Sunday June 9th 2019
Easy living in the early summer in Sarasota, FL. Not much riding these days....perfect idle in the comfort of great friends and inspiration.
Also amongst furry friends
and thriving chameleons
we miss the three teenagers that are still at home here but are now out in the world exploring together the familiar other side of the big pond.
I am learning a lot in areas I thought I would never encounter. Cultures and characters that don’t differ much from my own I come across new challenges in understanding new territories. New words (I am talking english words) and concepts entering my brain and I am thrilled to snoop around ...witnessing from a fair distance how life can vary right “in front of my own door”.
Maybe it is a given, since we are not in CA anymore, but still.....
I enjoy not having to worry about bringing a change of clothes or wearing layers...preparing, thinking ...every time I leave the house. Temperatures don’t vary much around here...the big water out there stays the same warms and there is always ice cream somewhere close by.
Sunsets don’t get boring and the sky isn’t always blue. I don’t much connect with the Floridians around here and I don’t talk politics with strangers (though, that would be a learning curve to take on as a challenge). The yoga and Pilates classes are the basics of each and it’s simplicity a new understanding of the movements that I had forgotten and am happy to explore again and learn anew. My muscles thank me and I am grateful at 60 years old to be able to move around as much as I do. The “Legacy Trail”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_Trail_(Florida) with its “Gopher tortoises”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_tortoise has been a fun, fast 35 mile ride round trip a couple times in the past 3 weeks...(I just had to look at the calendar to confirm: three weeks! Wow, seems like we have lived here for much longer - feeling quite settled right now)
The Dali Museum in Tampa
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD_Museum and the Ringling Museum in Sarasota
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_and_Mable_Ringling_Museum_of_Art are icing on the cake and the almost daily dips in the salty Gulf, floating, looking at the setting sun through my toes...gasping at the meaning of life.
We will go on and we have done work on our bikes and gear to prepare for the rest of the world out there.
Still exploring the possibility to catch some adventurous foreigners to jump over to Cuba on a boat from the Florida Keys down south. So, we will ride south from here soon and if we can’t find an escape to Cuba in a reasonable time, we’ll hang a left and let Miami airport give us the best rates on where to fly to from there. South...south....south...closer, parallel to the tip of S. Africa to jump the puddle to the other continent....but, maybe, we bum around the Caribbean islands for a while and letting ourselves get sidetracked.
