Escaping from home!

Months ago we made plans to join my cousin Cyndi and her husband Scott in Sarasota on the west coast of Florida on November 12th. This was long before we decided to turn our house upside down getting new flooring put in but boy am I glad we had made these arrangements. Although there were still other things to do at home, the biggest confusion was having everything (okay not quite everything but most of our stuff) piled up in the garage. We had gotten the essentials back in the house by the weekend of the 10th-11th but getting everything back where it belonged was a huge job and we were tired! We needed a break and this was perfect!

Tarpon Springs KOA

So ... it was break time and off we went in Timmber Wolf, headed first for Tarpon Springs before joining Cyndi and Scott. We left home and all that dust and confusion on Sunday, the 11th, arriving at the Clearwater-Tarpon Springs KOA late in the afternoon. Like many of the KOA parks we have been to, this one is nicely landscaped with decent size sites and quiet in spite of nearby US 19.

The next morning we headed for the sponge docks in Tarpon Springs, arriving at a parking area at 8:30 in the morning. It was a good thing we were out and about early in the day as the streets in this area are little old ones that are very tight for big motor homes like Wolf. The parking area was empty so we easily chose our spot and got PoGoGo unloaded.

 
The streets were also almost empty and many of the shops were not yet open. The sponge docks (and tourist area) are primarily one single street, Dodecanese Blvd, with docks and shops on the north side of the street along the Anclote River which runs out into Tampa Bay and mostly shops and some restaurants on the south side. Since it was a bit chilly yet we decided to go down the north, sunnier side of the street to the other end and then return on the south side which is what we did more or less. The first thing we came across was the sidewalk blocked by a harvest of sponges just coming off the boat and being sorted.

Natural sponges grow in beds along the bottom of the ocean, bays and bayous. The wool and yellow sponges harvested from the Gulf of Mexico are believed to be the most sought after sponges in the world and about 90 percent are harvested in the Tarpon Springs area. Many people think of sponges as plants but actually they are a very primitive slow-moving animal that attach themselves to objects on the sea floor. They grow in several shapes, some like fingers, some like vases with an empty center and some like tubes. Others form the wool sponge shape we typically think of for bath sponges. Oh .. if anyone spots the kind of sponge holder hands as shown in this picture, do let me know!!!

We window shopped our way down to the far end of the street where we found the Tarpon Springs Aquarium just opening. In its current location it is quite small and desparately in need of an upgrade but it is inexpensive and some how much less intimidating that a sleek modern place. I hope they don't lose this intimacy and enthusiasm when they move as they are hoping to do soon.

We saw a lot of sea creatures including sharks and rays and coral. The image here is a bit cloudy but seems very real,  not so much like a display tank. If you look carefully you will see a very large grouper and a shark as well as some smaller fish and the ubiquitous coral.

From here we headed back towards Wolf and the parking area stopping in some shops both before and after our lunch stop. This was at Hellas Bakery and Restaurant which is a cornerstone of the local Greek community. Although they have some standard American style fare, the menu is principally Greek food and I took a chance on their Lamb k-bob. I happen to love lamb if it is not overdone and dried out and that is frequently the case on the rare occasions you find lamb dishes on a menu. My reluctant choice was highly rewarded and I knew I was probably lucky when the waitress asked how I wanted my lamb cooked just as many places do if you order steak! It was fantastic as were the potatoes that came with it ... if you get to Tarpon Springs you must try this place!

Having fortified myself at the restaurant I stopped at one more shop, the one right by our parking place. They had all sorts of nifty stuff and I got some soaps with sponge in them for my friends here in St Augustine and some dust gatherers I just could not resist, from right to left below: a sweet manatee figure, a glass heron, and a greenish colored shell. The manatee is about seven inches long and three inches high and the heron is more like twelve inches high. Sometimes this stuff just seems to jump off the shelf into my hands!

Early afternoon and time to head south to Sarasota before the bakery assortment I got for my cousin melts or something and has to be eaten up quick before we get there!