Sunday October 29th 2023

It was another nice weather day very similar to Saturday. I had a little more energy today thanks to a full nights sleep. In the early afternoon I set out for a state nature preserve area south of here. I’d been there before and knew roughly how to find the place, but wasn’t concerned. The journey was the real adventure. I wasn’t looking forward to the hiking part of the outing.

The last time I went to the preserve I went south of Haines City on state route 17 before turning east at a sign. This time owing to today’s sense of adventure I decided to turn east in Haines City and then go south. It was on of those “I wonder where this road goes?” kind of decision. So let the adventure begin. The road turned abruptly left and right to avoid housing developments and more significantly lakes. When I looked down at the compass indicator on the dashboard, I was going north. Clearly not the direction I wanted to go, but let the adventure continue. Later, still on the same basic road, I was heading south, then east.

The road continue to wind this way and that. Sometime it was narrow and sometimes multi laned. At one point I was approaching a big brick building with very few windows surrounded by tall fences. I thought I’d found a prison, but it turned out to be a high school. I guess all the housing developments, both new and old, had a place to educate their children, but what does that say about the types of buildings we build for schools. After almost an hour turning left and right and never finding a numbered route, I gave up and turned on the GPS. I really was in the middle of nowhere with lots of lakes. The easiest way out was back the way I came. It was a fun adventure, but shame on me for turning on the GPS. That’s an exploration failure.

With all the driving I needed to fill the gas tank. Last Saturday I bought gas at a very reasonable $3.04 a gallon. During the week, gas prices at the same station were twenty five cents a gallon higher. Today the price of gas was more than thirty cents a gallon cheaper at $2.97 a gallon. Are the stations around here running weekend gas sales? I am not complaining, I filled the tank.