsha was doing the laundry.

Huge tails.

They can really eat.

So it was another great day here at the COE campground.

Bella on the look out. The End.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!