First Baptist in Bushnell FLORIDA

We just got home from a second visit to Bushnell First Baptist Church today. They had a fish fry and they always have such delicious fish and hush puppies!! I wanted to go back for seconds, but knew better as you can't loose weight that way. Following the fish fry there was to be The Taylors in Concert . Church was pretty full. And they were tremendous!! Gary had to buy a CD afterward. They are a brother-sister quartet from Lillington NC where they grew up in a small rural church where their father is still pastor and their mother the minister of music. Under many years of their mother's instruction they each learned their voice parts and they continue singing around the country and the world, if called. They are four of a family of six children. The other two are married with children. The quartet are a very sincere Christian group dedicated to reaching people with the Good News of Jesus through their Big-Band style of Southern Gospel of music. During dinner time they mixed with people to visit and share their enthusiasm. The real treat began with the music. Jonathan, age 22, sings tenor while Leslie, age 19, sings soprano . And twins, age 20, Christopher singing bass while Suzanne singing alto complete the quartet . They joked about their single status and explained that they wear rings to remind themselves of their commitment to Jesus until their life's mate comes along and to remind themselves that abstaining from any false relationship is important. I admire their dedication to their commitment!! How often do we see that today?? The Taylors recently won First Place in the Talent Showcase of The National Quartet Convention in Louisville KY and were also the 2008 NC State Singing Convention Grand Champions. They will be performing on an Alaskan Cruise in August with other southern gospel singers and are looking forward to it very much. During this evening's program they unexpectedly asked a friend in the audience who was visiting from Eustis FL to play the offertory number. He, Matthew Benedict, also was amazing! He works, teaches piano, and is a performing concert pianist. He certainly is gifted on the piano!! An added treat for the evening was to see the AWANA clubbers given their awards .I was so amazed to watch the youth pastor's method of speaking to the children softly and holding their attention . But I am sure that his Donald Duck voice used during fun time, that he showed us briefly, has some affect on this. He sure has a gift and loves his job, but admits that he depends on his dedicated helpers. The children also did a skit showing how important it is to reach out to lonely people living alone. They did a beautiful job!! Hats off to you Pastor Mike and your faithful volunteers!!

FLORIDA Visit with GREAT & GREAT-GREAT NIECES AND NEPHEWS

How is that for a title?? Make you feel old? It does me, but we sure do enjoy them!! We spent Sunday afternoon dinner with them all coming in to Becky and Jeff's where we were staying. Dinner? "I'm ready!' "And mom said that I have to eat it all to get some of those delicious brownies !" "Is it clean enough, huh Mom?" While waiting for dinner , I decided to wake the new great-great niece for her dinner. But she doesn't seem to care, just wants her nap! Later she is fed and content so she gets passed around. Uncle , would you believe that her sweet smell might have changed?? Who wants her next? In the mean time her cousins are playing while Gary is trying to get candid shots!! Note the summer clothes in the screened patio! But I do believe that Gary missed one shy little girl! We will have to try again next visit. Maybe we can win her over!! In the evenings I got to do my favorite thing with the two older girls, read a bedtime story. Becky said they talked about it long after we left last year. So I had to live up to my reputation. This year on Saturday, I got to add to the fun! They checked out our picture file on the computer . They loved the videos, so Gary took one of them!! Hope you can open it and see. I have never put one in the Blog before, so see if I am successful. When leaving Port Charlotte we noticed this home and another type of palm . I love the various palms and just had to have a picture. I also loved the house and many others around! On Tuesday when we were waiting for our motor home to be finished at Classic Coach Works, we decided to go out east of Lakeland to Lake Wales and see the BOK Carillon Bell Tower and Gardens completed in 1929. On the way as we passed the citrus groves , you could see the tower in the distance . The tower is undergoing a renovation because of deterioration of the steel beams that support the top of the tower and the grille work at the openings in the walls. The gardens and weather were beautiful !! From the base of the Tower, at the top of this highest point in Florida at 324 feet above sea level, you can see city off in the distance to the east . What a view! There were two swans in the garden pools around the grounds . They were also beautiful and aggressive. When Gary was standing too close, one swan almost got at his foot. I would have loved getting a picture of it pulling his shoe strings, but we could not get it to interact again.

Approaching the 205 foot tower we begin to see the scaffolding in the upper stories where the work is going on to also clean and restore the cast iron ceramic tile grills and Georgian marble and Florida limestone of shell and coral fragments. The decorative metal work nearer the base of the tower is being cleaned and repainted at this time also. During the work, the 60 bronze bells and frame will be covered with plastic to protect the mechanisms from debris.

Walking around the base of the tower and the wrought-iron gates with birds, we could see the brass door that depicts the Biblical story of Creation. We could see the site of Edward W Bok's grave in front of the brass door . It will be nice to be able to go through the gates after restoration is finished to see the door! Bok was a humanitarian, peace advocate and Pulitzer-prize winning author.

The inscription under the Sundial tells that the Singing Tower and adjacent Sanctuary was dedicated and presented to the American people by Calvin Coolidge, President of the US in 1929. Only with a Membership would you receive an invitation for one of the four annual tours of the Founder's Room (at ground level). After touring the grounds we waited on a bench on the grounds for the musical bells at 1 'clock. The half hour of music is only played twice a day, but is well worth waiting around to hear. We could see the gentleman playing the bells by video in the gardens. Notice that they are not played with the fingers as you would play an organ, but with the heels of the hands! After listening to the music, we ate lunch at their Blue Palmetto Cafe'. I so enjoyed the air plants and flowers around the cafe' .

Hope you enjoy this Tower visit as much as we did! Take care and God Bless!

Salem Ohio Days in FLORIDA and the Everglades

Before leaving for parts farther south in Florida, we went to our last night of entertainment here in Red Oaks Resort at Boots Hall. The show was opened by Alex Huston and Elmer, who says he is NOT a Dummy! They opened for Jimmy Smith, an Elvis impersonator . His show is good and it is not the first time that we have seen him. Both Jimmy and Alex are entertainers from Pigeon Forge and Nashville. Alex has opened shows for many famous entertainers including the Jimmy Dean Show for many years.

On Thursday we left the park with the motor home to take it to Classic Coach Works in Lakeland FL for some repair for ceiling damage done during rains in Florida while we were in Ohio in an apartment this winter. It was an expensive job and they did very good work. But after all was said and done, I did not like one of the colored fabrics that I chose. But guess that I will have to live with it!! We spent the night in the motor home in their parking lot and then left early the next morning in the Jeep for Bonita Springs. While waiting for their shop to close for the day, we wandered around Lakeland and stopped to check out a beautiful Outlet Mall . It was a quiet night in spite of being located on a busy highway, and we looked out over a lake behind the shop.

In Bonita Springs we joined others in the state of Florida for the Salem Ohio Reunion day at The Elks. I believe this was the sixth year for this reunion and this year they reserved an entire room for the event because of the size that the group has become. This picture is only of the Salem High School graduates and I imagine that the count was about 55 for the entire group. It would be nice to get more to attend as we are sure that there are many more wintering or now residing in the state of Florida. We can get forms for registering to any one of you or those you know who are down here, but have never attended. Just give us a notice by e-mail or by response on this Blog. We also took pictures of the women and men separately as well as pictures around the room. How many do you know? It was an enjoyable day and when we left there we went on down the road to Naples for the night, as we were not due in at my great niece's home until the next day.

While visiting with people at the Salem reunion, we were tuned in to where they are living and what they have done in the areas. Thus we decided to spend the early hours of the next day going down into the Everglades, since we doubt that we will get this far south again. We do like the mid state and Gulf area very well so far. We still need to check out the Atlantic side of the state later this spring. It will probably be two or three years before we are back here again.

Early the next morning we went to Shark Valley in the eastern part of the everglades to take a two hour Tram ride with a guide through the glades . He was very informative.

This valley lies 18 to 25 feet lower elevation than Miami and 20 feet lower than Ft. Myers. The everglades is the head waters of the Shark River which flows into the lower Gulf and is all fresh water. The river was named Shark because when the area was inhabited by the Spanish there were a lot of sharks to be seen in the river mouth. While on the tour we stopped at this tower where we could see out over this road that we had traveled within the glades. The major part of vegetation is the saw grass , called this because of it's saw like quality if you run your fingers upward on the blades. It quickly causes a cut like a paper cut. Ouch! Other trees are the ebony oaks, hardwood hemlocks and bay trees, mostly three to seven feet tall . The life borrow pits as you see here can be 18 to 35 feet deep .

The everglades lies over a three mile thick bed of limestone topped by a layer of 2 to 3 inches of muck filled with parafiden or fiten because it filters the water. It is a round plant. When the water is squeezed out of it , it resembles a wet paper pulp. We also saw a lot of spatter dock (not water lilies) over the water where we saw a lot of birds, turtles, fish and alligators. We could get quite close to the sunning alligator but not wise if their babies were in the area. We saw them swimming at all ages .

I couldn't begin to get the names of the birds that were pointed out to us. There were too many or I was just too slow!!

He did tell us many alligator stories and that they have to sun after eating so that their body temperature reaches 80 degrees to be able to digest the food. We also learned that this bird has to sun itself after swimming, to dry off the water because he does not have oil in his body to repel the water. Thus you saw them with wings spread in trees and bushes. He also seems to like his food dead as you can see that he is beating his fish to death here !

Leaving the everglades tour, we went on down to the lower Gulf tip to Everglades City to stop for a bite to eat at the Seafood Depot that friends also told us about. Most houses here were on stilts and living quarters on second floor with the garage under them on ground level.

There were also a lot of air boat ride businesses all over this area . I think that might be fun to do some time also!! We really used up most of the day and realized that we were going to arrive at my great niece's after dinner. With three little girls, I knew that we needed to hurry along before it would be their bed time.

See you on back up the coast at Port Charlotte for a couple days.