Catching Up

Well, here it is early June and the rainy season is upon us. It seems like everyday is filled with either rain, storms, or just plain overcast. Oh well, we've got to take the bad with the good. At least all the ponds and lakes are being refilled. This has got to make the fishes and gators happy. The down side is it reduces the golf I can play. I've only been out once in the last week. Bike riding isn't much better. In fact, I just came back from an abbreviated ride. Got rained out. Hopefully I can try again later today.

We have been somewhat fortunate in that the weekends have been sunny. We continue to explore. We visited the small, quaint town of Dundedin a couple weekends ago. They have some great speciality shops and good restaurants. They also have a bike trail that runs through Dunedin from the north in Tarpon Springs and continuing south. It is called the Pinellas Trail and is the old railroad tracks paved over for cyclists and walkers. This is on the list of things to do. From there we traveled south to Clearwater Beach. What a mess with tourists at the beach and activities at the park. Actually it was quite fun to be in all of that. This past weekend we traveled north a bit to Dade City to visit an antique car show. Although there were not many cars in attendance, nothing like the rod runs in Pigeon Forge,  Dade City also has an old section in town that is populated with restaurants and speciality shops, so we spent some time roaming through these stores.

This weekend we are going to St. Armand's Square in Sarasota to visit their arts and crafts fair. St. Armand's is a wonderful location, again, with lots of shops and restaurants to visit. It is great to just walk around there and people watch. Also, in town are a some friends from Sevierville that we will get to visit with for a day. We are truly looking forward to that time.

On the golf side of things, I have been able to play quite a bit until the rainy season set in. With all the playing, I've been able to reduce my score noticeably and now am shooting in the mid 90's on a regular and consistent basis. This, for me, is quite a feat. Of course in that score exists a couple mulligans. My next goal is to shoot that score without the mulligans. It's amazing what taking your time on your swing, paying attention, and following through can do for your score.

I have included some photos from the golf course again. Birds, a tortoise, and alligators and course shots. I saw a couple armadillos the other day on the course, but by the time I got my camera they had scurried away. For a minute I thought I was in Texas. I also have located a place that attracts stray golf balls. There is a pond on the 17th hole that sits below the course. I was held up one day waiting for the green to clear of a twosome, happened to look down at the pond and was tons of golf balls in the shallow water and near the water. Thus, I have been golf ball fishing the last few times I've played and have recovered enough golf balls to last quite some time. And at the rate that I lose them I will definitely need them.