2-27-17  On the road again... ---

Yep, another road trip to St. Louis.  But not for any Dr.'s this time---thank God!  This time it's to pick up our tax papers.  I was surprised when Ken said he was heading to St. Louis this week (when I asked him last week)!  He said he was planning to go pick up the papers, visit some friends in the hospital, then come right back----so I didn't plan on going with him.  But I woke up Monday morning and in a moment of weakness thought "why not go, too".  So after hastily packing a few essentials while he loaded the car, we were on our way.

Loving that much of the SR20 construction is almost done.  Still a long way to go, but it's a lot farther along then it was last year at this time.

 On the lookout for old barns again.

2-25-17 chili cookoff and BINGO

Angie and Josh have become quite involved in their church.  Too bad it's so far away!  When they moved back to Atlanta, they went back to the one they went to when they lived in Alpharetta about 4 years ago.  So now they have about a 30 minute ride to get there.   But tonight was a special fellowship night at their church so we went with them.  Made for an interesting ride with a crock pot full to the brim with hot chili and a highway of stop and go traffic.  Not sure how much overflowed, but there was some unhappy words along the way.  Fortunately it all became happy when we got there.

 Prayers and messages before chowing down.

 Not a huge crowd, but it was a fun bunch

 and the chili and accessories were great! 

 there were 8 different chilis there.  So we all tasted them all, then voted on our favorite.  Of course I voted for Angie's---which was the best, in my opinion.

 Maybe it's a good thing there weren't more people---the 45, or so, that were there did quite a job on the 8 chilis.

 getting ready for BINGO!  Yea!!!!!!!!!!!

 Heather and Angie---friends from when they lived here before.

 The winner of the chili cookoff.  His was a no bean style.  Personally, I think beans are the best part of chili--that and big chunks of meat!  I'll have to admit none of the chilis had a lot of beans in them and the meat was pretty much pureed.  But I still enjoyed it and found plenty to fill up on.

 A picture of the "cooks".

 After eating, we played 7 games of bingo.  Angie won one of them and got a $10 Starbuck's gift card.  I actually won the last game and got the grand prize---a $20 Panera Bread Company gift card.  Yea!!!!!

It was a fun evening.  Too bad they don't do it more often!

2-23-17  a day in Gainesville, Ga:

One of the times that we drove through Gainesville on our way to or from the northern Georgia mountains, we accidentally came upon a really neat street----Green street.  I LOVE Victorian style houses and this street was lined with them.  Each house was different from the next.  I can only imagine what it was like back when they were all residential houses!  Now they're almost all a business of some sort.  In fact, Angie told me one of them is a Mellow Mushroom Pizza parlor.  I've been wanting to go there for a long time.  So today we decided to fulfill that wish.
The Mellow Mushroom restaurant.

Ken decided to try their Italian sandwich.  Guess it was good, he ate it all.

2-21-17  Poole's Mill covered bridge:

Ken found another historical covered bridge for us to check out.  It looked like today would be a good day to do that---we're in a bit of a rainy period right now.  It was about 50 minutes away, but it was a nice ride.  Especially now that most of Highway 20, that we often take to I-75 to avoid Atlanta traffic, is mostly open again.  Much nicer ride through there now!

 Love avoiding the city and getting to enjoy the rural areas, too.

2-20-17  Once Upon a Child:

Since our daughter and son-in-law are officially on a wait list now for adopting a baby, I decided to check out this resale shop just down the street from us.  I was pretty amazed at what all they had and such reasonable prices. 

 All kinds of things you never knew you needed!

 And all the fancy strollers of now-a-days like this one for $25!

 I think this is one of those new car seat/stroller types.

 and the one and only umbrella stroller there.  I was so tempted to get it---for a whole $10, but they had just bought a new car seat/stroller for $400.

 Even some new items like this really cute whale mobile.---$10.

 padded high chair.

 More strollers, they must have had 50 strollers!

They also had quite the selection of clothes.  Pretty neat place.  Nice to know you can have a baby these days and still be thrifty---if you want to.

2-17-17  back to Sunset Cove for sunset:

Looked like potential for a really great sunset today, so we headed back to Sunset Cove.   It turned out prettier looking east over the marina then actually watching the sun set.

 My great blue heron buddy was still there.

2-14-17  Valentine's Day:

Ken surprised me today and asked if I wanted to get a deli sandwich and go to the lake for a picnic.  I love a good picnic, so eagerly said yes.  Only problem was, the places we normally go to for sunset didn't have picnic tables!  Ended up eating our sandwiches in the car.  Oh well, we've since found a couple places with picnic tables.
As we were driving around looking for a park with picnic tables, we came across this guy near the entrance to Lanier Islands.

 Didn't find a picnic table, but did find a little area that looked like it would be a good place to catch sunset---Sunset Cove.  Even got to do a little bird watching there---a lone Great Blue Heron.

 a bunch of Canadian Geese, too.  And a couple benches where you can sit and watch the sunset.  Unfortunately it was pretty clouded so there wasn't much of a sunset.  But we will be back here!

 There were a million pine cones here, too! 

 and a little marina across the road from Sunset Cove.

the water was very calm---great for reflection photos.

Don't think we've ever had a picnic on Valentine's Day before.  Maybe it'll become a new tradition for us!

Feb. 11, 2017--- back to Atlanta by way of Providence Canyon State Park in Georgia:

It was a fast week in Orlando.  Not the usual Orlando trip when you think of Orlando----no theme parks, no Mickey, no spending thousands of dollars.  Instead we went birding and even took time out of the trip to get 2 new tires for our car.  But it was a fun trip none the less.
Originally I had hoped to extend our trip and go to Clearwater or S. Florida, or even the Destin area for a day or 2, but we ended up just heading back to Georgia.  We've done a lot of traveling this year, so going back to Georgia was almost like going on another vacation.  I had actually reserved a couple nights at the new Wyndham Clearwater resort for 2 nights, but when I found out they charged $25/night for parking, I cancelled those reservations.  I was also anxiously looking forward to checking out another Georgia State Park in the Southwest part of the state.  It's a long way from north of Atlanta to do as a day trip, but was only about 70 miles out of the way heading back from Orlando.  So that was our big plans for today---back to Buford by way of Providence Canyon State Park.
With the long day ahead of us, we pack up the car and were on the road by 8:30am.
Bye bye clover leafs with wetlands in the middle of them.

 bye to the greenery and flowers for a little while longer.

Feb. 10, 2017  (part 2) Apopka Lake wildlife area:

It looked like Apopka was sort of on our way back to Orange Lake from the Albin Polasek museum and sculpture garden, so we headed there to see if it was as great as it was when we were there on Sunday.  No birds eating snakes, turtles or crustaceans, but it was still pretty neat.
 Heading into the drive.

 We've seen a lot of Ospreys since we've been in Orlando, but this was the first Hawk we saw.

 An alligator posing nicely.

 Palm warbler

 Did catch this Cormorant getting some dinner.

 This time we even saw two Sandhill Cranes there.  They looked like they were amused by us bird watchers.

 an Osprey

 Great Blue Heron

 flying Osprey

 another view of the roadway.

 glossy Ibis with an itch

 a Limpkin

 some of the wildflowers along the way

 a Bittern

 more wildflowers.

 These guys were buddies---following each other around.

 Northern Shoveler---love their odd beaks.

 Green Heron

 another Great Blue

 a couple Teals

 the hawk in flight.

 Snowy Egret

 sneaky alligator

 ????

 After driving through the 11 mile loop of the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive, we went to the park at the North Shore Trailhead to take a walk.

 Had a little trouble figuring out the map, but finally got it.

 more wild flowers.

 The trail was by the lake, but there wasn't much going on there.

 saw several animal prints, but not many animals----

 other than 4 or 5 armadillos!

 and this wood pecker.

 our selfie

 at least there were some interesting wild flowers

 Almost back to the car.

 Ken looked up what this was all about.   It's in memory of the 49 killed at a nightclub in Orlando last year by a terrorist.

 Sunset from the car as we were driving back to Orange Lake.

 No clouds, but still an interesting sunset.

We were told of a couple other places that we should go to not too far from Kissimmee for great bird watching.  Unfortunately this was our last day there and I've already forgotten the names of those places!  But it was nice finding out that Orlando is a great place for birding, too.  You don't have to go to Orlando just for Disney.