Dining Out with Friends

YES! Finally, the weather cooperated and we made it to Gator Joes. Six of us were supposed to be here a couple of weeks ago - but we cancelled because of rain. What a great decision, because we never would have enjoyed the evening any where near as much as we did last night. Two more joined the group - Linda Kramer - since she's still here visiting, and Phil Griell, who is a friend of Greenie and Kathy's. Phil recently moved from Michigan to Florida and bought a home in The Villages.

Since Greenie and Kathy were the only ones who knew how to get to the restaurnat, we all met at the El Santiago Rec Center. Mo and Jeanne left their car - Jeannie came with us - Mo went with Greenie and we headed out. It was about a 30 minute drive to Ocklawaha, in Marion County. How different from The Villages, and the larger Florida cities - what a beautiful ride it was through the country roads of Marion County. How quickly we forget how beautiful it really is here.

This is Gator Joe's . Located down a small side street in a rural area - we wondered how anybody found this place - or even heard of it. Even as we approached the restaurant we weren't quite sure what to expect. Gator Joes is a Key West style waterfront restaurant that was established back in 1926 on the water's edge of Lake Weir in Marion County. Gator Joe was a 15ft 7in alligator that lived in Lake Weir in the 1900's.

We went inside; it was early so we had our choice of places to sit. Mo started heading near the back to the windows, but we quickly saw that if we continued on out the back door we could check out the outside dining area.

Out the door and down the dock - Here's Phil and Rich and Greenie working their way to the end of the T shaped dock and the tables. The menu's were on the table. Most of us ordered the combination baskets, where you had your choice or combination of shrimp, fish, frogs legs, gator clams and/or oysters.
Kathy, Greenie and Phil enjoying their beverage and waiting for dinner to arrive.

Linda, Jeanne, Mo, (me - well - that's my chair - I'm taking the picture) and Rich. I think all of us are discussing our pleasure at how nice the place turned out to be. The atmosphere was great, the view of the lake was beautiful, there was a pleasant breeze and we were with friends. Of course - we still hadn't had our meal.

Here's a view of Lake Weir from our table.

The food got a thumbs up from all of us. And after sitting and chatting for a while we all headed back to the cars. Well almost all of us........ Where is Linda and Jeannie? Looking back, they had stopped to peer over the edge of the dock. Was it the Blue Herron or the ducks swimmg along the shore's edge?


Actually - Greenie had grabbed my camera earlier in the evening and took this picture of the Blue Herron for me.
And as we headed back to the vehicles - we caught the ducks playing on both sides of the dock.

Now here is a picture of Gator Joes foot that we saw hanging on the wall as we headed out. You need to know the story of Gator Joe. "Joe caught his fame from the Ma Barker gang who tried to kill him on several occasions; but, Joe ultimately got them instead. His local legend led the FBI to the Barker hideout on January 16th, 1935 and after a 4-hour gun battle the Barker gang all lay dead. In 1952 Joe crossed paths with a local gator hunter named Vic Skidmore. Since then, Joe's foot has had many homes throughout Florida and even Kentucky. It was donated to Gator Joes from one of Vic's friends, Mr. Jim Townlee.

So where do we go from here? This is located on the walkway just before getting to the parking area. Key West sounded good - but it's only 12 miles to The Villages - so we took that route. We were following Greenie as he made a turn near the Mulberry Rec Center on the way home. Jeanne was sure Mo - who was riding with Greenie- had something to do with the left hand turn we made into Brewsters Ice Cream. Ice Cream? We were still full from dinner. Even Rich couldn't find room after finishing his meal and part of mine! But Greenie and Kathy still found room. Grennie came back with a turtle sundae and two spoons and the two of them smiled and shared their ice cream treat.
But there was no sharing with Mo and Jeanne. Mo enjoyed is Banana Milk Shake. And Jeanne ! Are you really going to eat that huge hot fudge sundae all by yourself? She claims she asked for a small...........

And that folks - was dinner with friends at Gator Joes. We were glad that Linda was here to enjoy the evening with us, and we so much enjoyed meeting Phil. Not sure if we would see Jeannie and Mo or Kathy and Greenie again before we left The Villages, we hugged and promised to keep in touch.

Linda and Rich and I opened a bottle of Merlot and shared a glass of wine back at the house, and then called it a day.