Florida Strawberry festival

Yesterday, the weather was perfect, sunny, warm, and a little breeze but we did not go to the beach… We woke up and had breakfast early. By 9 AM, we were out the door… this doesn't happen too often since we retired!

We went to the Florida Strawberry festival in Plant City. This is about an hour drive from our current location.

 

The parking cost was a decent $5 and we were parked on grass. They had a shuttle running between the parking and the entrance gate. We got on the bus and went round and round,  round and round, (oups sorry my mind drifted away for a second :-) )

At the gate the entrance fee was $10 each. According to the attendant in the bus, there are a million people coming to this festival every year and it has a huge monetary impact for the small town of Plant city. Talking about Plant city, you can take a nice leisurely drive where you will see fields after fields of strawberry fields forever (oups, drifted away again...).  From the end of January, there are always people picking up the berries…. Big business for sure (over 365 millions in revenue per year)!

We were mainly going there to see some shows and attended 3 of them. We enjoyed the FREE shows even if it was mainly country music… we are not big fans of country music but any live show always make it more appealing.

The first show was Jay Taylor and his band, he is from the smallish town of Duette Florida, close by, but has moved to Nashville which is the Mecca of country music.

In the tent, it was like a cotton field...

The second show was the Sweeney Family Band and had a lot of comedy involved. They looked and sang like hillbillies but are from Florida so they made a point of stating that they are not Hillbillies but rather swampbillies! :) I thought all their tunes sounded the same with only the lyric changing. I don’t have the best ear for music so it’s probably just me!

The last group we saw was Dennis Lee and his band, he is a performer who has been around (even to Canada) and was getting the crowd involved.

We enjoyed all 3 shows.  Between 2 shows, there was a women sitting beside my wife that was on her cell, talking to someone a few feet away in the same tent! They could see each others, it was like they were skyping!

After the last show, we  bought some fries for lunch at one of the boot and as all the tables were occupied we asked one person if the empty seats at his table was free. He said they were our seats. We talked a little until he noticed our French accent and then started to talk to us in French. Surprisingly he is from the same area in Québec as us (Outaouais). He was sitting with his wife and 3 grand children who were on their march break and were taking an extra week to visit their grand-parents. They also have a trailer in a park close to where we are and spend their winters there. He gave us few pointers that we will be looking at in future years.

After lunch we went around to visit some of the booths but it was getting so crowded that after a short period of time, I proposed we get back home.

Naturally before leaving, we had to sample the main attraction of the fest… we bought 2 fresh strawberry milk shake ($5 each) it was a good source of dairy product and fruit… ya right!

A day at the beach

Sorry to the one in their cubicle looking at this!

Yesterday was cold, windy and sunny… a perfect time to go to the beach! Personally, I think it’s always a good time to go to the beach, what are the alternatives, on a Wednesday, going back to work? Done that, enjoyed earning a living, now it is time to do the living part of life. 

The beach of our choice was Sunset Beach in Tarpon Spring, Florida. It’s a free beach, unlike most the other beaches where you have to pay for parking.

Even with the chill there were several people enjoying the day on (not in) the water. They were doing the kite-gliding-surfing-on-a-board thingy. They were wearing wetsuits… otherwise they would have needed to get a white straight jacket for being out on the water in those conditions brrrr.

We were parked right by the beach. We were enjoying looking at all kind of birds, with a clear view of the water, and also a little people watching… but for most part of the afternoon, we were just sitting in the truck reading (Note from Christiane: I was not watching the birds!  I was watching the kite surfers.  Some of them lifted a good 15 feet in the air!  That was amazing!  At one point, one surfer was in the water after falling flat on his belly from the air and another one surfed by so close, and on purpose I’m sure, that he drenched him some more.)

A couple of cars down, a lady came out of her car with a bag of bread crumb, for the birds…  She was immediately surrounded by hungry seagulls happy to get a free meal… PLEASE DON’T DO THAT!  The birds can feed themselves a proper diet (they are right by their food source).  They stay at the beach waiting for more free food and anyone thinking about having a picnic at the beach will have to shoo them away (and they can be really aggressive). Often people do that to amuse the kids, but in the end, the birds scare the kids when they try to eat their lunch. The birds poop all over the beach and when young kids play in the sand they might get all kinds of health issues. In Canada, we have places where snowbird don’t leave south anymore in winter because they get fed a lot… and we end up with beaches closing down because of the quality of the beach sand getting downgraded from the birds dropping. I also fed ducks in park and beaches, but that was before I was aware of the environmental issues. Just as an example, on our left there were 2 women sitting in a car having lunch, the seagulls were all over her car, once in a while she tried to shoo them away but they just stayed there and waited.  – End of rant

 

 

 

Not a dicey post!

This is the second post of the day.

New Port Richey, Florida
Feb and Mar 2013

Back to the news: Yesterday was a great day for ME, I played dice with Jo, Christiane and André. I won 4 games out of five!

This is extremely rare… what are the odds of that you ask? It is one in 1023!  (Notes from Christiane: there goes the statistics guy again!)

Without giving too much game rules, let me just tell you that it plays with 5 dice, to win you need to accumulate 10,000 points and you need 500 points to open. If you get five one, you automatically win the game.

So, for one of the games, I was not opened yet and I threw five ones… WOW. What are the odds of that you asked? One in 46655.  (Notes from Christiane: we were all looking at the dice, there was a one, then another, then another…)

This weekend, the power ball is over 120 millions… I have to go and get tickets. If you don’t get any news from me for a while…

Well maybe my news is not as exciting for everyone else… but what can I say, it brings a smile to my face!  Isn’t that what it’s all about? Hahaha

Following my victoriessss, we went to Gator buffet for supper. Needless to say, after such a workout, I had a great appetite!

In the evening, I watched hockey with André outside his motorhome. Canadians lost to Islander (my luck was still going strong)

In the evening, at 9, the water was cut-off in our camping. The town was doing some scheduled work from 9 pm till 5am and it just happened that the work was right by our trailer. They had huge lights set up, the kind you see in outdoor stadiums, and they were making all kind of noises… pretty much the whole night. I slept through it all, I must be getting immune to noise! The water was back on this morning, but it doesn’t really bother us much, in the previous day, knowing about the cut-off, we had filled up our fresh water tank and were disconnected from the grid.

 

This morning I read a blog that really make me laugh… I didn’t take it as a religious vendetta of any kind, I just read it as a light opinion that has nothing to do with my own, but interesting never the less. So the warning is given and you can read the blog by clicking HERE.

 

 

Where is Bob?

Surprise, surprise, I pounded some words today on the blog. What might be so blog worthy you asked?

Well first let me tell you that Bob spent 4 days with us and went back to Ottawa… we were so tired after her visit that we took 2 weeks vacation hahahaha just joking Bob, you were one great guess and we BOTH enjoyed your stay with us.

On the second day of her visit, we went to visit the Tampa Aquarium… It’s a really nice aquarium with lots of fishes (in case you didn’t guess!). My wife and Bob took the Tampa Aquarium boat tour and left me in the aquarium for 2 hours. The purpose of the tour was to see dauphins in the Tampa Bay. They came back with big smiles on their faces… I wish they had invited me L

Where is Nimo?

(Note from Christiane: Richard was invited all right but would not go, probably having to do with too much wind in his hairJ.  Bob and I did see dauphins.  The dauphins were right there beside the boat.  It was amazing!  At one point there was one swimming along the boat and playing with the waves the boat generated.  I even got it on video.  Aboard the boat were two Aquarium employees taking notes about the weather, the temperature, the wind, the dauphins, the birds and all king of other statistics… yes Richard, you missed those awesome statistics!  We got splashed a bit by the water, had a good of laughs and a great afternoon.  Bob and I recommend that excursions 100 %.)

Into the wild!

On Bob’s third day, we went to Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. This is a ‘small’ zoo, however the main attraction is the river flowing through it… there are Manatees there. I never saw Manatees before but I knew about them from reading other blogs, otherwise I would not have had a clue of what they are. Manatees are the size of a cow but without legs as they live in the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico. In winter, the Gulf is too cold for them so they swim back in the warmer water of the rivers.

Look at all those perses lady!!!

 

What the neck!!!

 

Come here kitty

 

Bear with me!

 

2 Manatees actively relaxing

I had to come for air... someone fart down there!

From where we were we had a perfect view of a dozen of them. They just lied at the bottom of the river and came up once in a while for air… that’s it! They don’t do flip nor give shows, they are not an aggressive animal… they are herbivorous mammals, which is  a good thing because there were several swimmers - the two legged species – that came near them for a closer look!      

For Bob’s last day (not on earth but in Florida) the girls went shopping… I was glad that I was NOT invitedJ. Bob came back with bags of clothes; I have seen bag ladies with much smaller bags than what Bob had! The bad thing about it was that she had limited space in her suitcase. But you know girls; they can pack loads of new clothes where no man can see room for even one sock!

Now back to yesterday and the almost current blogs worthy news…  The post is starting to be long so I will be working on the next post right away. If you want to read about the news, please come back in the next few hours.

Bob "Sunshine"

It's all about Bob!
Thanks Christiane for this 'untouch' picture.

Feb 7^th
While at home during the last holiday season, my wife and I each went to visit our “old” work place. My wife had a colleague that was her partner in crime. To preserve her identity, let’s call her “Bob”. So Bob asked my wife if she could come and visit us in Florida.  Coming back home, my wife told me about that request. I said sure why not. In my mind, people say things like that but they never mean it. I was wrong! 38 days later, we went to pick up Bob at the Tampa airport.

She had gone to visit her parents in California and on her way; she stopped in Florida for a month (it seemed that long to me… hahaha just kidding Bob!).

So at 30 minutes past midnight we picked her up. Coming back to our trailer, we had a little difficulty getting onto the right highway. We had the GPS with us, but I was not following exactly what she was telling me. We just told Bob that it was on purpose so that she could see Tampa by night… By the time we got back to the trailer and to bed, it was way past our bedtime.

Feb 7^th

Still the same day, however it is not the middle of the night anymore.

We went to Tarpon spring. Early in the previous century, it was a small fishing town where there was a lot of Greek immigrant coming to dive for sponges. This was their main source of income. Today the main source of income is tourist. The main road is populated by shops, Greek restaurants, and boat tour operators. There are a lot of people on the sidewalks hustling for your business… not my type of place, I saw it once, I don’t need a second peek!  

 

The sky is real!

Some tourist just kept popping up!

 

Wipe that smile! You won't give me a spoonge bath soon!
 
 

 

The first sponge shop we went to had a free museum and was presenting a free movie. Being retired, the word “free” is some kind of a magnet, it pulls you so fast, and if you are not careful you might get a whip lash. So André, Bob and I went in to see the movie… my experience in movie reviews is limited, but in my opinion, info commercial should have been the title. I would not return to this free movie even if they paid me to go… well maybe I’m exaggerating there, with the monies they would give me I would buy one of the sponge for sure. After all, one day I might need a sponge bath… right!

For lunch, we went to a Greek restaurant. I am not a big fan of Greek cuisine but folks while in Rome… I ordered a BLT (Bacon, lettuce and tomatoes) on a pita (I guess the pita was for Greek effect). Also to get some energy, I got vegetables (fries). When I ordered the BLT, the waitress looked at me like I was from a different planet! It was on their menu, sorry if I offended her with my non typical Greek dishes.

Everyone seems to have enjoyed their meal, but no one was able to finish their plates. Too bad because the restaurant also has a bakery where we first checked out the desserts to make sure there was something “healthy” for us but we couldn’t eat one more bite...

We then drove to Howard Park. My thought was that we would just check it out so I didn’t pay the $5 fees… we were there only 2 minutes when I noticed someone with a hat walking around my truck… I rushed back just in time… the ranger was about to write up a ticket…

They were going fast!
 
 

 

 

 

 

I fed the parking meter the monies, and then went back to join the others. It was quite busy, the water was cold (to me), and there was a strong wind. We walk the entire island (a good 15 minutes’ walk).  On one side there was a lot of wind/kite surfers enjoying the perfect wind condition.

Howard Park is a small island that is accessible by a causeway. I really enjoyed it and I’m sure we will go back. It is not well known so it is mostly people form the area that goes there. This might be a secret so please keep this to yourself J! If you go, don’t forget to pay the meter!

Depressing in Tampa East

Some people have a level problem!

HI, my name is Richard. I am retired. I am 52 years old… 53 in a week! (I haven’t post for so long, I thought I should introduced myselfL)

I could come up with thousand excuses, (after all I am a man) but I’ll just skip ahead like if nothing happened…

Just a quick recap… We Returned to Florida on January 4th. We were greeted at the airport by André who had volunteered to pick us up on our return. It was past midnight, we just went back to our trailer in Tampa. The trailer was in the overflow and was happy to see us back.

The following day, we moved the trailer to our assigned spot. Now, I am the kind of person who looks at the glass as being half full, but there was nothing in that campground for us...

The noise from the highway was constant and loud (24 hours a day). I souldn’t complain, once in a while we couldn’t hear the noise, it was overtaken by an chopper that was landing very close by.

We were parked under big trees and lets just say, the sun was not shinning on us! Strangely, the tree leaves were falling, for crying loud, can someone tell me since when do trees lose there foliage in the middle of winter? I hate to compare but in Canada, we trained our trees to loose there leaves in the fall.

The ground was dirt with a carpet of leaves, no grass, no cement pad, just a place in the deep dark shade. The back of the trailer was only a few inches off the ground where the front was a few feet.  If you didn't get that description… it means we were parked on a slope!  Nothing levelled  here and as if that was not enough, there were roots running all over the site.  I’m surprised we didn’t trip and break our neck. It seems to me that a stay at a nearby hospital would have been a big improvement.

Do you think that I’m done with the whining… NO! We also had guests, ants that is! Boy those guys can sure walk in a straight line,  I served in the army and I can tell you that we were not that disciplined! Now don’t tell on me, but I poisoned them. Whouhahaha maybe the ants were there just to distract us so we would stop looking at our poor living conditions.

No I’m not done yet… behind us, there was a small ditch with stagnant water, a nice greenish glow was emanating from it, needless to says we stayed away from that ditch!

Almost done but stay tuned… across that ditch, a busy RV store. They had a loud PA system that kept going on all day: “Roger please come to the front desk”, “Jim please flush the toilet”, “Jane please pick  up line 1”… on and on and on. I don’t really know if they were that successful  a business or pretending to be busy but they kept moving thosetrailers with the tractor…

Last comment, location, location, location!  It was not there. To get anywhere we were always stuck in traffic, it was minimum one  hour to go do the groceries.

If you are travelling, and what I described is what you are looking for, just book at Tampa East RV resort, specially to their Palm lot. I don’t know why, but there are people there that keep coming back every year for the winter… just to tell you, they won’t have to over bid me for it, I’ll gladly let them have the whole place. We had payed for 2 months in advance but when I went to the office and told them we were leaving at the end of January, they refunded me.



For the month of January, we didn’t do much (other than complain). Hockey was in lockout but relatively close by, the players from the Tampa’s Lighting were practicing. We were lucky enough to see  Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St-Louis and many more there.

Martin St-Louis
No he is not waving at ME :(
 

A "montreal Fan" watching the enemy practice. Notice the Nordique sign on his purse... maybe he is a "hidden Nordique fan"

At the same level as the players... but we are retired, they have to go to work now... Who is the winner?
 

We also attended the Tampa RV show, I think it is one of the biggest in the state… it’s so big that they have shuttles going around. It was crowded, not only with people, but animals too. Please if you have a pet, leave it at home, it will be much better off than being in an event like that one.

Well that was January, a month that I would like to erase from my memory. We were even thinking that the snow and the cold back home was not that bad after all… but February is a completely different story, you will have to tune in the next few days to find out!

The next picture is to give you a taste of what is coming J
 
P.S. This post happened because of Hugo's begging, who couldn't man up anymore and was on the verge of blog withdrawal.  (Note from Christiane: Actually Hugo, you gave Richard the spark to start on his blog again)

 

Howard Park
I was lucky, I found a free parking spot right by the gulf!