This weekend we had family visiting. We decided to check out Webster flea market. Yes, we did remember beforehand that the market was only open on Monday. It had been many years since we visited so we checked google which showed the hours for the flea market as open on Sunday. So we headed out to Webster which is northeast of Hernando County. Well, the flea market was not open on Sunday instead there was a motorcycle show and parts swap. The lady at the gate tagged us as not being motorcycle people and quickly told us to come back on Monday for the flea market. Well, she was correct in her assumption and the $5 entry fee per person set us looking for something else to do with our morning.
For awhile we have been interested in visiting the new Railroad Museum called Bushnell Station on 476 and decided to stop for a visit since we would be passing the museum heading back to Hernando. This weekend they were offering free rides on their miniature train. The train ride takes around 15 minutes. There is also a collection of model trains and a huge model town complete with a festival and trains traveling through the town. The minute detail on the models is extraordinary. There is a cost to visit the museum but train rides are free. Bushnell Station is only open the first weekend of the month, so the next opportunity to ride the train and explore the museum will be April 3rd. They ask for donations for the train ride.
After riding the train, we headed to Floral City for the Strawberry Festival. On Saturday, it had been rainy, and very few people had attended. Sunday everyone showed up to the festival. Traffic was backed up for miles as people entered the festival. The tremendous success of the event was its own problem as they ran out of strawberries and getting more from Ferris Groves just a few miles away took an hour because of the traffic backup.
Many of the food vendors were not ready for the large crowds. We were in line for pizza but they ran out of dough. They were waiting on more dough to be delivered. The line to get the strawberry shortcake was really long. Think Disney World.
Our favorite part of the festival was the bumper balls. A bumper ball is a four-foot round plastic bubble that fits over the head and upper body of a person. This enables participants wearing the bumper ball suits to run into each other without being injured. There didn’t seem to be any adults brave enough to try it out, or possibly it was restricted to kids only. The kids would run around, flip and crash into each other on the field as a referee directed them and assisted when a participant found themselves stuck completely upside down with feet in the air. At that point, the child cannot gain enough momentum to right themselves and is just stuck until someone comes along and gives them a shove. It’s pretty amusing to see.
