Living Our Dream

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.

Dora Canal

Bushnell, FL

As we said in our last post, we had only short drive from the Yalaha Bakery to Mount Dora for our pontoon boat cruise of the Dora Canal. We took the same cruise two years ago with other friends, and we thought Barbara and Dick would enjoy it, too.

There are several boats that offer crises of the Dora Canal, but we went with the same one by Lake County Waterways that we took last time. We arrived in plenty of time to get a good parking spot and pay for our cruise. The photo below shows some of the other passengers waiting to board.

The Dora Canal is at the opposite end of Lake Dora from where the tour starts, so we headed out across the lake. As we left the dock, we could see Boathouse Row where there are expensive, lakeside homes built right over the water. Years ago, these homes started out as simple boathouses. The boat owners got tired of driving to the lake every Saturday and again on Sunday to go boating and fishing, so they started to take cots and coolers so they could spent the night. The boathouses soon were remodeled into more elaborate homes. Today, these homes are highly sought after and bring high prices even though the housing market is down.

We took our cruise on a Saturday, and there was a bass-fishing tournament going on so we saw a lot of bass boats as we crossed the lake.

We got to see some of the big homes along the waterfront. One such house was built by Harry Duncan in 1926. Dancer/actor Buddy Ebsen got his start giving dance lessons in an upstairs suite and dancing with female guests at Mr. Duncan's parties. Buddy Ebsen is best known for his role as Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies. The Duncan House is now a bed and breakfast.

Out on the lake, we also saw numerous birds like cormorants, gulls, an osprey and a couple of bald eagles. We couldn't get good photos of the birds when they were flying, but one of the eagles landed in a tree near its nest.

At the western end of Lake Dora we entered the Dora Canal. The canal, which was previously known as the Elfin River, connects Lake Dora and Lake Eustis. In the late 1800s, a steamboat captain hired a crew to dig out the river by hand to make it more passable. The Dora Canal is about a mile long and has been called the most beautiful mile of water in the world.

There are a number of mobile homes lining the canal on the southern end.

After a few hundred yards, there are no more homes, and you can really appreciate the natural beauty of the canal.

Since it was a Saturday, there was a lot of boat traffic on the canal, and we didn't see quite as much wildlife as we did when we cruised the canal back in 2008. Click here to read about our 2008 visit.

Even though we didn't see quite the variety of wildlife, there was still plenty to see. There were a lot of anhingas, like the female below, drying their wings along the banks...

...and in the trees.

Like cormorants, anhingas don't have oil in their feathers like ducks and geese do. The lack of oil allows the birds to dive deep underwater to hunt fish, but they must dry their wings before they can fly far afterward.

We also saw quite a few blue herrons along the canal. These large, wading birds didn't seem to be bothered by the relatively heavy boat traffic.

One area of the canal had several blue herron nests in the trees along the banks. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a good photo because of the sun overhead.

The predominant tree along the canal is the bald cypress. Although they are conifers, bald cypress trees lose their needles in winter. They lose their needles, not because of cold, but to conserve water during the winter dry season.

Bald cypress trees are long-lived. The one in the photo below has been dated to be about 2500 years old. Even though its top is missing, it is still very much alive.

The cruise goes north up the Dora Canal, turns around in Lake Eustis, then returns back down the canal and goes back across Lake Dora. It was only about 2:30 when we disembarked, so we walked a little way up into the town of Mount Dora. Mount Dora is a fairly busy tourist town with numerous inns, bed and breakfasts, shops and restaurants.

You can even take a carriage ride around town.

One building we passed had an interesting facade designed to look like a library. Perhaps it was originally a book store.

There were also other "artsy" features like the mural shown below.

It was an excellent day with good weather, good fun, good food, and good friends. We have more planned, so look for our next post.

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.