Day #80 – Breakdowns and Bowling

Sarasota FL

We were supposed to have a day of sorting through stuff, in preparation for our move to Linger Lodge, but our friend Gary called and pulled me out of the house.  His car had broken down in the WalMart parking lot and he needed some help.  Kelly stayed at the house and I took my first solo drive in Sarasota.  She had drawn a very clear map for me, so I knew exactly how to get to the WalMart.  I drove Gary home and visited with his dogs while we planned our strategy for dealing with his car.

That evening, Kelly and I met Brenda, Barb, Sue, Mary, Cheryl, and Dorthea for supper at Two Amigos.  Cheryl is Barb’s sister and one of our FarmVille neighbors.  Dorthea is their mother.  Every time we try a new Mexican restaurant, I think, “Wow, this is the best Mexican food I’ve had since our trip to Mexico,” and then we eat at a different one and I think it all over again.  This one had a very interesting menu with lots of choices that were new to me.  I had fried plantains and fried black bean cakes.  The plantains were dark with carmelization and so sweet and sticky.  I shared them with the table and Dorthea decided they were one of the best things she’d ever eaten – she took the leftovers home.  The black bean cakes were thick and filling, with beans and grain.  I had to pack up leftovers for myself as well.

After Barb took Dorthea home, we went bowling.  I’ve stopped bowling because it’s too hard on my good shoulder.  Usually, I watch and cheer everyone, but that evening, I watched the Olympics on the TV hanging over one of the lanes.  I think Kelly felt a bit neglected, but who can resist watching the Olympics?

Day #79 – Linger Lodge

Sarasota FL

Still a little tired from the drive yesterday, we got off to a late start this morning. We packed a few things, farmed a little on Farmville, and called around trying to find a place to park our RV. Most of the places were already full, and did not expect to have any openings until the snowbirds migrate back to their northern homes in mid-March or early April. Yikes! One place had openings, but informed us that they do NOT allow pop-ups in their park. I tried to explain that we aren’t really a pop up, but they didn’t care. Finally we got a nibble at a place called “Linger Lodge”, which is only 20 miles north of where we are now. We took it. North is North. We’ll deal with farther North later. We need a campground now.

Happy with the fact that we found any place, we headed out for a late lunch at El Torro restaurant. Once again the food was excellent. Suzie and I were talking about getting on with our road trip, and how happy we were to find a campground. I had recalled a blurb about Linger Lodge in one of those “One Tank Roadtrip” books that Barb had loaned us. Suzie remembered it being “One of the ten weirdest restaurants in America”. We were excited and thrilled just to be planning our adventures again. We decided to check out the place and have some dessert in the restaurant. It was pouring down rain, but we didn’t care. We were having an adventure of sorts!

Well, the adventure continued as we were lost on Linger Lodge road. We had plugged the address into our GPS and it took us to a dirt easement road with a “No Trespassing” sign posted at the entry. We thought it looked a little too rustic to actually be the campground. So we decided the GPS must be wrong, and we would just drive up and down the length of Linger Lodge Road, until we found it. It had to be somewhere. I mean they didn’t name it Linger Lodge Road for nothing right? We did finally stumble upon the place, but it was not easy! We found a sign that pointed to the Lodge. Apparently Linger Lodge is no longer on Linger Lodge road. It was built in 1945, but since then some subdivisions have come into existence and the roads have all been renamed. Check their website (http://www.lingerlodgeresort.com) for the GPS address – it differs from the mailing address.

Linger Lodge is everything you expect to not expect in a restaurant. There is a huge stuffed alligator mounted on the wall just to the right of the main doorway. A foot is hanging out of the alligator’s mouth. There are stuffed bobcats in a glass case across the room. A sign spelling out “Linger Lodge” is located near the bar. Each letter on the sign is a snake. This place is a taxidermist’s delight.

The food is just as varied as the décor. You can get all the usual diner food, burgers, fries, soups, salads, pasta, fish, alligator, and frog legs. We only had room for dessert, so I had a slice of orange citrus pie (tasted like a Creamsicle) and Suzie had mudpie (Oreo crust, coffee ice cream little rosettes of whipped cream, and dressed with some chocolate sauce, and walnuts). Suzie got hers without the walnuts, and said the thing was absolutely delish, but too much for one person. We had a fun dining experience and would recommend it to anyone in the area.

Next we walked around the campground. It was rustic looking with trees, and decent sized spots. Each campsite had a concrete pad to set up a table and some camp chairs. A few had picnic tables, but not many. Most of the full-timers have appropriated any available tables. Still the place was nice, and the Braden River runs right behind the restaurant and along one side of the campground. There are a few docks available for motor boats, and a boat ramp. We were very interested in the boat ramp and were happy to find our site was near that. We were looking forward to kayaking and camping.

The rain stopped. We drove home with full bellies, and wonderful expectations. Life is good.

Day #78 – Fakahatchee Strand

Sarasota FL

The other day, we took a look at the owner’s manual for our new truck and discovered we had to drive, at varying speeds up to 55 MPH, for 500 miles, and then another 500 towing miles at speeds up to 50 MPH.  Who knew?!?  This meant we were forced to plan a trip of 500+ miles before we picked up the trailer.  Our friend Barb pointed out that a trip to the Keys would be about the right distance.

Due to budgetary and weather constraints, we decided to make a day trip to Big Cypress National Preserve (http://www.nps.gov/bicy/index.htm) in the Everglades.  We knew we’d fill in the remaining miles with errands around town.

I drove most of the way down, sticking to secondary roads where we could drive at slower speeds.  Our first stop was the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park (http://www.floridastateparks.org/fakahatcheestrand).  This 5-by-20 tract of land is home to native royal palms, orchids and bromeliads, white tailed deer, black bears, Florida panthers, and snakes.  Many of the old logging trails have been maintained for hiking, but no camping is allowed.  The plan to restore the Everglades will have a major impact on this strand.  Even now, it is recovering quickly from a history of logging and drainage.  We had heard there was a boardwalk and we wanted to explore it.

We parked the truck and walked into the privately owned gift shop at the beginning of the boardwalk.  My eye was instantly caught by the sight of a Native American woman behind the counter.  Then, I saw a clothing rack filled with Seminole patchwork clothing – shirts, skirts, vests, and jackets.  I’ve read about this type of quilting and had seen pictures of it, but had never seen the real thing up close.  The artistry and workmanship took my breath away.  Every seam and corner was arrow-straight.  The colors were wild, but each whole garment brought order to the small sections of chaotic color.  I had always hoped to see this work somewhere in Florida, but never expected to find it by accident.  All the prices were way beyond my budget, and I was too shy to take a photo, but I enjoyed looking at every single piece in the store.  Kelly practiced infinite patience.


We experienced one Embarrassing Tourist moment.  A man of European descent, who had English as his main language, asked the sales clerk about a package of coasters.  I think he wanted to know whether the set had assorted images on the coasters.  He spoke to the sales clerk in a very loud voice and used broken, incorrect grammar to ask his question.  When she didn’t understand him, he spoke more loudly.  Finally, she understood what he was trying to ask and answered him in grammatically correct English, at a normal volume.  Later, Kelly asked her a question, in her usual soft voice, using correct English grammar, and got an equally quiet, English answer.

Our trip down the boardwalk was lots of fun.  Many people, walking quickly and talking loudly, passed us, hurrying off to the observation platform at the end of the boardwalk.  We heard two Barred Owls calling to each other across the swamp.  We saw an Eagle nest, tipped at just the correct angle to prevent us from seeing anyone sitting on eggs. (The trail guide indicated a nesting pair returned to this area yearly, and that it was the time of year for nesting.)  We saw two adult alligators and one baby.  The observation platform was small, but there were plenty of benches.  We watched Green Herons, Egrets, and a Little Blue Heron fishing.

Our walk took longer than we expected, so it was obvious that we weren’t going to get to the National Preserve Visitors’ Center before it closed.  We decided to mosey down the road anyway and see what turned up.

Every few miles, we saw small brown signs by the side of the road that said, “Indian Village.”  After passing several of these, I started to see a pattern to them.  Each was located behind a partial fence.  At the end of the entry road, there was a concrete building that looked like it might be a community center.  Around the building were other smaller buildings, all with thatched rooftops.  As we continued the drive, we passed tribal government buildings, a museum, and air-boat businesses.

I kept seeing Belted Kingfishers on the wires along the far side of the road.  After the eighth one, I stopped counting.  Either a couple of them were playing hop-scotch with me, or I saw more in one day than I’d seen in my whole life.  None of them did that helicopter diving thing, though.  Somewhere around the fifth or sixth kingfisher, Kelly took over the driving – she still thinks I can’t drive and spot at the same time.  (Too bad she never birded with my mother – I’ve seen her chase birds down unknown roads just to get a good look, and then get lost because she hadn’t paid attention to where she turned.)  We also saw two Bald Eagles, and a Crested Caracara.  At first we thought this was an Osprey, but it just didn’t look quite right.  We’d never heard of this bird before, but it was a perfect match to its picture in the bird book.  We also saw some Limkin and Tricolor Heron.  We saw a Reddish Egret with its neck feathers all puffed out.  Most of these were first-time sightings for me.

It was a looong day and we got back to the house very late, but we had a great time.  We both learned how to keep the truck between the lines.  We’re glad we’re going to be settling in Florida some day so that we can visit this region often and learn more about its ecology and culture.

For pictures of birds common to the area we visited, please see these links:
•    Birds of the Kissimmee-Okeechobee-Everglades Watershed - http://www.ces.fau.edu/files/education/resources/bird-id-sheets.pdf
•    Some Birds You’ll Find at the Everglades Birding Festival - http://www.birdadventure.com/festival/09gallery/index.html

Day #76 – Snowbirds head South

Pittsburgh, PA – Sarasota, FL

I am not typically a morning person, and frown heavily at the notion of getting up before the sun. I especially dislike the idea of getting out of a warm bed. This morning I woke early with the aid of Debbie and Linda. It was eight degrees and dark outside. Normally I would just ignore the noises in the house and burrow down to the warmest spot in the bed. But today was different. Today Suzie and I are on a plane back to Florida, and warmer temperatures are in my very near future, so I am unusually bright eyed. We ate breakfast, and said our goodbyes to Linda, who was going to try to get to work this morning.

Debbie drove us to the airport. It was eight degrees outside and my teeth were chattering. I don’t remember it ever being this cold in Pittsburgh. The roads in general are horrible; many municipalities are in a state of emergency -- without power or cleared streets, but luckily we are on major routes all the way to the airport. The roads were surprisingly drivable, and the airport is still open.

We arrive without incident and say our goodbyes to Debbie. We had quite a bit of time to kill, before our flight was scheduled to take off, so we snagged some WiFi at the McDonalds to kill time. The airplane was scheduled to leave at 10:22. At 10:15 Suzie woke me up from the computer and we ran to our gate. They were just selling our seats when we arrived. Luckily we were able to claim them and board the already crowded plane.

We had a brief stopover in Atlanta where we changed planes. This time we were not taking any chances and waited at the gate for our flight. The flight arrived late, but otherwise without incident. It was raining when we landed in Sarasota. But it was NOT snowing, so we were thrilled. It was only 52 degrees, which is unusually cold for this time of year, but to us it was warm and tropical.

We were greeted at the baggage claim by Kevin, our truck salesman. He drove us back to the dealership to get our new ride. Talk about customer service! Thanks Kevin!

Next, we headed over to Sue and Mary’s house to deliver still frozen, kielbasa that we had in our luggage. Sue and Mary are former Pittsburghers and sometimes crave the local flavors. They were pleasantly surprised, and we all went out to dinner to chat. I had a very difficult time parking the new truck. It rides so much higher than my little Colorado. The new one is just too wide and I can’t tell where any of the edges are. I could not drive it forward into a parking space, no matter how I tried! Finally I found a space that I could back into which was far away from other cars. I think it will take a lot of time and a lot of practice before I can just pull this monster into a parking space!

Day #75 – Cornplanter Road & Cards

Sarver PA

Snow in the country is different from snow in the city.  For starters, Debbie and Linda navigate their land on snow shoes and look forward to skiing when work is canceled.  There are fewer cars and “getting out” doesn’t seem to be as important.

We went for a walk in the afternoon, up Cornplanter Road.  We watched water flow under ice and around piles of snow.  We listened to snow falling from branches.  We were really glad it was temporary for us, but resisted gloating.

We played cards in the evening.  Linda and I team up against Debbie and Kelly for Hand and Foot.  It’s usually pretty cut-throat.  We pretend to play nice, but truth is, we’re all fiercely competitive.

Even though we came north for business, we enjoyed visiting with our friends.  We wished we’d had another day or two on the farm, but with more snow coming, we knew we had to leave.

Day #74 – Super Bowl Party

Sarver PA

Today, the streets were clear enough for us to set out for Debbie and Linda’s farm.  We went by way of Trader Joe’s (http://www.traderjoes.com), with lists from two families.  The streets in Forrest Hills were in good shape, as were those in Wilkensburg, but as soon as we crossed the border into Pittsburgh, we needed the four-wheel-drive.  The country roads to Sarver were better than the streets in the ‘Burgh!

Linda was out on her cross-country skis when we arrived, so we made ourselves to home until she returned.  Debbie arrived from her out-of-town trip; we all were soon joined by Lori and Beth, who arrived with bags of food. 

We watched the football game while noshing on home-made salsa, guacamole, and assorted cheeses.  Half-time gave Lori a chance to heat up home-made meatballs and sauce for pasta.  Yum.  After that, they presented Kelly and me with an ice cream cake, decorated with a truck and trailer.  We were so touched by their thoughtfulness and the creativity of the decorator.  It tasted pretty good, too – chocolate cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream.  I don’t remember much about the game, but I really enjoyed the food and the cats.

Beth took the truck after the game and festivities.  They sat in it for quite a while.  Kelly finally called them from her cell phone to ask if they needed help figuring out how to start it.