A Novel Creation www.WatersWords.com

  Tooling Around Florida: The East Coast Last year Mike and I bought a Corvette to “tool around in.” We have driven it to a few car shows in town and plan to take it to “Vette Fest” in Old Town (Kissimmee) next month. One of the “tooling around” deals was to drive it to Rainbow River.  Next, we drove it to parts of Florida I hadn’t experienced. To Chiefland for barbeque, on to Fanning Springs to the Suwannee River then to Cedar Key. Those were great trips. If you missed the posts about them, I’ll include links at the end. This week we decided to head a different direction. I had visited the Space Center and camped on the east coast of Florida with my family to watch a launch up close, but when Mike heard I had never visited Ron Jon’s Surf Shop, he was determined to fill that gap in my “1970’s girl” education.  So this past week, we headed east, taking the Florida Turnpike, which starts only a few miles from our house, over to the east coast, then traveled a state highway ...

  Finding a New Dentist  Can Be Like Pulling Teeth Memory of my first dentist is of a cowboy named Webb Davis. We lived in Tucson, Arizona. Webb, that is…Dr. Davis, had a flat tire. That’s how my dad came to know him. Thinking he was a poor, tired ranch hand, my dad stopped to help him. The two men hit it off as did their wives. The Davis’ had three children. Their daughter was a bit older than me, but not by much. The boys were younger. I was only four or five at the time. But what I remember most about having Webb Davis as my dentist were his boots. He always wore honest-to-goodness cowboy boots. I was in awe. I wanted to be a cowgirl and ride in the rodeo more than anything back then. It didn’t happen. We were living back in Ohio before I got my first pony.  When we lived in Florida, the Waters family recommended Hugh Tyler as a dentist for me. I was engaged to Tom Waters at the time.  So, Dr. Tyler, who lived on the same road as the Waters’ became my dentist. He ...

Tiki and the Dogs   As many of my readers know, when Mike and I married he had pets. Two dogs and a cat to be specific, though one of the dogs actually belonged Mike's son. Roxy is a pit bull and the most loving, caring dog I’ve ever known since Max Lightening the Wonder Dog died several years ago. The other dog in our house, a Blue Healer named Honeybee didn’t have much to do with me at first. Typically, Blue Healers are “one person” or “one family” dogs. Honeybee, or “Bee” as we often called her, eventually opened up a bit. I could pet her behind her ears without her fussing and she didn’t mind accepting a bite of food from my hand. I think she knew I loved Mike and he loved me, paving the way for a more positive relationship. The cat? Tiki, named after a resort in Islamorada, remained a creature unto herself. Though Roxy longed to play with her, Tiki turned up her nose at the offer and ducked under the bed to avoid the awkward social situation of a dog and cat friendship. When B...

"Exploring “Old Florida” Most folks around the country hear the word ”Florida’’ and immediately think of warm weather, orange juice,  and sandy, sun-kissed beaches. I get it. But if you read my post about Rainbow River a couple of weeks ago, you begin to see the beauty of Florida’s interior. After church Sunday, Mike suggested we take a ride to Chiefland for a sandwich at a great barbeque place he knows and maybe poke around the area a bit. Mike has been all over that part of the state and knew I would like to explore it a bit.  A Sunday drive in the Corvette around Florida? I was in! I like those impromptu dates with my husband.  Mike was right about the barbeque place. It was delicious. I trust Mike, but when you walk in a restaurant and it looks like everyone from the county is there, you know it’s going to be good food. And it was. Barbeque pork sandwiches and sweet tea. It doesn’t get any more Southern than that. We were off to a good start. A few miles north of...