While we were in Sebring I took the opportunity to visit a state park I had heard was quite nice, The park is called Highland's Hammock State Park. This 4,896-acre park opened to the public in 1931 and is one of the earliest examples of grass-roots public support for environmental preservation. Local citizens, concerned about plans to turn the hammock into farmland, acquired the property and pledged to protect it. (Copied from park brochure) Here are a few pictures from my afternoon tour. There was a 1000 year old oak tree,
a cypress swamp with a boardwalk, and all kinds of other flora and fauna. It is an example of what Florida looked like before development. There is still a lot of Florida that has been unspoiled and it is beautiful.
These are wild oranges. The blossoms smell so sweet.
Here are a couple more airplane shots I took after a thunderstorm at the Sebring Regional Airport. Kind of pretty with the rainbow, I thought.
We moved ERV from Sebring to Central Florida, the Tavares area, where our friends John and Pat Lehotsky live. We did a little house hunting there, but our hearts are really closer to the beach, so after a nice visit in Tavares and a great dinner in Mt. Dora at Pisces Rising Seafood Restaurant,
we headed back to the beach in Daytona. for some house hunting there. At the time, we were thinking CONDO on the beach, but found that with Doc', a condo wasn't the best choice. Many of the developments had no pet policies, or restrictions to 25 lbs. Those of you who have met Doc' know that we couldn't "fudge" him in at even 50 lbs. So, we abandoned the condo search in favor of looking at single family homes. We didn't have time to do much more looking before we had to leave Daytona to go back to central Florida for our big spring show, Sun n Fun, in Lakeland FL. Here are a few pictures of the campground at Sun N Fun. Nice tent camping area,
And here is the Volunteer camping area where we parked ERV during the show. It wasn't shaded like some of the areas, but it had full hook-ups and it was free to people like us who volunteered our time at the event. You can see ERV.
This was taken before all the spaces got filled up. Dan and I were there for about a week ahead of the show, getting organized, buying supplies for our exhibit, laying indoor/outdoor carpet in our tent, getting signs and banners printed, organizing volunteers, etc. I mentioned laying carpet, which we did on Sunday April 6th, since the show started on Tuesday April 8th. That Sunday night Lakeland got 5 inches of rain. It turned the airfield into muck. There were rivers of water running all over the exhibit spaces. Many trucks got stuck in the muck. A few poor souls who were camping under their planes had this to contend with:
What a mess it was to begin with. I felt so bad for the Sun N Fun organizers, because the rain really screwed up all the last minute preparations for the show. Lucky for Dan and me, our area was one of the only high spots on the field, so we didn't have too much rain damage. Here are a few pictures of the area that was our exhibit. It's called the Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) Mall.
This banner welcomed the public to the Mall area where we had 18 airplanes on display for the week. The Mall was co-hosted by the Light Aircraft Manufacturer's Association (LAMA). Dan is chairman of the board for LAMA, it is not a paying position. We worked long and hard for the organization, but the efforts were very well received. We got a lot of compliments and kudos from the LSA industry leaders, and from the organizers of Sun n Fun.
We had 2 engine examples in the tent. They drew alot of attention. Motorhead aviatiors all wanted to look at the engines. Nice carpet, huh? We nailed it into place with some big honkin' nails. It stayed pretty well in place all week.
We couldn't have done all the work and talked to all the people without the help of many others, two of whom I took pictures of. Ray on the left and Bill on the right helped us hang all the banners, and talked to people when they came into the tent. They were awesome help.
Ray is a retired engineer, he stayed and helped all week. Bill, a pilot for UPS, helped out for a couple days mid-week.
Here is Gregg from BRS Parachutes, doing what he does best, harrassing someone. In this picture he is harassing Megan from AirFleet Capital, an aircraft financing company. BRS and AirFleet both volunteered time in the LAMA tent.
The LAMA tent is in the background and the motor glider in the foreground is called the Lambada. It is a Czech design. It's a beauty.After Sun n Fun we headed back to Daytona in ERV and got set up in our favorite campground. April is a good time to be in Florida. After spring break and Easter, it is the quiet time here. As I write this, the campground is almost empty.
When we arrived here after our big airshow event at Sun n Fun, we put in an offer on a house that was in the banking system terminology of Short Sale, which means it wasn't in Forclosure, yet, but heading that way. We jumped through a lot of hoops, providing credit information to the bank that owns the house, made several visits to the real estate agent, got a high rating for our credit, ect. Our offer fell through once, so we started looking for another property, and today our real estate agent called to say the bank was re-considering our offer, so it is wait and see for the next few days. Here is a picture of the house:
ERV is up for sale in various newspapers, on the internet and by word of mouth. We have had a couple of offers, but not the right one, so far.
The other main reason why we are still here has to do with an old, old friend of Dan's who is dying of Multiple Myeloma cancer. Dan has known Bill since his days in the Army National Guard. He and his wife are some of our closest Chicago friends. We have gone on many vacations with them, and have spent many evenings at their home in Chicago. About 5 years ago they bought a condo on the beach here, and have enjoyed some great times. It was also about 5 years ago when Bill was first diagnosed with cancer. He has been doing pretty well, considering his illness, until just recently when he started to go downhill. Dan has stayed at the condo a few nights, just to help out if Bill gets up and wanders around. Their grown children are here from Chicago, this weekend, along with Bill's brother and his wife, who live about 2 hours away. I helped them set up a website at Caring Bridge.org, if you want to read more. Here is the link:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/billlehotsky
So, that's the story of Dan, Ran and Doc'. Thanks for reading. I'll try to post more before we head home.
I am homesick for our house in St. Paul and I miss all of our MN friends. I hope everyone doesn't forget what we look like before we get home. We are still good looking ;>)
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