We had a late breakfast and relaxed in the RV this morning watching an old B & W Movie called "Anatomy of a Murder" starring Jimmy Stewart. Great to watch a movie that actually has dialogue.
After lunch we ventured over to the ACE Hardware store a few blocks down the road. I picked up PCV pipe and the bits & pieces needed to construct a mast for the antenna I bought on Thursday at the Lake County Farmers Market. We then returned the supplies to the RV. It is now stored above the large slideout inside the RV until I start that project.
Then we were off again to Mt. Dora. This is our favourite small town - anywhere! We parked the car in front of the the John P. Donnelly House, a Queen Anne style landmark built in 1893 by the first mayor, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
We did some shopping on our way to our restaurant destination. I couldn't resist taking a picture of this "I Climbed Mount Dora" T-shirt in a store window. The reflection from the building across the street and the hat above the shirt make a neat "Smiley" face.
P.S. Mount Dora is situated on a plateau 184 feet (56 m) above sea level making it the second highest municipality in Florida. The highest point in Florida is only 345 feet making it possible to be classified as a Mount(ain Dora) by Florida standards.
I found a dark wooden "You Are My Sunshine" (Charlotte is ...) plaque to add to our collection of sayings mounted in the motorhome. We have room for 1 more...still looking.
Change of plans! We were looking forward to having lunch at The Windsor Rose Tea Room.
Unfortunately, there was a glitch. Their oven was not working and the cancellation list of items NOT available included the entrees we were interested in having for lunch.
Mt. Dora has a myriad of excellent eating establishments. All we had to do is walk half a block (any direction) to find another. Having eaten at a few of these restaurants recently our choice became The Bavarian Haus. It has been a while since we ate German food. Good fresh German Cuisine that is made-from-scratch sounded good.
We were wrong! It wasn't good - it was Great!
It took us quite a while to decide on our choices from their extensive menu. We finally picked the Bratwurst Und Kartoffelsalat (Bratwurst with German Potato Salad) and Rouladen (consisting of bacon, onions, mustard and pickles wrapped in sliced roast beef and covered with homemade gravy. Rotkhol (Red Cabbage) and Spatzle (German Egg Noodles) were our choice of the many "sides" that were offered.
We did our usual "Double Mint" thing. We "doubled our pleasure and doubled our fun" (grin) by switching plates at half-time. Both choices were excellent! Our only disappointment was that we did not have room for their homemade dessert.
We had tickets for this evening's Lake Dora Music Festival concert featuring "Chad and Jeremy". We also had time to kill. We took up residence on a park bench in Donnelly Park to enjoy the 3 p.m. live concert featuring "...a Central Florida porch band devoted to three chords and the truth, "The Simple Cavemen" are familiar to Lake County music fans from regular appearances at the Yalaha Bakery. For a decade, these Cavemen have been evolving from suburban patio dwellers into sophisticated beings skilled at striking stringed instruments and drums."
While there I noticed that Music Festival information was being handed out by a volunteer. The Music Festival is totally volunteer driven and does great work in supporting the community. This would be a good person to ask which building was the Mt. Dora Community Center. I suspected it was the building across the road from the park; however, I was not 100% sure. It was a case of "everyone knows where that is" syndrome - no address needed! All online references I could find did not include an address. Alyce was most helpful. It turned out that my assumption was correct. It was just across the street. I also purchased a Music Festival T-shirt (Treble Clef design) that she was offering.
At the end of the concert we took our shopping purchases to the car located at the bottom of the park. We then returned to the top of the park and once again claimed a park bench for a short period. In the Mt. Dora downtown area there is a park bench (seating for 2) situated virtually every 50 feet. The benches are donated.with each displaying a plaque with "In Memory of...(the loved ones name)." Just another "nice touch" that makes Mt. Dora such a neat place to visit.
As the "Doors Open at..." time approached we crossed the road to the community center.
We joined a short line of folks waiting for the 6 p.m. opening. The show is at 7:30 p.m. I had thought about getting the more expensive (show up later) reserved seats at a little over twice the price. This would have included a CD and an after concert reception with "Chad and Jeremy". We resisted the temptation to use the savings to buy tickets for next week's Micky Dolenz (Monkees lead singer) concert.
Note: If you buy the "cheap seats" (especially in a small venue) and arrive early the unreserved seats can actually be equal to or better than the premium tickets. You know - being 1 row behind the guy that paid twice the price isn't so bad. Our seats were better than most of the reserved even though they were on the side. We chose to sit on the "Piano Side" with a great view and 2/3 closer to the front than some of the reserved seats. We had the end seats only a few rows from the front - Super!
Bonus: The hour and a half wait until show time passed by quickly thanks to the wonderful folks we met. We had conversations covering a wide variety of topics and received some helpful hints about Mt. Dora sites to visit. They also proved a Disney Theme: It's a Small World!
- Their names begin with the same initials as Charlotte (hers) and I (his).
- He was also a graduate (like Charlotte and I) of Ottawa University (Ottawa, ON, Canada).
- We both have relatives in Sudbury, ON teaching in higher education.
- We have visited their hometowns of Halifax, NS (hers) and Rutland, VT (his)
- He has been to ours (Cornwall, ON).
Sidenote: Similar to most visitors to Cornwall in the "Paper Mill" era (now gone), his most vivid memory was the "Rotten Egg" smell (Hydrogen Sulphide) present due to the "Kraft" Paper production.
Hey! Talk about Six Degrees of Separation!"
Double Bonus: A great concert by Chad (Stuart) and Jeremy (Clyde). This English Duo was part of the British Invasion in the '60's. Their current tour is celebrating their 50th anniversary! (Dates us - Eh!).
They interspersed their hits: "Summer Song", "Yesterday's Gone", "Willow Weep For Me" and "Everyone's Gone To The Moon" with a variety of songs ranging from the humourous and poignant to instrumentals. Their relaxed stage presence and humurous anecdotes and interjections added to the enjoyment of the evening. It was over too soon!
An easy 20 minute ride back to the RV Park in Umatilla, FL.
Again, we watched the Olympics before bed after another neat day!
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