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About elzbthc

I am a Graphic Artist and The Tomato Lady in the Spokane Valley, WA. I love creating beautiful things, horses, quilting, traveling, sightseeing, cooking, entertaining, and reading among other things.

The Chicken Coop in Crawford, Georgia Monday, May 27 am

It is absolutely serene right now. I am sitting on their deck in an Adirondack chair listening to the cicadas (I thought they only came out a night) and watching the sunlight stream through the trees. I am enjoying my coffee, thank goodness they have real dairy cream, and their are two black cats wandering around the yard, one of which is rubbing itself on my leg. Makes me miss my own 4 cats. My bed last night was very comfy and I am picky about it, the house was built in the 40’s and is very quaint and furnished with all kinds of chicken things, hence the name. It really does feel like being an honored guest in someone home. Much better than a motel or hotel. Time to take some pictures which I will share later. I highly recommend this place. A big plus for me is that they are christians. Nothing overt, jus the kind of thing you know without being told although their website does talk about God on the bottom of the page. It’s actually how we should all be, known by our demeanor and not just our words. Be bold.

 

Off to Georgia Today!

Sunday, May 26

10:30 am

 

We have been driving for about an hour and a half and not a coffee shop in sight unless you count McDonald’s and Hardee’s. We’ve been through about 7 towns now. There is bubba’s shrimp shack, boiled peanuts, and flip flops with bottle openers built into the shoe at the local convenience stores, but not a decent cup of coffee. With the exception of Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts they don’t have coffee here. In Spokane we would have passed 148 places by now. Maybe it’s too hot. I would almost give my right arm for a Dunkin’ Donuts.

 

The flora and fauna has changed in the last couple of hours, less palms, more pine trees. The weeds and grass seem finer too. Further south, the grass is St Augustine’s which is hte only stuff that can take the heat, the sand and the bugs. It is very coarse and to my Inland NW way of thinking, it isn’t all that attractive. 

 

This picture is what the highway looks like, for miles and miles. Occasionally you see an old little house slowly being assimilated back into the landscape. 

 

There are a lot of churches here. Baptist, Catholic, Church of the Woods, Larry’s Church, Joe’s Church, Harriet Woods Ministries, you get my drift. There may be 10 0r 15 of them in a row. Deb reminded me  that this is the Bible Belt.

 

I’ve seen fields of head high corn, golden wheat ready to be cut and roadside stands of Georgia peaches. I think it’s peach season now. When we get to Georgia I will let you know.

 

Haven’t seen any rednecks yet, unless you count those with sunburns at the beach. I’m not trying to stereotype but lets face it we all have our prejudices. I think, that we think, that everyone in the south is a redneck and everyone here thinks, we all live in Seattle in the rain. Actually, you don’t hear any southern accents, most people in southern Florida are transplanted from the east coast, like New York.

 

There are a lot of highway patrol here. At night, it looks like a holiday light parade with all the lights flashing on the side of the road! It’s probably because these straight, well maintained roads beg to be driven on like a racetrack. And they do. Thank goodness for cruise!

 

10 pm

We are finally here! It is a little B&B in Crawford, Georgia called the Chicken Coop. The proprietors are a sweet couple who waited up for us. Pictures to follow tomorrow, too tired tonight.

 

Saturday, May 25 Long Day

I went to Crystal River today, It’s up a few miles from Homossassa Springs, the home of the manatees. Actually, manatees live all over the gulf coast but there seems to be a greater proliferation of them there. There is a nice wildlife zoo there.

Everything in Florida, at least on the gulf coast seems to centered around water. A lot of the communities are on the canals which spread out like fingers from the gulf. Seafood is a big deal here, so are boats and fishing. The boats here look different than what we had when we owned one. The cab/console is in the middle of the boat, they use them for fishing. Not sure why that is. It’s called a walk around. My friend says that it is because if you have a fish on the hook, you can walk around the boat to keep it from getting tangled up. Of course they have  bigger fish in the ocean.

Another thing they have is a lot real estate that is probably never going to be developed. Keep in mind that I am referring to the gulf coast. Some of it seems impenetrable, not somewhere I’d like to go for stroll. The spanish moss is pretty when it drapes the trees but is filled with chiggers red mites. A lot of the area seem marshy and wet. Plus, it seems to be over run with kudzu and other vines.ImageYou see miles and miles of this as you go down the freeway. Occasionally there are abandoned houses that are slowing disintegrating. It’s pretty, but very flat and the roads, at least the highways are amazingly straight. And well maintained. Gas is $3.48 for regular.

At Crystal springs there are Indian mounds. Apparently they piled huge mounds of shellfish shells. Some of them are pretty tall. I climbed the stairs to the top of the biggest one, it was supposed to have had a temple on top, which is no longer there. ImageIt was a very nice park. I wish I could have taken the boat tour but they don’t have anything on Saturday for tourists. Sigh.

Tomorrow we set out for Georgia.

Three Mile Island?

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Three Mile Island?

This is at Crystal River. I was quite surprised that all that beauty and nature were encroached on by this. Sigh. and it’s right next to one of the few sand beaches on the gulf side of Florida.

An Island of Palms

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An Island of Palms

I thought these were interesting, sea of grasses with islands of palms. There are miles of this kind of marsh like terrain.

Traffic Jam on Crystal River

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Traffic Jam on Crystal River

Talk about a lot of boats. This is the river network at Crystal River. Reminds me of Lake Couer D’ Alene. Everyone wants to go boating for Memorial Day Weekend.

In the Ocean

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In the Ocean

Actually it’s the gulf. Here I am fully alive with all of my appendages still intact! No sharks here. See honey, I did it.

Friday the 24th (in central Florida)

Another hot day, at least for me. It;s like having a constant hot flash! Today we went to Pine Island beach, at least that’s what I think it’s called. I love all the house on “stilts” actually they are supports that keep them from being flooded when it is stormy. I wonder what happens to their cars. 

The beach was windy which was nice. My friend and I hauled all of our stuff to the beach and spent about 20 minutes trying to put up the umbrella. It hadn’t been used for at least a year but we were gamely trying to figure it out without being blown off the beach with it. It was like a “keystone cops” moment. Finally, a couple guys came over and asked us if we needed help, it took them all of about 5 minutes to have it up and  acting more like a beach umbrella than a parasail! 

My dear husband was pleased to hear that i actually got into the water. I am a statistic waiting to happen, it is known that there are human-eating fish in the ocean and I just know the headline will read, “Woman Eaten by Shark in Florida’s Gulf Coast”. My husband will be sad but I will be able to say “I told you so.” Anyways, i sucked up my courage and walked out into the gulf, avoiding the nasty seaweed, keeping an eye out for the triangular fin cutting through the water, half expecting the Jaws theme music to cue up somewhere. I was surprised at how warm it was, not exactly refreshing but nice. Our lakes in Eastern Washington don’t evenget that warm by the time August rolls around. Ever. It was very shallow and came to my waist by the the time I got out to fifty feet or so from the shore. (It might be more or less, I’m bad with measurements). I will post a picture of me in the water when i get it. It proves I actually did it. And survived.

No sunburn, I was good about that. I think being close to the equator makes it easier to look like a crispy critter in no time. Just some light coloring. will work on that some more tomorrow.

Some interesting names of bars here. Tonight we passed by The Pickled Parrot and the Tailgator’s Sports Bar.

For lunch we ate at Ruby Tuesdays. We don’t have them in Spokane, apparently the closest one to us is in Oregon. Too bad, I loved it. The food was marvelous, fresh veggies as close to naked as possible. None of the fancy sauces and foo foo things like white truffle oil or squid ink or foams that chefs want to dress them up with. All of the salads on the salad bar were made in-house, not taken out of a box (and you know what box I’m talking about). Our server was named Summer and she was fabulous, Kudos to Ruby Tuesday and please, please put one in the Spokane Valley!

Tomorrow is another day. (Hello Coralie, hope you are enjoying this! Miss you.)

Wish You Were here

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Wish You Were here

Another look, the other way at the beach, note the oleander bushes in the background. Very breezy and humid but nice.

A Day at the Beach

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A Day at the Beach

Photo one of the beach I sat on today. I believe it is called Pine Island beach.