Living Our Dream

Pioneer Park Wildlife Refuge

Wauchula, FL - Events of Sunday, April 16 to Thursday, April 20, 2017

Although there was an Easter dinner at the clubhouse (the last official event of the season), we decided as we usually do to have quieter holiday dinner either with one or two other couples or by ourselves. This time it was by ourselves. We went to dinner on Easter at Texas Roadhouse near Bradenton.

Texas Roadhouse

One reason we chose Texas Roadhouse was to take advantage of a coupon we recently received for a free appetizer for Margery's birthday. She chose a Cactus Blossom, which is a battered, deep-fried onion.

Margery with our Cactus Blossom

We both had a 6-oz. sirloin for dinner. We usually get the 6-oz. sirloin as an early bird special for $8.99, but the special isn't offered on weekends so we had to pay the regular price of $10.49. Even at the regular price, the meal still seems like a bargain because it includes two sides, rolls with cinnamon butter, and all the peanuts you can eat. Margery had a salad and baked potato for her sides, and Paul had a salad and mashed potatoes. Everything was yummy!

We have been taking advantage of our more relaxed schedule recently to do some sightseeing. Two weeks ago, we went to the Center for Great Apes, which provides care for chimpanzees and orangutans that have been retired or rescued from research facilities, from the entertainment industry or from the exotic pet trade. Last Thursday, we went to the Hardee County Wildlife Refuge, which is another place that provides a permanent home for rescued animals. Admission is $4 plus tax for adults.

The refuge is located just down the road at Pioneer Park along the banks of the Peace River. We visited the Cracker Trail Museum, which is also located in Pioneer Park, with Paul's former co-worker, Roger, and his wife, Paula, when they stopped to visit us back in January. It was too late in the day to see the the refuge back then, but we knew we wanted to go back to check the refuge out. Click here to read about our January visit to the Cracker Trail Museum.

Most of the animals at the refuge are native to Florida, although they do have a couple of exotic species. In fact, the first thing we came to was a group of about half a dozen emus, which are native to Australia. Emus are flightless birds that weigh around 80 pounds and can reach a height of around 6 feet.

Two of the half dozen or so emus

The second animal was another import - an African spurred tortoise. These animals can grow to be 3 to 3½ feet long and can weigh up to 150 pounds.

African spurred tortoise

From the African tortoise, we continued to a large, fenced-in pond where there were a couple of very large 'gators sunning themselves on the far bank.

Alligators

Visitors stroll around the refuge on an elevated boardwalk that provides a nice vantage point from which to view the animals - provided the animals aren't trying to hide which was the case with some of them. The photo below shows Paul on the boardwalk.

Paul on the boardwalk

The pond had a number of turtles sunning sunning themselves on submerged logs. In the south, freshwater turtles, especially those of the genus Pseudemys like the ones at the refuge, are known as cooters. The cooter in the next photo looks like he was enjoying a nice stretch with his back feet sticking straight out.

Cooter stretching his hind legs

The pond also had several large carp.

One of several large carp in the pond

The refuge has two cougars. The cougar, also known as a puma, panther, or mountain lion, is quite a large cat. They are the second-largest cat by weight in the Americas behind the jaguar.

Cougar

Quite a few other animals make their home at the refuge. We weren't able to get any photos of their black bear since it was inside its house because they were working on the fence for its outer enclosure. Some of the other animals include several raccoons, a red fox, white tail deer, river otters, and a bobcat.

Pioneer Park also has a boat launch along the Peace River. It is located adjacent to the wildlife refuge so we headed to there next. Since we have had a dry fall and winter, the water level in the river is down; but the river is still a good place to do a little kayaking or fishing.

Peace River looking downstream

After visiting the wildlife refuge and checking out the Peace River, we headed back to the co-op to relax for the rest of the afternoon and evening. We are down to our last couple of weeks in Florida, but we planned to get out sightseeing at least one more time. Stay tuned.

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Center for Great Apes

Wauchula, FL - Events of Wednesday, April 12, 2017

The Center for Great Apes is an ape sanctuary that is located only a few miles from the co-op. The mission of the center is to "provide a permanent sanctuary for orangutans and chimpanzees who have been rescued or retired from the entertainment industry, from research, or from the exotic pet trade; to educate the public about captive great apes and the threats to conservation of great apes in the wild; and to advocate for the end of the use of great apes as entertainers, research subjects, and pets. The Center provides care with dignity in a safe, healthy, and enriching environment for great apes in need of lifetime care."

The center is not generally open to the public; but they do have school tours, and they have occasional, special tours for limited numbers of people. On Wednesday, April 12, we had the privilege of being invited by one of the co-op members who has a daughter who works at the center to take a private tour.

Our tour started off with a 20-minute video that gave the history of the center and described how they do their work. The Center for Great Apes was founded by Patti Ragan in the 1990s. It started as 15 acres of tropical woodland and has grown to over 100 acres. There are currently 48 apes at the center.

The center gave us permission to use any photos we wanted from their website. Since their photos provide much better views of the animals and of the habitat than we could get for ourselves, most of the photos in this post are courtesy of the Center for Great Apes with only a few of our own thrown in.

After the video, we headed out into the compound. The center has 12 large, three-story enclosures in the midst of the tropical forest. Each enclosure has structures for climbing, vines for swinging, and plenty of items to keep the apes occupied during the day.

Orangutan in one of the 3-story ape enclosures

There are also houses where the apes can spend the night. The houses are in the shade, and they are cooled by large fans so the animals sometimes go inside during the day to escape the hot Florida sun or periodic rainstorms.

Chimpanzees in one of the night houses

The enclosures, the night houses, and the medical facility are all tied together by a system of overhead passageways that have a total length of more than 1½ miles.

Orangutan roaming one of the passageways

Although the apes are generally allowed to roam the passageways to explore and to move about, the chimpanzees are always kept separate from the orangutans. In addition, some groups and individuals within each species are kept separate from others because even apes can have personality conflicts, especially between mature males who want to exert their dominance.

As we walked around the compound on our tour, we got to meet many of the apes. They will usually follow staff members and visitors around by means of the overhead passageways. Most of the apes sat and watched when we stopped to talk, but a couple of the males put on a show for us. One of the big male orangutans swung around his enclosure to eventually get to the other side where we were, and one of the chimps showed off some of his rhythmic foot-stomping that he learned during his stint working as an animal entertainer.

The center has several mature male orangutans. Mature males are typified by their chest pouches and cheek pads, both of which help increase the volume of their calls, and by their long, reddish hair. Pongo, a 27-year old male, was one of the first two residents of the center.

Pongo, a mature male orangutan

Mari is a 36-year old female orangutan who lives with Pongo. Mari has no arms. They were injured beyond repair by her mother in a moment of panic when Mari was still an infant. In spite of her accident, Mari is very capable and gets around quite well. She is highly intelligent and is able to work many different kinds of puzzles. Her latest interest is working an iPad with her feet. The iPad was donated for her use.

Mari, a 36-year old female orangutan

As we said, the Center for Great Apes is located in a tropical forest. There is lots of shade from live oaks and palm trees. There are also numerous stands of bamboo (apes like to eat bamboo shoots) and there are decorative plantings of tropical foliage plants and flowers like the African iris shown below.

African iris

Over in the chimpanzee area, we met Bubbles, who was Michael Jackson's pet. Bubbles was born in a biomedical laboratory. He was taken from his mother as an infant and sold to a trainer who had purchased him for Michael Jackson. Bubbles appeared on TV, in movies, and in music videos. When he got older, he became too strong to be around people so he was sent to the trainer's compound. Bubbles came to the Center for Great Apes in 2005 with a large group of other chimps from the entertainment industry.

Michael Jackson's chimpanzee, Bubbles

Noelle is a 22-year old female chimpanzee who knows sign language. When she sees someone on crutches, in a wheel chair, or with an arm in a sling, she makes the sign for "hurt" by touching the tips of her index fingers together. Margery, who is currently experiencing some problems with a slight injury to a tendon in her knee, was wearing a knee brace. When Noelle saw the brace, she made the sign for hurt.

Noelle

Not only does Noelle know over 40 signs, she also makes up her own combinations for new things. For example, one day Noelle got peas with one of her meals. The apes don't get peas very often so Noelle didn't know what they were. Noelle knew the sign for beans, and she also knew the sign for ball so she put the two together and called the peas "ball beans."

On our way back to the office, we stopped for a photo op by a carving of a orangutan. You can tell by the cheek pads the carving depicts a male.

Photo op with a carving of an orangutan

Back in the office, we saw paintings done by some of the apes. Painting is one of many activities designed to stimulate the apes mentally. Other activities include problem solving, play time, and even the use of iPads and computers. Staff members frequently go out into the compound on their lunch breaks to talk to the animals or to just spend time with them.

Paintings done by some of the apes

As an example of how much the staff cares for the apes, they have birthday parties for each of them complete with special treats and decorations. The Center's Facebook page posted some photos of the recent birthday celebration they had for one of the orangutans named Popi.

Popi with her party decorations

Special treat consisting of frozen juice blocks

We enjoyed our special tour of the Center for Great Apes. It made us aware of the plight of chimpanzees and orangutans who are raised in captivity and of the outstanding work the Center for Great Apes is doing to make the lives of the apes they are able to rescue more comfortable.

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McKee Botanical Garden

Wauchula, FL - Events of Tuesday, April 11, 2017

We took advantage of our extended time in Florida to do some sightseeing. The weather was beautiful last Tuesday so we took a day trip to Vero Beach over on the east coast. Our destination was McKee Botanical Garden which was about 2½-hour drive.

McKee Botanical Garden was opened in 1932 as McKee Jungle Gardens by Arthur McKee and Waldo Sexton, who were land developers. By the 1940s, over 100,000 tourists a year were visiting the garden with its extensive collection of water lilies, orchids and other tropical plants from around the world. In those days, no jungle garden would be complete without also having monkeys and alligators.

Paul doesn't remember visiting McKee Jungle Gardens when he vacationed in Florida as a kid with his parents. However, he definitely remembers seeing their advertising signs along the road. The garden is located on US 1, which was the main north-south route along the east coast of Florida back in the 1950s.

Like so many old Florida roadside attractions, McKee Jungle Gardens fell victim to the development of interstate highways and to the opening of Disney World in the 1970s. The gardens closed in 1976, and all but 18 acres of the original 80-acre plot was sold off for condominiums. The remaining 18 acres lay dormant until the Indian River Land Trust raised enough funds in 1994 to purchase the property. After additional fund raising and much restoration effort, McKee Botanical Garden was opened to the public in 2001.

We arrived at the garden a little before noon. Out in the parking lot there is a stump of a huge cypress tree that was retrieved from a swamp in the 1930s and hauled to McKee Jungle Gardens on a flatbed truck by Waldo Sexton. The tree from which the stump came was 2,000 years old and over 100 feet tall when it was cut by loggers back in the day.

Stump from a 2000-year old cypress tree

We headed to the entrance building where we paid our admission fee. Admission is $12 for adults and $11 for seniors over 65.

Entrance building on the right

We entered the garden through the archway that can be seen between the two buildings in the above photo. The dozen or so orchids that are on display under the archway pay homage to the very extensive orchid collection that was part of the original gardens.

Two of the dozen orchids on display near the entrance

The archway opens out onto an oval-shaped lawn. The lawn is surrounded by palm trees and exotic, tropical foliage.

Archway leading to oval-shaped lawn

Several paths radiate out from the oval. They all twist and wind their way through various areas of the garden. Fortunately, the maps that are handed out are nicely done and it's hard to get completely lost.

We started out on the first path to the right leading to the Royal Palm Grove. Royal palms are majestic trees that can reach heights of 80 feet. Their straight, smooth, gray trunks are topped by green palmshafts and luxuriously-full palm fronds. They are Paul's favorite palm tree; but unfortunately, they are too big and not quite cold-hardy enough to be able to plant on our site in Wauchula.

Royal Palm Grove

View of a royal a Royal Palm showing the green palmshaft below the fronds

In the area of the Royal Palm Court there is a stickwork sculpture by Patrick Doughtery. We have seen his work before at several other botanical gardens. The title of this work is "The Royals" in honor of the adjacent palms.

"The Royals" stickwork sculpture by Patrick Doughtery

The fun part of Doughtery's work is you can walk all around it and even into it.

Margery inside one of "The Royals"

A temporary exhibit at the McKee Botanical Garden when we were there was "Nature Connects," which is a series of sculptures made from over 300,000 Lego blocks. One was a life-sized rototiller located near the Royal Palm Grove.

Life-sized rototiller made from Legos

The Lego sculptures are scattered around the garden. Shown below are several of our favorites.

Lego bald eagle

Lego hummingbird

Lego butterfly

We continued our way around the garden enjoying the lush, tropical growth lining the paths and surrounding the many ponds.

Palm trees and tropical foliage

Vine-covered arch over one of the paths

One of many ponds

Another pond with a waterfall

Yet another pond with a glass sculpture

The Sleeping Tree is a Toog Tree that was blown over by Hurricane David in 1979. With some of its roots still intact, it continued to grow in its new prone position.

Sleeping Tree

The garden has hundreds of shade-loving bromiliads that add color to the garden. The one shown below not only has colorful foliage, but it is also just starting to bloom. You can see one small, pink, triangular flower in the center. That one flower will soon be joined by many more on a stalk that will eventually rise about a foot above the leaves.

Colorful bromiliad that is just starting to bloom

One unusual plant we saw was a red pineapple which is native to South America. Although its fruit is edible, it is less fleshy than commercially grown pineapples so the red pineapple is grown primarily as an ornamental. They are also sometimes used as barrier hedge because their spiny leaves discourage trespassers.

Red pineapple

We enjoyed our visit to the McKee Botanical Garden. We knew we would be hungry after our walk around the garden so we scouted out several places to eat beforehand. There were a couple places in Vero Beach that got good online reviews, and the there was also one called Squid Lips that was located about a half hour to the north of Vero Beach in Sebastian. Although Squid Lips was farther away, the name definitely caught our attention that's where we headed.

Squid Lips

We arrived after the lunch rush so they weren't very crowded. We were able to get a window table overlooking the marina beside the restaurant.

View from our table

Squid Lips has sandwiches that include chips and a soft drink for $8 to $14. You can substitute fries for the chips for $1. They have baskets of fried seafood for $9 to $14 that include fries and slaw. Dinner entrées are about $15 to $27 and include potato and a vegetable. You can add a side salad to your dinner for $3.

Margery had a fried clam strip basket ($10.99), and Paul had fried shrimp ($12.99). The clams were sweet and tender, the shrimp were fairly large and were lightly breaded, the slaw was excellent with a little celery seed added for extra flavor, and the seasoned fries were nice and crisp. Everything was delish, and the portions were fairly generous.

Paul with his shrimp basket

After our nice day of sightseeing and great meal, we headed back to the co-op for an evening of TV. See you next time.

Free Time

Wauchula, FL - Events of Tuesday, March 4 to Thursday, March 6, 2017

We originally planned to leave Florida the week after Easter; but with all the projects we did around our site, with Margery's becoming editor of the co-op newsletter, and with our involvement with so many committees and meetings at the co-op, we didn't feel we had time to relax and to do much sightseeing this winter. Therefore, we decided to push our departure back a couple of weeks and stay in Florida a little longer.

The final end-of-season meeting was held last Monday afternoon. The first thing we did with our free time was to head back to the Wauchula Family Restaurant on Tuesday afternoon. When we wrote about our first stop there in our last post, we mentioned the inside was rather quaint. Unfortunately, the photos we took last time didn't show much of the interior so this time we took a photo of the bird house-themed decor. There are bird houses and pictures of bird houses everywhere.

Bird house decor at Wauchula Family Restaurant

When we went to the Wauchula Family Restaurant the first time we had grouper, but we saw they also had half-pound burgers. We love the half-pound burgers at Dee's Place in Sebring so we knew we wanted to go back to try the ones at Wauchula Family Restaurant to see how they compared. Like the ones at Dee's, the half-pounders at Wauchula Family Restaurant cost around $7, the ground beef is fresh, not frozen, and burgers are hand-pattied. For $1 additional, we added fries to each of our burgers. That also includes complimentary cole slaw.

Paul and Margery at Wauchula Family Restaurant

The burgers were outstanding. They were just as big and just as good as those at Dee's Place. The fries - not so much. While crispy outside, the fries were mushy inside because they are thick-cut and they are frozen. Dee's fries are probably frozen too, but they are thinner which seems to cut down on the mushiness. The cole slaw was just a small sample, which was just as well because the flavor was just so-so.

On Thursday, we headed down to Sarasota to stop at Lens Crafters to order new glasses for Paul. Afterward, we drove a couple of exits north on I-75 to stop at the Ellenton Factory Outlet to look for new shorts for Paul. After the outlet mall, we stopped at Anna Maria Oyster Bar for fried clam strips ($9.99).

Margery had onion straws ($1.99 extra) and slaw for her sides, and Paul had boiled red potatoes and slaw. Everything was yummy.

Paul with his clam strips

After enjoying some relaxation time and a couple of leisurely meals out, we decided to do some sightseeing. We'll tell you where we went in our next post.

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Busy, Busy, Busy

Wauchula, FL - Events of Friday, March 24 to Thursday, March 30, 2017

As the title says, we have been very busy lately. The winter season here at the Escapees Florida Co-Op is starting to wind down, and some people are starting to leave and head back north or to wherever their summer travels may take them. For that reason, all the committees at the co-op are trying to wrap up their business and their projects so there has been a flurry of meetings over the past two weeks. On most days we have had at least one meeting, and on some days we have had as many as three or four between the two of us.

Along with all the meetings, we have had to make time to finish up our own projects and to begin preparations for our departure a few weeks from now. One of the things Paul did to get the 5th wheel ready was to spend two afternoons inspecting and repacking the wheel bearings. We wanted to avoid the problem we had on the way to Florida last fall when we lost a wheel due to the total disintegration of the outer wheel bearing. The good news is all the bearings looked good, and they now all have fresh grease and new seals.

We made time between meetings and projects to grocery shop and run errands. Sometimes when running an errand we take a little extra time and eat out. We have been to Dee's Place a couple of times over the past few weeks when we had to run to Sebring to stop at Lowe's or Home Depot for project supplies. We also used our busy schedule as an excuse to go to Giovanni's Main Street Kitchen in Wauchula once or twice for pizza when we had a long day and Margery didn't feel like cooking.

We had a few items we needed from Sam's Club, so we planned to go there on Friday, March 24th since we had no meetings scheduled for that day. We usually go to the Sam's Club in Bradenton, but this time we decided to drive a few miles farther south to the one in Sarasota and to leave early in the morning so we could stop on the way at Der Dutchman in Sarasota for the breakfast buffet.

Der Dutchman in Sarasota

After breakfast, we browsed the bakery. The lemon meringue pies attracted our attention because they were very artistically done.

Lemon meringue pies

All the Der Dutchman locations have bakeries, and they all specialize in pies. One kind of pie they have in Florida that we never see at Der Dutchman in Walnut Creek, Ohio, near where we spend our summers is Key lime pie. The Key lime pies also looked very good. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, we made it out of the bakery without buying any goodies.

Key lime pie

Another errand of sorts was a drive last Wednesday to Lake Wales for Margery to visit the chiropractor. Since it was late in the afternoon when we were done, we stopped for dinner on our way back at a restaurant in Wauchula we had never been to before called the Wauchula Family Restaurant.

Wauchula Family Restaurant

From the outside, the place looks a little run down; but the inside is clean and kind of quaint. The Wauchula Family Restaurant gets excellent online reviews for their food and service.

There are sandwiches, burgers and wraps for $3.50 to $7.00. You can turn your sandwich into a lunch platter with fries and cole slaw for only $1.00 additional. Most dinners range in price from $7.25 to $13.50. Dinners include two sides plus salad or soup. We both had the Athenian grouper dinner special for $10.50 (regularly $11.75). The fish, which was lightly battered and grilled, was excellent. The sides were good, too (especially Paul's potato salad), and the portions were generous.

Paul with his Athenian grouper special

Margery's favorite hairdresser in the whole world is located near Bushnell where we used to spend our winters. Last Thursday morning (another day with no meetings), we took a 2½-hour drive there for Margery to get one last haircut before we headed north. On the way back, we stopped at Pancho's Villa for a late lunch.

Pancho's Villa

We had two baskets of corn chips, and we both had the chicken chimichanga lunch special ($6.75, regularly $7.95). Everything was yummy as usual.

Just about all the meetings are now over with. We still have a little time before we leave to head north. We're certainly planning to hit some of our favorite restaurants before we go, and who knows, we may get to do some sightseeing as well. Stay tuned.

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