Ahh, Warmer Weather

Waking up in the morning to the sounds of birds chirping, walking outside and having the warmth of the sun caress your body, and the smell of the Florida air. All images of things that should make you sigh in contentment. For most people anyways. Not me. Do you know what warmer weather means to me? Two words. DEATH MARCHES! Yes, the death marches have begun again. Don't get me wrong. I love the warm weather, but during a death march I do miss hibernating in Beverly's basement when it is 30 below out and it is too cold to march.

Let's take a toll of everything now. Right knee has been re-built. Left knee has been re-built. Foot pain has subsided for the time being. Joint pain constant. Arthritis, ever present.

Look at these hands. How do you expect me to hold my beer with hands like that. Maybe I need one of those hard hats that hold 2 beers and have a straw.

Like this. The reason that I bring all of this backup is that now I have to wonder what else could go wrong. Aside from the ever present chance of a heart attack. One that Lisa is perfectly willing to risk I guess.

So to be proactive I started to do some research for my health. I found a great deal on Amazon and I thought that when the day comes, I may even get a discount from the hospital for bringing my own.

Just look at this beauty. What is it you might ask? It's a titanium hip. I figure that will be the next thing to wear out. I can kind of feel it going now whenever I square dance. I can hardly allemande left anymore. We walk nearly everyday around the fairgrounds. Just taking in all of the activity between shows.

Tampa Bay has a river walk along the Hillsborough River that flows into the bay. We googled it and it says that it is a 2.4 mile one way walk along the river with shops and restaurants. Finally a day without a death march. I am in. We drove downtown and parked at one end of the river walk.

It was a beautiful sunny day. The path is wide and very popular with walkers, joggers and bikers.

There are also nice views along the Riverwalk. There was one lady jogging along practically falling out of her sports bra. I looked at Lisa and said, "It's hard not to look when they have it on display like that." To which she said, "Remember your glasses aren't tinted so she can see where you are looking." Good point(or two).

Along the riverwalk they have the mileage laid out on the ground. 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and so on. I am looking around and there aren't any shops and hardly any restaurants. What's going on? I said "hey look, a water taxi, maybe we could take that to the end."

"Keep walking." So I did. We got to the end and there is a natural spring that feeds into the Hillsborough River.

"Whew! I made it!" Now 2.4 miles back. On the way back I was motivated with lunch and a beer at the Sail Bar along the Riverwalk. We had peel and eat shrimp and a Cuban(sandwich) which we both split. The beer was a life saver though. 

Then if that wasn't enough we walked over to the Florida Aquarium. It was very nice and I got to touch a Stingray. They have some nice exhibits. But not 30 dollars a person nice. We weren't there to buy the fish. They had a nice shark tank.

Well we can say we did it. One and done is our motto. Tampa also has electric street cars downtown.

The other day Lisa wanted to go to an outlet mall. They have some very nice and large outlet malls here in Florida. So we are walking around and shopping. We find a few things to buy at reasonable prices. It takes us a couple of hours to get around there. My legs are tired and then it dawns on me. She planned this. She makes it sound like I am getting a day off from death marching but in reality she has just disguised it. Except now I am marching with 40 pounds of shopping bags on my arms. 

"Oh there's something at the other end I want to go back and get" she says. So around and around we go again. The Riverwalk. That also was a disguised death march. I may not be the brightest bulb in the box but eventually I will get it. I am on to her now.

On a different note. One thing nice about this lifestyle is being able to travel and try different cuisines. Although there is one thing I may never be hungry enough to eat. I wonder if that is the Lorena Bobbitt recipe?

That's it for now. I hear there is a giant flea market near here to check out. "Wait, what?!"