Last Day

More Florida?  Yup.  I mean come on, there’s not really that much going on here anyway, and you have nothing better to read while sitting on the toilet.

Continuing on…

Lunchbox and I had a great ride in Lakeland.  Critters, good trails, and beautiful weather made it an awesome day.  That ride was only a small stop on our journey though.  That day consisted of taking the tuxedos back to the rental place, riding, and a long trip back across the state to go to my home town.  I’d been through there recently, but this time we got the invite to stay a while from my pal Eric.

I stopped by to see my aunt and uncle first, then we headed out to a local watering hole.  The beer selection was quite terrible, but luckily Eric had some good stuff at his house.  Speaking of good stuff at his house, he has some neat-o decorations.  We grew up skateboarding together, and he still had one of my old skateboards in his collection that I left with him a few years back.

He was gracious enough to let me and Lunchbox spend the night there, so we figured that the next morning we’d do a little exploring before we headed back home to North Carolina.  So much has changed with that little town, but we were able to find a few familiar things.

Like my favorite fishing spot:

My childhood home has been completely remodeled.  I barely recognized it.

There are still plenty of interesting characters around town though, like this fine gentleman hanging out with his bird friends down by the lake.

Oh yeah, we saw some more critters:

We stopped by Gatorland to visit with my brother.  He works there, and he’s not a critter. 

It was really good to see him, especially since I got to see our older brother out in Vegas last fall.  Gatorland was fun too, but they had a lot of rules.

And yeah, even though I’ve been to that place more than I can count, I did the tourist thing for the first time ever. 

A trip down memory lane was an unexpected part of our trip, but it was actually pretty nice.  I saw some family, some friends, and remembered both why I loved living down there and why I left seven years ago.  I’ll be back down there soon, but only for a visit.

Sorry North Carolina, you’re stuck with me for a while.

Tomorrow: 

Not Florida stuff.