SHOPPING AND THE VILLAGES

 After breakfast and a ride though Grand Oaks, we needed to go to PetSmart. We were really surprised as to how close we were to everything in The Villages. We were 10 to 15 minutes away. It seems like all the major stores and businesses run down 441/27. On the west is the upscale Villages and east is rural with horse farms and lots of big properties, where we are staying.

We went to PetSmart first and rode through a few of the shopping area. Then we noticed there were 3 quilt shops, all within 5 miles of each other and all on 27. We visited each one and they were all small, but different and the owners were all very nice. One of them was The Sewing Studio, which is a smaller shop like the one where I bought my new sewing machine at the AQS meeting in Feb. They carry some great bag patterns and lots of nice vinyl to for the bottom of bags. I bought a couple of pieces of the bag vinyl. One pink and one gray.

By then we were hungry for lunch and saw a Johnny Rockets listed in The Villages. It was quite a ride through that area. The Villages is a retirement community with about 80,000 people over 55 years of age. The roads are quite curvy as there are many, many neighbors in different sections., many golf courses too. There are commercial business, shops, and restaurants mixed in, including Johnny Rockets. There is no lacking any restaurants or services you might need. The big thing in The Villages is the hundreds of golf carts people use to ride around in. They have their own riding lanes, and they park EVERYWHERE. Crazy. I wish I had gotten a better picture of the overwhelming number of golf carts.

The streets are jam packed with cars and golf carts and there was nowhere to park at Johnny Rockets. We passed Toojays, a very popular Deli in south Florida and opted for a hot pastrami on rye sandwich. We hadn't eaten at Toojays since West Palm Beach. Their menu is huge and lots of bakery items too.

The sandwich was huge, and we couldn't eat it all, so we saved half for another meal. It was good, but not as good as we remembered.

Back at the MH, we took out 2 strollers and a play pen for the kitties to sit outside with us. So relaxing and they all enjoyed it. Even Abby had a great time. There was a nice breeze in the air and perfect weather.

We are here for 5 more days, so there is lots more time for us to explore.