My favorite Old Homosassa Parade was held Saturday. (Yeah, it’s the only Old Homosassa street parade.)
We started out the day with some excitement just getting there. Terry went to Wesley Chapel to pick up the two older grandkids that live there, Courtney and Justin, so they could enjoy the parade and festival with us. The streets were closing at 10 am so we knew it would be a race to get back home before the deadline. Terry made it to Smokin’ Mos which was pretty close to the beginning of the parade so I walked down to meet them. And he had the wrong kids–Kendall and Jack! Surprise! But he had Courtney and Justin’s clothes. I’ve given up trying to figure all that out. Since we were at the restaurant anyhow, we had breakfast at Smokin’ Mos and waited for the fun to start.
This parade has all the necessary ingredients for success.
A band!
Crystal River High School Band
Floats!
Who is Chad Crawford?
Golf Carts!
Those pink ladies on the back are shrimp. Lots of shrimp depicted in the shrimpapalooza!
Hey, that’s Kathy Beck! She must be famous!
Spectators
Glad we already ate breakfast because it looks like everyone that works at Smokin’ Mos is out here!Yep, there’s Carol and Cristine! And the rest of the crew was in the parade!Hey, there’s a bunch of our neighbors!Wow! Those are some cute kids!
We didn’t make it to the festival since Kendall (almost 5) told me she was “weared out” (probably from wearing all those beads) and wanted to go P-L-A-Y at our house. (A recent thing with Kendall, she likes to spell things out for me) But the parade was fun, fun, fun. And by the end of the day playing with Jack and Kendall, I was “weared out”, too.
This giant manatee has been hanging out in Homosassa Springs since before I moved to Citrus County. When he was at Halls River Road I used him for a landmark for visitors that were coming from north on 19, “turn right at the giant manatee”. Never failed to get them headed in the correct direction!
Then he was moved over by the hotel and more recently placed in front of the Homosassa Wildlife Park entrance on 19–where he belongs! Now he’s ready to help with the Easter egg hunt that the park holds the Saturday before Easter. Lots of kids and lots of fun.
And he even has a cottontail!
If I was a reporter I probably would have called the park to find out who came up with this great idea. But I’m just an observer that loves our newly decorated public art piece!
Last month I posted about our goal of hitting all the farmers’ markets in the area that were listed in the Citrus Chronicle. The past two weekends we visited two more, the Inverness Farmers’ Market and the Floral City Market.
The first Saturday in March we went to the Inverness Farmers’ Market and it was really cold. I know that the family in North Dakota scoffs at my cold reports, but yes, it was windy and below 50! Stocking hats and mittens for me! Not many vendors at the market but we bought produce and bread.
Yum, Bread!
The next week we went to the Floral City Market, which according to the Citrus Chronicle is the second Saturday monthly. I actually did some research, went out to the Internet and found an article that the Market was located at the Frugal Frog. Also discovered that there is no easy way to get from Old Homosassa to Floral City. On the map it looks like a straight shot across the county, but there’s a big swath of the Withlacoochee State Forest in between so that short drive takes about 45 minutes.
I’ve been through Floral City on the Withlacoochee Bike Trail on my bicycle but not on the main drag. So Terry and I drove up and down 41 and through many of the side streets and never found the Frugal Frog nor a Market. Finally we stopped at a produce stand–Aunt Martha’s Produce & Specialty Market–to at least buy some fresh vegetables.
And there we met Aunt Martha and Shannon. They were full of useful information.
Shannon Burns and Martha Burns, Owners/Operators of Aunt Martha’s Produce & Specialty Market
Turns out, there is no Market in Floral City. And no Frugal Frog! And hadn’t been either for some time! But they had lots of produce and lots of stories, so we spent a pleasant time chatting with them and learning just a bit about Floral City. They also suggested we go to the Florida Artist Gallery and just check out Floral City. So we did!
The Florida Artist Gallery
The Florida Artist Gallery is really quite nice and the art is reasonably priced and even has a cafe that smelled divine. There’s also a few stores right across the street from Aunt Martha and an outdoor area with lots of concrete creatures for purchase. We really had fun perusing all of the stuff. And there were chickens! So should I classify Floral City as quaint–or quirky? Perhaps equal amounts of both.
Have I ever mentioned that I hate chickens but am strangely drawn to them? A bit of an aversion/obsession. Fortunately, Terry won’t let me buy chickens. Even though Martha Stewart says we should.
We were still a bit disappointed that there wasn’t a Market since we had intended to buy some bagels for Sunday AM. So we stopped at the Inverness Farmers Market, since we were driving right by, and were surprised with a car show and many more tents at the market than the week before. Something to do with no wind and lovely temperature of 70 degrees! So we got our bagels, enjoyed the car show, and ended with lunch at Stumpknockers.
This was listed in the newspaper as a Corvair Show so we hadn’t planned on attending. But that’s not a Corvair, nor were most of the other fancy schmancy shiny old cars.
While none of these stops were part of our objective, the day turned into a fun adventure.
As far as Farmers’ Markets go, I plan to stick to my local produce stand in the future. It’s right down the street and most of the stands go to the same market to pick up their produce.
As far as fun places to visit, I would have to say Dunnellon and Floral City were the best. Both quirky and quaint.
And that’s the end of our Farmers’ Market search, on to new adventures!
