First Flamingo & New Abstract

If you live in Florida, eventually you are required to paint a flamingo.  So I did & presented it as a gift to a flamingo-loving relative.

Meanwhile, I also amused myself with some abstract fun.

Nomadic Month

Seagulls lining up on
St. Pete Beach, FL

For a variety of expected and unexpected reasons, I've been traveling a great deal over the last month.

Cemetery in McNeal, Arizona

First I journeyed from my former home in New Mexico to St. Pete, Florida.

Once returned to NM, I packed up and drove up to Portland, Oregon, stopping over in McNeal, Arizona and Klamath Falls, OR.

Flowers blooming in Portland, Oregon

From Portland, OR, I flew the friendly skies out to Portland, Maine.

I've seen weather fluctuating from 8 inches of snow to balmy sea breezes and 75 degrees, and zipped up and down from sea level to snowy mountain passes.  

In flight

Through all of this, I've kept my camera stashed in my purse, and managed to make good use of it here and there.

Sunset from car window,
Portland, Oregon

(I've also taken quite a few dreadful photos, rambling around rest stops to stretch my legs or sitting in doctor's offices blessed with surprisingly nice water views, and other places when I needed to pause for a moment. I'll keep those masses of less successful photos to myself.)

Hwy 97 north of Klamath Falls, OR

Lovely shots or not, I find focusing on images relaxing, a quick and easy way to tune down the incessant whirring of my sometimes overactive mind.  

After a month, I can tell you: this country is very large, and gorgeous in a myriad of ways.

I presume at some point I will be more clear on what season it is and what time zone applies to me.  We'll see.

Spirals

Top of the spiral staircase
Dali Museum
St. Petersburg, FL

Beach Walk

beach chairs, St. Pete Beach, FL

The modern miracle of travel means that I started the day in New Mexico, drove to Texas in pre-dawn dark under a blanket of stars to doze on a plane, and was walking on a beach in Florida by the time the breeze began to kick up in the late afternoon.

Toes in the sand, I watched the pelicans swoop over the water as they hunted for dinner and reveled in the wind currents.  Returning to the ocean, any ocean, with our bodies made of so much saltwater, is always a homecoming.

Pelican in flight

See You Later, Alligator

Sign by lake

Not only did they feel it necessary to put up a sign, they also passed a law about it. Who doesn't know enough to stay away from an alligator? A lot of people, apparently.

Gratuitous Sunset at the Beach Photo

Roadtripping, Cat Lady Style

Leo, Hazel, and I hit the road on Wednesday, off on an excellent Florida adventure.  The beginning of the 2-day drive looked and sounded like this:

Leo and Hazel travel in style in a purple mesh pop-up carrier that takes up most of the backseat and includes all the modern conveniences (i.e., a little box). It gives them a little room to stretch, but keeps them from leaping out the window at toll booths. Over the 14 years that the kitties and I have been spending time together, they've logged many miles. They're not always happy about it, but they are surprisingly patient and flexible.

If nothing else, they enjoy that after a day of meditative sunshine driving, I perk up (yes, cats sense your mood). While they don't let me sing (like many others, they interpret it as yowling, and meow with alarm when I forget and start in) they do let me change radio stations to catch scary 80s classics (yes, "Abracadra" still gets air time. Want to have a 1982 tune stuck in your head?  Click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QyoRzZrF00&feature=related). After a few hours of following the yellow lines, the endless winter gloom of DC gray fades into exploration and insights into other places, odd roadside moments and the peaceful zen of driving.

Day 1 of driving landed us at the Walterboro, SC Motel6.  Given that Motel6s are cheap and allow pets, we are brand loyal. This particular safe haven came with a bbq invite from the guys in orange reflective vests grilling dinner in the parking lot. They were in town to do electrical work in Ridgeland and were, safe to say, a little bored. Anyone who starts a conversation with "So you from out of town?" in a motel parking lot may be yearning for anything new (do lots of people in town stay at the Motel6?).

The kitties and I opted out of the parking lot festivities and instead hunkered down for a night of junk food and bad TV. I prefer to think that the bug Hazel found was not a baby roach, but some orphan insect of a less revolting tribe. 

The biggest excitement for me is that the Motel6 has a new, and possibly even more hideous bedspread pattern, this one with a Motel6 logo wound into yellows and oranges and blues.  The previous bedspread used, I can tell you, by most Motel6s across the country, flaunted blues and magenta, a stain-hiding combination that I've come to expect.

We hit the road early, anxious for more sun, more flashback music, and finally getting to the warmth. 

We first felt the shift to southern winter at a gas station stop in Georgia (at a nondescript Shell, not Mr. Pete's Pecans and Gas that we saw advertised in curly script on a billboard, as intrigued we were by that unlikely combination). Even though it was a chilly morning, it felt different...the sun was sharper, the sky bluer, and the birds sang with a tropical lilt. The wind coming inland from the the ocean still carried its salty smell. 

Hazel was probably thinking: lizards! 

When we lived in Miami, she was the mighty huntress, picking up, and dropping many lizards.  She didn't often kill them -- I imagine they don't taste all that yummy, although I don't intend to verify that. But she would chase them around and pick them up with zeal, at which point, they would drop their tails (a lizard stress reaction).  Many short-tailed lizards lived, anxiously, around our cottage.

The big excitement on Day 2 of driving (aside from arriving at our destination) all took place in the vicinity of Lawtey, FL. 

You can't say they don't give you
fair warning...

First: the Speed Trap billboard, 4.5 miles outside of town on 301. Yes, once in town, I saw a black unmarked car with a lawman sitting as promised in the 35 miles per hour zone there.  You have to figure, whoever pays for the billboard the town hero. 
Also in Lawtey, we made a brief stop to take a picture of not one, not two, but THREE giant metal chickens. 

Modern Styling.

Because one is not enough.

The reason for this can be found here: http://thebloggess.com/2011/06/and-thats-why-you-should-learn-to-pick-your-battles/.  Knock, knock is a running joke with a friend to whom I periodically send pictures of large metal chickens (or roosters - I'm flexible on these things).

Having finally arrived in our Florida destination,today, the cats and I are enjoying some down time on the porch. Leo had a tough morning with a visit to a local vet, as his back is hurting -- the prevailing theory is he twisted it on the stairs yesterday surveying his temporary kingdom, as he seemed surprisingly spry after the car ride. But by last evening, poor guy was hurting. Today, after a couple of shots, he's feeling better, and so is his nervous caretaker. 

In front of us on the porch, a palm tree is rustling in the wind. A few fluffy clouds are floating by.  I plan to go to the beach in a little while and stick my toes in the ocean. December in Florida, Santa hats and bathing suits, has much to recommend it. 

I hope Leo and Hazel agree.   

Hazel: "Lizards!"; Leo: "Cat treats!"

Sale!

I thought it was only legal to sell your Hoohah in Las Vegas. 

Perhaps the Purple Haze in the Hookah Cafe limited their proofreading skill.