A Taste of Venice

November 4 , 2001_ Sunday Day 9-At our first reststop of the morning , just over the Myacca River .We are sitting in the woods by a tower and I see a lot of hog sign around this area .Skil's seems to be in better spirits this morning . Slowing down , helps the little guy adapt to the rigourus trek we have undertaken . Whatever I thought about my luck changing for the better , sure is taking its time showing up . This sign here reads 80 miles to Tampa and 8 til Venice .
9:10 AM- Somewhere between North Port and Venice , and there isn't a whole lot of life on this road at all.There does happen to be a lot of strange flies , though. I have never seen the likes of these things .They aren't scared at all , I try to brush them off Skil's back and they just jump over my hand and re-land . I almost have to scrape them off. Really strange pests ! I forgot to get water at the Myacca store , hope something comes along soon . Skil's is having a tick problem , but not a catastrophe yet!
11:45 AM-I know how Columbus must have felt when he discovered America . I feel like that being here in the first sign of civilization , I have seen today. I suppose this is S Venice and I found a little spot behind a Hess station . I promised Skil's he could rest awhile and its not a great place , but it will do . I figure we have made 12-14 miles today and the only life (other than the flies) that we encountered were a family of otters , Skil's sure wanted to get 'em too! Gonna leave here at 3:00PM . We have been here 3hrs. now , that's a pretty good rest . We'll see whats on down the road . We may not be in Venice yet , but soon will be .
5:10 PM- Just walked 2hrs. in what I thought was Venice . We stopped behind a Shell station just passed a sign that said "Entering Venice". I wonder how big this town is? I don't think anybody has ever heard of it except fot Danny Rust . If I would have known this , I wouldn't have taken a three hour break .
Another day , I didn't get to wash up , have to do something to get cleaned up before the cold front gets here. As far as today's news goes , there is no war yet , Skil's caught a squirrel (it got away) , my goodluck I'm expecting is running late and been rained on once . The worst rain is yet to come .
6:00 PM- And the rains came! We are sitting under a scaffold at a construction job waiting on the rain to quit . It's a good sized job with a lot of foam work and in a little while I am going to borrow a few sheets of their foam and make a bed out of it . The Motel 6 that me and Laura stayed at once is across the street , at least I kind of know where I am now .
Rain has stopped and we made a bed back in the woods behind the construction job . I got me a quart of beer and Skil's a can of food from the store across the street . Just sitting here watching the world go by. A cop keeps riding up and down the street . Wonder what he's looking for ? Maybe , the big styrofoam bandit , me . About 3:00AM , a cop pulled into the store parking lot next to a van that had parked there fifteen minutes earlier . They talked for a bit , then left together down another side street . Strange going's on around here.