December 31, 2010-THE FINAL JOURNEY (for now)

This is the final walk of the year!  Walk #365 is finally here!  So many of my friends showed up, and thank you to all of the texters, and facebookers who have been such a HUGE part of this journey.  Your love, encouragement, and sense of humor brought me here, to this point today, and I am thinking of you all.

 Tampa skyline in the background, we're ready to go.

 Steve McCreery was in town, all the way from North Carolina.  Glad to have "Steve the Weave" along.

 My buddy Mike who has been there since day one.

 Friends Tom Schmidt and Steve Weitekamp just "happened" to wear each other's MATCHING colors.

 Reporter Ashley Jeffries came out to cover the story which ran on Bay News 9.  She did an awesome job.

 Bernie shot the video and even helped me to look a little thinner! 

 There are signs everywhere... taunting me.

 The walk starts here!

 Roadkill.

 SuDo!!! Sue Dodge came out for the walk despite her bad knee and ligaments.

 Steve and his sister Cindy are here.  Cindy loves polkas, and we shared a couple tonight.

 Mike and Steve!

 X files style patterns in the shallows of Tmpa Bay.

 The story of Bayshore.

 A very proud Tom Schmidt.  Thanks buddy.  You get me!

A random hot girl checking her iPod... or did I send a text?  LOL... the journey is partially over.  The walk a days done.

December 30, 2010

This year has been full of a lot of surprises, and equalling them is the fact that tonight I am taking walk #364 at Morton Plant Hospital.  Mom was admitted today after I brought her into emergency last night with severe stomach pains.  I thought I'd head down my favorite sunset spot but it was too cloudy.

 I've grown to hate this place. 

 Waiting on a sunset that never came!

Look closely in the middle at the flying V shape of the geese flying out to an island for the night.  The year-long-journey continues for one more day.

December 29, 2010

Tonight it's walk #363 and this is Michael.  I met him on the beach when I offered to take a picture of him and his girlfriend with their camera.  He returned the favor and took mine, and we chatted briefly about this year of walks.  He seemed genuinely interested, and wished me luck as I told him my plans for next year.  He was generous enough to share a picture with me, another friend met along this journey.

 Michael's shot of me!

 I saw this wedding party shooting photos on the beach at sunset.  Not wanting to get into the picture I shot this shot of the preparation for a photo memory this couple will share for a lifetime.

 Seagulls at sunset.  It doesn't get much better.

A heart in the sand... the journey continues. 

December 28, 2010

 Today I'm with Greg and Linda.  Linda's my boss, and Greg's her friend.  Greg was nice enough to bring a subway sandwich by and we all had lunch.  Afterword, we did the Carillon boardwalk for walk #362.  It's a beautiful day outside, still a little cool, but we loved it.

 Linda's getting the proper angle on this Cormorant, but her position is what she calls her "poop shot".  LOL!

 Linda and Greg and the BIG tower.

 Pondering... hmmmm.

I Skweesh you!

December 27, 2010

 Walk 361-First pictures with the new SONY bloggie! We're back out on the Carillon circuit with Kelly at lunchtime. She's all bundled up for the weather, I apparently thought it was summer. I swore it was about 65-68 degrees, and when we got back to work, Kelly confirmed that it was only 48 degrees. I thought it was cool... but not COLD! Turns out... it was COLD! Thanks Kelly!

 Nice quality on the bloggie.  Shoots pictures in HD.

 The tower looks good.

Somebody took out one of the light posts!

Kelly and I trying to figure out exactly WHICH walk this was.  Here's some video from the new Sony Bloggie.

December 26, 2010

 Walk 360-We're in the home stretch now. Today, Mike and I headed over to Sand Key Park in Clearwater and we were going to take in a long walk out to the jetty and take some pictures, but DAMN, the wind and the cold were kicking SO bad, that all we managed was to walk out to the beach and take a few pictures of all the surfers who were out on the Gulf enjoying the massive waves rolling in. 5 to go... it's exciting.

 Surfers head out in the 50-something degree weather in full-body wetsuits.  The wind is kicking, and the windchill feels like it's in the 40's

 We actually have waves rolling in on the Gulf coast.

 Great cutback move out in the Gulf.

And the journey continues... cowabunga.

December 25, 2010 Christmas Day

 Merry Christmas from Redington Beach, and this is walk #359.  It's beautiful outside, temps in the mid-70s and its just wonderful.

 Beach access. 

 BAD ASS coffee!  I loved the name, I love the sign.  The shop was closed today for Christmas, but you can bet I will be sippin' some BAD ASS in the New Year.

 The beach was crowded today.  Moreso than I thought.

 Someone left a Christmas card in the sand.

 I have never seen this many shells beached together ever.  There were hundreds of them.

Defiance!