The Green Flash

On Siesta Key.  Seeing the 'Green Flash' is a first for me.  Pretty exciting!  And that's it for this chapter. Flying back to Annapolis tomorrow.

Early morning on Little Sarasota Bay

                 Another beautiful day on Siesta Key, and another Great Blue Heron up bright and early.

Siesta Key

A Great Blue Heron out for a morning walk.  We are safely in Sarasota.  ;-))

Atlanta to Dunedin, FL

I left Atlanta Sunday morning and had a long but uneventful drive to the White Sulphur Springs, Florida, where I spent two delightful days at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center.  While Stephen Foster never set foot in Florida, his song "Old Folks at Home" is the Florida State Song.  The Folk Culture Center (also a state park) is built right on the the Suwannee River and may be one of the most tranquil setting I have ever experienced.

The Center has a wonderful Carillon that plays Stephen Foster songs every few minutes and a lovely museum with a collection of old pianos and wonderful dioramas depicting various songs he composed. It also has a large array of craft buildings where different folk crafts are demonstrated daily.  There are monthly folk festivals, as well as a large folk music festival every May.

Next it was on to Dunedin and Clearwater Beach where I'm visiting a colleague of almost 40 years before going on to the destination for this trip, Sarasota, on Friday.  The weather is beautiful, mid 70's and sunny. To borrow a quote from a t-short company "Life is good".

Greetings from Clearwater Beach

The Bell Tower/Carrillon at the Stephen  Foster Folk Culture Center

The famed Suwannee River.  It's pretty low now, as it's fed by the the Okeefenokee, which hasn't had sufficient flooding to raise the water level    

One of the wonderful dioramas at the Stephen Foster Museum

Elli says it was a bit chilly and actually snowed in Annapolis!

Asheville to Atlanta, and the John C. Campbell Folk School

The fleece for our spinning class came from a Carriedale sheep

 A taste of Asheville makes me want to return for more.  The beautiful arts and crafts, the scrumptious southern food, and the colorful mountain scenery, all wonderful.  And a little hippie element added a bit of flavor too.  

And then it was off to Brasstown and the Campbell Folk School.  It had been 11 years since I'd been here, and I fell in love with it all over again.  This time I came to learn spinning, and after struggling the first two days to get the feel and rhythm of  the spinning wheel, I finally started to spin some wool that looked like spun wool, instead of an uneven semi-blobby, semi-stringy mass.  It's not as easy as it looks!  This visit to the Folk School I made sure to take some time to enjoy the scenery and to stop in at other classes to see what they were carving, turning, writing, painting, strumming,..

Before I knew it, the week was over and it was time to head for Atlanta.  Blue Ridge and Ellijay were sweet mountain towns to explore on the way down, and I tucked in for the night at an Embassy Suites using a 20-yr old chit for a complimentary weekend stay.

Today included the CNN Studio and World of Coca Cola tours.  I enjoyed the CNN tour, very informative.  The Coca Cola tour included a tasting room where you could sample all 60 Coca Cola products from around the world. It made me wonder why we make our soft drinks so sweet.  No wonder I seldom drink them!

Oh Boy, finally at the Folk School 

Evening on the porch off the Keith House 

Starting to get the hang of it

A skein of spun wool (yippee!)

On the Road to Florida - October 2011 - Annapolis to Asheville

Another road trip, here we go.   This one is to move VanGo down to Sarasota, Florida before the cold weather comes to Annapolis.  It started with a Sister on the Fly event in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia.  44 Sisters brought their classic trailers to a campgound just outside Floyd.  Floyd is an integral part of the Crooked Road, a musical heritage trail in southwestern Virginia.  Smithsonian Magazine wrote a wonderful article about it in the fall of 2011.  http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/A-Musical-Tour-Along-the-Crooked-Road.html

The Sisters event was wonderful, with great food and great mountain music, both at the campground and at the Floyd Country Store Friday night jam session.  Many of these Sisters are very talented, very artistic, and very clever.  Husbands are typically not allowed on Sister trips, but Thursday was an exception, where two hubbies were allowed to cook us the best brisket some of us (moi included) have ever had!    

Today VanGo departed for Brasstown, NC, and the John C Campbell Folk School where I've enrolled in a  five-day class in spinning.  The journey included a stop at Keaton's Barbecue in near Statesville, NC (reputed to be the best barbecue in the country by "Roadfood" authors Jane and Michael Stern) and Asheville, NC, where the first stop was the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway (home of the Southern Highland Craft Guild).  It was a beautiful day and I'm sated, with wonderful local arts and wonderful local food.

A few Sisters checking out the Roadtrek

A little before dinner music

The Floyd Country Store Friday night Jam Session

Gail and one of the locals (a great dancer!) 

Keaton's Barbecue outside Statesville (yummy!)

One of the quilts on display at the Folk Art Center in Asheville

Home again

After nasty storms kept me in Savannah an extra day, I drove 500 long and chilly miles to Williamsburg, and then on to White Stone to visit dear friends.  Seeing Bruce and Mary Alice was a lovely way to end this three-month adventure. Am safely home now, and Elli is curled up on the sofa.

Til next time,
Gail

Tybee Island and Savannah

After bidding farewell to my week-long traveling chum, Jackie, in Amelia Island, it was time to point VanGo toward home.  I'd heard of Tybee Island, Georgia, and wanted to visit it on the way. Turns out it was spring break, and it seems every east coast college age person decided to go to Tybee this spring.  It was packed!!   Sweet though it was, I gave it a look and decided to head on to less crowded pastures, or so I thought.  I had never explored Savannah and thought this particular Saturday afternoon would be just the time to do it.  Little did I know the annual 10-day Savannah Music Festival was in full swing.  Those who weren't on Tybee were in Savannah!

What a wonderful town it is. I've read it has the largest historic downtown of any city in America.  The cobbled River Street is fun, though tricky, to meander through; Bay Street is abuzz with action, and the City Market spans several blocks, similar to the pedestrian malls in Burlington and Boulder.  It was an added treat to have the Music Festival going on.  I even managed to score a ticket to one of the events.  Well worth the two day visit.

Tennies on Tybee

One of Savannah's many historic squares

And another

River Street - the river walk is brick, the street is cobbled 

Savannah's own VanGo - Vinnie VanGoGo... think we're related?

Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island and Ormond Beach

Where on earth did this week go?  It seemed to just fly by, what with a tour of the Kennedy Space Center, a little bird watching at Merritt Island (saw my first painted buntings!), a fabulous Cuban dinner, and a two-day retreat at Ormond Beach (even saw a dolphin swimming at sunset one evening).

The week was made all the more special by spending several days of it with two other Roadtrekking gals, both of whom I had met in Florida this year.  Jackie lives in Sarasota and drove over for most of the week, and Peggy lives in Daytona and semi-hosted our little retreat at Ormond Beach.

And now it's time to head north toward Annapolis.  It's been a great winter, and while I look forward to being home again, I am also looking forward to spending next winter in my sweet little place in Sarasota.

Pics show a few of this week's adventures.

Jackie and Peggy playing their Ocarinas at Ormond Beach (there's an app for that!) 

A moon rock on display at Kennedy Space Center

The Rocket Garden at Kennedy Space Center

A new friend for Elli at Manatee Hammock

A young white ibis at Merritt Island

Laughing gulls on top of a car at KSC 

A black skimmer on the shore between Merritt Island and Titusville

Sunrise over Indian River

I'm told you can often see dolphins and manatees swimming in the Indian River at sunrise.  While I didn't see any this morning, the sunrise was beautiful, and I'll look for them again tomorrow.  

Big moon rising over Kennedy Space Center

After a fun 10 days I said farewell to Marge, and headed northward.  Am now at Manatee Hammock in Titusville, on the Indian River directly across from Kennedy Space Center.  Tonight was the once-in-a-lifetime moon rising.  And what a view it was....  

Part of what made it so special was also being able to see the shuttle Endeavor as the moon was rising.  You can't see it in the daylight, but it is well lit and comes into view after the sun sets.  They are disassembling the shuttle Discovery at Kennedy Space Center now, and then I believe it will be shuttled off to a museum.

Once-in-a-lifetime moon rising between the palms

The space shuttle assembly building on the left and the shuttle Endeavor on the right

Little Havana and Ft Lauderdale

Marge and I were reluctant to leave the balmy breezes of Key West.  And looking forward to visiting the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami.  I must say that Little Havana has been a highlight of our trip, so local and so colorful, and ohhhh, the yummilicious Cuban coffee.   We spent much of yesterday wandering up and down Calle Ocha/8th Ave, the main street of Little Havana.   The public art is full of spirit, the park is full of men playing dominoes, and street is full of miniscule pedestrian coffee bars, where two-to-three stools are placed outside on the sidewalk, and you can just 'belly up to the bar', so to speak.  

After sating ourselves on Cuban pastries, Cuban sandwiches and Cuban coffee, we finally departed for Fort Lauderdale, a different world entirely!  We stayed at Pier 66, and gaped at the Mega-yacht tied up alongside the pier.  It appears Steven Spielberg has just purchased this brand new super luxury yacht, built in the Netherlands.  It must be making its way to southern California.  

I learned that it has a few rather prominent features - a swimming pool that empties, raises, and converts to a helipad when a chopper is approaching, two theatres, one indoors and one out, 12 staterooms, and an entire deck just for Spielberg.  It is over 250 ft long, carries a crew of 26, and cost approximately 200 million dollars!

After a fun 10 days, I dropped Marge off in Deerfield Beach and am now proceeding north, where I hope to meet a friend and tour the Kennedy Space Center and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge before a mini Roadtrek gathering in Ormond Beach.  

One of the many tiny pedestrian coffee bars along Calle Ocha

Street art in Little Havana

Building/tile art 

local produce shop

Couldn't resist; I used to have a Prius like that! 

There were many cigar shops along Calle Ocha 

Steven Speilberg's new megayacht (in the distance), the Seven Seas 

Goodbye Sarasota, Hello Key West

Greetings from sunny and breezy Key West.  It's time to get the blog updated!

I checked out of my darling little place in Sarasota almost a week ago, drove to Ft. Myers airport and picked up friend Marge from Annapolis.  We stayed at Koreshan State Park in Estero for a few days before heading  toward Key West,  where we are now, just a mere 90 miles from Cuba (if only we could cruise over!).

Along the way, we've made stops at Sanibel Island, Big Cypress Preserve, Fakahatchee Preserve, Clyde Butcher's wonderful photography gallery and the Miccosukee Casino near Homestead (not a penny lost by either of us - nor a penny played!), and the Banfield Pet Hospital!!

After a stroll along a trail on Sanibel, one of Elli's paw pads suddenly swelled magnificently and turned bright red (you should have seen the frightened look on her little face as she asked to be picked up; you should have seen the look on my face!).  We rushed her to Banfield Pet Hospital in Estero, where they quickly triaged her, and then we waited...for hours...to learn the diagnosis.  Turned out she may have stepped on and been bitten by a fire ant.  She was better by the next morning, and it took me approximately another day to recover!  

Here are a few pics of  some of the things we have enjoyed along the way.

Marge enjoying the warmth of Florida, after enduring a record cold winter in Annapolis 

In Clyde Butcher's Big Cypress Gallery; he may be the Ansel Adams of our time

Shuttle Discovery final launch February 24th, 2011 - I think I saw it in the Sarasota sky 

Sunset at Mallory Square in Key West 

Marge and Elli at Fakahatchee Preserve in the Everglades

A Great Blue knee-deep in a moss covered pond at Fakahatchee

A White Ibis looking for lunch

Alligator at Big Cypress