Living Our Dream

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

Bushnell, FL - Events of Monday, March 23 to Friday, March 27, 2015

Every time we drive I-75 lately, there is a steady stream of cars and large numbers of RVs traveling north as snowbirds head home. The back section of Blueberry Hill where they put longer-term guests was essentially full for most of January, all of February and the early part of March; but it has emptied out noticeably in the last week or so as people head home to be with family for Easter. We will be staying through Easter, but we are down to our last few weeks here in Florida ourselves.

After we ordered the 5th wheel last fall and while we were waiting for it to be delivered, we took everything out of the basement of the motor home and put it into the shed. That made it quicker to transfer our belongings to the new 5th wheel when we went to pick it up because we only had to transfer the stuff that was inside.

When we got back to Blueberry Hill after getting the 5th wheel, Paul moved some of the things from the shed to the basement of the fiver, but he felt somewhat overwhelmed at the question of where everything should go. Unlike the motor home, which had numerous outside storage bays, the 5th wheel has one huge, cavernous basement storage compartment. With numerous storage areas to work with in the motor home, we were able to keep things we used frequently right near the front so they would be handy when we needed them. With the 5th wheel, everything will fit; but stuff can easily end up getting buried in that huge basement compartment.

Now that we were down to the last few weeks before we hit the road, it was time to bite the bullet and figure out the basement storage. It doesn't have to be perfect for now (we can always rearrange things once we live with them for a while), but we want it to be somewhat convenient so we don't loose things.

Paul spent much of last week putting stuff into the basement, taking it back out, rearranging it, running over to Walmart to get a new storage container, and putting the stuff back in.

Paul rearranging the basement of the fiver

By Wednesday afternoon, Paul felt he deserved a break from packing the basement so we headed about half an hour south to Pancho's Villa Mexican restaurant in San Antonio, FL.

Pancho's Villa

We started off with their delicious corn chips and salsa. Not only are the corn chips thin, warm and crisp, but they are also lightly salted. They are served with both hot and mild salsa. The corn chips were so good we had two baskets even though there is a $1.50 charge for refills.

We arrived at Pancho's before 3:00, so we were able to order from the lunch menu. Margery had a shredded beef chimichanga, and Paul had Pancho's burrito with ground beef. Both were around $8 and included rice and refried beans. The prices on the lunch menu are about $2 less than on the dinner menu. The lunch portions are supposedly slightly smaller; but we got plenty to eat - especially with the second basket of chips.

Pancho's burrito

Paul waiting to dig in

By Friday, Paul had most of the stuff relocated from the shed to the fiver, and he had a a pretty good handle on where the rest of the stuff was going to go. One good thing about the 5th wheel is there is so much more storage space inside, we were able to fit some of the things that used to be in the basement of the motor home into cupboards inside the 5th wheel. That will certainly help with having easy access to them.

We had a couple of activities planned for the weekend. We'll tell you about them in our next post.

Gizella Kopsick Palm Arboretum

Bushnell, FL - Events of Friday, March 20, 2015

Gizella Kopsick Palm Arboretum is located only a few blocks away from Sunken Gardens. The arboretum is a specialty park operated by the city of St. Petersburg, and it includes hundreds of palm trees from around the world. Since Paul loves, loves, LOVES palm trees, we headed to the arboretum when we were finished strolling around Sunken Gardens. Admission to the arboretum is free.

The two-acre arboretum was once a city park featuring a miniature golf course. When the golf course was closed due to escalating costs, the city converted the park to a palm arboretum in 1976. The arboretum was made possible by a generous gift from Ms. Gizella Kopsick for whom the arboretum is named.

The palm arboretum is located on the St. Petersburg waterfront along Tampa Bay just up the road from the city pier and marina. In the photo below, which shows the nice beach area adjacent to the arboretum, the city pier can be seen in the distance jutting out into the water to the left. There is plenty of free parking at the arboretum, although it could be a little hard to find a spot on a sunny weekend because of the beach.

Beach adjacent to the arboretum

Entrance to the arboretum across from the beach

The arboretum is a work in progress. They started out in 1976 with 60 specimens representing 10 varieties of palms. New specimens are being added all the time, and today there are over 500 palm trees and cycads representing over 150 different varieties from around the world. Cycads are palm-like plants that date back to prehistoric times. The arboretum has palm trees of every shape and size.

Many sizes and shapes of palm trees at Gizella Kopsick Palm Arboretum

As we started up the path past the cycads, we still had a nice view of Tampa Bay.

View of Tampa Bay with a cycad in the foreground

We could catch glimpses of the bay from many locations in the arboretum.

More palm trees with Tampa Bay in the background

Brick walkways wind their way through the arboretum, and a wide lawn runs down the middle. Presumably, at least some of the lawn will eventually be used for future plantings.

Lawn area with palm trees on both sides

We saw many varieties of palm trees we have never seen before. The photo below shows a couple of bottle palms that Paul found particularly attractive. Bottle palms, which grow to a height of only 10 to 12 feet, are native to the Mascerene Islands located in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. Bottle palm are almost extinct in the wild, but they are grown by nurseries and are available as landscape plants. They are quite expensive and cannot withstand frost, otherwise Paul would be looking for a place to plant one on our site at Blueberry Hill.

Bottle palms

Another variety that was interesting was the Cuban petticoat palm. As the name suggests, it is native to Cuba. The dead fronds don't drop off as they do with many palms, and they droop down to form a dense petticoat along the trunk. The Cuban petticoat palm reaches a mature height of up to 30 feet, but the small size of this specimen makes it look very rotund.

Cuban petticoat palm

With our tours of Sunken Gardens and the Gizella Kopsick Palm Arboretum complete, we headed back toward I-375 and across the Sunshine Skyway Bridge toward I-75. When we got to I-75, instead of heading north toward Bushnell, we took a detour one exit to the south to Anna Maria Oyster Bar where we had our last fried clam strip baskets until next fall. They were yummy as usual!

Margery enjoying her clam strips

From Anna Maria Oyster Bar, we headed back to Blueberry Hill for an evening and weekend of relaxation.

Sunken Gardens

Bushnell, FL - Events of Friday, March 20, 2015

Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg, FL is another one of those places Paul visited when he was a kid on vacation in Florida with his parents in the 1950s. We also made a stop there back in December, 2008.

Late last year, Groupon had coupons for half price admission to Sunken Gardens. Admission to Sunken Gardens isn't that expensive to begin with ($8 for regular admission and $6 for seniors); but we wanted to go back to see the gardens in the spring, so we took advantage of the Groupon offer. Last Friday, we drove to Sarasota to use our coupon.

Sunken Gardens was started in 1903 by plumber and avid gardener George Turner, Sr. The gardens got their name from the fact they are built in a 10 to 15 foot deep sink hole. George planted quite a few citrus trees, papayas, and other exotic plants around his home. In the 1920s he opened a nursery and began selling fruits, vegetables, and plants. His nursery customers paid a nickel to tour the gardens. In 1935, George fenced the garden and began a charging 25-cent admission fee. In the 1950s through the 1970s, Sunken Gardens became a popular tourist attraction and was once ranked among Florida's top 10 attractions. Sunken Gardens was purchased by the city of St. Petersburg in 1999.

The gardens only cover 4 acres, but they have squeezed a lot into the relatively small space. There are over 50,000 plants at Sunken Gardens representing over 500 varieties of tropical and sub-tropical plants. The pathways wind through the garden, and the lush plant growth hides the fact that you may only be a few feet from another path passing by in a different direction. The photo below shows Paul on one of the garden paths with some of the dense foliage in the background.

Dense foliage behind Paul along one of the garden paths

The bright colors of some of the lush foliage also add to the interest in the garden.

Bright green, yellow and red foliage

Wedding lawn surrounded by palm trees and more colorful foliage

Margery on one of the garden paths with yet more colorful foliage

When we visited Sunken Gardens in  2008, it was December and there were only a few flowers blooming. At that time of year most of the garden color was provided by the foliage and by displays of poinsettias for the holidays. The main reason we wanted to go back in this spring was to see some of the tropical plants in bloom. We weren't disappointed. The next photo shows another path with bright pink bougainvillea blooming overhead...

Bougainvillea blooming along a garden path

...and the next photo shows just a few of the many tropical flowers that were in bloom.

Some of the many other tropical flowers in bloom

Among the colorful foliage plants and blooming tropicals were a couple of interesting plant specimens, one of which is shown below. Thanks to Sunken Gardens who responded to our initial blog post, we were able to find out the tree with the fascinating flower/seedheads in the next photo is a fishtail palm.

An example of one of the more interesting trees

The fishtail palm gets its name from fact the leaves on the fronds are split and look like fishtails.

Frond of a fishtail palm

Towering over the lush undergrowth are many mature palm trees.

Mature palm trees

The next photo shows a nice example of a royal palm - one of Paul's favorites.

Royal palm

There are several water features at Sunken Gardens. There are two ponds with large koi.

One of the koi ponds

There are also several small waterfalls that provide the pleasant sound of trickling water.

One of several waterfalls

Another waterfall

There are a couple of Chilean flamingos, a pair of kookaburras and some parrots and macaws at Sunken Gardens. Everything was quiet when we were there this time, but macaws were squawking loudly last time we were there adding to the jungle-like atmosphere.

Chilean flamingos

We finished off our tour of Sunken Gardens with a tourist photo. We took a photo of Paul here during our last visit. This time was Margery's turn.

Margery in a tourist photo at Sunken Gardens

From Sunken Gardens, we headed to another attraction located only a few blocks away. We'll tell you about it in our next post.

A Couple More Projects

Bushnell, FL - Events of Monday, March 9 to Sunday, March 15, 2015

We had our motor home for 10 years, and we made lots of improvements over those years. Now that we have the new 5th wheel, we have to resist the desire to get done all the improvements we want to make at once. We're trying to pace ourselves, but the list of things to do never seems to end. Last week, Paul knocked a couple of smaller projects off the to-do list.

One thing we added to the motor home were MCD shades. MCD shades have a shade screen for day and an opaque screen for use at night. The best part of MCD shades is they have no strings to break like the traditional RV day/night shades. Fortunately, we were able to order MCD shades as an option on the 5th wheel, so we didn't have to add them. Unfortunately, some of the valences, especially the ones in the bedroom, leave a big gap along the sides of the shades.

Original 5th wheel valence with big gaps on the sides of the shades

The valences in the motor home all had vertical sides on them, and those sides blocked any gaps. Therefore, we decided we wanted to add sides to the two valences by the bed in the 5th wheel to completely block the view from outside.

Paul cut pieces of ¼" plywood to make the sides.

Paul smoothing the wood for the new sides for the valences

Like most RV manufacturers, DRV gave us several throw pillows for the bed. They look good when the RV is on the dealer's lot or at an RV show, but we never use them because we can't be bothered taking them off the bed every night and finding a place to put them until morning.

The two larger pillows were covered in the same fabric as the valences. Perfect. Since we don't use the throw pillows on the bed, Paul was able to use the fabric from two of those pillows to cover the new sides for the valences. After stapling the fabric in place over a layer of thin batting, Paul screwed the new sides to the old valences and put them back up.

Paul re-installing one of the modified valences

Modified valence with no gaps

We took a short break from projects on Wednesday and headed to OakWood Grill up at The Villages with Mike and Pam. Mike and Pam are blog readers who are staying at Blueberry Hill. Mike, Pam and Margery all had the rib special, and Paul had a smoked turkey plate. Everything was yummy! It was great getting to know Mike and Pam better.

Mike, Pam, Margery and Paul

The weather has warmed significantly over the past week or two, and we noticed a fair amount of heat coming through the skylight over the shower in the 5th wheel. A few years ago, Paul made a shade cover for the skylight in the motor home. He had some of the shade cloth left, so he got to work making a cover for the skylight in the 5th wheel. The cover is held on with snaps, so it can be removed for cleaning or to let in more light in winter.

Bright sunlight and a lot of heat coming through the skylight

Filtered light with shade cover in place

With those two projects completed, we relaxed over the weekend. After church on Sunday, we decided to drive up to the Camping World located just south of Ocala to pick up a sewer hose holder for the fiver. Since Camping World is only about 1½ miles south of the Market of Marion, we headed to the market first to get some produce. It was a beautiful day, and the market was very crowded.

Crowds in the main aisle of the Market of Marion

We browsed a few booths then made our way to the produce aisle.

Produce aisle

Plant City, located about an hour south of Bushnell, is the winter strawberry capital. This is the peak of strawberry season so many produce vendors had Plant City strawberries for sale. The going price was only $6 for half a flat. Those are half flats stacked up in the photo below.

Half flats of Plant City strawberries

As delicious as the strawberries looked, we passed because there's no way the two of us can use a half a flat. We ended up with a tomato for our sandwiches, a small bag of Vidalia onions and a head of cabbage.

Margery picking out a head of cabbage

From the market, we drove south to Camping World, then made a couple of stops in The Villages before heading back to the 5th wheel to relax for the rest of the day. As we said earlier, the weather is warming so we are trying to schedule another sightseeing outing. Stay tuned.

A Day Trip to Sarasota Part II: Marietta Museum of Art and Whimsy

Bushnell, FL - Events of Thursday, March 5, 2015

As we wrote in our last post, we headed to Sarasota last Thursday to have breakfast at Der Dutchman Restaurant and to do some sightseeing. After breakfast, we did a little shopping, visited the Sarasota Garden Club display garden, then headed to the Marietta Museum of Art and Whimsy.

The Marietta Museum is only open from the end of October through the end of May. The hours are 1:00 to 4:00 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Admission to the museum is free, although there is a suggested donation of $5 per person.

We discovered the museum last year and really liked it. Since much of the artwork on display changes every year, we wanted to go back again this year and see what was new.

Marietta Museum of Art and Whimsy

The Marietta Museum of Art and Whimsy was opened in Florida in 2009 by Marietta Lee. Ms. Lee, who was an ER nurse and EMT, discovered art could lift her spirits from the tragedies she sometimes witnessed as a nurse.

In addition to being an RN, Ms. Lee also has art degrees from Eastern Kentucky University and from the Ringling College of Art and Design. Her museum features colorful, uplifting, sometimes humorous artwork mostly by Florida artists.

A sculpture outside the front door that caught Paul's eye was a porpoise playfully frolicking through the waves. The highly polished granite makes the porpoise look like it's wet.

Granite porpoise outside museum

Right inside the door were several delicate clay sculptures of orchids in miniature by Liu Wen Mei. One of them is shown below. The sculpture is only a few inches tall and has incredible detail.

Clay sculpture of an orchid

Many of the paintings in the museum have tropical themes with bright colors. The one below is "Angel Trumpets" by James Griffin.

"Angel Trumpets" by James Griffin

And the next is "West Palm Triple Tree" by James Gibson.

"West Palm Triple Tree" by James Gibson

Even the rest rooms feature artwork. The stained glass window by Shady Oak Studio shown below is in the mens room.

"Koi Fish" by Shady Oak Studio

There are several whimsical soft sculptures by Edna Tkachuk. "I Love Cats" is only about a foot tall and sits on a shelf.

I Love Cats" by Edna Tkachuk

Behind the museum is a patio and sculpture garden.

Patio and part of the garden behind the museum

Flying pigs sculpture in the garden

Flamingo sculpture

There is additional parking across a side street, and even the parking lot has sculptures. The colorful giraffe below looks like it is reaching up to try to eat the palm tree.

Giraffe sculpture in the parking lot

Another parking lot sculpture made from blue glass bottles

We enjoyed seeing the Marietta Museum again and all the new pieces being shown this year, and we were pleased to see a much bigger crowd at the museum than there was when we were there last year. We are also happy to report the museum is expanding. There is an addition to the museum building under construction and there are also plans for a cafe.

We left the Marietta Museum of Art and Whimsy and headed back to Blueberry Hill. About half an hour south of Bushnell, a car that was traveling 4 or 5 vehicles ahead of us suddenly veered off the left side of the highway and disappeared down over the berm into the trees. With everyone ahead of us trying to all stop at once, there was a mass screeching of tires. Paul somehow managed not to rear-end the van ahead of us and to stay out of the path of the semi beside us.

We brought the truck safely to a stop on the shoulder and Paul ran to the wrecked vehicle along with several others while Margery called 911. There was a lone occupant in the car. That was a good thing because the passenger side was totally crushed. The driver, who appeared to be unconscious, was pinned in his seat. After futile attempts to open the passenger door, someone had the brilliant idea of going in through the back seat.

I-75 wreck

One woman at the scene appeared to be a nurse and took charge. She and a man got into the back seat and began tending to the man trapped in the car. They initially called out for water, but soon began to call for juice. We tried to stay out of the way, so we don't know exactly what was going on, but the request for juice indicated to us the man may have been a diabetic and may have gone into insulin shock. That could explain the reason he ran off the road and never hit the brakes.

After about 7 or 8 minutes, the fire rescue truck and ambulance arrived. We decided it would be best to get out of the way so they could do their jobs, so we hopped into the truck and continued on our way back to Bushnell. It was a somber ending to an otherwise beautiful day. An online news report we found the following day said the 79-year old man was in critical condition with unspecified injuries. We weren't able to find any further information.

Back at the fiver, we relaxed for the evening and on into the weekend. We had no definite plans for the following week, but we'll let you know if something pops up.