Exploring Zephyrhills

Another beautiful day in Z-hills; it's hard to remember that it's early February! Today we went to the Train Depot Musuem which ended up really being one for the entire town. Very interesting, and the curator was great. They have a large covered deck in the rear of the building that was being used today by water color artists. The art club meets there twice a month. Free creative crafting classes are offered the second Wednesday of the month for anyone who wants to go. I plan to go on the 13th. Once a month they have a community wide yard sale too. Someone is very clever in utilizing the facility for public programs. Jim was enthralled with the model train layout of the town, run by local retired railroad men. We actually recognized several areas of the town. We really like this area. It has a small town feel, but everything is here or near. The curator told us that the population goes up by 70,000 during the winter months! We also stopped by the library, crowded and busy, and bought a city map and several paperbacks at their book sale. We were shocked how small it was. I hope they get some tax or grant money because they need to expand. They did have loads of new titles though, audiobooks, and 4 or 5 computers.

We hit Wal-mart for groceries, and Whataburger for lunch.We stopped by Neukom's fruit stand for our fresh orange juice, squeezed today. The young couple running it now, is the 7th generation of orange growers here. The senior citizen that waited on me today agreed that it was really good juice when I commented on it, but said, "it's tiresome to make everyday too." She did look beat. We called up Gene and Kathy to see if they wanted to run over to Plant City, 15 minutes away, to the Parksdale Farms Market. We loaded up on fresh produce there, and their famous strawberry shortcake. It's always packed there. Word travels far and wide when produce is that good!

Tomorrow we go to Largo, to pick up my Mom for a few days visit here with us. We plan to take her back on Saturday when we go visit the kids.