Visiting Steve & Marcia in Sebring

After waking, having morning beverages and doing our language lessons, we took the dogs on a short walk on the street. When we returned to the house, Mark warmed the breakfast burritos that he had made the night before. They were tasty and filling for our drive to Sebring.

We were able to get out by 8:30 and chose a route that avoided I-75 and the Tampa area. Even though it was Saturday morning, we knew that traffic would be bad around Tampa. While driving we heard a pebble fly up and tap the windshield, fearing a crack, but we kept moving not seeing a chip.

Progress on the "hippie van"

Once we left the Gulf Coast and started driving through the less populated central part of Florida, the landscape was very pretty. Some of the citrus groves had fruit hanging, and lots of cattle were in fields.

We arrived at Steve and Marcia’s place a little before noon and had a great visit. Steve updated us on his job as an elementary special education teacher, and Marcia took us out to see the progress on restoring her “hippie van.” She had removed the wrap and repaired areas with dents or rust. Although the top of the van will remain white, she painted most of the van’s body an almost turquoise blue. The amazing thing is that she painted the van with spray cans of Rustoleum. I couldn’t believe how smooth and uniform the paint looked. She hand-painted some of the graphics and used an air brush apparatus on other graphics.

Marcia & Steve

After our visit, we took them out to Dimitri’s Restaurant for lunch to celebrate Steve’s 66th birthday which is on February 25th. Marcia had a flounder sandwich, Steve ordered the Philly cheesesteak, Mary had a Cuban sandwich, and I had fish and chips. Mary and I swapped some fish for half of the sandwich. We all enjoyed our meals. We appreciate that Dimitri’s has a good selection of Greek, Italian and Cuban menu choices as well as American favorites.

We returned to Steve’s house and spent some time in his gardens assessing the needs of his lime tree and examining the tiny bagworms on the palm trees. It is always great to see Steve and Marcia laughing about old times and planning new adventures. We left Sebring around 3 pm for the 3+ hour drive to Homosassa.

Looking at Steve's garden

The drive to Homosassa was uneventful, although traffic was heavy. We saw a large group of Jeeps that had apparently been to an event and were heading north. We stopped at a Walgreens to get a birthday card for Cindy then got to Whittington’s a little before 7 pm. Dinner was the Schmidt’s meatloaf that Mary had prepared on Friday along with green beans and rolls. We watched an episode of Astrid and Professor T on PBS before going to bed.

Highlands Hammock State Park

Marcia had to take the “hippy bus” into town to get the crank window apparatus repaired so Mary ran into town with her.  Steve and I went to Walmart to get groceries for the pulled pork dinner than Marcia was planning.  We also went to Lowe’s to get a replacement dryer vent hose and a 90 degree fitting since the hose that we reconnected last week failed the first time that a load was run in the dryer.

After we returned to Steve’s house, we packed a lunch of sandwiches and fruit to head to Highlands Hammock State Park.  This 9,000 acre park is best known for trails through old sour orange groves and ancient forests of giant live oak trees. 

We started our visit at the small CCC Museum, where exhibits describe the role of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1920s to build this and many other parks across the country.  There were displays of the tools and techniques used by the young men working in the CCC during the Great Depression.  One of the things that we enjoyed most was a loose leaf binder with information on CCC projects organized by state. 

We drove around the road, stopping to view areas that were likely to hold alligators, snakes or birds.  Because the weather had been unusually cool and dry, there were fewer alligators than when Steve had visited before.  We saw a red-shouldered hawk on the side of the county road.  The bird flew up into the trees when we neared but didn’t move far then returned to his spot after we passed.  We could not see what the hawk was after there, but it was interested in something at that spot.

There was a boardwalk through one of the areas of the hammock that is a wetland.  The boardwalk was secure but had a rail only on one side which made Mary a bit uneasy.  We saw several people along the walk but not many.

We moved on to the Ancient Hammock Trail where we saw several huge trees that had probably been there for many hundreds of years.  We talked with a couple visiting the area from Louisville and pointed out many spots where wild pigs had caused significant damage to the forest.  We picked one of the sour oranges and found it to have a good orange flavor but was very sour. 

When we got back to Steve’s house, we chatted with Marcia who had been working out in her small office out back while we were out.  She had made pulled pork in her instant pot while we were out.  We had an early dinner of pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, potato salad and chips.  Everything was very good.

After dinner, Steve took Marcia to pick up her van while Mary washed dishes and I connected the new dryer vent.  We visited for a while then Marcia went back out to her office to work while Steve and I watched the movie, The Missing, on Netflix.  I enjoy any movie with Tommy Lee Jones and this was an interesting western.  By the time the movie was over around 10:30 Marcia came from her office and everyone was ready to turn in for the night.

Brevard Zoo

We checked out of the Day’s Inn Titusville at 8:45 and drove the 30 minute trip south on I-95 to the Brevard County Zoo in Melbourne.  Our Cincinnati Zoo membership got us half price admission to the zoo when it opened at 9 am.

The Brevard County Zoo is only 25 years old and is still growing.  The lady at the entrance told us that several new exhibits have opened recently and several more are scheduled for opening in the next few months. Among the new exhibits are a sloth and the black bear.  In addition, the entire rain forest section has been completely renovated. 

We started in the Africa section and saw the zebras and rhinos enjoying the sunshine on the late January morning.  Not long after we got there five, giraffes came out to browse on branches placed on the viewing platform by the zoo staff.  We were very impressed by the number of local volunteers at the exhibits to inform visitors and provide assistance. We were also struck by the number of sponsorships at the zoo.  Most of the animals on display were named by community members who had purchased naming rights. There were plaques on sections of fence, benches and many other areas of the zoo indicating contributions from donors. 

We stood at the lemur island for a long time watching them playing and romping in the morning sun.  The volunteer told us that the lemurs are unable to swim and will not enter the water to leave the island.  In fact, if one of the lemurs falls into the water,  it will likely drown. They had nine of the ring tail lemurs with seven males on one island and a male and female pair on another island. 

We went into a walk through aviary with lorikeets and one with cockatiels. Visitors can purchase sugar water for the lorikeets and seed sticks for the cockatiels while walking through the exhibit. There was a large cockatoo outside that would laugh and do flips on the perch. 

In all, we spent about three hours in the zoo, staying until around 12:30 when we found a picnic table outside the zoo entrance where we had our peanut butter sandwiches and fruit for lunch.  Day was sunny and pleasant and we enjoyed the company of our friends, Steve and Marcia.

After lunch we made the 2 ½ hour drive back to Steve’s house in Sebring.  The sunny afternoon made a pleasant drive west across routes 60 and 98.  We especially liked the small town of Yeehaw Junction along the way.

After unpacking from our trip, Mary and I walked northeast along Lake Jackson doing a 3 mile walk that Steve does on many days.  We stopped briefly at the public beach and chatted with a nice couple form Minnesota.  We were still interested in walking after returning so we continued southwest on Lakeview Drive to a community center area where there is a library, theater, fishing pier and public beach.  We walked past some interesting homes and several large live oak and banyan trees.  

We went to dinner with Steve and Marcia at one of their favorite restaurants in Sebring.  We had been to Dimitri’s Restaurant with them in 2019 and enjoyed it very much.  Steve had a lasagna, Mary and Marcia had Cuban sandwiches and I had a fish sandwich.  Several of us had their Greek lemon rice soup, which was quite good. We all agreed that the meal was excellent and did well to finish.  After our meal the waitress gave each all take-home servings of their rice pudding because of Steve’s military service.