July 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th Osprey Fl

July 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th Osprey Fl
We spent the next four nights at Oscar Scherer state Park.  A very nice and large state park with spacious sites.  It reminded us a little of Tomoka State Park near Ormond.  The vegetation was very thick and tropical. On sunday July 8th we took a quick tour of the coast down to Fort Myers and visited the address of an old family friend of Elaine's, Dick Galasso.  Dick always raved about his winter home in florida.  During our self guided tour, our chassis air conditioning went out.  So on Monday we multitasked.  We spent the morning at the Ringling Museum in Saratoga.  This museum was amazing.  It really is about 5 museums on one campus.  Four museums about the Ringling Circus and one museum which is a great art gallery.  Over lunch on the Ringling campus I did some phone searching and contacted a small repair shop who agreed to look at the rv air conditioner.  So mid afternoon I dropped Elaine off at a mall and I headed to the repair shop.  I had a great time with the owner who let me tag along as he trouble-shot the ac system.  I learned a lot and he got the system working in an hour.  The only trouble was a loose connector at my compressor clutch.  I was on my way back to the mall in one hour and very happy. The next three days we went to the beach in Nokomis.  This beach had to be one of the best we have visited this trip.  The water was warm, the surf gentle, the sand clean of seaweed. We also spent one morning at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota.
First museum in the Ringling complex is the Howard Bros. Circus which is a miniature model of the Ringling Circus.

The Howard Bros miniatures number 50,000 pieces and were made by one person, Howard Tibball.  The amount of detail in the entire exhibit is amazing.

This describes the exhibit nicely.

Howard made up this sign for his circus.  He was not allowed to use the Ringling name, but he did use the Ringling artwork.

A view of David in the Ringling art museum outside gardens.  Last time we saw him was in Italy.

Outside the art museum, the landscape was very picturesque.

Here is a picture of the  front door of the shop where I met Luke who fixed our air conditioning.

We met this turtle on the road coming out of the Oscar Scherer campgrounds.

View of Nokomis beach from the parking lot.

The parking lot was right next to the beach access.  Did not have to walk more than 100 feet to the beach.

Did I mention that I have taken up floating? Very relaxing!

A view of the Nokomis beach from our blanket.

Front entrance to the Selby Botanical Gardens.

A little about Marie Selby and the gardens.

Saw a lot of these trees in the gardens.  Look at the crazy root system!


Pretty crazy root system.

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