A New Kayak

Yesterday we went to look at sit-on-top kayaks with the thought to replace our old Keowee 2 which we have had since 1994. It has served us well, but it was love at first sight with the new one. It sits more comfortably and it will be easier to carry on the car top as it will not need a cover over the seating area. For the rain it has holes in the bottom to drain water that might collect (these can be plugged while kayaking) and in all ways seems like a better thing. We really wanted to try it out yesterday, but it was too windy, even in the protected areas. So we are hoping to try it out tomorrow.

Here is a photo of our new one - an Ocean Kayak Malibu Two XL. It has removable seats that snap on. They are removed when the kayak is not in use to keep them clean.

Instead of kayaking we walked through the Oscar Sherer State Park, another preserve very close to where we are staying. The one bird we wanted to see is the Florida Scrub Jay, the only bird in Florida that exists only in Florida. This preserve is known to be a habitat for this bird. It didn't take long to see one. I did manage to get one photo, not close-up, but it IS the scrub jay.

Today we went to our final Spring Training game, back to McKechnie Field in Bradenton, to see the Twins vs the Pirates. The Twins won and the pitching seems to be improving, so we now have some hope. The score was 7-4. We just about froze to death (yes, I know, that is ridiculous, but it was cold!). Last night northern and central Florida had record low temperatures, and those carried over into today, with moderate wind all day to make the temps more biting. We moved around the stadium to find the sun and places out of the wind. One of the favorites was in the outfield on the new boardwalk with the ample seating areas around the rail. We hung out at one of the many tables out there. Nice!

We leave Florida on Friday and head north to Washington, DC. Hope it doesn't snow!

 

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All About the Circus

On our To Do List was a visit to the Ringling Museum in Sarasota. We didn't really know much about it except that it was there and supposed to be quite good. We were not disappointed.

It turns out that it is more than just one thing. It is a 66 acre compound that includes the Ringling Brothers Museum (part of the new Visitor Center that also houses the Historic Asolo Theater); the original Circus Museum that now houses the rail car used by John and Mabel Ringling as they toured with the circus; the Ca' d'Zan (House of John), the 1920's home of John and Mabel; the Museum of Art; another large modern theater; and the Gardens and Grounds. We saw all but the theaters - the historic theater was closed that day as was the modern theater. The property was willed to the State of Florida and is in stewardship of Florida State University.

We began our tour in the new Circus Museum. By far the best part of that museum is the Howard Brothers Circus Model - the world's largest miniature circus. It is a replica of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, created by a circus historian, Howard Tibbals. It is a 3/4-inch-to-the-foot scale. The documentation says that it features eight circus tents and 42,000 objects in a 3,800 square foot exhibit space. It replicates the tented circus when it was at its largest (about 1919-1938). It is nothing short of astonishing. Every little detail is there: people, both audience and performers, the Big Top and all the other tents used at the circus - the Menagerie, the Food Tent for performers and crew, all the crew housing, all the animals, wagons, cages, all the dishes, tables, chairs, food, every folding chair in the Big Top, all the rail cars used to transport the circus, the whole story of how the circus was set up and broken down. Did you know that when a circus toured the country, it stayed only one day in each city it visited? The first equipment train would arrive at a city in the middle of the night. The roust abouts would start setting up all the tents for the performers, and then start setting up the Big Top. If there was to be a parade, they would begin staging for that. By about noon, all was in readiness for the day's first performance. There was usually a night performance as well. During that night performance, all the supporting tents, luggage, etc. would be taken down, loaded on the train, and it would start off for the next city. When the last show was over, the Big Top was taken down, loaded, and everything would be on the way again. Apparently the logistics were so impressive that the US Army even had permission to watch as the process unfolded, to learn how to manage such a huge undertaking.

I snapped some photos of the miniature circus.

We had lunch on the lovely grounds. It was a beautiful day.

This is the old museum which we went in to see the rail car and the other old circus wagons that are housed there. For some reason, I didn't take any photos inside. It was a 2 hour wait to tour the rail car, so we opted not to do that.

Our next stop was the Ca' d'Zan - the Ringling home. The architecture is Venetian, and is in very good condition. We did the self-guided tour of the first floor. There are other tours of the house, run in a similar fashion to the Hearst Castle in California, but we didn't have time for that. Here are some interior and exterior photos of the house.

 

 

Then we toured the Art Museum. John and Mabel Ringling began collecting art from around the world early in their marriage, and it became their express purpose to create a museum for the city of Sarasota which they loved. There are some very fine works there by Rubens, van Dyck, Titian, Velazquez, El Greco, Gainsborough and much more. No photography is allowed in the museum. Here is a photo of the lovely exterior of the museum, finished in the late '20s.

We finished our day with dinner on St. Armands Circle. St Armands is an island (actually a key) connected to the mainland at Sarasota by a causeway. It is a lively retail area with some beautiful homes that continue on out at Longboat Key and beyond. Unbeknownst to us, we had dinner at a restaurant housed in the oldest building in St Armands which was the real estate office of John Ringling when he was trying to develop the area for housing and tourism. We were seated at an outdoor table looking out at the circle and the busy area of shoppers and tourists. Felt good to sit down after being on our feet the whole day. Great dinner at Cafe L'Europe!

 

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Two Great Birding Trips

We had two great birding experiences in the last two days. (Our older son says that when people retire, they seem to become bird watchers! I believe that there is more than a little truth to this. However, it is really fun!)

We drove over to the Venice Rookery. This is a small park-like area very near the local Target, Walmart, numerous other big box stores and small retail strip malls. It is protected by the local very active Audubon Society. It is a very popular place for bird watching because the rookery is a little island in a very small pond, easily accessed by road. The pond is open and easily circumnavigated on foot, and the island is about 25 yards from the shore. Most often we have seen rookeries that we had to kayak to, or that you can't see without binoculars due to the distance.

What a sight. There were nests and chicks of great blue herons, little blue herons, great egrets, snowy egrets, night herons and anhingas - at least 100 nesting birds at our morning visit. There was also an alligator lurking on the island just below all the nesting birds. We were told by an Audubon volunteer that there are three alligators in this small pond. I would imagine that an occasional chick falls out or gets pushed out of a nest and the alligator scoops it up. Certainly all of the nests and roosting birds are well above the opportunistic alligators.

The Audubon volunteer suggested that we might like to come back in the evening to see hundreds of other birds come in to roost for the night, and so that is what we did last evening at sunset. It seemed like every heron, ibis and anhinga for miles around chose this island to come to for the night, whether they are nesting or not. In addition to the birds listed previously, there were also a hundred or more glossy and white ibises, and a few cattle egrets coming in. It was like watching tourists checking into a hotel for the night. We actually wondered if the "hotel" was going to fill up. It seemed like a very social time, and certainly the birds go there because there must be safety in numbers - statistically they have a better shot at survival.

The island at sunset






During the day





My camera does not do justice to showing the number of birds at this rookery. There were many nests hidden inside as well as at the outer edges of the shrubbery.

Then we drove over to the Sarasota County Environmental Services location, aka Landfill, aka Pinelands Reserve. The Venice Area Audubon Society also maintains this reserve. It is a bizarre combination of a huge active landfill (aka garbage dump), and wetlands preserve. Apparently Sarasota County purchased over 6,000 acres in order to mitigate the impact of the landfill on the watershed and the wildlife in the area. They have been extraordinarily successful in protecting the wildlife.

After checking in at the landfill office, visitors are allowed to drive the perimeter of the landfill area which puts them at the margin of the preserve on one side of the road with the designated landfill area on the other side.

As one drives the road (you are not allowed to leave your car), just about every bird that calls Florida home can or could be seen. I checked off 30 species of birds on my bird checklist given to us at the office including (but not limited to) roseate spoonbills, wood storks, ibises, herons, egrets, thousands of black vultures, white and brown pelicans, sandhill cranes, the common ground dove, black-bellied whistling ducks, laughing gulls, crows, wild turkeys, an eagle, a beautiful red-shouldered hawk, an American kestrel, possibly a peregrine falcon, crows, and mockingbirds. In addition we saw close to a hundred adult wild pigs (boars) with hundreds of babies, right by the road, but on the other side of the chain link fence, and many deer. The pigs are a real nuisance here. They are not native to Florida and have been very successful. They are very hard on the plant life due to the rooting around that they do. I don't know if this preserve has a program to control the population or not. Other areas we've been in do have control programs.

Here are a couple of photos. Really hard to photograph and it was raining, making it almost impossible.

Wood storks



Wild pigs (boars)


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More Ballgames and Ballparks

We have been to three more Ballgames since my last update.

On 3/14 we went back to Hammond Stadium to see the Red Sox vs the Twins. It was a nice day but the Twins lost 7-3. The pitching didn't look good. Of course we still had some key players missing, who played in the World Baseball Classic during this game. So we will give them a pass for this one.

Next game: 3/15. Back down to Ft Myers to jetBlue Park at Fenway South. This is the Red Sox new Spring Training home, a lavish edifice that they built for $80M. It is very reminiscent of Fenway with a Green Monster in the outfield.




The seating is even oriented like Fenway - in the outfields sort of at right angles to the way you want to be facing. But the overall architecture is very contemporary and the concourses and concession areas very spacious and accommodating. It is much like a major league regular season park.



Once again the Twins lost, 5-0. Not only did the pitching look bad, but they just can't seem to score runs!

Today (3/17) we went up to Sarasota to see the Twins play the Baltimore Orioles at the Baltimore Spring Training home, Ed Smith Stadium. This is another charming older stadium that has had a pretty major recent renovation. Really nice people both attending and working there. This was recently the Cincinnati Spring Training home until they moved to Arizona and now share a very nice new ballpark with Cleveland in Goodyear.



We have never seen a beer selection like the one offered there. Here is a sandwich board advertising the selection.



Once again the Twins lost, 7-1. Morneau was playing but came up empty. Mauer has returned from the US team (they lost to Puerto Rico and were eliminated), but he was not playing today. Once again, the pitching was not solid and Boggs hit a home run for the Twins only score. It's hard to know how representative this is for the season's potential.

We decided that, on balance for Spring Training, we like the older renovated stadiums to the glitzy new Red Sox park. The older ones have a warmer, more intimate feel, with seating closer to the diamond and the game. Its very "hahd" not to like the Boston fans, though.

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Running

It is great to run again. I neglected this in Mpls this winter, and also laid off to try to improve the condition of my right sacroiliac joint. But I decided that a better stretching and back exercise program was more to the point. And that is turning out to be true. Hooray!

Next to our RV park there is a newer residential development that is quite unusual. Many here in Florida are very densely built. The developers clear the land, lay out the lots and streets, and start building houses. With this one none of that happened. The whole development is like a forest preserve. One road runs through it and houses are secluded off this road at the end of their rather long driveways. They are all owner designed and built. Some are apparently right on the Myakka River. I haven't seen them except the aerial view - they are secluded. You can see only a few homes from the road.

The road is GREAT for running - no traffic! We get in to the development by climbing through a barbed wire fence - yes, naughty but apparently a lot of people have done it because it is easy. Out most of the road's distance and back is a 4.5 mile loop. Have seen numerous woodpeckers but not much else. I can hear some rustling in the bushes. I am hoping to see an alligator along one of the water channels.

Here is the road.



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Two Ball Parks

On Saturday we drove to Bradenton to attend a Spring Training game at McKechnie Field, spring home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Today we drove to Port Charlotte to see the Tampa Rays at Charlotte Park. It was, for me, an interesting juxtaposition of the two spring training baseball parks.

Both have recently been upgraded and spiffed up - new restrooms, new concession stands, new hardscapes, etc. Both have built a boardwalk around the outfield, with bar seating, bars and other concessions, and lots of room for standing, sitting and milling around. It is now possible to walk all the way around both fields. Casual outfield seating is now extremely popular! More comfortable reserved seating has been installed in both parks.

But the nod clearly goes to the Pirates' charming McKechnie. The ushers are great, the crowd interesting, nice people, and the change they were able to achieve with the new boardwalk and all the other amenities including some beautiful landscaping is remarkable. It's in a city neighborhood of modest homes and parking is tight. It is one of the oldest spring training parks.

The Rays newer park is located out of the densely populated areas, and their huge lots were very dusty. Annoying to find one's car covered with dust when the game is over. Acoustics on the public address system were not good either - harsh, loud, raspy. They needed to spend a little bit more money there.

I will be extremely interested to see what the Twins will do when they renovate Hammond Stadium next year. It already is very nice, but they want to make the fan experience better. Hope they look at McKechnie!


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So far, an unsuccessful effort

They say it takes an engineer to own and maintain a motor home, right Gloria and Fred? Gary discovered a very faulty installation of the temperature sensor of the house batteries in our motor home - a manufacturer (Monaco) error. It has probably been this way from day 1. The result is that the batteries do not recharge properly and hence, if we are dry camped, or really looking at the behavior of the batteries, we could see that they weren't ever fully charged or recharging properly. It's complicated.....at this point in their age, they are probably shot.

Gary spent several hours on this problem today, plus we both did a tedious driving trek on the Tamiami Trail (a busy highway) going down to Sam's Club to buy 4 new 6 volt batteries to replace the old ones. Upon returning home, and upon trying to install them, it was found that they were 1/4 inch too wide to fit in the compartment, no way to make them work. So...back down the Tamiami to take them back. They weigh 50 pounds each, so Gary lifted at least 1000 pounds today due to multiple attempts to position them, getting them in and out of the car, in and out of the shopping cart, etc.

So I guess that, in addition to needing skills in engineering and troubleshooting, a motor home owner also needs to be a weight lifter!

We believe we have identified a battery that will work, available at a nearby golf cart sales store, so Monday Gary will repeat his weight lifting exercises, hopefully with success!


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We are 49ers Today!

Gary and I are celebrating 49 years of marriage today. How the time has flown. I guess he's a keeper!



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Jelks Preserve Near Venice, FL

We are now staying in an RV park about 5 miles east of Venice, FL. We had never been in this area before. Today we walked in the Jelks Preserve which is adjacent to the RV park. Both are on the Myakka River.

Jelks is a 600 acre preserve, with Nature Conservancy support, and has 8 miles of trails. We walked about 3 of those miles. It is a wonderful birding area. We saw 5 or 6 red bellied woodpeckers, a Carolina wren, and a blue-headed vireo. Heard lots of other birds but couldn't see them. We saw several little armadillos which are everywhere here.

The views of the river were lovely.





A view of the pathway.




I snapped this photo of a broken branch in the path which had air plants growing on it. We saw this type of vegetation on many of the trees.



There apparently are numerous wild pigs in the area. They are quite destructive and animal control personnel have to remove them from time to time. They are just feral pigs, and not native to Florida. We didn't see any but we did see signs of their activity. They did this (photo below) to almost every trail we were on. The paths are sand which underlies the area. The sand has been aggressively dug, turned over and foraged in.




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