Sarasota, Florida
We spent the day in Sarasota. Amanda, Ed, and Kathy went to the Ringling Museum. These pictures show the museum and the magnitude of the circus, in its heyday.
Summary of the Ringling history 
The train car where Ringling rode. 
Wishing this for you! 
One of many wagons 
Shoot the man from the cannon! 
Miniatures by the 1,000’s 
Such detail. Mr. Howard spent 50 years making all these. 
The food tent 
View of the miniature circus from above.
This is not an orchid, but a bloom from a tree.
While they enjoyed the museum circuit, I took the long ride to the phone repair shop, with hopes my phone (dropped last night) had one more life left in it. With my new bicycle (first new bike since college), I excitedly took off on the first 4-mile leg of the day. A reasonably bike friendly town, Sarasota offered a good number of dedicated paths for most of my trip. However, the majority of the paths were along highways with pretty fast traffic, so I stayed on sidewalks everywhere possible. Forty-five minutes and 2 burning legs later, I arrived at CPR (Computer Phone Repair). I had to leave the phone as there was one ahead of me. This provided the window of opportunity I had unsuccessfully tried for several times before. Just 3 ½ miles further was Sak’s Fifth Avenue, local retailer for David Yurman jewelry.
Side note: while we were caring for Amanda’s brother in Pine Mountain, her Yurman earrings mysteriously disappeared. For 2 weeks before we left his home, we looked in every pocket, shelf, and anywhere they could have possibly been misplaced. I gave her those earrings more than 20 years ago and we were both sick they were not recovered (at least yet).
With water bottle and backpack, I took off on my shiny new bicycle to Saks’. I passed by a Walmart and bought a lock for my bicycle. The kind lady in the customer service line allowed me to “hide” the bike at her counter while I went to the bicycle department. They weren’t keen on my riding it to that department. In a jiffy, I resumed the journey and soon arrived at air conditioned retail luxury. Ms. Maria lead me to the David Yurman section of the jewelry department, and soon I was holding almost identical earrings to those recently lost. She gift wrapped my little box and I was soon headed back to CPR. A side trip to Tijuana Flats provided a quick chicken salad and chips. The bad news, my repair guy had doubts for my old phone. If repaired, he was afraid it would not hold up long. Feeling like I was living out the season finale of Chicago Med, I told him to pull the plug on my old friend, and show me the new phones (reconditioned). Almost 2 hours later, life returned to normal. I can, once again, determine where I am, how to get to where I want to go, call an Uber, talk and text, get the weather forecast for tomorrow’s journey, and gloat over my grandchildren’s pictures. I did have one retro moment today. I actually wrote down the directions to the repair shop on a piece of paper (some of you will remember paper…some of you probably remember writing).
No more than finished at CPR, and Amanda called me on my new phone, wanting me to Uber to St. Armand’s Circle and meet the 3 of them for an early dinner at The Columbia. Cuban cuisine, we had a Cuban sandwich and 1905 Salad. Sangria was the beverage choice of the day that Amanda and Ed enjoyed, while Kathy and I turned our noses up to it. A good sandwich and an outstanding salad, we called one more Uber to get us back to the dinghy dock before dark. Neither of us have lights on our little boats, so we were a little panicked about making it back on time. We crept along together and, with the lighting all around the basin, made it safely back to the boat.
Thrilled (I think) with the new earrings, I wished Amanda a Happy Late Valentine’s Day. They will have to do, until the day, if and when, the old sentimental, treasured earrings show up.
Tomorrow, we leave Sarasota and head further South.