Starting Off the New Year
Bushnell, FL - Events of Tuesday, January 1 to Friday, January 4, 2013
As we mentioned in our last post, we spent a quiet New Year's Eve hangin' around the rig with a couple of rented movies. On New Year's Day, we watched a little football, and Paul started poking around looking at what he needed to do to get the new car ready to tow and researching sources for the components on the internet.
Speaking of our new car, Paul had seen chrome grills on several Equinoxes. He initially thought the chrome grill was an option on the high-end Equinox model (LTZ), but he found out the chrome grills did not come from the factory - they were an after-market product. They are overlays that just snap on over the existing grill. Paul ordered one from Amazon just before we left Pittsburgh, and it arrived on Wednesday. He wasted no time installing the new chrome grill.
Equinox with standard grill
Equinox with chrome grill
In spite of being tired from our trip to Pittsburgh, Paul continues to be an early riser. We have seen several nice sunsets since we have been here in Florida, but mornings tend to be a little foggy and/or overcast. However, one morning Paul was treated to a beautiful sunrise.
Beautiful sunrise in Bushnell
Right around New Year's Day, we got an email coupon from Qdoba to buy one burrito get one free. Unfortunately, we signed up for Qdoba email specials before we were full-timers, and the coupon was for any Qdoba in the Pittsburgh area. Margery called the closest Qdoba (which is all the way down near Tampa), and they said they would honor it. It doesn't make a lot of sense to drive 40 miles one way just for a free burrito, but what the heck - we love Qdoba, and we had been just chillin' out way too much since we got back from Pittsburgh, and we also enjoy driving the new car. So off we went to Qdoba on Thursday afternoon.
Our former favorite burrito - the poblano pesto/chicken burrito - is no longer available, but we have found we like the regular chicken burrito almost as much with extra salsa verde in place of the poblano pesto. The burritos were delish, and the manager even gave us two kinds of salsa for our corn chips for free when he found out how far we had driven just to eat at Qdoba.
Friday was cool and cloudy with occasional sprinkles of rain in the morning. It wasn't a great day for a flea market, but we needed to go to Sam's Club in The Villages anyway, and the Market of Marion is only a few miles north of The Villages. Besides, the Market of Marion is mostly indoors. Margery decided she wanted to look for a new purse there because there are a couple of vendors at the market who sell leather goods.
By the time we got to the Market of Marion, the rain had stopped, but it was still cloudy. We were surprised at how crowded it was. We had to park farther away from the entrance than usual, but that was partly due to the fact we tend to park a little farther away where the lot is less crowded now that we have a new car.
Main entrance to the Market of Marion
Margery doesn't like to carry a purse at all, but she frequently does because she needs a place to put her credit cards and license. Following her cataract surgery, since Margery only needs to wear glasses some of the time, she now needs enough room in her purse for her eyeglass case. Margery found a slightly larger purse rather quickly.
Margery modeling her new purse
Since we had gone to the Market of Marion shortly before we left Florida for Pittsburgh, we didn't feel the need to walk every aisle on this stop. However, we did head to the produce aisle near the back of the market because we wanted to pick up a couple of tomatoes for our lunches.
View down the produce aisle at the Market of Marion
While in the produce aisle, we noticed the Plant City strawberries were starting to come in. They were gorgeous.
Plant City strawberries
As delicious as they looked, we passed on the strawberries because they were being sold in whole flats, which is way too much for just the two of us. However, we did get our tomatoes and some poblano peppers. Following the demise of the poblano pesto burrito at Qdoba, Margery found a recipe for poblano pesto on the internet. While we don't make our own burritos, we found the pesto is delicious on sandwiches. Margery will be whipping up a batch of pesto as soon as Paul gets the grill out to roast the peppers.
We made our way to Sam's Club from the market. The main reason we needed to go to there was to get a new starting battery for the motor home. When we got back from Pittsburgh, Paul went to start the motor home one cool morning, and all he got was click-click-click. The battery was the original, and it was almost 8 years old, which is much longer than most starting batteries are expected to last. The house batteries are charged by our inverter, but the starting battery isn't. Therefore, Paul keeps a trickle charger on the starting battery when we are parked for more than a couple of weeks, but this time the trickle charger wasn't enough to keep the old battery charged.
We got back to the motor home mid afternoon, and Paul installed the new battery. In the meantime, our friends, Pat and Mike, who are also spending the winter at Blueberry Hill, had returned the evening before from spending Christmas in Pittsburgh. We were looking forward to getting together with them again, so Margery called them while Paul was installing the battery and made plans to go to lupper with them at Beef O'Brady's. We heard a lot of good things about their burgers and sandwiches, so we decided to give them a try.
Paul got the battery in just as it started sprinkling rain again. After he got cleaned up, we picked up Pat and Mike and headed to Beef O'Brady's. Beef O'Brady's is a national chain of sports bars with lots of locations in Florida including one in Bushnell just down the road from Blueberry Hill.
Beef O'Brady's in Bushnell
Lunches (sandwiches, burgers, wings and salads) are around $8 to $9 with a few items like the double burger with extra bacon and extra cheese costing up to about $13. Most of the sandwiches and burgers include your choice of regular fries, curly fries, ranch fries, home made chips or potato salad. Sweet potato fries or a side salad are also available for a small additional charge. Beef O'Brady's also has a nice variety of appetizers. Dinners are also available for around $10 to $14.
Mike and Paul had BBQ bacon cheeseburgers. Pat had a shrimp salad and Margery had a fish and chip basket. Everything was delish, and the service was great. Our server was especially nice. She was friendly and efficient, and she was very helpful with the menu since we were all there for the first time. We'll definitely be going back.
Mike, Pat, Margery and Paul at Beef O'Brady's
BBQ bacon burger and fish and chips basket
We had a good time catching up on what Pat and Mike have been up to and hearing about their trip to Pittsburgh. We don't have any definite plans for the near future, but we're bound to find something to get into. Stay tuned.
That chrome grill looks great!
That is exactly the type of purse I like to carry Margery. . .I've sort of been in the market for a new one also. .I need to make it down to "Harlem" Street, now that we are near Houston. . .you guys did good!
Posted by: Janice Evans | January 09, 2013 at 07:33 AM
The Equinoxes looks good!
Nice to read the good review about Beef O'Brady's. They are building one here in Mission, and it should be opened in two weeks.
Sounds like you are keeping busy. Enjoy your nice weather and send some our way!
Posted by: Marsha | January 09, 2013 at 02:52 PM
Try the chicken Philly sandwich. It's great.
Posted by: Sandy | January 16, 2013 at 08:56 PM