Our time in Sarasota was meant to be uneventful with time spent re-organizing the belly of the Whale, and chat sessions with two of my three on-line classes. It's always best to be in an area where Internet signal is strong for those times. We did not plan to have much to talk about while there, but interestingly enough life doesn't aways happen that way. After an appointment on Friday morning, we went to a quirky little breakfast place called, "The Breakfast Place." The restaurant was in a small house with an outdoor garden for additional seating. Since it had been raining, the outdoor garden was closed. The line was long even at 10:30 a.m. Long lines are actually a positive sign of a good restaurant. In fact we rarely go to a restaurant that has few cars in the parking lot. We settled in to wait and enjoy what was turning out to be a great day. The hostess told us if we were willing to share a table with another couple, she could seat us all at once. Of course she asked this in front of the other couple. We all looked at each other, shrugged shoulders and said "sure." It's always interesting to me to think about initial reactions when these kind of things happen. Breakfast with total strangers... uncomfortable and not really excited about breaking the breakfast routine, but we didn't want to be rude, and clearly we were all hungry. We settled at a table for four with introductions, coffee and our orders taken. That was the beginning of the most pleasant hour and a half we've had with total strangers. Joan and Marshall are from Washington D.C and have a condo in Sarasota which they visit a couple times a year. They have two daughters and four grandkids. All live close to them in D.C. We talked a great deal about grandkids, our travels, mother guilt, boats, motors and how good the food is at The Breakfast Place. At first glance, this is not a rocking good time. To me it's interesting though from a couple of perspectives... first, we could have just as easily declined to share a table with strangers and missed a delightful hour and a half of conversation. Second, I was reminded that staying open to possibilities is a key to what we are doing - no matter how large or small the event. Just a slice in time.
Friday evening we returned to a "restaurant" we first discovered 4 years ago when Jerry was staying in Sarasota for medical reasons. This night we were celebrating good health. The Cattleman's Packing House Cafe used to be a packing house years ago. Wood floors, old artifacts from the packing house, and an alligator head with a beer can in its mouth above the wine bottle case - all top the decor. It's small, crowded (remember that's a good sign), loud and fun. We got there shortly after six, and the place was packed. That night the Florida Mountain Boys was the featured music group. Since the group consisted of guitar, mandolin, banjo, and fiddle, you can guess the music was some great blue grass with a touch of Jimmy Buffet. The food is your standard great burger or wings with an occasional specialty dish, but the atmosphere and music is just foot stomping fun.
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Florida Mountain Boys
Cattleman's Packing House Cafe |
Saturday was spent packing up, cleaning, and generally getting ready to move to Sumpter Oaks Campground in Bushnell, Fl. Sumpter Oaks is an Escapee campground. Escapees is an RV group with a number of campgrounds throughout the U.S. In some, RVer's can purchase lots and rent them out when vacant. Others are campgrounds where lots can just be rented. If you belong to Escapees, the price per night is extremely reasonable. We were able to stay at Sumpter Oaks for 8 days / nights for just $100. Full hook-up.
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Home Sweet Home at Sumpter Oaks
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The Escapees volunteers who manage the parks are welcoming and more than helpful when getting acclimated to the area, as are the the other campers. Our focus this week was to find water to float the dory. Our first trip was to Withlacoochee River which runs through the Withlacoochee State Park. It also runs south to north unlike all the other rivers in FL that run north to south. We put the dory in a channel that runs off the river. We tied a red line to a bush just past the opening of the channel in order to find our way back. It's kind of the river version of bread crumbs. By the time we rounded 3 or 4 bends in the river, we saw 7 or 8 alligators - large alligators - and Jerry had not caught a fish. He caught a lot of sticks though. This narrow river and large alligators were just a bit too up close and personal. We turned back after about an hour. Jerry tried to tell me the alligators were more scared of us than we of them. I explained to him that I seriously doubted that!
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| Withlachoochee River Trip |
The next day we put the boat in Silver Lake. If we took an aerial view of the river and lake, Silver lake would look like a ballooned section in that particular leg of the Withlachoochee River. We could have put in where we did the day before and traveled the river to the lake, but given the reptile convention in that section of the river, we chose to put in the lake directly. The weather was warm, breezy and the lake was good sized - about a mile long and three quarters of mile wide. Of course the first wildlife we saw when we came into the lake was an alligator on the shore. This is Florida after all.
The lake looked as if Jerry would catch lots of fish. All around the shore there were areas of Lilly pads, weeds and areas of rocks. When we got back after about three hours of boating / no fish, a fisherman on shore told us the fish had lock jaw that day. You might have noticed that my mention of fishing does not include me. Jerry fishes, I drive the boat. It's a match made in heaven.
Our last days at Sumpter Oaks will be spent being lazy some and working some before we pack up to return to Cedar Key. I described Cedar Key in a much earlier post when we first came into Florida. When we make this return trip, we will be staying at Sunset Isle right on the Gulf. It looks like a spot straight out of the 60's with a small dock to put the dory in the water and leave it there for the 9 day stay. We're looking forward to a return to this old fishing village, great clam chowder at Tony's, and more time on the water.
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| Maci enjoying time to just be a dog. |
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