Day 084 – Wachula, FL > Lakeland, FL

I’m actually writing this post in real time, as in I got to Lakeland today August 2. I’ve been really struggling with catching up ever since my time in Melbourne with my Uncle Pino and Aunt Helen. I still plan to back fill a bit about Key West, but have made the decision to stop writing blog entries everyday. The backlog now hanging over my head is getting to be too much and also I want to change my focus.

I will be devoting more time to video production and editing. Something I’ve been wanting to devote more time to, but have been finding every excuse not to do. NO MORE!

I took out my video gear on my last day in Key West and shot an interview with Lori Shubert of Sushi Cupcakes. I met her while sending off some paperwork at FedEx the day before I left and was impressed by her spirit. Later that day I found a place that sold her cupcakes and was blown away by their taste. Moist, cake-fudgy goodness that looks like sushi and tastes out of this world – no seafood involved I promise.

So I will be putting that up on the blog shortly.

I am staying with my Aunt Linda and Uncle Paul in their beautiful new home in Lakeland, FL, which is 31 miles directly east of Tampa. I got here at 10 in the morning after sleeping in the most ghetto motel so far on the trip in Wachula. Not a big deal since I had a sleeping bag and the AC / shower worked. The plan originally was to only stay there a few hours to rest up before continuing on to Lakeland, but the 83 miles to Wachula combined by the heat outside at 4 PM made me sleep the rest of the evening and night.

If you are ever in Wachula go to Paul’s Kitchen. Great service, solid dinner food and cheap. Best of all someone picked up my check anonymously. I am wondering if they thought I was a homeless person – I was very sweaty and tired from staying up all night cycling. When I got out of the place there was a lizard hanging out on my handlebars – positive omens.

I got to my Aunt and Uncle’s house at 10 am and after a quick shower got fed some yummy scrambled eggs and waffles. Yum, yum. After talking for a bit we went out to the Circle B Bar Wild Life Preserve. We saw lots of wild life including a young alligator that thought it would be funny to scare us by climbing up out of the water (pics). Me and my Uncle Paul were debating about getting it to chase us, but in the end decided we would wait until we came back with a  a raw chicken hanging from a stick.