Living Our Dream

Punta Gorda

Wauchula, FL - Events of Friday, August 3, 2018

After we finished up looking around the little museum and the visitor center following our eco tour of Babcock Ranch Preserve, we hopped in the car and headed to Punta Gorda. Punta Gorda, whose name means "fat point" in English, is so named because it is located on a short, wide peninsula of land that juts out into Charlotte Harbor at the mouth of the Peace River. Charlotte Harbor is a bay located between Sarasota and Ft. Myers on the Gulf coast of Florida.

The first white settlers began arriving in the area that is now Punta Gorda around the mid-1870s. The plan for the town was filed in 1885. The town was originally called Trabue after Isaac Trabue, who was responsible for the platting of the lots, but when the town was incorporated in 1887, the name was changed to Punta Gorda.

It was a little early for lupper so we drove around to check out the town first. While Punta Gorda is a waterfront town, it's located on Charlotte Harbor and not directly on the Gulf. Therefore, it's not a crowded, bustling beach town, and it was pretty easy to get around.

There are a several parks with features like tennis courts, basket ball courts, playgrounds, picnic shelters, and benches located along the Peace River, and all the parks are connected by a harbor walk. Because it happened to be close to where we were when we made the decision to check out one of the parks, we ended up at Gilchrist Park.

One of the first things we noticed when we parked was the Victorian-style architecture with Bahamian and Cuban influences that reminded us of Key West.

Victorian-style architecture with Caribbean influences

From the park, there were nice views out into the wide expanse of the Peace River.

View of the Peace River from the gazebo at Gilchrist Park

There was also a statue of Ponce de Leon at the park.

Ponce de Leon

Ponce de Leon was a Spanish explorer who sailed with Christopher Colombus on his second voyage to the New World in 1493. That expedition landed in Hispaniola (present day Haiti and Dominican Republic). In 1513, Ponce de Leon led his own expedition that landed in the area of what is now St. Augustine making him the first European to set foot in Florida. He claimed the land for Spain naming it La Florida (the land of flowers).

Ponce de Leon then sailed around La Florida and landed in present day Charlotte Harbor along the Gulf coast in May, 1513. The expedition spent three weeks there and left after several clashes with unfriendly Calusa Indians.

Ponce de Leon returned to Charlotte Harbor in 1521 with 200 men, farm animals that became ancestors of the Cracker cattle and feral pigs we saw on our eco tour of Babcock Ranch Preserve, and farming implements. His intention was to establish a colony and bring Christianity to the Indians. The Indians resisted vigorously. After several months, the colonists retreated to their ships during a skirmish, and Ponce de Leon was wounded by an arrow during the retreat. The colonists then sailed to Cuba where Ponce de Leon died of his wound.

From the park, we drove several blocks to Fishermen's Village. Fishermen's Village is a waterfront tourist area containing shops, restaurants, and a resort complex. Opened in 1980, Fishermen's Village is built on an old dock that had fallen into disrepair.

Some of the shops of Fishermen's Village

We were interested in two of several restaurants located in Fishermen's Village so we checked them out because it was mid-afternoon and we were getting hungry. One of the restaurants featured New England seafood. There's nothing wrong with that, but we were looking for local seafood. The other restaurant also specialized in seafood. They had grouper on the menu, which sounded good to both of us, but it was available at lunch time only as a sandwich. Therefore, we decided to hop in the car and drive a few blocks east to check out Laishley Crab House because the menu we found online indicated they had a fried grouper platter, which we preferred because it had no bread and therefore fewer carbs.

Laishley Crab House was a little hard to find because the entrance is kind of hidden under the front overhang of a building that was dominated by the sign for a realtor, which is located in the same building. Once we found the entrance, we parked and headed for the restaurant.

Entrance to Laishley Crab House

The restaurant is located on the second floor. On our way upstairs, we stopped to admire the attractive, carved sign inside the entrance.

Carved sign for Laishley Crab House

We chose outdoor seating on the balcony overlooking a marina.

View of the marina from the outdoor seating on the balcony

We both ordered fried grouper platters which come with slaw and fries for $13. Paul opted for sweet potato fries ($.50 extra), while Margery stuck with the regular fries.

Paul with his fried grouper and sweet potato fries

The grouper was excellent. It was tempura-battered, which made it extra crispy. The sides were good, too.

After lupper, we headed back to the Co-op where we relaxed for the evening. It was a nice day trip with our eco tour of Babcock Ranch Preserve and our lupper at Laishley Crab House. It was an excellent way to celebrate our anniversary.

Cracker Trail Museum

Wauchula, FL - Events of Tuesday, January 24, 2017

When we were in Pittsburgh for Christmas and Paul was having lunch with his former co-workers, he found out one of them was planning to be in Florida with his wife for a week in January, so the guys made tentative plans to get together. A couple of weeks ago, Paul got a text from Roger saying that he and his wife, Paula, would be passing through Wauchula last Tuesday. We made plans to do a little sightseeing when they stopped by and then to maybe grab a bite to eat before they continued on their way to Lakeland that evening. We haven't done much sightseeing since we've been in Florida this year so it would be a welcome break.

Unfortunately, high winds on Monday postponed their plans for an air boat ride until Tuesday morning, so they arrived at the co-op a little later on Tuesday afternoon than planned. We had scheduled a visit to Solomon's Castle located in nearby Ona, Florida, but the castle closes at 4 p.m. Therefore, we went with Plan B, which was to go the Cracker Trail Museum in Zolfo Springs because the museum is only about 5 minutes away and it is open until 5. After chatting a while, we headed to the museum.

The Cracker Trail runs east and west across central Florida and was used by pioneers in the early 1800s to move cattle across the state to ports on the Gulf and the Atlantic Coasts. The trail runs from Fort Pierce on the Atlantic side to Bradenton (called Bradentown back in the day) on the Gulf of Mexico. The road on which the SKP Co-op is located (State Route 64) is part of what was once the Cracker Trail. We first encountered the Cracker Trail last year when we visited Manatee Village in Bradenton. Click here to read about that visit. The name "Cracker" comes from the crack of the whips of the cowmen as they drove their cattle.

Beginning in 1987, a group called the Cracker Trail Association began a ride of the 120-mile trail on horseback. The ride takes 9 days with overnight stops at various ranches along the way. Up to 250 riders participate in at least a portion of the ride.

The Cracker Trail Museum is part of Pioneer Park, which is run by Hardee County. The park also includes a campground and a wildlife refuge. We didn't have time to visit the wildlife refuge, which sits at the far end of the park along the Peace River, so we'll have to go back someday.

The museum isn't very big, but the admission is only $2.00 plus tax ($2.14 total), and they do have some interesting artifacts. The museum consists of two rooms, the smaller of which has household items such as furniture, cookware, sewing machines and looms.

Room with household items

The larger room has artifacts from the early days of Zolfo Springs and Wauchula.

Larger room of the museum

The larger room is dominated by the tanned hide of an 11-foot alligator.

Tanned hide of an 11-foot alligator

As if the 11-foot 'gator isn't big enough, they also had the skull from a 14-footer.

Margery checking out the skull of a 14-foot 'gator

"Zolfo" is the Italian word for sulfur, and that's where Zolfo Springs gets its name. In the early 1800s, a crew of Spanish and Italians who were coming down the Peace River searching for phosphate came across a spring in the area that smelled of sulfur.

Wauchula gets its name from the Indian word "wa-tu-la," which is the name for sandhill crane. Wauchula was originally settled to support Fort Hartsuff, which was one of many U.S. Army forts in Florida during the Seminole Wars in the mid-1800s. Wauchula later became the seat of Hardee County and was a center for phosphate mining, cattle, and citrus. It was also once known as the "Cucumber Capital of the World," but citrus and watermelons are much more important today.

The museum has displays of fossils from prehistoric sharks, camels, horses and mastodon that once inhabited the area. Most of the fossils were collected from the banks of the Peace River.

Fossilized mastodon teeth from the Peace River

In addition to the fossils, the museum's collection includes Indian artifacts and items representing early businesses, ranches, and residents of the area. One interesting item is a reproduction of Florida's first flag. The flag never became the official flag of the state because of the controversial motto.

Reproduction of Florida's first flag

Outside, there is a small collection of old buildings. There is also equipment such as a sugar cane press and a sugar kettle, an old pump from a phosphate mill, and a mobile irrigation device. The outdoor display is dominated by a wood-burning locomotive that was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Co. in 1914. The 2-6-2 locomotive was donated to the county by Kervin Revell who used it in his crate mill in Wauchula.

1914 Baldwin locomotive

The outdoor display also includes a cabin built in 1879 by W. H. Hart. The cabin was relocated to the park in 1979 from its original location elsewhere in Hardee County.

1879 Hart cabin

We have been doing research into local restaurants ever since we first go to the co-op late last year, and Giovanni's Main Street Kitchen is a place that gets good online reviews and that was also frequently recommended by fellow co-op members. It is located close by in downtown Wauchula, so that's we headed for dinner after the Cracker Trail Museum.

Giovanni's Main Street Kitchen

Lunches at Giovanni's range in price from $6 to $11 and include hot and cold subs, pizza and pasta dishes. Dinners are $9 to $16 and include a number of Italian classics such as ravioli, chicken Parmesan, linguini with clam sauce, and lasagna. All entrees include the soup and salad bar. Paula had Chicken Marsala, and Roger had Tilapia Bella Napoli, which is a tilapia fillet covered with shrimp, mussels, clams and squid served over pasta. Their meals looked amazing, and they both said the food was delicious. We shared a pizza with sausage and mushrooms. The pizza was baked in a wood-fired oven. It was also yummy.

After dinner, Roger and Paula continued on their way to Lakeland and we relaxed with an evening of TV. We needed to rest up for a big, multi-day event scheduled to start at the co-op the next day. We'll tell you about it in our next post.

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Florida Wrap-up

Bushnell, FL - Events of Wednesday, April 6 to Wednesday, April 13, 2016

As our time in Florida neared its end, we tried to make time to relax a bit in preparation for the upcoming travel days, which always feel rather hectic. We also made time to visit some of our favorite eateries before we hit the road. Last Wednesday, we had some errands to run down south of Lakeland, FL, so we stopped at Parksdale Market in Plant City on the way back. Parksdale Market is famous for their strawberry shortcake, strawberry sundaes and strawberry milkshakes.

Parkesdale Market

We both had strawberry sundae boats ($4.00, up from $3.75 last year). The sundaes are made with soft-serve ice cream and are overflowing with strawberries topped with real whipped cream.

Strawberry sundae boats

Parksdale has picnic tables set up among the many beautiful plants and flowers they have for sale.

Margery digging into her sundae

The market also has a nice variety of reasonably priced produce. We got some spinach, a tomato, an eggplant and some cauliflower.

Produce at Parksdale Market

Since we changed our residency to Florida earlier this year and since it has been quite some time since we last updated our wills, we decided it would be a good time to do so. A couple of weeks ago when we had our initial appointment with an attorney, we were intrigued with the quaint downtown area of New Port Richey where the attorney's office is located. Therefore, when we headed there last Thursday to sign our new wills, we left early for our appointment so we could walk around town a little bit beforehand.

Port Richey was settled in the late 1800s near the mouth of the Pithlachascotee River (called the "Cotie" River for short and also sometimes called the "Cootie" River by locals). By the early 1900s, an area to the south of Port Richey was being developed. The new town, which was called New Port Richey, got its own post office in 1915. Today, the downtown area retains many Spanish Revival buildings that were built during the land boom of the 1920s.

Spanish Revival-style buildings in downtown New Port Richey

There are numerous murals all over the downtown area. The 3-dimensional appearance of the speedboat in the mural in the next photo was enhanced so much by the fact the bow of the boat was painted on the corner of a building, you almost had to walk over to touch it so see that it was painted on flat surfaces.

Speedboat mural on the corner of a building

When New Port Richey was first incorporated in 1924, real estate developer George Sims donated to the city a tract of land along the banks of the Pithlachascotee River called Enchantment Park. One of the first things the new town council did was to rename it Sims Park. Sims Park has a boat launch, boat slips, walking paths and an amphitheater. Every April the park hosts the 9-day Chasco Fiesta, which is a revival of a festival originally held in 1922 to raise money for the library. The festival features a street parade, a boat parade, carnival rides, food, entertainment, a car show, a craft show and more. The park was set up for the Chasco Fiesta when we were there, but the festival is only open in the evenings on weekdays.

View of the Pithlachascotee River from Sims Park

After we signed our new wills, we headed to Pancho's Villa to meet Donna and Tony, who are our neighbors in Blueberry Hill, and their friends, Sy and Judy, who have a park model on the street behind Tony and Donna. The special of the day was a chimichanga for $8.95, and that's what everyone had. The food was great, and so was the company.

Donna, Margery, Paul, Tony, Sy and Judy at Pancho's Villa

We normally don't go out to eat on weekends, but we were running out of time in Florida so we took a drive to Crystal River on Saturday afternoon to have clams one last time at Dan's Clam Stand. Dan's has restaurants in both Homosassa Springs and Crystal River. The one in Crystal River gets better reviews for some reason so that's the one we went to.

Dan's Clam Stand in Crystal River

We both had fresh clam strip baskets ($9.99). Margery had slaw and onion rings for her sides, and Paul had slaw and fries. Everything was yummy!

Paul at Dan's Clam stand

On Monday, we went to Beef O'Brady's in Bushnell for Burger Monday with Pat and Mike. The burgers were good as usual, and we had a nice time visiting with Pat and Mike.

Mike, Pat, Margery and Paul at Beef O'Brady's

We spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday preparing for our planned Thursday departure. We'll tell you where we headed in our next post.

 

Day Trip to Sarasota and Bradenton: Part II - Gamble Plantation

Bushnell, FL - Events of Thursday, February 18, 2015

After driving to Sarasota to have the breakfast buffet at Der Dutchman and to do some sightseeing at Manatee Village in Bradenton, it was still early so we decided to do some more sightseeing before heading back to Blueberry Hill. We took a short drive over to the other side of the Manatee River to Ellenton where we stopped at Gamble Plantation Historic State Park. Gamble Plantation was a pre-Civil War sugar plantation.

Admission to the grounds is free, but there is a $6 per person charge for a guided tour of the mansion. We arrived a little before the 1:00 tour, so we had a few minutes to look through the small museum at the visitor center beforehand. We then headed across the lawn to meet the tour on the front porch.

Gamble Mansion

The Seminole Wars were a series of three conflicts between an amalgamation of Native Americans known as the Seminoles and early Florida settlers. In 1842 following the Second Seminole War (1835 to 1842), this area of the Florida frontier was opened to settlers by offering 160 acres free to anyone who would live on the land for 5 years. In 1843, Major Robert Gamble arrived from Tallahassee, claimed his land along the banks of the Manatee River and established a sugar plantation.

Although Major Gamble was a bachelor, he set about building a proper mansion shortly after his arrival. The house, which took 5 or 6 years to complete, was built in the Greek-revival style. Although it's called a mansion, it's not an opulent showplace. The house was a practical working home for what was then the frontier. It is made primarily from tabby, which is kind of home made concrete consisting of oyster shells, sand, water and lime.

The house looks a lot bigger on the outside than it is on the inside because of the two-foot thick walls, the large roof overhang, and the porches and verandas that run across the front and down both sides of the house. The thick walls, the large roof overhang and the porches helped keep the house cool in summer. The house is two stories high, but it is only one room wide and four rooms long. The rear section consisting of the kitchen and work area on the first floor and storage and slave quarters on the second floor is separated from the main house by a breezeway to keep heat from the kitchen from entering the main house.

Wide shady, porches

We started our tour in the parlor, which is the first room inside the front entrance. Then we proceeded into the dining room.

Dining room

Although Major Gamble gradually increased his holdings to about 3500 acres of land and around 200 slaves, he did not prosper as a sugar planter due to a major catastrophe and an unstable sugar market. At one point, fire destroyed his sugar mill, which was originally constructed from wood. He rebuilt it from tabby. Then in the early 1850s, there was a downturn in the sugar market. Major Gamble went into debt in 1856 and placed the plantation into the hands of his creditors. The plantation was sold to a couple of investors from New Orleans in 1858 or 1859. Gamble returned to Tallahassee where he eventually married and lived out his life in relative obscurity. He died in 1906 at the age of 93.

When Gamble left his plantation, he put all his furniture in a warehouse, which was later destroyed by fire. For that reason, none of the furniture in the mansion is original to the house.

Our tour continued with the third room on the first floor, which is the office. We then crossed the breezeway to the work room. Here, slaves would have done household chores like ironing, sewing, spinning, weaving and candle making.

Work room

Next to the work room is the kitchen.

Kitchen

Colorful collection of bottles and jars on display in the kitchen

Prior to heading to the second floor, we stopped outside the kitchen to learn about the 40,000-gallon cistern. The cistern was used to collect rainwater from the roof to use for drinking, cooking and bathing. Minnows taken from the Manatee River helped keep the cistern free from mosquitoes.

40,000-gallon cistern

The second floor of the main house has two bedrooms and a third room that was used either as a dressing room or for storage. One of the two bedrooms was for Major Gamble and the other was for guests.

One of the third floor bedrooms

During the Civil War, the house was occupied by a ship captain who was a successful blockade runner for the Confederacy. Following the war, Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin stayed briefly at the mansion before fleeing to England where he eventually became a successful Barrister. After the war, the Gamble Mansion fell into disrepair. Its sugar mill had been destroyed by Union raiders during the war, and the end of slavery spelled doom to large plantations.

Major George Patten bought the property at auction in 1873. Although he and his family lived in the mansion for a while, it eventually became too expensive to maintain so they built a Victorian-style house in front of the original mansion.

Patten House

The Pattens also sub-divided the land into lots and small farms. The surrounding community of Ellenton was named for Major Patten's daughter, Ellen.

In 1925, the Daughters of the Confederacy acquired Gamble Mansion and 16 acres of land surrounding it and donated it to the state. The house was restored in 1927.

After we finished our tour of Gamble Plantation, we headed back to Blueberry Hill where we relaxed for the next few days. We had more sightseeing plans scheduled for the following week. Stay tuned.

 

 

 

Day Trip to Sarasota and Bradenton: Part I - Der Dutchman and Manatee Village

Bushnell, FL - Events of Thursday, February 18, 2016

Last Thursday, we drove south to Sarasota to have the breakfast buffet at Der Dutchman restaurant and to do some sightseeing on our way back. It takes almost two hours to get to Sarasota, so we got a fairly early start in order to arrive in time for breakfast.

Der Dutchman

As most of our regular readers know, Der Dutchman in Walnut Creek, Ohio, is one of our favorite restaurants anywhere. The company that owns Der Dutchman owns half a dozen or so other restaurants including the one in the Pinecraft section of Sarasota. Pinecraft is a snowbird community for Amish and Mennonites. While a few Amish and Mennonites reside in Pinecraft year 'round, large numbers of them come from Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana in winter to escape the cold. The Amish arrive by bus, so there are no horses and buggies. Bicycles and adult tricycles are the preferred means of transportation.

Bicycles and adult tricycles parked outside Der Dutchman

The breakfast buffet is served from 7:00 to 11:00 Monday through Friday and from 7:00 to 11:30 on Saturday. The restaurant is closed Sundays. The buffet costs $9.29 and includes scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, French toast, pancakes, biscuits and sausage gravy, a couple of kinds of potatoes, fried mush, grits, hot and cold cereal, fresh fruit, frozen fruit slush, pudding, breakfast pastries and more. Everything was yummy!

One of the buffet lines at Der Dutchman

After breakfast, we drove about 30 minutes north to Manatee Village Historical Park in Bradenton. Manatee Village is a collection of restored buildings from the 1800s and early 1900s that provide a glimpse into what life was like in the early days of Manatee County. The idea for the park began in 1974 when a group of citizens petitioned the Manatee County Commissioners to revive the defunct Historical Commission to preserve buildings of historical significance. The first two buildings were moved to the park in 1975. The park now has about a dozen historic buildings. Admission is free, but a donation of $5 per person is suggested.

The visitor center is in the old Wiggins Store built in 1903 using bricks shipped in by rail. The store had overnight rooms for travelers on the second floor. The building changed hands several times over the years. It was also a hotel, apartments and housing for migrant workers. After being boarded up in 1983, the store was eventually acquired by the Historical Commission, restored and opened to the public in 1990.

Wiggins Store

Inside Wiggins Store

We picked up a map of the park in Wiggins Store and began our tour with the Fogarty Boat Works located next door. In 1866, three Fogarty brothers moved from Key West to Manatee County and began a boat-building business there. They chose that area because it is located at a natural harbor on the Manatee River near the Gulf of Mexico.

Fogarty Boat Works

Inside the boat works

Some of the tools and equipment in the boat works

From the boat works, we continued on to the blacksmith shop. The shop is a re-creation of the type of blacksmith shop that may have been located here in early days of Manatee County.

Blacksmith shop

The 1887 Methodist Church was originally located about 2 blocks to the north and was one of the first two buildings moved to the park. It was restored in 1975-1976. The church is still used for special functions like baptisms, weddings and memorial services.

1887 Church

Manatee County's first courthouse was also one of the first two buildings moved to the park. Built in 1860, it is the oldest building in the park and is the oldest surviving courthouse in the state of Florida that was originally built as a courthouse.

First courthouse in Manatee County

Inside the courthouse

Next to the courthouse is the Bunker Hill School. It was built in 1908 in the community of Bunker Hill located in northeast Manatee County.

Bunker Hill School

The last building on our tour was the Stephens House. It was built in 1912 by the Will Stephens family in what is now Hardee County located to the west of Manatee County. The house was cut into 5 sections and was moved to the park in 1982.

Stephens House

Kitchen of the Stephens house

The interesting thing about the Stephens House is that it was originally built with no exterior doors. The individual rooms had doors that opened onto a wide, central hallway which in turn opened onto the shaded front and back porches. The open design took advantage of natural cooling in the days before air conditioning.

The Stephens House is built in the "Cracker Gothic" style. Cracker is the name given to Florida cowboys (they preferred to be called cow hunters) because of the crack of their whips as they drove the cattle. Incidentally, Manatee County is the western terminus of the Florida Cracker Trail, which was an east-west route across the state used to drive cattle from central Florida to ports on both coasts.

As we left Manatee Village, we stopped to check out a 1913 locomotive nicknamed "Old Cabbage Head." The nickname comes from the bulbous projection on the smokestack, the purpose of which was to trap burning embers from the wood-fired boiler. The locomotive was originally purchased by a company in north Florida. It came to Manatee County in 1948 and was used by the Manatee Nocatee Crate Mill Company until 1952.

1913 locomotive nicknamed "Old Cabbage Head"

We enjoyed our visit to Manatee Village. While not a major attraction by any means, it was very interesting and very well done. Not only did the handout at the visitor center have excellent descriptions of all the buildings, there were also informative plaques with additional information outside most of the buildings as well.

Since we got an early start in order to have breakfast at Der Dutchman, it was still relatively early when we finished our tour of Manatee Village. Therefore, we decided to make another stop over on the other side of the Manatee River on our way back to Blueberry Hill. We'll tell you about it in our next post.

 

 

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