Trenton

From Jose

Our next stop was Weeki Wachee Spring. They have a very cool mermaid show. The audience sits in an underwater theater with glass panels looking into the spring while the mermaids perform underwater. I had been there many years ago but Diane had no idea this place existed. They also have a training camp where young women can train to become mermaids. Diane's niece Mariah likes Weeki Wachee very much and would like to attend the camp. I got my picture taken with a mermaid. Diane and I asked her some technical questions about the diving and the mermaid answered in a very thorough but simple way. She seemed to enjoy her "work"  and be genuinely friendly.

From Weeki Wachee we went to Clearwater to visit another friend. That visit did not work out but fortunately the purpose of the trip is to travel and see the US so coming to Clearwater was not a total waste. We did have some trouble finding a place to stay.  All the campgrounds were booked  or did not allow dogs. Finally the people at Lee's RV Park  made an exception to their 20 pound dog limit (Abe is 43 lb) and allowed us in. Apparently Abe did not understand that these nice people were doing him a big favor because he darted out the door again and went for a fast sprint all over the campground, as mentioned a few blog entries back. This is where I made the decision to return Abe to his shelter. So we backtracked to DeLand and to the Southeastern Border Collie Rescue before heading to Trenton to see Diane's friend MaryBeth.

MaryBeth and her husband Bruce live on a 5-acre farm with MaryBeth's mom Mary, Bruce' sister Jan, 9 dogs, 3 cows, 2 miniature horses and 1 goat. It sounds very hectic but in reality is a very peaceful and healing place. I made great strides in healing from the loss of my beloved Matilda. All the humans were so friendly and the animals, with their adventurous shyness, made it feel like being home. Bruce needed help putting up a fence in the horses' pasture and he asked us to stay a couple of extra days to help with that project. I'm not sure how much I actually helped but I was glad to be outdoors, breathing the fresh air, moving around.

As I have mentioned earlier, the trip is not the same without Matilda, so from Trenton we fast forwarded West towards Donna in Prescott, Arizona. Up to that point in the trip we averaged 50 miles per day but after Trenton we averaged about 200. I just want to get home.

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