Florida sunset! (Photo credit: Odalaigh)
It’s hard to believe that 6 weeks has come and almost gone drawing our south-east bus trip to a close. It’s felt long and momentary in its own paradoxical way. Funny how hindsight has that affect on you. On the one hand I feel like we’ve been gone forever, putting a hold on the scheduled routine of my life and its openings for spontaneity. Yet now as I reflect on where we’ve been and what we’ve done, it feels like just yesterday that we took off. What an odd phenomenon.
It’s been a while since my last post though it’s not for lack of trying. Twice I wrote pieces regarding my impressions about the snow birds who flock to Florida and the Disney utopian town of Celebration, and twice Word Press deleted the copy as I was trying to add pictures, moments later automatically saving the blank page as my draft. It irritated me enough to bite my nose to spite my face, say f*** it and go on with my evening without an entry. Now I’m “saving” along the way until they get that glitch (I assume it was “they”) resolved. I’m not a terribly patient person by nature. Can you tell?
Key West (Photo credit: GarySlinger)
We spent the bulk of our time in Florida – down the East coast and back up the Gulf side so I’ve had my fill of ocean and beach for now. I admit to enjoying the Gulf side more because of its greater feeling of space and residential sensibility. Plus there seems to be more than just palm trees to look at. I did love exploring the Everglades which wasn’t a surprise since National Parks rank high on my list of must sees.
The Keys were also fun – it’s a great past-time to bike the streets all over Key West – and frankly, all of Florida due to the flat terrain, though it’s the hills and forests that I love so much about the northern southeast of the country (is that an oxymoron? Northern Southeast?) Anyway – I’m referring to Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas.
My greatest impression of Florida is that it’s loaded with seniors, especially snow birds this time of year. License plates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, Wisconsin, Michigan and other states flood the campgrounds where these older citizens live out the winter months. One of the “RV resorts” in Venice was mostly a mobile home park which doubled as winter camp for its part-time residents. And their calendars get filled with activities like bingo, shuffle board, pot luck suppers and dance, coffee and pastry get togethers while they toodle around the place on adult tricycles and golf carts. It’s a sight for the un-itiated like me. Our campground in the Everglades was the setting for a wedding between two snowbirds celebrating their second anniversary wintering there together. The whole place was invited so I went too; it was a charming diversion while waiting for my laundry to finish drying! Here’s a taste of the wedding.
the groom waiting for his bride to arrive by golf cart
here she is!
The Orlando area was a surprise, very much like Pigeon Forge in my neck of the woods with its bumper to bumper traffic and kitschy stores trumpeting all sorts of cheap trinkets for tourists. The highlight for us was touring Celebration, Disney’s vision of a utopian residential village built around a town center. When I read about its development years ago I pictured row after row of colorful pseudo cheerful houses with picket fences, each looking exactly like its neighbor. Shame on me for not assuming they’d commission famed architects Michael Graves, Philip Johnson and Robert A.M. Stern among others to design key elements of this town. It was charming and I can appreciate its appeal.
town center
residential street in Celebration
Image via Wikipedia
But my favorite place wasn’t in Florida at all. It was Tybee Island in Georgia, just 16 miles east of Savannah on a wild piece of land resplendent with the natural growth of the region. I love its earthiness and understated homes and especially its zoning law of a maximum three-story structure.
Image via Wikipedia
That substantially limits hotels and keeps tourists at a minimum offering a lifestyle the residents can really enjoy. I’ll definitely be going back, may even check real estate prices.
Right now we sit in our wooded campsite at Stone Mountain Campground, about three hours from home. These two days will cap our winter adventure for the season. Tomorrow I’ll hike and bike and we’ll celebrate our last bus dinner with hot dogs and baked beans!
I‘m looking forward to going home just as I look forward to going away. I need both in my life. Both feed my soul.
See you at home.
How is your winter going?
actthreedotnet 
The View From My Bike
Posted in activity, bike riding, exercise, recreation, retirement, Uncategorized, tagged baby boomer, baby boomers, blogging, boomer women, boomers, commentary, Cycling, exercise, freshly pressed, life, new life experiences, observation, over 50, personal growth, recreation, self improvement, women over 50 on September 17, 2011| 3 Comments »
Image by Casey David via Flick
“just relax. take it all in. and live life until you burst at the seams.” Casey Taylor
Life’s perspective changes on a bicycle, especially after age 50 as I rediscover the joys of pedaling. It used to be my transportation as a kid, a way to see girlfriends who lived near by, or to the dreaded piano lessons (after a quick stop at the grocery to snatch the Tastykake 3 pack of chocolate cupcakes. They were my favorite and eased the pain of an hour of scales at Mrs. Heston’s house). I also rode my bike to the community pool down the street to see if the cute boy I adored was there that day.
Image via Wikipedia
But all that seemed to stop when I got my license because then I could drive to all those places (except the pool, now the cute boy I adored worked at the gas station a couple miles away).
There are wildflowers growing, creatures scurrying and children playing, each to their individual rhythms.
I started riding a bike, regularly, a little more than a year ago when I borrowed my sister-in-law’s up in Boston last summer. It’s the perfect town; all thruways accommodate cyclists. There are bike lanes on all the roads and a pathway that stretches along the Charles River on both the Boston and Cambridge sides. Because the area is flat just about everywhere, it’s a rider’s paradise. Taking my bike out was as easy as going out the back door and down the Mass Ave bridge ramp onto the esplanade. I was hooked.
Image via Wikipedia
In Tennessee I hook the bike to the back of my car and then take off to a number of greenways nearby. And those I discovered because I had to find places to ride, away from the roads and steep hills in my neighborhood. It offers a wonderful form of exercise and opportunities to be with friends. Knoxville looks like a completely different city from the seat of a bicycle.
But the best part of all?
All of it. Riding my bike makes me happy. Seeing people and creatures live life reminds me what living is all about. That we all have a finite number of years in this human form, and one shot at it. I don’t want to “wish I had.” I want to do.
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