I SPENT THE WEEK AT MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE!

Our last family trip to Tampa, Florida was spent at MacDill Air Force Base right on Tampa Bay. Two years in a row now we have hung our family vacation hats there. It is beautiful and sad to leave knowing that we may never be able to step foot on that base again, depending on where the Harley Family (Our Naval Roots) move to in the future.

Just imagine a running path made of chipped tires situated next to the Bay with a gentle breeze floating through your hair, as the sweat beads drip into your underwear and the sand sticks to your tennis shoes, flicking itself up with a splattering wetness on to your exposed calves.

Tampa's skyline situates itself directly across from where it is I run. The clouds are a lilting baby blue, the sky a steely color of awesomeness all directly residing over the light waves of the sandy bottomed Bay.

Their house had a screened in porch that let you gaze day and night at the leaping Sturgeon and flocks of Egrets as they did what they do daily, live contently in the Bay, and apparently piss off boaters according to this Tampa Bay Times Article.
http://www.tampabay.com/sports/outdoors/leaping-sturgeon-a-growing-threat-to-boaters-on-suwannee/1229086

If ever you get the chance to spend the day at MacDill Air Force Base, TAKE IT! And be grateful because many never get the chance to see the world from behind those military gates.

I know how lucky I am.

SQUIRREL REFUGE? Huh...

To buy a squirrel one must deal with an exotic pet dealer...

Courtesy of Squirrel Refuge:
"It’s rare for most species of squirrel to breed in captivity. Your Prairie Dog was very likely vacuumed out of his natal nest, literally riped from its mother’s bosom and torn from the life it would have had in the wild. For every squirrel or prairie dog that lands in the hands of an exotic pet dealer, countless others lost their lives in the collection, transport and sale process. Many do not find themselves in good homes or prove to be more work than their owner anticipated.

The worst fate possible for one of these is to be unloved and/or cast out in the wild. Remember for these pets, release in the wild doesn’t make them free - it makes them dead! Please contact Squirrel Refuge if you need to re-home your pet for ANY reason."

Squirrel Refuge?! Well here is the site for anyone dealing with a...um, squirrel as pet related issue.
http://squirrelrefuge.org/squirrel_refuge_web_site_036.htm

Okay. What about a llama? GOAT! PYGMY GOAT!

Side Note of Awesomeness

My boyfriend won me a giant stuffed elephant on the first toss at Busch Gardens, Tampa!

I named the elephant Baby Elliot.

He wore a diaper.

It was a hot day.

20 minutes later Baby Elliot found his way to a new family with a convenient stroller for easy carry.

Live well and prosper Baby Elliot.

"No One Makes Me Bleed My Own Blood!"

After a trip there is always a day of staring. Whether I want to stare or not, that is exactly what happens and happened.

Yesterday I stared at Family Ties (never realized how Hippie-related the show was), my tables while serving them (probably thought me creepy), a tree, the cats, my hand for some reason, my plant Marcus Welby, collages I've recently finished, the freeway blankly, rain (cause that's all it did) and finally, the back of my eyelids.

Today, I bought groceries! It would make me groan normally because it's always expensive BUT I haven't reeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaally bought groceries since, well, January?

"Why?!" you ask, surprised.

Because I've been living the life on the road. Most of the food consumed consisted of Beef Jerky, mini "fake" pizzas, cheese and beef sticks, Cheddar Bunnies and whatever my boyfriend fed me.

I love travel but I also need time to refocus my career, regroup finances and recapture my brain cells so I can write the next book and the book after that and so forth. (Hint, Hint-Anyone check my book out lately?)

My hiatus is never long even when it's planned to be long, but there will be a break from large travels until October...so far. 

Never fear, I will not be sedentary in my blog writing, I have so many stories built up from the last 6 months about my travels it will make your eyes bleed...!

"No one makes me bleed my own blood!" Dodgeball

Fine, how about it will make your eyes water from laughter or...allergies!

Peace Yo!

DON'T SHOOT THE SQUIRREL, I need a pet.

Time to go back.

Time to go home.

Or something like that.

But I'm okay.

With the "like that."

I'm kinda happy with the going home.

Which is novel. It is new. To be happy or at least kinda with returning from a trip. I tend to not want it to end or at least not board the plane that takes me back to where I once flew from.

The last time I left Tampa, I almost landed in Prague.

But today I wouldn't want to land in Prague when flying out tomorrow. Not never. Just not tomorrow.

And it wasn't a change in the trip that has moved my mind set. It was the same type of wonderful Tampa Bay trip that I experienced last September. The activities differed but the warm feelings are the same.

This time we Disney'd and danced or at least I did prance through Floridian hot as sh** weather (every day mind you) wearing a mostly almost total smile that was induced by relaxation and at one point a 34" pure sugar bong that all parks sell to keep children high and 2 iced coffees to keep the parents flying with them.

I Busched the Garden today surrounded by the beauty that is Safari animals. My chest puffed to the gorillas, my heart went to the tigers, and my laughter spilled to the twists, turns, ups, downs, and all arounds of the wild rides.

A Lakeland tour with Wright's amazing architectural sights, run-walk-lunges were not forgotten to a vacation mind-lost, relationships and families were bonded, and a Grandma, my Grandma, celebrated her birthday today with happy tears, presents only she would love, and an extra, extra chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. (She is a pretty wonderful Grandma I might add.)

At this time, it's the final night as I sit on a white wicker chair, in a beautiful screened in porch, listening to wind, thunder and the Tampa Bay waves, with a Dan sprawled nearby enjoying all the things to enjoy with me as I write this post.

I am thinking...

Gosh this is wonderful. I smell salt and campfire in the air. The wind and waves lull to a serene backdrop of what a life when you just breathe, just smile, just pause, must be like.

I am happy for that. For this moment. For the "now" that I feel.

And that "now" just last September would've spiraled me to bust to somewhere else, anywhere else than was where I had to go back to. Heck, that is exactly how I ended up in Chile.

But...

My happy heart lies deep in a place that resides where I shall return tomorrow. There, is where I want to be.

So I'll take the sweet "now" and tuck it in a memory that keeps the other "nows" that suck donkey you know what, from being such, well, suckers (to put it kindly). They are a balancing act for each other. Besides, the "nows" that suck have been reduced greatly in size since I let my heart lie, like a puddle in the place that it resides...right now, next to me, but tomorrow, where I shall return on the morrow.

Entiendo? Gnome saying? Comprende?

PS-I need to look up the logistics of owning a squirrel...or something squirrel-like...maybe an owl...a small owl...like a stunted owl that can't harm small dogs...or my squirrel...supposing that I already had the squirrel (if legal I guess)...and then decided, hmm, I want a stunted owl.

PPS-Sea otters rock.

PPPS-Now what I don't understand is that we can shoot squirrels and eat them but I can't have one as a pet? And I'm not talking about chinchillas cause those suckers are mean. I know. First hand. MEAN. But I met a nice squirrel today named Ralph...and so I wonder.

A DINGO ATE MY BABY!

Okay! A plan is being hatched.

Next big trip for 2013 is...

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!

Grab the tambourine.

Shake it.

SHAKE IT!

Are you really shaking it? Like that's your shaking?

Meh. I've seen stronger, faster, more feverish shaking.

Gnome saying?

BRING ON THE HORNS!

The old-style trumpets from the medieval days where the trumpeters would have an aneurysm by the age of 30 (but their lives were ones of luxury.)

Where is the Saki?!

Saki? Why Saki?

With a sushi roll, a GREAT WALL NEARBY, a kangaroo country just a smidgen down under, a house on the Marine Corp Base of Camp Courtney, Shuri Castle and Gusuku Ruins.


Domo arigato, MR. ROBOTO...

A 16 hour flight or 38 days of driving according to I-Phone Maps (course they had us on a kayak but hey.) 

Konnichiha, Okinawa, Japan!

Schneaky Peeps!

You know you are (not a redneck) working on your resume cover letter when you ask your family for help and each family member slowly disappears from the room one by one.

Schneaky peeps.