This travel update is for our nine-day stay in Mulberry, Florida, USA. It covers January 14 through 22.

January 14, 2002 – Saturday: moving to Mulberry

We were up early this morning and had the car packed by 11AM for our drive from St. Petersburg to Mulberry. We stopped at our UPS mailbox in Pinellas Park on the way. As a reminder, since we don’t have a permanent physical residential address, we pay for a PO box at the UPS store so we can have a mailing address. Per the US Patriot Act our banks have to have a permanent physical residential address on file for us, but they also allow us to have a mailing address at the UPS store where they mail us stuff.

We drove north through St. Petersburg then east over the Howard Franklin Bridge over Tampa Bay then through Tampa and on to Mulberry.

We’re staying at my brother’s house in Mulberry for the next nine days dogsitting for him and his wife while they’re on vacation. It’s a nice house in a nice neighborhood of Mulberry.

This place is several steps above the kinds of places we’re used to staying in, five bedrooms, 3 baths, swimming pool, etc.

January 15, 2023 – Sunday: The Animals

This week we’re taking care of two Golden Retrievers and a cat. Here’s Dudley,

and Gracie,

and Faith.

Their care is typical, feed them morning and evening, take them outside a few times a day (except for the cat), and play with them. Also, there are light household chores like taking the garbage out and bringing the mail in. We’ll have an easy week here.

January 16, 2023 – Monday: The Circle B Bar Nature Reserve

My friend Mike had recommended this place, he was there a couple of weeks ago. It’s a popular place with photographers and Mike is a big photographer. So, we decided to go over there today. It’s only 11 miles east of us and includes some of Lake Hancock which is the headwaters of the Peace River.

“The Circle B Bar Reserve is an area of protected lands in Polk County, Florida. Comprising 1,267 acres. The park was purchased in 2000 for $7.4 million using funds provided by an environmental lands acquisition referendum approved by voters in 1994. Polk’s Nature Discovery Center, completed in 2008, features interactive displays about the plants, animals, and ecosystems of the reserve. The center serves as the focus of environmental education programs and explorations for families, school groups, teachers, adults, and other visitors. Construction began in 2007, consisting of four buildings totaling 16,000 square feet at a cost of $6.4 million. Circle B Bar Reserve is named after the cattle ranch that once occupied the restored wetland site. It was purchased to help maintain the Banana Creek marsh area, home to an array of birds such as white ibis, roseate spoonbills, sandhill cranes and bald eagles, along with other wildlife like alligators, bobcats, snakes, gray squirrels, river otters, and wild hogs. The preserve has been designated as a Great Florida Birding Trail site, a program of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Circle B Bar contains 3.5 miles of unpaved hiking/biking trails and is connected to the paved Fort Fraser Trail by the 0.6-mile paved Fort Fraser-Circle B Bar Connector Trail, which runs from Lakeland to Bartow.”

My friend Dave joined us. He was driving from Orlando to Sarasota today so he spent his afternoon with us on the way.

The white trees behind us in this picture are Bald Cypress trees.

Here’s Patti and Dave on the trail.

Here’s the lake with an Anhinga (bird) in the foreground.

There were lots of birds in the reserve. Dave used his bird sound identification app on his phone to identify the Yellow Rumped Warblers that were all over the place and that were evidently making a lot of noise.

I couldn’t hear them my hearing is so bad, but, maybe by this summer my new cochlear implant will enable me to hear bird sounds again.

We saw several good-sized alligators.

At the top of this dead tree an Osprey was eating a fish.

We spent about 3 hours walking the trail and enjoying the nature show. This is a very nice nature reserve, we highly recommend it.

January 17, 2023 – Tuesday: Lake Hollingsworth

We went up to nearby Lakeland today so Patti could get some new running shoes at Fleet Feet. After that we went for a walk around Lake Hollingsworth which is in the city of Lakeland. Google maps did a decent job of recording our walk, except for the two straight lines that make it look as though we flew across the water and back.

Even though this area is highly developed there was a lot a wildlife around the lake like these White Ibis.

And this Purple Gallinule.

And this Little Blue Heron.

And this alligator with turtles.

And this Roseate Spoonbill with two ducks.

And here we are with Cypress Trees.

It was a pretty walk.

January 18, 2023 – Wednesday: Lake Parker Park

Our lake walk for today was at Lake Parker. It was a quick drive up through Lakeland.

Here’s Patti at the lake.

We saw that we were on the De Soto Trail.

“Hernando de Soto (c. 1500 – 21 May, 1542) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula. He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro’s conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru, but is best known for leading the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States (through Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and most likely Arkansas). He is the first European documented as having crossed the Mississippi River.”

Those Spanish were pretty fixated on conquering! It’s interesting to learn a bit about history as we walk.

This is a nice park with a lot of walkways. We took the path along the lake for a while. I like the reddish-brown colors of the Bald Cypress trees and their “knees”. Here you can see two knees sticking up in the foreground.

This shot was looking up into Cypress Trees.

A Wood Stork walked across the path while Patti was on the phone.

This bird may be a Grackle, there were a lot of them around and they have pretty iridescence on their backs.

In this picture there’s a Purple Gallinule in front and a Common Gallinule in the back.

One small pond had several small alligators in it. Here’s one.

We got to the playground and had a good time on this traversing swing that runs along a monorail track.

This is a good shot of a Wood Stork sitting down. It looks weird how their knees bend the opposite direction from ours.

So we had another pretty walk today along one of the many lakes of Lakeland.

January 19, 2023 – Thursday: Three More Lakes!

The dogs have been getting us up early this week, way earlier than we’re used to. The first couple of days we had left our bedroom door open but then the dogs came in around 5AM and put their paws on the bed and made noise. Basically, they seemed very excited that a new day was beginning. If it was up to me we’d wait until around 7AM to get up. So, this morning we had our bedroom door closed and I set my alarm for 6AM, splitting the difference in the schedules of humans and canines. When I opened our bedroom door at 6AM the dogs were in the hallway waiting for me excitedly. Our morning routine is that the dogs go out in the backyard for a few minutes and pee, in the dark, then come back in and I feed them and the cat. Then after an hour the dogs go out again and poop.

Today we drove back up into Lakeland to see three more lakes. But first, since we were up earlier than usual, we went to a nearby breakfast place, Joshua’s Kitchen, for a hearty breakfast.

I had to get a to-go box for about half of my skillet meal, because I couldn’t fit it all into my stomach.

The first lake of the day was Lake Morton, which is known for having swans. Here’s a recent article about it. Evidently Queen Elizabeth II of England gave Lakeland a couple of swans back in 1957.

“LAKELAND, FL (February 4, 2022) | As Queen Elizabeth II gets ready to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee, the City’s swans will be celebrating their Blue Sapphire Jubilee. February 8th will mark the 65th Anniversary of Lakeland’s royal swans arriving on Lake Morton. On this day in 1957, the two swans gifted by Queen Elizabeth II arrived on Lake Morton in downtown Lakeland. Since that time, Lakeland’s swans have become iconic figures in the community. It is almost a rite of passage for families to visit Lake Morton to feed our beloved swans. Swans can be found in freshwater lakes, ponds, and estuaries primarily in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States. Their early migration to Florida came from seasonal residents wanting to have swans as pets on or near their winter homes. By 1926, Lakeland had a swan population of 20 and the City established a Swan Department to help oversee their care.”

It’s a pretty lake but it’s surrounded by buildings.

The Swan Department ropes off the swan nests. Here’s Patti in a deep squat, getting a picture of a black swan in its nest.

The white box here is full of swan food, the black swan was eating and the ring-necked ducks were picking up food scraps that were spilled by the swan.

There were a lot of these big Muscovy Ducks.

And here’s one of the white swans, maybe also called a mute swan. I think the cypress stumps in the background are pretty.

This was an interesting area, there were White Pelicans on the seawall, the smaller black birds on the lower right are American Coots, and there were two gray swans in the foreground. I think White Pelicans spend the winter in Florida.

The second lake was Lake Mirror, another pretty lake surrounded by the city.

It did have a really pretty garden on the south shore.

The third lake of the day was Lake Wire, here’s Patti with it.

This lake is known as being a staging area for some Buffalo Soldiers before they went to Cuba in 1898.

“One of four all-black regiments in the regular army at the outbreak of the Spanish American War, the 10th Cavalry camped at this site on the shore of Lake Wire in the spring of 1898 while awaiting transport to Cuba. The black regiments gained renown and the nickname “Buffalo Soldiers” as a result of their exploits in campaigns against the American Indians on the Western frontier.”

Anhinga are all over the place around here, often drying their wings in the sun. Some of them have white markings on their backs like this one.

I brought my Nikon point-and-shoot camera today with the 30X optical zoom. I haven’t used it in a while but it comes in handy for wildlife shots because I can zoom in a lot more than on my phone. Here’s a Green Heron and a Cooter turtle.

Here’s a Little Blue Heron

And this is a Limpkin.

You can always tell when Limpkins are around because there are empty Apple Snails on the banks, like this one.

Limpkins only eat Apple Snails and other mollusks.

We had a nice walk around the lakes and downtown Lakeland today.

January 20, 2023 – Friday: A Trip to the Storage Unit

We decided to take some stuff back to our storage unit in Sarasota and then bring back my old digital piano and stand so we can use them at our cabin in Jacksonville. So today we made the trip south.

Since we were in the area we stopped at Skyline Chili for lunch in Lakewood Ranch. We hadn’t eaten Skyline Chili for two years. My son and I used to eat there frequently when we lived in Cincinnati and I miss it. Patti likes it too. There were lots of Cincinnati-type signs on the wall.

“Skyline Chili is a chain of Cincinnati-style chili restaurants based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1949 by Greek immigrant Nicholas Lambrinides, Skyline Chili is named for the view of Cincinnati’s skyline that Lambrinides could see from his first restaurant (which has since been demolished), opened in the section of town now known as Price Hill. It is also the “official chili” of many local professional sports teams and venues, including the Cincinnati Reds, Cincinnati Cyclones, Columbus Blue Jackets and the Kings Island theme park.”

We felt a little bad about not contacting any of our friends in the Sarasota/Bradenton area to see if they wanted to eat lunch with us but we hadn’t been sure what our schedule was going to be today and decided not to make any last-minute invitations.

January 21, 2023 – Saturday: Just Errands

We didn’t do that much today, I went for a jog, we went out for lunch, Patti did some shopping. I did want to mention that Lakeland has done this thing that a lot of cities have done where they make a bunch of fiberglass statues and people paint them all different ways. Cincinnati had Flying Pigs, Dundee Scotland had Oor Wullies, New Orleans had oysters. Lakeland has swans.

“In 2002 an organization named Swansation commissioned over 100 Florida artists to design and decorate 62 fiberglass swans. After being on exhibit through April 2003, the swans were sold at “The Swan Song” auction. Several of these are on display around downtown Lakeland.”

So, here we are with four of the statues.

We thought about getting pictures with more of them, but, did other things instead.

January 22, 2023 – Sunday: Richard and Laura Return

We’re having an easy day today, doing some laundry and packing to get ready for our drive to Jacksonville, Florida tomorrow. Richard and Laura (my brother and his wife) got back from their vacation around 1PM and later we went out to a late lunch at Mission BBQ. After that we watched football playoff games.

Future Plans:

• January 23 – May 2: we’ve got a “vacation cottage” reserved at Flamingo Lake RV Park in Jacksonville, Florida. That’s where I’ll be recuperating from my Cochlear Implant surgery that’s scheduled for February 13. We’ll need to go back to the audiologist at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville frequently in the first 3 months after surgery so she can make changes to my programming.
• May 2 – June 2: we’ve got a mobile home reserved at the Twin Shores Mobile Home Park on Longboat Key near Sarasota. We’ve stayed at that park before but in a different unit.
• After June 2, no plans yet, but we’re thinking about doing a road trip up the east coast to Maine and back. I don’t want to decide anything definite until I see how the cochlear implant is working out.