Tuesday, October 29, 2013

PICKLEBALL AND DINNER WITH LINDA AND MARK!

Sat, Oct 26 - We have now moved to Thousand Trails Peace River in Wauchula, FL for a couple of weeks.  We were surprised to see that improvements had been made to the two Pickleball courts.  The courts have been resurfaced and concrete extensions have been added to the ends of the courts so we no longer step off onto the dirt!  And a nice high fence was installed around the courts.

We had a group of eight playing on Saturday morning.  Mark and Linda O.


Opponents Ken and Nate.


Nice game!


Linda strikes a pose!!


Benches and a large shelter was built to shade players and spectators.  Here are the other four players:  Heady, Art, Faye and Krystal.  Unfortunately, did not get us in action!!


DINNER WITH LINDA AND MARK

We were surprised and delighted when Linda and Mark said they were leaving on Sunday and they would like to take us to dinner at a restaurant of our choice.  Just because!!  We chose Paul's Kitchen because they had not eaten there, and anyone who has ever been to Wauchula knows about Paul's Kitchen home cooked meals.


A sample of Paul's Kitchen home cooking.  I had read on line that we must try their Fried Green Tomatoes, so we started with the tomatoes as appetisers.

Meals included Soup and Salad and Entree.  Mark ordered the Steak and Shrimp Combo as his Entree.


All of the meals also came with choice of potato, black eyed peas and rice.


Just a note for your information!  We all had so much to eat that none of us had the soup although it came with the meal!

Thank you so much Linda and Mark for the treat and for being so nice!!  We will certainly miss you!

ANOTHER VISIT WITH TRACY; ENJOYING THE STABLES

Wed, Sept 23 - We had another delightful visit with Ken's daughter, Tracy at the ranch where she lives in Sanford, FL.  In an earlier article dated October 8, I mentioned that there were stables on the property housing about twenty horses.  Today we walked over to see some of the horses.

In the first stable were several beautiful small horses.  They are a particular breed but I can't remember.


Ken feeding a peppermint drop to one of the small horses.


In another stable, Ken and Tracy make friends with one of the show horses.




This collection of bridles will give you some idea of the number of horses stabled here.


Faye and Ken with a beautiful grey.




Saying Good Bye to us as we leave the stables.


Have you ever seen a treadmill for horses?  I noticed a note posted next to one of the stalls stating the amount of time the horse was scheduled to spend on the treadmill.  I thought that was curious!  As we left the stables we passed by the horse treadmill!  What an interesting apparatus!  And so BIG!!


When we returned to the main house, I excused myself to use the Powder Room to wash my hands after playing with the horses.  You will recall from my October 8 articlet that each room in the house had a different animal decor.  Well, this is the Zebra Room!


Before dinner, we enjoyed drinks in the sitting alcove in front of the house overlooking one of the pastures.  Beyond the pasture you can just barely see County Road 427.


Later we gathered in the Elephant Room for dinner.


Tracy had prepared another elegant and delicious meal.  This time it is Mussels and Clams Linguine with White Wine Sauce!  UUUMMMMMM!!


Dinner by candle light!


Thank you Tracy for entertaining us so royally!!

Saturday, October 19, 2013

AMAZING LOBSTER FEAST AT OUR CAMPSITE!!

Fri, Oct 18 - Almost every morning for the past two weeks, since we have been at TT Orlando, Pat, Barb and I would leave the Pickleball courts and meet at the refreshing (burrrrr) pool for Water Aerobics using my Billie Jo CD.  It was there that we met Bonnie who joined us in the water each morning.

Here we are trying to keep warm in that COLD COLD water!!  Faye, Karen joined us for one day, Barb, Bonnie, and Pat.


Yesterday (Thursday) morning, Bonnie mentioned that she had found out about a wholesale seafood outlet in Orlando where you could get fresh Maine Lobster.  She and her husband Clyde had bought some and had them for dinner the night before.  She said they were wonderful!!  The catch was:  You had to have a special license to deal with a wholesaler to be able to buy from the seafood outlet.  Bonnie had such a license because of her Bling Bling business and she offered to get some Lobsters for her new Water Aerobics friends!  Thus, a Lobster Feast was planned for Friday afternoon!!

Our Chef Mitch checks out the Lobster that Clyde and Bonnie had just picked up from the seafood outlet.  Barb watches in the background.  After seeing the Lobster, Mitch quickly made his decision to steam the Lobsters rather than putting them on the grill.


Happy hour while waiting for our Lobster:  Pat and John


Barb and Mitch.


Bonnie and Clyde.


Faye and Ken.


The Lobsters are ready!!  They look amazing!!!


The Lobster Feast is on!!  Lobster, Corn-On-The-Cob, Green Salad and Breads, followed by Bundt Cake and Coffee!  It was divine!!!


A feast on my plate!!


Thank you everyone for making this an AMAZING LOBSTER FEAST!!

BANG BANG SHRIMP AT LOCAL BONEFISH GRIL

Wed, Oct 16 - It's Wednesday!!  Bang Bang Shrimp Wednesday at the Bonefish Grill!!!  Only $5 all day!!  As we were driving home on Rt. 192 the other day, we noticed a Bonefish Grill on the right that was not there the last time we were in Florida in 2010!  It is just a few miles from our campground at TT Orlando!  We could not wait for Wednesday to get here!!

John and Pat joined us on Wednesday when we went out to Bonefish Grill.  It was the first time they had tried the Bang Bang Shrimp!  We each had an order of Shrimp and couples shared a salad to make it dinner.  It was really delicious as usual!!


Can't believe I didn't think about taking a picture until we had already eaten all of our Shrimp!!

PICKLEBALL HAPPY HOUR, ORLANDO, FL

Mon, Oct 14 - We have a really good group of Pickleball players here at TT Orlando even though it is still early in the season.  We figured it was time for a Pickleball Happy Hour at our site!!

Larry and Lee just checked in yesterday and played this morning.  We were delighted to have the newly weds at our Happy Hour (married January)!


Patty and Frank.  Frank is a new Pickleball player.  We have not gotten Patty out there yet, but Frank loves the game!


Amy and Terry are also newly weds (February) and we welcome them into the Pickleball group!!


We met Rick and Eve out west at TT Wilderness Lakes and again at TT Chesapeake Bay earlier this year.  They are very active around the campground, playing Pickleball, and getting people together for Water Volley Ball and Fast Track!


We had met Diane and Jerry earlier, at TT Verde Valley, I think!  Good to run into them again.


And Ken and Faye.  Lots of fun to have the group over for Happy Hour and get to know everybody better!!



Saturday, October 12, 2013

LOTS OF PICKLEBALL AT TT ORLANDO!!

The group of Pickleball players has been getting together every morning for a few good games!!  Here is some of the action!!

Phil and Frank


Paul and Ken


Paul and Barb


Phil and Mitch


Frank and Pat reaching for a high ball



John and Ken



Ken and Faye


Ken, Faye, Pat and Mitch after their game!



John was feeling artistic and created this sculpture!!!  I decided to use John's creation to separate the action that took place on a different day.




We had three new players today.  I will point them out as I come to them.

Diane and Ken



New player Alex and Pat


Barb and Rick and Alex and Pat


 Barb shows new player Terry some of her winning moves.


Eve is playing with Terry's wife Amy, also a new player.


Phil and John


Alex and Rick



Phil and John, Alex and Rick during match play


Frank and Pat