VOLUNTEERS, HIGHWAY DRIVING, AND CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

Wednesday-Thursday, February 8, 9, 2017

Towne Place Suites by Marriott

Dade City, Florida to Mooresville, North Carolina

89 F to 45 F, sunny

Wednesday

Since Mary Lou and three of her TRR friends go to Daystar Hope Center in Dade City to volunteer in the used clothing sales section on Wednesdays, I joined them for their two hour shift. It was sort of like a small Salvation Army or a Goodwill store. Our job today was to sort the ladies’ and children’s clothing, making sure there were no spots, tears, or holes. We also arranged the clothing neatly according to color, with all the hangers going in the same direction. The task was not difficult. I observed that there were many women in the Center with their little children, looking for clothes. I felt it was important that the clothing looked well-arranged and neat—these people were worthy of thoughtfulness. I do volunteer work at home, but I have never worked in a store like this. One could purchase three tops for $1.50. Jeans, dresses, and other pants were $2 each. I am glad that I did this today—I think it is important to respect those who may not have what I am blessed with.

Mary Lou, Martha (NY), Barbara (NJ), Marilyn (OH), and I went to lunch at the Garden Restaurant afterwards to celebrate Barbara’s 75^th birthday. It does not take much to get to know the residents of TRR and they have become quite dear to us. I was amused at their conversation as they spoke of a friend who is looking for a permanent home in central Florida, somewhere it is quiet after 8 p.m. when most of them go to bed. I am not in that spot yet. Neither is TK.

While I was “working,” TK was packing the truck for Thursday’s departure. We had dinner at Coyote Rojas again, a Mexican restaurant almost as good at Torero’s in Erie. The rest of the day was spent in conversation on the patio enjoying the 79 F weather with Mary Lou and Scorchy---we took one last look at the TRR gardens with azaleas in full bloom, cacti blossoms almost out, and poinsettias still a beautiful red.

Thursday

We left TRR by 8 a.m. There is not much to say about being in a truck on the highway for 12 hours---the people who cut in front of you, the lack of turning signals, those who stay in the left lane so one has to pass on the right, the zoomers, the sloths. Most of the time TK is patient, but not all the time. I give him a lot of credit for his driving skills!

I have never driven this Chevy Avalanche. The only time he let me drive his last Avalanche on a Florida trip was when I left my wallet in a fast food restaurant in South Carolina and did not realize the loss until 3 hours down the road. I had to drive the three hours back to the restaurant, and then all the way “forward” to where I realized my error and THEN on to Williamsburg, Virginia, arriving at midnight—that was about an 8 hour mistake. I am much more conscious of what I do with my wallet now. [Note: I do not think I exaggerated about this, but I did not check the blog from about 4 or 5 years ago when that happened.]

Most importantly, my wallet was turned in and safe and sound!! I was very lucky!

At least there was no rain today, because we have experienced very heavy rains in the past when we were driving home. Charlotte is the worst area on I-77-no matter what time of day there is always heavy traffic and today was no exception. There is a bypass now, I-485, but that offered no relief today. Someone, perhaps the aforementioned driver, gets very frustrated at stop and go traffic. We always try to stop north of Charlotte for the night on the FL to PA trip so the morning is a little easier. We hope to be home by tomorrow evening. West Virginia is always unpredictable, but TK thinks the weather will be OK.

We were both very tired tonight. Our hotel was not surrounded by restaurants so we ended up in Hangar 33, a bar/restaurant that was not too far from the hotel. It was definitely a bar with gals and guys in their 40s. While we were eating our burgers and fries, a disc jockey got started and was distributing papers to patrons. When he got to our table he didn’t say, “What are you old people doing here?” He asked, “Do you know what music bingo is? We are playing a game.” I thought that was so sweet. We were accepted right off! TK told him we would be leaving soon as we were travelers. Darn! They were playing for $30 in gift certificates!

I hope to put more photos in the blog when I get home—that sketchy Internet slowed me down.

Safe travels tomorrow!

SPONGES IN TARPON SPRINGS!

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Dade City, Florida (Travelers Rest Resort)

79 F, sunny

Another beautiful day! TK and I decided to take a ride to Tarpon Springs, about an hour away from TRR. This was our 4^th visit—we enjoyed taking Randy, Coleen, and B2 there a few years ago when we were in Disney World. Tarpon Springs has the highest percentage of Greek Americans of any city in the U.S. mostly because Greek immigrants arrived to work in the sponge industry here in the early late 1890s.  

I decided that I wanted to purchase deep water yellow sponges harvested here in Tarpon Springs to share with my writing group—What are sponges? According to http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/porifera/poriferalh.html, sponges come in an incredible variety of colors and an amazing array of shapes. They are predominantly marine and can be found at all latitudes beneath the world's oceans, and from the intertidal to the deep-sea. Generally, they are stationary, though it has been shown that some are able to move slowly (up to 4 mm per day).

The person working in the shop told me that sponges are animals and they lay eggs. The sponge population in the Tarpon Springs area is healthy and there are more sponges now than when harvesting began over 100 years ago. But, the youngest sponge diver is about 45 years old, and there is only one sponge company in the area now.

This web site http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/sg095 had the most interesting sponge facts: 

·         Bath sponges may be the first non-edible product harvested from the sea.

·         One of the first drugs for successfully treating cancer, cytosine arabinoside, was isolated from a Caribbean sponge, Cryptotheca cripta.

·         It is thought that some sponges live for a very long time, perhaps over 100 years.

·         Sponges are remarkable pumping "machines." In general, considering the different types of sponges there are, sponges can pump 10,000 times their own size (volume) in water in one day. A sponge the size of a gallon milk container could pump enough water to fill a residential small size swimming pool within one day.

·         Recent Sea Grant research has shown that shallow-water sponge populations in the Keys are much more dynamic than previously thought to be.

·         On average there are approximately 13 sponges to the pound.

·         Because of their sessile nature, biologists once considered sponges to be plants. However, sponges are indeed a part of the animal kingdom, but they are very much different than the types of animals that are familiar to most people. Actually, in many ways, sponges can be considered to be a colony of single-celled organisms that work together in a coordinated fashion to survive.

Okay, I got a little carried away with sponges, but this is the first time I decided to really take a good look at what they really were! I thought it was interesting that unlike manmade sponges, these sponges do not harbor bacteria.

The little shops in this small village are very attractive and inviting. TK is the most patient husband ever. He lets me wander in and out of shops to my heart’s content, thank goodness. I especially liked a spice shop, the boutiques, the rock shop (same person I saw yesterday at Webster Flea Market with mounted bats, lizards, and bugs, he helped me add to my brother’s collection), all the sponge shops, and a jewelry shop where all the jewelry was made of carved vegetable ivory — I know about this South American tagua nut because buttons were made of this material before plastic in the 1880s.

Finally, and most important of all, we had lunch at Hellas Greek Restaurant and Bakery—our very favorite Greek restaurant!! We started with an appetizer, Saganaki, which is a strong sort of mozzarella cheese served flaming. Fabulous! We both chose Pastitsio as our entrée, a ziti macaroni layered with ground beef and a tomato sauce and topped with the creamiest of cheese flavored with a smidge of nutmeg—a Greek version of lasagna and my favorite Greek dish, accompanied by sweet peas in a tomato sauce and rice.  We decided to take our Baklava and Kataifa (looks like shredded wheat) home to share…hahaha.

Our appetizer, Saganaki--I was not quick enough with the camera to get the flaming part! 

 It is eaten with bread

TK demonstrates.

Our Pastitsio

We really enjoyed this warm and sunny day!

FROM COCONUTS TO MEDICAL MARIJUANA: A VISIT TO WEBSTER WESTSIDE FLEA MARKET!

Monday, February 6, 2017

Dade City, Florida (Travelers Rest Resort)

Mid 70s, sunny

Early this sunny, dewy morning TK and I headed to Webster West Side Flea Market about 45 minutes away in Webster, Florida.  According to the website, it has been the place to find everything imaginable for the past 50 years!  There are thirty five acres of open air markets with produce, flowers, bakery items, jewelry, plants, boutique items, furniture, musical instruments, electronics, hardware/tools, pet supplies, crafts, and clothing—just to name a few things. Webster, open every Monday rain or shine, is especially known for great deals on good quality antiques and collectibles as a primary source for the old and unique. Today it was open from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m.

So what did we see? What did we buy? First, I was quite surprised to see what looked to be advertised as medical marijuana. I did not really study the situation, and I do not know if it were really so, but the packages looked the part. I also saw rifles for sale and small working cannons. Mounted lizards, bats, and beetles were intriguing and I heard the vendor say that he orders the specimens from South American and then prepares them for selling.

However, I was more interested in any World War I items (there were none), handmade American Girl clothes, crocheted necklaces, and watches. Perhaps that is what I purchasedJ. TK bought kettle corn and deep fried pretzels.

Together we purchased a flat of strawberries, fresh from Plant City, Florida. Can you imagine fresh strawberries in January? We finished our shopping at Webster—in four hours I racked up 4.5 miles on my Fitbit!

We had lunch/dinner at Sunrise Restaurant where we have eaten before—they have my favorite fries (coated).

On the way back to TRR we stopped at Publix in Zephyrhills for whipped cream and shell cakes for strawberry shortcake. While looking for the little cakes I asked a young man stocking the shelves if he knew where they were. It turned out he was from Germany and had only been in this country for four weeks. He had no idea what strawberry shortcake was! We had a delightful conversation and when we found the little cakes I showed him the picture on the front.

Encounters like this have really made me consciously think of the many nameless people who come into our lives every day, like our dear servers on the ship, wait staff in a restaurant, the cashier at a gas station, those people behind the scenes like the cooks or the even the people who wash the dishes. Every day I depend on so many nameless people who I may never meet or I meet for a brief moment in time. I must value the network of people who enrich my life.

After our excursion today, we returned to TRR. The drive along the back roads is very interesting—orange groves, beef cattle, horses, an assortment of shotgun houses, bungalows, and estates, palm trees, barbed wire fences. I have reported before that George Steinbrenner of NY Yankees fame had a plantation very near TRR that his sons now own and I believe are trying to sell. Contractors/builders are trying to buy the land in this area for more Florida 55+ communities. The farmers are giving in little by little---and every year we are here there are more developments being built. The infrastructure is amazing—TK is always commenting on how nice the road system is.

The strawberry shortcake was delicious and tonight I am writing from the TRR library with very good Wi-Fi service!

Finally, I forgot to mention that a few days ago I finally found rocks! For my brother! He lost some J

ON THE GO!

Friday-Sunday, February 3-5, 2017  

Dade City, Florida (Travelers Rest Resort)

Mid 70s, sunny

We have kept busy, but Wi-Fi access has been very limited. It seems that in this corridor of TRR, the Wi-Fi access is not very good, even with boosters. It is a source of much contention in the park. We are doing ordinary things anyway, so we can shorten up the blog for those people who have to take a test on it when we return home. J

On Friday TK and I went to Wiregrass Mall in Wesley Chapel. It is a very nice mall that reminds me somewhat of the shopping center in Cleveland, Beachwood Place, but with palm trees and no snow. We had lunch at GrillSmith, a burger for me and a meatloaf sandwich for TK. From their Facebook page, “The heart and soul of one man goes into every GrillSmith meal we prepare. That man is the GrillSmith. Just as a goldsmith perfects his craft, the GrillSmith has spent years perfecting the artistry of the grill, shucking the confines of convention, and giving traditional recipes a modern twist.” The service was spectacular too!

Erie County was being celebrated on Saturday at the Elks Club in Zephyrhills.  About 70 people enjoyed a nice dinner and camaderie. Mary Lou and Scorchy knew a lot of people, including Carmie Hogan Munsch and her brother Dick Hogan (he taught at Strong Vincent) and Scorchy’s Erie golf partner Dick Comstock.  TK knew the Hogans and a few others. Each person introduced himself and where he/she graduated. I was the only grad of Union City Area High School. Most were Tech, SV, Erie East, and Harborcreek grads, aged 55- 86. This celebration is held every year.

Today we went to the ham and turkey dinner at Sacred Heart Catholic Church just around the corner from TRR. TRR residents truly support this church and the dinner was packed with people, a great fundraiser for them.

After dinner Mary Lou knew her brother would drive her to the Villages about an hour north of TRR. She had always wanted to see this “city” with a population of 157,000, described as “America's premier Active Adult Retirement Community located in sunny central Florida (in Sumter County, Florida, United States. It shares its name with a broader master-planned age-restricted community that spreads into portions of Lake and Marion counties).” The complex is huge and we saw only a small portion. The Welcome Center was closed despite saying it was open from 1-5 p.m. on Sundays, so we could not take a look at any homes.  I will say the homes that we did see were situated very very close together.

We encountered another couple trying to look at homes who already lived in the Villages—they told us to look into Del Webb Stone Creek/Spruce Creek-they wished that was where they had bought. TK and I visited DDIL Denise’s grandparents who live in there in the Del Webb complex several years ago. Anyway, we enjoyed the ride! http://www.thevillages.com/

Both B1 and B2 had dances last night and I loved seeing their beautiful photos on Facebook! B2 went to a Father-Daughter Dance at Frewsburg Elementary. B1 went to a Villa-Prep dance. We miss our family very much!

Note to Donna and Lawrence: Some day we will have a TB competition!!

SHOPPING WONDERLAND AND PUNXSUTAWNEY PHIL!!

Wednesday, Thursday, February 1, 2, 2017    

Dade City, Florida (Travelers Rest Resort)

Wednesday: mid 70s, sunny

Thursday: mid 70s, sunny

Wednesday: TK, Mary Lou, and I headed to Tampa Bay Outlet Mall. This is a beautiful outlet mall with palm trees and well-kept grounds, but it is not as big as the one in Ft. Myers. No Chicos. Christopher Banks is finally getting a foothold in Florida and the store here was nice. However, I did not purchase much at all.

After returning to TRR to pick up Scorchy after his golfing, we went to Dan’s Clam Stand in Crystal River for dinner. Their special today was 10 colossal shrimp and one side for $12.50. I can vouch that the shrimp was the biggest I have ever seen and eating 10 was near impossible. Super delicious!

Thursday: Phil, the Ground Hog, saw his shadow in Punxsutawney today and it is another warm sunny day here in Dade City! We walked to Busch Hall for the morning coffee presentation—today a travel agent talked about cruises. The Park has planned a trip to Biltmore, a Princess cruise from San Francisco to Hawaii, and a transatlantic cruise to Barcelona. Apparently 20-40 people cruise with the TRR tours! 

After Mary Lou’s garden club work we are going to nearby San Antonio for antique shops we have not been to before and lunch at the new Mexican restaurant in Dade City.

The Coyote Rojo Mexican Restaurant was excellent and was as good as our favorite Torero’s in Erie—cheese enchiladas, rice, and beans. Pollo Asada for TK-grilled chicken with soft tacos.

Today was also the weekly Cabana Get Together—everyone gives a can of food to the hosts and during the day they make soup to share. Today’s hosts live across the street from Mary Lou—a retired Chicago firefighter and his wife. Obviously I could not eat a thing, but it was fun catching up with people we have met before. About sixty people attended.  Scorchy and Mary Lou live in the "cabana area" where everyone has an extra building, which usually has a full bath, a living room and sofa that can be made into a bed,  and/or a dining area.  

TK’s Takes:  Tampa Bay Outlet Mall is his favorite.