The Q Chronicles #81-09

January 30, 2008 (Wed) Lakeland, FL (2) - What a pleasure it is to be able to wake up in the morning and not have to dread getting out of bed into the cold. It was about 60° this morning. There was no need to make a decision about turning the furnace on to take the chill off.

We've been hankering for a Chinese buffet lunch since we left home. Today was the day. Great food, great company. Today was also the day we made our yearly pilgrimage to Book Bazaar, the best paperback book exchange store in the country in our estimation. We now have enough new reading material to keep us busy for several months. Mark and Bob practiced (guitar and banjo) together for a while this afternoon and got rave reviews from their spouses. They all agreed they'd have to do it again sometime.
 
January 31, 2008 (Thu) Lakeland, FL (3) - Ed has a garden scale railroad layout in his yard. The mainline track comes out of his over sized RV garage and makes two overlapping loops before returning to the sheltered "rail yard". Along the way it passes through two villages and a couple of outlying "industries" with appropriate sidings. It's not unusual to see one of his several trains pull out of the huge garage door and begin to make it's way into the "landscape" with Ed at the remote throttle. The mournful wail of the diesel horn in the "distance" is both nostalgic and slightly disconcerting.

Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries make hamburgers the old fashion way - by hand. There are no extruded, sliced and frozen patties there. The choice of several toppings (any or all) is free and a "small" order of french fries is more than enough for two people. Although it's a chain with restaurants almost everywhere east of the Mississippi (Kentucky and New England excepted) we had never heard of them. We had lunch there today. Fabulous!

Q041336 Ed and Kathy's yard (x3)
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February 1, 2008 (Fri)
Lakeland, FL to Englewood, FL (117/1719 miles)

A travel day. Up at 7:15 (61°) off at 10:00. Our first stop was at Camping World in Seffner, FL off I-4 where we picked up a couple of things for Q. The price of gas at the Flying J across the road was $2.87. We filled up. Actually we would have anyway no matter what the price. The tank was about empty! Costco in Brandon, FL off I-75 was our next stop. Then on to Englewood. Traffic on I-75 near Venice was bumper to bump and slow. Accident? We don't know because we jumped off into local bumper to bumper traffic. We're not sure we gained anything by getting off the Interstate!

We got to Englewood at about 2:00 to Frannie's and Bom's warm greetings and banished Q to the parking lot - accompanied by his usual grumblings.

February 2, 2008 (Sat) Englewood, FL - Groundhog Day. Joy and her mother went swimming and played Skip-Bo. Joy and her sister went shopping. Joy and her mother and her sister talked. Mark caught up on a month's worth of mail and played his guitar.

February 3, 2008 (Sun) Englewood, FL - Joy and her mother went swimming and played Skip-Bo. Joy, her mother and her sister talked. Mark payed bills, organized files and played his guitar.

Tomorrow we head for Big Cypress National Preserve just north of the Everglades. Although there is cell phone service, there is no internet access within 40 miles. We are hoping for warm sunny weather and from what we understand, we may well have it.

Q041453 SunTrust Bank parking lot (parked) (x3)