Members of clubs and organizations seem to like to eat. So many of these groups meet at local restaurants once or twice a month for lunch and their business meetings…Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions, Sertoma. But, I think the Elks, Moose, American Legion and Masons have the right idea…a fellowship hall and/or restaurant built into their facilities.
We have eaten at the local Masonic Lodge twice this week. Many Florida Masonic Lodges have a really great tradition. They meet either once or twice a month (most meet twice a month). On the fifth of whatever day of the week that they meet, they hold a family potluck. In other words, if they meet on a Monday night, the fifth Monday is the family dinner (or if they meet Tuesday, dinner fifth Tuesday, etc.) Well, Monday was fifth Monday. Dang they (we) eat well. Somewhere close to fifty folks showed for the meal. Yummy! Yummy! Pastas (hot and cold), turkey, chicken, hot peppers, salads, desserts. Can’t wait for the next fifth Monday…looks like May. Oh, boy.
Somewhere along the way, we discovered that Florida has a Masonic Lodge entitled “Marston Lodge #49.” Given our last name, Steve has been wondering where it was. He asked many people. No one seemed to know. Well, Steve got a surprise this morning when he asked yet again of one more Mason where it might be. Surprise! Surprise! The gentleman knew…Ft. McCoy.
Ft. McCoy is not that far from us so Steve thought it would be good to take a ride to see if we could locate it. The Lodge has been around since before the War Between the States. The town is small, but apparently the Lodge is strong. It is kind of neat to see a Lodge with ones last name on it. One of these days I will have to look into how it got its name.
Once we found the building, Steve decided to mosey some more. We went east into the Ocala State Forest. He thought he might see something there. It’s a forest. You’re gonna see trees. We stayed on the main road and were surprised to see an entire area set aside for Offroad VM’s. The parking lot was huge. There were lots of vehicles there including a trailer which must have carried ten or twelve.
Continuing on, we discovered a sign for a boat launch. Steve, ever the fan of boats, turned left. While we were there, several boats were off loaded. I was surprised to see that the launching area was free, the parking was free and there were restrooms (also free). Free is better than cheap! Did not know there were any such areas that are still free.
The boat launching area was into Lake Kerr, a good sized lake, but by Florida standards, rather small. We rode around the east side of the lake to discover many cottages and cabins. Looks like a great place to go boating and relax.
We lost the sunshine while there. As the weather-man later said, the sunshine was "filtered." New word for mostly cloudy, I suspect!
Nice trip!
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