Travels with Snowbirds 2012 Bushnell FL

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Sunday January 8, 2012

Florilow Oaks, Bushnell, FL

I wasn’t going to write today, being Sunday and a day of rest, but a few fun things happened that I wanted to record.

I fell asleep last night watching Little Fockers….at 10:00 – way too early for me, so, I woke up at 3, also way too early. I fell back to sleep at some point, after listening to the birds and extra long freight trains that pass closely by.

I woke with a startle at 7:30 with Winston pawing at me, time to go out. There was nobody up and about this morning, we had a peaceful walk in the still fog.

When I heard from Judy B, she had a fitful night as well, and did not want to go visit the Manatees as we had planned, so we called it a day of rest. But, we decided to take a goonie adventure ride. Judy graciously offered to allow Winston to come along, so at 3:30 we headed out. First stop was to scope out the parking lot situation at the “largest flea market in FL” Sumter Farmers Market in nearby Webster. Today there was no one. Tomorrow there will be thousands. We drove around enough to figure out another way in landing us exactly at the parking lot we wanted to be near. Winston and Charlie got along very well. Judy C had directed us to a local ‘joint’ restaurant as a place for dinner. We both remembered some of the directions and the name of the restaurant, River Ratz, which wasn’t available on either Garmin or phone based Google maps. So we winged it, and found it on the first try!!!! Judy zipped in, lined up her rig near what looked like a truck with small trailer attached that looked like it belonged to a band. River Rats is, obviously, on a river and also served as a canoe/kayak drop off/haul out. (Picture herein) The 5 piece excellent Bluegrass band was playing on a patio overlooking the restaurant and river. We walked in to the porch of the metal walled structure, and it sure smelled good. We easily found a seat on another porch, and were greeted by the smiley waitress with menus as she took our drink orders – 2 Seagram’s Wine Coolers. We had a tough time selecting from the busy menu. I always ask what they are known for, and catfish was recommended. I chose cheese grits and salad as my 2 sides. Judy also ordered the catfish (both fried, we could have chosen from blackened, grilled or fried) with eggplant casserole and salad as well, preceded by onion rings.

Two HUGE pieces of white flaky cornmeal battered catfish filets with equally large sides and 2 pieces of lightly toasted buttered Italian bread. I ate all of mine except the bread, Judy had some left for doggie bag. Total plus tip, $32. Not bad for great atmosphere, great bluegrass music, great food.

Back to Judy’s rig and the dogs were fine. Winston wanted to escape and run away, but Judy’s rig was in perfect shape. We couldn’t tell if Winston barked the whole time, it didn’t matter – the music would have drowned all noise out anyway.

Judy had an idea. Rather than us take both dogs in her rig tomorrow and leave them parked out in the sun with the generator on and air conditioner on, why not leave them both in my rig back at the campground in the shade with the A/C on as white noise. We agreed we had to give it a test out, so after we got ‘home’ and I walked and fed Winston, Charlie came over and Judy and I went for a walk around the block. Winston barked once or twice, and then was silent. We were gone maybe 10 minutes and all was perfect when we got back. So, we will get up early tomorrow, leave here at 8:30 with both dogs here and be gone 2 or 3 hours and hope for the best.

Time to sign out for the day, I have 2 DVDs to watch before Desperate Housewives (Fur (seems strange already) and Trial by Jury) both courtesy of the Florilow Oaks library.

Kat out

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Photos

River Ratz
a great dinner at a very 'locals only' place.

Comments

[Kathy Everett]

great find
What a great find for you guys for lunch, I love blue grass music. Hope the dogs do well for you.