"Gulfing it" after Texas

View of the boat harbor from "The Freezer" Tiki Bar, Homossassa, FL

Our “Winter Texan” experience ended on Thursday, January 23^rd; we moved our departure up a day because of weather concerns.  Forecasts for Southeast Texas were for pretty nasty weather conditions setting in Thursday night and on into Friday.  So we high-tailed it out of there and headed for Cajun Land, specifically the KOA near Lafayette.  This was originally supposed to be a one-night stop on the way to Florida.  But since we got there a day early, we were now planning on staying two nights to “keep on schedule”… hey, retired folks have “schedules” too, really we do! 

Anyhow, unusually cold and surly winter weather quickly descended, not only on Southeast Texas that Thursday evening, but also on pretty much all of Louisiana, including our temporary home in Lafayette.  It sleeted/snowed/icy-rained all of Thursday night and most of Friday.  Interstate 10, which ran West-East just North of our KOA, was a virtual “parking lot” by Friday morning; the many bridges over the Louisiana bayous were sheets of ice and actually closed for much of Friday, leaving hundreds of commercial trucks at a standstill out on the freeway.  

Wintry weather in South Central LA, usually an oxymoron!

We extended our stay to now include Saturday night as well, but by Friday afternoon and on into Saturday we were able to get out and enjoy some of the local sights and cuisine, even while the freeway was still all clogged up.  At Prejean’s, a local eatery we remembered from a  previous visit some 10-11 years ago, the fare included all kinds of Cajun dishes, including alligator and frog’s legs.  Frog tastes a lot like Chicken!

By Sunday morning (Jan 26^th), the roads had cleared and we were ready to head out for Florida, first stop another KOA in Chattahoochee in the Western Panhandle. This was just an overnighter, nothing special about the park or area, except it had a Really COOL name!  I mean there must be a song about Chattahoochee; very poetic sounding as it is.  Oh yeah, here's Alan Jackson's opening on one song:  

Well, way down yonder on the Chattahoochee
It gets hotter than a hoochie coochie.    

Okay, that song is actually about a river of the same name in Georgia; but the point is Chattahoochie is a helluva poetic sounding name!  Case closed.  Bet Alan made a couple million bucks on that name/song.

Home.. for a night.. in Chattahoochie, FL - Alas, no Alan Jackson sightings here!

Monday, we were off to our home for a week at Homosassa River RV Park on the Florida Gulf, some 80 miles north of the Tampa Bay area, and somewhere out in the middle of “nowhere”, relatively speaking.  We were expecting pristine sandy beaches, much as we’d found on the Texas gulf, only to belatedly discover that you had to go further South, to Tampa and beyond, for those kinds of things.  So, NO quality beach time, but still some reasons to hang around the Florida Gulf for at least a week. 

One reason was a concert by old Willie Nelson down in the Tampa Bay area that Wednesday night.  We headed down, went to a very good concert (Willie can still “bring it” at age 80), stayed the night there in a hotel, toured the Tampa area (hey, they actually have beaches there!) the next morning, then headed back to Homosassa later in the day. 

Old Willie, still "bringing it" at age 80!

 Second good thing  was a wildlife preserve in a natural setting along a coastal spring and river just a stone’s throw down the road from our RV Park in Homosassa.  We went there on the weekend before bugging out of the area, and greatly enjoyed the experience.  There was an alligator area, seven of those prehistoric looking creatures lounging around on the banks of the river and swimming lazily in the water;  and a whole flock of pink flamingos... gorgeous birds... also a hippopotamus who was 50 years old and weighed 3 Tons; that’s 6,000 pounds of mammoth mammal!

Homosassa Wildlife Preserve

Nice docile creatures these alligators are... okay, one's flashing teeth, but harmless really!

If you see this guy heading toward you, swim (or paddle) away.. FAST!

Flamingos at Homosassa Wilflife Preserve

 And the strangest animals of them all, water mammals as well, were the Manatee.  They are also prehistoric looking creatures, with a paddle tail, a snout.. and a snort.. like a hog’s, and massive bodies that looked like big rocks in the water as they floated around in the shallow river.  The park had a half dozen Manatees in captivity; and there were dozens more wild ones out in the open water surrounding the park.

Third good thing during our stay was the discovery of a little riverside bar/eating joint that served up outrageously good fresh seafood, especially boiled shrimp.  On checking in at the RV park, I’d asked the young woman working the desk where we could find good seafood in the area.  Without hesitation, she recommended this place down on the river called “The Freezer”; said they took no credit cards (imagine that!)… that is “Cash Only”, but worth it (her words, later ours). 

We tried it for the first time that Friday and weren’t disappointed.  I had steamed mussels, Lanie went with the featured steamed shrimp… both were excellent; so much so that we went back… TWICE MORE… on Sunday, once for a pre-Super Bowl lunch, then again at halftime for takeout shrimp to help deal with the “shock” of the Bronco’s being trampled by the Seahawks.   I mean you had to see this joint to believe it, a thatch-roofed tavern… they call them “Tiki Bars” down in these parts... with a small dimly lighted bar that opened out into a gorgeous view of the bay/harbor.  It was our new favorite “dive bar” (no pun intended)! 

Delicious fresh seafood from the "Freezer", Homosassa, FL

However, despite old Willie singing nearby in Tampa, wildlife preserve/park, and righteous seafood at “The Freezer”, we’d worn out reasons to stay there on the Florida Gulf Coast, more specifically Homosassa, any longer.  We’d originally planned a two week stay, but re-scheduled the second week to include, instead, short stays at Orlando and Cape Canaveral.   One thing driving us outta there (Homosassa) earlier was the fact that, for probably the first time in all our travels and temporary homes since July, we were in an “OLD RETIRED FOLKS” park!  I mean there were old farts riding around in golf carts and playing some strange kind of game whereby they putted golf balls down the paved park lanes… WHY...?... I’m still not sure of that.

 When we had first pulled in the previous Monday, a foursome was out on the” 2^nd fairway”/park road directly in front of our truck and trailer as we negotiated the paved “fairway” down to our assigned space.  They grudgingly moved out of the way as we approached, and I  politely dodged around their golf balls on my way.  However, by Friday, after several previous,dodging tours down the “golf ball studded fairway”, I had nearly run out of patience (I "rarely" do that), and thus felt compelled to suddenly swerve out of the way of an errant leaf directly in our path; Oops!... “accidentally” ran right over one of the golf balls littering our fairway/road, as we drove back to our site one afternoon… Big Bertha (the Chevy Diesel), squashed that sucker flat!  Guess that poor guy had to pick up on that hole!

So that’s about it on our Florida Gulf experience folks, some good, some bad, some just so-so, but all part of our new, retired life! What time is it anyhow?  Hey, it’s 5 o’clock somewhere!  Let’s head to the “Freezer”!

Hanging at the "Freezer", Homosassas, FL, somewhere near (enough to)  5 o'clock!