Recreation Plantation

In preparation for our journey home, we drove north to The Villages/ Lady Lake to spend a couple of days with our Colorado friends, Ray and Judy.  The RV park and resort, Recreation Plantation, holds over 800 units, mostly permanent homes but with about 100 temporary residences (RVs). They have a pool, tennis and pickleball courts, shuffle board and bocci ball plus tons of extracurricular activities.  

And what did we do?  We played golf both days!  I really enjoyed getting out on the courses, in the sunshine with good friends.  They gave us tours of the area, specifically The Villages which is a retirement community of about 120,000 people!  Its an amazing place.

We will head towards home beginning at 8 am Thursday morning.  We will drive to St. Charles to spend Easter with my mother then on to Sedalia.  It’s been an interesting, warm and relaxing winter.  We hate to head back this early but there is a new grand baby due shortly after we get home. The beginning of another adventure!

Madeira Beach - Potter Paradise

Even though we were camped at the St. Petersburg KOA, about 4 miles from my brother’s house, we spent most of our time with Denny and Marci.  They certainly kept us busy and the weather cooperated (most of the time).

When we arrived on Monday afternoon we got to spend time with Kelley, Joel and baby Maddie, Denny’s daughter’s family.  Since they live in NY, this was a special time for us and for them.  They left for home on Tues. and then Courtney, their middle daughter, needed to move out of the house she was renting right down the street from Denny.  So after a nice ride in the pontoon boat, we hurriedly started packing and moving, trying to get it all in Denny’s garage before it got too dark.

The rest of the week was like living in paradise with jet ski rides, kayaking, more boat rides, visits to John’s Pass, and long walks on the gulf beach.  We had dinner one night with Missouri friends, one night with Florida friends, and a St. Pat’s party with Denny & Marci's neighbors.  Saturday was a rain day so we took in an afternoon movie.  Sunday was a perfect day to ride the boat up towards Clearwater and a lunch on the waterway.  Everyday we delighted in watching the dolphins playing in the water near their dock. John and Denny even caught some fish. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable time with my brother!

Edward Medard County Park

We are staying in this beautiful county park on a large lake.  It has a very large day use area and a nice, secluded campground.  One of its walking paths takes you out to an island.  As we walked along it edge a frightened alligator startled us by splashing into the lily pads!  The park is very popular on the weekends for little girl and boy birthday parties.  John got his kayak out and tried fishing but the wind was too much and the fish were not biting.  While he fished I tried out their disk-golf course.  The lady at the entrance booth had a disk (frisbee) in her lost-and-found box that she let me use. I did pretty well until the 10th hole.  I couldn’t find the 10th hole!  So I skipped it then I skipped my disk right into the scummy water on the 12th hole and that was the end of my disk golf experience. It did provide me with a nice walk though.

Strawberry Fields Forever!

We drove about an hour down the road from Lake Wales to Plant City, FL - home of the Strawberry Festival and in the heart of strawberry growing country. Everywhere we drive are acres and acres of ripe, red strawberries hanging on their vines over elevated and irrigated rows of plastic covered dirt.  

We got here in time for the last weekend of the Strawberry Festival!  John just could not wait to take me to the festival grounds and to eat strawberry shortcake!  (if you believe that, then you don’t know John very well - wink, wink!)  It was a lot like going to the Missouri State Fair except that there were fewer cows and lots more food concessions with about every other one selling something with strawberries.  There were strawberry shortcakes, pies & shakes, strawberry hamburgers, chocolate dipped strawberries, strawberry sodas, jams and candy.  There were strawberry themed displays, strawberry shoe-box floats and a strawberry King and Queen. Of course, we walked down the carnival midway and perused the many booths selling ‘stuff’ just like any fair.  The music venues featured country western music and tribute bands.  We spent a whopping 3 hours and then said “This is enough!"

Plant City has a nice train museum right on two active tracks that cross at a 90º angle on two sides of the building.  A specially built viewing platform draws a lot of visitors. This is the only place in the state where train tracks cross in five different directions. We tried a Florida winery which didn’t have any grape-based wines only blueberry, strawberry or key lime wines as well as their own brewery.  The beers weren’t too bad except for one that was jalapeño and blueberry flavored -  I almost spit it out onto the floor!  OMG - it was horrible!  According to Trip Advisor one of the cannot miss places to visit in Plant City was an outdoor market where you could buy fresh fruits (yes strawberries), vegetables and strawberry shortcake.

Just thinking about all those strawberries is making me hungry for shortcake!!

Lake Rosalie

We only stayed two nights in Fort Pierce since there was not a lot to do in the area and John was getting the fishing bug. We drove and hour and half inland to the Kissimmee lakes region.  The state park was full but when we circled the lake we found a county park on Lake Rosalie that had only two other campers parked there.  It has great access to the lake and is very quiet and peaceful.  John got his kayak out and fished three times.  He lost 6 bass, caught 1 perch and was seriously started by one alligator he’d didn’t see until it belly flopped off the bank!  All in all, not very successful fishing.

I did some bird watching and walking while John was fishing.  I spotted an adult and a juvenile bald eagle soaring overhead and this morning I tailed two sandhill cranes around the campground.  We also laughed at a flock of turkeys as they scurried across the neighbor’s campsite.

The weather has been wonderful with cool nights and warm days with just a touch of a breeze to cool us down.  This campground is protected by some tall trees so we don’t get the full force of the wind which makes for very pleasant afternoons.

Moving Day

Today was moving day, we have spent a whole month in one spot which is a record for us!

This past week was not much different than the last two weeks - biking, kayaking and pickleball.  We found a new spot to kayak where there were several manatees swimming with us.  They look like such slow moving, gentle creatures but people have warned us they can knock you around or flip you over if you get too close. On our last day of pickleball we invited the group to join us for lunch.  Its too bad it took this long for us to connect and consider ourselves friends.  Darrell and Penny are from MI and Fred and Dianne are from Georgia.  We really enjoyed our time with them.

We left Key Largo this morning and drove up the coast to Fort St. Lucie/Fort Pierce area which is north of Miami and Palm Beach.  We found a county park next to a golf course on one side and a small lake on the other.  The lake and bass called to John but the wind pushed us away.  We did spot sandhill cranes and alligators near the campground.