Possums on the half shell


When people discover that my home is in southwest Florida, they
assume it is sunshine, palm trees and beach living. The first two
are correct; there is abundant sunshine and palm trees, but the
closest beach is in Ft. Myers, which is about an hour to the
west. While having spent the majority of my life in Indiana,
and the last three years in China, my home in Turkey Creek is
another one of many life's transitions.

For starters, I have BIG alligators in my backyard!

Turkey Creek is a small community of mostly retirees and
snowbirds; a community of boaters as well.  It is situated next
to the Ortona Lock on the Calloosahatchee River. I have ocean
access to the Gulf of Mexico to my west, or the Atlantic Ocean
to my east, so it is the perfect location for Kantiya, my Irwin
38' MKII, to call 'home'.  If I could just get the home renovations
completed, the boat projects completed, and no longer have
to work for a living, life would be GRAND :)
But, that is life.

There will always be items on the to-do list.

And quite frankly, it will never all be 'to-done'.

I suppose when that day comes, the good Lord will be calling me home.

So, in the meantime, I am choosing to savor the moments. To look on the bright side. To remain hopeful. To choose happy.

And to enjoy the 'something new' experiences in each and every day...because as Grandma always said, "You only get one go around."  The truth is, every moment, of every day is 'something new'. I am intent on practicing mindfulness in 2018.

When I opened up the Calloosa Belle, our town's weekly newspaper, I saw that the weekend marked the annual Swamp Cabbage Festival.  My students were all a-chitter about the Swamp Cabbage Festival throughout the week.  Apparently this little community pulls out all the stops for a big to-do.  It sounded a bit like the Middletown Lion's Club Fair Week back home in Indiana, so naturally I had to check it out.

When I learned there was going to be swamp cabbage fritters
and gator tail, there was no turning back- time for an adventure!
The morning began with a car show...so small town 'merica :)

While this jacked up truck caught my eye,
I was more interested in the sailboats at the dock!

Next up was the Swamp Cabbage parade.  No parade is
complete without a Swamp Cabbage Queen...

...or a marching band. There were four in all.
They made me smile; being the band geek that I am.
I had to do a double take- this was the Raider Band!
This being a largely Latino community, there were
horses and cowboys (caballos y vaqueros), too. 

They made the horses prance and dance!
Tonight is the big rodeo at the fairgrounds.


Just like in Middletown, there were fire trucks and tractors-
lots of John Deere tractors.  I like rural south Florida. I am
surrounded by sugar cane fields, orange groves, and cattle...
tons and tons of cattle of every size, shape, and breed.
Travel on the country roads are slowed by white school
buses, filled with migrant workers heading to and from the
fields.  It's like living in Indiana, only different :)
This little cutey patootie shyly threw me
a piece of bubble gum. Adorbs.

The one requirement of all the floats was that
they must contain palm fronds...lots and lots
of palm fronds.  All of the booths in the festival
were lined with palm fronds, too.

I got tearful when I saw these two little girls
riding together on their four wheeler. In light
of the school shooting in Parkland, FL, late
last week, it warmed my heart to see love
and friendship without boundaries.
#loveoneanother #theworldneedsmorelove
And the weepiness continued as the next float passed by.
It was filled with little girls in their dance costumes, on a
float that resembled a circus train.  They were rocking it
out, dancing and singing at the top of their lungs to Katy
Perry's "Roar"....you held me down, but I got up, get
ready 'cause I've had enough...I've got the eye of the tiger,
a fighter, dancing through the fire...you're gonna hear me roar.
#metoo

In that moment of tearful reflection on the state of our contemporary society, my tears turned to laughter as the Stool Bus passed by me next. The AAA Advanced Septic Solutions, Inc.,
cracked me up!!!  Look at the huge poo emoji balloon tied to the "Stool Bus"!!!

Freakin' hilarious!!! Cracked my a$$ up :)))

Since this was the Swamp Cabbage Festival, there were
swamp buggies...I was not in Middletown anymore!

Lots and lots of swamp buggies...it's a 'thing' down here.

In fact, this swamp buggy was announcing a swamp buggy
race happening in a nearby county next weekend.
Maybe it's like a tractor pull...only different.

By far the coolest thing in the parade was the
Budweiser wagon being pulled by a team of Clydesdales!

After the parade, I wandered over to the armadillo
races. Since I have never been to an armadillo race,
I was ALL IN!  I laid my $3.00 bet on Little Richard.
Man are they ever ugly up close!
When the armadillos came charging out of the gate, (not),
the announcer was hilarious calling the race of 'possums
on the half shell'!  I was DYING. Little Richard was, too.
The dern armadillo came in DEAD LAST. No free Tshirt
for me.  I really wanted an armadillo race Tshirt, dang it!



Next up I had to see what all the fuss was about over gator
bites and swamp cabbage fritters.  I took my lunch over to
the amphitheater in the park and watched the cloggers dance. 

As I wandered through the booths of Lemon shake ups,
elephant ears, shaved ice, pork bbq, soul food and sweet
tea, I came upon this little fella from a wildlife refuge.
He was a little baby otter, and he squeaked!
I wanted to hold him, so, so, bad.

The sheriff came riding in on a horse to the park, then opened
the weekend's festivities with a beautiful rendition of the
Star Spangled Banner.  After that, the crowd all said the Pledge
of Allegiance.  I got weepy for the second time today.
After I had my fill of homemade ice cream,
signed up to win a cruise, met some nice ladies
from the Lutheran Church in town, and chatted
with some of my students, I was sunburnt,
foot sore, and ready to head for home.  I think
I'll pass on the rodeo tonight.  As I crossed the
bridge to head back to the car, I saw this guy
flying over head.  He had the right idea, to
get a bird's eye view of over 10k festival goers
all crowded in to Barron Park. I'll remember
this ride on my next go around!

G'nite, y'all!

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