Looking back at 2019...Part #6a October in Florida..

Got a call from my youngest sister sometime in the Summer, asking if I would mind coming down to Naples and watching their house, dogs, aging cat, and birds, while they headed over the pond to Denmark, the homeland of her husband "Denmark Michael" ...Mike is a world class chef and now  runs the cathering and kitchen staff at the Naples Yacht Club on the Gulf Inlet..they would be gone for about 2 weeks, "Well Hell" I thought, I could take the Jeep down, see some old friends, and make at least 3 weeks of it.

October 2019 in South Florida was hot and humid...well above average, for even that tropical setting...

I left Patricia with the house, cats, dog, and her own freedom for most of the month...Heading out on October 9th, a bright and sunny day in western Ohio...The trip started out on US 127 out of Celina and I stayed on that rural road until hooking up with I-75 just north of Cincinnati.

I planned to stay on the interstate until I got north of Atlanta...then I would revert to back roads...that all changed when I stopped for the night at Athens, Tennessee...stopping at a Hampton Inn, I grabbed supper, and as I was walking back to the motel, I glanced at the Jeep and noticed a leak on the passenger side of the real axle.  Contacted a old RV Driving Buddy of mine from Michigan, who now lives in Sebring, Florida...he told me that is was likely a broken seal, which would need looked at, but I could make it to Naples with no problem, then have it checked out...just for safety and convenience sake, I decided to stay on I-75 until I reached Gainesville, where I would take to the back road to Homosassa, when I would deposit a portion of my late brother Mike's ashes.  Mike lived on the water in that Gulf Coast Florida city from 1995 until he came back to Celina in 2007...I would deposit a portion of him in the water at Homosassa, another bit off the Jetties at our old hometown of Venice, and the rest off the dock at sister and bro~in~law's dock at Naples.  Mike loved Florida and the water...so I, with blessings from his daughters, decided that those were the proper places for his remains.  I made it a few miles inside Florida on day #2 and again stopped for the night at a cheap motel, Hell I didn't want to own the place, just have a few beers, watch the baseball playoffs, and get a good night's sleep...this place took care of all 3.  I was up early the next morning, drove to Gainesville and cut across to Homosassa...stopping to snap a photo north of town, along the Crystal River of "Follow that Dream" Parkway, where Elvis and Company shot that movie back when we were still living in Florida, around 1962.  Then on to the Manatee Pub, where Mike used to be the "Mayor"...the guys were drinking beers at the ripe old hour of 10am, I introduced Mike's remains to them, which was still the gang he had drank with in his living days.  I deposited 1/3rd of his remains and headed off to Venice...heading back east and picking up I-75 north of St Pete and Tampa.

Realizing this is going to take me much more than 1 day...at least 3, I will mark it from Part #6a and beyond from there.  Won't be able to finish 3 weeks of Florida and photos in one or two parts.

More photos from the early trip...(1)  South Jetty at Venice...spent many a day fishing off this and the Nokomis North Jetty.  {2}  Heron flying over the Gulf of Mexico off the Jetties...(3) My buddy John Langley, originally from the Northeast, who has made his home in Venice for several decades, not far from our old house …(4) Our place on the Corner of School Street and Pineland Avenue in Venice's Edgewood Section, we lived there from 1958 through 1962....the first real house that mom and dad owned, mom finally sold it in 1980.  (5)  Walking along the South Jetty...the fishing is not nearly what it was back in the 50s and 60s...sad!