Golf Cart Crossing

The Spanish Springs section of The Villages is divided by a large, 2-lane highway, known as Highway 441. It is an extremely busy road and would be impossible to cross without stop lights or similar devices.  Thus, the planners constructed a large bridge to allow golf carts (the main mode of transportation in The Villages) to cross Highway 441 in relatively safety.

You would not, however, want to have had "one too many" drinks and then try to guide your golf cart up and over this bridge.  Notice the tire marks?  Evidently, there were a number accidents that "almost" happened, as is also suggested by the lean of the red cart in this picture.

One thing I've observed in my trips to The Villages is that the old folks living there drive golf carts at top speed.  The streets compare to the Daytona 500.  I've watched them come screaming down this bridge, hanging on with both hands, hair blowing, all caution thrown to the wind.

It's scary!

Water Tank - Downtown Ocala

Father & Son

Community Center, Spanish Springs, The Villages

Spanish Springs Lake - The Villages, Florida

The Forest Green in Infrared

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays

This is one of the Christmas trees adorning the Oak House at the Trilogy Resort.

All I Want For Xmas is this Xmas car(d) ...

Christmas in Spanish Springs, The Villages

Wells Fargo Bank

Wells Fargo, one of our country's more disreputable banking institutions, has a large presence in Ocala. This photo pictures one of the the Wells Fargo branches on Ocala's east side.

Initially, I took the photo because of the colors and the contrast between the commercial (bank) and Mother Nature (trees).  But then I realized this is a rather poignant symbol of the Christmas season.  The banks at this time of year are packed with holiday shoppers pulling money out of their accounts or applying for loans to obtain additional money with which to buy Christmas gifts with which to litter their living rooms on Christmas morning.

Scrooge, the bad guy of Christmas, has a point, I think.

Gone but not golfing

I'm going to take a couple of weeks off ... but will be back.  Best to all of you.  If you live in the US, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving.  Christmas and Hanukkah will be here soon.  In Florida, this is the perfect time for golf and a lot of my friends will be out on the local courses.  I won't be golfing, however, for several more weeks.

Golfers Only

This is the "start" area for Trilogy's golfers. It's located just off the first tee box and offers a place to rest and relax. Ice cold water is free. Golfer may also help themselves to score cards, golf tees, golf repair tools, pencils, etc.

Freight Train

For many of my readers, especially those who live in countries other than the US, freight trains are no big deal. But we don't see many of them in the U.S. these days because President Dwight D. Eisenhower, under pressure from the formidable auto industry and its supporters in Congress, determined that the U.S. should put its money into interstate highways rather that train tracks.  Thus we chose to do down that road (a terrible mistake, in my opinion, because the U.S., through this decision, became a supporter of toxic global warming.

This train is rumbling through the small town of Wildwood about 60 miles northwest of Orlando. Notice how little graffiti there is.

A Dumper

There are multiple ways to get rid of trash or pouring concrete. This seems to be one of the easiest methods around. It gets my vote.

Barx and Bubbles

If your dog is smelling rather rank these days, just give Barx and Bubbles a call.  They will show up at your door with their mobile grooming truck and within an hour or so your dog will smell like new!

We used a similar service occasionally when our Golden Retriever, Haley, was still with us.

There are at least two of these mobile groomers in the Ocala area that I know of, and probably others of which I am unaware.  I think it's a fine service but it is water intensive.  Plus they use a generator so it's noisy as hell!