Leesburg had bike fest , the largest 3 day festival in the country with estimated 300,000 people attending and Tavares had it's home town planes, trains and BBQ with a free air show and a state sanctioned BBQ contest. We decided Saturday we would do both, even though bike fest lasted for three days.
So we got up late and headed to Tavares. The 6th annual Planes, Trains and BBQ is a real small town event. We were looking forward to that BBQ contest with 27 different teams and were worried we would miss it.
Me and the daughter skipped the old car show, that the husband headed to, and went right to get the tickets. The public buys a ticket for $5 and then taste test all the different BBQ that had been cooked and numbered and then votes by putting the ticket in the best bbq's basket. Husband showed up just in time to get in line.There was a tie for the first place trophy. I personally liked #4 and #8 so I hope those were the two that won you don't know the names so it's hard to tell unless you stay for the trophy. After the contest we were stuffed it was a lot of BBQ to eat. You had your little cup to taste and then move to the next and grab a cup taste and so on. You had to be quick and I'm not used to eating that fast. So we really felt stuffed. I was surprised to taste all the completely different styles of bbqing flavors.
The line of BBQ to be tested.
Wondering around we found this being cooked up. I think it may have been for the personal use of the BBQ-ers.
In the end it turned out to be a
One of the many planes parked that you could check out. This one didn't have much to it. The owner was probably having a bite to eat at one of the local restaurants. Or the BB-Q contest.
And then we wondered around a while as the plane show began to start. I was expecting some sea planes to be flying over. Maybe a wing dip, yawn. But NO! There were all sorts of fancy flying even a dog fight right above us.
Going up!
Crop dusting the lake. I wonder if this will help with the mosquitoes for the summer.
Red, white on a blue background.
They flew up and dived straight down until you thought they were going to crash right on the lake. It was very exciting and definitely worth the price which was free! There were old and young alike sitting around on blankets and chairs watching the show and there were plenty of good spots in the shade. We will definitely do the air show in Tavares again.
And then we headed over to the newly built train station (It is a replica of one from the 1900's) to catch a ride on the Orange Blossom Cannonball . The most famous train in Florida, staring in such movies as True Grit”, “Appaloosa”, “3:10 to Yuma”, “There Will be Blood”, “Rosewood”, and “O Brother, Where Art Thou. They were offering old west train rides for $10 and there was a real chance of getting robbed by bandits. Which sounded like it would have been a lot of fun but we were running late as I said and missed our train. We snapped a picture as it was leaving the station. Oh well, next time.
And then we headed to Leesburg for bike fest which was no small event. There were bikers every where! Even in Tavares but the closer you got to Leesburg the louder the mufflers were. It was clear that the little town of Leesburg had been over run with bikers. In fact the event is so big the entire down town is shut down to biker traffic only. There are around 20 blocks of vender's and entertainment. We parked our car in a local church parking lot and walked the streets were lined with bikes as the sides of the roads was biker parking.
Walk to the event.
Getting closer
Our goal was to see the band Candle Box that was playing in the Town Square. So we had to make our way to the very middle of the biker event. We got to see a lot of cool bikes and strange biker things.
This guy was having fun.
The husband made friends as usual. This ladies friend was covered from head to toe in tattoos. I don't know why she even had to where close. Ha! They were advertising the tattoo place.
Every one was very nice and polite despite the fact that the event had booze and weapons everywhere. Not so much guns but I saw a few tents that were selling things. Mostly there were a lot of leather products, patches and decorations for jackets and bike accessories. And when they say 300,000 people I think they are under estimating.
Side street!
We thought we would duck down a side street and make it to the Town Square quicker. Boy were we wrong!
We ran into this!
We weaved our way through it.
Getting closer and closer!
We thought we had made it. We went into a tent with tables and I thought "Well, this isn't so bad with a big band like Candle box I expected there to be more people waiting to watch them but I figured maybe bikers were more interested in stunt riding. A nice man handed husband a business card for a shop that sold smoking accessories. " Then I looked around and noticed "Where's the courthouse? Where's the fountain?" Wait we hadn't made it. We left the tent and waded through even more people! We found town square and pushed our way through the crown. With the husband who is 6 foot 8 moving the bikers out of the way for us. We found a pretty great spot to stop and stand. Although the people behind us might not have liked it too much.
We made it!
In the crowd waiting for Candle Box.
I ended up standing next to this guy with tiny skulls in his beard. He was really nice. The guy in front of me was really nice. The couple making out in front of him was nice. The old guy who kept trying to lift his wife up on his shoulders they were nice. But the little punk kids in front of the daughter were not and almost caused a riot more than once. Once when husband threatened to kick the guys butt for bumping into his 16 year old daughter. And some other guy in the crowd wanted to help and then once when they pored their beer all over the guy in front of me. Lucky for those punks he was alone. Every time some one looked out of hand there was a police to save the situation from getting out of hand so we actually felt quite safe despite being in a crowd of 300,000 people.
Finally on the shoulders of her man!
Cover band that can really rock! We loved them. They sounded exactly like every band they covered. They were great!
The cover band finished up and there was about a hour till Candle Box. And then, no Candle Box. And then they announced Candle Box. But then, no Candle Box and the crowd started chanting "B.S." only they didn't use initials.
check, one, two.
But finally Candle Box came out and rocked the place!
Kevin Martin
With over 70 concerts at this event I'm sure there was a band for everyone. And they were all free!
We went to the local Dragon Boat Festival in at Wooten Park Tavares. We had errands to run later in the day so we were mostly interested in seeing the opening ceremonies. Particularly the Taiko drummers. They were amazing and we videoed some of the performance. You will have to excuse the people walking in front of us. The video is long so skip to the middle when the drummers really start getting down.
When entering they stamp your hand with a dragon and then you can wonder around the different tents. Viewing the teams or checking out the vendors. Or the big tent with tables where the drummers were and then you can also lay out a blanket and picnic while watching the boats race.
We decided we wanted to see those drummers and headed straight to the big tent with tables.
Dragon stamp
Dragon
Dragon's head
Friday the first day they have a big ceremony with fireworks and everything. We always seem to miss it. But I think next year we will try to go to the ceremony before the races so we can see the dragon moving.
Famous train from O' Brother where art thou?
We had followed the train tracks in and didn't miss seeing the famous Tavares train the Orange Blossem Cannonball. If you come to Tavares you can ride on the steam powered train that was in all the movies. It's a lot of fun. The Planes, Trains and BBQ will be going on in a few weeks and we will put some pictures from inside the famous train up.
One of the teams getting ready to go.
The dock for the dragon boat racers to start is right in front of the gift shop which looks more like an old Florida beach shack.
Our spoiled dog with his lei around his neck.
It's not that our dog is fat or out of shape. He thinks he is a Chihuahua and he gets scared and wants to be carried. It's really quite a site because if we don't pick him up he will get behind us and start jumping up and down smacking us on the butt then people start starring. So, it's just better to carry him. Also some times he will be shaking just like a Chihuahua. But the Dragon Boat festival is definitely dog friendly.
Boat's all lined up.
And they are off!
The race is on!
We decided to walk out on one of the docs to get a better look at the boats. And we found a little gator hiding in the grasses.
Baby Gator!
Hiding from the commotion of the race.
Walking the dog on the doc.
The lady behind me has a real chihuahua and he did not like Reese.
There were a lot more boats to see than just dragon boats. Recently Tavares put in a lot of extra docks and there were all kinds of boats parked around.
Party barge or gator tour? It didn't have any info so I'm guessing it was someones private boat.
Also think this was someones private boat. It was a neat one.
Pick me up!
This boat would be great to camp on.
This boat was floating four pallets lashed together behind it. His own private floating party dock.
We also saw plenty of sea planes in the sea plane city. For a small fee you can even catch a ride with one of these guys. An air tour of the town.
Sea plane! Circling for a landing.
We realized we had to head back and finish our errands. So we walked back toward the new Lakeview Inn and our car.
You can see the two new Inns right across from the lake. Boy they look like the place to stay.
We were all getting hungry even our little friend.
Lunch just ahead!
We followed the tracks back to our car.
Live band at Al's out back BBQ. No time!
Was that the cannon ball?
Our faithful hound stiffed every car before finding ours.
Ruts we left after getting the car unstuck from the sand.
