This is Tuesday, March 18th, we spent the night in Perry Fl. Still on hwy 98, 19, just as I am leaving town there is a plaque Perry Army Air Base. The Perry Army Air Base of WWII stood on 862 acres. The 441st and 312th fighter squadron of the third army air force trained replacement pilots for combat at units worldwide. The 338 fighter group single engine aircraft included a Curtis P40, the WarHawk, Public P47, Thunderbolt and the North American  P51 Mustang. The first troops arrived on June 9th 1943 and last departed in early Sept. 1945. Approximately 120 pilots received their final training here for overseas duty. Following hwy 98 today met up with a couple other cyclist, it was a couple from Switzerland, who are riding from New Orleans to Miami. Also followed hwy 98 to Old Town to spend the night and an extra day here. The forest are actually getting some leaves on them and getting flowers on the side of the road, a little more picturesque. We have turned south on the panhandle but to me it looks more like a handle for a fishing net. We are heading down the gulf coast.

This is Thursday, March 20th, took an extra day off in Old Town Florida, yesterday did not travel anywhere just did some maintenance things. Today we are heading down hwy 98 also hwy 19 on our way towards Tampa area. Along here is a little stop over for a day park that has a locomotive here. It says Patterson-Mcinnis Train. This locomotive known locally as Tree Spot often pulled 30 to 40 cars to transport logs from area woodlands to the Patterson-Mcinnis Sawmill. Originally a wood burning engine that was built in 1915, it was converted to steam during service during WWII.

This is Friday, March 21st, spent the night in Inglis Florida at the Food Ranch parking lot, appreciated their assistance in letting us stay there. Following hwy 98 making this a short day, just did over 20 miles, stayed in Homossasa Springs and took the afternoon and went to the wildlife state park there. It is a state park that shows the different types of creatures that habitat Florida. They have a little water observation area, manatees, birds, mammals, of course the alligators and a few other creatures. It was a great afternoon to take a break from riding.

This is Saturday, March 22nd, have left Homossasa Springs working our way down towards Tampa on hwy 19 going south, a little bit of a cloudy day but not bad. There are some wild flowers in the middle of the road gives it a little different view as I am passing by. This one section here going through 12 miles of black bear habitat. Yesterday at the wildlife park I did see the couple of bears they have in captivity and that is the only bears I really want to see.

Today is Sunday, March 23rd, Easter Sunday, last night we spent the night at Walmart in Port Richey Florida, I ended up getting there about 45 minutes after the rain started, so I got a little damp but today the sun was out a little cloudy, no rain. We followed hwy 19 down to Florida 580 and came across to a camping ground, made it a short day 20-25 miles. Spent the afternoon visiting Tarpon Springs to the sponge diving and warehouse area, spent the afternoon there having a Greek lunch and checked out how sponges were cultivated.

This is Monday, March 30th, spent the night at a good old Walmart of course in Ft. Myers, Fl. riding down to Naples just about 40 miles to spend a couple of days at Sandy's niece, Kathy, and sister Jonell. Once we got there we put the motor home away and spent the time at Kathy's apartment, we will actually have a place to sleep with out it rocking from the wind. Once we got there we took a drive back north to Sarasota where we had lunch with Sandy's brother Walter, who is a truck driver out of Ohio, and was able to get a load to deliver in the Sarasota area.  Drove back to Naples and spent the next couple of days  touring around  Naples.

This is Wednesday, April 2nd, visited with my nephew Joseph Jacques, son of my brother Robert, had a nice lunch and he said he would be interested in riding with me, so this morning he met me here in Naples and riding our bikes east on hwy 41 into the everglades. We have seen a couple of alligators, one being a rather good size, decided not to stop and take any pictures because we didn't want to get that close. Stopped at the H.P. Williams picnic area which has a little walkway and you can see some alligators in that area. Joseph did a great job keeping up with me for the 40 mile ride. It did rain on us for the last half hour of riding. Spent the night here at the park, during the evening we had some flashes of light after the sun went down. Not sure what it was having been from the desert and not experiencing it there. All I could think of is either the birds and insects had their Bic lighters to light up a smoke, but had a good night sleep.

This is Thursday, April 3rd, left H.P. Williams area and heading east on hwy 41 through the everglades. Hwy 41 in this area is known as the Tampa Miami hwy on the north side is a canal and this was man-made by digging out this canal to increase the heighth of hwy 41 above the flooding area. This research was done by my nephew, Joseph, who lives in Naples. He did a photo set of this hwy, and in his research the U.S. imported Chinese labor to build this hwy. We are continuing on hwy 41, I have come across some items left on the side of the road, this one I am passing up turns out to be a jet ski that is off the side of the road behind the guard rail into the bushes, all I can see is the bottom of it. Ended up turning off hwy 41 to 997 south and we spent the night in Kendall Fl.

This is Friday, April 4th, traveling hwy 997 south going to Homestead City and Florida City. Through Homestead a lot of nursery and fruit stands. Nice green area. Went through the historic downtown are in Homestead two lane road brick with designs in the center in the intersections. We ended up spending the night in Florida City, one more time a Walmart.  We got our supplies for the next two weeks.

This is Saturday, April 5th, heading for Key West. Road the bike on hwy 1 to the outskirts of Key Largo. At Key Largo and 905 intersection we placed our first plaque in the southern east most point of the United States. Unfortunately the ground was quite hard so I wasn't able to put it too far into the ground. It is planted and we are packing up and heading for Key West. I am driving that stretch instead of biking the bridges because that is not a safe situation. We are staying in Key West for a couple of weeks, break from out trip. We are at Key West at the Boyd campground at mile marker 5 just the outskirts of Key West, our spot is just at the edge of the water. Sitting back and looking at the boats in the water, a little breeze blowing, life is good. We are at Key West now, Boyd's campground marker 5 just the outskirts of Key West. Our spot here is at the edge of the water. We are sitting back and looking at the sail boats on the water, a little breeze blowing, life is good.

This is Monday, April 21st, first day back riding after spending two weeks in Key West. Last night we spent the night in Florida City, and now we are traveling hwy 1. Starting out today I was a little apprehensive of facing the traffic again. I look forward to more days as we are traveling the east coast by the Atlantic Ocean and are on our way to the state of Maine. Ending up going through Miami on hwy 1 and then took a road over to A1A which is the beach road to Miami Beach. Traveling A1A there are a lot of resorts and hotels, also found a bike path which followed the beaches. Now we are in Ft. Lauderdale where we will spend the night. After resting we went for a fish dinner to treat Sandy for doing a fantastic job in maneuvering this motor home through all that traffic in Miami. Today we received the sad news of the mother of our daughter-in-law Lori passed away from an operation complications. Our prayers go out to Lori and the rest of the family.

This is Tuesday, April 22nd, traveling hwy A1A going north through the communities of Ft. Lauderdale passing by the Intercoastal Waterway, many beautiful homes and resorts. The landscaping is beautiful, a beautiful and relaxing ride through here.

This is Wednesday, April 23rd, we spent the night in Lake Worth, Fl. got back on hwy 1 for the day. It was rather nice instead of only stucco buildings came across some actual vegetation and it was nice to get out of the town area. We spent the night at a roadside rest at Stuart, Fl.

This is Thursday, April 24th, continuing on hwy 1 rode to Ft. Pierce. Had a short day, just under 30 miles, stopped along the way for a little break and enjoyed the area. It rained a little but nothing major.

Today is Friday, April 25th, spent the night just south of Vero Beach. Continuing on hwy 1 to hwy 60 over to hwy A1A, stopped along the way to enjoy the beaches. There were a few people on the beach and there were some waves, which you don't see much of in the Atlantic. Traveling hwy A1A going north came across a plaque which is just north of Sebastian. The sign says possible vacinity of Juan Ponce de Leon's Landing. While there is disagreement among scholars it is believed that this sight maybe in an area where Juan Ponce de Leon made landfall in April 1513. It has long been thought that this event took place near St. Augustine based upon studies of Leon's compass headings and did not account for the inability of 16th century navigators to accurately determine longitude magnetic compass deviations. For the effects of the Gulf stream and prevailing winds, professional navigator, Douglas Tech, retraced Juan Ponce de Leon's route in a sail boat and found a more likely landing site. Tech who sailed the same waters for 30 years, has an intimate geological knowledge of the route Juan Ponce de Leon took. When he re-sailed the route at the same time of year as 1513 voyage, he reached Florida's eastern shore at 28 degrees north latitude 80 degrees 29 minutes less longitude just south of Melbourne beach. He can place the accuracy within 5 to 8 nautical miles on either side of the nautical fix. Many historians now conclude that the area south of Melbourne beach such as this site, was a more probable location for Juan Ponce de Leon's first landing. This park Juan Ponce de Leon landing was created in 2005.

This is Saturday, April 26th, we stayed at a Wal-Mart in Melbourne, Fl. Now heading up hwy 1 came across a turn off that will take you Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center. It is a very worthwhile site to go see with the exhibits of our space exploration and museums in the area.