After the Inkslinger meeting, Sandra and I headed out to Ozona, north of Dunedin, for dinner. We had hoped togo to a new location we had found for bar-b-q. However, ‘The Ozona Pig’, as it is called, is closed Sundays. So, we crossed the street to ‘Molly Goodhead Raw Bar and Seafood’. The restaurant has been around for quite a long time and is a favorite of people who live in the area and Snowbirds. Inkslinger and terrific artist John Stevens joined us.

The drawing is of a piece of driftwood that is used as a sign to point the way to drift to the restrooms.

Leaving Bike Week, made a stop in Ormond Beach at Dustin’s Bar-B-Q. The restaurant has been recommended many times and this was the first time I had made time to stop there. Great Bar-B-Q! Not eating all day probably enhanced the taste. Being exhausted from working all day, unfortunately, also has the memory fuzzy.

The drawing is decoration at the restaurant of a wall shelf with water can and dolls.

Heading south along State Road 13 at the 6-Mile Bridge is a very good seafood spot, The Outback Crab Shack. Serving for over 30 years the place has expanded over the years and seems to be yuppifying for the new subdivisions plaguing the land north of the restaurant. The drawing above is of Sandra’s very-full plate of crab legs. I got a – get this – a shrimp cheeseburger with bacon. It’s just what you would imagine. The food is a bit pricey, but very good and you get plenty.

After a very long day of trekking across Polk County we ended up at one of my favorite bar-b-q restaurants, Jimbo’s Real Pit Bar-B-Q in Lakeland. Learn more here. We had another great meal with a very lively waitress. Where have all of the lively waitresses gone to? This drawing is of the lady cashier.

We left from Bok Tower to find Slocum Gardens in Winter Haven. All we found were two worn signs and a parking lot. Apparently the hurricanes did away with this landmark that had been in Polk County since 1938.

We next went to Bartow. First stop: My hero, Jacob Summerlin’s grave. Anytime I’m in Bartow I stop by. This was Sandra’s first visit. Next stop was to find a park Sandra had heard of but didn’t know where it was. Where else to get answers but at the local ice cream shop??? The proprietors of The Cool Shoppe Ice Cream Cafe, indeed, did point us to two parks. Unfortunately neither met Sandra’s criteria.

We finished in Hollis Garden on Lake Mirror in Downtown Lakeland. You can learn more here about this garden. This is a very British park with individual areas of specific flowering plants. The drawing above is of one of those flowers that Sandra called a yellow pansy.
 

After a looooonnnngggg day of hiking and looking and taking pictures and hiking and looking, etc…we headed to Alachua and had dinner at Conestoga’s Restaurant. Has a great steak there!

This sketch is of ornamentation over one of the doorways.

Sandra and I went to the ‘Fisherman’s Restaurant’, just outside Inverness, to have dinner with my Aunts Muriel and Barbara and Uncle Charles. Sandra and I had our first “date” at this restaurant.

The sketch is of ,who the waitress referred to as, a regular.

Another dinner at Linda’s La Cantina on E. Colonial Drive in Orlando! Yipee! These are my favorite steaks, hands down. Besides it’s over 50 year reputation of great food, the place further dedicated itself in Orlando history by recently redecorating itself with old Orlando photos and some terrific paintings of the old Orlando Air Force Base, where I was born.

Sandra had been at a writers conference near Orlando’s Lake Lucerne. I met her and one of her best friends, co-writer and Sunrise resident, Kathy Wolf, at the restaurant. This was Kathy’s first visit and you should have seen her face after her first bite of steak!

The drawing is of a small lamp and table at the restaurant.

After the Suncoast Inkslingers meeting at the Belleview Biltmore, took a ride on U.S. 19 and stopped in Homassas Springs at the Sugarmill Restaurant. They still had Christams decorations up, including this tree by the cash register. That’s a plant hanging from the seiling obscuring a bit of the Christmas tree. Surroundng the cash register are lots of various containers that hold various kinds of business cards. 

We celebrated Ann E. Sabo’s big 4-0 Bday by throwing her a surprise party at the Blue Moon Inn in Dunedin. Included in the festivites was also a happy 39th to Tracy and a surprise to my soon-to-be-40 next week brother, Jeff. Further fun was Tracy presenting a secret gift game, where each person gets a gift and can trade with another. Adding to that was Ann’s sister June wanting muffin tins and settling, happily, for a how-to-make-cocktails book.

There two sheet cakes. Ice cream, too. Despite that, we went with Tracy and her husband Greg to a TERRIFIC bar-b-q restaurant west of Alternate-19 in historic Ozona. The Ozona Pig is in an old house and includes homey decorations as with the Elvis tribute on a shelf.

The restaurant had terrific bar-b-q ribs, fries, baked beans, smoked ham, etc. They also have something called the “Bar-B-Q Cocktail” that is a cup of pulled pork, baked beans, claw and a pickle. Quite a place! We will return!

Had dinner with Rob Labby and Manfred Wegscheider after loading items in a moving truck for their move to Broward County. We went to Julie’s Waterfront in Pine Castle, just south or Orlando. Julie’s is well known for their fish dinners. and the fish, indeed, was very good. So were the hushpuppies and conch fritters.

This is a sketch of a fellow at another table.