Arriving in Florida

We left our Georgetown home at 4 am to drive to the Cincinnati Airport.  As we usually do, we arranged tor parking at the Cincinnati Airport Hilton Hotel through OneStopParking,com.  It is a very easy and inexpensive way to park at the airport.  For about $5 per day we park near the Turfway exit of I-75 in Florence, Kentucky and take a shuttle for the short ride to the airport.  The shuttle leaves every 30 minutes and took us directly to our gate.  

Our two hour flight left only 10 minutes late and was fairly full. We dozed off and on for the flight despite the fact that the seats on Allegiant flights are pretty tight with little legroom.  We arrived at the Punta Gorda, Florida airport shortly after 10 am.  We learned that the city is not pronounced “Poont-a” but more “Punt-a” Gorda.  Mary retrieved our checked bag from the carousel while I got our Nissan Versa from the Enterprise counter a short walk from the airport terminal.  There was a light rain as we left but since the temperatures were in the 60s it wasn’t a problem.  We heard that Miami was 81 degrees and we were looking forward to enjoying the warmth.  

Orange grove in Central Florida

We drove northeast toward Sebring, Florida to visit with Steve and Marcia.  The drive took us through agricultural areas with mostly citrus crops.  Many of the orange and grapefruit trees had already been harvested this year but some still hung heavy with oranges.  This part of Florida is sparsely populated in contrast to the coastal areas on the Atlantic and Gulf.

Steve and Marcia’s house is a nice home in Sebring that seems perfect for their needs.  It is over 100 years old but is in very good condition.  The interior has been very creatively decorated by Marcia making the home have a very Florida feel with the pastel colors and open feel,  The outside of the home is planted with a variety of shrubs and flowers including several cacti and other tropical plants.  She has converted the potting shed into a space where she can do reports for her job writing reports for equal rights investigations.  

Steve Minor and Marcia Smith at their Sebring, FL home

We had the best time visiting and catching up until we became hungry and went to a local diner recommended by Steve. Dimitri’s is a local diner specializing in Greek and local seafood. As starters, Mary had a garden salad and I had a local seafood bisque. Mary had grouper Florentine with sweet potato and broccoli.  Her grouper was stuffed with chopped spinach and nicely seasoned.  I had the grouper franchaise which was filets that were lightly breaded and covered in a Greek style sauce that was slightly lemon.  I had sweet potato and beets on the side.  Steve and Marcia both had haddock fillets that they reported were excellent.  Everyone enjoyed the meal very much and we were surprised at how low the bill was for such a great meal with more food than we could possible eat.  

After dinner we went back to Steve & Marcia’s to walk through the house and garden shed.  We decided to try to get back together on Saturday if possible.  We love spending time with them and can’t wait to see them again.

As we departed for the three hour drive to the Day’s Inn Florida City the intensity of the rain really picked up.  As we traveled south toward Homestead the rain came harder and harder.  We learned the next morning that we may well have driven through a tornado.  In any case, we were happy to have made it to our motel without incident.