Another day in Paradise except it was cold (50 degrees), windy (20-30 knots) and the streets were wet but drying with the high winds. Skating the Skyway Access Road seemed like a bad idea so I tried to move the skate at 7 AM but that didn’t even come close to working. Ten people showed up at Maximo Park and 6 at Doe Doe’s. The Maximo group did the Pink Streets first and ate Brunch at Munch’s afterwards. The Doe Doe’s group ate Brunch first and did Taylor Park to Bay Pines Plaza afterwards. The Maximo group had 4 first time skaters with us: Andrea, Sean, Eric and Tony. Welcome new skaters. Glennis agreed to take pictures of the Maximo Group and do a short write up. - Bruce

Glennis’s input: Jeff and I pulled into Maximo Park about 20 to 9 am and were bemused that no one else was there. Sandy had done the same, but was in a different parking area! A phone call got us together and due to pretty windy conditions we were deciding to go to breakfast (someone had actually opened their e-mail this am early and knew everyone else was going directly to Doe Doe's for breakfast). We discovered Glenn was on his way up from Sarasota to the park, and we figured we'd all go to Munch's since it was closer. Discussion ensued and most of us wanted to skate and since we had several new people join us we decided to do just that. We scrapped the Sunshine Skyway skate due to the wind even though Glenn was gung ho to do it (brave soul!) and opted instead to skate the pink streets (see photo) and Bahama Shores instead. We still hit some pretty stiff wind in spots, but mostly it was manageable. Jeff was our leader and Biergit volunteered to be "sweep".

Two people headed for the County Fair in Tampa, while the rest of us caravanned to Munch's for breakfast - at least most of us made it.......somehow we lost "newbie" Eric on the way, or maybe he decided not to come after all......anyway apologies if he reads this.....don't know how we lost him but hope he'll be back next time. Eric is from Portland, Oregon and was at the Miami EsSkate last weekend. Andrea lives in Bahama Shores and kindly provided a water stop for us, and band aids for Sean who was suffering from a blister on one foot.

Birgit coached Andrea after breakfast on what kind of new skates to get and we hope to see her with us again soon. We had a wait at Munch's due to our later than usual arrival (11-ish)......the place was packed and we had to wait about 30 min. for food, but all was delicious, as usual, especially the maple syrup sausage which Jeff raves about!

All made it safe and sound , and we feel we deserve extra credit for not "wimping" out on the Sunday skate due to wind and weather!

See Ya next time! -Glennis