A Pig in a Purple Tutu

The thunderous roar of a rocket lifting off the launch pad at Cape Canaveral - that’s Florida!  The crack of a bat against a ball as veterans and hopefuls gather for the ritual known as “spring training” - that’s Florida.  A pig in a purple tutu - that’s Florida?   It is if you were at the Mardi Gras festivities in February in Leesburg, a town in Lake County about fifty miles north of Orlando, where the pig won first place honors in the town’s pet parade.  But, I’m getting a little ahead of myself…

The winner of the 2018 Leesburg Mardi Gras Pet Parade

Mike and Sophie left home early in January to find warmth and to help his brother and sister-in-law at the Tampa RV show.  My parents’ health concerns kept me in Missouri for the month.  The plan was for me to fly to Orlando and meet the two of them on January 30th.  Apparently, it was Mike’s turn to end up in the hospital this trip. (I’ve been there on two previous RV trips.  We really need to stop this nonsense.) 

Mike says after his hospital stay he is feeling "just fine"
but Sophie says she was worried about her daddy. 

Our friends Susanne and Jimmie, from North Carolina, who
helped us so much, including picking me up at the airport and
driving me to the hospital.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Displaying typical “macho man” behavior, when a doctor at an urgent care facility in Apopka told him on the morning that I was catching my flight to Florida that he needed to go to the hospital emergency room, he drove himself in his truck.  Thankfully, Southwest Airlines switched me to a direct-to-Orlando non-stop flight, and even more thankfully, our friends Jimmie and Susanne, who were spending the winter in the same campground as we, were on hand to pick me up at the Orlando airport.  After a day in the ER undergoing tests, Mike was released that evening.  A week of follow-up visits with a local doctor, a series of lab tests, and several new medications, and he says he feels “just fine.”  After a scary first week of February, we got down to the business of being tourists and enjoying the Florida sunshine.

Our site at Orlando NW / Orange Blossom KOA at Apopka
from mid-January until the end of February 2018

The pool at Orange Blossom KOA.  We were very fortunate that we
had quite a few days with temperatures in the 80s during February 

We spent February in Apopka, and were pleasantly surprised with the unseasonable 80⁰ days.  Mount Dora, a picturesque little town about 10 miles north of our RV park, offered boutiques, restaurants, and beautiful Lake Dora.  One of our favorite restaurants for delicious Cuban cuisine and great mojitos was the Copacabana Cuban Café, and we ate there several times.  Cupcake Delights, offering a plethora of sweet treats, was also a favorite stop.  Early one Sunday, we went to breakfast in the opulent dining room of the Lakeside Inn, a landmark 1883 hotel overlooking Lake Dora.  President and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge came to the Lakeside Inn for a month-long vacation after they left the White House in 1929.  Wandering around Mount Dora on a Sunday, you might stop to watch a lawn bowling match at the Mount Dora Lawn Bowling Club, founded in 1928, or stroll through the open-air market, featuring everything from crafts to produce to fresh fish and shrimp. 

One of our favorite restaurants in Mount Dora

Lakeside Inn opened in 1883, and is the longest
continually-operating hotel in the State of Florida

When it opened, the Inn was called the Alexander House, and a typical trip
from New York could take a week, by ship to Jacksonville, then by steamer
through the chain of lakes and the Dora Canal to the hotel on Lake Dora

The dining room (pictured above) is called the Beauclair Room
and the cocktail lounge (pictured here) is Tremain's Tavern

View from the veranda on the front of the Inn, looking west
over the pool and the Sunset Pool Bar to Lake Dora  

Mount Dora is the largest United States Lawn
Bowling Association (USLBA) affiliated club
in the country, with over 250 members

Fresh fish, shrimp, scallops and stone crab are all available
from this vendor at a Sunday morning Farmers Market

A cruise on a charter boat on Lake Dora offers not only a glimpse of this quaint town, but several others along the lake, plus wildlife.  As you traverse the Dora Canal connecting Lake Dora to Lake Eustis, you get a throw-back look at “old” Florida, with tiny 1950s-vintage resorts and RV camps nestled right up to the edge of the water.

The Dora Canal connects Lake Dora to Lake Eustis.  You can travel
by boat through a chain of seven lakes, eventually ending up in the
St. Johns River, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean near Jacksonville

We stopped on Lake Dora near the city of Tavares
to observe this magnificent eagle

The boat captain told us that the eagle's nest is approximately ten
feet across, and weights an estimated 4,000 pounds - TWO TONS

A Great Egret along the Dora Canal

An juvenile Blue Heron.  There are sixty-four recognized species of herons

1950s-era resort on the Dora Canal.  Notice how close it was built to the water

And almost on the grounds of the resort, this "congregation" (collective noun for a
 group of alligators) was sunning themselves.  Although you can clearly see two there
were really about six alligators in total, hidden behind the trees and Spanish Moss.

Situated on the edge of Mount Dora is Renninger’s Antique Center.  Each weekend, the “permanent” antique dealers open their booths in a large building, while the flea market’s outdoor stalls sell everything from pots and pans to puppies, sneakers to snakes.  Three times a year, though, Renninger’s holds their “extravaganza” sale, which draws some 800 to 1,200 additional vendors from the as far away as New England and the Midwestern states.  I must admit, as much of an antique buff as I am, I cannot reconcile the concept of “mid-century” (i.e. the time when I was born) as being “antique”.

Antique dealers flock to Renninger's and fill the fields
with temporary booths three times per year

Fresh homemade ice cream being made and sold.  The churn
is powered by this single-cylinder gasoline engine.  You could
hear the "popping" sound of the engine throughout the grounds

It will take more than a little bit of imagination and a
lot of spray paint to make these two rockers ready
to put on your front porch.  I don't know if they sold.

 The 11-mile Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive, snaking (pardon the pun) through 20,000 acres of marshland along the north shore of Lake Apopka, was just three miles from our RV park, Orange Blossom KOA.  Open only on weekends and holidays, we took advantage of a gorgeous Saturday afternoon to drive through the area.  Many species of birds are found here, but the real thrill was seeing alligators – a lot of alligators – swimming in the canals or sunning themselves on old logs, just a few yards off the gravel roads that crisscross the marshland.

Anhinga.  After diving to catch fish, the bird dries his feathers by
spreading his wings and letting the sun and wind dry them, because
he lacks the natural oil that makes his feathers water-repellent.

An adult Great Blue Heron

A big alligator, maybe twelve feet long, in one of the canals that run
alongside the gravel roadways in the Lake Apopka Wildlife Preserve

Another big alligator, out sunning himself on a warm Saturday
afternoon in the Lake Apopka Wildlife Preserve

To the east of Apopka is Wakiwa Springs State Park.  We camped in the park three years ago, and a return visit to the spring did not disappoint.  There is swimming and kayaking here, if you don’t mind sharing the water with the ‘gators.  (Actually, they have the spring itself fenced off with a wire barrier so the chance of an alligator getting into “the swimming hole” is greatly reduced…but not impossible.)  The Florida State Park Service was established in 1935, and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) played a major role in helping to establish the new park system, constructing ninety-nine buildings in the first seven parks that were created.  Recently, the State Park Service has taken the lead in helping to save some key 1950s-era tourist attractions by taking them over from private ownership and converting them to state parks and historical sites.

The Apopka Sportsman Club bought the land that is now Wakiwa Springs
State Park in 1941 from the Wilson Cypress Company, which had logged
the land for hardwoods, in addition to cypress and pine.

Alligators aren't the only things to worry about, although the
Ranger assures this girl that this snake is harmless

Long before Walt Disney World Company acquired 30,500 acres of mostly swamp land near what was then McCoy Air Force Base, Silver Springs was the premier tourist attraction in central Florida.  The area boasted a zoo, a water park, and the wildly popular glass-bottom boats.   In the 1930s, at least twenty movies, including six Tarzan feature films, were shot on location in Silver Springs.  Later, several episodes of Lloyd Bridges’ television series Sea Hunt were filmed there.  Silver Springs struggled into the 21^st century, when the State Park Service stepped up in 2013 to save the attraction by making it a state park.  Today, the zoo is gone, the water park is in danger of closing, but the iconic glass-bottom boats still glide silently over the waters of the spring, giving riders a stunning view down into the crystal-clear depths.

Although visitors were coming to the spring before the Civil War, it was in
the 1920s that W. Carl Ray and W.M. "Shorty" Davidson developed the
area into an attraction called "Silver Springs Nature Theme Park"

Glass-bottomed boat tours are about 30 minutes long.
The oldest boat in the fleet is the "Princess Donna"
dating back to 1934, still operating after 84 years.

Dating back as far as the 1500s, Native Americans lived around the spring.
Evidence of that can be seen in the form of a dugout canoe, presumably
made of cypress, which wont rot in water, still submerged in the spring.

Some twenty miles north of Silver Springs is the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park.  Visitors to this old cracker-style home and farm can go back in time to the 1930s for a glimpse of the life of Rawlings.  It was here that she lived, grew oranges in a seventy-five acre orange grove, and pursued her writing career, including penning her most famous work “The Yearling.”   Published in 1938 and based on Rawlings’ own experiences in this “half-wild, backwoods country,” the novel was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1939.  The house is furnished with Rawlings’ original furniture and possessions, including many of her literary awards.  Upon her death in 1953, the property was bequeathed to the University of Florida, and managed and curated by the State.  In 1970, the property was opened to the public. 

Sign with a quotation from Majorie Kinnan Rawlings, referring
to the peaceful feeling she had in her Florida homestead,
stands at the entrance to the State Historic Site

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' home, near Cross Creek, Florida

Rawlings took an open front porch and screened it in, to make a sitting area
with a bed for afternoon naps or a cooler place to sleep on hot Florida nights.
The car in the carport is her yellow 1940 Oldsmobile coupe.

On the screened-in porch is the table at which Rawlings wrote "The Yearling",
complete with her typewriter, fresh flowers, cigarettes and ashtray, and dictionary

Rawlings used the earnings from one of her early books to
add indoor plumbing to her home, then gave a party to
celebrate the new bathroom.  She put a bouquet of flowers
from her uncle in the toilet to show them - and it - off

A first edition of Rawlings' novel, "The Yearling", published in 1938

And the Pulitzer Prize in Letters that she was awarded for the novel in 1939

A short distance from Marjorie Rawlings’ farm is the tiny community of Hawthorne, home to “The Yearling” restaurant.  First opened in 1952, the restaurant still features “traditional fare and cracker cuisine” according to its menu.  On most afternoons, you can listen to the soulful stylings of blues artist Willie Green as you finish off your meal with an incredible piece of sour orange pie.

In addition to food and drinks, the property offers lodging in The Secret
River Lodge, a series of small cabins located behind the restaurant building

Legendary blues guitarist Willie "Real Deal" Green 

The Bok Tower Gardens, located near the town of Lake Wales, is a contemplative garden with a 205-foot tall, eight level tower as its centerpiece.  Atop the tower, a sixty-bell carillon which boasts a sound range of five octaves plays recorded music on the hour, and live music several times each day.  Unfortunately, except for one day each year, the public is not allowed inside the tower.  Volunteers who work at the gift shop, or sell admission tickets, or perform other duties in the garden are allowed in.  One group of new volunteers was just starting a tower tour while we were there.  Our attempt to simply “attach ourselves” to the tour group was thwarted by a stern-faced docent. 

Edward Bok, editor of the magazine Ladies Home Journal, commissioned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead to design “a spot of beauty second to none in the country.”  Construction of the “Singing Tower,” designed by architect Milton B. Medary, began in 1927 and took two years.  Bok Tower and Gardens were dedicated by President Calvin Coolidge on February 1, 1929.

Originally called Mountain Lake Sanctuary and Singing
Tower, it is today referred to simply as Bok Tower, after
the man who first envisioned and commissioned it.

The Tower sits atop Iron Mountain.  At 298 feet above sea level
Iron Mountain is one of the highest points of peninsular Florida

The tower is built of pink and gray marble, mined in Georgia,
and quoquina stone from St. Augustine, FL.  Mr. Bok is buried
in the simple stone plot in front of the great brass door.

The gardens themselves are lovely, but we were more impressed when we toured Pinewood Estate, the twenty-room Mediterranean Revival mansion built between 1930 and 1932 by C. Austin Buck, vice-president of Bethlehem Steel Company in Pennsylvania, as his winter home.  The floors in each room on the first floor of the home are done with hand-painted tiles imported from Mexico.  No two rooms have the same pattern, but they all meld together to give the house a cool, casual but inviting feel.

Mr. Buck originally named his home "El Retiro", Spanish for "the retreat"

In 1970, the home was acquired by the Bok Tower and Gardens in an effort led by
Nellie Lee Holt Bok, daughter-in-law of Edwin Bok, and was renamed Pinewood Estates

Note the different patterns of tile on the stair risers.  Each of those
patterns is used on a wall or floor somewhere in the home.

On another day, we visited the Harry P. Leu Gardens near downtown Orlando.  The 50 acre gardens of semi-tropical and tropical plants were started by Mr. Leu and his wife, Mary, in 1936, shortly after they purchased the home on the property.  The home is now on the National Register of Historic Places, and the property was donated to the city by Mr. and Mrs. Leu in 1961.  Unfortunately, the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma is still apparent, with many trees downed and the home still closed to visitors while repairs are being made.  On a whimsical note, the gardens were displaying a special exhibit entitled “Nature Connects:  Art with LEGO Blocks” featuring sixteen individual sculptures in thirteen displays, constructed using more than 450,000 LEGO pieces.  The LEGO creations are the work of artist Sean Kenney.

Azaleas in bloom in the Leu Garden

The Leu Mansion is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
It is still closed, awaiting repairs to damage caused by Hurricane Irma
last year.  Note the blue tarp covering the roof of the home's addition.

Monarch Butterfly made of LEGO blocks.  This piece
is 48" X 48" X 78" tall.  It contains 39,708 blocks
and took 425 hours to build

Buck:  54" X 30" X 76" tall.  Doe and Fawn:  73" X 29" X 47" tall.  Combined,
the three deer contain 84,442 LEGO blocks and required 540 hours to build.

 .
Gardening Grandfather with Granddaughter.  Grandfather: 
34" X 43" X 65" tall.  Granddaughter 33" X 29" X 31" high.
535 hours to construct, using 46,940 LEGO blocks

The Peacock took the longest to build and used the most
LEGOs.  It is 81" X 36" X 62" high, took 625 hours to
complete, and is built with 68,827 LEGO blocks.

Sandwiched between our “tourist” activities, we found time to enjoy three theatrical and two music productions in four different Florida towns and cities.  In a vaudeville theater dating back to 1916 in Eustis, we saw a well-done production of “On Golden Pond.”   Mount Dora’s beautiful, contemporary community theater produced a fun play called “The Fox on the Fairway.”  Founded in 2014, the Tavares Community Theater Company, which stages its productions in a church meeting hall while renovating a downtown building to create a permanent theater, presented “Murder at the Howard Johnson’s”, and Clermont’s Performing Arts Center was the setting for the Grand Ole Opry-style musical review “Nashville Music on Tour” while the Citrus Valley community hosted "An Evening With Dean Martin."

Perhaps the most iconic of the “old Florida” tourist attractions to become a state park is Weeki Wachee Springs, featuring the legendary mermaids performing underwater in the spring, which remains a consistent 72-74⁰ year-round.  Spectators are seated in a 400 seat “submerged” theater, sixteen feet below the surface of the water, and the effect is somewhat akin to watching the mermaids in a fish tank.

In 1946, a former Navy man, Newton Perry, decided
the spring could be made into an underwater show.
The first performance was on October 13, 1947

In the early days, there was not much traffic on U.S. Hwy 19.  When
the girls heard a car coming, they would run to the road in their bathing
suits to flag the motorist in, then jump in the spring to perform

The 1948 movie "Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid," starring
William Powell, Irene Hervey and Ann Blyth as the mermaid,
was filmed at Weeki Wachee Springs

(L to R)  Guy, Susanne, Lil, Mermaid Chyenne, Jimmie, Mermaid Julia,
and Mike, following the underwater mermaid show

Mermaid Yvonne, auditioning for a spot in the cast

Opening in October of 1947, this delightful spot allows you to suspend reality as you watch these mythical beauties perform.  Unfortunately, reality set in and this attraction, too, was in danger of disappearing until the State Park Service stepped up and bought it in November of 2008.

When most people think of tourism in central Florida, they think of a whole industry dedicated to and centered around a lovable rodent.  For us, it is more about getting off the beaten path, finding the old, the iconic, the quirky.  And maybe, if you are lucky, someday, finding a pig in a purple tutu will become a part of your Road Stories.

On the first of March, we said "farewell" to
Jimmie and Susanne, and Mike, Sophie and
I headed toward the Gulf Coast to continue
our odyssey.  More about that in the next blog.