Greenways A Joy!

We in Hillsborough County....at least in some areas....are blessed with a network of "Greenways".
This one is located in Town and Country and the pictures here are between Hanley Road and Webb Road. The trail actually continues on West to Sheldon, and then further.

The rest stops with benches and a quiet spot for reflection are a nice touch. I walk this one frequently. The trail is alongside this canal full of vegetation and birds. I used to see a small gator here, but have not for a couple of years.



The trail winds about a bit, and sometimes trees/bushes/plants are so thick you'd not know there are houses only about 100 to 200 feet from the trail.

Check on the Hillsborough County web site and you'll find maps of the 21 such greenways in the county. Enjoy them...

Duke

JerrySpeak Trips My N.C. Trigger!

While doing my usual morning scan of the TampaBLAB site I came across JerrySpeak and his bit on an anticipated May trip back to the Smokies.

Got me digging into my trove of Blue Ridge/Smokies pics that Duchess and I have collected.

This 1st shot was taken by The Duchess at a pullover on the Parkway. 4,000 feet below is a farm and farmland. Up closer mountain flowers in a shady opening by a cliff face.


Then there is this pic from the car window on the Parkway. We had seen this place several times, and I always like to think of it as someone's really nice retirement home overlooking a trout-laden lake!

Yum!

Duke

Pictures/Pictures - Cruise Ends!

Our final destination was Princess Cay...part of Aluthra. The place is actually man-made as the Princess folks have created a small place for beach fun and a Bar-b-q.
I took no pictures there.

This picture is our little party back ashore in Fort Lauderdale, awaiting our shuttle to the motorhome for the trip back to Tampa. Notice my Hard Rock jacket...bought in Hawaii a couple of years ago when son, Little Duke, won a trip for two to the Pro Bowl. We took the Duchess and his fiancee along with us as we enjoyed the island (Oahu) for five days.
Some comments about our trip. We have sailed twice now on Princess and once on Carnival. When I checked one of the rating systems on cruises they rated both Princess ships 4.5 out of 5 stars. Our Carnival ship rated 3.5 stars. The difference shows.

Princess has some really fine folk, and do a great job with food, etc.

We will be meeting this Saturday (tomorrow) to review our cruise together (the 10 of us) and then will begin hopefully planning our next excursion.

Meanwhile Duchess and I are looking a spending a week of timeshare at Grand Cayman Island to try their restaurants, etc.

I'll post some of the pics from the pro bowl trip in a few days. Beautiful place, Hawaii....just that long flight to get there.

Duke