Two weeks in zolfo springs

Now that time at SKP Resort is drawing to a close, I would like to summarize the "highlights" of our stay here. It seems as though I did very little in the last two weeks except ride and lay around the pool.

Late afternoon at the pool.

High noon at the pool.

Mike at the pool!

 Weather has been great and our tans are coming back. Pam aerobicsized in the pool (every morning for over an hour, thank you very much!) and I rode about 400miles over the area in different loops, trying to never cover the same course twice. My longest was 71 miles, and shortest was about 32. I had one flat, which I patched, and the valve went bad, so after riding 20 miles practically flat, I stopped and changed out the tube. I know better than to patch a tube., I always just pitch a flat tube and put a new one in, but I tried the patch. I have noticed that the tubes with Slime are prone to have the valves leak, so I may not buy them any more.
I rode through towns with names like Frostproof, Fort Meade,Ona, and Arcadia. I saw one alligator, and startled a lot of cattle. It seems a cow will stand near the road and the tractor trailers that fly by don't faze them. When I go by, however, these cows really get startled. I stampeded about five herds of cattle as I went by them and watched them run like hell. Sometimes a cow would hear me and snap its head around, and I wouldn't have been surprised to see it have a heart attack and drop over! But it hasn't happened yet.
As I traveled the back roads, I have had no traffic problems, but I had a multitude of dogs come out to the road and give me a run. I have outrun each of them, some easier than others. I carry a car antenna, taped to my bike, in case I fear the worst, then I can whack him in the head. I haven't had to do that yet. There was one dog though,that I couldn't outrun, even though I got up to 23 mph. I was impressed. I knew that he was working harder than me , and wouldn't be able to bite, so I took no drastic measures. There was another dog that came flying out of his yard and tripped over a ditch and did a total spin, crash and burn. I've never seen a dog wreck before!
We took a day and drove to Cape Canaveral and watched an Atlas V rocket launch. Now that was cool! We actually watched it take off, but we were inside a tour bus about one minute from the area we were trying to get to, to watch the event. Even though we couldn't disembark, the thunderous vibrations we felt were awesome, and we were five miles away from the launch pad!

After the launch, this is the steam left behind!  At lift off, tons of water are dropped to dampen the sound.  Without the dampening, the sound could kill people and wild life!

This is the launch pad after the rocket launched.

This is another launch pad with a rocket.  It's launch should be this weekend if all goes well.

Pam participated in a craft sale, making Christmas wreaths and decorations out of pine cones. Sales didn't go so well and she was disappointed, but we have a lot of Christmas decorations now. She also put outdoor lights around a dead tree on our lot, so we are ALL decorated up! To make up for the lack of sales, she took up bingo and won $40.00!

My table at the craft show.  Unfortunately there were very few attending and there were very few sales.  The only person successful was the lady who made cookies!  She sold out!  Go figure....

Our outdoor Christmas tree!