Motorcycle Ride to Solomon's Castle

We met some other motorcycle riders last Saturday and Patti and Fran told us about a neat ride to Ona, Florida, to Solomon's Castle.  We originally planned to ride with them to see the castle today, but they had unexpected visitors and had to beg off.  So I went on line last night and found an address and directions using MapQuest. I printed the directions, and about 10 a.m. this morning, we headed out under cloudy skies with the temperature hovering near 80, for the middle of Florida.

Most people think of Florida and see beaches, Disney World, Epcot Center, and the big cities of Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale, Naples and Miami.  However, the interior of the state is something entirely different.  Lots of cattle ranches, saw palmetto jungles, orange groves, tomato and sugar cane fields, and swampy ground.

This longhorn steer, like most cattle, has his own cattle egret.

The miles of orange groves mean lots of big trucks on the main roads filled with oranges.

That are hauled to this big orange juice facility

We ended up taking an extremely circuitous route to Solomon's Castle, because we missed our first turn onto County Rd 661, and found ourselves on 661A (definitely not the same road!) where we wandered around in a orange grove maze for quite a long ways.  We came to several dead ends before we finally popped out onto the real 661, still about 20 miles away from our destination.  Since we had gone about 95 miles, we were determined to find the castle, and suddenly, we saw a timeworn sign where we could barely make out the words "Solomon's Castle" and finally knew we were on the right track.

It's kind of hard to tell what it is constructed from because the entire exterior is sheathed in what looks like a heavy tinfoil.  All of the windows are lead glass, created by the owner over the years.  

We never took the castle tour because we are still planning to go back with our new motorcycle friends this coming weekend, and have saved ourselves for that.
Here is the article I found about it on line before we went:
Roadside America Story about Solomon's Castle which gives some more information about the owner and how it all came to be.

New Motorcycle Friends - Englewood

The man in the center is Padre, group leader.

When we went to Burgerking the other day, we met Dave, who was there on his Gold Wing bike.  We introduced ourselves, and after chatting for a while, he invited us to join his group for a ride on Saturday.
The group is perfect for us!  No membership rolls, no commitments, no dues, no guilt.  The leader, Padre, is the minister of the Methodist church in Englewood.  He added our name to his ride list, so we will get word when a ride is planned. 

We arrived about 10 minutes before the scheduled start of the ride.  About 50 bikes were already there, and about 25 more arrived before we headed out for the first stop at the Englewood WalMart.

Where we all lined up bikes in front, riders by the wall, to have a picture taken.  WalMart was presenting a check for $2,500 to the Helping Hands charity that the group supports.  A ride in two weeks will again add to the coffers of the charity.

We then rode out King's Highway nearly to Arcadia, back along Charlotte Harbor, and out to Gasparilla Island, where the final stop was lunch at the Riverside Bar and Grill.

We discovered a few new roads and lots of new friends on a perfectly lovely day for a ride.

Stump Pass, Englewood, Florida

We knew we had to get going early if we were going to enjoy a morning boating.  By afternoon, the sun can be brutal, so we had the boat in the water and left at 8 a.m.

Of course, it took two towels to wipe the seats down because of the heavy dew.

Stump Pass, at the end of Manasota Key is one of our favorite beaches.  You can drive to the park, but it is over a mile hike to the pass, so the beaches at the pass are lightly used.

The birds like it here too!  The tide was going out, leaving lots of area for birds to find food.

There are protected sandy beaches on the bay side of the island where we can nose the boat up on the beach and walk across to the gulf.

It is a very short walk across to the gulf beaches.

We could see the clouds to the north, but it was perfectly clear to the south.

We opted for the channel between mangrove islands instead of the intercoastal waterway for our return trip.


By the time we got back to the dock around noon, it was getting really hot and all the clouds were gone.  Nice to come in where we have A/C.

Florida Critters

We live in a bird sanctuary here in Englewood, so we often spot a pair of Sand Hill Cranes, but this is the first time they have come directly to our house to visit.  

Yesterday we went out to lunch at a local restaurant that sits on a small lake.

The first thing we noticed was this sign.  Of course, it piqued our interest, and we walked around the deck that overlooks the lake.

What's this I see?

It almost looks like the alligator is lurking waiting for the egret to come closer.  However, as soon as the alligator spotted us, it came over next to the deck and nearly sat up begging for food.

Soon we could see two alligators, several turtles (some really huge - probably a couple of feet long), and a horde of fairly large fish.  While we worried a little bit about going to jail, we might have accidentally dropped a french fry or two over the edge.  Surprisingly, we never fed the alligators.  The fish are much faster, and the turtles are somewhat faster than the big fat lazy alligators.

Boating in Lemon Bay

Captain Ron - boat spic and span and engine running smoothly, sunny skies, smooth water, perfect day in SW Florida.  We took our first boat trip on November 9.  Lemon Bay is a great place for bird watching.  Even an amateur can identify the big water birds.

Great White Egret

Immature little white heron on dock on left.  Yes, it is blue, but it will change to white as it matures.  It is the only bird with greenish bill and legs and blue feathers that looks like an egret or heron.

Flock of white ibis

Osprey

We also saw tons of anhinga, crested cormorants, great blue herons, 

brown pelicans, seagulls, and a couple of dolphins in Lemon Bay.

Just about a perfect day for cruising the intercoastal waterway.

Fall in the Deep South

We took a last motorcycle ride around Lake Eufaula last week, knowing we were heading down to Florida on the weekend.  It is hard for me to leave when it is so beautiful in Georgia, but Mr. Ron wanted to get the bike to Florida while it was still warm and sunny for the ride.  Since I was driving the car, with no worries about cold and/or rain, it seemed like it was his call.

We spotted the smoke before we came upon the controlled burn.  

The leaves are really starting to turn.  The super dry fall seems to have brought even more color than usual.  The reds are especially brilliant this year.

In our trek around the lake, we stopped at Highland Park, one of the beautiful parks maintained by the DNR.

The low water this year makes for really nice sandy beaches around the lake.  This one is at Highland Park.

Not sure if the controlled burns are what make for such beautiful sunsets.  This is the last one we will see this fall as we head down to Florida for the rest of the year.

But it is lovely to ride the motorcycle in our shirtsleeves and eat outside while we watch the boats.

NaNoWriMo - November Again!

November, which is already a pretty busy month with Thanksgiving and all, is also the month each year when lazy proscrastinating authors  attempt to write a novel in one month.  It actually isn't that daunting of a task - a mere 1667 words a day - but every day of the month.  The every day part is what is daunting.  The idea being to dump the words into your word processor, and worry about editing and changing and revising next month or next year, but to at least have a working script to deal with.  

Last year I entered the program for the first time and did manage to complete my first draft of my first novel during the month.  Since it was based on the life of a friend, it wasn't that hard - I knew what was going to happen next, and was able to lay out an outline before November 1, and actually completed revisions and editing before the end of last year.  I self-published the book and it is available at "Put your Hands on Your Head" 

I have written two memoirs, and one semi-factual biography.  This year, I am writing my first novel.  It probably falls into the "fantasy" genre - it is about a small boy who can occasionally see into the future.   I have an outline for the book, and got started right on schedule today with 1815 words in the bank.  

So for this month, probably fewer blog posts - with an update now and then of my novel progress.