Smarties Bar & Grill #76

@politicalcenter what is the temperature where you are?

 

93 f. Feels like 107. It is hot but mostly humid. A wet towel around the neck seems to help. I sleep more lately. I like to sleep in front of a fan. Or just get comfortable and daydream.

 

Staying inside and staying cool is about the extent of activity around here. The temp in the sun yesterday was 108 with a humidity of 48, not pleasant at all.

How are your goats doing in the hot weather? I saw a posting in the feed store or the vets office, someone had Boer goats for sale. My husband looked at me and I could tell it was a "No." Boer goats are a meat goat and I couldn't sell them. They would just have to be pets forever. They are a pretty goat.

 

This "weekend" I am at myakka River State Park. Expect to see lots of photographs later this afternoon or tonight, uploaded.

My other weekend day yesterday was spent taking my girlfriend about 40 miles to the next county down for a bone density test.

She had to get an injection of some sort of radioactive dye and then we had to come back three and a half hours later for the actual test.

So what the hell do you do for 3 and 1/2 hours in Port Charlotte? Well we went to the public library and killed some time and then we went to sportsman's wholesaler warehouse and checked out also a public park.

It's rough without air conditioning and a minivan but at least I got my other window fixed so they both come down. As some of you may remember she had her larynx removed and breaths through a stoma.

I can handle heat but she gets a lot of mucus build up when she has to be in the heat for too long. There is a suction machine she uses at the house but it doesn't do much for us in the van.

But anyhow life is a story and we all have problems, no?

Unlike last week when I took my recumbent bicycle, I loaded my dirt bike in the van today so now I parked and unloaded to ride around the myakka River State Park. I believe this park is 27,000 acres.

There are some actual YouTube videos of the myakka River State Park skunk ape otherwise known as Bigfoot. Much like the yeti in Nepal... Bigfoot has a different name around here.

 

Here is a cabin in the traditional style of the Florida cracker, made primarily of cabbage palm tree trunks and some form of pitch to seal them up.

Just finished my lunch here.

 

That looks pretty well constructed. One has to wonder, which came first, the New England log cabin, or the Florida Cracker Box?

 

There is a cracker house that is a couple of miles away that has a dog-run .

 

If the Spanish built Cracker Box houses then probably the 1600's..but I am guessing somewhere in the 1800's the first Cracker Box was built. Just guessing.

 

That is a good question. Florida pioneers probably Drew their inspiration from the indigenous Florida peoples.

The Seminole Indians used to construct and live in chickies.... Probably not how it's spelled.

But anyhow they were raised decks built with a pole-like structure and basically had thatched roofs and walls made of cabbage Palm fronds.

Being built off of the ground for two reasons, high water and it's just cooler.

A Florida cracker house is typically built with the hallways aligned like a cross so that windows can be opened at each end and the house would have excellent cross ventilation.

 

A nice spot for a break on a very hot day.... A good breeze was blowing.

 

Boar goats seem to bring the best prices. But the bottom seems to have fallen out of the market. My goats are doing well. They just sit in the shade during the hottest part of the day.

 

More pictures from today.... Now keep in mind all of these pictures I have posted in the last 12 hours or so are from the myakka River State Park. Sarasota county Florida.

 

Here is the observation tower and the canopy walk. The canopy walk itself is like a suspension bridge about 30 ft off the ground through the canopy of the oak trees.

One side of it is connected to the observation tower whose top deck is 75 ft above the ground. You can really see how flat South Florida is from the top.

The first top photo is at the top of the observation deck looking off in the direction of Sarasota

 

Looking almost straight down at the forest canopy. This picture looks like it could have been shot from a helicopter in Vietnam.

You can see how ubiquitous the cabbage palm trees are.

Some pictures of the wooden structure itself.
Each flight of stairs has seven stairs And there are 15 flights of stairs.... I guess I'm just weird like that because I always count stairs.


Trail leading to the canopy walk. You can see that fire is no stranger to this land and prescribed Burns are a regular part of Land Management here. California should be taking notes.

 

I'm going to miss this van someday. You can see how my dirt bike fits inside of it like a hand in a glove.

I can load and unload it myself easily. As you can see the tie downs those are very handy ratcheting straps that were part of the original wheelchair tie down equipment.



The front tie down I had to improvise a bit. This bike does not move no matter what sort of turn you take at whatever speed. Very secure

 

Some random pictures from today.

 

More...

If you zoom in here you can see this other area across the road called Big slough preserve. All of these trails represent 120 miles of paths.

This spot is much less known than the myakka River State Park which is about 8 miles west on highway 72.

Absolutely nothing is there but three parking spots and a sign saying that you are here and a bench under a tree.

There are Gates but they are locked to vehicular traffic and it says that this Park is open to horse riding hiking and bicycling.

They only have a walk through that is open that is not much wider than a human being.

So I walked down there a ways and I asked myself if I should take my dirt bike out and do it.... After all the sign does not say no dirt bikes and no one is around for miles except the one other vehicle in the parking lot.

Eventually the guy walks past me as I am sitting in the shade and we made some small talk and I told him that I was really considering taking my dirt bike out.

He said go ahead I won't tell on you I've been coming here for years and I have only ever seen a few people here. Lol

You are truly in the middle of nowhere there.
But if you take a dirt bike out like that you best remember that you or the bike could become disabled. Are you ready to become injured or have to push a disabled dirt bike through 5 miles of dirt trails?

I wasn't so I opted not to ride there. Plus I don't need to be getting in any trouble.

 

Get a bicycle and take it then you have a choice.

 

I have several of those and I took my recumbent bike to the Highlands hammock State Park last week. And when I got home last night I actually rode my recumbent bike for 8 Miles.

The trails in that Park wouldn't have really been much good for a bicycle either. They looked like fire break trails and the dirt was loose and loamy..... Like it gets plowed or disked up a few times a year

 

The dedication memorial plaque for the park. Anyone so interested can zoom in and read it. It is mounted on a giant rock that probably weighs as much as two large pickup trucks or more.

 

I just read this and I swear I'm going to make a sign out of it and hang it at work....

" Sorry I'm late, I got here just as soon as I wanted to "

There is a culture of people being chronically late at my job and it's not because something happened it's because they just think that they should show up whenever the hell they want.

 

When I first read this sign I thought that someone was thanking Meg for saving the forest from the nortons....lol.

Then I realized that the nortons were the people that authored the sign. Lol

 

You still around? I remember you from an old hole-in-the-wall joint. I've only been around a couple blocks, but my oldschool nature makes me like places like this.

BTW: Bill me for a round of Fireball cinnamon whisky shots

 

Well… as the jukebox plays “There’s a hundred bottles of beer on the wall” …. I’m still buying.