February 24-March 2, 2014 Arcadia Florida

First I have to say that if you read the previous two posts, you may have noticed they were a little different from my normal posts.  More photos, less words and information. This is because I was practicing doing my blog on my tablet.  It has its own set of challenges, but I need to master it as I won’t have a laptop on our coast to coast motorcycle trip in July.  If I can’t get it working better, then I may have to document the trip on Facebook on a daily basis and then do a huge blog post once we are home. I’ll keep working on it. ;-)  For now, back to this trip!!

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On Monday we moved southeast to Arcadia.  It was one of those days full of errands; shopping, a haircut and a stop at a post office.  We didn’t get to Little Willies RV Park until after 4 o’clock, although we only drove 143 miles. 

We got up early Tuesday and rode our motorcycles a few miles away to Canoe Outpost where we rented kayaks.  They took us by bus 8 miles upriver to the put-in at Brownville Park on the Peace River.

 The Peace River is another black water river, which was kind of scary.  After all, we are low in the water in kayaks and this river has alligators! And we couldn't see anything in the water!

 

Wayne took off first, but I soon passed him and headed downstream. It was a very pleasant way to spend the day.

 The critter count was 12 alligators and about 500 turtles, or so it seemed. We got quite close to a couple of big gators, at least until one entered the water and Wayne decided to paddle away, fast!

 About halfway back to the Outpost is a stretch of riverbank they own.  As renters of their kayaks we could stop and have lunch at one of their picnic tables

All too soon we were going under the train trestle just 10 minutes from the end of our day. I found I really like kayaking, I think I’d like to get one someday soon.

We spent Wednesday and Thursday working around the ‘house’, but on Friday we got the bikes back out and went for a short ride. 

 We went to Solomon’s Castle. This structure was built entirely by the hands of the artist, Howard Solomon, internationally known sculptor.  The exterior is made of the printing plates discarded by the local weekly newspaper. There are more than 80 interpretations of stained glass windows throughout Solomon's Castle.

 As all good castles it has a formal gate. Within the castle are the family's living quarters, a stained glass studio, a main entrance hall, and the extensive galleries, exhibiting Solomon's "found object" sculptures.

 

 

This is “The Fish That Got Away”

His art is made of used items.  This is out of coat hangers 

 

He has reproduced other artists works in wood. This was originally by Norman Rockwell.

 

This is Samsonite; he’s made of old luggage

This is a self-portrait of the artist.  He was actually there working and this does really look like him. 

More of the castle, the stained glass windows are the 9 planets 

Here is “The Fence” 

Howard also built a boat, because he had a moat to put it in 

On the way home we ended up having to turn around a couple of times, due to roads going into private property.  When we stopped here we found this armadillo.  He was pretty cute, rooting around with his snoot, looking for grubs and bugs.  Then he spent a minute furiously scratching his ears on a branch.  He had us laughing out loud. 

We were told that if you had a body of water bigger than a bath tub, you probably would have gators at some point.  This one and his buddy, who entered the water while I got my camera out, were sunning themselves on the edge of this very small pond next to the road.

On Saturday we rode 128 miles, going southwest to Port Charlotte, and then followed the Myakka River to Snook Haven Restaurant.

We had been told to go here, but we were under impressed.  The best thing about it was the charity event for Veterans that a local motorcycle club was putting on.  The worst was the service at the restaurant.  We waited half an hour for food that was barely warm and not all that great. 

It was a nice location along the river

We left Snook Haven and went to Venice Beach, or at least we tried.  Once again it worked out that we were going to the beach on a weekend, and so was everyone else.  Plus they closed the middle of town for a huge festival. So we took a right and headed to Myakka River State Park.  It is one of Florida's largest State Parks.

We went into the park and up to Myakka Lake, and then around the park. We had read that there were many miles of dirt roads, but they turned out to be non-motorized only.  So we went to the Canopy Walk to check that out.

 The walkway is suspended 25 feet above the ground and extends 100 feet through the hammock canopy. The term hammock is used in the southeastern United States for stands of trees, usually hardwood, that form an ecological island in a contrasting ecosystem.

 We had to climb to the top to see the view

 The second tower is 74’ in the air and has a spectacular view of treetops, wetlands and the prairie/hammock intersection.

The view looking down

We continued on our way back to Arcadia. We needed to get ready to move, Sunday would be move day.  We had stayed at Little Willies for 7 days, it was time to start north, to get closer to Daytona Beach and our ultimate excuse for this trip, Bike Week!!!