We left the Wal Mart about 11 on Wednesday morning, started driving south on I-75. Weather wasn’t very good, lots of rain as we were driving, and we were amazed at some of the downed trees we passed. The storm must have raged all around us last night, reports of tornadoes west,east and north of where we stayed, 59 people were killed, and had to have strong winds south to have the trees down that we saw. Our RV didn’t even rock last night, someone was sure watching over us!
Ended up at a RV park in Valdosta, GA called the River Park. Nice place, $26, electric, water, sewer and cable. Relaxed for the evening after fighting all that wind on the road.
Woke up to a nice morning, it was cool last night, but it warmed up nice as we drove on. Took I-75 into Florida, then the Florida Turnpike to Clermont where we visited the Lakeridge Winery. Nice tour, tasted a few wines, Lisa got a couple bottles and I picked up a bottle of port. Left there and drove to the Bradenton area and spent the night at the Frog Creek RV park.
Friday morning we left Frog Creek, which was a very nice park, nothing fancy but very comfortable, and drove to the Red Barn Flea Market in Bradenton. Don’t, and I repeat, don’t try to park a 29’ RV in the parking lot there! Ended up parking in a cross aisle blocking a fire hydrant just to get enough room for the rig. Typical flea market stuff, I did have a good chicken burrito though. Haven’t heard from Bode, tried calling him again and he hasn’t called back, so we drove down to Punta Gorda and checked in for a couple nights into Alligator Park. This one is bigger than Frog Creek, and calls itself a “resident owned over 55” park. I just make the over 55 part seeing as I turned 56 last Sunday.
After setting up, we took a cab into Punta Gorda and wandered the town. It’s a quaint older village/town right on the water, Peace River I believe it’s called. This place was hit hard by Hurricane Charlie a few years back, and is still in the process of rebuilding. There are many empty lots, and some new construction going on. Walked all the way down to Fisherman’s Village, some nice stores and restaurants there. Had a pint in Harpoon Harry’s at the end of the dock, watched the sunset and a couple dolphins swimming around.
Afterwards we walked back into town and made our way over to the Celtic Ray where Paul, Peg and Richie are playing. Ordered a couple Smithwick’s, Lisa got a “toastie” and some colcannon and was in seventh heaven :-) Made our way outside where the band was setting up, Paul got us a table right in front, and we listened to the band play. They started at 8 and didn’t quit til after 11! A good crowd, and for once, us Michigan people outnumbered the Ohio people (not counting the band of course). A great show, even heard a few new numbers – Yesterday from the Beatles for one. Great weather tonight too, it's about 70 and dry, much better than what's back home. Brandie keeps us in the know on the weather there.
Paul introduced us to Pat, the new owner, nice guy, he even treated us to a bottle of champagne. Christine arrived about 9, she just flew in for the weekend, and the Rooster is here til the 19th. We hung around til 11:30 or so, and then called a cab to get us back to the park and hit the hay.
More later……………………
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