Sunday, July 01, 2012

Upper Tampa Bay Park

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 89, low 73)

We got up, and out the door early yesterday morning.  The county was offering free shredding of important paperwork, .  We felt it was a good time to get rid of some old tax records.  

It was efficient and very fast….maybe a little too fast.  We drove up to the designated place and before we knew it someone was opening the car, pulling out stuff!  

Hey….leave my stuff alone!!!

You full timers out there know that our cars are used as “garages” and are usually full of important stuff!

It’s a good thing there wasn’t anything valuable in the back seat of the Honda,  or it would have been gone.  I wasn’t real happy about that, but I guess they were trying to get a lot of people through the line in a hurry. 

The local tv stations were there and were filming as Al jumped out of the car to rescue any valuables we didn’t want shredded.  I had the door open and probably had a look of terror on my face as they started yanking stuff out of the car the minute we stopped.

We watched the news last night and fortunately didn’t see ourselves….but we did see our stuff!   We recognized the big green tub we brought!   The rest of the footage is likely on the cutting room floor.

 

After the shredding project, we decided to head down to the Upper Tampa Bay Park.   It’s a nice park on Tampa Bay.

Upper Tampa bay Park

We had been there years ago, but  it’s changed a lot since then.

The local residents of this area fought a long, hard battle to keep progress from the beautiful wetland area.  It appears they lost, as this is what we saw on the road leading to the park.

big hole in the ground by upper tampa bay park

This is a huge hole in the ground.  We think maybe an apartment complex is being built.  It used to be a beautiful tree filled area, full of wildlife.  I wonder what happened to all the animals?

They have made a lot of improvements to the park since we were there last, adding trails, kayak  launch, picnic areas and a nature center.

Along the main road I spotted something interesting.

The bird house looked strange.

Bird house full of Honey Bees at Upper Tampa Bay Park

Once we got closer and checked it out, we found it was full of Honeybees.

Bird house full of Honey Bees at Upper Tampa Bay Park

I hope there were no baby birds inside when they started to build this hive.

Bird house full of Honey Bees at Upper Tampa Bay Park

Al (the bug man) warned me to be careful photographing this hive because they could be “Africanized” and dangerous.   They didn’t seem bothered by me, and of course I used my “stalker” zoom to capture the close ups.  Many people don’t like bees, but they are a very important part of food growth.

It was pretty interesting.

We did a short hike on the Eagle Trail.

nature trail at upper tampa bay park

You can’t go too far because it ends here.

nature trail at upper tampa bay park

There were a few small boats out fishing in the bay water.

There is a nice kayak launch also.

canoe launch at upper tampa bay park

There are nice mangroves for fishing, but you really have to watch the mosquitos.

canoe launch at upper tampa bay park

We visited the Nature center where you could learn a lot about the area.  There were some aquariums there with all sorts of local marine life.

We have seen all these things a million times, so it wasn’t of too much interest to us, but it was a very nice center.

On the way home, we passed by this beautiful large house.  In the driveway was this truck.

I saw it…and didn’t believe what I saw, so I made Al back up so that I could get a picture.

Here is what what I saw on the truck sitting in the driveway of this extremely nice house.

I guess business is good.

 

IMG_3879

Kind of tacky, huh?

We went back home and were lazy the rest of the day.  About 7:30 last night he gets a call from a very good customer, and friend.  It seems his elderly mother claimed she had “clumps” of fleas all over her house.   So……off we went to spray her house.     I went with him to keep him company.    He wasn’t in the best mood having to do this, but she is elderly and fortunately doesn’t live too far away.    grrrrr.   He didn’t see any fleas.

The good thing, is the granddaughter Jaime, gave us a dozen fresh eggs from her chickens.  A few of them are a light green!

I finally got some photos of the campground and I’ll try to get them posted tomorrow. 

9 comments:

  1. I'm glad you guys took care of that older lady even if there weren't any fleas. I bet it made her feel a whole lot better. Wish the government could be as efficient as your shredders.

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  2. I wonder if he drives around refilling vending machines, or if he IS the CondomStop? Like wearing a badge that says "Ask Me About Condoms!"

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  3. Now you can have green eggs and ham! :)

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  4. Good thing you weren't wearing any loose clothing around that shredder, the way they were moving things along so fast you might have really made the TV news, for the wrong reason! ;c)

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  5. I am sure that poor lady was thrilled that you helped her out!

    Tacky...very!

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  6. Nice looking park. I wonder if they drive that truck to church:)

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  7. Wow I'd have been horrified if someone started taking all our stuff out of the back seat of the car. It's our boat and hiking house with lots of our equipment. Sure glad you saved your "stuff". :-)

    Sorry I missed you this afternoon. I came by about 8:15 or so and knocked a couple of times but no one answered. Will catch you maybe Tuesday. Monday is another doctor day for us. :-((

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  8. What a cool kayad launch. Glad you are able to get out and about now in better weather.

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  9. Yup, we been shredding stuff left and right before we give away the shredder to one of the kids at the end of the month. Hope to keep ahead of the paper clutter in the RV and burn things in campfires as we go. Might make a "burnable" tote to put things in daily. hmmmmm

    Love the condom truck, if anything it might remind people to USE them?

    We are still debating on what items to store in the Tracker toad as a "garage" when being towed. So far just the table loom can rest out there in the back of the Tracker if we have visiting company or grandkids bunking out in the livingroom area?

    I am sure we will find other things to fill it up over time!

    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
    Karen and Steve
    (Our Blog) RVing: Small House... BIG Backyard
    http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com

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