Old Wire Road.
April showers are fine, but we got approximately one foot of rain over a one week period in May. The May flowers were suspended in a colloidal medium of clay, sand and water. Our car was also suspended requiring us to dig it out New England-snowstorm style.
We've been visiting Gainesville quite regularly to visit our Turkish RE (reproductive endocrinologist, see the top link on right for more details of our reproductive life, which is full of humor, occasional bitterness and technical jargon.)
This is not a bison.
We visited Paynes Prairie which was once inhabited by the Alachua band of the Seminoles. This is an interesting geologic formation and is described as a savanna, strangely, it isn't in Africa. On the 'savanna' a variety of large furry animals can be seen grazing. Most interesting and photogenic would be the bison. Bison were found here before white people decided to treat the ecosystem like a condiment bar, but fear not bison were reintroduced in the 1970's. We spotted some camera shy horses that are said to be descendants of horses introduced by DeSoto as he pillaged the countryside. He brought hogs too. And smallpox. Don't get me started on Ponce De Leon.
We travelled to Micanopy (say it with me: mick-a-NO-pee) for a little antique shopping and ice cream. Micanopy was an early 19th century trading stop between St.Augustine and Tampa. It was also host of the popular and bloody Second Seminole War. Micanopy is still trying to come to terms with being the location of the film 'Doc Hollywood.' The quaint music shop has a sweet Gretsch archtop and a square grand piano.
Blackberry Margaritas.
Our friend Allison visited before she headed off to Portland, Oregon. We wish her luck in escaping the dangerous gravity associated with Florida. We spent the weekend relaxing, drinking blackberry sangria, eating blackberry muffins, picking blackberries and drinking blackberry margaritas. We also travelled back to Ponte Vedra beach, but this time after 5pm as to avoid the Florida sun. We arrived after a powerful thunderstorm had cleared the beach and we had the place to ourselves.
