Wednesday, December 21, 2011

DECEMBER - BACK IN FLORIDA

It's almost hot today 80 degrees high. Wonderful breeze so we don't need to use the air-conditioner. DisneyWorld at MGM (now Hollywood) Studios Park Sunset Blvd. (one of the 4 parks in DisneyWORLD). We worked there 3 days a week Jan., Feb., & Mar. 1998 & 1999 after retirement. After 14 years we came down for the winter last year to see it again & how much it had changed. It was so nice to be in this beautiful weather all winter while Kansas is freezing, snowing, raining, etc. we came back again this winter. This time we are not visiting Disney except for FREE Downtown Disney. It has a wonderful restaurant, Fulton's Crab House and we have reservations to eat there at noon on Christmas Day. I've ate Ham or Turkey for Christmas in Kansas my whole life. We are spending our time (after I spent hours & hours on Google & picking up brochures, maps, etc. at the Visitor's Center as we crossed the border coming down. We have already seen some great places here in Central Florida we hadn't seen before. We didn't plan to get out on the highway this week before Christmas but I found a couple things close by that we had to see before Christmas and one was only on that day. We go to church on Sunday at Haines City (15 min. south of our campground) and after church last Sunday at 2pm was "Music in the park" & the 1st Calvary church had a "Walk through Bethlem" at 6:30pm.
We found a wonderful place here in the past, on the way back home from church on Sunday to our campground (Mouse Mt.). The wonderful place called Manny's owner is an old timer like us but always at the door to greet everyone lined up on both sides of the entrance door to the end of his bldg. I've tryed to get him to open one up in Topeka, KS but haven't got the job done yet. Not only is the steak exactly how you want it. Medium is really pink but no blood running & TENDER. But what keeps us all flocking back Sunday after Sunday is his wonderful dinner rolls & butter which (I think) has cinnamon & brown sugar in it. REAL BUTTER!!! Our church gets out at 11am & he doesn't open till 12pm but usually (with those long lines waiting) he opens about 10 min. till. 12pm all of us that have been sitting in the car in the parking lot start for the line about 15 min. . I walked up last Sunday and (of course) started talking to the couple next to me. When we were let in, the couple of us were seated almost across the aisle from us. Half way through our meal he came over and invited us to follow them when we finished eating and come to their house just down the road about 4 miles out of the city. There we were in 10 acres of beautiful fruit trees filled to overflowing with fruit. They looked like oranges but are really Murcott - Honey Tangerines. They peel like a tangerine but look and tast like an orange. Delicious orange!!!! His wife went and got the golf cart and we drove out into the beautiful fruit grove of trees. He pulled out 3 - bushel mesh fruit bags and started picking. I got to pick some, too. When he told us he was giving them to us and started filling the second bushel bag we pleaded with him to stop because we can't eat that many before they might go bad. He said,"Then past them out to your neighbors & friends at the park." Then he grabbed the 3rd bag and we drove back to their driveway where he has planted a few pink grapefruit trees & yes, we got a bushel of grapefruit, too. He would absolutely not hear to it that we pay for them. They are a gift. So we tryed to send some to our family back home but Florida will not let us mail them out. Post Office said, NO NO. So we started doing what he told us and pass them out to neighbors & friends we've made in the park since we got here Dec. 1. There just isn't anything like a fresh tree picked fruit.. Not gased at the Orange Plant so they are a beautiful orange color for the public. When I gave them out to people from Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts, Up-State New York, etc. I tell them next year at this time start bugging their grocery store to get some wonderful Murcott Honey-Tangerines. I am trying to help out Jerry's price for his fruit Marketing Marketing --Supply & Demand. As farmers in Kansas we know how we have no control over what we will get paid for our products. Two men that grew up as kids on farms, one in Florida in Orange Groves & one in Kansas -corn, wheat, alfalfa, dairy, beef, pigs, chickens, etc. had such a wonderful time comparing experiences. We learned so much from each other. Why doesn't everyone talk to strangers? I have learned & seen so much in my life because I talk to strangers. Next page I'm going to tell you some of the places we have gone to and plan to go to while we are here. Tourist stuff.

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