Travel Report – Page 3 – The Hermits' Rest

Blessings abound

What’s something you do completely differently from how you were raised?

Since I’ve been near the area where I spent my childhood, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about how my nuclear family of origin worked. I’ve also been thinking what a blessing it was to spend time with my long-time friend, Vicki. Thus, the answer to the blog prompt jumped right out of my subconscious.

I do not say a blessing before every meal. However, our semi-non religious family felt the need to say these words.

God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food. By his hands we are fed. Thank him for our daily bread. Father, Son, Holy Ghost, Amen (including hand gestures).

This gave young Suna much to think about. I did attend Presbyterian Sunday School, so I knew who God was. But why did they try to rhyme “good” with “food?” and hey, we did not eat bread every day, just on weekends. And why the crossing of ourselves after the Protestant blessing? The answer was that Dad came from a Methodist family and Mom from a Catholic one, so we did both things from some loyalty or something. I didn’t get a good answer as to why we did the meal ritual if we weren’t religious. Nonetheless, this was done until Mom died, even though I was a tree-hugging atheist at that point. Even when Dad later became a Quaker we were exempt.

Anyway, no, I don’t do Christian rituals by rote anymore. I do send out good energy in thanks for animals and plants who nourish me, and I say a blessing when I see dead animals on the side of the road or whenever I experience awe. I do still count my blessings, though I think they come from Spirit, whatever that is.

The spirit in the sky! Where I’m gonna go when I die, or some kind of song lyric.

Well, I’m done with that topic now. Although I must warn you that tomorrow I will have more encounters with unholy ghosts of my mother’s past.

I need protective feathers! (This is from a Wild Turkey)

Today, though, was a vast improvement over yesterday. Lee kindly drove me back over the three state park loop again, so I could photograph the scenery. There was no negativity, complaining, or grumpiness. (He may have used it all up yesterday, which was a bad day for him).

I even made him look at the Fairchild Oak and the seeping creek.

We also enjoyed getting to watch the pool at the condos get repaired. It’s so much fun to watch guys pumping and smoothing the coating. Then they started filling it up! I guess if I’d waited a week, I could have gone swimming here.

Work was much more interesting today, too, and I enjoyed helping folks until we had a final dinner with Vicki, back at Angelina’s, across from the condo. I’m glad I made the trip.

Phone apps, or favorite activities

What are your favorite 5 apps on your phone?

Today featured a four-hour workshop with much complaining, so I’m not up for any deep thoughts. I’ll share some photos of a quick visit to watery areas of Tomoka State Park here in Ormond/Daytona/Orange Beaches in Florida, as well as beachy and river-y views from happier parts of the day as I list my five favorite phone apps. I bet you can guess some!

Little Blue Heron, a hint at two favorite apps.

One. The Camera app, especially the one on this iPhone 17. I love all the zooms, the lenses, the Live Photos, the grid that helps you crop, and the indicators that tell you if your image is level. I have a ridiculous amount of fun taking pictures wherever I go, documenting all the life forms I encounter.

Sunset looking at an island full of roosting White Ibises

Two. Merlin Bird ID. Merlin brings me so much joy. It’s given me something to focus on that’s positive and educational, even in these troubled times. Days when I don’t get to go out and look for birds (like yesterday) are few and far between, which is fine with me. Now if only they made apps for identifying frogs and cicadas.

Three. iNaturalist. So far, none of these surprise anyone who’s ever read this blog. Right? Anyway, I’ve always wanted to know what I am looking at when I’m out in nature. This fantastic app helps me learn about my surroundings and allows me to teach others. I am in awe at the variety of living things around me, large and small. And iNat lets me learn and contribute to scientific knowledge. So much fun.

Four. Finch. It’s a game kind of app where you and your “birb” friend explore new things, work on mental health, and interact with friends to cheer them up. It borders on silly, but it helps center me in the morning and before bed. It can be very helpful for people dealing with an anxiety and depression.

Ada is my birb. She currently has a pet corgi.

Five. Crossword Puzzle Redstone. Lee plays this a lot, so I’ve joined him. The Hard ones are just right to keep my brain active and keep me from thinking I’m in mental decline. There are many different authors to choose from. We both like the G. Johnson ones. One good thing about the Crossword app is it keeps me off Facebook so much!

Runners up: Facebook, JetPack/Wordpress (blog app), Clime (NOAA weather), Apple Maps, Google.

I’d love to know which apps you like! Because I’m feeling better, here are other photos from today. Love that phone app.

Final note. Lee went to dinner with me and Vicki, but wasn’t feeling well and only ate a sweet potato. The place we ate was Aunt Catfish’s, a perfect old Florida seafood place. I could eat there again!

My kind friend

What’s the kindest thing someone has ever done for you?

(Today there were no parks visited and my only outings were to return the rental car because our car is here now and to eat lunch at the sparkling clean diner across from the condo. Thus I’ll answer this question, since the answer lies close to here.)

I have to share at least one flower. It’s a perennial peanut, Native to Brazil.

First, many wonderful people have been very kind to me throughout my life, and I strive to remember kindnesses and forget the other stuff.

Meme I saw of three “saints” of recent times. My friends aren’t saints, but are still appreciated.

One kindness always comes to my mind, though, and it made me grateful for lifelong friendships. What happened is that when my father died, I was hit hard—he was in an accident at the age of 80, which seems to be a common age for outstanding humans to pass on. I felt very alone, even though I had Lee and the kids.

My friend Vicki knew I could use some support, and as the closest non-family member friend I had, she drove over from where she lived in another part of North Carolina to be with me and make sure I was taken care of. She had known and loved my parents, too. I know her presence helped me be strong during the funeral and the endless receiving line (Dad was very popular, and the church couldn’t fit all the people).

High school Vicki. We met in chorus class.

Everyone deserves friends who are there when you need them, and Vicki is one. It was important for me to come see her here in Florida and remind her that she, too, has a friend who loves her exactly as she is.

Quite a few of you reading this blog are among my circle of dear friends, even if we see each other seldom or have trouble meeting up. Just remember that you have a friend in me.

Another day, another park

Vicki wasn’t up to going to the farmers market today, so I pivoted. I can always come up with something to do! So first I put in new nail polish. It didn’t go on very well, but it’s growing on me. I don’t think the magnetic ones are my favorites.

Then I got in the rental car (have I mentioned how much I have enjoyed this Honda? It’s a perfectly reasonable car). I drove straight up A1A for 26 miles. I enjoyed brightly colored beach houses and stretches of just plain beach. I saw Flagler Beach, which I’d never seen before. At the swanky town of Palm Bay, I found my destination, Washington Oaks Gardens State Park.

The first thing I did was walk the nature trail, which included a half-mile stretch of the original A1A, the road built to get cars to South Florida. That was a fun piece of history.

You can see it was a road, returning to the earth.

It was pleasant to look at all the plants, and there was a good breeze. I was disappointed that there was hardly any view of the creek/intracoastal, but I did see some spiders. Focusing on spiders is not easy without manual focus.

I drank a lot of water (it’s humid) then walked around the formal gardens. I managed to find some insects for iNat along the way. There were many shady ponds, a sunny rose garden, and a place where they have planted Washington oaks from the trees owned by early settlers.

I enjoyed the rose garden, which had big, hardy roses in it, all of whom were blooming away.

After looking at the rest of the plantings, greenhouse, etc., I went in the gift shop, which was formerly the office of an early television pioneer. It was a cute place, and I enjoyed talking to the volunteers. I put signs in the photos, in case you want to read about the place.

I returned to Ormond Beach a different way, which took me through some fancy neighborhoods and a toll bridge. Then I drove down I-95, which was not bad, since it’s Sunday. I had time to go walk in the ocean a while. I got to watch some surfing, too.

Around 7 pm, Lee arrived after two days of driving. It was good to have someone in the condo with me!

Back to work tomorrow!

Twelve thousand steps later

Today was my only Saturday in Ormond Beach. So by gosh, I was going to make the most of it! While I’m still not back to the strength and stamina I had when I was working with horses and camping so much, I still managed 4.5 miles of walking at three different parks. I got my nature walking in!

I started off back at Tomoka State Park, where I walked the mile-long paved path on the other side of the road from the main park. It’s very smooth, and can be enjoyed by people with many disabilities in addition to walkers and cyclists. I’d have enjoyed it much more if there were fewer motorcycles on the road (it must have been a special touring day). There was a never-ending parade of buzzy small planes, too. But it was shady, and I saw a beautiful box turtle. Not many birds.

The woods is very uniform, with the same mix of plants throughout. I wonder how long it’s been recovering from being an indigo plantation? Here are some sights.

I left there and proceeded a few beautiful miles down the road to a truly special place, Bulow Creek State Park. Lots to see here! First I enjoyed the area around some huge, old live oaks, including the Fairchild Oak. All the trees are beautiful. My big surprise was spotting a raccoon family in the big old tree. Mom was trying to keep up with four very busy young ones. I enjoyed them a while, then showed them to a couple of other visitors.

Next I took the shorter trail that goes through a wet area. It has a collection of fascinating seeps that flow across the clay substrate to form the larger creek. Since it’s rained recently, they were flowing nicely. They are very similar to the seeps on our property, and now I understand them more. It made my day (that and the raccoons).

I endeavored to go on as much as possible of the next trail, which is a six-mile loop. I did not go that far. I did make it to where the trail turns and follows Bulow Creek before turning back. This was a lovely trail that even had some birds! I saw a Pileated Woodpecker fly by. There was also ample evidence of wild hogs. And since there was NO evidence of bears, I concluded that the large black animal that snorted at me was a hog. Yow. But the ferns, flowers, and trees were great. I also enjoyed many brown anole activities.

I had one more stop on my route, which made a nice circle. I wish I could have taken photos as I drove, because the drive between Bulow and North Peninsula State Park is through some of the prettiest wild east coast scenery I’ve ever seen. Woods making tunnels over the road lead to stunning swamps and to wide-open marshlands. I may take Lee there just to see it again. I also enjoyed going over a small drawbridge.

At this park I went on a trail that’s supposed to be a birding trail. I didn’t see any, nor any alligators. I did see a very large gopher tortoise. It made a noise at me for interrupting snack time. I also found what had to be its hole (huge) nearby.

If it wasn’t so hot, I’d have enjoyed more of this trail, which crossed hammocks and scrub. But I got too red and knew I needed to get a drink and rest. That led me to a shiny Anhinga. A bird!

I came back to the condo and enjoyed putting my observations in iNaturalist and rehydrated. After cleaning up, I got Vicki and we had a fancy steak dinner at the fancy restaurant I ate at last week. Other than very happy and loud revelers next to us, we had fun.

Lee is halfway here, after dealing with bad traffic and wonky GPS. Tomorrow I won’t be alone in the condo!

Hope you enjoyed the photos. I sure enjoyed my day. All positive.

Drowning my sorrows?

Today I tried very hard to find happiness amidst sadness about so many good people passing away lately (famous and not-so-famous). I should get used to it, and normally I am. This is just a rough week.

I did find beauty! This is Ohio Spiderwort.

I got up early and dragged myself to a nearby park, Michael Crotty Bicentennial Park, where I wandered around and enjoyed many beautiful plants.

I then walked across the road to a nice dock with great views of the Intracoastal and native woods. I got to see birds and talk to a couple of nice folks. I still made it back in plenty of time to start work.

It stormed pretty spectacularly this afternoon, with lightning right on top of me. I enjoy watching rain over the ocean, and it brought peace except when the big booms came.

After work, I went for a nice walk. I ended up with more birds today than any other here so far. To reward myself for working hard and because I was kind of lonely, I took myself to a nice dinner right across the road from the condo. I had old fashioned and a dessert. Good thing my meal was nice heathy fish and kale!

I’m looking forward to reading and relaxing for a while. This condo might not be fancy, but it sure is nice and quiet. Time to reflect.

Also, thanks for all the good feedback on Stephanie’s poem. She is full of understanding.

There’s a lot of water here

Since it’s Monday, I had to work. But since it’s Eastern Time, I didn’t have to work until late morning. So I took the opportunity to head over to Tomoka State Park, which is quite close to where I’m staying in Ormond Beach, Florida.

The park is surrounded by two rivers, the Halifax, which is also part of the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Tomoka, which joins the Halifax here. As you can imagine, there are beautiful views, many without any signs of humanity. My kind of place.

There are lots of kayak trails and camping areas. The nature trail and the trail around the point were what I focused on today, though I have plans to return and either go on a boat tour or hike another path.

Oddly, I didn’t hear many birds, just a very persistent Osprey and a Belted Kingfisher were loud. Blue Jays, Cardinals, and Carolina Wrens rounded out the songbirds, and I spotted an Anhinga, some Ruddy Turnstones, and a Great Blue Heron. Nothing too exotic.

There were plenty of very interesting plants to distract me from the lack of birds, however. The scenery was lush and verdant, with some new plants, like a hog plum (Ximenia americana), also known as a sea lemon. Apparently they’re common on the Florida coast, but I don’t remember them.

Take the tour of the nature trail with me! It’s fun.

There was lots of turtle and tortoise evidence here. I saw a nest that had recently hatched and found a beautiful gopher in its hole. I sure enjoyed gopher tortoises as a child!

Here’s more on the Gopherus polyphemus.

Okay, I’ll just share a few more interesting plants and insects I saw.

After exhausting my eyeballs from all this, I headed back to work and tried not to let the pelicans distract me as the majestically sailed by. The ocean was very blue.

After working I took a short walk on the beach to enjoy the sea birds and the shifting sands. This is a great place to come in summer after school starts. It’s warm but quiet. There are so many beautiful colors to enjoy.

And finally, I got to hang out with Vicki, whose headache was over, thankfully. We ate at a fun place in a non-touristy area with a great ocean view. After an amazing grilled cheese sandwich and much conversation about taboo topics like politics and religion (where we disagree less now than at other points in our lives), we went to a quiet beach park and watched pelicans dive as the sun set. A fine day with much water!

The cordoned off areas are turtle nests.

Sleepy time!

Getting there

Today I traveled all day! That makes for a heck of a long slog, but there were plenty of bright spots. And of course there were some challenges that seem more amusing now than when they happened.

I got to Austin airport (thanks to Lee) in plenty of time, which was good, because even the first class check-in was slow (I used points to get it). My carryon bag got inspected, and the woman who looked very hard at my jewelry bag didn’t close the zipper all the way! Luckily I lost nothing after dragging it all across the airport in that state.

At the waiting area, I enjoyed friendly people chatting with strangers, then ended up chatting away to my own stranger. We bonded over our love of Navajo jewelry (she was covered in beautiful silver). That was so much fun! Now she wants to go to Santa Fe together, ha ha.

The first class flight to Charlotte was pleasant and included wine. I needed it to get through the wait for the next flight to Daytona Beach. I met nice (but confused about flying) people while waiting, too. We were delayed due to misrouted luggage. That delay was the catalyst to the longest part of the long day.

There are not enough seats in the area where passengers on tiny planes must wait.

I ended up sitting next to an incredibly chatty elderly woman who was struggling with pain and some cognitive issues. So I listened to her the whole flight. I know a lot about her dating and marriage history and her illnesses and her attractive great-grandchildren. She’s only 5 years older than me! I think I helped her make it through the flight, which I was glad to do.

However, my patience ran thin when we arrived exactly when a thunderstorm popped up, and we had to sit on the tarmac a long time. This got the elders around me all in a tizzy. Why are we sitting here? (it’s dangerous to the ground staff to stand around in a storm). When will it stop raining? (when these here clouds on the radar move off.) Why can’t we stand up and move around the plane? (The wind is blowing really hard.) Plus Debbie (that was her name) decided she was going to die, then began singing and praying. Oh boy. She called her daughter and said she knew she’d be okay because she was sitting next to a meteorologist (me). I guess the Clime app impressed her.

Oh was I relieved to get off that plane. I was effusively complimentary to the car rental lady, just because she seemed so normal compared to my plane companions. I was not thrilled that it was dark before I could go find the condo where I’m staying, but the rental car is a Honda with all the controls where I think they should be. That helped a lot.

I found Ormond Beach at last. It looks pretty in the dark. The condos are not as fancy as usual, but they are obviously improving them to meet the Hilton brand specs. They can’t make them bigger or actually have ocean views, but that’s okay. Why? Because I came to see my friend Vicki, not to bask in luxury. And to do nature stuff, which this part of Florida is chock full of. (I will also work, which should go well with my fancy new fold-out monitors.)

Quirky. There is a weird window looking into the main bathroom.

It feels weirdly good to be in my home state again. Everything seems “right” somehow. Probably the familiar plants, house styles, and street signs help. Florida road signs are easier for me than Texas ones. Strange.

We will see what I think when the sun comes up. Anyway, here are tiny condo pictures.

Take me back to Antelope Canyon

If you could relive one day from your past, which day would it be and why?

If I could, I think I’d endlessly relive the day Lee and I visited Antelope Canyon in Arizona. It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. Plus you have to give money to Navajo people to see it.

The drive to Page from Sedona takes you through the Navajo Nation, so I got to see some hogans. It was a great day, even though the visit to Cameron Trading Post was a different day (fry bread and someone weaving a large rug).

But mostly I enjoyed the beauty of the slot canyon, especially when I could get away from other people and the (sweet) tour guide. It’s a magical place, exuding copious good vibes (for a tourist site), and getting there and back was also interesting. I could do it again.

I’m sure you want more photos. Ok!

BYW, this visit was on June 15, 2024. A greeeat day for me.

Basking in friendship glow

We just returned from the 50th wedding anniversary party of our friends Jack and Jennifer S. in Cedar Park, Texas. You’ve seen many pictures of me and Jen acting mushy from friendship when we go camping. There’s no way we couldn’t go to this party (and we also brought Martha with us from Cameron).

Here we are looking mushy from friendship again.

In addition to really good food that I didn’t eat much of, I was just thrilled to see so many of our other old friends from my years at Live Oak UU Church. It’s wonderful that I see so many of them on Facebook still, but it filled me with joy to see them in person.

It was also great to see old friends my kids’ age, like Lindsay, who said I can share this.

I remembered my vow to myself. I made sure to tell people who mean a lot to me how grateful I am for them. How often do you get a chance to do that? I even remembered all my friends’ names! It felt incredibly fine to share my true appreciation for those whose words buoy me up and whose humor brightens my days. Sniff.

One such friend is Lyndy. As you can see we were mushy with friendship.

While I was catching up with all my friends and their adult children, Lee made a new friend and enjoyed talking to him. Thank goodness for Jamiel!

I’m so grateful we were able to attend and celebrate our friends along with our other friends. Seeing older friends looking great and younger friends blossoming into adulthood was a privilege. It reminds me to treasure my friends at home now, while I can!

I can’t believe I know anyone who’s been married 50 years! Wow!