Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

The Tour, the Jack, the Carts and the Week-End

Thursday –Sunday                                                         Most Recent Posts:
February 25-28, 2016                                                    A Contemplative Walk By the River
Koreshan State Historic Site                                          Time Off for a Beach Break at Lover’s Key
Estero, Florida

 

THURSDAY

 

IMG_8072

Today I walked the path over to the settlement to take the 10am tour.  I didn’t remember that it starts just off the parking lot and so I went directly to the Art Building.  When I got there three people were sitting inside talking all about the Koreshans so I sat down to listen.  What an interesting conversation.  It appears I had stumbled on one of the Koreshan descendents who was being taken on a private tour by the most knowledgable docent and by the local College history professor who wrote the book I talked about yesterday The Allure of Immortality.  What a lucky coincidence!  Wish I had read the book already.  I wasn’t able to go on this private tour obviously but it was very interesting listening to these 3 knowledgable people talking about the members of the Koreshan Unity as if they were friends they had just seen not too long ago. 

As they are leaving the ARt Building for the tour, in walks the public tour group which met out front and has gone over a lot of the basic history already.  Luckily I already know that.  But they come in and sit down in the Art Hall where the building and its contents are discussed.  Joan is the volunteer leading the tour.  I find out that  she is here for two months and does similar two month stints at other Florida State Parks for two months each before moving north to Volunteer in Michigan State Parks.   That’s another way to full time.

Joan takes us around to most of the buildings and talked about each one.  The picture above is the Domkohler House,  a replica of the  original home on the property when the Koreshans purchased it from Gustave Damkohler in 1893.

 

IMG_8075

This bedroom belonged to one fo the Planetary Court Sisters.  They ran the business end of the group and had individual rooms rather than beds in the women’s dormatories.  You can tell from the furnishings which they brought with them from Chicago that they were upper class and upper middle class women trying to maintain their status at the turn of the 20th century in a Florida swamp..

 

After the tour, I stop by the Cowboy Cafe which operates on Thursdays from 11am until all the food is gone. I got there just in time, about 11:45. They use recipes from the Florida Cracker Cowboys of the 1800s. I was so busy watching their work and eating their samples that I didn’t take one picture. It’s similar to the Sunday Cast Iron kitchen although at the Cowboy Cafe, they have beans and cornbread along with Johnny cakes and peach crisp.

When I return David is work on fixing the control box to solder the base for the fuse back onto the board.  The fuse melted and also melted the solder holding the fuse base on the board which is why it had to be repaired before we can go on to fixing the jack.

 

IMG_8083

 

Very fine detailed soldering work.

IMG_8085

Neither of us remembered that the Cowboy Cafe was on Thursdays or I’m sure David would have gone over.  The tour just happened luckily to end there.

 

 

FRIDAY

 

IMG_8088

 

The two new solenoids ordered, since we have already replaced the back two but not the front two, arrived yesterday.  With the board fixed, David can now install the solenoid for the right jack and we are  hoping that will fix things as it did with the other two problem jacks in the back a few years ago. 

BUT, it didn’t.  The jack will still not go down. So now he has to call HWH back to find out what next.   Of course it’s Friday afternoon and they will take our number and call us back.  That means Monday no doubt.

 

Our new beach and laundry cart comes today and David quickly puts it together. Love those big wide beach tires.   I’ll give it the test run tomorrow taking it to the campground laundry.

 

 

This picture on the box shows what will be one of its major uses for us.  No more lugging chairs, umbrella, cooler, towels, bags with sunscreen, books etc.  They all fit on the cart.

 

IMG_8096

 

Of course there is only so much storage room so when one thing comes in, another has to go out.  I’m trying to figure out how to reorganize to accomodate the bigger cart.  We have a smaller one that wasn’t useful at the beach and we didn’t use it much for anything else..  We plan to pass that on to someone else.  Probably at the laundry tomorrow.

 

IMG_8092

 

 

 

SATURDAY

 

This morning I’m off to do the laundry carting everything over easily in my new cart. 

 

 

Here it is beside its little brother who is being left for adoption with a free sign on its handle.

IMG_8095

 

In the afternoon we decide to do something fun after all these jack problems and the laundry.  We take in our second movie in the 5 years we’ve been on the road.  It took us 3 years on the road to take in a movie in Bar Harbor Maine in July 0f 2013.  That first one included the infamous world’s absolutely worst pizza.  You can find it here if you want to know what to avoid.

 

It’s taken us another 3 years to decide to go see a second movie.  This one is The Woman in the Van starring Maggie Smith and we went solely and completely to see her and to have a giant barrel of movie house popcorn.  Maggie Smith did an outstanding job as we knew she would portraying this aging quirky woman who parks her van in the driveway of a London Playwrite for 15 years.  The movie wasn’t a good enough vehicle for her in my estimation and our popcorn was much better than the $7.50 a barrel movie popcorn.  So I imagine it will be at least another 3 years before we forget enough about going to the movies to do it again.

When we come back in the park and ask about mail we find that David’s belated birthday gift has arrived.  Carrie sent David a card with a “gift certificate” for the final season of Downton Abbey. We have a hard time making sure that we always have a TV signal on Sunday nights so we can see Downton so a couple of years ago, Carrie began giving us the DVD so we could watch it whenever we like.  But it isn’t released until late January.  So as soon as it came out Carrie sent it to her dad.  We look forward to watching more of Maggie Smith and the rest of the cast.   THANK YOU CARRIE!!

 

 

 

SUNDAY

 

Today is Sunday and that means our last Farmer’s Market and the Cast Iron Cafe.  On the way David’s eagle eye notices there are blossoms on the Washingtonian Palms.

 

 

 

IMG_8104

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_8105

 

 

IMG_8106

 

 

 

IMG_8110

 

IMG_8111

 

 

Plant City strawberries are finally availabale.  The Strawberry Festival is too far for us to visit but it’s going on this week in Plant City Florida.

 

David can’t decide between these two mangos so he buys them both. $1 each.

 

After we get the veggies I want to stroll over to the Gopher Tortoise’s back door near the grave of the only Koreshan buried on the current Koreshan grounds.  There are two small graveyards but they are both on property that was sold before the state took over what is now the state park.

We’ve always seen the tortoise at his front door which is in the mound on the far end of the grounds but this year there is green foliage over the entrance indicating that he has not been going in and out.  I was really thrilled to find him here today.

You can see him in the middle of the picture above the red arrow.

IMG_8121A

IMG_8116

 

IMG_8122

 

Yes I know, lots of pictures.  I like him!

IMG_8123

 

Also on our way to the Cowboy Cafe we see our little red cart being pulled by someone else.  Those give aways always work.

 

 

IMG_8132

 

When we arrive at the cafe they are cutting the last of the bread.  They have honey butter to spread on it.

 

 

Pancakes are on the wood stove.

 

There is a bread in the cast iron pot and coals to put over it are getting hot.

IMG_8136

 

This they tell us is bread pudding.  Looks  like a cobbler to me.

IMG_8139

 

Here’s the menu for today.  We taste the bread pudding, the buckwheat pancakes, the white bread

 

People are gathering around for the bread pudding.  Look who is up in the front.

 

IMG_8142

 

They call these cat faced biscuits.  They cook in a cast iron skillet, in the cast iron stove oven and are served with gravy of course.

 

After all those Cast Iron Cafe snacks we don’t need lunch so David decides to take a shower and get his hair cut.


Before the stem cell transplant I had cut his hair for years.  But afterwards his hair had changed and become soft but wiry if that makes sense and I couldn’t layer it in the same way I had before.   So he went to a hairdresser and hated the way she did it.  So I was rehired and we’re hoping for the best.

 

 

Here it is.  Not great but better than the $25 haircut that he hated and Free.

17 comments:

  1. Great luck with the tour info. Nice farmers market also and also happy someone is enjoying you old cart. Nice post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's amazing how much there is to do at that park -- you guys certainly take advantage of it all! I would definitely enjoy the historic tours. Koreshan was such an interesting (albeit somewhat whacko) community. We don't go to many movies, either -- I think we've been to two in three years on the road. But we do love renting from RedBox occasionally—$1.50 for a movie, comfortable on our sofa, and our own popcorn. And in my p.j.'s. Can't beat it. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dang, you are almost up to date. How do you do that? ;)

    Oh what fun to have gone on the private tour but looks like the other one is good too. I might consider volunteering like that if I ever can afford to retire.

    Sure is nice to have a handy man around. I like the cart, and the donation idea. Haven't been to a movie theater in, can't remember how long. I so rarely watch movies and don't own a TV. The palm blossoms are amazing and so is the market and Cafe. You two sure know how to find the good eats.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Cast Iron Cafe sounds like a lot of fun. Food looks good too! I'm a huge Downton Abbey fan as well, but never really caught the first season. Have to rent a DVD at some point to get the back story. David's haircut looks fine!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well, it appears you two are getting many chores taken care of while you are at Koreshan;o)) Love that there is a farmer's market right at the campground...so convenient!! The picture of David installing the solenoids looks like Winnona is swallowing him whole:o)) Sure hope you find the root cause of the jacks issue!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. The finale for Downton Abbey is this coming Sunday. Last show of the last season. Sniff. Whatever shall we do without it?

    ReplyDelete
  7. We're Downton Abbey fans (addicts) too and have all the DVDs. We're currently watching season six, but only allowing ourselves one episode per week, trying to make it last and sad that it's the end. We love British shows (and Dame Maggie Smith).

    It sure is hard trying to find places to store things in an RV. It's even harder to remember where we've stored things. Short term memory loss? What's that? :cD

    ReplyDelete
  8. I do believe the last movie I saw in a theater was Gorillas in the Mist. I like my own popcorn better. Can't beat real melted butter. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  9. The one and only of the British series I was ever "in to" was The Forsythe Saga. That gave me enough of the caste system in British society that I've never wanted to watch another.

    David certainly does have an eagle eye - I'm not sure I could see those blossoms from a distance. Very beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  10. How wonderful to "stumble" upon that conversation - such a perfect addition to the official tour. I love all the interesting and yummy things happening at that park! So funny you saw your donated cart with its new owners :-)))) Thanks for the tortoise pics, definitely a favorite. Hope that jack problem gets fixed soon, it seems like David has already done so much! We went to our second movie in 9 months and loved it. It was one of the reasons we came to Santa Fe early so we didn't miss it again :-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Those Washingtonian palms always remind me of Dr. Seuss books and the Cat in the Hat books. You are correct, if I had known it was time for the Cowboy Cafe, I would have taken a break from the service job. My kind of cooking in cast iron, simple things that can be cooked with a skillet and coals. Good to know when the power is out for a week or so as it was at times in Virginia. Really looking forward to last season of Downton Abbey - Amazing what a wonderful team of professionals can produce to take us back to a to another time and place to see what life was like for them. I guess this is for history lovers like me.

    ReplyDelete
  12. The description of the food at the Cast Iron Cafe makes me hungry. Wish I could have been there. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Lucky you to get there in time for a "private" listen to the other tour. The new laundry/beach cart is wonderful! I think you'll love it best for the beach. If I lived near the beach a cart would be a must! All those sample at the Cowboy Cafe look so good. Rustic cooking always attracts me. I could use a good farmers market.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I would be right next to David for the bread pudding line! Im sure you felt happy seeing your donation found a home, and you had a big smile. I have not been to a farmers market since South Dakota.
    We are so lucky, our husbands are skilled handyman.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Dad's looking good! I like the haircut. Neat to see your red give-a-way in use...may get more use with them than you. The new cart looks great. Neat tour amd that you got to see the author of the book. Glad you got Downton and enjoy it!! Movie popcorn...I can't remember the last time... Yummy mangoes at market. I would have bought both too :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hey, where's the sourdough bread and the peach cobbler? I was looking forward to a little vicarious gluttony!

    ReplyDelete

Your comments are the best part of this blog for me.
I LOVE hearing from you!