Well I've been away from this keyboard for the past three days and what a fun filled adventure we had with long time neighbors, friends and the third couple of the Cool Peoples Club(which is what we call ourselves) the Tracy's at their new beautiful house in the gated community near San Antonio which is just a bump in the road from Dade City. It's about an hour north of Seminole. We ate, visited new places, played games as well the girls shopped and we men were active in the huge club pool an on the bike trails as well as I introduced them to pickle ball as well as had a game of Bocce.
We left on Thursday after lunch with our bikes tied down in the back of the truck. The new cover rolls up which allows me to haul larger items thus we stood the bikes for Dan and I as the girls weren't into biking since Nancy had a broken toe. The trip was uneventful both ways but the traffic is unbelievable on the interstates with so many folks moving to Florida. We lounged around and and had some very tasty hor'derves which Kathryn is a marvel at making along with some fruit of the vine while we waited for the chicken dish to bake. They have a beautiful one story 3/2 house in a gated community which is a golf country club right off I-75 which makes for easy traveling.
The next day we took a trip to the Bushnell area and then over to the Villages which is near Ocala. Well this place or city is a modern version of Disneyland in my opinion except its for 55 and older folks who live there. There are cities within the place which is huge and the designer was very smart in deciding to make everything accessible by golf cart. The golf cart roadways are divided with tunnels underneath the main roadway for cars and trucks. It's the main form of transportation throughout the Villages. The folks who support and work in the shoppes and eateries are young people who live outside the area but a charter school was built within the area so they could put their kids in school. What a genius idea and everyone is so polite and almost thrilled to be serving the older community with every kind of professional service available as well. The area is covered in flowers, rec. pavilions and the landscaping is beautiful and we finally found a place with pickle ball courts as that is one of their main sports and attractions. There is 184 pickle ball courts all professionally constructed as well as hundreds of golf courts and tennis courts.
It's a unique way of spending your kid's inheritance while living in a rather safe and secure environment with all of the amenities and not having to drive on the highways except in your own private golf cart of which there are thousands at any one time on the road or parked wherever at restaurants, shopping places and movie theaters. This place is a city within a city and no crime that I've heard of with the age restrictions. We saw one billboard where in the past 5 day's over 50 closing on new residents houses into the Village and what states they came from, amazing that many people a week are joining this lifestyle.
We made a stop at a blueberry winery on the way home near Bushnell and tasted some fruit of the vine as well as picked a gallon bucket of berries. They were huge at at 20 bucks a gallon a great price. The girls made a huge cobbler for our dessert with vanilla ice cream after a delicious supper of Mexican cuisine Kathryn had prepared ahead of time which baked while we made guacamole and salsa. I must say I added a few pounds to the spare tire while away but it was good doing so. We played dominoes, Oh -ell( which is a bidding card game) and watched the Ray's play good one game and then awful the next time. The girls did some outlet mall shopping on Saturday while we guys had the day to ourselves being active. We took a side trip into this small town called San Antonio for a lunch at Poncho Via which is a local Mexican eatery and renown for its food and ambiance. It looks like it was transported from south of the Rio Grande right down to its waiters who were very friendly and the salsa was out of this world with two separated kinds; one for the faint at heart and one with the iron mouth which I loved. We went through 4 bowels of the salsa before chowing down on our tostadas which were delicious to say the least with real refried beans and rice all for 6.25 a plate, yeow!!!
We were wanting to get back by 3'ish as we had the family coming over for the Kentucky Derby Race around 4'ish. We made a stop at Sam's to fill up and get fresh hamburger and buns and made it home a little after 4 after dropping the Botbyl's off. They eventually came and watched the race with us as well and ate as well. I grilled burgers and GG had Greek potato salad to accompany as well. The vino was once again flowing for some. Eric, GG and Betsy came as well as Dan and Carol so we all had our picks who would win. Betsy always picks the 5 horse and she was right this time and it was a muddy track but this horse was as clean as if it was a dry track which it led throughout the race. This maybe another triple crown winner. Well after Nancy baked cookies and they had their fill everyone left by 9'ish. I was ready for a hot shower and some horizontal lab as we travel to Tampa this morning to be apart of our grandson Gabriel's baptism at Element Church. What a momentous occasion for him and his father as our son Bobby will baptize him, LATER
