Run my trail with me today!

Posted on December 1, 2016 by flowerjovia

So this morning I decided to slow down and enjoy the park that I spend an hour in every single day. I mean, it’s seriously beautiful and I’m not just saying that.

Kapok Park

Kapok Park is home to an immense amount of wildlife. Both amateur and professional photographers come from all over with the hopes of capturing images of some of these beautiful creatures.

I’ve been lucky enough to see cranes sitting atop alligators, wild coyotes running through the palm scrubs and baby osprey learning to fly. It’s an amazing park to run in and today I’m showing it to you.

Kapok Park Trail

Kapok Park 5

There is a little pier which you can fish on but I run past it most days unless I see a gator in the water and then sometimes I go watch the gator. I’m curious like that.

This is the water view.

This is the view from the end of the pier. We turn back and head back to the trail.

Sometimes birds perch on the railings and just sit there while you run by.

I love Florida’s lush greenery

Fountain Grasses are some of my favorite landscaping plants. I have them in my yard as well. Love them.

Another beautiful view of the water.

This is another little bridge you run over which takes you over Alligator Lake and no, I’m not kidding, it’s called that.

Here’s a really good view leading up to the bridge.

This is one of my favorite views in the park. I’m not sure why but I think it’s pretty.

Another money shot, check out the lake.

Can you see the lake?

How bout now?

Stunning, isn’t it?

One more

Or two

maybe more…

And then we make the last turn to leave the park…

I’m always sad to leave

So pretty

I head on down the trail

Headed out of the park

Always reminded I’m still in Florida, Hello Palm Scrubs!

See ya again Tomorrow Kapok Park, Thanks for giving me an hour of your day.

There you go. That is Kapok Park the place where I go practically every single morning of my life and the place that I spend damn near an hour of my day every single day and now you can say that you spent your time with me there today and guess what you can never get that time back.

What’s your go to place to run, even if it’s not your favorite place, what’s your go to place and why?

The Courtney Campbell Trail is breathtaking…even if you have to poop

Posted on March 24, 2016 by flowerjovia

So yesterday morning I got up and I was all prepared from the night before. The coffee pot started brewing at precisely 5:50AM, my clothes were all laid out in the bathroom, my shoes were in the hallway and my electronics were all charged and ready to go on the kitchen island. The only problem I had that morning was the inability to poop but I decided to run anyway.

Since my sister-in-law is in town and she’s been back into running for a while, I have someone to run with. She was all ready to go that morning and so I went into the kitchen and put on my fitbit and then I picked up my Garmin to put it on.

Omfg

Are you kidding me? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? MacGyver saw that my Garmin was at 100% the night before so he unplugged it. Unfortunately something must have been running and now, it was dead. I immediately yelled at MacGyver who responded with the usual, “why do you need a Garmin anyway?”

‘Because I’m training’, I said. Then he asked for what and I’m all like, ‘the god damn senior Olympics, what the hell does it matter, don’t unplug my shit!’

Fortunately though MacGyver is a miracle worker and he not only calmed me down he made an excellent suggestion and told me that I should take my SIL down to the Courtney Campbell Trail, the trail that runs parallel to the Gulf of Mexico.

Excellent choice. MacGyver got a reprieve and you get to see one of the most awesome trails ever.

I mean, seriously?

I live here!

That’s my sister in law behind me.

At about mile 3 we turned and headed back because about that time nature called me and she wasn’t gonna hang up and try again.

We ran the three miles back to the car and I managed to somehow stall the nature train so we walked into the water for a brief few minutes and chilled our calf muscles and our feet.

The water was calling….

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

And then we headed home and that was my day in running.

Have you ever freaked out if one of your gadgets wasn’t charged?

Have you ever ran near the ocean?

The trip to Dog Town, my running trail, and a few surprise visitors

Posted on February 29, 2016 by flowerjovia

It was a loooooong weekend but we’re back. It’s sort of a shame it takes so long to get to our cabin because if it didn’t I’m sure we’d spend a heck of a lot more time there.
We left early Friday to head over to Holopaw and since the ride is so long, I brought along one of my favorite pastimes.

Fortunately sudoku helped the time pass and It seemed like only minutes til we were driving down the trail roads.

And then we got to the cabin.

The dogs were pretty excited. Hank may be allergic to it, but he loves grass, and Boomer loves to run as fast as he can, all the way to the bed inside.

I was afraid that I might get a bit bored at the cabin so I brought along some things to keep me busy.

After all, I get really annoyed watching the Jacked up TV.

I did get to run a little bit while we were there. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the amount of miles I had planned.

Part of the reason was the fact that the trail was a bit rougher than normal, but the main reason was a pain that I’ve recently been having in the back of my ankle. It hurt quite bad on Saturday so I only got to run 2 miles but it seemed much better on Sunday.

How can I not run on my beautiful trail?

So I got up and ran 3 and half miles on Sunday. Just before I hit four miles, the top of my heel started to hurt right behind my ankle and so I decided to take the rest of the day off. I’ll be consulting a doctor if it isn’t better soon, (and by consulting a doctor, I mean, Google.) *Please note the sarcasm. When you have an injury you should always see a doctor, and not WebMD but a real one.

While I wasn’t able to run as much as I wanted to we were able to hit up the mud hole and also visit our friend’s camp.

This is the mud hole, it looks peaceful here but most times it’s full of mud trucks and ATV’s.

I took this picture at our friend’s camp. I don’t know why but it’s one of my favorite shots from the weekend.

On Sunday MacGyver went over to help out a friend of ours and I painted the entire cabin. The dogs hung out with me. Hank was catching crickets and Boomer was taking it easy.

Nobody move, I see a cricket!

Stop taking pictures peasant and bring me more of the yoplait!

While I was painting this creature jumped out of the soffit and attacked me. Okay, maybe not attacked but it felt like it. I thought it was a squirrel or a cat but it was this guy.

Sonofabitch, he scared the hell out of me and I fell right off the ladder. I did manage to finish the painting though and I also finished the camp signs.

We are now officially, Camp Dog Town!

Where are all the stencils when you need them?

We had to improvise but we now have signage! And the cabin went from camo green to desert khaki, (or a nice shade of fresh baby poop depending on who you ask.) I wanted pink but MacGyver refuses to let me bitch it up!

When it was time to leave we pulled down the game camera and I put the card in my computer to erase the images so we could put it back up. Fortunately before erasing them I quickly scrolled through them all. Imagine my shock when I saw these pictures.

The first deer came around the 7th of January.

And then about a month later, these guys showed up…

There were also a lot of night images where we couldn’t see what was there. That’s why right before we left I poured out several cans of corn and I also dumped out all of the un-popped popcorn.

It’s all that I had and since the nearest feed store is over an hour away I had to improvise. I sure hope they come back.

I always hate leaving because it’s so peaceful here.

Check out that sky!

Tell me about your weekend, what did you do?
Ever had a pain in the back of your ankle near your heel? Wanna tell me about and save me a trip to the doctor?
When is the last time you saw a deer?