2015 Florida Trip – Day 22 – Waters Edge RV Park & We're Home

It took us about two hours to make the 90 mile trip from Riverside RV Park near Port Charlotte to Waters Edge RV Park about ten miles SE of Okeechobee.  We went from a campground with 500 sites to one with 29 and containing the same managers and three rigs that were here last year when we were.

As a refresher of this very nice park, here are a few shots that I took last year.

This year we are one row closer to the lake and oriented such that we have a lot more shade.  This is a shot from the front of our site toward the lake which is behind the dike.  The visible water is the “ditch” that surrounds much of the lake.

I took this shot of a couple enjoying the sunset at a water-view site.

While I don’t like a campground that packs you in like sardines, I find that being closer than we were at Riverside encourages more conversation with your neighbors.  If you are looking for a small laid back and friendly park to spend some winter months or if you want a nice home base for fishing Lake Okeechobee, this may be the place for you.  Since it was built as a Class A only park, there are neither a laundry nor shower facilities at the resort.  It is 10 miles from the town of Okeechobee and a great value for south Florida - likely due to the remote location.

We started home on 1/24 and for the first 9000 miles of travel, it didn't occur to us that Bev could raise the foot rest on her seat while traveling - her she is with her assistants doing their navigator duties.

We got home on 1/25 and woke up to this on 1/27.

While no where near the events in New England, it's still a long way from the Florida shots above and the 80 degree temp the day before we left - easy to understand snowbirds.  I will continue to report on our trip for four more posts.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/17/15 - 1/27/15 event dates

2015 Florida Trip – Day 23 – Salmon Cakes

We brought some frozen King Salmon tail pieces from home that we had purchased in Wheeling WV at $7/lb. and there was a unanimous decision to turn it into salmon cakes (salmon patties in my family) using the recipe from our previous batch.  Wow, how time flies as it had been July, 2011 when last we made them and I had saved the same Ina Garten recipe twice from fellow bloggers who had made them since then.

After weighing the salmon and discovering we had two pounds, we decided to cook it all, eat half and use the other half for the cakes in a day or two.  Since we had some blackening seasoning with us, we used it for the first meal along with some salad - note the watermelon radish.

Bear in mind that we all grew up eating salmon cakes made from the canned fish and usually topped with ketchup and this may have been Pat’s first ever from fresh salmon.  Rather than repeat Ina’s recipe, I’ll just provide the link from our last time which includes the original recipe and how we made a larger amount - I used a pound of salmon for this run so I'd have left overs.

Just as last time, they were very good and since we didn’t have sauce ingredients, we ate them unadorned .

And for breakfast the next day, it was a toasted English muffin, the cakes reheated in the micro wave topped with baby Swiss cheese, and poached eggs.

These were fantastic and almost inspired me to whip up some Hollandaise for the next morning.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/18 & 1/19/15 meal dates

2015 Florida Trip – Day 20 – Fisherman’s Village

During our South Florida stay, Pat and Bev had been over to Fisherman’s Village couple of times to shop and eat and they wanted to be sure I ate at the Village Fish Market before we left town.  Fisherman’s Village is a pretty good sized open air mall located beside the marina in Punta Gorda with the first floor lined with shops and restaurants and the second floor occupied by vacation villas.

The Village Fish Market bills itself as serving New England Style Seafood and the menu seemed to support that.  As I often do, when it’s available, I check out the online menu before heading to the restaurant and I often know what I plan to order when I leave home.

It was cool and cloudy so we chose to eat inside but were seated at a window-side table that had a nice view of the water.  This shot is from our table back toward the entrance.

After my home review of the menu, I noticed two things that were unique – Swai, which I had never heard of, and Smelts, which I had heard of but never eaten.  In order to try both, I ordered the fried Fisherman’s Platter with three items – Smelts, Swai, and Cod.

The Smelts are the little things in the middle and they had been cleaned and the heads removed – you just eat the whole thing.  Everything was good and I could tell little difference between the Swai and the Cod.  I thought the onion rings were very good and made sure I ate all of them.  I’m pretty sure everything we had was hand breaded at the restaurant and Bev thought her fried oysters were delicious as was her mac and cheese.

This was their third time to eat there and based upon my one trip, I would go back.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/15/15 event date

2015 Florida Trip – Day 18 – The Beach & Quesajitas

Even though we were near Port Charlotte, it was still about a 25 mile drive over to the nearest beach at Englewood, FL and since we can’t come to Florida without at least seeing the water, off we went.  It was a sunny, 80 degree day and the public beach was pretty well full of sun bathers – Pat and Bev checked it out while I got a shot of them.

These shots are further north in a low populated area.

The plan was to go out for supper per Bev’s desire, but then she decided it might be better to cook at home and use the meat and avocado we had in the fridge.

Bev had purchased some thin sliced (about ¼“) top round called Beef Milanesa and from what I read it should have said beef for beef Milanesa which is a dish and not a cut of meat.   We discussed whether to have fajitas or quesadillas and based upon the large size of our tortillas and love of crispy ones, we settled on fajita makings made into a quesadilla and named it the quesajita.

We used the ingredients as we would for fajitas and prepared them as follows:

1. Make up some seasoning from Chamayo chile powder, smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, & cumin (the stuff we had on hand).

2. Slice or shred some cheddar cheese (or your favorite)

3. Julienne some red & green bell pepper and slice some onion into half-moons.

4. Slice the meat into ½“ wide strips.

5. Add the vegetables to the pan, season with S&P and the above spice mix and sauté them until about almost done then remove and keep warm.

6. Add the meat to the pan, season it as the veggies and cook until just done.

7. Add the veggies back to the meat, mix thoroughly, remove from heat, and keep warm.

8. Wipe out the pan (we only have one 12” skillet) and turn heat to medium.

9. Lay a tortilla in the 12” skillet, add cheese to one side, and the meat/vegetable mixture to the other side and add a lid if you have one.

10. When the cheese is melted and the tortilla bottom is crispy, flip the cheese half over the meat half and remove to a plate.

Bev made the guacamole by adding some jarred salsa, cumin, and lime juice to a Florida avocado.

My quesajita only got topped with a nice amount of guac.

For a throw together with stuff we had on hand, they were pretty darned good.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/13/15 event date

2015 Florida Trip – Day 14 – Seafood With Sam & Meakin

When we come to southwest Florida, we try to meet up friends and fellow bloggers, Meakin and Sam (My Carolina Kitchen) and this time, we invited them up to the campground for an afternoon of shellfish.  We brought some very fresh clams and oysters with us from Cedar Key and bought some shrimp locally for Pat who eats neither of the molluscs.

But before we get into this further, even us seafood lovers need a break so we whipped this up on the grill the previous evening.

This is the entertaining and cooking area prior to the commencement of the seafood eating festivities.  We moved the toaster oven outside for baking, I use the red Coleman propane grill as a stove, and the Weber Jumbo Joe is for charcoal grilling – all three were used this day.  

We began our all afternoon seafood-a-thon (sorry you’re not here Joe) with some raw oysters.

After this first shot of Sam’s oysters, we descended into an afternoon of visiting, eating, and sipping fruit drinks so no other photos were taken – I obviously don't do well being the cook and photographer at the same time.

The raw oysters were followed by a batch of boiled little neck clams, which was a new way of cooking them to me as I had always steamed them.  But when the guy who farms them says to cook them completely submerged in seasoned boiling water, who am I to say otherwise.  He also advised cooking them in the mesh bag so they can all be easily removed once they begin opening.  I added some smashed garlic cloves and a couple of squeezed lemon wedges to the cooking water and served them with melted garlic butter.

They do seem to stay more moist and tender cooked this way but I still took them out as they opened rather than waiting until all were done and removing the whole bag full.  One of the advantages of the boiling water is that you can leave the pot lid off and grab them as soon as the pop open.  Here are a couple of shots lifted from the web and mine looked pretty much the same.

Bev just had to bake up a batch of rolls for the event and as always, they were a great addition – maybe even the best part.  In addition to the preceding, we noshed on grilled oysters Rockefeller (which Sam said may have been the best ever), char grilled shrimp, slaw and potato salad provided by Sam, and finished off with a French pear dessert and chocolate dipped local strawberries.  Needless to say, no one walked away hungry.

As always, it was fun to spend time with Sam and Meakin and he learned a new skill - he is now an oyster shucker  - we look forward to a visit at their Florida home the next week.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/9/15 event date

2015 Florida Trip – Days 11 & 12 – A Few Restaurant Breakfasts

When in a new area, we always ask the locals where the locals eat, especially for breakfast and we were told that Peter’s Restaurant on our side of Port Charlotte was the place.  It occupies two sections of a small strip mall and while I was expecting somewhat of a dive, it was far from it.

I’m not sure why, but I have never considered corned beef hash in an omelet so I had to try it when I saw it on the menu and Bev went with the breakfast burrito - pretty normal for her.

I thought mine was good but the hash browns were only lukewarm.  I tasted Bev’s and thought it was good as well.  They provide a good portion of good food at a very reasonable price.

The next morning we wanted to check out the town of Arcadia, about 15 miles up the road, and began with breakfast at a local place and it was kind of a dive, right out of the 50’s.  Wheeler’s Café looks like it has been serving up meals to the locals for a long time – reminds me of the Greenback Drug Store back home.

I didn’t get any food shots as it was just normal breakfast fare and presentation was not high on their list.  The meals were good and about what I expected except for the biscuit which was very good.

And this last one comes the following week from Bev's Bar and Grill located at campsite 398.  

It is just your basic BLT - fried Wrights bacon, Guggisberg Baby Swiss Cheese, Florida tomato & avocado, onion, lettuce, and mayo on Olive Rustic Bread from the farmers market - as good as I ever ate.  Whether fixed or mobile, our house continues to be my very favorite place to eat.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/6 & 1/7/15 event dates

2015 Florida Trip – Day 9 – Moving South

After seven nice days at Cedar Key RV Resort, we headed on down south to our next destination at Riverside RV Park just north of Port Charlotte (on Florida's west coast) and along the Peace River.  It was just 220 miles so we didn’t have to be in a rush to leave and we still got in mid-afternoon.  This is the entrance sign and the office/store and large pavilion - check out Sweetie in the mirror.

This is our first visit to this huge campground with 500 sites resulting from several expansions of what used to be a Yogi Bear Park.  We're at the top of the largest lake in this Google Earth shot.

At 6 mph, it takes several minutes to drive from our site to the entrance.  Our site, #398, is on one of several lakes with this view our first foggy morning and then evening and the next morning.

We were advised by several folks to watch the dogs as some of the lakes contain gators.

This is our site with a large amount of room on each side.

With all of the space around us and the lake view, it would be perfect except that the operating side of the coach faces south.  When I reserved this spot, I didn’t notice that their on-line map was rotated 90 degrees and I thought we were getting afternoon shade.  Here are some shots of sites around us, mostly occupied by people who have been occupying them for several years.  You can make improvements to a site but ownership remains with the campground so some folks have concreted their drives and many have landscaped their sites.  When they are not here, they just have to hope that other visitors to the site take care of what they have done.

This is the backside of the pavilion with shuffleboard courts and the pool to the right - pickleball courts nearby.

This is the fishing pier and boat launch on the Peace River.

Like many of these small town sized campgrounds catering to Snowbirds, there are a lot of planned activities with something for almost everyone.

When Bev got up the next morning, she whipped up a breakfast of re-heated scalloped potatoes and ham topped with a couple of sunny side up eggs.

Barely edible J

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/5/15 event date