Fred Howard Park

We were all to meet at Panera Bread at 6:30 AM. Forget getting a bagel for the road. They don't open until 7:00 AM. But we were still in the parking lot at 7:00. Mayra had to rush home and retrieve her camera. It seems Deb showed up at Mayra's at 5:30 AM.

We hit the road shortly at 7:00 for Tarpon Springs. Driving through downtown Clearwater I got the creeps. There were men and women walking the streets, wearing white shirts and black pants. I kept thinking about the Charleton Heston movie Omega Man. It was about a group of people that all dressed a like, and could only come out at night, because radiation poising made the sun their enemy.

Fred Howard Park has 2.5 miles of marked kayak trail. Deb, Linda, and Mayra decided they had had enough and headed in to St. Joseph Sound. (only one person can paddle throught the mangrove tunnels, and it seems both wanted to paddle. Which caused them to row into the mangroves. Linda didn't like the idea of fiddler crabs in the canoe.)

It was a really overcast day. The weather was the right temparature to be on the water, but the over cast sky caused nothing but trouble with my autofocus. I had noticed the camera's limitations when I was in Washington State, but I had thought it was me. It was a brand new camera back then. After today, I've come to the conclusion it doesn't focuw well with grey skies.

While trying to capture a picture of a Belted Kingfisher, I caught a picture of a Wood-Stork in flight. There weren't a lot of animails or birds. I thought early in the morniing on a cool days we would have seen more wild life.

I'll continue tomorrow. I can hardly keep my eyes open. Linda drank 1/2 case of beer Saturday, and her snoring was louder than my table saw. I need sleep