After spending two busy days at the RV show, we were ready for some down time.  On Friday, the 17th, we went out to breakfast (actually more like brunch because we got going pretty late) at the First Watch restaurant.  Their menu has a lot of unusual items.

What we had was oh so good! I had the Parma Hash which is two eggs atop a hash of fresh, seasoned potatoes, Italian sausage, house-roasted Crimini mushrooms, onions and tomatoes with melted Parmesan, mozzarella and fresh herbs.

Rob had the Bacon and Onion Hash which is two eggs atop a hash of fresh, seasoned potatoes, bacon and house-roasted onions with melted Cheddar and Monterey Jack. Both came with a small fruit cup and an English muffin.  The best part – we had leftovers for the next morning. They have a number of locations throughout Florida – high recommended!

Rob decided to sign up for their SunE Club to see if we could snag a coupon.  A “buy one get one free” coupon appeared in his mailbox several hours later.  Word of warning with some of these coupons, you can only open and print the coupon once.  Not realizing that, I opened the coupon on my phone.  When Rob went to retrieve it on his PC later, it said sorry the coupon has already been used.  He had to apply to have the coupon reset which takes 24 hours.  In the meantime, I also signed up and received the same coupon which I printed from my PC.

Friday afternoon and Saturday we didn’t do much except work on our blog posts in the hopes we would get caught up, did some walking and sat outside for a bit.   Both nights we had freeze warnings so our electric fireplace got a workout. During the day, especially when sitting outside, a sweatshirt was needed since temps were in the high 50’s to low 60’s with a slight breeze. What? Do I hear words of sympathy from our family and friends in the Northeast?  Not likely!

Speaking of the electric fireplace, it was not on our must have list when we were looking for a new coach last year, but it sure would be now! It has saved us from burning a ton of propane! It’s super quiet, has a thermostat, blower, even a remote control and it can heat the entire coach to a comfortable level down to about the freezing point. Below that the front part of the coach needs some help from the AquaHot heat.

Sunday morning the temp was 34 degrees when we woke up.  Since we had a few errands to run, we decided to use our coupon at First Watch so we headed there around 8:15 am, hoping that we would beat the crowds.  And we did so we were seated right away.  It seems if you get there any later than 8:30 am, you’ll end up waiting for a table especially on a weekend.

This time at the recommendation of our waitress, I decided to have one of their eggs-clusives – the Chickichanga – whipped eggs with spicy all-natural white-meat chicken, chorizo sausage, green chilies, Cheddar and Monterey Jack, onions and avocado rolled in a flour tortilla and topped with Vera Cruz sauce and sour cream and served with fresh fruit and seasoned potatoes (at least the fruit was healthy). It was excellent!  Rob had the Tri-fecta which was two scrambled eggs with  a Belgian waffle and turkey sausage. Delish as well. And with our coupon all for a more “dinerish” price point!

After breakfast we headed over to Sam’s Club to pick up a few things and to Bed Bath and Beyond so we could exchange an empty SodaStream cartridge for a full one. As we were driving along there was a hot air balloon coming down for a landing on the side of the road.  Neat!  Hope he didn’t land in the water – it would have been pretty cold!

Before the RV show, I had researched things to do in the Tampa area and noticed that there was a park, Lettuce Lake that sounded interesting and it was not too far away.  By now, it had warmed up so I suggested we go there for our daily walk instead of walking around Quail Run again.  So glad we did!

Lettuce Lake Park is a 240 acre park in Hillsborough County which opened in 1982 and offers something for everyone.  Picnic areas, a playground, bicycle path/jogging trail complete with a fitness course, an interpretive center, an observation tower (which was closed) and a 3500 foot boardwalk which winds its way through hardwood hammocks and pine flatwoods. There are all sorts of birds, turtles and even a resident 16 foot alligator (he didn’t make an appearance while we were there though)!  So glad we stopped there.

Once we had seen all that there was too see on the boardwalk, we walked back to the van and headed back to Quail Run.  We spent the rest of the day watching the AFC Championship game between the Pats and the Broncos.   Darn, New England lost, so no Super Bowl for us this year except to watch the commercials!  Oh well, considering all the injuries to some of their key players, the Pats did well to make it as far as they did.  Guess there’s always next year…sigh!

Monday was a quiet day getting caught up on things and getting ready for our departure on Tuesday.  When we took our daily walk around the park, we stopped to talk to a couple who were on site #286, Phil and Carolyn, both native Floridians who currently live in West Palm Beach.  Nice couple!  They had a new 39′ Newmar Canyon Star toy hauler so they would carry their beautiful red Trike. They invited us on board to show us their unit which was lovely. Since the “garage” occupies about 10′ of their coach, they only have about 29′ feet of living space.  Although, the garage does have two bunk beds, is pre-plumbed for a bathroom and/or washer dryer and with the garage door open could be used as an area to sit outside while protected from the elements.

Since Phil was considering a new unit, we invited them over to see our coach.  After talking for awhile, they left at 7 pm to go to the ice cream social at the rec hall. We joined them 15 minutes later, sitting with several other couples, where we were served three huge scoops of ice cream (choice of vanilla, chocolate or strawberry) and had our choice of “make your own sundae toppings”.   By the time we left there, then chatted some more with Carolyn and Phil outside their coach, it was after 9 pm so the ice cream ended up being our lunch and supper.  Not very nutritional but very enjoyable!

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we would be leaving for our next destination.  Stay tuned!