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Day 7

We headed out early to the beach.  There are (obviously) beaches down the whole coast line, but Joe wanted to go back to the same one as the day before. I thought we should go to a different (much closer) one in Nokomis.  So, we went to the one in Nokomis.  As soon as we got out to the sand we both could feel the effects of this stupid red tide, coughing and sneezing. I had even taken a benadryl that morning.  We set our stuff down and debated leaving, but eventually set up our umbrella and chairs.  After about 15 minutes we decided it was dumb to stay and feel this way, it was tough to take a deep breath and we were both coughing and sneezing.  On our way out we talked with a lady who walked out to the beach and right back and said that the Venice beach was supposed to be better so we headed there instead.  Good tip lady, even though this beach is only 2 miles south, we could actually breathe here, even though it wasn’t perfect.  This algae is really putting a damper on our beach time. This wasn't a very good beach for finding any shells/teeth/treasures, but we did make friends with a one-legged pirate bird.


Just before noon we left and found a park for lunch.  The local garden club had a cool butterfly garden full of plants we can’t grow in Ohio, so that was neat to check out.  I liked the Giant Milkweed the best. 


We stopped at a place to get some fruits and veggies, Detwiler’s Farm Market.  Like Beilers, but twice the size and 4 times as many people as the busiest they’ve ever been.  Not the place to go if you don’t like crowds and lines.  For sure the place to go if you want local strawberries and citrus.


We spent the afternoon playing cards and dominos and trying to stay in the shade and walked the campground. There is a swimming pond in the park that also has a sign to beware of alligators.  People were swimming there.  Late afternoon we went on a bike ride - there is a long trail that you can pick up right in the park.  If we wanted to, we could take this trail 15 miles north to downtown Sarasota.  Today wasn’t the day for that.  


We had some more critter visitors at our site, a rabbit and an armadillo .  I didn’t try to hide from either of them.  


Day 7 / Feb 24

Friday

Grocery

10.71

Odometer trip start

293762

Firewood

20.00

Odometer day start

296029

Campsite

$38.30

Odometer end

295052



Daily miles

23

Daily total

68.91

Total miles

1290

Trip total

$673.23

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