Barb has been rather musical this week singing every time we departed and arrived home at the Blueberry Hill RV Resort, “I found my thrill on blueberry hill…” (Yes, elvis did sing this!) Sunday we left Clermont, FL, and the land of the mouse. We had used up our two weeks in the Thousand Trails system and need to spend a week outside it.

We had another “no internet” campground encounter again and had to make a last-minute change. We had returned to our “home base” of Sumter Oaks only to find that what was poor AT&T coverage had become completely non-existent. So we headed North into Bushnell and got the last available site at the Blueberry Hill RV Resort. AT&T coverage here has been unbelievable. Even with no Elvis sightings it was a quiet week so Jason could worked many late evenings to catch up at work from vacation and the flu. Jason even had some time to replace the bedroom LED “puck lights” that came in the rig with some soft directional LED lighting, much more pleasant in the evenings and the mornings to not “down spot lights” blinding you.

Blueberry Hill E on left, F on right

Sunset over E lane at Blueberry Hill RV Resort

No furniture, table or fire put provided, at least the grass was nice and the asphalt was new.

That is it for our “lawn” on our site, super small and tight, at least the sewer the other right is farther back (yes, by our grill!)

New LED directional lighting (on left) that replaced the original (on right) “puck lights” that were just spotlights straight down on you in the bed.

The first part of this park was constructed after 2000, so there are some really great amenities including a beautiful warm swimming pool, excellent cable TV at each side and there seems to be something always going on at the clubhouse. This community is different, you see people outside their rigs talking to each other and tons of people at the events. What isn’t so nice here is how squished some of the sites are with each other, we are literally an arm’s length away from the rig on our door side but on the otherwise we could drive the truck between us and the next rig. Anyway, we made do and Valentines evening we had a quiet warm evening outside together, with Barb requesting Jason’s signature steak, mushrooms and parmesan peas.

Broacatos Cuban sandwich, crab cake and potato ball

Broacatos potato ball (larger) and crab cake (smaller)

Broacatos – there is indoor and outdoor seating

Saturday we headed to the big city of Tampa to run some errands and to check out the Chihuly Collection of blown glass. On the we way to the Morean Arts Center in St. Petersburg we swung over to Brocato’s Sandwich Shop based on a recommendation from theWe’re the Russos. Brocato’s speciality is a soft mashed potato ball stuffed with seasoned meats. We also had a cuban and a club sandwich that were huge and very flavorful. From this experience we decided we need to find an electric cooler for the truck, because we have on more than one occasion encountered great food with huge portions that we have left because we had no way to safely take the leftovers with us.

Central Avenue North in St. Petersburg at Chihuly Collection

Sunset Persian Wall (2010)

Mille Fiori (2010) is about 10 feet high by 10 feet wide by 30 feet long

Mille Fiori (2010) is about 10 feet high by 10 feet wide by 30 feet long

Float Boat (2007) is a life size boat with huge spheres around it

Float Boat (2007) is a life size boat with huge spheres around it

Jason & Barb in front of the Ruby Red Icicle Chandelier (2010)

Barb admiring the Macchia Forest (2010) [random woman in the way]

Dale Chihuly is an amazing artist, one of our favorites. He has some very large installations around the world and is known for his style. We first encountered his glass work at the lobby of the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The Chihuly collection at the Morean Arts Center is no disappointing show, with pieces from small table bowls to an entire room filled with glistening spectacles.

Sunday we head back to Winter Garden RV resort to use our Trails Collection pass for another two weeks. Barb’s sister comes to visit and at the end of our time in Winter Garden we will start to make our ascent into the cold toward Wisconsin again.