Living Our Dream

Florida Wrap-up

Bushnell, FL - Events of Friday, March 23 to Monday, March 26, 2012

Staying in one spot for three or four months has its advantages and its disadvantages. The advantages are that it provides some down time when we can relax from our busy summer schedule of travel and sightseeing. It also provides time to work on projects. The disadvantage is we (Paul especially) start to grow roots. This year was especially bad for Paul. All the woodworking he had to do to install the residential refrigerator made him long for a workshop. Also, the winter was mild even for Florida, and there seemed to be more flowers blooming everywhere. That made Paul wish he had a garden. However, once we begin planning the details of the routes to our first couple of stops and thinking about new adventures, and once we start thinking of some of our old, favorite places, we begin to get excited again about hitting the road.

As we spent our last few days in Bushnell, we began preparing for our departure. On Friday, we started putting things away inside the motor home and got rid of a few items from our storage compartments we weren't using anymore. Paul checked the oil in the car and motor home, checked the air pressures in the tires and cleaned the windshield on Saturday. Margery caught up on laundry on Monday.

Another thing we did over the weekend was to make a final check of the travel latches we plan to use for the new residential refrigerator. When he finished the installation, Paul had a couple of different methods in mind to hold the doors closed while we were in transit. The method we decided on was a pair of child-proof locks on the bottom drawer to hold the freezer closed and Velcro around the handles to hold the refrigerator doors closed. We also got some spring curtain rods to use inside the refrigerator to keep the contents from shifting.

We found nice child-proof locks at Walmart that can be disabled by pressing the red button to keep the lock in the open position. Since we don't have kids to worry about, we'll be able to keep them disabled while we're parked so we won't have to remember to press the latches every time we want to open the freezer.

Child-proof latches to hold the freezer drawer closed while in transit

Velcro for the refrigerator doors

The child-proof locks got mixed reviews in evaluations that were available online. Most of the complaints were with the locks breaking or coming off (they are held on with double-sided adhesive), but most of the problems seemed to come when household members forget about the locks or when guests don't know how the locks work try to rip the refrigerator open. Since we'll only be using the locks while we're in transit, we hope we don't have that problem.

On Sunday, Pat and Mike invited us to a farewell dinner at their rig. We had a delicious dinner of Mexican lasagna and plenty of good conversation. After dinner, we all went for a walk around the campground.

Dinner with Pat and Mike

Monday was our last full day in Bushnell, and we finished up a few odds and ends in the morning, then went to The Villages for a late lunch at OakWood Grill. OakWood has delicious ribs and smoked pulled pork, beef and turkey.

OakWood Grill

Margery had a half rack of ribs with slaw and fries ($9.95), and Paul had a smoked turkey lunch platter with slaw and lima beans ($7.99).

Paul is ready to dig in.

Ribs and smoked turkey

The ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender with just the right amount of sweet barbecue sauce, and the turkey was tender and moist. There are hot and mild barbecue sauces on the table, but Paul likes the sweet, smokey flavor of the turkey so much, he doesn't think it needs sauce.

In spite of eating out a good bit lately, we are both doing well with our diets. In fact, after following the Belly Fat Cure Diet for about 6 months, we have both reached our target weights. Paul has lost over 30 pounds, and Margery has lost almost 20. However, Margery is considering a new, lower target.

Now that we have reached our targets, we have begun to replace some of our baggy shorts and jeans and over-sized tops and T-shirts with clothes that fit better. We can't afford to replace everything all at once, so we're doing it a little at a time.

Margery and Paul with new wardrobe

On Monday evening, we took a walk past Pat and Mike's 5th wheel to say our final good-byes. We had a good time getting to know them better and having our friendship grow. We will stay in touch and maybe cross paths with them again during the summer before we all return to Florida in December.

On Tuesday morning we pulled out of Blueberry Hill heading for points north. We'll have an update in our next post.

Freeway's Surgery

Bushnell, FL - Events of Tuesday, March 20, 2010

We had to get up fairly early on Tuesday to drive to Largo near Tampa for the surgery to correct Freeway's cherry eye. We decided to have both eyes done even though the gland had only popped out on one eye because the ophthalmologist said the gland on the other eye was also showing signs of swelling. We dropped Freeway off around 9:00 AM and picked him up later around 1:30 PM.

We're happy to report the surgery went well, and Freeway had no problems. He was a little groggy when we picked him up, but he pretty much bounced back to his old self by early evening. He was was trying to paw at his eyes when we picked him up, so they sent him home with an Elizabethan collar, which Lora calls the "cone of shame."

Freeway looking unhappy with his Elizabethan collar

It didn't take Freeway long to figure out how to get the collar off. We put it back on a couple of times, but when we saw he was no longer trying to rub his eyes, we were able to leave the collar off, much to Freeway's relief.

There is still a little swelling and redness in the corners of Freeway's eyes, but the cherry eye is gone. There is a slight chance it could come back in a few weeks after the sutures dissolve, but we're trusting it won't.

We had a few hours to kill after we dropped Freeway off. We had researched things to do in the area and came up with the Florida Botanical Gardens right there in Largo. The Florida Botanical Gardens are operated by the Florida Botanical Gardens Foundation. The gardens are located in a Pinellas County park. Admission is free.

Adjacent to the botanical garden is Heritage Village, which is a collection of over 20 historic buildings from the 1800s and early 1900s that have been relocated to the 21-acre site. Admission to Heritage Village is also free. Heritage Village was closed when we were there, which was just as well because we would have probably felt compelled to see both the village and the gardens, and we didn't need the stress of rushing to try to do two things in a somewhat limited amount of time. A leisurely stroll through the gardens turned out to be a perfect stress reliever.

The gardens straddle McKay Creek. The visitor center, the main parking lot and the cooperative extension office are on the western side of the creek. Behind the visitor center is an herb garden, a patio garden and a tropical fruit garden.

Herb garden

Patio garden

Banana plants in the tropical fruit garden

Bananas grow on long stems, usually only one stem per plant. The ones on the plants above are small bananas that are growing more compactly around the stem than we have seen before.

What is commonly called the flower of the plant is actually an inflorescence, which is a group of flowers. The flowers in the photo below are yellow. What look like red flower petals are actually bracts, which are specialized leaves whose function it is to attract insects to the flowers. The red bracts curl up one or two at a time as the yellow flowers bloom.

Banana inflorescence is a group of flowers.

Papayas in the tropical fruit garden

There are two bridges over McKay Creek to the eastern side of the garden. We took the northern bridge over the creek. Along the way, we took a side path through a wooded area.

Along the woodland path

Palms are Paul's favorite tree, and he enjoyed seeing the different varieties planted in the Palm Garden on the eastern side of the creek. One of the most interesting was a fishtail palm from India. It gets its name from the fact the fronds are split and look like a fish's tail.

Paul with a Fishtail Palm

There are also several courtyards, a wedding garden, a bromiliad garden and several walking paths on the eastern side of McKay Creek. Unfortunately, we couldn't see much of the wedding garden because they were preparing for what looked to be some sort of TV broadcast, but we did enjoy the rest of what we could see.

Margery on a butterfly bench in one of the courtyards

Water feature in the bromiliad garden

There were signs like the one below throughout the garden along the banks of all the ponds and along McKay Creek. We didn't see any 'gators, so we're not sure if there really are any or they just wanted to keep people out of the water; but since just about any body of water in Florida (including swimming pools) can attract alligators, we weren't taking any chances and stuck to the paths.

Alligator warning

Large pond on the eastern side of McKay Creek

Anhinga drying its wings along the banks of the large pond

Great Egret stalking lunch among the lily pads in the pond

Some of the tropical flowers at the Florida Botanical Gardens

We had a very enjoyable, relaxing time at the garden. Before we knew it, it was time for lunch. When we drove along Indian Rocks Beach a couple of weeks ago when we first took Freeway to the canine ophthalmologist, we drove past Keegan's Seafood Grille, which was featured on the Food Network program Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. We checked them out online, and even though their prices were a little high, the food looked good and they were close by. The restaurant was busy when we arrived about 12:15, but fortunately, there were still a few tables left.

Keegan's Seafood Grille

Keegan's Seafood Grille is well known for their blackened grouper sandwich as well as a fairly creative menu of other fresh seafood. They also have a long list of appetizers, several types of burgers and a complete dinner menu. Sandwiches run from $8 to $12 and include one side (choice of fries, slaw or pasta salad). Dinners run from $16 to $20.

Paul had the "famous" blackened grouper sandwich with slaw, and Margery had crab salad in a pita pocket with fries. The food was good, but we were a little disappointed in the small serving sizes given the relatively high prices. However, we do have to remember that both grouper and crab are expensive ingredients and that Keegan's is located right along the beach, both of which are major contributing factors to the high prices.

Lunch at Keegan's 

Just as we were finishing lunch, we got a phone message that Freeway would be ready to pick up in about half an hour - perfect timing to finish our lunch and make our way to the vet. As we said, he was a little groggy, but he was still happy to see us.

Our time in Florida is almost over. We have a few more things to do before we leave, then we plan to head north to Calloway Gardens in Georgia. Stay tuned.

Graduation and Barbecue

Bushnell, FL - Events of Saturday, March 17, 2012

In our last post, we promised an update on Freeway's surgery for his cherry eye, which is scheduled for Tuesday. We also said we would let you know if anything else popped up in the meantime. It turns out Saturday was Freeway's graduation from puppy class.

The pups played for a while at the beginning of the session, then Terry, the instructor, handed out evaluation forms for the class, and she answered any of our final questions about training. The puppies then donned their graduation caps.

Terry congratulating Freeway

Freeway and proud mom 

Proud papa displays freeway's diploma

The graduating class

Freeway has made a lot of progress in his training. He has mastered sit, stay, down, and come very well for his tender age of less than 5 months. Our viewpoint may be slightly biased, but we think Freeway was the star pupil of the class. Terry frequently used Freeway to help her demonstrate the lesson to the class. He does pretty well with drop it and leave it unless it is something he really wants. We really need to keep working with him, particularly on those last two items, so it all becomes second nature to him. Those last two commands could save his life if he is going after something dangerous.

On Saturday afternoon, we decided to drive a few miles south of Bushnell to Brooksville for a late lunch with Pat and Mike at the Deep South BBQ. We drove past the place dozens of times over the years because it was on the way to the chiropractor we sometimes go to when we have an ache or pain that won't go away on its own. We were always curious about their food, but we never stopped before. 

Deep South Barbecue

The Deep South Barbecue got lots of good online reviews, so we decided it was time to go, especially since we are almost at the end of our stay in Florida. The place has a lot of character. The business was started by a former Marine who is a Vietnam veteran, and we thank him for his service. The restaurant is decorated with politically incorrect signs that we thought were a hoot, and we thank him for those, too. Below are just a few examples.

Sign over the rest room door

A few examples of the dozens of bumper stickers

that customers have brought from all over the country

Redneck wind chimes - beer cans and shotgun shells

The restaurant is now run by the son with help from his sister. They serve a variety of delicious barbecued meats like pulled pork, beef brisket, ribs, chicken and smoked sausage. Most of the meats are available as sandwiches ($4.95), sandwich combos ($7.95 - includes two sides) and as dinner platters ($9.95 - includes two sides and a roll).

Our group enjoying our meal

All of us loved the meals we chose as well as the sides. Pat had a beef brisket platter, Mike had ribs, while Margery and Paul ordered sandwich combos and shared a pulled pork sandwich and a beef brisket sandwich. Margery had onion rings for a side, and Paul had cole slaw and fried green tomatoes. The ribs, beef brisket and pulled pork were all tender and juicy. They were served with just enough barbecue sauce, although there is more sauce available on the tables if you want it. The food was great, and the service was prompt and friendly. We'll definitely be back.

Outside in the parking lot, we saw a red-bellied woodpecker hunting for insects in an old live oak tree while we chatted a little longer before driving back to Bushnell.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

We'll be heading to the canine ophthalmologist in Largo, FL on Tuesday. We'll report on how Freeway's surgery went at the end of the week.

More Freeway News

Bushnell, FL - Events of Thursday, March 8 to Monday, March 12, 2012

A couple of weeks ago, Freeway developed a condition known as "cherry eye." Some reptiles, fish and birds have a third, semi-transparent eyelid that is used to protect the eye while maintaining visibility. Dogs only have the vestage of a third eyelid, but it contains a gland that can become inflamed and pop out into the corner of the eye. The inflamed gland looks somewhat like a cherry, thus the name. The condition usually isn't serious, although it can sometimes be uncomfortable for the dog, and it can block the dog's vision if it becomes large enough. It can also lead to dry eye later on.

Cherry eye is a congenetical defect that occurs most often in breeds that have saggy eyelids such as such as Bull Dogs, Cockers, Beagles and Bassets. It also occurs in dogs with short muzzles and/or rounded, protruding eyes like Pekinese and Chihuahuas. We didn'r see either of Freeway's parents' breeds listed as commonly having cherry eye, but both the Cavelier King Charles Spaniel and Bichon Frise do have short muzzles and round, somewhat protruding eyes. As in Freeway's case, cherry eye usually shows up when the dogs are puppies.

We took Freeway to the vet, who gave us some antibiotic ointment to prevent infection and to sooth the inflammation. The vet said cherry eye sometimes goes away by itself, but often requires surgery. He recommended contacting a canine ophthalmologist if we would decide on surgery.

After several days of using the ointment, we saw no reduction in Freeway's cherry eye so we decided we should have an ophthalmologist check it out. Margery did some online research and found Tampa Bay Veterinary Clinic in Largo, FL (near Tampa) that had an ophthalmologist on their staff. When she called, we were able to get an appointment within a couple of days.

Dr. Miller, the ophthalmologist, was able to pop the gland back into place. This sometimes provides a permanent cure; but unfortunately for us, Freeway's only stayed in place a couple of days before it popped back out again over the following weekend.

Freeway's cherry eye

The cherry eye doesn't seem to bother Freeway, but we want to get it corrected so he doesn't have a problem with dry eye in the future, especially since the surgery is a relatively simple procedure that consists of suturing the gland into place. Recovery is quick, and in most cases, a followup appointment is not even necessary. By the time the sutures dissolve, the hope is the swelling of the gland will have gone down sufficiently so it will stay in place on its own.

On the Monday after Freeway's gland popped back out, we called the Tampa Bay Veterinary Clinic and were able to get his surgery scheduled for the middle of the following week. We'll post an update a day or two after the surgery to let everyone know how it went.

In the meantime, the veterinary clinic was located a short distance from Bahama Breeze in Tampa. We had a coupon for $10 off any $20 purchase, so decided we wanted to stop again even though we were just there a couple of weeks ago after visiting Ybor City with Pat and Mike. The only problem was it was too early for lunch, so we decided to drive a short distance to the west to check out some of the nearby Gulf beaches.

There is a causeway to Indian Rock Beach due west of the clinic. We were greeted by some very impressive private homes located right along the Gulf.

Private beach-front homes (above and below)

A little farther to the south, the private homes gave way to small condos. There were roads between the condos that had free parking and public access to the beach. We turned down one of the roads, parked, and walked the short boardwalk over the dune to the beach.

Paul and Margery at Indian Rocks Beach

It was a nice, warm morning, so there were a few of people sitting and walking on the beach.

Indian Rocks Beach

Condos on the beach

After our walk on the beach, we drove toward the north to Clearwater Beach. Clearwater Beach seems to be a bit more commercial with large condos, hotels, marinas and beach-front shops. It reminded us of Myrtle Beach and is definitely a vacation destination.

Beach-front condos and hotels in Clearwater Beach

By the time we drove through Clearwater Beach, it was around noon, so we headed east across another causeway over the Intracoastal Waterway then across Gulf to Bay Causeway over the northern part of Tampa Bay to Bahama Breeze.

Entrance to Bahama Breeze in Tampa

Since it was the height of lunch hour, the parking lot was fairly full, and we had to drive around twice before we found a shady spot for Freeway. We thought about eating outside, but all the shady tables on the deck were taken, and it was pretty breezy anyway. Fortunately, there were still plenty of tables available inside.

After we had a delicious appetizer of Firecracker Shrimp, Margery had her favorite - almond encrusted talapia. Paul had fish tacos. The talapia was delicious as always; but this was the first time either of us had the fish tacos at Bahama Breeze, and Paul was a little disappointed. The piece of fish on each taco was pretty small, and the tacos were served with plain lettuce, a small amount of mashed avocado and pico de gallo. Fish tacos that we have had at other restaurants and the fish tacos Margery makes are topped with sweet-sour cabbage. The sweet-sour flavor provides an interesting contrast to the fried fish, and the cabbage provides a nice crunch to the soft taco shell. Unfortunately, the pico de gallo lacked the zing that the sweet-sour cabbage provides, and the lettuce didn't provide any crunch.

Paul had fish tacos.

It seems like we can't get out of Bahama Breeze without having a Chocolate Island for dessert. A Chocolate Island is a tower of rich chocolate mousse topped with whipped cream sitting on a fudge brownie base. The island is floating in a swirling ocean of chocolate sauce and vanilla anglaise. Candied, roasted almonds are sprinkled over everything.

Chocolate Island Dessert

Later that evening back at Blueberry Hill, we were treated to a beautiful sunset as we settled in for an evening of TV.

Blueberry Hill sunset

We don't have anything newsworthy scheduled for the near future except for Freeway's surgery. As we said, we'll have an update on that next week, and we'll let you know if anything else pops up.

Ybor City

Bushnell, FL - Events of Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012

Ybor (pronounced EE-bor) City was established in 1885 by Vicente Martinez Ybor as a location for his cigar factory. Ybor City was originally an independent town, but it was annexed by Tampa in 1887.

We decided to take a drive to Tampa to check out Ybor City with Pat and Mike. The entire neighborhood has been designated as a National Historic Landmark District, so our intention was to first tour the Ybor City Museum and learn a little about the history, then walk around the area to see some of the historic buildings.

Even though Ybor City is located in an urban area, there is plenty of free, on-street parking. Most of it has a two-hour limit, but there seem to be a lot of spaces available, so you can just move your car to a different location if you need more time. There are also several city lots where you can park longer, but there is a fee for those.

The museum is part of an urban state park and is located in the old bakery that was operated by the Ferlita family. It is supposed to open at 9:00 AM; but when we arrived around 11:00, it was closed. The museum store in a separate building next door was open, and they said they were trying to find out why no one had shown up yet to open the museum itself. We later found out the ranger had car trouble.

While we waited to see if the museum was going to open, we decided to walk down the street toward Centro Ybor. Centro Ybor an entertainment complex with a movie theater, shops and restaurants that is adjacent to Centro Español de Tampa, which was a Latin club that was a cultural, recreational and medical center for early Spanish immigrants.

Centro Ybor

Since the museum wasn't open, we were at a little bit of a disadvantage because we were counting on picking up some of the history of Ybor city at the museum before we walked the streets. Fortunately, there is a Chamber of Commerce Information Center at Centro Ybor where there were a few displays on the history of the area and about cigar making. The lady at the information center also told us about some of the things we should see at that end of town like the Ybor cigar factory. While we were at the information center, we also found out the ranger had gotten to the museum and that it was finally open.

Ybor City Chamber of Commerce Information Center

Vicente Martinez Ybor, who was born in Spain, traveled to the Spanish colony of Cuba in 1832 where he opened a factory that produced world-renowned cigars. Because of his support for Cuban independence, Ybor was forced to flee Cuba for the United States in 1869 where he opened a new cigar factory in Key West.

Ybor had difficulty keeping workers at his factory in Key West because Cuba was so close, the workers could easily return home if they decided to. Also, Ybor also had difficulty with frequent strikes in Key west. For those reasons, Ybor bought 40 acres of palmetto and scrub pine flats in 1885 near the then small town of Tampa on the west coast of Florida.

Statue of Vicente Martinez Ybor

The deep-water port at Tampa was suitable for ships bringing in tobacco from Cuba, and he could obtain enough land to enable him build a company town that included inexpensive housing for his workers so they would not be as likely to return to Cuba. By the time Ybor arrived in Tampa, Henry Plant had also built railroads along Florida's west coast that would enable Ybor to ship his finished cigars north.

Ybor also encouraged others to open cigar factories in his town. This greatly enhanced the vitality of Ybor City because more employers brought in more workers and more workers made better business for everybody. Even though there were other cigar factories, Ybor made sure his was the largest. In fact, the Ybor factory was the largest in the world and covered an entire city block. Since Ybor's factory was only about two blocks from the information center, we headed to the factory before going back to the museum.

Entrance to Ybor Cigar Factory

The cigar industry peaked in 1929. The market crash and the Great Depression that followed reduced the demand for cigars and weakened the cigar industry. The rise in popularity of cigarettes in the 1920s and 1930s didn't help either. As young men headed off to war in the 1940s, cigar making and Ybor City declined even further.

Ybor's factory remained active until after WWII. Then after sitting vacant for a few decades, it was used as gallery space for artists, a festival marketplace, office space and a restaurant. In 2010, the Church of Scientology bought the entire complex, and they currently offer tours to the public.

Paul, Margery, Pat and Mike in front of a tobacco press in the Ybor Cigar Factory

After touring the factory, we walked up East 7th Avenue, which is the main thoroughfare through Ybor City, where we enjoyed seeing the early 1900s architecture. We were hoping for some unique shops, but there are mostly restaurants, night clubs and a few tattoo parlors.

East 7th Avenue in Ybor City

The original residents of Ybor City were primarily from Spain, either directly or by way of Cuba. Soon, however, immigrants from Europe saw opportunities and began moving to Ybor City. Germans were involved in the stone lithography process used to print cigar boxes, a few examples of which are shown at the top of this post. Jews came from eastern Europe and Germany and Sicilians came to learn cigar making or to open other businesses. The bakery where the the State Park's Ybor City Museum is located was owned by Sicilians. 

Ybor City Museum located in the old Ferlita Bakery

Francisco Ferlita built the first bakery on the site in 1896. The original wooden building was destroyed by fire in 1922 and was replaced by the current brick structure. The bakery, which produced 35,000 loaves of Cuban bread a week at its peak, operated until 1973.

Some of the historic buildings in Ybor city were lost to urban renewal in the 1960s and 70s. The remaining residents wanted to preserve their heritage, so they requested a museum. Through a bureaucratic blunder, the fire station where the museum was originally to be located was bulldozed on the very day a celebration was being held in a nearby restaurant to commemorate the designation of the fire station as the new museum. The city fathers substituted the Ferlita Bakery building across the street from the destroyed fire house as the location for the museum.

As we mentioned earlier, one of Ybor's problems at his cigar factory back in Key West was his workers frequently decided to leave and go back to Cuba. In Tampa, Ybor turned to the idea of home ownership in order to give his workers more of a reason to stay. Ybor was able to provide a small house called a casita that the workers could purchase at a reasonable price. Most of these wooden homes were lost to urban renewal, but the state park rescued several casitas and relocated them adjacent to the museum.

We got back to the Ybor City Museum just as the ranger was beginning a tour of one of the casitas.

Cigar factory worker's casita

The casitas were modest shotgun houses one room wide by four rooms deep. Families were large with numerous children and probably grandparents living under the same roof. Small back yards had gardens, chickens and sometimes a pig or even a cow.

Parlor of the casita

After the very interesting guided tour of the casita, we walked through the garden that is between the casitas and the museum.

Ybor City Museum garden

A quick game of checkers in the garden

The museum has an excellent video on the history of Ybor City. After watching that, we checked out some of the displays.

Margery learning about the history of Ybor City

Cigar workers sat at row upon row of benches hand rolling cigars all day. Many factories had up to 1,000 workers, but the Ybor factory had as many as 4,000 at its peak. There was no air conditioning back in those days, and work went on year round. In order to help reduce boredom and increase morale, the factories had readers who sat on a raised platform and read books and the newspaper to the workers.

Cigar workers hand rolling cigars

After our visit to Ybor city, we drove a few miles to the Bahama Breeze in Tampa. Bahama Breeze is one of our favorite chain restaurants because the Caribbean atmosphere and island menu make us feel like we are on vacation.

Bahama Breeze in Tampa

Everyone except Paul had almond-crusted talapia that was served with cinnamon sweet potatoes and a vegetable. Paul had grilled chicken with cilantro crema that was served with mashed potatoes and roasted corn. We shared an appetizer of firecracker shrimp and a chocolate island dessert.

Lunch at Bahama Breeze

It was a great day. We were happy to learn some interesting Florida history, and we enjoyed sharing the day and a delicious meal with Pat and Mike.

Tarpon Springs 2012

Bushnell, FL - Events of Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012

You will notice a new feature in this blog post - captions for the photographs. The ability to add photo captions was just introduced by Typepad, the host of our blog. It is still in the beta stage (meaning it may still have some bugs and inconsistencies), but we decided to try it out. We hope you like the new captions.

Tarpon Springs is one of our favorite places in Florida. It is located along the Anclote River a few miles upstream from the Gulf of Mexico, and it is only about an hour away from where we spend the winter in Bushnell. We always make a point of going to Tarpon Springs at least once while we're in Bushnell, because we love the quaint atmosphere, the interesting shops and the delicious Greek food.

This year, we went to Tarpon Springs with our friends from Pittsburgh, Pat and Mike. This is their first year of full-timing and their first winter in Florida, and they have never been to Tarpon Springs.

Tarpon Springs was originally a location for winter homes back in the 1870s, but when the sponges began to be harvested from the Gulf of Mexico in the 1880s, sponge divers from Greece were recruited to help bring in the bounty. The industry thrived into the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. The waterfront has several historic boats with sponges festooned around the decks just like it would have been back in the day.

Tarpon Springs waterfront

In 1947, a red algae bloom all but wiped out the sponge beds in the area, and many of the sponge boats switched to fishing or shrimping. Today, commercial fishing boats dock across the river.

Commercial fishing boat in Tarpon Springs

The sponge beds have recovered, and there is still some commercial sponge diving going on, but man-made sponges and things like paper towels and micro fiber cloths have largely replaced natural sponges. Tourism is now the primary industry for Tarpon Springs. The quaint shops and Greek restaurants of Tarpon Springs draw visitors from all over.

Many of the shops specialize in sponges. We stopped to look at a few.

Margery checks out sponges

The morning started out cloudy, but it cleared up by the time we got to Tarpon Springs. Since it turned out to be such a nice, sunny morning, there were quite a few shoppers on Docecanese Blvd., which is the main street along the waterfront.

A few of the shops along Dodecanese Blvd.

We usually walk to the Sponge Factory at the eastern end of Dodecanese Blvd.

The Sponge Factory

The Sponge Factory has a good movie that gives a history of the sponge industry in Florida. This year, they have updated the movie and added some more recent footage.

The Sponge Factory also has nice displays of Greek-themed gift items that includes olive oil lotions and soaps and also nautical and marine items such as starfish and seashells.

Margery checks out a sea fan inside the Sponge Factory

Since we planned to be gone most of the day, we took Freeway with us. He got to tour all over Tarpon Springs in his carrier mounted on the shopping cart we bought about a month ago at the RV show. Paul and Freeway took a little break to watch the world go by from a bench outside the Sponge Factory.

Paul and Freeway take a break

The Sponge Exchange is a collection of shops and restaurants located toward the western end of Dodecanese Blvd. where the sponge clearinghouse used to be. We stopped there after leaving the Sponge Factory.

Mike and Pat at the Sponge Exchange

By the time we walked to the Sponge Factory and back and then visited the Sponge Exchange, it was almost 1:00 PM. We were all hungry, so we headed down Athens St. to Costa's where we like to have lunch. Tarpon Springs is a pet-friendly community, and we were able to take Freeway into the restaurant in his canvas carrier. He was a good boy and just napped most of the time.

Costa's Restaurant

Like most of the restaurants in Tarpon Springs, Costa's specializes in Greek cuisine. We ordered a flaming cheese appetizer called saganaki. A slab of cheese is placed on a little iron skillet (like the kind they use for fajitas in Mexican restaurants) and put under the broiler. When the cheese is all bubbly, they bring it to your table, douse it with brandy, set it on fire and serve it to shouts of "Opa!" Opa is a Greek exclamation that seems to mean about the same thing as "hooray" or "yeehaw." The cheese is melted inside and has a toasted, crunchy crust outside. Yum!

Flaming saganaki appetizer - opa!

We all ordered gyros (pronounced YEE-ros) and Greek salad. We also enjoyed baklava for dessert. As usual, the food was excellent as was the company.

Enjoying our gyros

After lunch, we let Freeway stretch his legs along the sidewalk near the restaurant before heading back to Bushnell.

Freeway takes a walk

Freeway is really doing well on walks as long as you keep moving briskly. As soon as you slow down, he thinks it's OK for him to stop altogether. Once he stops, he wants to pick up in his mouth anything that is lying around - cigarette butts, stones, sticks, chewing gum, leaves, you name it. As we mentioned in our last post, we are looking forward to having him learn the "leave it" command in our next puppy class.

Back at Blueberry Hill, we took a few days to relax. Look for our next post to see what we found to do next.

Still Hangin' Around

Bushnell, FL - Events of Tuesday, Jan. 17 to Friday, Jan 21, 2012

Paul always likes to pull the motor home off the site once or twice during the winter and take it for a drive to get the motor up to operating temperature and to get all the lubrication flowing. We decided to do that last week. Paul does all the motor home driving when we're traveling, but Margery took the opportunity of last week's more leisurely drive to practice her motor home driving skills. She has only driven the motor home a few times, but she really has the hang of it.

Before we left on our short drive, Paul took a few photos in the morning sun of the parerwhite narcissus (or is that narcissi?) that Lora and J. Michael gave him for Christmas. They came as a kit preplanted in a decorative container. All Paul had to do was water them and put them in a bright location to get them going.

Paul used to force several types of spring bulbs to bloom in the dead of winter when we had a stick house up north so it would seem like we were having an earlier spring. Most spring bulbs have to undergo a period of about 90 days at temperatures below 40º in order for them to bloom. Paul used to pot up hyacinth and daffodil bulbs in the fall and put them in the spare refrigerator in our garage. Starting in January, we would take a new pot out of the refrigerator about every two weeks so we would have an almost constant succession of blooms indoors all the way until the spring flowers started blooming outside on their own.

Paperwhites are an exception and don't need the cold period, so they are perfect for us since we have no spare refrigerator and since we spend our winters in Florida where it is warm. The paperwhites Paul got for Christmas bloomed in only about three weeks, and their heady fragrance fills the whole motor home. Leave it to our thoughtful daughter to think of a perfect gift for her dad.

Speaking of Christmas, RVs have been steadily flowing into Blueberry Hill since we returned after spending Christmas in Pittsburgh. There are some empty sites, but the occupancy rate is higher than last year. People may be getting used to the "new normal" of high unemployment rates and are wanting to get on with their lives. Reduction of prices at Blueberry Hill to 2009 levels seems to have helped, too.

When we returned from Pittsburgh, we learned that Blueberry Hill had been sold to new owners, Sun RV Resorts. Although the sale won't be final until sometime around the end of January, the early word is that Sun is not planning any major changes. Sun also operates numerous manufactured home communities, but they reportedly want to increase the number of RV parks they own. It's possible they may bring in a few park model RVs (there already are several of those here), but we think they will keep Blueberry Hill pretty much the way it is. The old owners of Blueberry Hill, Morgan RV Resorts, caused a lot of bad feelings because there were so many inconsistencies in their policies, so we're hoping new ownership will be a change for the better.

A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about the brake problem we had with our car and about how the brake shop diagnosed a long-time, off-and-on whistling noise we had been hearing from somewhere under the car. The brake shop determined the noise was coming from the carrier bearing for the rear drive shaft for our all-wheel drive. They sprayed lubrication into the bearing, and the noise stopped. As they said it might, the noise came back the very next day, so Paul made an appointment to have the bearing replaced even though the noise quit again the day after that.

Chevrolet is doing the repairs on Saturns now that the GM has discontinued the Saturn line, so Paul called the closest Chevrolet dealer, George Nehaus Chevrolet in Wildwood, FL. Since our Saturn Vue is all-wheel-drive, and since very few of the smaller SUVs sold here in Florida are all-wheel-drive, Paul was surprised they had the bearing in stock. Unfortunately, they had to send the drive shaft out after they took it off the car to have the old bearing removed and the new bearing pressed on, so the repair ended up taking two days.

Paul was pleased to find out Nehaus Chevrolet has a courtesy car and driver who does little else all day but shuttle customers back and forth. The driver took Paul back to the motor home and picked him up again the next day after the car was done. The repair was expensive, but now we don't have to listen to the annoying whistling noise, and we don't have to worry about the bearing seizing up somewhere down the road. Needless to say, two expensive repairs within a few weeks ensures we'll be keeping the Vue a little longer.

We've really enjoyed having Pat and Mike as neighbors at Blueberry Hill this year. This past Friday, we went with them for an early dinner at Catfish Johnny's which is a few miles to the northwest of Bushnell.

Mike and Margery had catfish fingers (strips of fried catfish) while Pat and Paul tried beer batter shrimp, which is a new menu item. We all enjoyed our food. Although the shrimp was good, we thought the batter coating was a just a little too thick. 

We have several irons in the fire. Look for our next post to see which one gets hot first.

Just Hangin' Around

Bushnell, FL - Events of Friday, Jan. 13 to Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012

Since Paul finished repainting the front air conditioner cover, we've just been hangin' around and doing a little bit of this and that.

On the Friday after the RV show, we went for a late lunch with our friends, Pat and Mike, at OakWood Grill near the Villages. They had gone to the Tampa RV show the day after we did, and we were anxious to hear their impressions. They said they had a good time looking at RV accessories, and they had some questions about their rig for the factory reps from Open Range, which is who made their 5th wheel. They also spent time at the Open Range display talking to prospective customers and telling them how much they liked their Open Range 5th wheel.

A warning light came on in their truck on the way back from the Tampa show, and Pat and Mike had dropped the truck off at the nearby GMC dealer while we were at OakWood Grill. After a good meal (Pat and Mike had ribs, Margery had a blackened blue burger, and Paul had a smoked turkey sandwich) and plenty of great conversation, we dropped Pat and Mike off at the GMC dealer. The shop ran a 70-minute diagnostic program and couldn't find anything wrong with the truck, so they just reset the computer and told them to bring the truck back if it happened again.

On Saturday, Blueberry Hill RV Park had its annual yard sale. Anyone who has any items they want to get rid of can set up a table in front their site. We usually don't participate in the yard sale, but this year, we had a couple of larger items we wanted to get rid of plus a bunch of small items we had cleaned out of our cupboards and storage bays. We tend to accumulate way too much stuff, and it was time to eliminate some excess weight. The next photo shows Paul with our sale table.

It was a cool morning, but the sun was warm. There was a fairly good turnout, including several people who stopped who were from other campgrounds. We sold one of our large items (a propane heater) and quite a few of our smaller ones for a grand total of $39. That's not a lot of money, but it's not bad for things we would have given away anyway.

We have been having a lot of fun with our new puppy, Freeway. He is rambunctious as puppies usually are, and we have had to "puppy proof" the motor home.

He was 8 weeks old when we first picked him up, and we were very excited that he could make it to the bottom step of the motor home the first day. By 9 weeks of age, he was able to go up ALL the steps.

Freeway's favorite toy this week is his knotted rope. He likes to chew on the soft ends, and he also likes to play fetch. If we throw it down the hallway of the motor home, he will go get it and bring it back. He is fun to watch because the rope is almost as big as he is. If he grabs it near one end, he has to hold his head as high as he can so he doesn't trip over the other end of the rope.

A nap almost always follows Freeway's play time.

Freeway went to the vet a few days before we picked him up from the Royal Puppy Palace, so he was all up to date on his immunizations. However, we wanted to take him to the vet ourselves to get a baseline exam of our own. We also had a few questions about feeding, training, future immunizations and neutering, so we made an appointment for Sunday after church. Since the weather was perfect (not too hot and not too cold), we were able to leave Freeway in his canvas carrier in the car while we were at church.

When we had our previous dog, Molly, we discovered Banfield Pet Hospitals. Banfield has facilities all over the country (located mostly in PetSmart stores), and they can transfer records electronically between locations. This is ideal for full-time RVers like us, so we are going to take Freeway to Banfield as well. They also have wellness plans that are like pet health insurance that not only cover office visits, but also include things like immunizations for puppies and neutering, which we will be doing in a few months.

The closest Banfield to Bushnell is in the PetSmart in The Villages. The vet pronounced Freeway to be in good health, and he also answered our questions. We made an appointment for his next round of immunizations, then we looked around the PetSmart store.

Poor little Freeway has been shivering on cool mornings and evenings when we take him outside to go potty, so we wanted to get him a sweater or doggie coat. We tried on a sweater, but decided it would too hard to get it onto a squirming puppy if we were in a hurry to get him outside, so we ended up with a doggie coat with Velco on the straps. As with most males, Freeway wasn't too happy about trying on clothes.

The next photo shows gives you a better look at the coat.

The coat fits Freeway perfectly now; but at the rate he is growing, it will probably only last a month or so. He gained over 3/4 pound his first week. Unfortunately, the next larger size was way too big, so we're hoping there will be an end to the cool nights and mornings by the time he outgrows the coat.

We spent the rest of Sunday relaxing, at least what passes for relaxing for us now that we have a new puppy. Stay tuned for more from Bushnell.

Market of Marion

Bushnell, FL - Events of Friday, Dec. 9, 2011

Last January, we went to a flea market called the Market of Marion located in Belleview, FL a little to the north of The Villages. The market is open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, so we decided to take a drive to Belleview to check out the market on the Friday after we arrived in Bushnell. Like last time, we were able to get a parking spot right near the main entrance.

It was cool and a little overcast in the morning, so the market wasn't too crowded when we arrived around 10:00 AM, but it started filling up by the time we were getting ready to leave. The next photo is a view looking down the main aisle shortly after we arrived.

We remember seeing a vendor last year who had a large selection of knock-off sunglasses. In fact, we had photos of both of us trying on sunglasses in last year's blog post. The same vendor also has good quality reading glasses, and Paul needed a new pair because his old ones had gotten bent somewhere along the way, and the lenses also were speckled with paint from his project of repainting the roof edges a few weeks ago.

After picking out a pair of reading glasses, we continued on our way around the flea market. Being a woodworker, Paul was really impressed with the wooden airplanes and the train in the next photo that one vendor had for sale. The prices for the F-16 Fighting Falcon (left foreground) and F-18 Hornet (right foreground) were only $59.95, which Paul thought was reasonable given the number of hours that probably went into creating the models. They were accurate representations of the real thing with great detail and an amazingly smooth, glossy finish.

Last January, we went to the market looking for produce, but they didn't have much when we were there then. This time it was different. There was an entire row of fruits and vegetables of all types. We bought fresh asparagus, leaf lettuce, a green pepper and a cucumber. The prices were very reasonable.

After visiting the Market of Marion, we headed back to the motor home by way of The Villages so we could stop at Walmart to pick up a few items that the Walmart next to Blueberry Hill was out of when we stopped there the day before. After Walmart, it was lunch time, so we stopped at the OakWood Grill near The Villages. We discovered OakWood last year, and it quickly became one of our favorite restaurants because of their delicious smoked meats and barbecued ribs.

Barbecue doesn't fit with our low carb/low sugar diet very well because of all the sugar that is usually used in the sauce; but, fortunately, the yummy smoked beef we fell in love with last year at OakWood is so good it needs little or no sauce. Margery opted for the smoked beef sandwich, and Paul had a smoked beef platter to save more carbs by eliminating the bun. The platter came with garlic toast, but Paul only tried a bite or two of that. Lunches range in price from about $7 to $9 and include one or two sides, and some also include a beverage.

With our bellies full, we made our way back to the motor home. As we said, our posts may be a little shorter and a little less frequent now that we're in Florida for the winter, but we won't be napping the entire time, so look for our updates.

Winding Down and Winding Up

Bushnell, FL

Our time here in Bushnell is rapidly winding down. Soon we'll be getting ready to wind up to begin our spring and summer travels. We'll be heading to South Dakota this year to renew our drivers licenses, but we'll be taking our time getting there so we'll be sure it will be warm. After South Dakota, we are tentatively planning to go back to Santa Fe by way o Denver and southern Colorado before meandering back east for doctor appointments in the Pittsburgh area in the fall.

In a few more days we'll be joining flocks of snowbirds heading north out of Florida, and we expect the roads to be somewhat crowded. Blueberry Hill is starting to look empty because quite a few people have headed north already. Except for the first week or two of March when there were numerous retirees, families, and several rallies here on spring break, Blueberry Hill was never very full this year. Now as we approach the end of March, we're really getting lonesome.

Although we got to do some sightseeing this winter, we had intended to do a little more. One reason we didn't was because after a fairly hectic summer of travel again last year, we just didn't feel like going out too often. The other reason is we were spending a good bit of time working on putting the third year of our online blog into book form. We finished that up and got the hard copies last week. We're real pleased with the results.

We explained how we published our books is a post last year, but we thought we would touch on it again. We use blurb.com that provides free software called BookSmart that makes it possible to extract the text and photos from most of the popular blog-hosting sites. You can use one of their templates or customize the layout to suit your individual needs and desires. Of course, getting the content downloaded is the easy part. Formatting the text and photos for a custom layout, which is what we do, takes a lot of time. BookSmart can be used to create many kinds and sizes of books. The next photo shows a page layout for of one of our books.

And the next photo is a screen shot taken during a page edit and shows the custom layout process. Boxes are created for text and photos, then sized to fit with each other on the page.

Laying out the book for our third year of travel took longer than the books for our first and second years because we did such extensive traveling and sightseeing our third year, our blog wouldn't all fit into one book. Not only that, but we also have been increasing the number of photos we put into the blog. We wanted to make the photos a nice size so we can see them better when our eyes get older, so we decided it would be necessary to expand to two books for our third year.

As soon as we uploaded our information to the blurb website and ordered the two books for our third year of travel, they sent us a digital coupon for 20% off any future purchase. Since we only order one copy of each book, the books are fairly expensive. (The more copies you order, the less expensive they are per copy.) Therefore, we decided to try to finish the book for our fourth year before the coupon ran out on April 4, especially since we knew the book for our fourth year would also have to be expanded to two books. Margery is working hard doing the main layouts, and Paul with his engineer's eye is making sure all the edges of the text boxes and photos are lined up and straight. So far, we finished Year 4 Part 1, and we're making good progress on Part 2 so we think we'll make it.

The next photo shows the custom-designed cover for one of our Year 4 books.

With the weather warming up (it's been in the mid-80s), Margery decided she needed some new sleeveless lops, and she did some shopping at Kohl's online. Unfortunately, when the tops arrived, some of them were too big. When she went online to order them in a smaller size, they were out of stock already. Therefore, she decided we needed to take time off from working on the book long enough to run up to Kohl's in The Villages to make returns and to see what they had in stock in the store.

Since we have been slaving over a hot computer much of the day recently, we decided taking time off to go to Kohl's would also be a good excuse to go out to eat. We were both hungry for Chinese food, so Margery found good reviews for China Gourmet III. China Gourmet has three locations, one of which is in a strip mall in The Villages near Kohl's.

Like the new Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant near the Walmart in Bushnell that we tried last year, China Gourmet specializes in take out, although they do have a several tables inside. You order from the extensive menu at the counter.

China Gourmet has a lunch special from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM for $5.25 that includes an entree, soup, and fried rice. Margery had egg drop soup, and Paul had wonton soup for starters.

We both love General Tso's chicken, so that's what we both had for our entree. We also ordered egg rolls which were excellent.

The restaurant is nothing fancy (food is served on plastic plates and in styrofoam cups with plastic tableware and on plastic table cloths); but the food is good, especially for the price, and there's plenty of it. We almost couldn't finish our meals.

With a moderately successful shopping trip to Kohl's and having had a good meal, we headed back to the motor home. We got back just as the rain started, and just as the weather radio went off. That was the start of 24 hours of wind (45 mph gusts), rain (over 7") and weather alerts (severe thunderstorm and tornado watches and warnings). There was some wind damaage (possibly from a tornado) in the area (especially farther south toward Tampa), but we fared well.

The forecast is calling for clearing weather which is what we need to be able to check tire pressures, check oil, and put things away in preparation for our departure. We'll let you know where we end up in our next post.

Good Excuse to Eat Out

Bushnell, FL

Last Tuesday Morning, Paul was up early working on the computer when he was startled by the sound of our LP alarm going off. If you think he was startled, the alarm is under the bed, and Margery was asleep! Paul ran back to the bedroom to find Margery beating her alarm clock mumbling something about not knowing how to turn it off. Alarm clocks aren't used much around here since retirement! (LOL) In any case, he couldn't smell any evidence of a gas leak. He checked around the furnace and the front of the fridge - still nothing. He pulled the fuse to get the darned alarm to shut up, then went outside to check the propane tank and some of the storage bays that the gas lines ran through - nothing.

Meanwhile, Margery got up and noticed an unusual smell in the bathroom. Paul checked it out. It was ammonia, and it took Paul a minute to realize that it was from a leak in the cooling unit of our refrigerator. The refrigerator is next to the bathroom, so that's why there was a lot of ammonia ammonia smell in there. Unlike home refrigerators that operate with a compressor and fluorocarbon refrigerant, most RV refrigerators are gas absorption type that use ammonia as a refrigerant.

Paul took off the outside access cover to the back of the refrigerator; and sure enough, there was a strong ammonia smell and a hissing sound.

We have 4-door Norcold refrigerator, and there have been a series of fires associated with those models. Apparently, if coolant leaks out, the cooling unit can overheat and cause a fire. There have been several recalls; and last fall, there was another one that included essentially all Norcold 4-door refrigerators. For the latest recall, a temperature sensor was installed on the heat stack. If the sensor detects excessive temperature, there is a switch that irreversibly shuts down the fridge. We had the recall done when we were in Summerdale, and we're glad we did. We can report that it worked. The red light on the switch was on indicating that there was an alarm condition and that the switch had shut the cooling unit down before it could overheat.

If you haven't had the latest Norcold recall done on your 4-door Norcold, or if you're not sure if yours is included, contact Norcold or an RV repair shop right away.

The refrigerator was still cool inside, so there was no rush to try to find someplace to put our food. Our first order of business was to try to find someone who had a new cooling unit in stock (not likely since they're so expensive), or find someone who could get one quickly. Paul called several RV places we knew about while Margery searched the internet for more names. Most people said it would take two weeks to get a cooling unit in, but two RV repair shops said they would call around to look for one and call us back.

ProTech RV in Clermont, FL, which was one of the names Margery found on the 'net, called back within 20 or 30 minutes and said they could get a cooling unit in by the next day and come out to our site to install it the following day. Sold!

The next order of business was to try to save as much of our food as possible before the fridge warmed up. Paul went to Walmart to buy a cooler and some ice. Meanwhile, Margery called the campground office, and they said we could put our frozen food into one of the freezers in the kitchen in the clubhouse for a couple of days.

The photo below shows our stack of coolers. Paul bought the red one first, and we had the small one. When everything didn't fit, he went back for the cheap styrofoam cooler and more ice.

Since we had to clean out the fridge, we found a few "science projects" that we didn't know were in there. While it was empty, it was a good time for Margery to wipe down all the shelves and food bins. Paul got the job of mopping out the melted ice from the freezer.

We made do with leftovers that first night, but it is really a pain to have to search through the coolers for things to eat without letting too much warm air in. Not only that, all our frozen food was up at the clubhouse, and we didn't want to have to bug the people in the office to get things out of the freezer. So, the next day while we were waiting for the new cooling unit to arrive so they could come and install it, we went out to eat.

OakWood Smokehouse and Grill, where we went a week or so ago for the smoked beef sandwiches, had an internet coupon special for a full rack of ribs and two sides for $9.99 (regular $14.99), and this was the last day of the special. Not only that, but there was some sightseeing we wanted to do near The Villages where OakWood is located. We'll tell you about the sightseeing in our next post, but we want to finish the refrigerator story first.

Back to our dinner. We arrived a little before 4:00 PM, and they were already crowded. We retirees like to eat early when we eat out. They told us there would be a 30 minute wait, but it turned out to only be about 20 minutes.

Paul hated lima beans as a kid, but now he likes them. Margery still hates them, so since Paul never gets them, he ordered them with his ribs. He also had sweet potato fries.

Margery had a baked potato and onion rings with her ribs.

Everything was delish, especially Paul's lima beans. They were served with butter sauce and ham chunks. OakWood Smokehouse and Grill quickly became one of our favorite restaurants. We've both been there twice within a week, and Margery has been there three times in about 10 days...and it won't be soon enough to go back.

The following day, Rick, the ProTech RV Repair technician, showed up a little after lunch with our new cooling unit in the back of his truck.

Paul was surprised they only sent one guy because he knew the refrigerator would have to be removed to replace the cooling unit; and he knew the refrigerator weighs over 100 pounds - even with the doors removed. Although Rick insisted he could get the fridge out by himself, he gratefully accepted Paul's offer to help. After they got it down to the floor, Rick wrestled it into position in the middle of the floor onto a piece of old carpet he brought with him.

Since the fridge is too big to fit through most RV doors, they work on them inside. In the next photo, the old cooling unit has been removed, and the new one has been put into place ready to be fastened down.

After everything was tightened down and rewired, Paul helped Rick put the fridge back into place. Not only was it heavy, but there was barely clearance for it in the hallway.

After Rick hooked everything back up outside, he turned the fridge on, checked the operation on both LP gas and AC electric, and gave it a thumbs up. The next photo shows Rick after all the work was done.

We were very pleased with ProTech RV. They asked the right questions when Paul first called to make sure they could get the right part, they were very professional, and they did what they said they would do. Pro-Tech RV has RV sales, service, parts, and mobile service. In addition, Rick was a real gem. He was considerate, conscientious, thorough, efficient, and an all around nice guy.

We let the fridge run overnight to cool off again before transferring our food from the coolers. Gas absorption refrigerators are notoriously slow to cool and slow to recover if you leave the door open for an extended period. It took almost 36 hours to start cooling fully, but now it's back to where it was.

We mentioned we did some sightseeing when we went out to the OakWood Grill for dinner, and we'll tell you about it in our next post.

Coyote Rojo

Bushnell, FL

We're still hanging around the motor home most days working on transferring our blog for our third year of full-timing into book form. We're also working on the computer and reading our AAA Guide Books investigating places we may want to visit this summer. Paul also did some minor maintenance items around the motor home like polishing the aluminum wheels and draining the hot water tank to flush it out and to check the anode rod. On most afternoons we ride our bikes around the campground and sometimes over to Walmart to pickup a few grocery items. In the evenings, we usually play Wii and then watch TV.

We had planned to take our bikes to the Withlacoochee Bike Trail on two different occasions for a change of scenery for our bike riding this past week. Unfortunately, the first time we planned to do that, it was very windy and cloudy when we got up in the morning; and the second time, the weather turned out to be windy and cool, so we decided not to go on both occasions.

We also planned to stop for a late lunch on our way back from bike riding to reward ourselves for all that exercise. Even though we didn't go to the bike trail, we decided to go out to eat anyway. We ran over to the new Mexican restaurant that opened last year across the main road from where the entrance to campground is located. The restaurant is called Coyote Rojo (Red Coyote). We arrived about 3:30 P. M. Although we had the place to ourselves for most of our meal, several other groups arrived just as we were finishing up.

We tried Coyote Rojo last year, and we really liked it. Our favorite Mexican restaurant remains Cozumel in Greensburg, PA, near our old hometown of Pittsburgh; but Coyote Rojo is surprisingly good for a little town like Bushnell. The meal started out with the traditional corn chips and salsa. The corn chips were served warm, and the salsa was loaded with fresh cilantro.

Prices at Coyote Rojo are very reasonable. Combo dinners run around $6.50 to $8.00. There are specials on Mondays and Fridays. We went on a Friday, and the specials were fajitas for $7.99 or a "pick 2" combo for $5.99. We both had a chili relleno and a burrito (Margery had ground beef and Paul had chicken) for the "pick 2" special. The combo dinners are also served with the traditional Mexican rice and refried beans.

That really hit the spot. We went to Coyote Rojo when we first got to Bushnell last December, and we were both hungry for Mexican food again. We still want to try to hit the bike trail and a couple of other places, so stay tuned.

 

OakWood Grill

Bushnell, FL

The weather here in Florida has been beautiful. It's been mostly sunny with highs in the 70s and 80s and lows in the 50s and 60s. Once in a while, we get a few cooler, windy days with clouds, but it usually clears out and warms up again fairly quickly. We've probably had the best weather of the four winters we have spent in Florida.

Even with the nicer weather, we have been staying around the motor home to spend time working on transferring our online blog for our third year of full-timing into book form. We did that with our blog for years one and two, and we were very pleased with the results. We're trying to get the layout done so we can get the book on order in time to receive it before we leave Blueberry Hill.

It seems our campground neighbors this year are more active than ever...a lot of socializing and comings and goings at all hours...and a sharp contrast to how we spend our time here. Many, if not most, residents of the park are snowbirds who leave their northern nests for the winter returning to their homes after 3-4 months of a Florida vacation. They are looking for activities and togetherness. We, on the other hand, travel 9 months out of the year. Therefore, our 3 months at the park are considered 'down' time for us to get some projects done and to cool our heels before we begin our sightseeing travels in earnest. That's the beauty of retirement...flexibility to do whatever floats your boat.

About a week ago, Margery took time off from working on the book to go to lunch with one of her friends from our old church back in Pittsburgh. Margery's friend and her husband retired to The Villages several years ago. The girls met at a restaurant near The Villages called OakWood Smokehouse and Grill. Margery brought part of her sandwich back for Paul to try, and we both agreed it was so good we both wanted to go back ASAP.

A couple of days later we went up to the OakWood Grill in The Villages for an early dinner.

As the name suggests, the OakWood Smokehouse and Grill specializes in smoked meats - beef, pork, turkey and sausage. They have a special every day until 4:00 PM that includes a sandwich (beef, turkey or pork), one side and a large drink for only $6.49. Margery had a beef sandwich when she was there with her friend, and it was delicioius. OakWood also has a blackened blue burger (a burger grilled with blackening spices topped with blue cheese, lettuce and tomato) that also sounded delicious. Since we couldn't decide between the beef sandwich and the blackened blue burger, we decided to get one of each and share them. The photo below shows the blackened blue burger with a side of onion rings...

...and the next photo shows the beef sandwich with au jus and a side of slaw. Notice the pink smoke rings on the outside edges of the beef slices.

Paul couldn't wait to dig in.

The sandwiches were both great as were the sides. We definitely put the OakWood Grill on our list of favorite restaurants.

As we mentioned in our last post, we noticed snowbirds starting to leave the campground around the end of February. The campground never did fill up this year - the back section was never more than 40% full and the front section was usually only 10 or 15% filled. Then a few days into March, something strange began to happen - new people began to show up. In previous years there were always some people who arrived in early March, but not as many as this year. When we rode our bikes around the campground, we noticed the back is now about 75% filled and the front is over 90%.

In the past, most of the March arrivals were younger people who were still working and who had kids that were out of school on spring break. This year, the new arrivals also include lots of people who look like they could be retired. We're not sure what's going on, but maybe some people didn't make reservations like they had done in the past because of the uncertainty of the economy. Then, with all the snow up north, they decided to head south at the last minute for a few weeks. On the other hand, Blueberry Hill did reduce their rates back to 2009 levels this year to try to encourage business since they were so empty. Maybe it's working already.

We still have a couple of other restaurants we want visit before we hit the road for spring. We also have a little more sightseeing we want to squeeze in while we continue to work on our book the next few weeks. We'll tell you what else we found to do in our next post.

Hydro-Taste Farm

Bushnell, FL

As we mentioned in our last post, we extended our stay here at Blueberry Hill for up to another month because the campground offered an additional month for only $250. Since this is about half price, it's a pretty good deal even if we decide to leave before the additional month is up.

Although we extended our stay, we have noticed some snowbirds are starting to head back north. Several of our neighbors at Blueberry Hill have left, and we see lots of RVs heading north when we're on the interstate. They may be making originally-planned departures at the end of the month, but we're thinking the threat of higher fuel prices may be causing some to leave for home early.

Paul likes to take the motor home out onto the interstate for a short drive every 4 to 6 weeks while we're parked for the winter to get the engine and transmission up to operating temperature, to get all the lubrication flowing, and to exercise the generator. It's been over 6 weeks since we drove down to Tampa to have new tires installed; and since we'll now be staying longer, Paul decided it was time to take the motor home out again for a little exercise.

Although we both took driving lessons when we first got our motor home, Paul always does all the RV driving. Margery has driven the motor home once or twice for short periods, but she was never comfortable. Margery decided it was time to give it a try again, especially since we don't hook up the towed for this exercise. So, with a little trepedation, she took the wheel for our little trek up the interstate.

She did a great job driving through the town of Bushnell with some tight turns and close traffic. She was also able to line up with the gas pump when we made a quick fuel stop to top off the tank. Merging onto the interstate and keeping things under control at highway speeds were no problem either. Look - no white knuckles! Margery was relaxed, too.

Several days later, we made plans to meet our friends Barb and Kent. Margery and Barb were in a Bible study together back in Pittsburgh many years ago. Even though Barb and Kent moved away from Pittsburgh quite some time ago, Margery and Barb have kept in touch. Barb and Kent spend time in Florida over the winter, and we have met up with them the past several years. Since they were renting a condo farther south this time, Margery did some research of things to do somewhere around a halfway point.

One thing that turned up that everyone seemed interested in was Hydro-Taste Farm near the little town of Myakka just east of Bradenton. Hydro-Taste Farm is a hydroponic farm where you can pick your own fruits and vegetables. Hydroponics is a method of growing plants with their roots in a nutrient solution rather than in soil. Sometimes, as is the case with Hydro-Taste, the roots are supported by an inert medium such as pearlite or gravel.

When we arrived, we told them it was our first visit so they offered us a short tour. Our young tour guide was very knowledgeable and did a good job of explaining how the crops are grown.

Hydro-Taste Farm uses stacks of Styrofoam containers with compartments for a total of 20 plants in each stack. The stacks are supported by vertical tubing running down the center of the stack. This also allows the stacks to be rotated for easier picking. Pipes running horizontally above the stack convey the nutrient solution to drip emitters above each stack. The solution flows down through the roots.

When we were there, Hydro-Taste Farm had available for picking strawberries, romaine lettuce, spinach, several varieties of herbs, and beets. We also saw recently-planted corn that will probably be ready in a few months. The next photo shows butter-head lettuce that was not quite ready yet either, but it will only be another week or so.

In about three weeks, they will also have blackberries. The blackberries, which are grown in larger plastic tubs, were in bloom and were just starting to form green berries.

Hydro-Taste is particular about how their produce is picked. They give you a basket and a pair of scissors to cut the produce so their plants don't get accidentally pulled apart. In the photo below, Margery is cutting a strawberry. We were told that by leaving a 1" stem on the strawberry would enable the picked strawberries to last two weeks. (We'll never know, we ate them long before that.)

The next photo shows Barb, Kent and Paul with baskets full of strawberries.

Inside, there are several additional varieties of fruits and vegetables that they apparently buy from adjacent farms and/or from wholesalers. All their produce is very nice.

We ended up with (clockwise from the left) beets, romaine, strawberries, flat-leaf parsley, a red pepper, broccoli.

We spent about an hour at the farm picking produce and looking around. From there, we went a short distance down the road to Lake Manatee State Park. We all brought folding chairs, and we were looking for a shade tree to sit under. When we arrived at the state park, we found out it was Discover Lake Manatee Day with craft booths, live entertainment, environmental displays, and fairly large crowds. Fortunately, we found a nice clearing among some smaller live oaks near the parking lot away from most of the crowds where we could sit and chat. Although we didn't drive through, the park campground, which was full, has 60 water/electric sites. We also saw several people biking on a paved trail through the park.

Even though Margery made some delicious hummus to snack on, after a while we were all fairly hungry. It was only a short drive to I-75 where there was a Cracker Barrel restaurant. Paul saw a nice hibiscus in the parking lot on our way in.

We didn't have to wait for a table, but we were surprised by how crowded Cracker Barrel was for 1:30 in the afternoon. Barb had rainbow trout, Kent had pulled pork barbecue, Margery had catfish, and Paul had country ham. As usual, the food at Cracker Barrel was delicious and reasonably priced. It's no wonder they are popular.

By the time we finished our meal, the restaurant had emptied out considerably, so we didn't feel guilty staying a while to chat some more. We finally said our goodbyes and headed back to Blueberry Hill.

Cafe Masaryktown and Planning Our Summer Travels

Bushnell, FL

In spite of the fact that the weather here in Florida has gotten much nicer, we haven't been motivated this winter to do much sightseeing because we are completing the transfer our Year 3 blog into book form. Click here to read our previous post about how we do this. We have, however, taken advantage of the nice weather to ride our bikes around the campground numerous times, and even over to Walmart a few times to pick up a some groceries.

As we approach the end of February it is time for us to work on our summer travel plans. Although we are planners, we know and accept that ultimately it is the Lord who directs our steps; and so we always say, "This is the plan, God willing." :-)

We learned from friends that AAA Tour Books are a good resource for travel info. The tour books combined with the internet can tell you just about everything you want to know about an area. We pay particular attention to the AAA "Gems" as they are designated as particularly worthwhile.

In the photo below, Margery is surrounded by some of the AAA Guide Books we picked up for this year, and she is reading from a National Geographic book on the national Parks. We find the NatGeo book very useful because it gives good info on driving tours and hiking in the national parks.

We've had a couple of readers and friends ask us how we decide where we want to go. There's no right or wrong way to plan your travels - you have to find what works for you. We tend to do a fair amount of planning, but we know of quite a few people who don't plan at all. They just stay until "hitch itch" hits, then they take off in whatever direction strikes their fancy. Even though we do a lot of planning, we still leave some flexibility in our schedule. 

The first thing we decide is where to go. For us, national parks will always be a high priority as destinations because they tend to have the most spectacular scenery and the most interesting wildlife. Free admission with our America the Beautiful Senior Pass also makes national parks and national monuments a real bargain.

We usually start off with a single destination and build on that. Our first year it was to get to South Dakota to become residents...register the vehicles, get our drivers' licenses and become registered voters. Year 2 was Yellowstone. Year 3 was Yosemite and the Pacific Northwest. Year 4 was Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Ca. This year, we must return to South Dakota to renew our drivers' licenses which must be done in person every 5 years. Yes, it has been 5 years already. South Dakota requires an eye test and a new photo for renewal.

We'll research to determine if there is a preferable time of the year to be at our destination(s) with respect to weather and/or special events. Once we decide our destination and when we want to be there, Margery has the mapping software plot the most direct/fastest route. We then look to see what sightseeing 'detours' might be feasible. The AAA Gems along the map's route guide our route variations which are entered as via points to the original shortest/fastest route.

Our campground research includes finding suitable campgrounds along our desired route, especially with respect to satellite reception. Margery has found a spreadsheet of campgrounds she has researched works the best in the long run. It saves the repetitive work of looking up the same campground over and over because we forget the details of that campground. The only reservations we make far in advance are for holiday weekends or in high tourist areas. Otherwise, we refer to the spreadsheet within a week or two of our arrival in a particular area and make our decision about where to stay.

We were originally scheduled to leave Blueberry Hill on March 9th, but, as they have done in previous years, Blueberry Hill offered an extra month for $250 to anyone who wanted to extend their stay. So with the really nice weather, we've paid for the additional month. We'll probably leave around the end of the March. Driving our decision will be based on when the azaleas are blooming in Bellingrath in Mobile, AL. The half price extension is a good deal even if we don't stay for the entire month.

With all the inside work we have been doing, we were up for a little road trip to try a new-to-us restaurant. Cafe Masaryktown, which was mentioned in an RV blog we follow, is located about half an hour south of Bushnell near Brooksville.

Cafe Masaryktown is in the old Masaryk Hotel, which was built in 1925. In 1924-1926, a group of Czech immigrants from New York and Pennsylvania moved to Florida to establish a farming community on 10,000 acres of land they bought. They named the town they established Masaryktown after Thomas Masaryk who was the first president of the new republic of Czechoslovakia that was formed in 1918. Their attempts at growing citrus and vegetables failed, but a thriving egg and poultry industry eventually developed.

The cafe specializes in Cuban sandwiches and other Cuban dishes. Prices are very reasonable. A regular 7" Cuban sandwich is $3.99, a 9" sandwich is $4.49, and a 12" sandwich is $6.99. A combo that includes a 7" Cuban and a side (French fries, cup of soup, salad, or deviled crab) is available for only $5.49. We both had Cuban sandwich combos with deviled crab as a side.

A Cuban sandwich is baked ham, salami, Swiss cheese, pork, mustard, mayonnaise, and dill pickle on Cuban bread. The sandwich is heated in a panini press or under a weight on the flat-top grill. The deviled crab was nice and crispy on the outside, but it wasn't what we were expecting and we weren't crazy about it. However, we both liked the sandwich. We got plenty to eat, and we each ended up taking part of our sandwiches home to eat later.

After we finished our meal, we headed back to the motor home for an evening of TV. We have another couple of restaurants to try and some other activities in mind, so look for our next post.

Valentine's Day

Bushnell, FL

Last year, our neighbors across the street at Blueberry Hill held a "happy hour" block party, and they did the same thing this year. They invited just about everybody on our half of the back section of the campground, and about 50 people showed up. Everyone brought their own drinks, chairs, and a snack to share. We had a good time meeting some new people and chatting with them.

Other than the block party, we haven't done much since our friends, Barbara and Dick, left Blueberry Hill. We've been content to sit around the motor home to relax. Since the weather is getting nicer, we have gotten to ride our bikes around the campground quite a few times, but that's about it.

This year for Valentine's Day, we planned to drive south to the other side of Tampa to visit Paul's aunt, then stop on our way back at Bahama Breeze for a late lunch. Since we were planning to be away from the motor home for most of the day on Valentine's Day, Paul scheduled the delivery of Margery's Valentine's flowers for the Saturday before.

On Monday we headed south for our with visit Paul's aunt. Although she was a little forgetful when we visited her in previous years, she had been able to live independently up until last fall when she had to be transferred to assisted living. We had a nice visit with her, then headed back toward Bahama Breeze.

Bahama Breeze is a favorite chain restaurant of ours. We love the the island-inspired menu as well as the casual, tropical atmosphere.

Inside, there was a salt-water tank with tropical fish.

Even though we went at 2:30 in the afternoon to avoid the Valentine's Day crowds, there were quite a few people there. However, we were able to get a window table overlooking Tampa Bay.

Since it was a special day, we started off with an appetizer of firecracker shrimp to share. The shrimp are lightly battered, fried and served with a creamy hot sauce.

Margery had almond encrusted talapia with mashed sweet potatoes, and Paul had fish tacos with fruit salad. Both meals were outstanding.

We finished our lunch off with a chocolate island for dessert. A chocolate island is chocolate mousse on top of a round of fudge brownie topped off with a dollop of whipped cream. The whole thing is served swimming in a sea of chocolate sauce swirled with vanilla cream sauce. WOW!

With our bellies full, we headed back to the motor home. We hope you had a special day with your valentine whoever that may be. Look for our next post to see what we're up to next.

Tarpon Springs, FL

Bushnell, FL

One of our favorite places to visit while we're in Bushnell for the winter is Tarpon Springs. Tarpon Springs is located a little over an hour southwest of Bushnell about a mile up the Anclote River from the Gulf of Mexico.

Tarpon Springs was first settled in the 1870s as a location for winter homes. Greek immigrants arrived in the late 1800s and early 1900s when they were hired to dive for sponges. Today, the Greek influence remains strong because Tarpon Springs has the highest percentage of Greek-Americans of any city.

We went to Tarpon Springs last year with Barbara and Dick, and we were glad they wanted to go again this year. The waterfront area is the main tourist area, and we planned to end up there eventually; but this year, we decided to stop in the downtown area on our way. Our first stop was at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. The church was constructed in 1943.

The sanctuary is usually open for prayer during the day when there is no mass going on, so we went in. Inside, there are numerous shrines and icons including the one below of St. Nicholas known as the Weeping Icon. Back in 1970, a cleaning woman noticed what appeared to be tears around the eyes of St. Nicholas, even though the painting was enclosed in a glass case. Tears appeared around the Christmas season for the next three years, but have not been seen since. The origin of the tears was never determined.

The interior of the church is beautiful with a central dome and large crystal chandelliers as well as many paintings and stained glass windows.

The stained glass windows depict saints and events in the life of Jesus.

 

After we left the church, we strolled down Tarpon Avenue and noticed a large, mosaic mural on the side of a building adjacent to a little park. The mural honors Mother Meres, who was a German immigrant who settled in Tarpon Springs with her husband in 1882.

Amelia "Mother" Meres was an avid gardener and had a lush, jungle-like garden adjacent to where the mural is located today. The mural was a joint project of the Garden Fairies garden club and the Greater Tarpon Springs Chamber of Commerce.

A little farther down Tarpon Avenue we came to Acropolis Meats and Deli.

Margery read about the shop in an RV cooking blog, so we stopped in. They had some great looking meats, but unfortunately, we didn't bring a cooler. We had fun looking at all the Greek foods and chatting with the owner, Teddy Demertzis.

We were planning a late lunch near the Tarpon Springs waterfront, but it was still pretty early, so we continued driving west a mile or so to Fred Howard Park. Fred Howard Park is a Pinellas County park that has swimming, fishing and picnicking. We drove out the causeway, parked and walked out to the beach. Although there was a lot of seaweed on the beach from recent storms over the Gulf, the beach was still nice. There are open areas if you want sun and palm trees for shade. You can also rent beach chairs and umbrellas.

We asked another couple, who turned out to be fellow Pennsylvanians from York, to take our picture.

After we walked the beach, we headed to the Tarpon Springs waterfront. After we parked, we headed for Dodecanese Boulevard, which is the main street. Along the way, Margery stopped at one of the shops to play pirate. Aaarrrgh.

Most of the old stores and sponge warehouses have been converted to tourist shops. Since it was such a nice day, the main street was pretty busy.

On the opposite side of Dodecanese Boulevard are docks where they have boats that do nature cruises as well as old sponge boats like the one in the photo below.

As usual, we walked to the Sponge Factory, which is a large sponge shop at the eastern end of Dodecanese Boulevard. In the next photo, Paul checked out their car wash sponges.

The Sponge Factory has a good movie about the sponge industry in Tarpon Springs. The movie is pretty old, but it does give a good history. We had seen the movie before, so we skipped it this time and headed back toward Costa's Restaurant, which is where we had parked the car. We always go to Costa's when we go to Tarpon Springs because, not only do they have good food, they have a coupon special that gives you a free glass of wine, a soft drink, or baklava with any meal ordered from the special lunch menu. We all had gyros, Greek salad and complimentary baklava.

Our lunch was delish! Afterward, we headed back to Blueberry Hill.

The next morning, Barbara and Dick pulled out and headed for their next stop farther south in Florida. It was great spending a couple of days with them again.

We spent the next few days goofing off. Stay tuned for our next adventure.

Yalaha Bakery

Bushnell, FL

Our friends Barbara and Dick, whom we met a few years ago in Iowa, stopped by to stay at Blueberry Hill for a few days on their way farther south in Florida. They arrived early in the afternoon on Friday.

After greeting Barbara and Dick and giving them time to get set up, we got together for more conversation and dinner in the evening. We also made some suggestions of a few things to do during their stay. One of the first things we decided to do was to drive over to Mount Dora the next day to take a pontoon boat cruise through the Dora Canal. We'll have more about the boat cruise in our next post; but first, we want to tell you about an interesting stop we made along the way.

The route to Mount Dora for the cruise goes through the little town of Yalaha where Yalaha Bakery is located. Yalaha Bakery is a German bakery that specialized in breads and pastries.

Yalaha Bakery also has entertainment in their outdoor courtyard on Saturdays in winter.The photo below shows the entrance to the courtyard beside the bakery.

When we first visited the bakery back in 2008, we arrived a little later in the day, and the place was packed. People were lined up 4 deep inside, and we had a hard time even seeing the display of pastries to decide what we wanted. Click here to read about our 2008 stop at Yalaha Bakery.

This time, we arrived about 10:40 AM. Since the entertainment didn't start until 11:00, we were ahead of the crowds, and we had ample time to drool over the selections and make our choices.

We bought sweet rolls to enjoy while we listened to the music a while, cheese-covered pretzel rolls for a snack on our cruise, and desserts for dinner at home later in the evening. The next photo shows us enjoying our sweet rolls.

The entertainment was a folk singer who played the autoharp. Not only was his music excellent, but he was also very interesting because he gave a short history for each of the folk songs he sang.

The autoharp was invented in 1882 by a German immigrant by the name of Charles Zimmermann. The autoharp is essentially a zither that has chord bars added to mute certain strings to make it easy to play chords.

We listened to the music for over half an hour. We could have listened a lot longer, but we needed to be on our way to Mount Dora for the boat cruise. The photo below shows Paul, Barbara and Dick with our goodies as we headed for the car.

The photo below shows the desserts we enjoyed later that evening. Paul had a Chocolate Trio, which is white chocolate mousse, chocolate mousse and chocolate cake. Margery had a Bee Sting, which is a Bavarian-cream-filled cake topped with honey-glazed toasted almonds. Both were yummy!

From Yalaha Bakery, it was only about a 20 minute drive to Mount Dora. We'll tell you all about our cruise in our next post.

Lake Okahumpka Park

Bushnell, FL

After the Tampa RV show, we fell back into our lazy pattern of sitting around the motor home playing on the computer, relaxing and napping. The weather was a little too cool to do much anyway. The weather finally warmed up, but then we had almost a full day of rain. Our weather station said we got 1.43 inches.

When the sun came out the following day, we were inspired to plan a short outing to Lake Okahumpka Park a few miles north of Bushnell. We drive past the park every Sunday on our way to church, and the palmettos growing under all the Spanish moss-draped live oaks along the road by the park look very inviting.

Lake Okahumpka Park is operated by Sumter County, and it is located on the northern shore of Lake Okahumpka. Lake Okahumpka is a little over a mile across at its widest point with a surface area of about 670 acres.

The park has a boat launch, picnic facilities, a playground, sand volleyball courts, and a paved hiking/biking trail. The web site says the trail is only a little over a mile. It seemed like a lot of trouble to pack up the bikes for only a one-mile trail, so we decided we would just walk.

We parked near the trail map, and we found out there are actually three partially overlapping trails. The largest loop is a little over 1¼ mile around, and the shortest is a little over a third of a mile.

We picked the longest loop and started out in the direction of the boat launch.

Although you can catch glimpses of the lake through the trees here and there, this is the only place you can get close to the lake. As we got to the boat launch, a couple of anglers were heading out into the lake.

We hung out around the dock for a little while, then headed off down the trail. The Spanish moss-draped branches of the live oaks created an arch over the trail.

The hiking trail has lots of plaques identifying many of the trees and plants along the way. One of the more striking plants was a Carolina holly. Also called the sand holly, the Carolina holly grows from North Carolina to Florida and west to the eastern part of Texas.

The large hiking loop also has a series of fitness stations located every hundred yards or so. There are plaques with instructions for 2 or 3 different exercises for each piece of equipment. Some were moderately easy, some were pretty strenuous. We tried some of the easier ones like the arm/leg raise...

...and the leg stretch.

The exercise Paul is supposed to be doing in the photo below was a little tougher. You were instructed to hold onto the bar with both hands and swing your legs over the bar horizontally to the side. The only way Paul was going to get over the bar was one leg at a time.

Toward the end of the trail, we found an exercise he could do. He is standing on a small pedestal with one foot and raising himself up and down while holding the center pole for balance.

We had hoped to see some wildlife, but all we saw were a couple of ducks on the lake and several squirrels. However, we still enjoyed our walk.

We felt so good after all that exercise we decided to stop at Catfish Johnny's on our way back to the motor home for a late lunch.

Margery had catfish fingers (strips of fried catfish) and Paul had a new menu item - beer-batter shrimp. Both were delish.

We seem to be in a repeating weather pattern. We have several cool, windy, sunny days then one or two warmer days. By the end of the second warm day, the next cold front is starting to move in bringing in rain. We then have one or two cloudy/rainy days before the cycle starts to repeat. In our next post, we'll let you know what we activity we came up with for the upcoming warm spell.

How We  Became Publishers
As many RVers do, we started blogging about our travels as a way to help our friends and family back home follow along in our new adventure. Neither one of us are into writing stream of conscience so it was predictable that over the past four years, the blog has morphed into a travelogue. It is always nice to hear from other travelers about good campgrounds, food, festivals, and sights to see. Therefore, we like to include that kind information along with some 'home improvement projects' and personal news.

We started publishing our blog using Typepad because we thought we would be able to copy the blog to a CD. Not sure where Margery read that, but about a year into blog writing, we found out that was not true.

However, we did find out that it was possible to 'slurp' our blog into a book format and have as many or as few books published as we wanted. That was when we decided to publish a book for each year's of travel. 

Blurb provides a high-quality bookmaking and publishing services for the beginner or the pro. The professional software is a free download, and there is no charge until you're ready to publish your book. Books are published in 7-10 days and start as low as $4.95 in professional, bookstore-quality, printing, binding, and covers.

Full color books are available in five sizes. You can use one of their 12 templates with step-by-step guidance, or you can skip the BookSmart guidance and design your own. Some of the templates include books featuring photos, recipes, poetry, yearbooks, and of course blogs to book.

There many ways to customize the look of your book. For instance, we chose a slightly larger print for the copy so that it'll be easy to read as we get older. You also have a variety of fonts, backgrounds, and themes to use, if you wish. The photo below gives you an idea of how your book would look while you are creating/ editing your book. You can also view a single page or as a two-page spread.

This past week our published book of our first year arrived, and we found it stunning!

With all the blog entries and pictures, it was 204 pages. We chose a hardcover with a book jacket which we designed.

Although we do not expect anyone to purchase it, we did make it public so that it can be previewed at the Blurb Bookstore. On the right sidebar of the bookstore page, there are a variety of categories of books that you can peruse. It's a hotbed of ideas for designing your own book.

Because our book is public, we had the opportunity to write something about the book. Here's our description: 

How did a couple of stick-in-the-muds make the decision to disengage from their lives as they knew it and begin to explore our great country as full-time RVers?

There were a lot of things to consider and a dizzying number of decisions that had to be made... and that didn't even include where we wanted to go first!

This book includes blog entries describing our experiences accompanied by a lot of photos of our travels. It concludes with an honest assessment of our first year of life on the road and the decisions we made.

We both feel that publishing our book has been worth the time, effort, and cost. Some day we'll be rockin' away browsing through our books re-living this wonderful time in our lives. Margery has begun editing book two, but it will take a while.

Before we left Bushnell, we stopped back at Coyote Rojo Mexican restaurant. This time Margery had a fajita steak taco salad, and Paul had a fajita steak burrito. Both were delish!

We were scheduled to leave Bushnell Wednesday morning. However, when we got up we realized that our English Springer Spaniel, Molly, was not doing well. We had noticed a distinct deterioration in her quality of life the past couple of weeks, but the past two days she had worsened. After an emergency visit to a local vet, we decided it was time to let her go peacefully. We loved on her while the sedative took effect, and she was no longer aware we were there.

We had almost 16 years with her. She was a great traveler and  loved going with her pack wherever we went. She particularly loved all the smells she encountered on our travels the past four years. She was a great companion with her unique quirks, and she will be sorely missed. Margery has posted some of our favorite pictures in a Facebook photo album.

We delayed our departure, and will now pull out on Thursday for points west. We look forward to sharing with you what we discover.

Return to Tarpon Springs, FL

Our friends, Barbara and Dick, arrived from where they had been staying a little farther north in Florida, and pulled into a site right across from us. We originally met them in Davenport, IA, two years ago. We've stayed in touch with them since then, and we have met up with them several times on the road. They stopped at Blueberry Hill last winter, our paths crossed last year in Myrtle Beach, and they stopped at Blueberry Hill again this winter on their way farther south.

We have been complaining about the cool, cloudy, rainy weather all winter, but now that Barbara and Dick were here, we planned to go out for some sightseeing in spite of the weather. Unfortunately, Margery woke up the next morning with some pretty bad cold symptoms, so we decided to postpone our sightseeing until the following day.

Margery felt a little better by the afternoon so we decided to all head across the street to the Coyote Rojo (Red Coyote) restaurant. Coyote Rojo is a new Mexican restaurant that opened last December.

 Barbara and Dick both had taco salads with beef, and we had a chili relleno and a chicken burrito from the "Create Your Own Combo" menu. The food was all excellent, the service was great, and the prices are very reasonable. Most meals are $6 to $8, with a few special seafood and steak dinners for around $10 to $12.

On our way back from dinner, we stopped in at the campground clubhouse for the annual "Singspiration," which is a gospel sing-along sponsored by the Bible study Margery attends at the campground. The Baptist Church in Bushnell has a group of musicians who travel around the area and minister at nursing homes and the like, and they provided the music and song leaders for the Singspiration. As you can see, there is quite a large group of "pickers" playing guitars, banjos and mandolins.

We had a good time singing hymns and praise songs, and we also enjoyed the soloists. The multi-talented lady below is Loretta Pierce who also taught the Tai Chi classes that Paul participated in two years ago at Blueberry Hill.

The following morning, Margery was feeling better so we headed for Tarpon Springs. Tarpon Springs has become one of our favorite places, and we were there back in January when our friends Barbara and Kent visited. We wanted to go back before we left this winter, so we were glad it was on Barbara and Dick's list of things they wanted to do. The weather was cool and windy, but the forecast was for decreasing clouds. As we drove south, we were encouraged to see the clouds breaking up a bit.

Although numerous convenient parking lots are available for only $2 to $3 for all day, we found some free, on-street parking  near the restaurant where we wanted to stop later. As usual, we enjoyed seeing the sponges on display as we passed some of the shops.

We always like to stop in at the Sponge Factory at the eastern end of town. They have a nice variety of sponges and gift items. Even though we usually don't buy much, we like to look. The Sponge Factory also has a good movie for first-time visitors that gives a history of sponge diving in Tarpon Springs as well as a description of different types of sponges and their uses. They also have a selection of colorful seashells and this dried blowfish that Margery is checking out.

We browsed through a couple of other shops, and we walked past the old sponge docks on our way back to the restaurant. Once a bustling dock crowded with sponge boats, today there are pleasure boats and small cruise boats docked there. There are also several historic sponge boats that give you an idea of what it might have looked like back in the day. The sponge boat in the photo below is the St. Nicholas III.

The sponge industry in Tarpon Springs began in the early 1900s. Many Greek divers were recruited, and Tarpon Springs has the largest percentage of Greek-Americans in the United States today. The sponge industry thrived in the 1930s and 1940s until an algae bloom in 1947 decimated the sponge beds. The industry never recovered, especially with the introduction of synthetic sponges. Today, there still are a few boats hunting sponges, but most of the boats converted over to fishing and shrimping. Most of the sponges sold in Tarpon Springs are imported.

Along the sponge docks is a statue of a diver that is a memorial to the 10,000+ divers who lost their lives in this dangerous profession.

On the other side of the river, we saw the same catamaran we saw last November when we were staying at Ortono Lock. The photo below shows the boat at Tarpon Springs.

We remember the boat well because they were having trouble with the lock the day we were there, and they could only open one gate on the upstream end. They kept radioing back and forth to the catamaran because they could see it coming, and they knew it was very wide. With only one gate open, the lock keepers were afraid the catamaran wouldn't fit, but the captain insisted the beam was less than the opening. The next photo shows the catamaran just barely squeezing through the one open gate of the lock last November.

There are many Greek restaurants in Tarpon Springs, but we keep going back to Costa's because we like the food, the prices and the service.

Most of the restaurants have lunch specials, and Costa's is no exception. We always pick up a special menu and a coupon at the Sponge Factory. The coupon entitles everyone at the table to a choice of a free glass of wine, a soft drink, or baklava. In addition, some of the specials on the hand-out menu save you about $1 off the regular lunch menu. Three of us had gyros (yee-ros) which are ground beef and lamb with tomatoes, onions and tzatziki sauce (yogurt and chopped cucumber) served on pita bread, and a Greek salad. Barbara had the fried grouper sandwich. We all also opted for the baklava. Everything was delish!

With our bellies full, we headed back to the motor home. We have more sightseeing planned, so stay tuned.

Hangin' Around Blueberry Hill

It took a little over a week to finish the front TV project, and we (especially Paul) needed a break. We wanted to get in some sightseeing, but we just didn't feel like it. Not only that, the weather turned cloudy and rainy, so we just hung around the motor home.

Our neighbors across the street at the campground had a "get to know your neighbor" happy hour over at their site one afternoon. Fortunately, they picked a day with fairly nice weather. This is their first year at Blueberry Hill, and they wanted to get to know the people around them a little better. They invited everyone along both sides of our road in the campground to bring their own beverage and a snack to share. It was great to put some names with faces of people we wave to all the time and to find out where they are from.

A day or two after the happy hour, the weather turned back to clouds and rain.  When the sky finally cleared after second day of solid rain, we got out our bikes and rode up to the office to check for mail and to drop off the trash. The next photo shows the front of the clubhouse where the office is located.

We stopped in the campground library where Margery took a quick look to see if they had any new books. There are also a couple of tables in the library with jigsaw puzzles. (Click on arrow on picture if you'd like to solve the puzzle.)

The building that houses the library also has a card room and an area with four pool tables. We like to ride our bikes in the afternoon, and we sometimes stop in for a game or two of pool. However, we have been so busy this year we haven't ridden our bikes much. This was the first time this year we have taken time to test out the newly-recovered pool tables.

The next photo shows Paul lining up an easy shot.

 

On our way back from the office, we took advantage of the sunshine and rode our bikes around the campground. We like to check out license plates to see where people are from, and we like to see if there are any empty sites. The campground is finally starting to look full, although there are still about 15% of the sites in the front section unoccupied and at least half a dozen empty sites in the back section. In past years, the campground has been almost filled by the middle of January, and essentially completely filled by February 1; but this year the bad economy is apparently taking its toll, and there are more empty sites than in the past.

We also ran a few errands during our down time, and on the way home from a shopping trip to the Villages, we passed the interesting sign in the next photo posted at the end of someone's driveway.

Also on our way back from the Villages, we decided to stop at Catfish Johnny's Restaurant in Lake Panasoffkee. Lake Panasofkee is off the I-75 exit just north of the Bushnell exit. The restaurant is situated under towering, Spanish moss-draped live oak trees.

 

Carfish Johnny's is known for seafood. We usually get either fried catfish or popcorn shrimp, but this time we both opted for fried grouper. Grouper is a member of the sea bass family. The fish is firm and has a mild almost sweet flavor. It is also low in fat and cholesterol, but the deep frying kind of cancels out that benefit.

During our time of relaxation we also decided to try the new Hong Kong Chinese restaurant located in the little strip mall next to Walmart in Bushnell. There's a real international atmosphere with Little Caesars right next door.

The Hong Kong restaurant seems to be primarily geared for takeout, but it has a few tables so we decided to eat in. Lunch specials are available from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM for $5.25. The specials include a main dish, pork fried rice and an egg roll. Even though it was after 3:00, they allowed us to order from the lunch menu. We knew the dinner portions would be larger and would be much more than we could eat.

We are both big fans of General Tso's chicken, so that's what we both ordered. The egg roll was pretty good - piping hot and not too greasy. The General Tso's chicken was good, but Paul thought the fried rice was a little dry. All in all, it wasn't bad for the price. And we were correct about the portions - the lunch-size meals were more than we could eat, so it's a good thing we didn't get dinners.

Even though we had come to the conclusion that Margery's knee discomfort "is what it is," the outside of Margery's left knee has gotten progressively sorer with a snapping sensation whenever she sits down. The orthopedic surgeon gave the knee joint itself perfect marks just about a month ago, so she knew it had to be something else. It had gotten to the point that it was sometimes becoming extremely difficult to walk. She has been scouring internet sites like WebMD researching for possible causes, and asking God for wisdom to know how to proceed. She concluded that most likely she was dealing with something called liotibial band friction syndrome. It is a form of bursitis on either side, or lateral part, of the knee. Bursitis is the inflammation of a bursa, which is a fluid-filled sac that provides a cushion between a bone and tissue such as a ligament.

Based on her research, that ligament needed to be stretched so she started doing her post-surgery leg exercises with minimal relief. Then, she made a passing comment to a shoe salesman during the above-mentioned shopping trip to the Villages, and the salesman gave her information that has proven to be the most helpful. He had had a knee replacement and experienced the same thing! Don't you just love how God answers our prayers? The salesman shared the information he got from his physical therapist...using stretch bands in two specific stretches. Margery is finally getting some real relief. We share this information in the hope it will help someone else someday.

With some time out for relaxation, we are ready for another project. Look for our next post to see what we're up to.

Tarpon Springs, FL

We went to Tarpon Springs last year, and since it is one of Paul's favorite places, we were thrilled when our friends from up north, Barb and Kent, were interested in going this year. Click here to read about last year's trip to Tarpon Springs. This year, the day was cloudy with a chance of rain, but at least it was warm.

Tarpon Springs is a quaint, Greek community located a few miles up the Anclote River from the Gulf of Mexico. It is a little over an hour southwest of Bushnell.

Tarpon Springs was originally founded in the late 1800s as a location for winter homes for wealthy northerners. Sponge beds were discovered in the Gulf of Mexico, and a sponge-diving industry soon began to develop. Greek divers were recruited and began arriving in large numbers in the early 1900s. Today, Tarpon Springs has the highest percentage of Greek-Americans of any city in the United States.

The sponge industry was booming by the 1930s and early 1940s, but an algae bloom in 1947 decimated the sponge beds in the region of the Gulf around Tarpon Springs. Most of the sponge boats switched to fishing and shrimping, and the sponge docks and sponge exchanges were converted to tourist activities like shops, museums and fishing cruises. Although there has been some recovery of the sponge industry, most of the sponges in the shops today are imported.

In spite of being primarily a tourist area, Tarpon Springs has maintained a picturesque, old-world charm. In addition to fishing and sightseeing cruises, the waterfront is lined with boats decorated with sponges like the one in the photo below.

 

Commercial fishing boats are docked on the opposite side of the river.

 

We went to Tarpon Springs on a Saturday and happened to hit a day when part of the main street along the waterfront was blocked off for a craft show. Unfortunately for the vendors, there wasn't a big turnout with the cloudy weather.

 

As we have said before, we don't have room to buy much at flea markets and craft shows, but we enjoy looking. We also like walking down the picturesque main street in Tarpon Springs with its shops and restaurants predominantly painted crisp blue and white.

 

There was even a man and his young daughter providing entertainment. The girl played the drums, played the harmonica and sang harmony. She was quite talented.

Along the way, Margery and Barb stopped to check out sponges. There are numerous types, each with a recommended use from car washing to makeup application.

Paul, on the other hand, stopped to check out the Greek pastries on display at a restaurant bake shop.

Walking down the sidewalks of Tarpon Springs includes receiving personal invitations from almost every restaurant in the town to come in to dine.

However, we had already planned to return to our favorite from last year. Costas Restaurant is about a block and a half off the main street and offers some great lunch specials. We stopped for a tourist photo with a fiberglass shark on our way through a shopping plaza that is in what used to be the sponge exchange.

At Costas, Paul had a chicken souvlaki sandwich (marinated chicken with yogurt/cucumber sauce, tomato and onions wrapped in pita) while everyone else had gyros (beef/lamb with yogurt/cucumber, tomato and onions wrapped in pita). The lunch special we chose comes with a Greek salad that includes potato salad buried under the greens. Everything, including the baklava that was also part of the special, was delish.

With our bellies full, we headed back to the motor home. Barb and Kent left for their next destination the following morning.

When we got back, Margery was excited to find the $200 gas gift card she won as a voter of Roadtrip Journal's December Readers Choice Contest had arrived in the mail. Roadtrip Journal is an online magazine providing first-hand accounts and recommendations by other Road Warriors.

We'll be putting that gas card to good use once Paul finishes some projects here at the motor home. We'll be reporting on them soon.

Bushnell, FL

We had about a two and a half hour drive from the SKP Resort in Zolfo Springs to Bushnell, FL, where we will be spending the winter at Blueberry Hill RV Resort. Blueberry Hill has over 500 RV sites with full hookups. Two hours of continuous Wi-Fi use every day are free, but there is a charge for usage beyond that time. Blueberry Hill has approximately 100 pull-through sites in the front of the campground that are paved, and the remainder of the sites in back are all grass. The all-grass sites are very generously sized and are very popular with the snowbirds. The pull-throughs in front are primarily given to those staying two months or less. The photo below shows our site in the back section.

The next photo shows the view down the row where our site is located.

This will be our third winter at Blueberry Hill. When we stayed here the first year the campground had recently been bought out by a corporation that owns a number of campgrounds around the country. This year, we saw a truckload of new washers and dryers being delivered to the campground laundry, and we noticed the pool tables in the rec center had been recovered. We're glad to see the corporate owners are putting money back into Blueberry Hill to keep things up to date.

One of the things we like about Blueberry Hill is the location. Bushnell is located in central Florida near many sightseeing attractions. While Bushnell is a small town, it has a Walmart (within walking distance of the campground) and a fairly well-stocked Winn-Dixie grocery store. Bushnell is also near Tampa to the southwest and close to The Villages to the northeast. This means there is access to all the national retail chains and restaurant chains.

We needed to run some errands to a couple of the above-mentioned retail chain stores located toward Tampa, so we were able to make a slight detour to take us past a Qdoba Mexican Grill for an early dinner on our way back to the motor home. Qdoba is one of our favorite restaurant chains. Lora and J. Michael gave Paul a gift card for Qdoba for his birthday back in September, and we have been looking forward to being near a Qdoba ever since. We both ordered our favorite - poblano pesto burrito (rice, beans, grilled chicken, roasted poblano pepper pesto, salsa, cheese, and sour cream) served "naked" (without the tortilla). We always ask for a few corn chips on the side in lieu of the tortilla.

Margery has been busy with a few Christmas projects. It was nothing like she used to do when we were in a stix-and-brix house, but it was just enough to be enjoyable. She found a great website where she is able to download patterns and clipart for a nominal fee. After printing, cutting, folding and gluing these Christmas pinch bags, she'll fill them with candy.

Paul enjoys molasses cookies, and today Margery tried a new recipe. They're nice and soft (probably from the sour cream in them). There isn't a very strong molasses flavor, but they're good just the same. The recipe made many more cookies than we can eat, so Margery made up some gift bags to share with our neighbors.

We will be in Bushnell for about three months, so we will have plenty of time to relax. With all that relaxing, our posts may be a little shorter and a little less frequent during our winter stop; but we're still planning some sightseeing, some eating out, and some projects so keep looking for our posts.

South Central Florida Part I: Ortona Lock

We originally planned to meander down through Florida and head for the Keys again this year after leaving Myrtle Beach. We had reservations at Curry Hammock State Park near Marathon Key for four days over the weekend before Thanksgiving, but we got a call about 5 or 6 weeks ago saying they had decided to completely close down Curry Hammock State Park for about a week to replace a bridge to the campground. Unfortunately, that shutdown overlapped two of the four days we had reserved. We had a choice of keeping the two remaining days or cancelling completely at no charge. We didn't think it was worthwhile to drive all the way to the Keys for just two nights (it would have been over 350 miles one way from New Smyrna Beach), so we decided to cancel. We briefly considered staying at a private campground, but the private campgrounds in the Keys charge $70 to $100+ a night so we quickly ruled that out.

To fill the hole in our travel plans, Margery found a reservation opening at Ortona South Corps of Engineers campground near Lake Okeechobee. Since we have never been to the south-central part of Florida, and since the campground got good reviews on rvparkreviews.com, we reserved for five nights.

Ortona South has 51 sites with electric (30/50-amp) and water only. The roads and pads are paved, the patios are gravel, and the sites are widely spaced with attractive landscaping of palm trees, small live oak trees, ornamental grasses, and shrubs between the sites. The photo below shows our site at Ortona South.

And the next photo shows more of the loop where our site was located.

 

Ortona South is located near the town of Labelle, FL, at the Ortona Lock on the Caloosahatchee River. The river is connected to Lake Okeechobee by a canal to the east, and it runs to the Gulf of Mexico at Ft. Meyers, FL, to the west. Ortona Lock is one of several locks that are required because Lake Okeechobee is 15 to 20 feet above sea level.

The campground is very quiet. There are no trains, no interstate, and it is over a mile from State Route 80 that passes by the entrance road. There weren't that many boats, and the boats must slow to produce no wake in the vicinity of the lock, so there wasn't any noise from the river either. Ahhh, there are few places any more where you can find complete quiet! We were in heaven.

The photo below shows the dam at Ortona. The lock is on the other side of the bank to the left, and you can walk across the dam to watch boats go through.

The next photo is a view from the dam. The pilings in the background line the entrance to the lock. Several anhingas were sitting on the ropes that held the warning buoys upstream of the dam.

 

The plants at the sides of the waterway in the photo above are water hyacinths. The plant gets its name from its hyacinth-like blooms.

While the plants are beautiful with their lavender blooms and shiny leaves, the water hyacinth is a non-native, invasive species. The plants are killed by cold weather and are not a problem in the north. In fact, water hyacinths were an attractive addition to the water gardens we had at our stick houses back in Pittsburgh over the years. Unfortunately, water hyacinth is probably one of the worst water plants in tropical climates because there is no cold weather to kill it off, and a colony can double in size in as little as two weeks. Water hyacinth propagates by sending off runners that form new, daughter plants. The plants float on the surface of the water, and the daughter plants can break off and float away to start new colonies. The plants can also reproduce by seeds.

Water hyacinths are native to South America and were introduced into Florida in the 1880s. Water hyacinths form dense mats that hinder boat traffic, slow water flow, reduce the oxygen content of the water, and shade the water to reduce native plant and fish populations. Millions of dollars a year are spent to control this invasive plant.

When we got to the lock, we happened to hit a time when there were several batches of boats going through each way. Unlike most other locks we have seen that pump water in and out of the lock chamber, this one was a little smaller and they just cracked the upstream gate open and let the natural flow of the water fill the lock chamber.

When the water in the lock reached the upstream level, the gate was opened and boats entered. The change in level is about 6 1/2 feet.

 

On the day we went over to the lock to watch the boats, one of the upstream gates was not working. Most of the boats going through were pleasure boats and didn't have a problem - except the catamaran in the next photo. They had to check and double check the width before they allowed him to attempt to enter. As you can see, there was only about a foot or so on each side, but the captain was able to guide the boat through without touching either side.

The crews held lines along the walls of the lock while the upstream gate was closed and the downstream gates were cracked to allow water to drain out of the lock. When the water was at the downstream level, the gates were opened fully, and the boats exited the lock.

 

While we were at Orona South, we needed to restock some groceries, so one day we drove to the Walmart in Lehigh Acres about half an hour to the west. By the time we were done with our errands we were hungry. We remembered passing an interesting-looking barbecue joint in Labelle, FL, with a lot of cars in the parking lot (always a good sign) so we stopped on our way back to the motor home for a late lunch. The photo below shows Skeet and Sara's Log cabin Bar B Q.

Even though it was past lunchtime, there were still a lot of vehicles in the parking lot. Not only that, a good many of the vehicles were pickup trucks, so another good sign. We were greeted by sweet-smelling barbecue smoke as soon as we got out of the car.

 

We both ordered pulled pork barbecue platters which were served with a choice of fries, baked potato or sweet potato. The platters also included slaw and a piece of Texas toast. Because they were in the middle of a shift change in the kitchen, our food took longer than usual, so they gave us each a complimentary cup of turkey noodle soup while we were waiting. Paul isn't usually a fan of turkey noodle soup, but this was delish! It was thick with lots of turkey and lots of flavor.

When our lunches finally arrived, it was worth the wait. The barbecue was smoky and moist and served without sauce. There were containers of sweet or vinegar-based sauce on the table so you could add as much or as little sauce as you want. We both liked the sweet sauce.

After lunch, we headed back to the campground. We still have more exploring to do, so look for our next post.

Holy Land Experience

Blueberry Hill RV Resort is emptying out as snowbirds start heading back north. We first noticed a few empty sites when we returned from our unscheduled trip to Pittsburgh about a month ago. Now there are even more empty spaces. We can see 8 or 10 vacant sites from our window in the back section where we are staying, and the front section (shown in the photo below) is only a little more than half filled.

Our friends, Dick and Barbara, pulled into one of the unoccupied sites near us on Friday. We first met Dick and Barbara last summer in Iowa while we were waiting out the flood waters, and we have stayed in touch with them since that time. They still have a stick house near Charlotte, NC, but they travel for extended periods in their motor home. Dick and Barbara happened to be home last fall when we were in the Charlotte area, and we stopped by their house. We had a nice visit, and they ended up taking us to lunch at a great barbecue place.

Now Dick and Barbara are at the beginning of a spring trip with several stops in Florida, so they planned to stay for a few nights here at Blueberry Hill on their way south. One of the things we were planning to do before we left Florida this year was visit the Holy Land Experience, which is located about an hour away in Orlando. The Holy Land Experience is a re-creation of the city of Jerusalem at the time of Christ. It is part Christian ministry and part tourist attraction. When we mentioned the Holy Land Experience to Dick and Barbara in an email, they expressed an interest so we planned to go while they were at Blueberry Hill.

We headed to Orlando Saturday morning and arrived at the Holy Land Experience just before they opened. We ordered our tickets online, and we had to pick up the tickets at Guest Services. Not only did we get a $5 per person discount for ordering online, we also got to bypass the lines at the ticket windows. The photo below shows the entrance, which is designed to look like one of the gates to the city of Jerusalem.

The area just inside the gate is a replica of a Jerusalem street market with baskets of exotic fruits, vegetables, and other items that you might expect to find in a Middle Eastern marketplace. The central courtyard in the market is flanked by a gift shop and a cafe.

 

After making our way through the market, we found we were just in time to see the Crystal Living Waters. During the 20-minute presentation, the fountain dances and swirls in time to inspirational music.

Throughout the day, there are numerous live plays and musical presentations depicting the life of Jesus. The photo below is during a play called "The Ministry of Jesus," which is a collection of several Gospel stories.

There is a re-creation of the garden tomb. This venue is the focal point of the passion play "Behold the Lamb." We didn't see the passion play since it was scheduled late in the day, which was longer than we wanted to stay.

 

The one-third size replica of Herrod's Temple is centrally located in the Holy Land Experience, just like the real-life temple was in ancient Jerusalem.

Paul liked the scale model of the city of Jerusalem that was housed inside one of the buildings near the outdoor temple replica. The photo below shows the scale model of Herrod's Temple.

The next photo is another view of the model of the city. The temple is the tallest structure on the right.

 

There was a presentation by a staff archeologist at the model several times during the day. The archeologist gave an overview of the history of city of Jerusalem and pointed out numerous landmarks on the model. He also described many features of the temple.

Near the building that housed the model of Jerusalem was the Scriptorium.

The Scriptorium is a museum that houses a research library of several thousand manuscripts, scrolls, and other religious artifacts. Some of these items are on display to the public as a walk-through exhibit that traces the history of the Bible from early papyrus scrolls, through hand-copied manuscripts of the Middle Ages, to early printed Bibles that started with the Gutenburg Bible in the 1400s.

In additional to all the exhibits and live presentations, we enjoyed walking around the grounds. The photo below shows a flower on one of the many exotic-looking trees.

We were amazed at how well done everything was. All the exhibits and shows have an unmistakable Gospel message. Our only complaint was the crowds. We normally don't do touristy things on weekends, but because of the way our schedule worked out, Saturday was the best day for us to go to the Holy Land Experience. There were lots of people there that day, including many church groups, and the Holy Land Experience isn't as well equipped to handle large crowds the way Disney is. The walkways and exhibit layouts aren't always as efficient as they could be - the overflow crowds from some outdoor shows block pathways, and the entrances to some exhibits interfere with the exits from others on busy days like the one when we were there. We still enjoyed the Holy Land Experience and highly recommend it, but go on a weekday if at all possible. Note that they are closed Sundays, although they do have church services each Sunday at 10:30 AM.

The next photo shows our group at the Holy Land Experience. Barbara and Dick are on the right.

About mid-afternoon, our feet were getting tired and we were getting hungry. Although there is food available at the Holy Land Experience, we had our sights set on Bahama Breeze. Bahama Breeze is one of our favorite restaurants; and when we received an email from Bahama Breeze with a coupon for $10 off any dinner entree, we couldn't pass it up. We forwarded a copy of the promotional email to Dick and Barbara, so each couple had a coupon.

There are two Bahama Breeze restaurants in Orlando, and they are both fairly close to the Holy Land Experience. We stopped at one of them for an early dinner on our way back to Blueberry Hill. Barbara and Margery had almond crusted tilapia with lemon butter, Dick had Bahamian chicken kabob salad, and Paul had Jamacian grilled chicken with mango salsa. Yum!  :)

On Sunday after attending church, we traveled up to The Villages, which calls itself Florida's friendliest hometown. The Villages is located about 30 miles north of Bushnell and made up of 32 "villages" with neighborhoods of homes ranging from patio villas to ranch style homes to premium homes. We know several people who have either retired there or bought second homes. It's a golfer's paradise with 33 golf courses, but for those not so inclined there are over 100 special interest groups that meet on a regular basis. The Pittsburgh Club is so big they had to start a second one! Although neither of us is ready to settle down permanently, our stop in the Villages Sales Office was informative. Florida in general and The Villages in particular may bear further investigation in the future when we are finally ready for a stick house again.

We had a great time visiting with Dick and Barbara. We shared lots of good conversation, a ride on the Withlacoochee Bike Trail, and several meals. They were soon on their way to visit other friends in Florida, and we had to say "good bye." We look forward to crossing paths with them again.

Withlacoochee Bike Trail

At a length of 46 miles, the Withlacoochee Bike Trail is the longest paved rail-trail in Florida. Cyclists, skaters, joggers, and walkers are all welcome. There is even a bridle path for horses that follows alongside the paved trail in some areas. The trail runs from Gulf Junction near Dunnellon, FL, southward through Inverness and Floral City, to Owensboro Junction 6 miles north of Dade City, FL. The trail passes through small towns, residential areas, and rural farms and ranches. The terrain is generally flat with very gentle rises and drops.

There are at least half a dozen main trail heads along the route with ample parking. There are also several more remote locations along back roads where there are places to park for the bike trail, but most of the main trail heads have bike shops, rest rooms, picnic areas, and places to get food and drink that don't exist at the remote locations.

Floral City is only a few miles from where we are staying in Bushnell, so we decided to start our trek there. In the photo below, we are just about ready to head on down the trail. As you can see, the parking lot was almost empty on that weekday afternoon.



In the late 1800s, Henry Plant built numerous rail lines in Florida. The railroads underwent mergers over the years, with the Plant System of railroads eventually becoming part of CSX Transportation. In 1989, CSX sold the 46-mile right of way between Gulf Junction and Owensboro Junction to the State of Florida. This was one of the first purchases of the Florida rails-to-trails program.

The Withlacoochee State Trail takes its name from the Withlacoochee River. The river, the bike trail, and U. S. Route 41 all run roughly parallel in a north-south direction. The northern end of the trail is closer to busy Route 41, so we headed south from Floral City. In the photo below, Paul is warming up for the start of our ride.

After about a mile, the trail started to veer away from the highway. As the traffic noise faded, we could hear more birds. Along the trail, there are a number of benches and a few drinking fountains. The Withlacoochee Trail is one of the widest bike trails we have ever seen. Although it wasn't very crowded when we were there during the week, the width would make riding on crowded weekends much more pleasurable.

After we had ridden a few miles, we noticed the lone rider who was several hundred yards ahead of us steer off to the left side of the trail. We thought he was stopping for a rest, but he only slowed briefly and then continued on. 

Now Margery was just tooling along listening to the singing birds, gawking at the tranquil scenery thinking it doesn't get any better than this and NOT looking at the path ahead of her. All of a sudden Paul says, "Watch out!" It was then that we saw the reason the lone biker went off the trail. Although the 6-foot eastern diamondback rattlesnake was almost off the trail by the time we got there, he was right in the middle when the rider ahead of us passed by. Paul gave the rattlesnake a wide berth while taking the photo below, and the snake kept a wary eye on Paul as well.



A little farther along, we came to an unusual sight. This Arabian camel (or more properly called a dromedary - it's the Bactrian camel that has two humps) was in a pasture across the rural road that ran parallel to the trail for a short distance.

 

The next photo is our turn-around point which was about 5.3 miles from the start. We enjoyed a granola bar and some cool water at a covered picnic table before heading back to the car.

 

On our return trip, Paul noticed dozens of burrows along the bank in one area of the trail. Being from Pennsylvania, Paul's first thought was it might be groundhogs, but Florida is a little too far south for groundhogs. Being a former avid gardener, he is all too familiar with groundhogs and the way they can eat their way through your flowers and vegetables. Then Paul saw this gopher tortoise sitting at the mouth of its burrow and had the answer to what was doing all the digging.

 

Although there weren't many people out the day we were there, we saw quite a high percentage of recumbent bikes as we rode down the trail and back. Recumbents place the rider in a reclining position rather than upright. This has several advantages. It spreads the rider's weight out over a larger area to make the ride more comfortable. Recumbent bikes have very large seats with back rests. The reclining position also provides good leverage against the pedals and it reduces wind resistance.

 

Back in Floral City near where we parked the car, we stopped by Hampton's Edge Trailside Bicycles. Paul has been wanting a rearview mirror for his bike for a long time. Hampton's had many to choose from. This mirror that attaches to the end of the handlebar and adjusts very easily is not your Walmart cheapo. We both ended up with one. :)

Hampton's Edge specializes in recumbent bicycles, so we took a look at one. We can see why people like recumbents. They wouldn't be very good for off-road use because when riding off-road, you frequently need to shift your weight rapidly to maintain balance on uneven terrain or to stand to pedal up a steep rise; but recumbents seem to be very comfortable for use on level pavement. Unfortunately, most recumbent bicycles have long wheelbases which makes them difficult to transport in an RV. Our Dahon folding bikes meet our needs very well for transportation and storage. Recumbents are also a bit expensive, so there probably won't be one in our foreseeable future.

We also found out the people who run the bike shop are fellow members of the Escapees RV Club. They have a 5th wheel and plan to begin their full-timing in two years; but for now, they can only get away for two months in the summer.

After our 10+ mile bike ride, it was mid-afternoon; and we were hungry. Taking a took a short detour on our way back to the motor home through Lake Panasoffkee, we stopped at Catfish Johnny's Restaurant for a late lunch to reward ourselves for the sacrifice of all that exercise.

 

Catfish Johnny is a local musician who started a restaurant a few miles west of Interstate 75, Exit 321. The restaurant specializes in Southern-style dishes like catfish, alligator, frog legs, as well as shrimp and other seafood. They have several all-you-can-eat specials on various nights and a jam session on Tuesdays. We had catfish finger baskets. Of course, catfish don't have fingers, but that's what they call the battered, deep-fried catfish strips. The baskets are served with a generous helping of catfish strips, French fries, cole slaw, and two hush puppies for $5.99.

A few days after our bike ride, we had the privilege to witness our third live space shuttle launch. We saw the first one from a few miles south of where we are staying now in Dec., 2006, and we saw the second this past November when we were staying in New Smyrna Beach.

The first launch was a night launch, and the shuttle was just a bright light in the sky because we were about 90 miles away; but for the second launch, which was also a night launch, the shuttle really lit up the sky because we were only about 35 miles away.

Even though we were about 90 miles away again for the the third launch, it was the most spectacular by far because of the time of day. This time, the shuttle Discovery lifted off at 7:43 PM, which was less than 15 minutes after sunset. The sky was dark enough to see the bright flames from the solid-fuel booster rockets as the shuttle came up over the trees, but the sky was also light enough to see the smoke trail, especially as the shuttle got higher in the sky. As Discovery rose above the curve of the earth, the smoke trail was illuminated orange by the setting sun. The upper parts of the smoke trail were illuminated yellow then bright white.

 

We saw the solid-fuel booster rockets fall away as two, distinct dots shining in the bright sun at high altitude. Soon afterward, the shuttle itself went out of sight, but the bright orange and yellow smoke trail lingered for quite a while. We went inside and followed the launch coverage for a few minutes on the NASA Channel then settled in for some regular TV.

We're working on our summer travel plans as well as some local sightseeing plans for the coming weeks. We'll be meeting some friends, so we'll definitely be in tourist mode. Stop back to see what we discover.

Tarpon Springs, FL

We were happy to finally see a ten-day weather forecast for temperatures in the 70s and low 80s, so we took off one morning for Tarpon Springs. Tarpon Springs is a little over an hour's drive to the southwest of Bushnell. Located a few miles up the Anclote River from where the river joins the Gulf of Mexico, Tarpon Springs is a picturesque town known for its sponge industry. The photo below is a waterfront view showing some of the fishing boats.

 

While Tarpon Springs used to be known as the sponge capitol of the world, today it is mostly a tourist area. Dodecanese Blvd. runs along the waterfront and has shops and restaurants mostly along one side. Across the street are the docks where sponges were unloaded. Today, there are still some sponge boats and commercial fishing boats, but there are also lots of tour boats at the docks. There are fishing tours, nature tours, and sightseeing tours - some that only take an hour or two and some that take all day.

There is some free parking in the tourist area of Tarpon Springs, but much of the parking is in pay lots. Parking is very reasonable at only $2 to $3 for all day, but we arrived early enough to find a free spot at the Sponge Exchange. The Sponge Exchange was originally started in 1907 as a place where the sponge divers could take their sponges to sell. The complex of buildings that used to be the Sponge Exchange has been modified and renovated into a shopping village. The photo below shows us sitting at the edge of the fountain with a statue of Neptune in the courtyard.

 

We browsed through some of the shops at the Sponge Exchange, and Margery bought some herbs at a little market. Then we went into a shop called Key West Connections. What a fun store! Of course, they had T-shirts and many of the usual tourist items, but they also had a great collection of silly hats. The gal behind the counter was great. Since it was early in the morning and there was no one else in the store, she encouraged us to try on whatever we wanted and to take all the pictures we wanted. In keeping with the Key West theme of the store, Margery is modeling a Parrot Head hat in honor of Jimmy Buffet.

Not to be outdone, Paul tried the flamingo hat. Now, there's a real fashion statement.

 

To go with the flamingo hat, they even had flamingo glasses.

 

After trying on some of the latest fashion accessories at Key West Connections, we headed on down Dodecanese Blvd. The photo below shows some of the quaint shops and restaurants along the boulevard.

As expected, there were numerous shops selling sponges. In addition to natural sea sponges, most of the sponge shops also sell luffa sponges, which are the dried, inner structure from the gourd-like fruit of a tropical plant. Margery is looking at one of the sea sponges in the photo below. The luffa sponges are the cylindrical-shaped ones hanging in front of her.

At least two of the larger sponge shops have movies that describe the history of sponging and the methods used to harvest and prepare sponges for market. After watching the movie at the Sponge Factory, Paul checked out some of the old photos they had on the wall detailing the history of the area. He is surrounded by many types and sizes of sea sponges they had on display.

The next photo is another view of the Sponge Factory.

A. W. Ormond and his daughter, Mary, were the first settlers in the area in 1876. Mary liked the big fish that inhabited the waters, and she named the settlement Tarpon Springs after the fish.

In the late 1880s, it was discovered that money could be made from harvesting sponges from the Gulf of Mexico. Although Tarpon Springs had grown into an exclusive resort for northerners, by 1890 the sponge industry had become the most important source of income for Tarpon Springs.

Within a few years, many divers were brought from Greece to Tarpon Springs. The divers with their rubberized canvas suits and pressurized helmets were able to dive deeper and increase the sponge harvest. By 1905 there were over 500 Greek sponge divers operating from more than 50 boats.

Eateries sprang up along the docks because of the many divers and their crews. As the sponge industry grew, people came to the docks to see the sponges. Soon, shops opened to sell sponges and souvenirs.

Sponges are marine organisms that consist of porous masses of cells and skeletal elements. Although sponges are biologically classified as animals, they do not have nervous, digestive, or circulatory systems and depend on water circulation to supply food, oxygen, and to remove waste.

Only sponges that are a minimum of 5 inches high or 5 inches in diameter are permitted to be harvested. Hand-held rakes are used to pull or knives are used to cut sponges from the rocks on which they grow. Small portions of the sponges that are deliberately left behind will grow into new sponges.

After harvesting, the sponges are squeezed to remove the gelatinous cells. It is only the flexible skeleton of the organism that is used. The sponges are kept moist on the decks of the boats by covering them with wet burlap sacks. During this time, any cells remaining in the sponges decompose. The sponges are then strung up on the ship to dry. After the ships return to shore, the sponges are trimmed, sorted according to size and quality, bleached, rinsed, and dried.

When a red tide algae bloom in 1947 caused a sharp decline in the sponge harvest, many of the boats switched to fishing and shrimping. The photo below shows one of the shrimp boats tied up along the Anclote River.

Although the discovery of new sponge beds in the 1980s has led to a rebound in the sponge industry, most of the dock area is now shops and restaurants catering to tourists. Synthetic sponges have largely replaced natural sponges, but many say no synthetic can equal the durability and absorbency of a natural sea sponge.

A strong Greek influence remains in Tarpon Springs today. Tarpon Springs has the highest percentage of Greek-Americans of any city in the United States. We had a difficult time deciding which of the many Greek restaurants we would try for lunch. Several of the ones along Dodecanese Blvd. are open-air and look like they could be located in a Greek village along the Mediterranean. By the time we decided it was time for lunch, most of the restaurants along the main street were very crowded, so we went down a side street (Athens St.) and stopped into Costas.

In addition to not being as crowded, we decided on Costas because Margery found an online coupon for free baklava with any lunch special. Costas turned out to be a good choice. We both had a gyro (pronounced yee-roh) sandwich with a salad. Paul is about to dig into the "small" Greek salad that came with the special.

 

The gyros were piled high with meat (which is a combination of beef and lamb), tomato, onion, and tzatziki sauce, all wrapped in a pita. Tzatziki sauce is a yogurt-cucumber sauce traditionally served on gyros. The sandwiches were yummy. The baklava was delish, too. We were stuffed when we left.

We started our visit to Tarpon Springs with tourist photos of us wearing funny hats, so we also ended our visit with a another silly tourist photo.

We always enjoy visiting a picturesque town, especially one with a rich history, and Tarpon Springs was no exception. It was interesting to learn about the sponge industry and to learn a little about Greek culture. And we are definitely fans of Greek food.

Hangin' Around Bushnell, FL

We enjoyed watching the Steelers squeak out a last-minute victory in Super Bowl XLIII. This game was not for the faint of heart. Paul thinks a good game is when the opposing team is blown out of the water. Margery likes a close game when the Steelers pull it out of the hat. Paul just about gave up when the Cardinals pulled into the lead. Margery suggested he take a walk if he couldn't bear to watch because THIS time, we were leaving the game on until the end...and we weren't disappointed!

The commercials that the Super Bowl is so famous for are also a lot of fun. We usually stick around for them and take snack and bathroom breaks during the game. This year, since the Steelers were playing, it was a lot harder to take breaks.

During the game, we saw a commercial for Denny's restaurants that said they were giving away free Grand Slam breakfasts (a $5.99 value) to anyone who showed up on the Tuesday after the game between 6:00 AM and 2:00 PM. Since we didn't have anything planned during the cool weather and since there was a Denny's restaurant nearby, we thought we would stop by to see how crowded they were.

We intentionally scheduled our arrival for around 10:00 AM hoping the crowds would be a little smaller between breakfast and lunch. The number of people waiting outside didn't look too bad, so we pulled in and parked. The photo below shows Margery waiting for them to call our name. As you can see, everyone is wearing jackets. The air was cool; but thankfully, the sun was warm.

While we were waiting, they had a clown who was passing out small stuffed animals to the kids (and a few of the adults).

They also handed out Pancake Puppies to those who were waiting. Pancake Puppies are deep-fried balls of pancake batter that are similar to hush puppies.

We were amazed at how smoothly everything ran. It turned out we only had to wait about 35 minutes to get a table. The restaurant staff was hustling, but they were not frantic. Service was fairly quick and the food was good. The Grand Slam breakfast consists of two eggs, two slices of bacon, two sausage links, and two pancakes. We're both trying to watch our weight, fat, and cholesterol, so it's not something we could eat all the time; but hey, we can bend our rules a little for free food.

For the past two weeks or so we just couldn't seem to shake the cold weather. We had a few warmer days (with clouds and rain on a couple of them), then it was back to the 50s - still better than up north, but cold for Florida. We remember a few cold days and nights last year, but not this many. A lot of landscape plants around the campground and elsewhere have turned brown because of repeated freezing. Hopefully, it's just the leaves that were lost and the plants themselves will survive.

So far, we have had a total of four nights in the low 20s. Last year we only remember one or two nights that were in the mid-20s. We're glad we have our new Vornado electric heater. It's really working well.

We are in what used to be the heart of citrus country. Most big, commercial orange growers moved farther south after a freeze in the 1980s, but there are still quite a few smaller groves around where we are staying. If overnight temperatures drop below 28 degrees for more than about four hours, oranges can be damaged. If the crop can be sent to a processor right away, they can be used for juice; but when there is a wide-spread freeze, the processors can't squeeze all the oranges fast enough, and the oranges quickly turn to mush and are useless. The other problem is many groves in this area grow oranges and grapefruit for eating, not for juice. Many of the eating varieties don't produce much juice. Our favorite produce stand where we buy fresh-squeezed juice also grows a lot of specialty eating oranges. They have had a lot of loss, not just of their orange crop, but also the trees themselves.

We keep postponing our sightseeing waiting for the weather to warm up. Other than going out to Denny's for free breakfast and running a few errands, we didn't do much except hang around the motor home.

Margery took advantage of the fact we had her sewing machine out of the storage bay to sew the Velcro onto the sunscreens we reported on in our last post. She completed a few alterations to a couple of pieces of clothing.

Hanging around the motor home was also a good excuse to bake some gingerbread cookies. Lora and J. Michael gave us some gingerbread mix they got during a visit to Williamsburg last summer. The gingerbread cookies sold at the Raleigh Tavern Bakery are a "must have" whenever we visit there. Baking in the motor home without much counter space is a challenge. The dough was quite sticky; and without a cookie cutter, some of the cookies were somewhat misshapen.

But the final results looked good and tasted even better.

 

It finally warmed up toward the weekend. We are anxious to get to some of our sightseeing plans, but we seldom go sightseeing on weekends if we don't have to. Therefore, we decided to stick around the motor home some more. After we finished our weekly cleaning inside, Paul decided take advantage of the warmer, sunny weather to get some outside chores done. He decided to polish the aluminum wheels on the motor home.

While adding air to our bike tires for a ride over to WalMart, Paul noticed the sidewalls of all the tires were brittle and starting to crack. We needed to replace them before one of us took a header because of a blowout.

We love having internet access with with our satellite dish. Margery researched bicycle tires online and found Bike Tires Direct that carries everything for cycling including the tires at a good price. However, a call up to Santos Trailhead Bike Shop in the Villages confirmed they had tires to fit our bikes at a surprisingly good price, too, so we  picked them up there. Cost was a wash figuring in shipping. The photo below shows Paul installing the new bike tires.

The ten-day forecast is looking more favorable and is calling for temperatures in the 70s and lower 80s all the way through. Sounds like we will finally get a chance to see some new sights.

Florida Keys Part III: Key West Sunset Celebration

After taking the trolley tour of Key West, visiting Truman's Little White House, and walking around Old Town, we ran out of time and energy. We went back to the motor home for some dinner and a good night's rest. Then we drove back down to Key West again the next afternoon. We walked around a little more, looked in some shops, and did some more photography to follow-up our sightseeing the previous day.

As we said before, we both really like the exotic plants found farther south in Florida, and there was no shortage of tropical plants in Key West. The photo below is bougainvillia, which is fairly common in Florida; but this one was beautifully displayed against a white picket fence.



The next photo is an even more exotic-looking flower that we saw while walking around Key West.



And what would a trip to the Keys be without having some Key lime pie. Key limes, which are smaller, have thorns, and have thinner (more fragile) rinds than commercially-grown limes, are naturalized throughout the Keys. Key limes are also yellow in color and are more tart and more aromatic than commercially-grown limes. Commercially-grown limes are known as Persian or Tahiti limes.

Key lime pie is traditionally made from canned, sweetened, condensed milk. Canned milk was used because fresh milk would not have been readily available in the Keys before modern refrigeration.

In addition to eating Key lime pie with a fork in the traditional way, it is also served frozen on a stick, dipped in dark chocolate. The tart pie combined with the comparatively-sweet, dark-chocolate coating is outstanding.



The reason we went to Key West later in the afternoon the second day was to be there for the Sunset Celebration in Mallory Square. Every evening, people gather in the square to watch the sunset. There are also street entertainers, food vendors, and people selling things such as jewelry, souvenirs, art, and photography.

As we entered the square, we saw a fairly large crowd gathered around a fellow who looked like he was getting ready to put on a show. He was joking back and forth with the crowd, and his comments were very amusing. We stopped to watch. He was soon balancing on a ladder and had a volunteer from the audience toss knives up to him to juggle. It took a little faith on the part of the juggler, but the volunteer was pretty good. There was lots of humorous banter.

Then, while his assistant and more volunteers held his 10-foot unicycle, the entertainer transferred from the ladder.

After more humor, the entertainer juggled flaming batons while balancing on the unicycle.

 

Then the fellow finished up by flipping his hat from his head to his foot and back again. It doesn't sound that difficult, but when you watch it in person you can see the coordination and dexterity necessary to do this trick without falling.

As we walked around Mallory Square, the crowd continued to grow. The photo below gives you an idea of how many people there were, and this was only a fraction of the square.

There were several clowns making balloon animals and the two guys in the next photo were playing drums.

 

This next fellow was a one-man band. He sang, played harmonica, strummed the guitar, and played drums and cymbals by means of strings attached to his feet.

 

We soon realized the sun was getting pretty low and all the spots by the seawall were filling up, so we decided we better go find a place to watch the sunset before it was too late. We ended up going to the far end of the square where we not only found a spot by the railing, we also found a guy playing a steel drum. Paul loves steel drum music, so that was a great spot for us.

 

There are a number of old schooners docked in the old section of the harbor. Several of them were out for a sunset cruise.

 

The next photo shows another schooner shortly before the sun dipped below the horizon.

What a great way to end our trip to the Florida Keys - watching sailboats sail into the sunset with steel drum music playing in the background! It doesn't get much better than that.

As we left Mallory Square, we were in a fun mood and we couldn't resist taking the next photo of Margery. She said this is about the only way anyone will ever see her in public with a bare midriff.

It was a bit of a long drive back to the motor home in the dark, but with the sun setting at around 5:37 PM in Key West, it wasn't all that late. Since we can't go any farther south, we would be heading back north (but not too far north) the next morning.

Florida Keys Part I: Crane Point

We left Larry and Penny Thompson Park in South Miami for a leisurely two-hour drive to Curry Hammock State Park in the Florida Keys. Curry Hammock State Park is located on Little Crawl Key in Marathon, FL, and is about half-way between the mainland and Key West.

Curry Hammock is a relatively new campground and has 25 sites with water and 50 amp electric hookups. Seven or eight of the sites have ocean views. The roads are paved and the pads and patios are gravel. The sites are widely spaced and have shrubs between. The campground is very well cared for. In addition to the campground manager, there are two volunteer campground host couples who worked very hard. Even the gravel on each site is raked between guests. The photo below shows our site at Curry Hammock State Park.

 

The next photo shows the beach at Curry Hammock State Park. Since it is a state park, the beach is kept in the natural state, seaweed and all.

Most of the commercial campgrounds in the Keys charge $70 a night (or more) for sites, but there are two or three state parks in the Keys that have camping and charge only about $30. The commercial campgrounds are still almost empty because the real Snowbird season doesn't start until January. However, because the state parks are more reasonably priced, they are filled every night. It's hard to get reservations - they are already booked through Thanksgiving next year. We made our reservations only about two months in advance, and we were blessed to find what was obviously a cancellation. There was only one site available around the time we wanted to be there, and it was available for three nights. We knew we didn't have the luxury of thinking about it or looking further, so we grabbed it - and we're glad we did.

The Florida Keys are a string of hundreds of islands that run from the Florida mainland south of Miami in an arc that swings to the southwest. The string of islands ends in the uninhabited islands of the Dry Tortugas about 60 miles west of Key West. There are 42 bridges connecting the mainland with Key West. The longest is 7 miles long and the shortest is about 110 feet.

After we got set up, we took about a 5-mile drive west to Crane Point. It's pretty easy to find things in the Keys because almost everyone gives their location by Mile Marker. Mile Marker 0 is in downtown Key West and the numbers go up as you drive toward the mainland. Curry Hammock is at MM 55.2 and Crane Point is at MM 50.5.

Crane Point is a nature center and historic site. It is a hardwood hammock surrounded by development. As we learned in the Everglades, a hammock is a high point of ground where larger plants and trees grow. Crane Point is also the site of the historic Adderly house, which belonged to Bahamian immigrants George and Olive Adderly. The house is shown in the photo below.

The dining room is shown in the next photo. The kitchen was in a separate building to protect the main house from the possibility of fire.

George and Olivia Adderly sailed from the Bahamas to the upper Keys in the 1890s and eventually earned enough money to buy 32 acres of land in the middle Keys on Key Vaca. George made a living hunting sea turtles, sponges, and making charcoal.

The Adderly house is the oldest house in the Keys outside Key West. It is built in the classic Bahamian style from tabby, which is a mix of sand, lime (made from burnt shells), and rock. The Adderly house was one of several in a little village, but it is the only one that remains. The others were built of wood and didn't survive fires and hurricanes.

In 1949, after the death of his wife, George Adderly sold his property to Mary and Francis Crane, a couple from Massachusetts. The Cranes soon began construction of the first modern house in the area. The photo below shows the back of the house. The front is somewhat overgrown and is difficult to see.

Although the Cranes did some dredging of the waters and clearing of land to build their house and the access road, and although they did plant some non-native plants to enhance the landscaping, they were ardent conservationists and pretty much left the most of area in its natural state. This preserved the habitat and the history of the hammock. The property remained in family hands after the Cranes passed away.

In 1976, the Florida Keys Land Trust was formed to preserve the hardwood hammocks of the Florida Keys. When Crane Point was in the process of being prepared for sale to commercial developers in 1989, the Florida Keys Land Trust stepped in and was able to purchase the 63-acre property and continue the preservation of this culturally and ecologically important site.

Crane Point is one of the few places left where the Key thatch palm grows naturally. The fronds from these and similar palms were used for thatched roofs. The photo below shows Keys thatch palms.

 

Sea lavender is an endangered coastal plant that grows in South Florida, the Caribbean, and Central America. The photo below shows Margery beside a row of sea lavender plants at Crane Point.

 

Sea lavender blooms almost all year round with the peak bloom period in winter. When the tiny flowers open, they are white. As the flowers get older they turn pink, so the same plant will have various shades of flowers at the same time. The sea lavender at Crane Point was just starting to bloom, so the few flowers that were out were all white.

 

Mangroves are trees and shrubs that grow in tropical tidal areas. They have intricate root systems that, in addition to helping the plants survive, provide unique habitat for marine organisms. Mangroves form dense thickets. They are sometimes called "island builders" because their dense roots trap floating organic matter, which decomposes and eventually forms soil. The photo below shows part of a mangrove thicket at Crane Point. As you can see, these roots are doing their job of island building by trapping organic matter.

 

Red mangroves grow roots that are stilts to support the plant. Oxygen is absorbed by cells of the bark.

Black mangroves grow snorkel roots that stick up out of the water to absorb oxygen.

 

The Marathon Wild Bird Center is also located at Crane Point. The center nurses injured and sick wild birds back to health. This brown pelican was one of many birds at the center. As you can see, its left wing is hanging a little lower than it should.

 

On our way back to the motor home, we stopped at Keys Fisheries and Restaurant. Their huge selection is shown on the menu board on the right, and it took us a long time to decide what we wanted. We finally decided to get a half pound of peel-and-eat shrimp and a crab cake sandwich to share.

We got to enjoy our meal on on the waterfront with a sunset. The seafood is all freshly caught and was delish. It was a little expensive - like everything else in the Keys, but not too unreasonable. Our total bill was a little over $20 including soft drinks.

 

After dinner, we went back to the motor home for a good night's rest. We'll tell you about our newest discoveries in the Keys in the next post.

South Florida's Gold Coast Part III: South Miami

We wanted to investigate the area even farther south around Miami before we headed to the Keys, so we left John Prince Park and drove a little less than two hours to Larry and Penny Thompson Park in South Miami. The park is operated by Miami-Dade County.

We traveled on the day before Thanksgiving - the busiest travel day of the year. Traffic was heavy, especially in the heavily-populated Ft. Lauderdale/Miami area; but, fortunately for us, the heavier traffic and most of the slow-downs were in the opposite direction.

There are fruit trees throughout the campground that are the remnants of a grove that used to belong to the University of Miami. The photo below shows our site at Larry and Penny Thompson Park with an avocado tree to the left.

Larry and Penny Thompson Park is dedicated to the memory of Larry Thompson, a popular humorist and columnist for a Miami newspaper and nature enthusiast. In addition to the campground, the park is also the site of the Miami Metrozoo.

The campground has 240 full-hookup campsites with 50 amp electric. Roads and pads are paved. The campground was fairly quiet the entire time we were there even though it was a long, holiday weekend.

The sites are arranged in 11 circles that are called pods, and there are 20 to 30 campsites in each pod. Most of the the sites around the outside of the circles are nicely spaced, but those on the inside of the circles are very close to the RV behind and the outdoor living spaces and are fairly narrow and face the circular road. When we arrived, they had lost our reservation; but we were fortunate to get a replacement site on the outside of a pod.

When Paul was a kid, he used to go on vacation to Florida with his family. Paul remembered visiting a place somewhere around Miami called Coral Castle. We checked the internet, and sure enough, Coral Castle was still in operation and it turned out to be in Homestead, FL, just a few miles south of where we were staying.

In the early 1900s, a man from Latvia by the name of Ed Leedskalnin was engaged to a young girl named Agnes Scuffs. On the day before the ceremony, Agnes canceled the wedding because she said he was too old and too poor for her. Ed was brokenhearted and soon left Latvia. He went to Canada and eventually came to the United States.

Ed worked in various areas of the country and finally settled in Florida somewhere around 1918 to 1920. He bought an acre of land in Florida City for $12.00. It was here Ed began building a monument to his lost love. Ed used native coral from an ancient reef that sits under only a few inches of topsoil in this area of Florida to carve huge sculptures and stone furniture, all of which were surrounded by thick stone walls.

What is remarkable is that Ed, who was only 5 feet tall and weighed only 100 pounds, built Coral Castle single-handedly without the use of heavy machinery. He used only hand tools, many of which were homemade from old car and truck parts. The carvings, sculptures, furniture, and blocks for the walls weigh up to 60,000 pounds each. Ed continued working on the tribute to his beloved Agnes for 28 years until his death in 1951. The photo below shows Margery approaching the entrance to the castle. Ed used to charge 10 cents for tours.

Coral Castle, which was at first called Rock Gate Park, was originally built in Florida City. Ed was a very private person, and when he found out a developer planned to build a subdivision near him, he bought 10 acres in Homestead, FL, and spent the next three years moving all his carvings 10 miles to the new location where it stands today. The photo below is an overall view of Coral Castle to give you an idea of the size of the place and the number of sculptures and carvings there are.

No one knows how Ed originally cut and eventually moved all the carvings by himself. The pieces were seen traveling down the road on a trailer that Ed made from the chassis of an old truck and that a friend towed for him with a tractor, but there are no reports of anyone ever seeing him loading the trailer. He did a lot of the lifting at night.

In the photo below, Paul sits at a table carved in the shape of Florida. The chairs weigh 1,000 pounds each. The depression in front of Paul is full of water and represents Lake Okeechobee. It is supposed to be a finger bowl for the diners.

 

Another table that targeted Ed's beloved Agnes is the Feast of Love table, which weighs about 5,000 pounds. The heart-shaped table has a heart-shaped centerpiece. Ed couldn't afford fresh flowers every day, so he planted an Ixora plant. The original plant has been in place for 40-50 years.

 

In the photo below, Paul is standing in front of a sculpture called the Moon Fountain. There is a crescent moon on the left representing the first quarter, a crescent on the right representing the last quarter, and a round pool representing the full moon.

  

And the photo below shows Paul at age 14 in the same location when he visited Coral Castle with his family in 1958.

 

Back in 1958, Paul also climbed up to the moon while at Coral Castle.

 

You are no longer permitted to climb on the sculptures or on the walls, so Paul sat in Ed's throne in front of the moon instead. As we said, Ed was only 5 feet tall and weighed only 100 pounds, so it was a bit of a tight fit for Paul.

Coral Castle is conveniently located on the way to Cracker Barrel in Florida City, which is where we planned to have Thanksgiving dinner. We always like Cracker Barrel, because we think they offer good meals at good prices, and Thanksgiving is no exception. The Thanksgiving special includes turkey AND ham, cornbread stuffing, cranberry relish, sweet potato casserole, choice of an additional vegetable, biscuits or corn muffins, beverage, and pumpkin pie all for $8.99. It's not exactly like Grandma used to make, but it's very good; and there's no fuss, no mess, no dishes to do, and no leftovers to store in our smaller refrigerator.

We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner after our visit to Coral Castle, then we went back to the motor home to relax for the rest of the day. Our stops in South Florida's Gold Coast have proven to be among our busiest ever. There is even more to report, so check back soon.

When we drove to Mount Dora to meet our friends and tour the Dora Canal, we passed through the small town of Yalaha. In Yalaha there is a rather large, German bakery that is known for their breads and desserts. We read in the newspaper that Yalaha Bakery had outdoor entertainment every Saturday. Being big fans of breads and desserts, we hopped in the car and headed out there.

Outside, they had bratwurst and sauerkraut to eat and a bluegrass band for entertainment. This little bakery out in the middle of nowhere was packed! We have found that music is a big drawing card for snowbirds in Florida. In the photo below, you can see part of the crowd gathered to listen to bluegrass.

Inside the bakery, the delicious-looking baked goods were also a big draw since customers were lined up 4 deep. It was hard to get a good photo between all the people, but here is a small part of the selection.

We had a difficult time deciding what we wanted, but we ended up with a loaf of kalamati olive bread, a piece of Black Forest cake for Margery, and a piece of Sacher Torte (chocolate torte with apricot filling) for Paul for dessert. The desserts were as good as they looked. As you can see, there is already a bite missing form each piece because once we got them out of the box, we couldn't even wait until after the photo to try them!

After the surgery on Margery's left knee at the end of January, she had a lot of difficulty getting comfortable in the recliner in the motor home. The seat just hit her wrong in the back of the thigh and knee. Although it was a nice Flexsteel recliner, we lamented almost from the beginning that we didn't get Ultraleather instead of cloth for easier cleaning. Now that she was finding it uncomfortable, we started searching online to see what else might be available. We noticed most of the newer motor homes are using a Euro recliner with an ottoman instead of the larger, all-in-one recliner like we had. A lot of people that replace recliners in RVs go to Lazy Boy, but we couldn't find one near us. We did, however, find a company about an hour away near Tampa that did RV makeovers and that carried replacement RV furniture so we took a drive down. Well, they only had one REALLY comfortable recliner they called a "stressless" recliner from a company by the name of Villa. The only problem was that it was REALLY expensive.

That prompted more online searching, and we found another company from Norway called Ekornes that also made a recliner they called stressless. There was a store in the Villages that carried Ekornes so we drove there to take a look. They had a really good selection and we initially looked at the entry-level model with the basic leather upholstery. To make a long story short, they had a floor model recliner that was a couple of levels up from the entry-level model and that had a better grade of upholstery. They offered it to us at a very good price wanting to make room for new merchandise. Although it was still more than we originally intended to spend, it was too good a deal on a VERY comfortable chair so we couldn't pass it up. There goes the tax rebate we don't even have yet. As a bonus, Paul used our bathroom scale to weigh the old recliner, which we ended up selling to our neighbor here at the campground (who just happens to a snowbird from Leechburg, PA), and it weighed 112 lbs. The new chair and ottoman together weigh 53 lbs., which is a weight savings of over 50%! The photo below shows Paul enjoying our new chair.

On February 26, we headed down to Largo Medical Center at about 5:00 am (yikes!) for the surgery on Margery's right knee. Her left knee was well on its way to complete recovery after surgery 4 weeks prior and it was able to handle the task of now being the "strong" knee after the surgery on her second knee. The right knee got partial resurfacing as planned. The photo below shows Margery in her hospital room shortly before we checked out.

And here she is arriving back at the motor home about 24 hours after surgery.

Again, the first week was the hardest; but the experience with the first knee has helped us know what to expect, how to better manage pain, and how to better reduce bruising and swelling. As with the first knee, Margery ditched the walker after about 3 days. We put the walker out front of the motor home with a "Free" sign on it and it was gone within the hour. Paul is so proud of how well Margery has done through all of this. She has been a real trooper and has been very diligent with exercises and is committed to rapid recovery. And from Margery's point of view, Paul has been so supportive. He's been a great caregiver and coach.

While taking time for Margery's recuperation, Paul cleaned out and organized a couple of the outside storage bays, replaced a leaking support strut on one of the storage bay doors, modified a pair of replacement windshield wiper blades to fit the motor home, climbed up on the roof to remove and clean the roof vent covers, and inspected the roof joint caulking while he was up there. Margery continued her daily exercises and gradually increased the length of her daily walks.

At the beginning of March, some of the snowbirds began leaving the campground. For the most part, however, their spaces were taken by others who were just arriving so the campground remained pretty full. Although some of the new arrivals only stayed a day or two (they are probably on their way north from somewhere farther south in Florida), most had patio mats, chairs, and grills spread out and they stayed a week or two. Some of the new arrivals seemed a little younger and were probably not yet retired. There were even some younger kids, probably on spring break, visiting grandparents. During the winter, the campground is a 55+ park, but youngsters are allowed to visit. By the middle of March, there were a growing number of empty sites as many of the snowbirds began heading home in time for Easter.

We originally extended our stay in Florida from the beginning of March until just before Easter because of Margery's knee surgery. However, the week before Easter, Paul was hit with the respiratory version of the flu that was NOT covered by this year's flu shot so we extended our stay until after Easter. Paul tried his best to count his blessings...like he didn't have to push himself to go to work and we we weren't currently 'traveling'...but five days in bed and 9 days of feeling really crummy made it difficult. This was a stubborn flu that hit a fair number in the campground. We are so grateful that Margery did not get it, too. We used copious amounts of hand sanitizer and antiseptic wipes.

As Paul's flu subsided, we were finally in a position where we felt like making our spring travel plans, which included a leisurely drive north and a swing through Pittsburgh at the end of April for a short visit with Lora and J. Michael and a few doctor appointments we weren't able to fit in last August. However, shortly after we had made our doctor appointments, we received word that J. Michael's father, who had been recuperating from a bone marrow transplant in his second battle with acute leukemia, suffered an irreparable brain hemorrhage. An e-mail sent out by Lora stated: "The whole family and some friends were there the rest of the afternoon and through the evening. We sang, listened to the Word, told stories, and cried. It was a painful, but precious time. He slipped away with his loved ones gathered around him. We rejoice knowing that he is whole and with the Lord, but he will be greatly missed."

We spent a day evaluating our options in light of our original plans to arrive in Pittsburgh in late April. Do we leave the motor home in Florida, share the driving in the the Saturn to Pittsburgh for the funeral, stay with Lora and J. Michael a couple of days, then return to Florida and start a more leisurely journey north in the motor home? Or, do we hurriedly pack up the motor home and have Paul (who was still not feeling his best) do all of the 20-hour drive over two days, arriving a few weeks before spring. Economics, combined with our love for traveling with all the comforts of home at our fingertips, caused us to opt to check out of Blueberry Hill 12 hours later and leave for Pittsburgh with the motor home. We experienced God's grace in so many ways...the well-known, end-of-March spring break/snowbird exodus from Florida wasn't too bad traffic-wise, we made excellent travel time in pretty good weather, we found easily accessible campgrounds that were open, and Paul had the stamina to make the drive. We made a one-night stop just north of Charlotte, NC and made it to the KOA in Washington, PA, mid-afternoon the next day.

As we write this, we are so happy we made the effort to be here for the funeral. J. Michael's father was a simple man who loved people and loved the Lord. He lived a life of service and touched many lives, not only in the Life's Key Prison Ministry he founded with his wife, Mary Ann, but also as a teacher of God's Word. What a rich legacy he leaves. He was not only a servant of the Lord but a fun-loving, wise, devoted, and caring husband, father, and grandfather. He will be missed by all who knew him.

We plan to stay in Pittsburgh for the memorial service on Saturday. It will also give Paul a chance to continue his recuperation. We then have three weeks before we're due back in Pittsburgh for our previously scheduled doctor appointments when we'll park the motor home at Lora and J. Michael's. We are researching where we might go in those three weeks to re-capture spring and bring it back with us.

Margery's knee surgery went very well. She had the inner portion of her left knee resurfaced and the prosthesis put in as planned. She was up walking 3 hours after coming out of the recovery room (they usually make patients wait 4 hours), so the exercises she did before the surgery seem to have helped. The photo below shows Margery arriving back at the motor home about 27 hours after surgery.

The first few days back home were a little uncomfortable, but once she found the right schedule for pain medication and the exercises started to limber up the knee, things got a lot better. They expect you to use a walker for up to 2 weeks, but Margery quit after 3 days. It just seemed to be in the way and that's how they said you would know it was time to give it up. Within the first week, she was already walking on the new knee as well as she walked before the resurfacing, although she still couldn't go quite as far. She was also able to begin cutting back on the pain medication. Probably the most bothersome part of her recovery has been the pain from the deep bruising on the back of her thigh and leg. Although the bruising is normal, Margery bruises easily and at this writing she is still experiencing a fair amount of discomfort from these bruises. Even putting on lotion is painful. But, hey, no pain, no gain! We're keepin' our eye on the goal.

We are enjoying the warm weather here in Florida. Molly went outside on Groundhog Day and saw her shadow. She declared there would be 6 more weeks of 75 degree weather. Although there is a lot of green around with the live oaks, pines, and palm trees, Florida still has spring. The nice thing is that it begins around February 1. We have azaleas, redbud trees, and roadside wildflowers blooming. Many of the deciduous trees, like the ones shown in the photo below, are starting to get leaves.

We heard from friends we visited last February when we passed through southern California. Margery met Barb through a Bible study years ago, and even though Barb and Kent moved away from Pittsburgh quite some time ago, Margery and Barb have always kept in touch. Barb and Kent were coming to Florida to meet family and go to Disney, but they were coming early to escape winter (they now live near Chicago) and wanted to get together with us. Not knowing how Margery's knee would be progressing, we nevertheless made plans for a visit figuring we would just hang around our motor home if she didn't feel like doing any sightseeing.

As it turned out, Margery's knee was doing very well so we decided to drive to Homosassa, FL with Barb and Kent to take an airboat ride, something Paul has always wanted to do. An airboat is a flat-bottomed boat powered by a large V-8 engine and pushed along the surface of the water by a 6 foot airplane propeller. The purpose of an airboat is to go fast through shallow water.

We found Captain Stu who had a specially-built airboat that would carry up to 6 people, so we made reservations. Captain Stu was very interesting. He had grown up around the water and his passion for what he does was evident. He even takes his airboat out on his days off and goes fishing.

The first part of the tour is down the Homosassa River where the speed is limited to "idle speed" because of the manatees. This was a good time for some nature viewing. Unfortunately, we didn't see any manatees, but we did see a porpoise, numerous wading birds, gulls, pelicans, and several osprey. The osprey like to build their nests on top of the signs along the waterway as shown in the photo below.

Once we got clear of the manatee area, it was full throttle and the 500 hp engine had the boat gliding along the water. This area of the Florida Gulf Coast is a large estuary containing hundreds of small islands with interconnecting waterways. Some of the islands aren't really islands, but clumps of mangroves. Mangroves are a family of trees and shrubs that thrive in tropical tidal areas. Mangroves are suspended above the water on an intricate, intertwined root systems. The root systems form their own ecosystems trapping sediments and nutrients creating a rich habitat for numerous varieties of fish as well as shrimp and oysters.

We had an exhilarating ride cruising the backwaters, skimming by the islands and through the shallows. The photo below shows Margery, Barb, and Kent as we flew along. As you can see, Kent's jacket is blowing wildly in the 40 mph wind.

Paul got to sit up high in the seat next to Captain Stu. Woo-hoo!

We stopped out near the Gulf of Mexico and just floated with out-going tide and currents. The photo below shows Captain Stu telling us about the tides and giving us some history of the area before we headed back to the dock.

Our ride whet our appetites so we stopped in the Homosassa Riverside Resort where Captain Stu docks his boat for a fried grouper appetizer to share. We wanted to save our appetites for another seafood restaurant we had heard good things about up the road, but the fried grouper was delish and will be worth another trip next year. We also stopped at the fresh seafood market Captain Stu recommended where we picked up some fresh shrimp for a new shrimp and pasta recipe Margery wanted to try. (It was easy and tasty!) Of course, Margery (left) and Barb couldn't pass up the opportunity to 'monkey' around.

After our airboat ride, we stopped by the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge to see if we could spot any manatees since we didn't get to see any when we were out with Captain Stu. The refuge is comprised of approximately 20 islands surrounded by the spring-fed waters of Kings Bay in Crystal River, FL. Since we obviously didn't have a boat, we were hoping to see some manatees from the dock at the visitor center, but no luck.

They did have some interesting displays in the visitor center including the skeleton of a manatee, which is shown in the photo below. We found it interesting that the flippers have bones like fingers even though the flippers are solid. It was also interesting that the ribs don't curve down around the underside.

Manatees are mammals that, like porpoises, live entirely in the water. In the winter, they swim up the rivers searching for warmer water. Manatees are 9 to 10 feet long when fully grown and weigh 800 to 1200 pounds. Manatees are slow-moving and are completely herbivorous. They can consume 10 to 15% of their body weight in aquatic plants a day. Manatees have no natural enemies and can live up to 70 years. The biggest cause of manatee deaths is collisions with boats. Becoming entangled in fishing line and nets is also a big problem. Manatees are endangered with only an estimated 2,600 in the United States.

We capped our day of sightseeing and visiting with a stop at Stumpknockers Restaurant in Dunellon, FL. Stumpknockers is known especially for their catfish. Since they weren't supposed to open until 4 p.m., we were surprised to find the parking lot full when we arrived a little before 4. The waitress told us that the owner often opens early when the customers begin arriving...this day at 12:30. However, one online reviewer we read said they made a special trip to the restaurant only to be disappointed to find it not open for lunch so be sure to call if you're going earlier in the day.

The restaurant takes its name from a panfish that inhabits southern streams. The fish is called a stumpknocker because it hangs out around the base of cypress trees that grow in the water.

We enjoyed our meal out on their deck overlooking the Withlacoochee River. It was a good way to relax after a busy day.