Indian Pass → Ochlockonee River → Perry → High Springs → Crystal River → Bayonet Point

[amw]

One of the neat things about traveling by bike is that you can hear the world around you. Cycling over the causeway from Apalachicola to Eastpoint, i heard a puff and then a splash, looked over and there was a dolphin coming up for air. It reminded me that i forgot to mention i went out for a sunset paddle in the ocean at Topsail Hill, and i saw a

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[spiffikins]

My friend's mom lived in the Villages for many years - she moved in with her sister, who owned a house there.

She liked it - in every 'neighbourhood' there would be a pool/recreation center, and a little pod of coffee shops, restaurants, grocery stores etc. She said many of the residents had golf carts to drive around the neighbourhood. I definitely got the sense though, that you stayed in "your" area - and there were rules about bringing nonresidents to use the recreation facilities - i.e. visitinggrandkids had to be accompanied by a resident, etc.

Ultimately, she moved out of the Villages and bought a condo a few years ago, in a "real" town - although she is still in Florida.

I think you said you were looking to go to Key West at some point? Make sure you get your fill of beaches *before* you head down there. It's a neat place, but not a place to go if you are looking for wide sandy beaches!

[amw]

I wonder if The Villages is a uniquely "good" incarnaton of this sort of development? Or perhaps it's also possible that these other estates do have shops in them, but they just don't show up on Google Maps for some reason

[spiffikins]

What i like is the wide open vista and the sense that when you look out to sea you are the only person there, even if right behind you there is a whole big city

I think that is why I like Maui the best of the 3 Hawaiian islands that I have been to. On Maui, there are huge stretches of road where you are travelling and at any point, you can just pull over on a wide spot, walk across some sand or rocks, and jump into the ocean.

The Big Island of Hawai'i, the roads are further inland, and there is jungle between you and the water, most of the time - so it just feels like you are driving through forest all the time.

And Oah'u - well Honolulu might as well have been Miami or Vancouver, or San Francisco - any giant city, on the coast. I hated it, so much. Once you got out of town and up north, it was better, but for access to beaches and water, Maui is the best.

[dadi]

Hugs.....

[motodraconis]

It does sounds pretty sucky, especially with the added bogs that literally smell of shit thrown in. I confess, I've only been to the US twice (both times to L.A. for conferences) and the overriding sensory impression of the US that burned itself into my memory was that the streets were paved with urine, and really, really stank. I assume not all of the US smells of excrement but L.A. was very off putting.

Interesting what you say about being treated differently through being perceived as a white bloke. I think you mentioned that you are pretty tall too? That probably helps. Tall female chums of my acquaintance tend to get less sexual flak than other women, though they do get flak of a different order.

[amw]

I find that most big cities occasionally smell of sewage, i think that's just part and parcel of living in a big city. It's probably the stuff that you don't smell (or that you grew accustomed to) that are more dangerous - the noxious gases coming out of internal combustion vehicles and air conditioning units