I've been away several days on a little vacation to our former home
in the Tampa Bay Florida area and a little side trip to St. Marys, Ga.
Central Florida is very busy this time of year due to the Florida State
Fair going on in Tampa, The Strawberry Fest In Plant City and spring
training baseball all over central and south Florida.
The only place we found to stay, with a dog, was in Ruskin just south
of Plant City on the west side of the bay, Pirate's Cove. A little fishing
camp. But it was nice and we had great time there.
You may know about Ruskin tomatoes from Publix. Tomatoes are
grown in winter and fields were full when we docked a boat there in the
1990's. We were too late to see any at all this trip and were told that
few farms were left. All went to Mexico!
Strawberries are still grown around Plant City and the festival was in full
swing. In fact the festival grounds has been expanded and some of the small
hometown feeling seemed lost. But we had our fill of shortcake!
All the above photos are of the fish camp area.
This the "good old boy" and my friend that maintained the camp.
The flower Above can not be I.D.
The following Photos are of the Strawberry Festival.
Good eats are everywhere.
Here is my Queen!
Good Stuff. They give away caps. They PAY me!
The peing zoo has turned chickin! Due to danger of an ecoli infection insurance
companies demanded that all be behind fences and everyone had to wash hands
when leaving. Also shown cows, pigs, rabbits.
The following are views of the world famous Parkesdale fruit stand.
Mr. Roy Parkes owned Parkes Farms and was a driving force behind the
Strawberry Festival, started his stand years ago and now is the only fruit stand
I know of that has a parking lot for tour buses. Mr. Parkes passed away several
years ago.
You can't get this guys CD's in stores. And neither can he!
Really he was quite good and was selling CD's. of real music.
The next stop , on the way home, was St. Marys, Ga.
St. Marys is located just north of Cumberland island and is one
of the oldest towns in Georgia. The National Parks Service runs
a ferry to the island two times a day and there is some seafood
industry there but mostly tourist trade and bed and breakfast
and restaurants.
We stayed at the Goodbread B&B. Each room was modeled after a movie
and it's stars. Ours was "Gone With The Wind".
These two views are of the parlor.
The next are of our room the "Rett & Scarlett"
Ain't she Sweet!
I could not sleep all night because of the noise Scarlett made!!
The Goodbread house.
Myrtice had a meeting with Ron Lance a cousin she had never seen on her mother's side.
Mr. Lance is a tug boat Capt. at the Kings Bay sub base. He is a very articulate man with
interesting stories about his work pushing subs around. He is active on face book and wishes
to know more about the Lance people. He knows very little. Look him up!
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