Last year I crossed this off my ‘bucket lust’ but doing a repeat in 2025 was nice. This year the weather was not quite as cold. Adrienne said it was perfect weather for running. FYI – I was walking, she was running. 🙂
Southern Hill Farms was the locale of choice, less than 15 minutes’ drive. We had a little fog as we were driving up, but it quickly burnt off.
Had a little time to kill after picking up our bibs and walked around their market. Cute use for empty propane tanks,
Quick photo before getting lined up, all neat and pretty.
It’s time to get queued up. Needless to say, Adrienne was up near the front with the ‘runners’ while I was somewhere in the middle with the ‘walkers/joggers’.
Horns sounded and we headed out.
This was a working farm and the route was only partially on a paved area. Last year my shoes got quite dirty along the route.
And finally the third mile.
I can see the finish line……………..yep, most of us are walking and the crowds thinned out quite a bit. Ha!
Made it! Kind of proud of my time, since I didn’t ‘train’ for it. Run time was 49:01.9, and placed 21 out of 38 for my age group. I’m happy.
A bit sweaty, but found Adrienne easily enough. Had to have the cider donut before leaving.
All said and done – a good morning. Now to eat some real food after waking Eric up.
I had something on my bucket list that still needed to be ‘checked off’. Seeing a Florida sunrise and then heading west to see the Florida sunset.
It was time.
Chosen jump-off points: Melbourne Beach then to Anna Maria Island.
After work, we picked up Adrienne and headed to the East coast. We got there in time to see a sunset on the East coast.
First order of business in Melbourne was dinner – Bunky’s.
Yep, it is a sports bar & grill – but had some good food. TVs surrounded us with a multitude of sporting events to suit everyone’s pleasure.
First up – oysters from the James River, VA. I don’t know if these were exceptionally tasty but they definitely hit the spot. It had been months since we had eaten oysters. They disappeared quickly!
They forgot our fish dip but after a gentle reminder it came out, right before our meal. Regardless, by the end of the night it was gone. We ordered the extra ‘fixings’ of jalapenos, onions and tomatoes.
Selections were:
crab cakes & tator tots (Eric)
fish tacos (Adrienne)
Ahi tuna BLT for myself
I had forgotten how much I liked ahi tuna. The above photo doesn’t do it justice – I ate it all and left fries!
Back to the Melbourne Hilton for a nightcap.
dirty martini, old-fashioned and rose’ wine
My alarm went off…………………..1+ hour before needed. 😦 Sorry about that guys. However, I got a good photo from our room.
My Icelandic sheep made an appearance, patiently waiting for the east coast sunrise.
Eric got a good sequence of the sun rising.
One of my shots is below (Have I mentioned that Eric has a newer and thus better phone for photos?), catching sandpipers busily eating before being overtaken by a breaking wave. One little guy was being left behind.
We checked out, searching for a breakfast spot before heading out. This breakfast stop didn’t look like much from the outside (in a strip mall) but the food was fantastic.
It was well chosen!
Onward to the west coast! We chose the ‘scenic’ route, taking our time. We drove south from Melbourne before heading west.
Driving across the state, we came across a number of agricultural industries. First up were these citrus trees. Too many of the fields looked the photo on the right.
Then we started seeing small trees with this netting. That wasn’t surprising since
‘citrus greening’ is spread by tiny sucking insects and this offers some protection from that.
Until………….we came across this farm that had mile after mile of fenced netting for citrus. Yikes!
The cattle industry is also big in Florida. We came across a few herds during our travels.
Traffic was fairly sparse. We started out on this 4 lane highway going due west…….
……before throttling down to a 2-lane road,
Once we got onto the Florida ridge, it was mostly pine trees and palmettos.
Lunch was right before we crossed over onto the Anna Maria Island.
We chose outside seating at the bar – why not, we’re in Florida. Amazing what the right angle and sun exposure will do for a photo – ha!
All of us ordered grouper. Grilled for myself & Adrienne while Eric ordered the grouper cheeks.
Seems like a good spot for a break in this post. More of the coast-to-coast adventure is coming.
Darden Travels 