One thing led to another.......

For those doubters - here is a sunrise...taken about 25 minutes ago

Tuesday started off clear, and very cool......my kind of Florida day!  Whenever we arrive in a new location we love to go check out the local thrift stores.  The nearby town of Lessburg has many such fine establishments, so around 10 am we unloaded the 'Bird from its cocoon and headed into Leesburg.  There are several large thrift stores, and we visited many of them, but we scored at St. Paul's Thrift Store on Sunshine Ave......

I bought a Fuji ergonomic seat....close to new for $5, a classy navy blue sweatshirt ($1) with a stitched logo, and a Caribbean Joe's "Hawaiian" shirt ($3).  Some will be asking "where" these new treasures will be stowed.....well, I do have room in my closet for several more shirts as I have been divesting myself of ones I was not wearing, and I always have room for one more bike seat in the trailer......I'll just have to have TLE help me lean on the door the next time I close it up.....:D

Around Noon I was getting the munchies so I checked Yelp for nearby craft beer opportunities......in the process I came across a place called Mermaid Juice, which was an antique store in Mt. Dora that has about 14 craft beers on tap.....you can shop while drinking your beer....what an interesting concept.....so we began the 18 mile trek eastward passing large lake after large lake......we are, after all, in Lake County.  I had never heard of Mt. Dora before.....it is a cool, funky town located on the shores of Lake Dora.  We arrived in front of Mermaid Juice to find they were "CLOSED" on Tuesday's.....whaaaaat?  This is what I mean by "One thing led to another....".  We went to Mt. Dora for one thing, and ended up finding a very cool town with dozens of antique stores, art galleries, and restaurants featuring every cuisine known to mankind.

A "pano" shot borrowed from www.whattodoinmtdora.com

We walked around the old town area kind of getting a feel for the place, and came across The "Frog and Monkey Restaurant & Pub".....need I say anymore?  We had our server "build" a couple of Guinnes Stouts for us, and ordered a Ruben sandwich, which we split......very, very good combination.

After lunch we continued exploring the antique shops in town, and while we didn't find anything we couldn't live without, we thoroughly enjoyed each of the shops.  Around 2 pm we decided it was time to head back to Fruitland Park.......we did find another Goodwill on the way home just outside of Leesburg, and spent some time rummaging through their offerings, but managed to leave without any further acquisitions.

After we got "home" I changed and went out to the trailer with my new bicycle seat intent on going through my 5 gallon bucket of bike stuff that I keep around.....just about that time Jim and Jacque dropped by (they had finished their work day), and then Jake and Claudia dropped over....the girls went inside to talk, and the guys compared power plants.  Jake and Claudia have a cool late model VW Beetle, so he showed me "his" and I showed him "mine".....

Eventually I could hear the dinner bell ringing somewhere so we jumped in Jim and Jacque's car and made our way over the Hurricane Dockside Grill in Tavares, FL.  We had a great dinner with even better conversation.

After we got home we decided to watch the latest episode of "Bones" which was recorded the night before, and I'm sure it was a good show, but apparently I was napping during most of it......:D

Tomorrow St. Petersburg!  What new adventures, sights and sounds await us?  Stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by!