Harbor Lights Restaurant - Lake Panasoffkee, Florida

Last Sunday we wanted to go out to eat with Lesle and Bill as they are leaving to go to a rally in southern Florida. We all traveled a little north to have brunch at Harbor Lights Restaurant in Lake Panasoffkee, Florida. The restaurant is run by a family and one is the hostesss/cashier and the other carves the meat at the buffet...very special. They are only open Thursday - Saturday 4-9pm and Sunday noon to 4 pm. Here is their menu for the day.


The buffet is small but everything is homemade including the noodles for the soup! They had real whole turkey, beautiful ham on the bone and pork roast. After usually seeing rolled turkey breast, rolled ham, and never a pork roast, this was a real treat. They even had real potatoe pancakes with applesauce and the best fried zuccini and shrimp with a very tender batter.


The restaurant decor is very nice with lots of oak. There is a inside dining area and then this porch-like area where you can see the lake while you dine.


Here is the view we had out the window....very nice.
We ate ourselves silly having homemade rice pudding, tapioca pudding and even homemade carrot cake - which made Jim happy. We will definitely do this again before we leave town.

Remember - you are loved!

Leisure Day

Jim and I spent a very nice, leisure day yesterday. Started by going to Webster Flea Market for some produce. Oh we found succulent Plant City, Florida, strawberries a full pint for $1.50 or half a flat for $6 (picked the night before); seven homegrown tomatoes for $1.50; fresh picked green beans for $1 a pound; and a full pint of blueberries for $3 or 2 for $5. Fantastic prices.

Saw a ten foot long flatbed trailer full with just harvested carrots.....sold them by grocery bag full ..... walking by the smell was fantastic.

Look at the beautifual orchids I saw at a flower booth. The flowers are profuse here and so colorful. I forget that it is January because everywhere you see pansies, geraniums, roses, everything.Then we went home and I went to the daily Stitch and Discuss craft group meeting. (It's not called Stitch and Bitch because one lady last summer didn't think the use of the word Bitch was appropriate.)

I did work a little by doing laundry but I knitted during the wash cycle so it was pleasant. I'm knitting baby caps for local hospital nursery.

Later we sat outside in 75 degree weather and had happy hour with our neighbors, Dick and Carol. No, Dr. Steinberg I didn't have any liquor. I drink Spicy V-8 Juice and pretend there is a shot of vodka in it. (I can't drink anymore as I have elevated liver function.) Carol is a knitter and an accomplished quilter who specializes in quilt history and quilt documentation. We share knit and quilt books and have great conversations. Dick is a delight and he and Jim kibitz every day - all day. Dick and Carol took care of our puppies when we spent the day at DisneyWorld. They got a kick out of our pups as they are so small compared to their golden retriever.

Jim barbequed rib eye steaks (on sale for $3.99) with baked potatoe and those fresh green beans sauted in olive oil and garlic - yummooooo. Of course, we had sugured strawberries for dessert. We had the leftover steak for breakfast this morning with eggs and hashbrowns.

It was a very nice, sweet day that I am glad to share with you. Remember -you are loved.

Knitted Hobo Bag

While I was a Knit n' Knibble in Tampa I saw a cute knitted bag made of ribbon in black with silver. I bought the necessary Deco Ribbon and have been knitting on it since. This is the sample bag in the store.
Well, yesterday was such a beautiful day here (FINALLY) with temperatures in the mid-70s. I actually put on suntan lotion as my knees were getting red. So I sat outside under the awning and finished up the bag, I really like how it came out. The colors are blues and purplish and it will go well with jeans. I'm working on my Disney World post, so you will read it eventually, but I don't want to go too long without posting, so I will be throwing in side-posts now and again.

We're off to the Webster Flea Market today for strawberries which are really in season here. We're going to barbeque steaks tonight so I'll also get some fresh tomatoes and maybe green beans to saute in olive oil and garlic. Mmmmmmmmmm - want to come over for dinner?

Remember - you are loved!!!

Canoe Trip

We did go to Disney World yesterday but I took 98 photos and need to edit them before I post them. I'll work on it this weekend and hopefully post about our trip Monday.

A couple of weeks ago a bunch of us got together to canoe down the Withlacoochee River about 15 minutes from the park. It was a beautiful, lazy, calming day that we all enjoyed. We saw a lot of turtles sunning themselves on tree branches submerged in the water. The cypress trees were beautifully sculptured on the banks. After our three hours of paddling and drifting down the river, we ate a late lunch at a nearby cafe.

I'm adding the photos in thumbnail size, so to see any of them better, just click on the photo and it will enlarge.

We caught Molly Pinner entering her canoe from the front and the back - very cute! We all had a wonderful day with much laughter, good companionship and strengthening ties.
Remember - you are loved!

Lunch with Friends-Ocala

Jim and I journeyed north to Ocala, FL about 40 miles from Bushnell, to meet friends, Sandy and Charlie Crowder. I originally met The Crowders when they took a computer class I taught at the public library in Alamosa, Colorado. Then I found out they were fulltime rvers and that cemented our friendship.

After we retired we spent our first summer camphosting at Big Meadows in Rio Grand National Forest in South Fork, Colorado. The Crowders were managers at San Luis Lakes State Park outside of Alamosa, in Mosca, Colorado. We visited back and forth for two summers, meeting for lunch in Alamosa either for Mexican at Calvillo's or Hunan's for Chinese.

The Crowders winter in Ocala and we visited them there in October 2007, so we went up to Ocala again today to have lunch with them again. We ate at El Rancho Mexican Restaurant in Bellview, Florida, outside of Ocala. Boy did we need a Mexican food hit....it has been way too long since we had our favorite Mexican food. The food at El Rancho was so good and very reasonably priced.

After lunch I stopped by Barnes and Nobel and found a wonderful new knitting book called Easy Knitted Socks by Jeanette Trotman. Oh, it is a goody, folks... very different, with leg warmers, knee high, slippers, felted boots, etc. I'm excited about it.

After chatting with our neighbors for a while we went to the clubhouse and played "Hand and Foot", which is a card game we play the ladies against the men. We played with Paul and Connie Anderson and their was another table with Joe and Marcia Jones and Molly and Bob Pinner. It was fun, fun, fun.

So now it is 11 pm and Jim is "out" and I'm watching Ace of Cakes on the Foodnetwork channel. So I guess it is time to go to bed, as we are getting up early tomorrow and going to Disney World. I am charging my camera battery and deleting any photos on it now so I am prepared for all the photos we are going to take. I am so excited as going to Epcot is on my "bucket list". I'll put lots of photos on a future post for sure.

Remember - you are loved - by ME!!!

Webster, Florida, Flea Market

When we first came to Florida in December we visited Webster's Flea Market. So this is a "retro" post to the blog...catching up.

The Flea Market is considered the largest flea market in the nation. Webster is about 8 miles from Sumter Oaks Park. It is huge covering over 40 acres, contains 2,000 stalls, and accommodates over 1,200 dealers. It is opened only on Mondays. Much of it is under cover, but a lot is on tables in the parking lot area. Much of it reminds me of The Big Tent at Quartzsite, Arizona, with all kinds rv parts, same crinkly blouses they had and garlic trays, pots/pan demos, wallets, dvds, etc.

We went mostly for the fresh produce, which is plentiful here in Florida this time of year. In fact, the strawberries have just been available the last two weeks. I went crazy finding fresh vegetables in December. Jim was very indulgent of me and let me go wild.

Look at these photos of vendors. There were booths of potted plants - look at those hibiscus and flowering shrubs. Beautiful!!! And stalls of birds were very unique.

Those yellow globes are lemons not grapefruit. They are huge, aren't they? To the right of them are key limes - yellow, not green - which they use to make the wonderful Key Lime Pies. The vendor was selling those brown eggs for $1.50 a dozen.

This will give you an idea of just how big those lemons are. I made lemonade out of it using a recipe that my friend, Judy Baillee, had given us many years ago in Alamosa. I only needed to just half the lemon (usually use two) along with a coupe of the Honeybell oranges, 1/2 cup sugar and a quart of water. Oh, it was so delicious.
















This vendor had sugar cane - fresh cut - for $1 a stalk. I remember eating sections of sugar cane when I was a kid living in Florida. You peeled off the outer bark and chomped down on the fibers and squeezed out the sweet liquid.






Here is the haul I bought. From left to right there are Honeybell oranges (only available one month a year, I think), broccoli sprouts, corn in the back, beef steak tomatoes, strawberries, asparagus, baby bok choy, egg plant, red peppers, a lemon, with zuccini, yellow squash, and garlic bulbs in front. All this for $16. The other night we barbequed chicken and Jim grilled some bok choy and broccoli sprouts for me. We also steamed some of the 2 1/2 pounds of asparagus ($3 can you believe). Then we had sweetened strawberries for dessert. They sold flats of strawberries for $5. Eating so much fresh vegetables in December was a real treat. Hope I can eat it all this week so I can buy more next Monday - going to emphasize more fruits next week.


That's it for now friends and family.....more soon. Remember, you are loved!

Knit 'n Knibble-Tampa, Florida

Back on January 3, we drove to Tampa (an hour's drive from Bushnell) so I could take a knit class at a place called Knit 'n Knibble. Isn't that a cute name? It is appropriate as besides being a GREAT knit shop they have a coffee cafe in the back. So when you come in the door they greet you and then as "would you like a coffee today?" They serve killer lattes! Man, if they added a book store in there I'd never leave...

Look at this place it is so neat. First, it is very small, like ten by 40, and it sits in a strip mall that looks pretty blah on the outside.

But walk inside and you are hit by an array of colors that blows your mind.

Aren't those sweet shelving for yarn???

Here is the inside of the shoppe with the cafe in the back, where they make the lattes. The couches are really comfy and a nice square table in the middle is the meeting place for customers. I spent about an hour and a half looking around. Ladies walked in saying "I have a half hour before an appointment so I thought I'd stop in a knit for a while". Isn't that great? They had informal "show and tell" every time a new person walked in.

The walls are covered with samples and demo items of upcoming classes. An their classes are expensive like a lot of places. I paid $15 for a two hour class on Knit to Fit - about gauges and how to use your gauge swatch to custom fit a garmet. It was a very good class. I signed up for another class for next Thursday on using circular needles - double points, two circulars, and the magic loop. I want to us ethe magic loop to knit two socks at a time, but I'm not getting it from just the booklet; so I am happy to get a chance to take a class while I'm in the area.

We ate lunch at a place called Hao Wah (how-wa) Chinese Buffet and it was the best Chinese buffet I've ever had....and that is saying a lot for me. The restaurant has won "best Chinese restaurant" in Tampa for several years running.

The selection was so different from most Chinese buffet. They had chicken curry, chicken chow mein, egg foo yang (sp?) lobster sauce, large trays of fresh white rice, honey chicken and their green beans were sauted with sesame seeds. The vegetables they used in the dishes were not the usual carrots, celery, onions and broccoli. Their dishes had bok choy, lots of mushrooms, egg plant, and cabbage. While we were there the restaurant was hosting a Chinese' couple wedding dinner with 30 people enjoying all the wonderful food.

As we were leaving Tampa I spied this cell tower - cleaverly disguised as a tree. It was really tall. Pretty neat way to "hide" a cell tower in the middle of town!

Well, that is all for today folks. Remember - you are loved!!!

Inauguration Day-President Obama

What an exciting, historic, important and wonderful day it is today! Inauguration day of President Barack Obama!!!! I am so excited...I woke up early and am glued to CNN all day and most of the night to see everything about this special day.

I have high hopes for this President with the vision he brings for all people - here in America but also for the world. I think he brings a new prospective to war and conflict and how to handle them.

It brings me hope to see divisions close and unity become a reality in my lifetime.

Today I am very proud to be an American.
Remember - you are loved!!!

Fried Turkey Birthday Party

The graduating to fulltime Class of 2007 here at Sumter Oaks RV Park in Florida had four members with birthdays within 2 weeks, so naturally it was cause for a party! Last night we celebrated the birthdays of Smokey Ridgley, Lesle Thomas, Leland Schliep and Joe Jones.

Jim and Bob Pinner deep fried a 12 pound turkey and a 9 pound turkey breast. Boy, oh boy, did they come out great!!!

The weather, however, turned very windy so we adjourned to the club house to eat our scrumptous dinner.

We had three salads, two birthday cakes and three pies along with the veggies, dressing, gravy, rolls and the glorious turkey along with the ever present Margarator. We sure have great cooks in our group!!!

Remember, you are loved and missed.

We're alive and well

Hi ya'll (she says with a Cracker accent)

We are fine, alive, socializing, dining out, taking walks and generally having too much fun to stop and post to our blog.

We ate out again at Werda-heckamiat for Lesle Thomas's birthday with Nancy and Chuck Geno; went to the huge Tampa RV Show and saw 1.2 million Provost (they required you to take off your shows to go in - I stayed out!) a MH with a veranda, one painted purple and pink; went to a Manatee Festival and took a boat ride to see them; entertained 16 for potluck last week and having 18 people over tonight for deep fried turkey dinner everyone is contributing to; attended another knit lesson in Tampa; went to the vets to deworm Poncho; froze our tussies off this week when a cold front came through and we ran the furnace every night!

We met Carol Clyde in Livingston last November and have phoned each other once or twice a month all year. She came to Orlando for a Holiday Rambler rally and then came to Bushnell to visit us before and after the rally. Chuck and Nancy Geno are folks we first met in Goshen, IN at Escapade in 2007 and then met again last July at the Colorado Boomerang. We knew the Geno's were in the Orlando area as Nancy is working for DisneyWorld. So last Wednesday we were walking out of the Tamps RV Show and all of a sudden I hear "Bobbie, is that you?" There was Nancy and Chuck going the other direction on the road!!!! So we made plans for them to come visit us in Bushnell and also for us to visit DisneyWorld this week.

Carol Clyde Chuck & Nancy Geno

So stay tuned and I'll begin posting about all the things we've been doing. Jim promised he would help out by writing up some of the posts.

Remember, I love you!!!

New Year's Day 2009 Party

Good Morning All:

Thursday, New Year's Day, we had a little block party for the seven rigs in our little corner of Sumter Oaks. We are all nestled in the far, back corner of the park - kind of all on our own. We have all been sitting outside our rigs in the afternoon, kind of yelling hello to each other and conversing back and forth while sitting at our respective rigs. So I figure we should get to know each other a little better, so I organized a barbeque - bring your own meat of choice and a side dish.

Boy did we have a good time and a bounty of food. I think we had all been to the Webster Flea Market the Monday before and we had a bevy of vegetables. I made those Honey Pecan Bars some of you have had before for dessert - big hit.

The day was overcast and very windy so we didn't linger too long after eating; but it was a fun time and we enjoyed getting to know each other. Now we are walking over to each other's rigs to chat instead of shouting at each other. Progress!!!!

Remember, you are loved, dearly!!!