Kind of a Lazy Day....

Sarasota, FL     High:  77      Low:   55

We are sort of taking it easy these past few days...Not going anywhere, really, other than errands. Sparky is doing her best not to make almost daily trips to Michaels craft store and the biggest Joann Fabrics store she has ever seen which just happens to be located one exit north of Fruitville at University Center and which she is able to navigate to and from by herself without getting lost. Mighty tempting!

Today we revisited Lakeview Park, which happens to have the highest rated disc golf course in Sarasota, a 3.5 difficulty course out of a possible 5 points. Probably for all the water hazards that are present on almost every hole. Did we play? Nope! Sparky just wanted to get some more long needles for her pine needle baskets.

Now the easiest way to do this would be to just scoop up armfuls of needles, shove them into a bag, and then come home and sort through them, saving a WHOLE lotta time. Does Sparky do that? Naw, she does things the hard way...She picks up the needle clusters one by one, measures how long they are and places them into her bag. She LOOKS like she's using drugs here, but she's just using her elbow to wrist to measure the needles!

Is this one too short? Does that one have a lot of mold spores on it? Are they long or longer than from her elbow to the middle of her hand--11 inches? There's a reason Sparky doesn't pick them up by the handfuls and shove them into a bag. There's TONS of Spanish moss, also known as long moss or "graybeard" mixed in with the needles that have fallen from the trees. The official name for all that hanging moss is EPIPHYTES. Who wants to say that? :-)  Sparky read that you don't want to handle the moss/epiphytes that are on the ground because they likely contain CHIGGERS---little blood sucking bugs that burrow into your skin and cause intense itching. UGH! By the way, should you get them, you take a cloth dipped in Listerine and wipe all your itchy spots. That's supposed to really help!  So Sparky continued to search one by one as Eldo patiently watched and wondered why the heck she didn't just pick them up by bunches. Now he knows....(I'm bringing gloves for Sparky for next time, says E.)

As Sparky was picking up needles, she saw something BIG fly nearby and saw this bird alight in a tree up above where the nest was. Maybe some kind of hawk?

We love this park, it's so beautiful. We will definitely come back for another round of disc golf. We were lucky the first time we were here, and didn't lose any discs, but we better come prepared with extras the next time.

For now, time to go home and see what's up at Sun 'n' Fun....See you later!

Lakeview County Park Disc Golf Challenge

Sarasota, FL      High:  79      Low:  55

Time for us to get out and DO something! Today we went to Lakeview County Park where Eldo had checked out some parks online for disc golf (frisbee golf) and saw that this one was highly rated. He used Disc Golf Course Reviews com.  Lakeview Park is 3.2 out of a scale of 5 possible points. It's moderately hilly, a little bit woody, and it is BEAUTIFUL! Disc golf is a really fun game...If you can throw a regular frisbee, you can play disc golf!

What was the park course like? There is a LOT of water in and around the park, making for challenging play. We were just getting started when an elderly gentleman stopped by the fence and asked us if we wanted any floaters. FLOATERS? Sparky immediately thought of fishing waders....She had seen all the water hazards and thought, well, we might need some waders to go in after a disc or something... Floaters, we asked? He said, yeah, you're going to need a disc that FLOATS with all these lakes and deep ponds on the course. Oh-h-h-h-h, now we get it! No, thanks...not right this moment. We didn't have any money to pay for one. He gets a LOT of discs out of the water, like in a year's time, HUNDREDS with a 24 foot pole. Uh-oh! We might be losing some discs today.....

We talked to him some more. Odell Gibson was his name....He was a great guy, in his late seventies, who had just discovered disc golf at the age of seventy. He singlehandedly takes care of the Lakeview Park course to the tune of ZERO pay. That's right, he's a non-paid VOLUNTEER. He spends hours at the park every week putting in pads, trimming the palms and trees, putting in the signs, repairing damage, replacing baskets, adding gravel, and just keeping the course in tip top running shape, just because he loves the game so much!

He loves the game so much at one point, he estimated he had over 500 discs in his collection from pulling them from the waters, trading them, etc. He told us that on Friday nights, they play lighted disc golf, he and a bunch of fellow disc golf enthusiasts. They put little lights on the discs and carry glow sticks. Play starts around 5:30 PM.  Sounds like fun! We might check that out some time.

Did we lose any discs today? We-e-l-l-l-l....almost! TWICE Sparky's disc landed right at the edge of the water.  Once the palm frond saved it from going in the water. Whew, that was a close one!

The water in the park is DEEP and it drops off fast. Not only is it deep, but the muck is REALLY deep, like up to your hips if you had to go in after one. And with signs like this...."ALLIGATORS IN THE AREA".......Who's going to go in after a disc? NOT US!  So on the third time, Sparky's luck changed for the worse, and her disc went in the water, but where we could still see it. Sparky set out to recover the disc....As easy as 1-2-3...HA!

First, take off your shoes and socks, Sparky. Only one came off before she realized that the muck was going to be nasty, and what if there were leeches in there or turtles that bite, or a submerged alligator? We did see some turtles sunning themselves, Papa, Mama and a baby?...Who knows what lurks under that murky water!?

Step 2, find a big stick...or a big palm frond....

Step 3, go fishing for the disc.

Step 4, recover disc. SUCCESS!

Shoe back on and we went back to playing disc golf..We didn't keep score today, it's a new course, and usually, there are score sheets, but we didn't see any so we just played for fun. Our favorite hole was the 13th hole. It's called the "Jailhouse". Can you tell why?

The basket is sandwiched between three trees and it's up in the air! We got our discs in without mishap with water nearby....

It's a really great course and we'll definitely go back and play it again, WITH floaters!  :-) It's a beautiful park....

There's a local shop in Sarasota called Sun King Disc Sports on Matoaka Road where they have all kinds of discs if anybody wants to play in Sarasota.....Sparky and Eldo are going to have to check it out and see what the "floater" discs look like.....We like the game so much we are starting to collect a variety of discs....No where near what Odell has, but we have about ten....

See ya later........