Big Cats!

While Glenn was riding on The Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail, Jill went to see the cats at the Big Cat Rescue in Tampa. It is a 45 acre wildlife sanctuary that is home to 140 cats representing 16 species including lions, tigers, geoffroy cats, jungle cats, servals, caracals, snow leopards, bobcats, lynx and more. 

The Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail

The main reason we went to St. Petersburg was so that Glenn could ride his bicycle on the The Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail. The trail follows an old railroad right-of-way 34 miles from St. Petersburg on the south end to Tarpon Springs on the north. The KOA is located near milepost 8 on the south end.

On one day Glenn rode round trip on the south end.

  

On an other day, he rode all the way to Tarpon Springs, a distance of 28 miles. Jill picked him up in Tarpon Springs and they had dinner there. On the drive back to the coach, Jill couldn’t believe how far Glenn had ridden.

  

It is a great trail and a exhilarating ride.

St. Petersburg

We left Seffner for a very short drive across Tampa Bay to St. Petersburg. We parked at a KOA with a spot right on “Long Bayou” with water right behind the coach.

 

Less than a mile away is the Pinellas County War Veterans' Park on Boca Ciega 

A focal point of the park is the Memorial Center featuring five plaques and flags for each military branch of the US. In the middle is a very impressive equatorial sundial, The dial is made of granite and the gnomon is stainless steel. 

Country Coach Owners

At the Lazy Days RallyPark in Seffner Florida, we meet Peter & Carolyn. They are also full-timers and they also have a Country Coach Intrigue. And they also tow a Honda! Their coach was a little older than ours and it was fun visiting with them and seeing some of the improvements they had made to their coach. They had done some really clever things and gave us many good ideas.

Strawberry Shortcake

Plant City, Florida, about 10 miles east of Seffner, is the self-proclaimed “Winter Strawberry Capital of the World.” The annual strawberry festival is coming up next week, but we will not be here when it starts.

But no worry: January through April is Strawberry Shortcake time at the Parkesdale Farm Market! Their website claims that they are “the largest family-operated Strawberry & Citrus Market in Florida. Our strawberry farm harvests more than 3 million pounds of strawberries every year! Thousands of people visit our local Market each year for the sole purpose of tasting our world-famous strawberry shortcake.”

It seemed that many of the thousands were there yesterday when we visited, but they do seem prepared for the mobs.

The outdoor dining area under a ficus tree.


Jill seemed happy with the strawberry shortcake, but said that the cucumbers were the freshest that she had ever seen.


She also bought some strawberries to go.

By the way, Plant City is NOT named for the flora grown at plant nurseries in the area. It was named after railroad developer Henry B. Plant and his railroad, the “Plant System.”

Mel’s Hot Dogs

While exploring the internet for information about Hillsborough Army Airfield, we came across the website for Mel’s Hot Dogs. On the website, owner Mel Lohn, claims that Mel's Hot Dogs occupies the “last remaining structure from the WWII army air base Henderson Air Field.” Ignoring the fact that the Army Airfield was called Hillsborough – “Henderson” was the name of the short-lived civilian airport there in the fifties, there was no sign of anything aviation or military. Mel said that a long-ago renovation had reveled some evidence.



Notwithstanding any claims of the buildings origins, we did have to check out the hot dogs.


Here is Mel behind the counter. Mel serves Vienna Beef hot dogs from Chicago, the same brand Jill and Glenn served at their Ellis Cinema in Atlanta. Back in the ‘80s, they were the best that we could find. They probably still are.

Tampa and the Hillsborough Army Airfield

We left Orlando on Sunday afternoon, and headed west towards the Tampa Bay area. We had an appointment at Lazy Days RV in Seffner to get the rear air conditioner serviced. It was putting out heat when it was supposed to be cooling. Glenn (a graduate of the U.S. Navy Air Conditioning and Refrigeration School, Norfolk, Virginia, Class 7201) diagnosed the problem as a bad reversing valve solenoid, but had neither the tools, parts, ladder or inclination to climb on the roof to repair it. 

Lazy Days claims to be the “World's Largest Recreational Vehicles Dealer.” In addition to new and used RVs for sale and a large repair center, there is a large RV park (where we are staying), a Flying J Truck Stop, a Camping World RV (a parts, supplies and accessories store) and a Cracker Barrel Restaurant, all on the same property. 

On Monday we went out to explore the area. Our first destination was to look for remnants of the Hillsborough Army Airfield in Tampa. Hillsborough Army Airfield was built in 1943 as a training base and an auxiliary field for the larger MacDill Field, 15 miles away. Glenn’s father was commanding officer of Hillsborough in 1944. 

Previous research from the website Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields explained that a Busch Brewery (now torn down) had been built over a portion of the field and that Busch Gardens and Adventure Island (a water park) occupy an area to the south of the field. The Google Map satellite photo still shows remnants of the original runways. 

Armed with determination, a laptop computer with wireless internet access, and a GPS, we explored the area. Incredibly, over 60 years since it was a military base and over 50 years since it was last used as a civilian airport, remnants of the original runways still exist.

This is a picture of the southeast portion of the NW/SE runway. It was taken from a new apartment complex under construction (not shown on the Google image) on the east side of North McKinley Drive, looking southeast towards North Bougainvillea Avenue and Adventure Island. Busch Gardens security employees told us that it is used as an overflow parking lot during peak periods. 

We then headed for 6601 1/2 Navin Avenue in Tampa. This was where Glenn's parents lived during their time in Tampa. The “1/2” indicated that it was the apartment over the garage behind the house at 6601 Navin Avenue. Both the house, apartment and the garage are still there.

The apartment and garage with the house’s current owner.

Three miles north of downtown, this area is called Seminole Heights and is known for its early 20th century craftsman style bungalows. Considered Tampa’s first suburb, the area has been enjoying a renaissance. 

The Orlando HamCation

Thursday, February 12th, we said goodbye to Wauchula and headed north towards the Central Florida Fairgrounds in Orlando for the Orlando HamCation. There are exhibit areas for new equipment, areas with parts and electronic supplies and an outdoor flea market area with a variety of items ranging from used to just plain junk. 

We were parked just a few hundred feet from the exhibit halls. We were plugged into just enough electricity to keep our batteries charged, but were using our own tanks for water and sewerage.

Glenn with Eric Swartz, WA6HHQ, one of the founders of Elecraft in Aptos, California. Elecraft is one of a new generation of companies now building first-class ham radio gear in the USA, after years of Japanese companies dominating the market. Between them is an Elecraft K3 transceiver, arguably one of the most exciting new developments in ham radio in years. Or at least Glenn would argue that. He ordered one – he should get his in late March.

It didn’t take Glenn very long to figure out that he knew some of the same people that Eric had worked with in the early 1980’s. 

Glenn at the display of Yaesu handheld transceivers. Note Glenn's Yaesu VX-170 hanging from his belt! 

AC0NM is on the air!

Glenn's new Yaesu VX-170 showed up yesterday. It's a
2-meter handheld transceiver. His first contact was with Bruce, W2GBX, the owner of the SKP lot on which we are staying.

The Original Lipizzan Stallions of Austria

On Thursday February 5^th we went to see some horses in Myakka City. Not just any horses: Herrmanns' Royal Lipizzan Stallions.  These are the decedents of the horses General George Patton saved during World War II. Walt Disney made a movie about them called Miracle of the White Stallions.

Gabriela Herrmann, daughter of Col. Ottomar Herrmann, was the mistress of ceremonies.

The horses perform classical dressage movements. 

The Lipizzan Stallions are known for their "airs above the ground" maneuvers, originally intended for the battlefield. These require a great deal of hindquarter strength.

The grand finale.

After the show, the stables were open for up close and personal viewing.