SOLOMON'S CASTLE RIDE

I woke up Sunday morning and noticed how great it was outside when I walked the dog. Sunny, breezy, very low humidity and the temperature around 68. So I saddled up the steel pony and headed out on the highway. I had heard about this little known attraction called "Solomon's Castle" about 90 miles south of Tampa. www.solomonscastle.com So I decided to head down there and check it out. The ride was pretty nice, mostly through the farm and cattle country of Florida. Once I arrived, I parked in the parking lot with about 20 other motorcycles. As I walked up the path, you almost immediately notice little oddities, like a wood framed box with a metal bed head and foot board. There were flower growing in the wood box...Thus, a "Flower Bed". The castle, as you can see in the photo is pretty cool. Almost entirely made of recycled material, it is a museum for the art and metal sculptures of Howard Solomon. The outside shell of the castle is actually photo engraving plates from a newspaper printing press. You can just take in the grounds, the nature trail, the gift shop or go to the restaurant. You can also take the tour of the castle for $10. My tour was conducted by Howard Solomon himself. Be prepared to not only see some neat stuff made from ... well, junk, but hear Howard describe each piece with one pun after another. Pretty corny stuff...but it went perfect with the junk-art motif. They even have a bed and breakfast room that you can rent.

The tour took me through the "Boat in the Moat" family restaurant to get to a gift shop, where the tour ends. So after a quick look at the "gifts", I went into the restaurant for lunch. Alane and Dean, and family served up a good serving of Bar-B-Que baked chicken, mashed potatos, homemade cole slaw and a dinner roll. They serve beer, wine coolers and margaita's, but I stuck with Iced Tea. The menu is full of stuff, from hot dogs, sandwiches, salads to Lasagna and Prime Rib. Howard was quick to point out, that the Boat in the Moat was made of recycled lumber and took 5 years to build. This is a neat little stop off the beaten path. I will be going back to see it in the evening when it's lit up and Alane & Dean are cooking up the Ribs. One stange thing to note..only the gift shop takes plastic, The Castle tour and restaurant only takes cash.

Cyaz!

BUSY...BUSY...and BUSY

OK...I thought retirement from a 40+ hour a week job meant sleeping in...relaxing...catching up on some movies and reading....WHEN DOES THAT START? Wow, I have been busy, busy, busy. The nice thing is I do everything pretty much on my schedule without some assclown trying to second guess me or have me do it their way...and most of the time it was wrong. One of the first things was to tackle some of the projects that needed to be done around the house. Painting, yard work, cleaning out junk. I hired a friend that has his own remodeling company to come in and start some big projects that I wouldn't have a clue how to do. The first thing we did was laid a new wood laminate floor in my home office. I stripped the room of everything and painted it. Got rid of decades of mismatched furniture and useless stuff. Once the floor was down, I began putting photos, awards and memento's on the wall and starting assembling a new desk system. Meanwhile, Steve began a complete remodel of the bathroom. It's an 8 x 10 room, so there is lots of area to do so neat things. I'll talk more about the remodeling in another post.

Then there is the photo biz. I've had several weddings and a very cool job with Santiago Choppers, photographing a new creation. I really want to put it on my blog, especially with the HOT model I used. Erin Gilliam really added to the shot, AS YOU CAN SEE. The bike is awesome too. I can't show it right now because the shoot was for a major bike magazine and I can't "scoop" them. Alan Bernard, owner & builder, made this Bobber for a member of the rock-a-billy band, The Stay Cats. The custom made bike is adorned with Stray Cat appointments, including guitar parts. A week before, we did some beach shots of just the bike and a new trike Alan designed. I will get some images posted soon.

Like I mentioned above, I have been doing some weddings. The latest was at a very cool location in Dade City (North of Tampa). It was at a place called Lange Farm. It was beautiful, with a horse farm look and perfectly manicured grounds. The ceremony was under an Oak Hammock with a decorated gazebo. With the Groom Travis, and the wedding party in place, his beautiful bride Jessica arrived to the red carpet in a horse drawn carriage. The Garden House is where the reception was held. A cross between a plantation house and a ballroom, is was a great room to have a reception.

What I'm really excited about is my website company has now added photo book publishing. So, I have now started offering Wedding Books in addition to albums. This is a great new option to offer my clients. These are coffee table, hard bound leather books in an array of sizes. Very cool.

Riding the scooter as well. Went to the Cotee River bike fest last week. It was a good show with lots of vendors. The headliner for the Saturday night concert was the Marshall Tucker Band. It was a very hot day. Thank goodness the temps are starting to come down in the evenings making for some nice rides. I'm also doing a little writing and photography for a new local bike magazine called Go For A Ride [GoFAR]. It's a nice concept, a little different from most biker magazines. This one concentrates on riding...going on bike trips, whether day rides or long distance. Most of the other ones are more about bars and ...sorry... some skanky women. And not that those magazines don't have a place...they do, but, GoFAR is a breath of fresh air.

Ok..until next time. Cyaz!