Tale of Contrasts: Boca Raton, FL to Leesberg/Mt. Dora, FL

The coasts of Florida: fast paced traffic, a lot of liberal pockets, development, interstates, people tend not to strike up conversations with strangers, and fewer bugs.  Back roads in central Florida can be very buggy.  Entire front of windshield and fairing black with bugs.  A few on my helmet shield.  Could have made bug soup from water bucket after cleaning.  Yum!

I find it interesting how world views can be so different 20 miles in from the coasts.  Why?  Reason is that the coasts are populated with transplants (mostly from New York and New Jersey on the East Coast; from Mid-West on the West Coast).  Florida inland natives can be very conservative.

Breakfast at Crackers Restaurant,  Indiantown, FL - locally owned small gathering place of farmers and construction workers.  Man talk mostly about women and business.  Only male customers, the only women is the server - Jess.








Some politically incorrect conversation -  but bonding among old friends.  Informal, worn and stained clothes ... a lot of laughing.  Zero pretense.

Lunch at the  Bloom Restaurant - Main Street, Leesberg.  People were very open and inviting.  Talked for hours.   Edward/Irene - He was a veteran from WW II.  Irene was very cool and had a warm personality.









Joe/Chris are transplants from New Jersey since 2003.  Sitting outside Bloom's with their two mini-golden doodle dogs (Tootsie and Skylar).  They provided colorful stories of the development known as The Villages (over 100,000 population divided by communities within The Villages) statistically on the top of the pack for STD's in the State of Florida.  "Key Parties" are the popular activity.





Dinner at O'Keefe's Irish Pub.  Stayed at Key West Resort in Tavares, near Mt. Dora.

Comments

  1. Dining Diva of BocaJune 7, 2018 at 8:26 AM

    haha - the Villages - thousands of senior citizens on a land based cruise ship!

    ReplyDelete

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