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  • More family

    January 4, 2014 Author: jbh
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    Today Mom’s sisters Barbara, Linda, Linda’s husband Jeff and assorted children and the star of the show, Grandma Alice, came to visit.

    As I’m sure you suspect, there’s a story.

    Mom got a text from Barbara saying they’d show up here at Lake Louisa SP this evening. Not a clue of  actual what time, just in the evening.

    So dinner had to happen fast. Have you tried to caramelize onions fast? Can it be done? Eventually we had onion soup, non-caramelized, complete with toasted and buttered baguettes. And it was mightily good, even if not caramelized. And in the process we burned the first batch of batch of baguettes, slopped butter on the backup baguettes and soldiered on.

    Eventually we got a call from Barbara saying that the rangers wouldn’t let them into the park, which had closed about an hour earlier. They could sit in the parking lot but not enter. Mom’s not one to be easily deterred so she set off down the road. I’m a little more practical so I put out the fire, closed the door and grabbed a flashlight.

    Lake Louisa ranger, whoever you are, when you learned that Mom was walking 3.5 miles down the road to see her family and let them in, may you be truly blessed.

     

  • Land O’Lakes to Lake Louisa SP

    January 2, 2014 Author: jbh
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    Today we made the big move all of 72 miles to central Florida so the family could infest us…and they surely did. Oreo hid under the couch, Smokey loved the attention and Tigger howled. A good time was had by all. Mom’s son, DIL and grandchirren showed up soon after we got to the park.

    The drive over was fairly uneventful. We rolled out of LOL up I-75 to the Brooksville exit. More often than not Interstates scare the bejeebies out of us; there’s thick traffic at 70+ mph and if anyone screws up we’re all dead. But we made it and headed east on SR 50 across the Green Swamp.

    We saw pine trees. Cows. Pine trees. Cows. Cypress! Cows. Pine trees.  Repeat. But at least we could proceed at the stately speed of 60 mph and relax.

    We eventually got into Clermont. In decades past Clermont was simply the intersection of US 27 and SR 50, a tiny town, and the only thing taller than one story was the Citrus Tower. The land as far as the eye could see was covered in orange trees.  A couple of freezes, high-rollin’ developers and today the land as far as the eye can see is covered in rooftops.

    Found the Winn-Dixie complete with likker store and came out into impending doom and gloom. Mom went to get some Kentucky Fried Colonel while I put things away and she made it back just as the skies opened up. I didn’t want to drive in it so we sat there and puttered around on the net for a little while.

    Eventually pulled out toward Lake Louisa SP, checked in and drove just about forever around to the campsites. Lake Louisa SP is a former grove…square miles of what was once one grove. Amazing.

    The plan is to sit a couple of days in case any more family sees fit to visit, then head down Lakeland and Tampa to get some mechanical work done.

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