Boating with the Buffalos

The Florida winter season is winding down.

The tourists, college kids and baseball teams have gone home.

Now our neighbors are packing up ~ a sure sign the season is over. Some leave right at Easter ~ others linger longer waiting for the last of the snow to melt up north.

The neighbors to the left have gone back to Michigan. Our friend Rowdy took his backgammon board last weekend and headed for Connecticut…and then the Jersey shore for summer. There is only a car or two in the parking area.

Yesterday we went boating with the Buffalos ~ a ritual begun a few years back. Actually, our dear friends are from Buffalo, about the last place in the East where the snow melts. When they last called their kids there was 5 feet of the white stuff on the ground in upstate New York. When the Buffalos go home ~ the season is over.

There we were – cruising around Tarpon and Barfield Bays ~ just on the edge of Florida’s fabled Ten Thousand Islands national park. Perfect weather ~ why on earth consider going anywhere else? The Ten Thousand Islands preserve has been immortalized by all sorts of writers ~ including Florida’s own Carl Hiaasen (whom I heard speak this winter) in his book Nature Girl set right along the nearby waters in Dismal Key. Funny writer ~ funny book.

So there you have it ~ the winter season is over in the sunshine state. Bye, bye guests.
Amen. Now we have the place to ourselves again.