Back to Naples: It's a Boy!

<- Consuelo with Evan

We travelled back to Naples, FL, to see the new baby in the family. This is Evan Nicholas Dunwidde, son of Katie who is taking up the challenge of single mom. Evan is Consuelo's first grand-nephew, born on January 24th. We couldn't leave Florida without coming to see the new baby.


<- Evan Nicholas

We think that Evan is as cute as a bug. Mahlon is concerned that he might look a lot like his grandfather, which would be a shame, but he's got some time to grow out of it. He had more hair when he was born, and is now losing it, much like his grandfather. We'll have more reports later on Evan.


<- Carol, Flo and Dee Dee in the Park

On Sunday Mahlon went to the Concert in the Park in Naples, with Flo and the Naples Mobile Estates gang. It was a beautiful day, mostly sunny with temps in the mid 70's. They have 3 or 4 bands that play these Sunday concerts. The band playing this weekend was the "Gulf Coast Big Band" and they do pretty well with Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, and other band's songs from the 30's and 40's.


<- Gulf Coast Big Band in the shell.

Naples has a great band shell in Heritage Park for these concerts, and they utilize a great sound system, so it's easy listening.

Of course, we played more cards with Flo and Dee Dee. Consuelo won her first game of aggravation. She was so excited.

We're only staying here 5 days, so on the 13th we'll move on back to Bushnell.

In the trees, and Fuego!

<- Medard County Park in Plant City, FL

We discovered Simmons county park in 2004 while we were touring on US 41 in Ruskin. We decided then that we would come back there next time we were in Florida, and we did.

By looking at the Hillsborough County web pages, and from our neighbors at Simmons, we found out about Edward Medard and Lithia Springs county parks, both of which have campgrounds. It seems that a small contingent of snowbirds use these parks in the winter. Each park has a 2 week limit, with a requirement that you be out for 2 weeks before you return. So they go back and forth between these parks in 2 week stretches for the entrie winter. Why, you ask? Because the rate is $10 per day, a small amount for Florida campgrounds.

It turns out that Lithia Springs is closed this year, according to reports. It seems to take a whole winter for the county to get bathrooms rebuilt, and this is Lithia's year. Simmons and Medard were done over the last two years, and the bathrooms and showers are wonderful.

You have to be careful to get a site in these parks, as they don't take reservations. And the poor local campers have to compete with us snowbirds to get sites, so they come out mid-week and rent a site for the whole week, even though they might only show up on the weekend. For us snowbirds, a mid-week arrivel, early in the morning is best.

In Medard, there's a reservoir for fresh-water fishing. There's also lots of trees, which prevented us from setting up our satellite, so we had no internet connection for the week. Thus, this posting is a bit late.

Better late than never!

Fuego

We also visited Consuelo's nephew, Vince, who is an assistant manager in the Plant City Lowe's store. On Tuesday, he took us to a great restaurant called Fuego, right on highway 60 in Branford. Fuego features what is known as a "churrascaria". They serve you soup and salad, and then bring out 7 or 8 side dishes served family style. Then, throughout your meal, servers travel around the restaurand with fresh hot skewers of variaous meats, such as house steak, flank steak, lamb, chicken, etc. The lamb and chicken is in chunks, which they remove from the skewer and serve to you. The steaks are sliced from the skewer, and each person has their own tongs to grab the meat and put it on your plate. You are given a round card, red on one side and green on the other. While it's green, they keep serving. Turn it to red and they stop. Very, very delicious, all of it, and about $35 per person, including drinks. It has the choice of a buffet, but everything is freshly cooked when it arrives at your table.