Sebring!

Headed down to the Winter Star Party in the Keys, but we didn't want to drive most of the day and then face getting all the scopes and camping stuff set up.

It doesn't open till 10 this morning, so we spent the night in Sebring, a few hours from Gainesville. Nice sleepy town, except when it's not. It's been on the international sports-car racing circuit for 60 years, a twelve-hour endurance race. We used to come down and watch it, camping out alongside the hairpin turn. Thrilling high-speed stuff.

 Might be too loud for me now . . . actually it was too loud then, but ice-cold beer and hot dogs and racing groupies in short-shorts made it somehow worthwhile.

   We're at the big old hotel that overlooks Lake Jackson, a respectable two miles wide. Mr. Sebring built the hotel in 1916, a large graceful white pine structure.

 Small rooms with rippling floors now – but no obvious bugs, and only $86 a night. The large foyer / dining room has good coffee all night, and before dawn, a big layout of carbohydrates, including a waffle machine. I was its first customer, about five.

   Not the best environment for writing, with a teevee informing the staff and me about the sleepy part of the news cycle. There was Muzak on top of that, but it appears to have stopped.

  There's a wide veranda out front, though, looking out on the lake, with no music.

 Just a lovely cool breeze over the water. Fortunately I can write without electricity, so I'm headed there now.

Joe