Bro Beer; Broadway Songs; BJ; Myakka River; Spoonbills, Gators and Vultures? Two Spiritual Communities

This week my brothers-in-law Brent and Allan were playing the championship course at Amelia, whose #2 fairway is behind our house. Allan, who is visiting from West Chester, PA, had texted me that they would be in our vicinity about 1340 (1:40 PM) for a beer break. Brent, who lives here in The Villages, hit his tee shot at our house on purpose, because he had been driving his shots to the right, and aiming left should have brought the ball into the center of the fairway. Alas, his tee shot went as straight as an arrow into some tall grass behind our next-door neighbor's house. For some reason he didn't want to reach under the thick grass looking for his ball... something about snakes... As they drove up, I proffered two frosty Coronas, which were happily accepted.







Allan's tee shot went into the bunker right behind our house, so he was safe from nasty, biting wiggly creatures. After a brief but fruitless search for Brent's errant Titleist, Allan proceeded to set up with his sand wedge. In this photo, his form looks pretty good, but did he make the shot or just spray sand all over the place?












Well, it looks like Allan's happy with his shot, and he even made par on this hole, probably due to the relaxing effects of the Corona.















Suzanne's lovely sister Janice is a marketing director at an assisted living facility in Wilmington, Delaware, but she has another passion: singing. And she is really, really good! She performed at Mission Hills on her last trip here, and she was invited back, so on Monday afternoon we drove over to hear her sing a set of Broadway musical songs from big hits like Cats and Chorus Line and other shows.













It was a great performance, and much appreciated by the residents. Janice was asked to return any time she's back in the area.

I recently met an interesting FedEx driver who was dropping off a package at our house. "BJ" is a father of three who used to be a welder and travelled a lot, but changed careers to spend more time with his family. We talked about our motor coach, which was out front when he came by. One of his relatives is about to retire from the military and travel around in his RV. "BJ" is thinking that he needs one like it to attend his kids' football games when they get to college. He is a hard working, personable guy, and I am sure that all his plans will work out just fine. See you on the road, "BJ"!





We spent the past three days making a trip down to Sarasota for Suzanne to give two presentations. But first we had to find a place to stay. We selected Myakka River State Park, a lush, semi-tropical paradise with large camping sites, beautiful palm and oak forests, a slow-moving river, and lots of wildlife. Alligators and many species of birds were everywhere, but especially impressive was a group of roseate spoonbills (Platalela ajaja). This lovely bird's color results from its diet -  crustaceans, frogs, newts and small fish.









I decided not to go swimming here. Someone else had this stretch of water reserved, and I didn't want to be on his dinner menu...

My favorite critter was this little frog, only a couple of inches long, that I met sitting on the rail of the restroom facility. (The frog was sitting on the rail, not I...)












Following a delightful dinner hosted by four gracious members of the Sarasota Vista Spiritual Group, Bob, Ginny, Lisa and Forrest, we proceeded to the Bayfront Community Center. Suzanne's presentation, Making the Connection, was very well received. (I hope I don't get any grief from My Lovely Bride for putting her photo just after that lovely frog...)










The next morning, we went for a run down the park's main road. With almost no traffic, this was a delightful place to exercise and lose oneself in Nature's beauty. The road itself is only a foot or so above the marsh and swamp on either side of the road...

Myakka River State Park is also very prone to flooding. This swampy section is probably crawling (literally) with frogs, bugs and snakes, but there were hardly any mosquitoes.











There were some flying pests, however, in the form of dozens of turkey vultures, possibly the most revolting looking birds on the planet. This sign indicates that they may have been hired by a local automobile repair shop to bring in business...











On Wednesday afternoon, Suzanne gave a reading in The Coach, and then we prepared for our next event. Torrential rains arrived before we left, and we drove to Sarasota past several serious accidents along I-75. Fortunately, we arrived safely at the Sarasota Center of Light where we met Reverend Drew, Reverend Lisa and their delightful spiritual community, many of whom we had met last year on a previous visit. Suzanne presented "Heart Gifts", the story of a very special young man named Wolf. The audience was spellbound by this story, and if you haven't heard it yet, it's a "must attend". Our visit back to Sarasota ended on a high note, and we look forward to returning again and spending more time getting to know the area better. Thanks to both the Vista and Center of Light communities for your hospitality!

Where are the giraffes? No Hippos Here; A New Book in Hand; An Early Thanksgiving; Prizes!

Suzanne's good friend Elizabeth just returned yesterday from a three week trip to Africa. Of course it was a real adventure, but that's not the basis of this story. When she got back home, there was a painting awaiting her, one that she had commissioned from Portland, Oregon spiritual artist Barry Mack. (See www.barrymackart.com). Elizabeth called us over to enjoy the opening and hanging (gee, that sounds kind of ominous, doesn't it?).









After the painting was hung on the wall, Joseph asked, "What the heck does that have to do with Africa?" We were all taken aback, until we found out that Elizabeth hadn't told Joseph about the painting. When it arrived hours after she returned from her trip, Joseph thought that she had had it shipped from Cape Town, South Africa, her last stop. (Nope, there sure aren't any elephants, lions or giraffes in that painting.)















This photo wasn't taken in Africa, but it felt like being on the Congo River as we paddled up the Withlacoochee River near Inverness the other day. (I let Suzanne take the lead in case there were crocs along the bank or hippos about to surface under us... oh, heck, I hope she doesn't read that!)










 Just in case you are a member of PETA and think the hippopotamus, Greek for "river horse"  (Hippopotamus amphibius) are cuddly, friendly creatures, they are actually one of the most aggressive and dangerous animals on the planet. (There is a resemblance to a certain governor of a state south of New York and east of Pennsylvania, but I digress...)







Your Intrepid Correspondent is here shown with a steely look designed to strike fear into any attacking hippo, croc or cannibal. Fortunately I was not required to defend our convoy against anything more aggressive than a few mosquitoes.








We paddled up the river past cypress trees and hardwoods full of Spanish moss, with only turtles, a brace of alligators, egrets, herons, anhinga, and a solitary kingfisher to admire, until a noisy air boat came hurtling down river, sounding like a plane taking off. Fortunately it did not return upriver to spoil our return paddle, which was completed in the silence.







Speaking of "In the Silence", My Lovely Bride received the proof copy of her latest book of that name Tuesday evening as we were leaving for a neighborhood Thanksgiving dinner. Isn't that a beautiful cover? In fact, it was designed by My Lovely Daughter Elisabeth!















She only had a few minutes to look at her new book before we arrived at Coconut Cove Rec Center and sat down to a great feast prepared by two of our Mallory neighbors, Pat Rinaudo (at right) and Kathy James (at left) with their husbands Frank (munching down) and Jim (laughing). Thanks, Ladies, for a fabulous dinner!







Other friends at our table were Yoga Lady Diane Green and her husband Russ the Tennis Terror. Here Frank Rinaudo (a Sinatra fanatic and diehard Dallas Cowboys fan - what a combination!) has taken a break from his dessert to smile for the camera. I think he was still recovering from Sunday's drubbing that Dallas got from the New Orleans Saints, my home town team.









Not only was the food delicious, but Team Giesemann won a prize (a box of Oscar chocolates from Athens, Greece) for the most words - 104, to be exact - created from the phrase "Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends". We would have gotten more, but we were time-limited. It helps having an author on your team! Russ also won a prize for coming closest to guessing the number of pieces of candy corn in a bag. The prize was - yep, you guessed it, the bag of candy corn - and he doesn't even like candy corn, the poor guy.





Speaking of prizes, the winner of last week's photo caption prize is Dale Hilliard, of La Otto, Indiana. Dale's caption, "Lo-feet-a, if we just stand here we're not walking, I guess that should be alright." was selected from thousands of entries. Dale and His Lovely Bride Becky win dinner with us aboard The Coach when we return to La Otto next summer. (Dale was my shipmate aboard the battleship USS IOWA (BB-61) back in 1985-87.)

We were able to award another belated prize on Wednesday to Lynn and Bailey Spence for her correct answer to a now-forgotten quiz from this past summer. Here we are at Waffle House, which Lynn has never visited (in spite of the fact that she claims to be a Southerner, and even has a Southern accent - its authenticity has yet to be determined). Suzanne tried to describe the WH Code for breakfast orders: pull one bacon, drop 2, mark one... but its details still remain a mystery. Our favorite item, hash browns scattered and smothered, were, as always, fantastic, and I have not been able to replicate them at home, sad to say.

Trips and More Trips! Heart Gifts - An Amazing Wolf; A New Book! A Babe Magnet

Suzanne returned from her retreat at Unity Village on Monday night. She took a brief respite to catch her breath, and then we loaded up The Coach for a two day trip to Citrus County, Florida (vicinity of the towns of Lecanto, Homosassa, Crystal River, Beverly Hills and Hernando). A quick get-a-way vacation, you ask? Au contraire - it was for a channeling session (Sanaya) and a Tapping Into the Grid presentation for the Homosassa New Age Thinkers (NATs), held at the Citrus County Unity Church in Lecanto.

The events with the New Age Thinkers group were organized by Donna Scarpello, seen here with Suzanne following her talk. This community has been very welcoming to Suzanne and her messages of hope and love, and this was our third annual trip to Citrus County.















In between events, Rudy and Gretchen got to walk around our campground at Rock Crusher Canyon (what a great name, and a very scenic RV park). There were oak trees everywhere, and each one had its resident squirrels (the eastern gray variety, Sciurus carolinensis). For those members of PETA or SPCA who may be concerned about our puppies reducing the squirrel population, have no fear - they are kept on lead, so when they chase the little rodents Your Intrepid Correspondent is being pulled around like a sled, giving the squirrels more than a fair chance of survival. In fact, no squirrels have been killed, maimed, injured during our chases. (In fact, they usually look down from safety in high branches and go 'Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah!' at Rudy and Gretchen...)





Suzanne also introduced her latest book, In the Silence, a follow-on to Love Beyond Words, which provides 365 daily inspirational messages from Sanaya. Thanks to Bev Garlipp, who was instrumental in compiling the books' pages and who is now helping to coordinate advance orders. This, Suzanne's 10th book, will be available before Thanksgiving, and advance orders can be made through her web site, www.LoveAtTheCenter.com
















Hardly pausing to catch our breaths, we returned to The Villages Saturday evening for a Sunday event at Lake Miona Recreation Center, where Suzanne gave her new Heart Gifts presentation for the first time in Florida. Its big debut was in Crete, Greece, during the A Healing Journey: Life, Death and Beyond conference, where she presented along with Dr Eben Alexander, MD (author of Proof of Heaven) and several other speakers.





Suzanne asked Bev Garlipp to introduce her at this event. Bev has been Suzanne's indispensable right hand for the past two years, doing all the background planning for every event on the road and here in The Villages.

Sunday's event was Standing Room Only, with about 360 attendees present to hear her story about a most remarkable young man, Wolf, who transitioned to the other side when struck by lightning, like our daughter Susan. The synchronicities she experienced and the messages that she received from Wolf are nothing short of astounding with ramifications for us all.

How Suzanne came to know Wolf and his loving parents, Mike and Beth, is a long, amazing story that I cannot recount here. I suggest you attend her Heart Gifts presentation in person, and be prepared for a most remarkable experience. (You can find out when she'll be presenting it next by checking the Calendar page under events on her website).










After her Heart Gifts presentation, we opened up The Coach for tours and book sales, including advance orders for In the Silence. We had a great response, and several requests to ride with us on our 2014 summer tour. One young lady even offered to swap her house for our coach, and she sounded serious... sorry, but we are committed to land cruising for the next few years.

As many of you know, Rudy is kind of a ham. He knows he is very photogenic, and after he was a co-star in the Messages of Hope documentary, he became accustomed to having a make-up girl and hair stylist prepare him for his scenes. Well, I'm neither a make-up person nor a stylist, but I drew the short straw for his grooming appointment. Afterwards we went into town, and after a long walk and lots of "Oh, isn't he cute!", Rudy asked, "Dog-Dad, what's a Babe Magnet?" "Shush, Rudy, Dog Mom and Gretchen might hear you!"

We are back in The Villages for a few days before Suzanne's Lovely Sister Janice and her husband Allan visit for a few days from West Chester, PA, and then we are heading south to Sarasota, Florida for two events. The first is on Tuesday 19 November at the Vista Spiritual Center, part of the Sarasota Bayfront Community Center (Making the Connection - Learning to Attune to Higher Consciousness) and the second on Wednesday 20 November at the Sarasota Center of Light (Heart Gifts Workshop). Both events are from 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM, and you can get more details at Suzanne's web site, www.LoveAtTheCenter.com.  (I think My Lovely Bride may have misled me when she said that we would be returning to The Villages and getting some rest after our 10,000 mile summer coach trip. It's like living with the Energizer Bunny!)

Mom's Home! A New Old Tower; A Monarch; Sunset; A Surprise Lunch; Lumpia, Pancit and Moussaka?

My Lovely Bride has returned home from her Unity Village Retreat in Kansas City. She had a fabulous experience with her group of retreat partners, but when we picked her up at the airport, Gretchen and Rudy showed how happy they were to have her back home. (Yes, I was happy, too, but I think our puppies got in a lot more kisses than I did.)

We had visited Unity Village in May during our road trip in The Coach, but it looked and felt very different in November, with leaves turning and a cold snap in the air. Here are Bev Garlipp and Jan Blythe trying to look warm. At least it was sunny and not snowing!















The Tower (literally) was where Suzanne held her retreat. Recently renovated (the elevator hadn't been used in 20 years), The Tower's bottom floors hold administrative offices, and the higher up you go, the more spiritual are the settings and events. Suzanne's was held on the top/seventh floor, which I thought was very appropriate.














While walking the other day, I took time to smell the roses. Well, they were flowers, anyway, even if I couldn't identify them. But as I was about to snap another simple flower photo, a Monarch butterfly came into view. The little beauty sat on the flower stem for a couple of minutes, folding its wings, then opening them, and maybe nibbling pollen. Having never watched a butterfly eat, I wasn't sure what I was watching. In any case, it was a special moment. Monarchs (Danaus plexippus) are also known as milkweed butterflies (that is all their larvae eats), but I think they prefer to be called Monarchs, for obvious reasons. Their Latin name is interesting; in Greek mythology, Danaus was a great-grandson of Zeus, and founded Argos; Plexippus was one of the 50 sons of Danaus' twin brother Aegyptus. While most of the Monarchs migrate to Mexico for the winter, there is a significant minority that winter-over in South Florida. (They don't earn as many travel miles, but it's much safer here in The Villages than in Mexico.) 


Sunset is coming earlier now that Daylight Savings Time is put away until Spring. Rudy and Gretchen had asked me to take them to Sumter Landing for an evening walk while Suzanne was out of town, and on the way, the sky lit up... fortunately I had picked up my camera just in case.








Weight-wise, we are both still recovering from our recent trip to Greece. Your Fearless Correspondent was much more indulgent than His Lovely Bride, and I gained about 4 pounds, while Suzanne only bulked up an additional 2 from daily servings of baklava. (Maybe I shouldn't have used the term "bulked up". Smack!) Anyway, we have been working out heavily... I mean, more frequently... since we've been back, and the pounds are starting to come off. As we started our late morning bike ride yesterday, Suzanne said, "I have a surprise for you; I'll lead." I interjected, "Hey, shouldn't we bring a snack bar? I'm getting hungry." "No, Ty, we'll be fine."





So, off we rode, with my stomach growling a complaint. But as we approached a normally vacant lot next to a hotel on FL-466, she said, "Relief is in sight!" I was amazed... no, stunned... to see a mobile kitchen with a sign for Filipino Cuisine! We met Ryan Belen and his father Fred who had just started their catering business; we were among their very first customers.









Here is Suzanne ordering lumpia (Filipino egg rolls) and pancit (noodles and chicken). The lumpia was especially delicious. What is funny is that we both learned to love Filipino food while serving in the Navy. Most of my ships had Filipino cooks aboard, and there were many ashore where Suzanne served as well. We even had lumpia and pancit at our wedding luncheon, and every time we roll into a military town, we look for those dishes, almost always in vain. You can reach Ryan at baboyztruck@gmail.com.







Lastly, I also have to give My Lovely Bride credit for her home cooking. Here she is slicing, dicing and whipping up a Greek moussaka from scratch, complete with fresh veal, eggplant (melitzana), potatoes and tomatoes. We had no retsina (cheap Greek wine aged in pine barrels with a definite turpentine taste), but she did manage to find a decent Kendall Jackson chardonnay that went very well with the moussaka.

Shame in Two Cities; Caption Quiz; Dog in a Bag; Happy Trails; Apalone Ferox

Greek drivers are just as bad as Americans. Maybe even worse. I had forgotten about this photo from Athens. The scene is a street corner just down from our hotel, which was near the Acropolis, but in a mixed residential and commercial area. Like many European cities not designed for modern traffic, there are insufficient parking spots. This Land Rover is parked in the middle of an intersection with barely enough room for small trucks and the occasional tour bus to pass.








Back in LaLaLand (AKA The Villages), the driver of this Pontiac (photographed at 2:00 PM) was either spatially challenged or had been at an early Happy Hour. (Okay, Dale, the Rover driver has an excuse in that he was Greek; what about this Pontiac driver? BTW, your Twinkies go in the mail tomorrow.) The Kia behind him is also over the line, but only gets a 5 yard penalty; the Pontiac gets 15.)









Here's a new feature for the blog. Each week or so (unless I forget), I will post a photo and ask for entries suggesting appropriate (or inappropriate, as the case may be) captions or titles. Please keep them (relatively) clean. I'm a simple sailor not used to off-color words.)  The winner will get a prize of my choosing. Here is the first photo.







My Lovely Bride left this morning for a weekend retreat (which she is leading) sponsored by Unity Village in Lee's Summit, Missouri, just outside Kansas City. She has been looking forward to this trip for weeks, even after being on the road for five months and then two weeks in Greece. We've been home for just over a month, and she's been gone for over half of that time... I'm beginning to wonder whether I should change my deodorant or mouthwash. In any case, our little Rudy was feeling a bit sad about her leaving, and tried to pack himself in her luggage Thursday night. Good try, Dude; you're stuck with Dog-Dad for the weekend!

I have heard from Suzanne; she went for a run shortly after arriving at Unity Village. Lucky for her, there was a nice trail near the Unity campus, so she didn't have to run on roads. Trails are our favorite places to run. She also got lucky with the weather; it was cool and dry, and fall colors are peaking, unlike here in Florida, where it hit 85F today.










I took the puppies to t-o-w-n for a w-a-l-k today, and saw some large Florida softshell turtles (Apalone ferox) swimming along the waterfront at Lake Sumter Landing. This gal was about 20 inches long. They can grow up to 30 inches in length, and stay in the water except to lay eggs or bask in the sun. My first thought was that there mustn't be any big alligators around, but on a visit a few hours later, a six foot gator was cruising about 50 yards offshore. Hope the turtles found a good place to hide.





Here's a close-up of the Florida softshell turtle. His nose actually has a snorkel-like shape so he can breathe without sticking his head out of the water. Pretty clever! The carapace (shell) is bumpy and leathery and lacks scutes (bony plates or scales common to other species of turtles). Sexual dimorphism is the rule, with females typically three times larger than males. (I just report the facts, ma'am, just the facts.)