So if you happen to be just passing by....Stop in at the Saturday night "Fish Fry"......

As you may remember, a month or so ago, Salt and a group of his friends went out deep sea fishing. we have had so much on the calendar that until this evening we were not able to get everyone together for a fish fry.

Here is the cook (and host) Doug Rowe finally enjoying a plate of goodies.

And his wife Darlene, (our hostess) who I caught with a mouthful....someday, someone is going to take my camera and trash it!!!

Ruthie....being a smarty pants!!

Donna Morgan Brown, visiting from NY. Can you believe she is a grandmother???

Donna's daughter Kyrstin.....

The Muldoons chilling out! Terry and Susie are the friends who have the grandson in the Beauty and the Beast play we will be attending on Sunday. He will be playing the Beast!!

Karen Hillis's' sister Cathy and brother in-law LeRoy, also visiting from NY. Guess those New Yorkers have had enough snow, wind and below 0 temps!!

YUM.....

I sing water for the flowers...Flowers for the bees...Space on earth for the beautiful trees....

Yesterday was a work day for both Salt and myself but by noon we were ready for a hike. We started out at the Agricultural Center for a walk through the Discovery Gardens. They are (were) beautiful and so interesting. Unfortunately, many of the plants and trees were destroyed during the deep freez Florida experienced this February.

Salt and i have been looking for plants that will bloom this time of year. We found quite a few, but these were two of my favorites. The first one is a "Shrimp" plant.

A "Blood" plant which would add a lot of color during the winter months.....

This is the Topiary/Hydroponic gardens. They reminded us of "Chia Pets" which I am always tempted to send one to each of my kids at Christmas. They always wanted one EVERY Christmas.

Of course, Herb gardens are always one of my favorites. I cook a lot with fresh herbs and have a WONDERFUL garden down here. After seeing these specific gardens I am anxious to plant and try some of these ideas. The first one was all herbs that teas which are used to make teas.....

Beauty and bath herbs.....

And this was something I never heard of.....Scripture herbs!

Several displays of butterflies, insects and beetles.

After leaving the gardens, we drove over to Bourlay State park (Lake Harris) and hiked one of the trails leading out to the lake. Another beautiful trail, and since it was once a farm, it still has many of the orange and lemon trees. They of course have not been kept up over the years, but they still bare fruit.

The lemons, although a bit knobby, were huge.....as large as oranges!

It's the ropes and the reins and the joy and the pain...and they call the thing rodeo....

So, (almost) every time we get home from one of our many adventures, Salt says he thinks that was his favorite. We are both having the time of our lives and so appreciative that we have the opportunity to do so.

Last night was the long awaited Silver Spurs Rodeo (the 122nd). We started our evening at the Rodeo Diner which was just a short distance from the arena grounds.

I should warn you right now, about 90% of the pictures are blurry. All of the events in a rodeo are based on time and speed! It was almost impossible to get clear photos. The few that I did get I finally figured I had to lead the camera like leading a shotgun.....

Here was the MC...with of course a million jokes.

The started the show with the introduction of the 2009 Rodeo Queen and her court and then brought in several of the state rodeo queens. Their costumes were beautiful!

This was a cute act.....These were all very young children; one as young as 4 years old. They square danced on their horses. The MC would call out the moves and the kids and horses did an amazing job!

Now this was really a blur because these kids were having a ball. About half way through the program, they called all the children over 6 and under 10 down to the arena. After they were all lined up they released 5 calves with pink ribbons on their tails. The kids had to catch the calf and get the ribbon off and take it to the judges. They won tee shirts and cash prizes. It was SO funny!

I told Salt I had no doubt that if Emma had been there she would have had one of those ribbons!! Just her kind of thing!

Bareback bucking bronco riding.....when you see these guys being thrown around sure makes 8 seconds seem like a VERY long time!!

This is the event where the cowboy has to rope the calf, jump off the horse and tie it down.

and here he is going back to his horse......this is all accomplished in seconds!!

This HAD to be one of the best acts of the evening. This little clown was dressed like his dad and mimicked everything he did. The kid couldn't have been more than 2 if he was that old. At the end of the skit, the father drops his hat on the ground (upside down) so the kid does the same. Dad says, "lets put our hats back on"......Dad does a head stand with his head in the hat and the little guy puts his head in his hat and does a somersault. Both of them ending up with the hats on their heads.....funny!!

Here is a guy being thrown from a saddle bronc....boy they take some nasty spills!!

I would think this was one of the toughest rope acts. It's a team effort....one guy lassos the head and the other one has to get his rope around both the back feet. Talk about timing!!!

And here is the only semi-clear picture I could get of the bull riders. These bulls are ugly...One guy guy couldn't get his hand out of the rope and that bull took him in a circle just swinging him. We were all holding our breath. When he was rescued he went over to the fence and just held on and laid his head down....I would bet he was praying...giving thanks!!

We got cautions, we got pitstops...You can't hear a dang thing once the flag drops...

Thursday morning we made a quick stop at the Eustis Farmer's Market. It took all the self control I had to NOT buy a flat of the beautiful berries (Plant City strawberries, where we will be attending the Strawberry Festival). We were headed for Daytona for the day and I knew there was no way I was going to have the time to process them.

The weather was ugly...wind and rain, but since most of the program was inside, it was a perfect day for the NASCAR museum.

The first thing you walk in they put you right in front of this huge gift shop....I call these places "Needful Things"....fortunately I don't need anything!!!

Our first stop was at one of the feature movies. Informative and fun!!

And anyone who has seen the Disney movie 'CARS...will recognize the Hudson Hornet

This is one of the unique displays. This just looked like a regular race car and all of a sudden the body is being lifted and the frame and chassis are exposed for study.... Then the body comes back down.

The motorcycle display.....

We checked the time of the tours of the race track and luck was with us because it stopped raining just long enough for us to take the half hour tour on the shuttle.

When we got right out on the track it was overwhelming. First of all I had no idea how many spectators they could actually seat. Then when we saw the curves up close, it was like WOW they are that steep??? Television is deceiving!! In a way I would love to camp and sit on top of the motor home and watch a race....and then on the other hand I don't know if I could deal with that many race fans. I know they have it very organized but it looks as though it would take a week to get out of the parking lot!!
If I had known we were going to end up on Victory lane I would have had a bottle of champagne to pour over Alex's head!! Just to make it little more authentic.....

One of the many simulated rides where you could experience racing......

This was one of my favorite attractions. Anyone who wanted to could go in and change a tire on this race car and they would time you. Winner gets his/her name on the board for the day. While we were watching there was a little boy about 5 years who was rolling the tire to his dad. He was SO serious!! He also knew what he was doing!

This was another of the movies. This was 3D which of course is always great fun!!

Joe and Alex were the only ones who went on this ride. It was a hoot to watch them. If you hit a wall the car shook, tipped and rattled. Joe won the race!

The trophy room.....

An ariel view of the track.....

And I guess Dale Earnhardt will always be NASCAR's sweetheart!

I can't imagine the sadness that prevailed the day he died.....

But following in his footsteps and another favorite, Dale Jr.......

OK...so I left ONE little fact out. I drove one of the simulated cars and after about 30 seconds, I told the attendant mine wasn't working. He smiled (trying not to laugh) and said, "I'm sorry mam but you were disqualified"....WHAT...why was I disqualified??? "Mam, you were going down the infield backwards".

THE END