Failed Attempts
The move to Iowa is quickly approaching and I've been making a concerted effort to enjoy the outdoor opportunities here in Florida. However, it hasn't been working out very well.
Last weekend I had an afternoon free so I wanted to try a nearby new-to-me attraction. The "Mike Roess Gold Head Branch" state park looked interesting - it is only 30 miles away and has hiking trails AND a lake open for swimming. While the 3-mile hike was beautiful, any time I paused to check the trail map, read a sign or admire the sights, a horsefly would bite me. It was awful. Even a sighting of two beautiful deer couldn't offset the misery of those bugs. And then the lake only had a small area open for swimming and it was very crowded. And then it started to rain. Blah.
This past week I kept seeing online articles about the "solstice moon" effect. Somehow the alignment of the sun during the solstice makes the moon look quite large when it rises. Compounded with the fact that the moon was full, this effect was supposed to be very dramatic. On Friday night Sheba and I walked to a local spot with a slight elevation and a good view of the eastern sky. Unfortunately, a band of clouds near the horizon obscured the moon and by the time it was visible, it didn't look that large. It WAS unusually red, but not that large. Another disappointment.
This weekend I wanted to make a beach trip. My excursion to Clearwater Beach last summer was great, so I decided to try Honeymoon Island State Recreation Area, a barrier island on the Gulf Coast north of Tampa Bay. It was especially appealing because it had swimming AND hiking. Saturday morning was rainy, so I waited until Sunday. On Sunday, the forecast said a 50% chance of rain, so I decided to take a chance and go. After driving 2.5 hours, I had about 20 minutes on the beach before a big storm moved in. You can see the storm moving in here on the right.
It was an enjoyable drive and I enjoyed my time there before the sto
rm came, but I was still disappointed when I think of all of the other ways I could have spent the driving time (and gas money!). I (and several other people) stuck around until the rain started - check out the dark clouds here. And speaking of storms, we've had some really cool ones lately. This one had such strong thunder that some of my pictures were rattled off of the wall. The video was taken from the couch in my living room.
On the other hand, not all of my new adventures have been failures. Shortly after Christmas, I bought a pair of rollerblades thinking that it would be a good source of non-walking activity. However, it was immediately apparent that my fear of falling was going to make learning to rollerblade mainly a mental challenge, not physical. After several months of puttering around, I seem to have finally gotten the hang of it. The crucial event was a fall that I took last week. The fall was scary, but it didn't hurt at all thanks to my knee, elbow and wrist pads. Now that I've survived a fall uninjured, there's nothing to be scared of, right? This past Saturday I rollerbladed all the way from my apartment to the lab and had a blast. I still have a lot to learn (I haven't even attempted any hills yet), but it's turned into something really fun instead of something scary.
Last weekend I had an afternoon free so I wanted to try a nearby new-to-me attraction. The "Mike Roess Gold Head Branch" state park looked interesting - it is only 30 miles away and has hiking trails AND a lake open for swimming. While the 3-mile hike was beautiful, any time I paused to check the trail map, read a sign or admire the sights, a horsefly would bite me. It was awful. Even a sighting of two beautiful deer couldn't offset the misery of those bugs. And then the lake only had a small area open for swimming and it was very crowded. And then it started to rain. Blah.
This past week I kept seeing online articles about the "solstice moon" effect. Somehow the alignment of the sun during the solstice makes the moon look quite large when it rises. Compounded with the fact that the moon was full, this effect was supposed to be very dramatic. On Friday night Sheba and I walked to a local spot with a slight elevation and a good view of the eastern sky. Unfortunately, a band of clouds near the horizon obscured the moon and by the time it was visible, it didn't look that large. It WAS unusually red, but not that large. Another disappointment.
This weekend I wanted to make a beach trip. My excursion to Clearwater Beach last summer was great, so I decided to try Honeymoon Island State Recreation Area, a barrier island on the Gulf Coast north of Tampa Bay. It was especially appealing because it had swimming AND hiking. Saturday morning was rainy, so I waited until Sunday. On Sunday, the forecast said a 50% chance of rain, so I decided to take a chance and go. After driving 2.5 hours, I had about 20 minutes on the beach before a big storm moved in. You can see the storm moving in here on the right.
It was an enjoyable drive and I enjoyed my time there before the sto
rm came, but I was still disappointed when I think of all of the other ways I could have spent the driving time (and gas money!). I (and several other people) stuck around until the rain started - check out the dark clouds here. And speaking of storms, we've had some really cool ones lately. This one had such strong thunder that some of my pictures were rattled off of the wall. The video was taken from the couch in my living room.
posted by Laura at 10:34 PM
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