Hollis Gardens

A few pictures from Hollis Gardens, located at Lake Mirror in Lakeland Florida, it's a beautiful little garden that has 16 different sections and a walkway that circles the lake.

There are a lot of weddings held here.

One of the fountains.

There were a few sculptures around the lake.

 "Volunteerism"

And of course some flowers

Mulberry Phosphate Museum

The Mulberry Phosphate Museum in Mulberry Florida, we had no idea of what to expect when we saw this museum but we figured we would give it a try. They have exhibits in three different small buildings, the first tells the history of phosphate mining in Florida. A lot of stuff about how it was formed and it's many uses, but our favorite building was the Fossil displays. When mining the phosphate they used large drag line buckets to dig down to it about 30 feet below the surface, a side effect of the digging was finding prehistoric fossils which many amateur paleontologist in the area recovered. Now a days with all the modernization of the mining procedure they don't allow anyone on the property and nobody really knows how many fossils are being destroyed.

When you see this in the parking lot, you'll know you're in the right place.

This was the predecessor to the Manatee, this was a small one and it was twice the size of a manatee today.

 Baby Whale, the head is at the left and the tail was destroyed by the steam shovel.

 Land turtle

Mastodon

A saltwater crocodile,  from the skull size it would have been close to 30 feet long.  This is a cast model the original is in the Smithsonian.

All of these fossils were found within a few miles of the museum, the whale was found just a couple blocks away.

Some Bike Trails in Central Florida

We've had some great weather while we've been in Central Florida and have been able to get out on some of the bike trail, both the Rails to Trails and the County Greenways. The trails around here are fantastic, they are all paved,14 foot wide with parks or rest areas every few miles, plus they give you a wide variety of surroundings. From tree cover areas that make you feel as if you were in the middle of nowhere, to right through the middle of towns with bike and coffee shops on every corner. The people in the area really use these too, we haven't been out on the weekend (Football) but even on the week days you have to keep your eyes open for all the traffic, bike, ped, roller blades, joggers, dog walkers, baby strollers and even horses.

Here's a few pictures of the trails.

One of the rest areas on the Orange Trail

Downtown Oakland Florida right near one of the trail heads.

We even saw real live cows along the trail

right down the middle of main street in winter Garden

Downtown winter Garden

Bike bridge over the turnpike

Killarney Station, bike shop snacks,restrooms and parking

Just a rest area out on the trail with shade and water

They were doing some tree trimming on the trail so they  have a flagman on both end directing traffic, you just can't get away from it.

Rest area where they rent bikes

Museum in downtown Winter garden

 Riding along the Little Econ River, we saw to Gators while riding this trail which goes right through the middle of Orlando.

Crossing over the Little Econ River

Nature Preserve on the trail

Really don't know what this is

Downtown Winter Garden

The paved section is called Rails to Trails, I call the left side Tracks to Trees.  It was neat that they left some of the original tracks along side the trail.

A couple of Happy Bikers