A Poor Porker

Welcome to the Poor Porker

Driving back from that terrible car show, I drove past a restaurant called The Poor Porker. It was an odd looking place behind a rather ramshackle fence. It was closed when I went by, but based on the name, I thought it must have been a Barbecue spot, and I decided to look it up on the Internet and check out their menu.

Turns out the old expression “What’s in a name?” means nothing in this case and I was completely wrong about what

Nothing in the fridge

the Poor Porker was . . . . . No Barbecue, no pulled pork, no ribs . . . . . beignets.  . . . Seriously, what does “Poor Porker” have to do with Beignets?

The Name did however peek my interest, and I decided to check the place out. It was right off Main St. so easy to walk to, and we wandered down on a tour around town with friends. The place was not open, but you could peer through the fence/hedge. There was actually no actual “Restaurant” building. It was an open lot with a food truck at one end, a sort of garage/barn on one side and a tiny travel trailer with an open side in the corner. Oh . . . and a teepee set up in the middle. Now I definitely wanted to return when they were open.

Play a tune . . .

First, those Beignets were delicious! Puffy delicate fried dough covered with your sweet toping of choice. The place itself reminded me of the Ruin Pubs we visited in Budapest, a strange collection of junk forming a unique interesting setting. You entered through a big industrial corrugated steel gate. In one corner was a hammock and an odd mix of chairs. Scattered all over the lot were quaint seating areas created from disjointed elements. Wooden dining chairs, metal outdoor furniture, kitchen set chairs, children’s toy chairs. I do not think there was a pair of matching chairs in the place. You could sit inside the teepee, inside the travel trailer or under mismatched umbrellas around the yard. There was one half a rusted jeep, a rusting refrigerator, animal skulls on walls and a stack of lumber in one corner. In fact everywhere you looked was some other odd item. If you went back 10 times I think you would notice something different every time.

And OMG those beignets were delicious !

Order your Begnets here

A different spot to sit and enjoy your treat

Nope these are not "porkers"

A jeep, well beyond restoration

Friday Night Fish-Fry

Just across the road outside the gate for the Park here in Lakeland is an American Legion, and we heard that they had a pretty good Fish-Fry every Friday night.

Fish-Fry at the legion

One day at the swimming pool while chatting with some other residents, we asked about this event and got some difference of opinion.

“Make sure you get take-out; otherwise you will have to come home and burn all of your clothes! That place is SO smoky!” one lady said rather dramatically.

That however was not the only opinion. “Nonsense, it’s a fun place and the fish-fry is excellent!” responded another swimmer who then added “Crazy woman!” as she turned and got out of the pool.

Well, with such a diversity of reviews on the fish-fry, our only option was to go give it a try. First we stopped in to check on timing and discovered that although the legion was a “Smoking Location”, it did have a “No Smoking” room, so our clothes might survive the event. As well we discovered that following the Fish-Fry there was entertainment with a

country singer.

Timing our arrival to take advantage of both the dinner and the singer, we discovered the place was very busy and Regis asked if she could sit beside two men at the end of one of the tables, and was given permission so long as she got rid of me. Fortunately these guys were actually friendly aging bikers and once they discovered I rode a motorcycle we all got along just fine.

The fish-fry was excellent and the entertainment was great. Aggie (Regis’ mom) would have loved it. Unfortunately, we enjoyed it TOO much and stayed long enough that the gates were closed when we tried to get back into the park. We had forgotten to bring the remote and had to stand around looking like friendly Canadians and wait for another resident to come out and open the gate – the downside to a gated park.

Good Day for Gators

Florida Tourists

Florida is known for it’s Alligators, but many people who visit the state only get to see them behind bars or fences. Today we went to Circle B Bar Reserve, and got to see LOTS of gators in their natural surroundings – and we did not get eaten.

The Circle B Bar Reserve is a 1200 acre game preserve that used to be a cattle ranch, but has been allowed to return to it’s natural Florida swampland habitat. The reserve is famous for its bird life and alligators. We were taken here on a previous visit to Lakeland and thoroughly enjoyed it, so decided to go again. Last time

we saw an alligator in the lake and one other sunning itself on the shore. This time we probably saw over 15, including one Huge one. There is a raised trail running beside the lake with a swamp on the other side, and all except the one really big gator were in the swamp, but you could easily see the paths they used to cross the trail from the lake to the swamp. Most of them were hard to see, as they were covered with the green weed covering the swamp water, but once you focused on one, you knew what to look for and it became easier to pick them out. These alligators are really in their natural habitat and there is nothing separating you and them. Signs warn you to give animals the right of way, and I watched a video of one large alligator crossing the trail I had just walked

A BIG Ol' Gator!

on. Fortunately most looked pretty well fed and lazy in the heat of the day, so we did not actually run into any unfriendly gators.

Although observing the gators in their natural habitat was the highlight of the walk, the reserve is well known for it’s amazing bird life, but finding rare birds is easy – you just find one of the devoted “Birders” on the trails and sight down their massive camera lens pointed at the birds. They are always more than happy to explain all about their particular photographic prey.

All in all, a good day for gators!

Outside the Fence

A nice sturdy wall

The house we are renting is located within a “Gated Community”, so although there is no armed guard at the entrance, it is completely fenced and is a nice safe, secure community. It seems to me that everyone feels comfortable here, and folks are out walking at all hours, and everyone gives you a wave and a friendly greeting.

However, as we sit out in the lanai sipping a cool beverage, we look across the street and can see behind the houses there to dwellings outside the fence. I could not help wonder what was behind the fence. The dogs should have given me a clue . . . . There are lots of dogs here in the park, but there must be some by-law limiting their size, because they are all friendly little things, while I can hear dogs occasionally from outside the fence and they all sounded a lot bigger.

The Common Theme outside the Fence

Today with nothing serious planned, I set out to actually see what was outside the fence. I walked out to the entrance, exited at the gate and went along the front wall/fence to the road running down alongside the park. The road started out paved, but quickly regressed into a dirt track. There was a strange mix of houses, mobile homes and deserted properties. The common theme was “NO TRESPASSING” and “BEWARE OF THE DOG”. On my walk, I met a few of those “outside the fence” dogs behind sturdy fences or chained out front, and they all made a point of reinforcing the “No Trespassing” signs on their fences.

My curiosity satisfied, I now know what is outside the fence, and I am happy to sit in the lanai with my beverage and wave to the other residents going by in their golf carts, and pat their friendly little dogs when I walk around the park.

Not our Rental!

Street Sculpture

We left Nova Scotia for the warmth and sunshine of Florida for the month of April, renting a house in Lakeland, a community about 45 minutes inland from Tampa Bay. We “got out of Dodge” just in time, sandwiched between a snowstorm the day before our exit and another a few days after we left. Now settled in Lakeland we have pretty consistent hot, sunny weather, and I must admit, I am enjoying the heat.

After a week of driving south and visiting friends and relatives along the way, I am trying to get back into my daily walks. Today I looked at Google Maps and decided I could walk from the house to downtown Lakeland. It was a pleasant walk with convenient sidewalks and lovely lakeside walks – obviously where the name “Lakeland” comes from.

I have been to Lakeland previously, actually visiting with the good friends who we are renting the house from, and on the last visit, I was taken downtown to see the Lemon Street Sculpture garden. On this trip I wanted to go back and see it once more, and managed to find my way back easily. The Sculpture Garden is a three-block long street side display of sculpture installed on concrete pads under trees. I enjoyed wandering among the interesting sculptures in such a pleasant setting last time and was pleased to note that all the sculptures had been changed and were all new. The natives of Lakeland obviously just take this interesting exhibition for granted as I was alone in wandering among the  artworks, and people seemed to find it odd that I was so interested in them and taking photos. The one street person sleeping on a bench in the area actually got up and left as my interest in the sculpture was disturbing his resting place.

I have attached a few photos of the sculptures. 

 

Florida Flea Market

The Market Entrance

I always used to enjoy the Sunday Flea Markets in Dartmouth. Every Sunday the hallways in the local shopping mall would fill with tables full of interesting things for sale cheap. Used books, old vinyl records LPs (Remember them, pre cassettes, pre CDs, pre MP3s, pre streaming music . . . ), used clothes, well, actually you could get pretty well everything there. Now along came Sunday shopping and away went the Flea Markets. I think they still do them somewhere locally, but I stopped going when they moved away from the neighborhood.

Need Some Tools

I discovered that they do the Flea Market thing here in Florida very BIG time. We drove to the Webster’s Westside Flea Market outside of Lakeland Fl. Now I am told that since it is officially “off season” now that the thousands of snowbirds have started heading back up the frozen north, the market is considerably downsized from its normal size, but it was still massive. Webster, the town that hosts the Market is a small town, and during its busy time, the market pretty much overwhelms the town on market day, and it is not unusual to run into huge traffic jams getting to the acres of parking outside the market area. When we went it was not busy, or crowded, and judging from the amount of empty tables, many vendors do not bother showing up unless it is crowded, but there was still an amazing assortment of things to buy.

Do you need a handgun, shotgun, or parts for your arsenal, not a problem, is your tool chest looking slightly sparse, it was available, of course T-Shirts were readily available at rock bottom prices, how about hubcaps for your model A, or license plates to match your vintage ride, old coins, jewelry, electronics, fresh produce, all available. Lots of food venders with delicious items, and of course lots of antiques. In short, although lots of venders were absent, there was still plenty to look at and purchase, and in most cases, the lack of serious crowds, made everyone willing to seriously haggle over price. Although we spent hours wandering around, I know that we did not see everything; every time you came to the end of a section, there seemed to be another building or open air area of tables just over there . . .

Where Did Everyone Go?

I did manage to find a few items to purchase, some unique playing cards with unique jokers to add to my collection, a T-Shirt, and a few gifts. It turned out to be a very pleasant day in the heat of Florida. In fact, by the time we were ready to leave, our car was all alone in one area of the parking lot.