CAMPOUT AT TORREY OAKS

The Blue Herons camped at Torrey Oaks in Bowling Green from March 7 to 11. We had the lounge for cooking and our activities. Lois and Jim made pancakes and sausage for breakfast on Saturday morning.

Sally and Bobby Lesesne had to have windows repaired in their rig and didn't make it to Torrey Oaks till Friday. We all were sure glad to see them.

The Gores, Delks, Youngs, Chambers, Oakes, Bults at the business meeting Saturday morning.

We learned a lot more about Lois, Jim, Helen and Charlie playing our Guess Who game. It is sad to have to say good by to Jim and Lois. This is the last time they will be camping with us for they are headed back to New York and going to leave their RV there next year.
We hope to see them at the Christmas party.

Jan taught us to play Pokeno. A fast way to get rid of our pennies, but we had a lot of fun playing.

KATHY'S VISIT

Saturday my friend Kathy flew into Tampa airport for a quick visit with us. Her plane didn't arrive till 7 pm, so Larry and I went to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium during the day. It is a rescue, rehab and release facility, thus smaller and different then other aquariums. What made it really famous is the movie the Dolphin Tale. We just watched the movie and saw that this is where Winter the dolphin that got an artificial tail lives, so we went to see her.

Here Winter is working with her trainer. She only wears her artificial tail a few hours a day, so she did not have it on. We were surprised to learn that not much about the movie was factual except she did lose her tail from a crab trap. The rest of the story was made up.

Winter and Panama. Panama was a baby when they rescued her after her mom was beached and died. Because she was a baby she never was taught how to survive in the wild so she can't be released.

Physical therapy activities.

This is Nicolas, the only male dolphin here. He was also rescued when a baby.

After church on Sunday we took Kathy to Solomon's Castle.

This home was built by artist Howard Solomon out of all recycled materials. The panels that cover the castle are printers plates from the Wachula News. If you took them off you could read the newspaper on the other side, thus he says he lives in a time capsule.

There are more then 80 interpretive stained glass windows.

We had a very amusing guided tour. Howard's humor and unique view of the world was very evident. When someone asked if he could take pictures. He was told they would have to call the police and have him arrested if he did. But he was allowed to take as many photographs as he wanted :)

There were many metal sculptures all made from recycled material. This was call Flower Child.

He also makes reproduction of famous painting out of scrapes of wood. This was his latest work.

This elephant was made out of oil drums, and has clam shells for toe nails.

A cow with a hole in its side. Do you know why? For whole milk :)

His self portrait made from wood . We met him (sorry I forgot to post the picture I took of him) and it looks just like him.

Notice the fencing around the side of the house.

After he built his house people wanted to come see it so he opened it for tours. Then he built the boat in the moat. It is a very good restaurant where we enjoyed a delicious lunch.

Kathy is my friend who fell playing pickleball when she came to visit me two years ago in Orlando. She dislocated her little finger and broke two bones in her hand. It took her six months of therapy but she can do everything with her hand once more. She wanted to try pickleball again so we hit the ball around a little and even played a game.

Tuesday we went to Plant City to the strawberry festival.
We watched the pig races. Look in the water for them swimming.

Watched a strawberry stemming contest.

The MC had a nice way with the audience and was very entertaining. This girl won the contest by stemming the strawberries with her teeth and keeping the hulls in her mouth till she had all 20 stemmed.

Two big shows are put on here each day. The shows are part of your admission ($10) if you sit on the concrete bleachers.

We sat on the bleachers to watch Brenda Lee in the afternoon show.

It was nice there was a screen so you could see her, especially since she is only 4 feet 9.

Of course what is a fair without food, but what will they think of to fry next?

We tried to eat a little healthier, but of course we had to have strawberries and ice cream.

For the evening show by Vince Gill we purchased tickets to sit in chairs, much more comfortable and closer then the bleachers. He put on a very good show.

Since we were half way to Tampa and Kathy had to be at the airport by 8 the next morning she got a hotel room for the night. Sad to say goodbye, but I'm sure glad she came for a visit even if it was just for a few days.

A GREAT DAY

We moved today. When we came into Peace River Thousand Trail Preserve we had to take a site that is 30 amps and has no sewer. We had a nice big open spot and Larry set up his man cave tent and said we would stay there. After five days I thought it would be a lot easier having sewer so we could take showers and do our wash. When you come in your name is put on a list for three days and each day at 11 o'clock the open sites with sewage are posted.Then at one o'clock each name is called off the list till all the sites are filled. We put our name back on the list, looked at the available sites and when our name was called we chose this site. When we moved to it I was surprised to find it had 50 amps. So we are nice and comfy here.

After moving we played golf with Jim and Terri at Little Cyprus golf course. We found the 7th hole this time. Then we went in town to Paul's Kitchen for dinner. I had broiled grouper that was delicious. Their food is always good thus a very popular place to eat.

We had heard about this unique ice cream palor, so we stopped in for our dessert.

So many choices, and these were only the popular ones you could also make your own combination.

First the toss ins go in the bowl.

Then they put the cream in the bowl.

Stir it together.

Then the bowl was exposed to liquid Nitrogen to freeze the cream.

So cold it is smoking!

It is stirred until it is not so hard and stuck to the bowl and looks like ice cream.

We had butter pecan and it sure was good.
Wish you could taste it.

Jim and Terri also had butter pecan. I'm sure we will be back and try some more of the toss ins flavors.

SHARING TALENTS

Just a few miles down the road is the Little Cyprus Golf Course. It is for sale if anyone is interested. We drove by it the first time because it really doesn't look like a golf course from the road. We went here to play on Friday afternoon.

That is the club house ?! Only $9 to walk 9 holes.

It was a fun little course. Somehow we lost the 7th hole. I think we played 3 twice. They were calling for rain and the sky got rather dark, but there was only a sprinkled while we were looking for the 8th hole.

On Saturday afternoon Rich gave pickle ball lessons to a large group of us. Our friends Jim and Tery are sitting on the end of the bench. We met them in Orlando and is great being here at Peace River together. Terry is really trying to master the game.

Rich giving us pointers on how to stand and hit the ball.

We practiced how to hold the racket properly at the front line and then to punch the ball. Now if only I can do it when I'm playing the game.

When I was talking to Buddy and Diane at the birthday happy hour they mentioned they sang on Sunday morning at the Zolfo Spring Methodist Church. We decided to attend the church on Sunday morning and enjoyed a half hour of country gospel music. There were over 12 people playing instruments and singing. They perform throughout the area. Many talented people sharing their gifts.