Kiss mee...

Larry...my neighbor from Texas.

...my trip south started on a note of panic...the roads are closed! After waiting two days for I-90 south of Sioux City to be reopened, I decided to head east out of Sioux Falls on the morning of the 16th. The roads

The Great Kissimmee Prairie.

were in fair condition and the scenery nicer to scene. The farther south I traveled, the better the roads conditions improved and the more comfortable I became pulling my camper trailer...alias a'la "stud-hut". The hut and I cruised to St. Louis by 7:00 pm on the 16th. I felt so comfortable that I kept on driving...for 33 hours! By 4:30 pm on the 17th I was camped with the wintering Manatees in Blue Springs, Florida! I was also wasted and over dosed on caffeine...buzz! Sleep cured most of my aliments, by the 18th I was almost back to normal...almost, some things just take longer to recover.

...the 19th found me in an abandoned construction lot in Sarasota waiting to set up my display for the first of 6 Howard Allan Events shows I am scheduled to do over the next 6 weeks. I shared the lot with dozens of other fellow wandering artists that evening. I slept very soundly in the 'Hut until 4:00 am when I was up and getting ready for the 10:00 am show opening. Sales went well, folks bought my new painted pots. By 7:30 pm on Sunday I was back in the 'Hut grilling fresh fish and scallops...damn fine! I slept very soundly that night too. The next morning found me searching for supplies...thank you Ms. GPS!

...I am now sitting in the middle of the great central Florida prairie called Kissimmee. Do not ask me where it is, I could not tell you how to get here...neither can the Florida park service either evidently. When the downloaded address from the info given by the Park Service is punched into Ms. GPS you will be directed far out into the great Kissimmee Prairie...there is no camp ground there, just prairie. If you choose to ignore your omniscient GPS and follow the very few and very battered brown Park Service signs that can be found, you will eventually be lead down flat narrow blacktops, then to long straight dusty gravel roads, through a gate, past an insignificant sign that points the general direction to "Camping". At this point abandon all instincts of survival and stay with the road for 5 more miles, off in the distance you will see some trees and what looks like the last remaining outpost of civilization...it is, you have found Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park and the camp ground you have been searching for the past hour.

...the vistas here remind me of western South Dakota...flat and void of almost any human presence, the sky and circling horizon make you feel small and unimportant. I ran under that sky down a sandy trail for over an hour that evening before turning back for the security of my camper. I saw many of the same birds I see in South Dakota when I run on the gravel roads there. There were wintering Robins, singing Meadowlarks, noisy crows and small White Tail deer along the trail. There were also unfamiliar species of wildlife whose homes I was intruding into. The Vultures and Hawks paid me little attention as they went on their evening search for supper. The small Herons and Ibis scarcely bothered to look up from their muck probing. The alligators either paid me absolutely no attention or exploded for deeper water as I ran past. Yes they do have 'gators here...and they ain't small either! The smallest I saw was eight feet long, the largest was pushing 10 feet in length. I assume they eat what ever they can catch...I didn't stop long enough to find out.

...tonight I am dining on fresh local avocado, tomatoes, garlic, onions, cucumber, basil...I made Gazpacho soup! I bought some fresh vegetables from a road side stand along the Cracker Highway some where. After I bought them I made a sandwich with some of the ingredients and had a beer in my trailer...damn fine! When my beer and sandwich were gone I returned the plastic bags and an icy cold beer to the gentleman with the veggie stand. My Spanish was as good as his English...I offered the beer, he smiled and pointed at a bag of fresh oranges, we shook hands and both nodded. He waved at me as I drove off...I smiled and waved back. After my run I had real "fresh squeezed" orange juice...remember the pop called Orange Crush? That's what this juice tasted like, only it's good for me! I squeezed/drank half the bag. Oh yeah, I also had some grilled ribs...but who cares.

...it is now the next morning and the air is damp, the skies grey, it feels like rain maybe. On my morning stroll to the dumpster in my pj's drinking my espresso, I visited with some of my fellow campers of this isolated oasis. Most seem to have been here before and only smile and nod when I mention my convoluted journey here. Their reply is usually "Yeah, but it was worth wasn't it?" Yes it was...but don't ask me how I got here.