the Legacy Trail and Jonathan

This is a section of the Legacy Trail that runs past my Dad's, where I go walking frequently.  It's a biking/walking trail that they put in place of an old set of train tracks that used to run along here.

What's weird for me is that these were the same train tracks that used to run behind our house, so I would have walked along this path when I was a kid except it was along railroad ties instead of pavement.

Thinking about the old train tracks also now makes me think of Jonathan and the time I told him about one of my childhood traditions.  So Sarasota has a long history with the circus, and still does.  When I was a kid the railroad tracks behind our house were still in use and every year at the start of the circus season the Ringling Brother's train would go past our house on these tracks.

So I'm telling Jon about how I remember every year going out back to watch the train go past because you could see the animals in the box cars.  Mostly it was just a flash of zebra pattern through the windows of the car, but there were other fun ones to look out for like the giraffes who's car had an open top so they could stick their head out and look around.  Jon thought this sounded very cool, and lost in the excitement of it all said, "wow that's so incredible, I can't believe you could see all the different animals, could you see the clowns too?"

I die.  Seriously it still cracks me up.  I think I said something like, "well I don't think they make the clowns travel in cages and pretend to be clowns, I think they are allowed to take passenger trains".

The more I think about it though the more I like the image of a car full of clowns like leaning out the windows waving balloon animals and spraying seltzer water at the onlookers.  That would be the greatest show on Earth.

Anyways, as if I wasn't already thinking fondly of Jon I came across some nice purple flowers that I enjoyed in his honor:

So thank you Jon, for putting a smile on my face during my lonely afternoon walk.

<3