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.