Today was a bit emotionally challenging. I’m choosing not go into the details here, but I had some emotional ups and downs, including an interpersonal exchange that didn’t feel good. Fortunately, though, this town is gorgeous, the weather was perfect, and I had a generous amount of downtime to process the feelings, and also just enjoy my surroundings.
In addition, I was able to meet up with several new people, and share a meal and coffee with them, talking travels. And tonight, I made the decision to splurge on the overnight, direct train to Raleigh (departing 1:20 am, arriving 8:35 am if no delays) rather than taking two trains, the first of which would have departed at 7:35 am tomorrow. No ideal solution, but I think this one will be the more easeful choice for me, and I’ll be able to sleep in my roomette.
I went to at least four different parks and natural spaces today; I’ll let the photos do the talking.
First I went to the Savannah Botanical Garden, which is another free one. It was very pleasant, filled with flowers, plants, beautiful tall trees, and benches generously sprinkled throughout.
Later, I found a natural space along the side of an otherwise busy road, and fully soaked in the experience of resting there. I was the only one there for the whole hour or so that I sat, stretched, and wandered there, and there was also a prodigiously-Spanish-mossed tree there, at which I marveled.
I ended the afternoon back in Forsyth Park, loving the trees there too… but before I arrived, I hit another small neighborhood “pocket park” with more beautiful trees and benches.
This town is a glorious place to rest. I hope I can visit again; I think the early spring is a great time for the weather although my host tells me that autumn is equally wonderful.
I’m so glad I got a chance to include this city on this journey. Now, I’m looking forward to spending some more time in the Raleigh/Durham area!
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Today marks seven months since I embarked on this grand adventure. My, how time flies. I am loving it as much now as I did the day I left. And, I’m looking forward to the five and a half months that still stretch before me.
Today was another beautiful day here in Savannah. Yesterday was chilly, so I stayed inside all day and attended to administrative tasks, such as filing my taxes (hallelujah, and I hope I did them right, for my first time on the road and first time with rental income to report) and dealing with some drama at my Portland storage unit. (I think all is now OK, thanks to the help of a Portland friend.) I also spent some time securing lodging for my next couple of nights here, and starting to work on my second swing through the Raleigh area, in a few days.
But today, Robert and I walked from his place to a nearby coffee shop, the Sentient Bean, to meet up with his friend Joanna for brunch. We enjoyed vegan breakfast tacos and burritos, and even a housemade vegan lavender brownie.
Then we walked through the magical Forsyth Park again, and then returned to the house to lounge on the comfortable front porch for a spell. Then I set out for the riverfront once more, noticing architecture (including two streamline moderne buildings!) and of course trees and Spanish moss… and then another new-to-me fruit!
I had heard of loquats once before, when I was in San Diego a few months ago. I had spotted what appeared to be a fruit tree in a neighborhood park there and, curious about the fruit, posted a pic on Facebook. A few friends guessed they were loquats, until my tree-expert friend weighed in to say they were not. But this made me curious about loquats, and I looked them up online.
However, I did not expect to stumble upon a line of loquat trees right on the street in Savannah today! I identified the tree using my National Geographic Seek app (which I recommend, by the way, to identify plants and even animals while out walking) and then picked one up to taste it. I was pleased with the flavor, and as I was enjoying it, a young man walked by and said, “Aren’t those great? I always grab a handful when I’m walking by there.”
Nice. Fellow neighborhood-fruit enthusiast!
After my serendipitous snack, I made my way north to the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist. The inside of the structure was closed to the public today, but I enjoyed the beautiful exterior.
Then I went back to the riverside, to indulge in a weak, overpriced, touristy strawberry daiquiri and some French fries at an outdoor table. I continued to appreciate the Savannah architecture and cobblestones along the way.
Finally, I returned to Robert’s house, and bade him (and his impossibly cute dog) a thank you and farewell.
I jumped on my bike and pedaled directly south just a bit shy of two miles to reach my new Warmshowers host, Yossi, and his own two wonderful doggies.
He only recently moved into this house—and is relatively new to Savannah, hailing originally from the Washington, DC area, as I do—and has already planted two plum trees and one fig tree.
Nice.
Tomorrow, for my last day here in town, I hope to visit the botanical garden and one more vegan restaurant, and possibly meet up with a few local folks. Then, back to Raleigh!
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Yesterday afternoon I said goodbye to the cute little doggie Pebbles in St. Pete, and my wonderful host Patrick was kind enough to drive me to the Tampa train station—stopping at both a vegan grocery store and vegan deli on the way for provisions—because there were heavy thunderstorms in the area most of the day. (In the morning, though, before the storms, we went out with his housemate Yvonne and “fed the critters” in the backyard, which is their morning ritual. We fed blue jays, squirrels, and a woodpecker with peanuts in the shell for about half an hour, which was really cute.)
The train ride lasted about eight hours, and deposited me in Savannah at about 1:30 am last night. I did not wish to saddle my new wonderful Warmshowers host Robert with such a late arrival, so I had booked a hotel about 3.5 miles away from the station.
When I disembarked, unlike New Orleans the weather was mild, at about 59 degrees, and there was no wind (nor rain, as I would frequently remind myself over the next hour.) I called the hotel to confirm that my room was still available, since many hotels surrender rooms at 2 am if the guest hasn’t arrived yet, and was assured that it was. I was not sleepy, having dozed on the train, so although the hour, darkness, and unfamiliar city combined to create a bit of a surreal feel, I calmly embarked from the station. I expected it to take me no more than half an hour.
But.
Shortly into my journey, I encountered a freight train crossing the tracks just ahead of me. I sighed and figured I would wait a few minutes for it to pass. No big deal.
But shortly after it blocked my passage, the train slowed, then stopped.
Then it began backing up.
I thought maybe it would back up enough that it would clear the intersection, and I could pass.
No such luck. It stopped again, and showed no signs of proceeding in either direction.
I sighed again, checked Google maps for the alternate (longer) route, and turned around.
The roads out there on the edge of town were quite dark, without much street lighting. And when I got to my next scheduled left turn, I was met with a “road closed” sign.
Ugh, really?
I weighed my options. Maybe the road was closed to cars, but a bike could squeeze through? I really didn’t want to have to wait for that train.
I decided to chance it, and set out down the dark and desolate road. I reminded myself that this was an adventure—and a comfortable one, at that, with such pleasant weather.
I soon found myself at a more impressive-looking barricade, right before the underpass I needed to cross. After attempting to squeeze the trailer through a space in the barricade, I decided against it, and turned around.
(Sigh.)
Once again, I weighed my options: go back to the earlier crossing, and hope the train has moved on? Or try yet another way that I could see on the map, even though it would take longer?
I hate backtracking, so I chose the latter.
As I turned left down that new road, I was struck by how deserted it felt. It wasn’t blocked off or listed as closed, but the pavement was full of vegetation, as if it hadn’t been driven on in a while.
I pressed on… and shortly reached another barricade, this one entirely impenetrable.
Argh!
I turned around, and looked once more at the map to find another alternate route, to avoid backtracking and the chance of hitting that stopped train again.
As I made my way from the deserted back roads onto a main thoroughfare, I was able to appreciate how quiet it was at 2:30 am. Things are different at night. Better.
About half an hour later than I had anticipated—and an hour after disembarking the train—I finally pulled in to the motel’s parking lot, and checked into my room. The room seemed to reflect the extremely low price I had paid for it; the bathroom fan on the same switch with the light was nearly deafening at that hour, and I was mortified at the thought of waking my neighbors, so I turned off the switch and brushed my teeth by the light of my bike’s headlight instead.
I made it into bed about 3:30, and fell asleep shortly thereafter, though I awakened at least once because it was cold. I’m not in Florida anymore. (In St. Pete, I had awakened once at 5 am because I was too hot.)
In the morning, I made my way toward town, along sunny roads filled with many more cars than the night before. The drivers didn’t seem too keen on sharing the road with a cyclist, so I took the sidewalk for much of the way.
After about half an hour—the latter part of which was rather scenic in the way I had hoped for Savannah to be—I arrived at the house of my host Robert, who turned out to also have an adorable and friendly elder small lap dog.
We chatted for a bit, and then Robert, who is a professional photographer, went out to get some good shots in the right time of daylight, and shortly afterward, I did the same. First I visited the old-time natural food store across from Forsyth Park, Brighter Day (est. 1978). I grabbed a sandwich and a chocolatey treat, and then after savoring them both at an outdoor table, I set out first through Forsyth Park, then toward the river, finding several breathtaking small public parks and squares all the way there. This city is as gorgeous as I had hoped, in exactly the ways I had hoped. The large old trees, the Spanish moss, the classic street lamps, cobblestone streets… it is wonderful.
I made it down to the river, and spotted a beautiful old sternwheeler. Shortly after I sat down on a bench in front of it, the boat embarked on a tour.
I spent several hours outside, just enjoying the river and the parks.
At 6:00, I met up with Robert for dinner at one of two vegan restaurants in town, The Haunt. It is a mushroom-focused restaurant, which concerned me a bit since I’m not usually a mushroom fan. Apparently the owner is quite a forager, and this area is rich with mushrooms. (I was impressed to see some gorgeous pink ones at the market earlier.) Nearly every dish on the menu was based on mushrooms. I decided to embrace the moment, and ordered a lion’s mane entree.
Wow, I was impressed. The mushrooms tasted more “meaty” than fungal, and all the ingredients of the dish worked together beautifully. It was a splendid meal.
After dinner, we walked back home, where we chatted on the front porch for a bit (yay for front porches!) while the dog made herself comfortable on my lap.
Tomorrow, I’m hoping to bicycle up to Hilton Head Island, about 35 miles away, across the state line in South Carolina. That may depend on the wind situation, though, as well as the availability of my Hilton Head Servas hosts.
Stay tuned!
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Well, yesterday was a relatively uneventful day—I did some chores and then moved from my wonderful Warmshowers host Kathleen’s place to my new wonderful Warmshowers host Patrick’s place, which was about a 3-mile journey. It was a hot and muggy day, so after my arrival, Patrick and I stayed in (with the adorable Jack Russell terrier he’s dog-sitting, Pebbles) where it was cool, and just chatted.
Today was more blog-worthy. For my last full day here in St. Pete, we went over to the Florida Botanical Gardens, which amazingly is a free public park. We explored the trails there—and even saw a mama gator with half a dozen babies! (see photo) as well as a long black snake (not pictured) and lots of cool native vegetation—and also the Heritage Village nearby. I didn’t get many good photos of that place, but it is a sort of village reconstructed from various old St. Petersburg buildings, preserved and relocated from their original sites when development overtook those original sites. We saw an old grocery store, train station, one-room schoolhouse, a few residences, a forge, and more.
From there, we biked through the picturesque Walsingham Park to reach the Pinellas Trail, which is the primary off-road bicycle path here in Pinellas County. We only rode a few short miles of the trail’s total 45-mile length, but it was pretty, and we got to go on a cool blue bridge over a freeway.
Tomorrow, I’ll be boarding the train from Tampa all the way to Savannah, Georgia. I’m sad to leave St. Petersburg and Florida, but excited to experience Savannah, as well as nearby Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
Unfortunately, my train is not scheduled to arrive in Savannah until after 1:00 am, so I will not be able to post a blog tomorrow night. Look for one the following night.
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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Use the green “contact” button above to schedule a one-hour phone or video call with me!
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Want to support my vision financially? I am in the process of manifesting $50,000 in lieu of a “salary” for the year of this journey. You can make a one-time or monthly contribution, or even become a Fairy Godfunder! (Heartfelt thanks to all my patrons and supporters!)
I had a slow and lazy morning (which I love!) and then spent about an hour working on my taxes. Made some decent progress there, so that felt good.
Then I headed out for a tempeh BLT at the neighborhood vegetarian coffee house. While there, I met up with a local Warmshowers fellow named Phillip. He is no longer hosting travelers, since he has moved into a place that won’t accommodate that, but he agreed to meet up with me to give me a bicycle tour of the town.
It was cool! We pedaled through many scenic neighborhood streets, with beautiful old houses and trees, and sometimes those iconic brick pavers in the roadway. We headed south along the water until we reached the pier. Several people had told me not to miss the pier, but I hadn’t made it there yet. It was really cool to see; just in the past few years, the whole area was redesigned from a car-centric two-lane road into a car-free bicycle and pedestrian plaza, with little parks, playgrounds for kids, a nighttime light show area, and a three-story building at the end with a tiki-themed bar on top.
After the pier, we headed south around the University of Southern Florida campus and an industrial-port-looking area. Then we continued north, into the downtown area, and finally completed a loop back to the coffee shop, where we parted ways.
Afterward, I went back to my host Kathleen’s house. She had just arrived home after work, and we decided to go enjoy the hiking trails at the Weedon Island Preserve.
I had heard good things about that place, and they definitely were true! The wooded pathways (unpaved, and open to pedestrians but not bicyclists) were wonderful. We passed many mangrove trees in the water, saw lots of Spanish moss, and walked down a very long, arboreal boardwalk until we reached the end at a breathtaking pool surrounded by forest. We even saw mullet fish jumping out of the water, which amazed and delighted me.
Unfortunately, at that spot the humidity and near-sunset hour converged to bring about swarms of tiny itchy and biting insects, so we soon turned around to go back. But it was a perfect way to spend the evening.
Tomorrow I’ll be heading to my next Warmshowers host, a bit northeast of here but still solidly in St. Pete. If I have time, I may also cycle over to the Florida Botanical Gardens.
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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Use the green “contact” button above to schedule a one-hour phone or video call with me!
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Today was a scenic day. My host Kathleen was able to spend the day with me, which was really cool. We started with a short walk in her neighborhood to a nearby vegetarian coffee shop for brunch. Along the way, we passed two cool murals.
After brunch, we headed out to Fort De Soto Park, about 15 miles southwest of her house, to bike the trail there. The palm trees were beautiful, as expected. Some of the old fort structures looked cool. One side road took us into a beautiful forested area that led to a secluded beach. And we also got a good view of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. One big surprise to me was when we saw blooming cacti! I thought I had seen my last cacti in Arizona (although I did spot a few stragglers in Texas, and even North Carolina.) But the blooms on the prickly pear were lovely, and helped me feel better about missing the spring bloom season in Arizona.
When we finished the bike ride, Kathleen took a dip in the ocean, while I was content to wade a bit and just enjoy the sea view and the mesmerizing waves. It feels like just a short while ago that I was saying a sad goodbye to Pacific beaches in San Diego… yet here I am already in the Gulf—and the Atlantic—in Florida.
On our way back home, we stopped for dinner at a great vegan restaurant in Gulfport, Golden Dinosaurs, where we dined al fresco. On the way there, we drove through St. Pete’s Beach, which gave me a good view of the beautiful Don Cesar Hotel.
Tomorrow I’m hoping to make it out to a nature preserve, and/or get a cocktail on the St. Petersburg Pier. I do also need to buckle down and work on my taxes for a while, though; the deadline is rapidly approaching, and 2021 brought new complications to my filing situation.
It will all work out.
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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Use the green “contact” button above to schedule a one-hour phone or video call with me!
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Want to support my vision financially? I am in the process of manifesting $50,000 in lieu of a “salary” for the year of this journey. You can make a one-time or monthly contribution, or even become a Fairy Godfunder! (Heartfelt thanks to all my patrons and supporters!)
Yesterday was a beautiful and full day. I visited a beautiful local attraction, the Sunken Gardens. It felt like a (sub)tropical paradise, with lush trees and flowers, and even a koi pond with a bridge.
On the way to and from the gardens, I also paused to enjoy the beautiful residential streets and houses. Many of the streets in this Old Northeast part of town retain their old brick pavers. It makes for a bit of a bumpy ride on the bike, but the visual aesthetic is worth it.
This is such a beautiful city.
After the gardens, I went back to the waterfront parks. At the northern entrance, I was surprised and delighted by the sight of a park-bench swing! It sat empty and still, and I could hear it calling my name. I probably sat and swung on it for at least an hour, savoring every minute, including the view of the water and clouds. I wished every park bench in the world could be a swing instead! While I rested there, many people walked by on the path, and several of them remarked that they loved it, too, and that it was a new addition to the park.
Sure enough, I spotted QR codes on each armrest. I scanned one and learned the story of the swing. I love that people come up with cool ideas, and then implement them, and then other people find themselves inspired by those ideas, and find ways to replicate them elsewhere.
This morning, after some more good conversation, I bade farewell to my Warmshowers host Tracy, and pedaled about two miles northwest to my new Warmshowers host Kath. On the way, I visited Crescent Lake Park, and saw an incredible, huge banyan tree.
When I arrived at Kath’s place in a lovely leafy neighborhood near the local natural foods store, she greeted me with more good conversation, as well as a dip in her brand-new backyard pool.
We had thunderstorms this evening, and they may continue overnight. But it looks like tomorrow should be overcast but no rain, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to explore more of this wonderful city, or some nearby natural spaces.
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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Use the green “contact” button above to schedule a one-hour phone or video call with me!
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Want to support my vision financially? I am in the process of manifesting $50,000 in lieu of a “salary” for the year of this journey. You can make a one-time or monthly contribution, or even become a Fairy Godfunder! (Heartfelt thanks to all my patrons and supporters!)
This post is a departure from my regular travel blog. The travel blog will resume tomorrow. This post, however, is directly tied to my vision and mission for my journey.
Some of you may recall that I have dreamed up a concept called fairy godfunding. (If you’re not familiar, please take a look at the linked article, which outlines the concept.)
Further, an important part of my vision for this particular journey around the US and Canada is for me to meet amazing people, and connect them to each other. I want to know of—and, ideally, meet—people who are dreaming up, and manifesting, projects to make the world a better place. Part of how I see my role on this journey is to discover and meet some of these folks. Part of my role is to connect them with each other, so that people doing similar work can offer each other emotional and/or strategic support to maximize the effectiveness of each other’s work.
And part of how I see my role—on this journey, and in life, in general, going forward—is to serve as a sort of broker between people with good ideas and the skills to implement them, and people who have the desire and means to support these people and their visions financially.
I haven’t been exactly sure how all this would come together. I have chosen to lean into magic in many ways on this journey, and doing so has led me to indeed meet a number of inspiring people, connect certain people together, and even find my first fairy godfunder for myself. (If you are reading, fairy godfunder, thank you again!)
But I haven’t been sure how I might identify and meet the whole cadre of perhaps a dozen or so future godfunders—both for myself and for others—nor how I might decide whose projects or visions to fund.
Now, an opportunity has crossed my social-media feed, and I’m feeling the nudge that maybe this is how I start: someone I greatly admire who finds herself in sudden need. I can share some of her story and her plea, and send it out into my network, trusting the magic that perhaps it can find its way to one or more people who might feel inspired to help.
I will first offer the disclaimer that my vision for fairy godfunding is that it is about people doing unconventional, often cutting-edge, but beneficial work in the world. It is about supporting them in their offerings to the world, when conventional employers (or a client base) cannot or will not. Fairy godfunding is not, generally, about raising money for medical procedures.
But here we are, in 21st Century America, and unfortunately, people can’t do their work in the world if they are bankrupted or stalled by medical bills.
So! Please meet Isis Leeor. She has recently discovered a very large cyst on her pineal gland, which needs to be removed—very soon—by a skillful and experienced neurosurgeon.
I first encountered Isis on an ecstatic dance floor in Portland, Oregon, where we were both living at the time. She was dancing in a way that I had never seen before. I was intrigued and inspired.
Isis is hard to put into words, but anyone who encounters her, in person or online, can’t help but be moved. She lives more fiercely, more authentically, more close to the bone, than perhaps anyone I’ve ever met. Her work in the world is often esoteric, but also grounded. She teaches people about relating, about sexuality, about love, about living embodied and authentic lives, without regret. She works with clients individually and in groups (I have taken part in both, and found value in all of it) and also offers a lot of free content online through writings and videos. (Look her up on Facebook, or on her professional website.)
Although she primarily works as a coach these days, she has offered clairvoyant readings in the past, and still offers them occasionally, as part of her practice. Despite my general skepticism about such things, I have felt drawn to receive several of these readings from her, and always received some profound wisdom from them.
In one such session, probably eight or nine years ago, she told me that it was important for me to “do my work” (even though she stated that she didn’t know what my work was) even if I couldn’t see how it fit into the larger puzzle of humanity. That my part of the puzzle was important, even if I couldn’t see how it fit into the big picture. I found this heartening at the time, but it feels extra poignant now.
The work I feel called to do now is to serve as a broker between people bringing good to the world, and those who can joyfully and enthusiastically fund them.
People like Isis. It feels a bit poetic to suddenly feel inspired to want to “do my work” in service of helping her to bring about this life-saving brain surgery. She had not previously occurred to me as someone for whom I might seek a fairy godfunder, since she does have her own successful business, and up until this recent turn of events would not have needed external funding.
But when I first read on Facebook that she was facing this medical crisis, and was setting up a GoFundMe, my first thought was, “Ugh! You can’t bake-sale your way to brain surgery!”
And sadly, that seems to be true: of the $115,000 she is seeking for the surgery and recovery period, she has thus far raised about $13,500, and donations seem to have leveled off there. This sum represents 189 individual small donors, and I absolutely love seeing how people’s friends and community do show up for them, as best they can, in times of need.
And yet… that leaves more than $100,000 she still needs. We cannot bake-sale our way to brain surgery.
So this is my humble plea, on behalf of a truly remarkable person: Do you, dear reader, know someone who might be able to fund up to $100,000 for this surgery, to keep this remarkable person’s vision for the world, and work in the world, here in the world with us?
Because I believe the world needs to know about pleasure. About owning oneself. About strength, and passion, and love, and authenticity. Isis embodies and shares these ideals in a way that I haven’t seen from anyone else.
Isis has already survived a bout with medical malpractice. (As she states in the GoFundMe blurb, this bankrupted her, and led her to live overseas to reduce her expenses… although, true to form, she has also thoroughly enjoyed and made the best of those overseas adventures.) She has survived the suicide of a husband. She teetered on the poverty line for years, all while finding ways to both support herself, find beauty in life, and help others to do this for themselves. I want to see her recovering, and then continuing to thrive.
If you know someone who might be able to help—for the full $100K or even a smaller portion of it, since Isis tells me she is brainstorming other ways to possibly raise more funds—feel free to direct them to the GoFundMe page, or to contact Isis directly with questions, or to contact me (green “contact” button above) with questions.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. May we all have abundant health and thriving.
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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Use the green “contact” button above to schedule a one-hour phone or video call with me!
Want to be notified of future blog posts? Use the green “sign up” button to subscribe!
Want to support my vision financially? I am in the process of manifesting $50,000 in lieu of a “salary” for the year of this journey. You can make a one-time or monthly contribution, or even become a Fairy Godfunder! (Heartfelt thanks to all my patrons and supporters!)
I awoke at my Tampa hosts’ place, joined them for a bowl of oatmeal, said goodbye to them and their amazing dog Louie, and headed out by bike to St. Pete, about a 17-mile journey.
Unfortunately, it was a very windy day. I do not enjoy biking in the wind. It feels unpleasant, takes more energy, and can be scary if I feel like it’s blowing me around on (or off!) the road. But thunderstorms are forecast for the next three to four days, so today seemed my best bet to make the crossing.
The wind persisted all day, but fortunately I never felt very scared, just mostly annoyed. The temp was about 82 all day, with humidity about 70%. Oof. I need to keep getting used to this; I suspect it will be my “new normal” for much of the rest of my journey.
The Gandy Bridge is long! (See photos.) I wouldn’t have minded a rest halfway across, but traffic was whizzing by, and there was no shade, so it was less unpleasant just to continue.
I did see some beautiful sights on either end, such as that tangled-root tree in the water.
On the St. Petersburg side, I pedaled several miles through pretty neighborhoods. At one point I stopped to rest on a bench in a park, feeling the effects of the weather. In addition, the wind on the bridge had sent stinging small grains of sand all across my sweat-and-sunscreen-coated skin, so I was feeling grainy and grimy. But after a few minutes in the shade, I was ready to move on.
I met my new Warmshowers host, Tracy, who helped me disassemble and carry my rig up the stairs to his second-story apartment in a wonderful central area of town. We chatted for a while, and I learned that he had at one time planned a car-free intentional community of 10,000 residents in rural Maine! Sadly, he was unable to raise all the funding he needed to get the project off the ground, but I loved the idea, and we then discussed Culdesac Tempe, Arcosanti, and other intentional and planned car-free communities.
Then I headed out to explore the city before the rains descend tomorrow. At the suggestion of last night’s hosts, I pedaled through Vinoy Park, which was absolutely beautiful (and surprisingly reminiscent of Chicago’s Promontory Point Park).
As I rested on a bench in the park, a few curious things happened. First, I saw a man feeding squirrels and other small animals, calling to them in a way that suggested this was a regular routine for him. The squirrels ate straight from his hands.
Then, unsurprisingly, I discovered a squirrel feeling very bold around me and my bike. The squirrel was adorable, and I took a few photos to capture the moment.
And then, despite the heat and humidity—virtually unchanged from the morning—the wind became so overpowering to my internal thermostat that I needed to put on my sweater to avoid goose bumps! I was glad I had brought it, even though as I had headed out I chided myself for “being ridiculous.” (It did come in handy later for air-conditioned spaces, which had been part of my reasoning.)
I marveled at the beauty of the beach and the palm trees. At one point, I happened upon a free palm-tree arboretum, right in the middle of the park! Despite the obvious differences, I felt it reminiscent of the cactus garden in San Diego’s Balboa Park. (As some of you will recall, that is one of my favorite places.)
After the park, I visited the vegan grocery in town, Black Radish. They had lots of delicious items, including some peanut butter cups made by a new company in Salem, Oregon! I was shocked for two reasons: 1) I keep up on such things—vegan companies, and especially Oregon stuff—and I had never heard of this product nor company; and 2) Salem, despite its relative proximity to Portland, sadly remains a bit of a vegan wasteland. I was delighted to learn of this new entrant into the scene there!
After the shop, I found my way to an Asian-fusion restaurant for a quick dinner of tofu and vegetables, before making my way to the Salvador Dali Museum! I hadn’t been aware of this museum until a few hours prior, when my host had mentioned it. I’m usually not much of a “museum person,” but this sounded intriguing enough that I looked up admission prices. Oof, not cheap! But then my host suddenly remembered that they offer half-price admission on Thursday evenings, after 5:00. Wow! That seemed like a sign that I needed to go.
I enjoyed the building and its contents, and then managed to leave and make it home before dark and before the rain started—whew!
Tomorrow I’ll be meeting with a local client, and hopefully also exploring more of this beautiful area, weather permitting.
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Well, I bade a fond farewell to Miami this morning (I must return sometime!) and made my way via monorail, commuter rail, and pedal power to the Amtrak station. Having just arrived on the same train three days ago, I knew exactly how I would need to prepare my rig, so boarding went pretty smoothly.
The train ride took about five and a half hours, much of it through pleasant, puffy-cloud-sky warmth.
When we arrived in Tampa, it was 5 pm, and hotter than I’ve been accustomed to so far! (Of course I know that many more hot and humid days await me on the second half of this journey.) Still, it felt mostly pleasant to bike the four miles to the pleasant home of my new Warmshowers hosts, John and Barbara, and the buildings and trees I passed were pleasant as well.
When I arrived, they greeted me warmly and introduced me to their adorable dog and cat, and then showed me their screened-backyard pool and hot tub, with an invitation to indulge while they attended a short dinner party next door with their neighbors. I did indeed appreciate a brief dip in the cool water, then warm—it all felt especially nice after my day of travel, even though the actual bike ride was brief.
I enjoyed a nice dinner salad and some good conversation with them when they returned. Barbara has spent her career in recycling, and the two of them have been bicycle touring for 50 years! They often tour on their tandem bike, which I think is such a nifty way to go.
They gave me some good recommendations for my upcoming time in St. Petersburg, where I’ll be heading tomorrow, as well as Tampa, where I do hope to spend a few more days before moving on. I’m looking forward to exploring this area!
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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Use the green “contact” button above to schedule a one-hour phone or video call with me!
Want to be notified of future blog posts? Use the green “sign up” button to subscribe!
Want to support my vision financially? I am in the process of manifesting $50,000 in lieu of a “salary” for the year of this journey. You can make a one-time or monthly contribution, or even become a Fairy Godfunder! (Heartfelt thanks to all my patrons and supporters!)
