POST FLORIDA-CONFERENCE, ADVENTURE #1

Alligator Alley.
(Click to enlarge photos.)

My youngest son Paul would be coming to Florida on March 10 to play a week of baseball with his team from Ohio Weslyan University in Delaware, OH, so I had to find something to do in the meantime. As I already told you, my mind was strained from constantly thinking about the evangel and related topics, so I decided I would visit some saints and shut the brain down as much as I possibly could. (Easier said than done.)

A man I’d never met, Bob Wigden, sat a row in front of me at the Dania Beach conference, and he turned around on Saturday afternoon, handed me a business card and said, “If you need a place to stay over on the west coast (The Florida gulf coast), consider looking me up."

Be careful when you say this to me, folks, because I just might take you up on it. Sure enough, I drove across the state on Alligator Alley (Interstate 75), then drove up the coast a ways to Sarasota to see Bob.

I spent three nights with him, and had a great time (yet another lazy phrase—“had a great time”—I’m sorry.) Bob showed me the town, took me to dinner and breakfast, and cooked two really fine dinners at home. In addition, we toured the circus museum (I highly recommend it), and the John Ringling mansion.

Sarasota was the winter home for the Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey Circus for years. As you can probably already guess, I really relate to the circus. In fact, one of my uncles (I never met him; he died before I was born; it was my dad’s oldest brother) ran away with the circus continually at a young age, and had to be captured, continually, by his father and returned home. This uncle (his name was Lloyd), eventually married the “Sheep-Haired Woman” from the sideshow, and had a daughter with her, whom my sister still stays in contact with. (I have no idea what her hair looks like, sorry. I imagine it is quite woolly.)

Bob at Bob's house, Sarasota, FL.
That's the Zendermobile, a 1999 Ford Contour.

Front of Bob's House.

Bob took me to lunch at the Hob Nob, a noted outdoor Sarasota eatery.
(You can have anything you want, as long as it's hamburgers and french fries.)

Sign at the Circus Museum. Bob thought the wording fit my ministry
to a "T," and insisted I take a photo of it. (Can't argue with him.)

The John Ringling mansion.

Besides all the fun touring we did, Bob and I enjoyed great times of fellowship. It turns out I can never shut my mind off completely, not that I would ever want to. 

After visiting with Bob, it was off to the home of Maury and Ruth Wilson. Thanks for coming along with me!

© 2013 by Martin Zender