Living Our Dream

Winding Down in Florida

Bushnell, FL - Events of Sunday, March 24 to Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The campground has been slowly emptying out since about the beginning of March. There were a few new arrivals during March as families with kids on spring break came in for a week or so, but they, too, have been heading back north.

Blueberry Hill hosted a farewell party on Sunday. They served complimentary hot dogs, hamburgers, baked beans, potato chips and drinks (lemonade and iced tea) from noon to 2:00. The event was originally scheduled for the outdoor pavilion, but it was very windy and threatening rain so they moved everything into the clubhouse.

Serving hot dogs and hamburgers at the farewell party

There was a pretty good turnout in spite of the threatening weather - you know how retirees are when someone mentions free food. When we got to the clubhouse, we were pleased to see we wouldn't have to wait long to get our hamburgers because the food was being served very efficiently from three separate lines. We continue to be impressed by the way Blueberry Hill is being run by its new owners, Sun RV Resorts.

It's a good thing they moved everything inside because the downpour started shortly after 1:00. Fortunately for us, the worst of the storm passed to the south and east, but we did have fairly heavy rain and a good bit of thunder and lightning for a short time.

Lunch was followed by entertainment by a band called Pure Country Gold. They did old-time country songs and were pretty good. We hung around and listened for a little while, then headed back to the rig to watch the NASCAR race.

Pure Country Gold performing at the farewell party

The exodus from the campground accelerated after the weekend because many snowbirds wanted to be home by Easter. We heard reports of highway backups farther north because of all the traffic. The front section at Blueberry Hill is almost empty, and all the rows in the rear section where our site is located now have big gaps.

Lu and Larry are new friends of ours. They have followed our blog for some time, and we had the pleasure of finally meeting them at Rainbow Plantation last fall. They spent the winter a little farther south in Florida, and we got an e-mail from them a while back saying they were planning to stop at the Escapees Sumter Oaks Campground for a few days on their way through the area. Since Sumter Oaks is only one exit south of where Blueberry Hill is located, we made arrangements to get together with them on Tuesday.

Larry recently installed the same Samsung residential refrigerator in their motor home that Paul installed in ours last year, so we drove to Sumter Oaks around 1:00 p.m. to to admire Larry's work. He did a great job, and the installation looks very professional.

After chatting a while and having a piece of delicious strawberry pie that Lu had made, Lu and Larry followed us to Blueberry Hill because they were interested in seeing the campground and because they wanted to stop and see Freeway. After chatting a little more and playing with Freeway, we all piled into our car and headed to OakWood Grill in The Villages for lupper.

We have written about OakWood numerous times. They specialize in smoked meats and barbecued ribs. Lunch specials include pulled pork, smoked turkey or beef sandwiches plus one side and a drink for $7.45. For lunch, they also have pulled pork, grilled chicken, sausage, smoked turkey and smoked beef plates with two sides for $7.99. Dinner plates with larger portions are available at a slightly higher price. They also have a full rack of baby back ribs all day Sundays through Wednesdays for a special price of $12.99 (regular price $15.99). Larry and Margery had ribs, Lu had a smoked beef plate, and Paul had smoked turkey. Everything was yummy!

Margery, Paul, Lu and Larry

By the time we finished eating, there was a long line of people waiting for tables, so we cut our conversation short and headed back to Blueberry Hill. There is a Russell Stover Candy Factory and Outlet Store in Wildwood, and since we had to drive right by it, we decided to stop.

Margery checking out the selection at the Russell Stover Candy Store

The outlet store has just about everything Russell Stover makes. They also have some items available as seconds at discount prices. We all had a couple of samples, and Lu and Larry bought a couple of items. We managed to escape Russell Stover without making a purchase even though they had a number of sugar-free selections that were very tempting.

We continued our conversation a while longer back at our rig, then Lu and Larry headed back to Sumter Oaks. It was a fun day of good food and great conversation.

We still have several days before we pull out. We want to try to make it to the botanical gardens in Sarasota, but we don't know if the weather will cooperate because it has been very cool and windy. We also have a couple of more places where we want to go to eat one more time before we leave. We'll let you know what we were able to squeeze in in our next post.

False Start

Bushnell, FL - Events of Thursday, March 21, 2013

As our time in Florida grows shorter, we have been trying to schedule a day trip to Sarasota to visit another botanical garden we read about. We had been wanting to go there all winter, but haven't been able to either because Paul was in the middle of a project or because the weather didn't cooperate.

With the projects out of the way and with less than two weeks left in Florida, we took advantage of the nice weather on Thursday to head south to the garden in Sarasota. Unfortunately, we got about half an hour down I-75 when we hit an unexpected, major traffic backup. We spent the next hour in stop and go traffic (mostly stopped) going 6 miles to the next exit where we found out the highway was closed between that exit and the next because of an accident that occurred earlier that morning. All southbound traffic was being rerouted off the interstate onto local roads to bypass the accident and get back on I-75 one exit several miles farther south.

We decided traffic was much too heavy and it was much too late to continue on to the garden (it was almost noon by then, and we would have had at least another hour to drive even without the detour and heavy traffic), so we just gave up and got back on the interstate heading in the opposite direction and returned to Blueberry Hill. On the way back, we snapped the next photo of some of the southbound traffic we had been sitting in a little earlier.

Traffic backed up on I-75

We found out later a tractor trailer carrying mail hit a guard rail, jack-knifed and was then hit by a dump truck after which both trucks caught fire. Fortunately, neither driver was seriously injured; but traffic was a mess. Postal officials were on site all day to try to recover mail, most of which reportedly was destroyed (the good news is the mail consisted of magazines and advertising circulars rather than first class or priority mail), and paving crews spent all day repairing asphalt damaged by the fire. The highway didn't reopen until about 6:00 p.m. that evening, almost a full 12 hours after the accident.

It was pretty cloudy when we got up on Friday morning. We were tempted to try the trip to the garden again, but we decided we really preferred to see the garden when it was sunny, even if it meant waiting until next year. Since we had planned to eat out when we went to the garden and since we cancelled our plans to go to the garden, we decided to head over to Coyote Rojo around mid-afternoon on Friday for lupper. Coyote Rojo is a popular Mexican restaurant located right up the road from Blueberry Hill.

Margery about to enter Coyote Rojo

We started off with the traditional corn chips and salsa. We like the salsa at Coyote Rojo because it is nice and thick and it has plenty of fresh cilantro in it.

Meals at Coyote Rojo range in price from about $5.50 to $10 or $12. We both had a shredded beef chimichanga with rice and beans (Margery passed on the beans) for $8. The chimis were also served with sour cream, pico de gallo and guacamole on the side and were covered in cheese sauce.

Shredded beef chimichanga

Margery and her chimichanga

The chimis were yummy! We especially liked the cheese sauce and guacamole.

After our lupper at Coyote Rojo, we settled in for an evening of TV. Freeway, who usually sits on Margery's lap, occasionally joins Paul on the couch while we're relaxing in the evening.

Paul and Freeway relaxing on the couch

As we said, our remaining time in Florida is growing short. More rain was scheduled to come in over the weekend with cool, windy weather predicted for most of the following week. We don't know if we'll be able to squeeze in our trip to the botanical gardens or not, but with our time winding down, we won't be sitting still. Look for our next post to see what we got into.

Yalaha Bakery

Bushnell, FL - Events of Thursday, March 14 to Saturday, March 16, 2013

The shower head arrived on Wednesday, but the faucet wasn't scheduled to arrive until around noon on Thursday. Therefore, we decided to take a drive to Yalaha Bakery on Thursday morning while we were waiting for the faucet to arrive.

Yalaha Bakery is located in Yalaha, FL, which is about half an hour northeast of Bushnell on the shores of Lake Harris. It is a German bakery that specializes in hearty breads and delicious pastries. We first discovered it when we drove past it on our way to take a boat cruise on the Dora Canal back in 2008. We didn't make it Yalaha Bakery last year because we were only a few months into our low carb/low sugar diets. This year, since we have reached our respective weight-loss goals, we can splurge once in a while.

Yalaha Bakery

As we walked toward the bakery from the parking lot, we couldn't help but notice the pair of bottle brush trees in full bloom flanking the entrance.

Bottle brush trees

From the next photo of a bottle brush flower, it's easy to see how the plant gets its name.

Bottle brush flower

Yalaha Bakery has breads, rolls, breakfast pastries and dessert pastries.

Dessert selection at Yalaha Bakery

They also have a deli that serves sandwiches for $7 to $8 every day plus hot dishes such as schnitzel, goulash, knackwurst and bratwurst for $9 to $10 on the weekend.

Yalaha Bakery has entertainment outside on the patio on Saturdays and Sundays, and the place can get pretty crowded. There are so many people inside on the weekend it is hard to get close enough to the display case to decide what you want. Then once they call your number, you feel rushed to make a decision because so many people are waiting.

We knew we wanted pretzel rolls, but we had a hard time deciding what we wanted to take back for dessert later in the evening. The good thing about going to the bakery during the week is it is a lot less crowded. We had plenty of time to ask questions and to make our selection. Paul ended up choosing a Chocolate Bombe (a mound of chocolate mousse on top of a thin piece of yellow cake covered with chocolate icing), and Margery picked a Bee Sting (yellow cake with white icing topped with toasted almonds and honey). We didn't intend to get three desserts, but the deep-dish apple pie looked so good, we got a piece of that to share as well.

German apple pie

In addition to the desserts, we bought four pretzel rolls - one each to take back to the motor home to use for our sandwiches for lunch and two to eat on the spot because they are so good we knew we wouldn't be able to wait. The morning air was still cool, so we found a table on the patio in the sun to enjoy our first pretzel rolls.

On the patio at Yalaha Bakery

The bakery has pretzel rolls with and without cheddar cheese. We like the ones with cheese because the cheese on top is baked to a nice crunch, and it adds a little more depth of flavor.

Pretzel rolls with cheddar cheese

When we got back to Blueberry Hill, Paul worked on the project to replace the shower faucet we wrote about in our last post. We also used our remaining pretzel rolls to make salami and provolone sandwiches for lunch. Yum!

Later that evening, we enjoyed our desserts. They were all delish! The apple pie wasn't overly sweet, and the crust had the texture of dense cake rather than the usual flaky pie crust. The Bee Sting wasn't overly sweet either, and it was a nice blend of crunchy almonds, moist cake and creamy icing. The Chocolate Bombe was small, but very rich and loaded with chocolate flavor.

(left to right) Chocolate Bombe, German apple pie, Bee Sting

We only have another couple of weeks left here in Florida, and we have been working our summer travel plans. We plan to stop at a few of our favorite locations as we work our way northward during the spring and early summer, then head to New England in mid-July. Margery has been spending a lot of time on the computer researching things to see and places to stay. On Saturday, she needed a break from her research and she also announced she didn't feel like cooking dinner. Therefore, we headed over to Beef O'Brady's in Bushnell in the late afternoon for lupper.

Beef O'Brady's

Beef O'Brady's is a sports bar with lots of great appetizers, sandwiches and burgers. Sandwiches and burgers range in price from about $7.50 to $10 and include fries. We both had a build-your-own burger where you can select from several different cheeses and numerous other toppings. Margery had American cheese and the "works" sans onions on her burger, and Paul had American cheese and creamy poblano sauce on his. Both burgers were great!

Paul showing off both our meals

Even though our time in Florida is short and we're busy researching things for our summer travels, we still want to make time for at least one more sightseeing outing here in Florida, and we still have a restaurant or two we want to hit before we leave. Stay tuned.

Motor Home Project: Replace Shower Faucet

Bushnell, FL - Events of Thursday, March 14, 2013

After we replaced the kitchen faucet last month because the steel support inside it had rusted out, the shower faucet was the only faucet in the motor home that had not been replaced (except for the outside shower in the wet bay that is like new because we seldom use it). Oddly enough, the faucet in the inside shower has long been the one that has been in the worst condition as far as appearance is concerned. About the second or third year we owned the motor home, the protective coating on the faucet started to flake off the handle, and the exposed metal took on a white, mottled appearance. After another year or so, the protective coating was gone from the entire faucet, and it looked pretty bad with mottling all over.

Mottled appearance of old shower faucet

There are two reasons we never replaced the shower faucet until now. Even though we didn't like the way the faucet looked, we were the only ones who ever saw it, so replacing it wasn't mandatory because is didn't leak.

The second and most important reason we never replaced the shower faucet is Paul could not find anything suitable that would fit in its place. There are holes bored through the shower wall for the pipes that feed the faucet, and the spacing of those holes is 6" apart. Paul wanted to replace the faucet with a standard, residential, single-handle faucet, but he couldn't find one with a trim plate big enough to cover the holes for the existing pipes in the shower wall (about 7½" from the outside edge of one hole to the outside edge of the other) and not stick up above the lip of the small shelf above the faucet. We need a trim plate that is wider than it is tall. Paul found a couple of faucets with oval or rectangular trim plates, but all those plates are designed to be installed vertically so they wouldn't work.

Even though a single-handle faucet was our preference, Paul also investigated two-handle faucets. Those have a pipe spacing of either 4" or 8" rather than the 6" spacing of our old faucet. There are even faucets with adjustable spacing, but those start at 8" and adjust wider. Faucets with a spacing of 6" are rare.

Buying a new faucet from Tiffin would have satisfied both our desire for a single-handle faucet and our requirement for a 6" pipe spacing, but we weren't happy with the short amount of time the protective coating lasted on the original faucet. Therefore, Paul continued off and on for the past several months to try to find an alternative. He has been looking in earnest ever since we replaced the kitchen faucet last month, but he still couldn't find any other faucet that would work.

Because a replacement faucet for the shower proved to be so hard to find, Paul finally decided to bite the bullet and call Tiffin on Monday. He was afraid if he put off replacing the faucet too long, the old faucet might no longer be available; and with no alternative to be found, we would be out of luck if the old one ever started to drip.

Tiffin had two of the original faucets in stock at a price of $116, which Paul thought was a little high given how quickly the finish on the original faucet started to deteriorate. Tiffin gave Paul the model number of the faucet so he could try to find a better price online himself, and they also offered to give Paul a 30% discount in the event he couldn't find a better price elsewhere. Now, that's customer service.

A search of the internet brought up only one other source - an eBay vendor who had the faucet for a "buy it now" price of only $20 plus $10 shipping. Sold! Paul placed the order.

The shower head was also in need of replacement. The holes clog easily due to hard water deposits. Although Paul has disassembled the shower head numerous times and soaked it in vinegar to remove the hard water deposits, some of the holes still didn't work, others sprayed water out at odd angles and yet others had become enlarged and just dribbled water. It's hard to see in the photo, but the front face of the shower head was also permanently etched and discolored, and the hose had several permanent dark spots on it.

Old shower head

The Oxygenics Body Spa shower head is highly rated by just about everyone, and especially by RVers because of the way it conserves water. It mixes air with the water so it can provide the feel of a strong spray while using less water. Although we don't boondock anymore, conserving water is still important to us because we only have a 10-gallon water heater. The Oxygenics shower head also has a non-clogging design, which should cut down maintenance with the variable water quality we run into as we travel. Paul placed an order from Amazon.com for the Oxygenics shower head right after he ordered the new faucet from eBay.

The shower head arrived from Amazon late in the day on Wednesday, and the faucet was scheduled to arrived around noon on Thursday. While we were waiting for the faucet, we decided to use the slight delay in its arrival as an excuse to take a drive to Yalaha Bakery in the morning. We'll tell you about Yalaha Bakery in our next post.

We stopped to pick up our packages in the mail room shortly after noon on our way back from Yalaha. Freeway helped Paul unpack the boxes.

Freeway helping to unpack boxes

The faucet was pretty easy to install. Since it was exactly the same as the old one, the water pipes lined up perfectly. There were only two connections to make, and both of them are right there in the shower within easy reach. The whole job, including connecting up the new shower head, only took about half an hour. The other good news is this is now the fourth plumbing project in a row without a leak on the first try.

New shower faucet

New Oxygenics shower head

Since finding a suitable alternative to the faucet Tiffin used for our motor home proved to be so difficult, Paul decided to hang onto the old faucet as a spare. That way he will have something to fall back on in the event the new faucet starts to leak someday and the original faucet or repair parts for it are no longer available. He experimented with trying to polish the old faucet using the Meguiar's polish he uses for our aluminum wheels. While polishing didn't make the old faucet look as good as the new one, the results are acceptable, and we would be able to use it in a pinch.

Looking for the replacement for the shower faucet was a lot bigger job than actually replacing the faucet, and it's nice to have the job out of the way. The new faucet looks great, and we hope the finish lasts longer than the original.

The new Oxygenics shower head looks good and works well to save water, but there are a couple of drawbacks. For one thing, we both prefer a finer spray than the Oxygenics shower head puts out, but that's just our preference. The other minor problem is with the angled design of the head. In the confines of a small RV shower, the angle puts the water outlet closer to your face than the old shower head, and the Oxygenics shower head sprays the water in a slightly more outward direction whereas the old one sprayed more or less straight down. We're hoping we get used to those minor inconveniences.

In our next post, we'll tell you all about our trip to Yalaha Bakery we mentioned earlier.

A Little More Hangin' Around

Bushnell, FL - Events of Thursday, March 6 to Sunday, March 10, 2013

The weather here in Florida had been very changeable lately. Cold fronts have been passing through at least once a week, and each cold front that comes through brings with it clouds and sometimes rain. Although we prefer sunny weather, Florida needs the rain. Not only that, but the clouds can also make for some beautiful sunsets like the one shown in the photo below.

Sunset at Blueberry Hill

It was nice to get out to Bok Tower and Tarpon Springs to do some sightseeing recently, but in between the sightseeing, we are still busy with daily activities, chores and errands. Those things go on whether you live in a stick house or an RV.

One of the things we have been doing just about daily is working with Freeway to reinforce the training from the intermediate obedience classes we enrolled him in at PetSmart in January and February. The most important things he is learning are to sit, stay and come when there are distractions present like other people, other dogs, different sounds or favorite toys. We are also trying to get him to recognize and obey hand signals. We mix his training with play to help make the training fun.

Freeway will come most of the time when we're inside the motor home; and he will come, at least some of the time, when we're playing with him outside where there are more distractions. He's also pretty good with stay even when we add diversions like rolling his ball right past him - as long as we don't roll it too close and too fast. If it gets too close and it's going too fast, excitement sometimes overcomes Freeway and he tries to grab the ball as it goes by.

In the exercise shown in the next two photos, we have Freeway stay then walk in a circle all the way around him several times. Freeway can follow with his eyes, but not with his body.

Freeway, stay!

Freeway practices stay while Paul walks around him

We can see progress because the times he comes are more frequent, and he can stay for longer and longer periods with more and more distractions.

While we're on the subject of Freeway, we have mentioned before he needs frequent combing because he has long, fine hair that tangles easily. He also needs frequent baths, especially now that he is spending more time training and playing outside in the dry Florida grass and loose, sandy soil. We have to make sure we comb Freeway before his bath because any tangles that are starting to form before the bath get much worse when we shampoo him. Freeway doesn't mind the bath so much, and if we happen to catch him in the right mood, he doesn't mind the combing either. Margery usually does the combing and bathing, but Paul volunteered to take on the combing task before one of Freeway's recent baths. Sometimes he fights us when we try to comb him, but the next photo shows what he's like when he's mellow...he just lies back and relaxes.

Paul combing Freeway before his bath

Since the weather was cool, Margery decided to blow dry Freeway rather than let him air dry. Freeway's favorite way to be blown dry is to have the dryer placed on the floor so he can lie down and scoot along the carpet in front of the dryer and dry himself.

Freeway using the blow dryer on his terms after his bath

By the time the weekend was approaching, we realized we had several errands to run in the area of The Villages. Since the Market of Marion is located a short distance north of The Villages and since it is open on Fridays during the winter, we decided to head there on Friday morning and make our other stops in The Villages on our way back to the motor home. That way we could mix a little fun with our errands.

We weren't in a big hurry to get going in the morning, so we didn't get to the Market of Marion until about 11:00. We parked in one of the side lots where there was a vendor making and selling chainsaw carvings.

Chainsaw carvings

Bears are always a popular subject for chainsaw carvings. We thought the expressions on the faces of the ones done by this vendor were especially cute.

Closeup of bear's face

It was a nice day so the market was fairly busy. We waited for a lull in the foot traffic to take the next photo looking down the main aisle so it doesn't look quite as busy as it was.

View down the main aisle of the Market of Marion

Margery liked the purse she got earlier this year at the Market of Marion, and she decided to look for the same purse in a different color. Unfortunately, the vendor she bought from before didn't have a purse in a style and color she liked. She checked several other vendors who had similar purses, but no luck there either. Oh, well...the one she has will do fine, and we saved a couple of bucks.

We did get some produce. The market usually has a nice selection at reasonable prices.

Produce aisle

We got a bunch of asparagus, a basket of tomatoes for our sandwiches, a basket of poblano peppers to make poblano pesto (great on turkey sandwiches) and an eggplant. We found a cool eggplant that had a nose. The eggplant was a little bigger than we needed; but because it was nice and firm and so cute, we took it.

Eggplant with a nose

From the market, we drove to The Villages and made stops at Lowe's, Sam's Club and Kohl's. After making all our stops, we conveniently found ourselves near OakWood Grill, and it just happened to be mid afternoon. Actually, it wasn't a coincidence - that's the way we planned it. The reason we weren't in a big hurry to leave in the morning was so we didn't get to OakWood too early and hit the lunch rush. Also, Margery having to cook dinner on a day we eat lunch out is a definite no-no. Therefore, when we plan to eat out, we usually have "lupper" in mid-afternoon that takes the place of both lunch and supper.

In addition to loving the baby back ribs we had the last two times we went to OakWood, we also love their delicious smoked turkey and beef. They also have pulled pulled pork, chicken and smoked sausage; but the ribs, turkey and beef are our favorites.

Margery had a beef sandwich lunch special that includes a drink and one side for $7.49. She added Swiss cheese to her sandwich and had onion rings for her side. Paul had a smoked turkey lunch plate that included two sides (he chose lima beans and slaw) for $7.99. Our lunches were delish! The meats are always so moist, tender and smoky.

Turkey lunch plate (top) and beef sandwich

Margery and her beef sandwich and onion rings

We headed back to the motor home and relaxed during the evening. Saturday brought more chores with cleaning the inside of the rig and dumping. After church on Sunday, we relaxed some more and watched the NASCAR race from Las Vegas.

Our time in Florida is winding down, and we still have several things we would like to see and do before we leave; but as we said, the weather has been very changeable. There is another cold front and more rain predicted, so we'll have to wait and see if we get a break. In the meantime, Paul has another inside project planned that he can do regardless of the weather. We'll tell you all about it in our next post.