Florida Revisited

The pot's been sitting there a long time; too long.

I'll be adding more now though, as I'm revisiting my years in Florida for a series on The Many Faces of Florida being published on Striped Pot, a new online travel magazine. Striped Pot was started as a co-op of several experienced travel writers who had been "meeting" in their Google Group.

As a group, we represent many parts of the world and lovers of various genres of travel: adventure, luxury, romantic, budget, family and senior.

My first few articles were related to our present home, Vermont. One day, looking through some old photos, I realized I know more, much more about Florida from the years I had lived and worked there in the travel business.

I'd visited Florida since my early teens, staying in the heart of Citrus County. Later, as a golfer, I ranged the coast from Fernandina Beach, around the keys, and back up as far as Venice, where I settled down for thirteen years. It was during this time I started "The Get-Away-Gang" for GM Travel. Tourists would walk in and ask if we had a day trips. At that time, there were no local companies doing this so I asked my boss if I could rent a van and start some. Boss Barbara Dunham nodded her head and the Gang was born.

I had a ball! But that's going to be thrown into the pot. It's lunch time and Cor has a wonderful appetite - must keep it satisfied.

The stew started with a few carrots, lots of spice and a few lemons.

Welcome to the Stew Pot of Life: "a bit o' this and a bit o' that" and where we go from here, nobody knows.

But I hope everyone will throw in a line or two; maybe a story, maybe a photo - keep the pot boiling.  So come along and let's see where this takes us.


Ask questions, share good ideas for vacations, etc. Do you have a good recipe for zucchini bread (that's a joke - when zucchini first became 'yuppie' - around the late '60s, everybody was dropping off excess zucchinis in your car, at your doorstep, anywhere. There were so many, we all started making our own versions of zucchini bread.)


So stir up a few topics for us while I go get the bread out of the oven.