Suwannee River Valley or Some Fine Ice Tea

Tis the season for much busy-ness.  Before things get anymore frenetic I want to do a wrap up our recent trip to Florida before it is too late to write about the experience.  Because I did have some experiences in the sunshine state.  I could talk about the weather, the lack of a beach, or the insane traffic in Gainesville, but I want to discuss shopping with my nearest and dearest.

My mother is a quilter, an amazing quilter at that, she loves looking at fabric, patterns, and specialty sewing machines.  When we travel with mom, a quilt shop or more like a half dozen is on the list of places we will visit.  I can't complain, because she gets it when I mention a yarn shop I want to visit.  We tried to find a quilt shop in Gainesville, but the one there was very disappointing.  In an effort to make amends we found one outside of town.  Thirty-one miles of country road later we found ourselves in Trenton FL at the Suwannee River Valley Quilt Shoppe and Cafe http://www.suwanneeshops.com/quiltshoppe.html). 

We arrived hungry and ready to find something worth the journey and remarkably we did.  My mom acted like a 7 year old in a toy store once inside, it took a few sterns looks to get her to put a lunch order in before she was off to browse.  Our waiter brought us a round of ice tea and I am here to say southerns get ice tea.  First, unless you tell them otherwise, the tea shows up sweet and always freshly brewed.  They know better than to brew it through a coffee pot, and they clean the tea urn at least once a day to keep it from getting that nasty rancid tang.  Southern tea is rarely too strong or watered down to carmel colored swill.  So when I say this to you, understand, I know good tea and the glass they put in front of me was easily in the top 5 glasses of tea I have ever had in my life.  I was in tea heaven.

The rest of lunch was equally as sublime.  My BLT tasty, broccoli salad yummy, and my bread pudding orgasmic.  I am glad the cafe of the quilt shop was mostly empty, because I made noises that would have frightened a feral cat.  Natalie indulged my multiple exclamations of exhalations and moans of pleasure.  We were both glad we had skipped IHOP for the cafe.

The shop and cafe were in an old Coke Cola building which had been rehabbed and filled with rooms of brightly colored bolts of fabric.  I think my mom must have made 3 tours of the store before deciding on her purchases.  While she shopped I drank tea, lots of tea and started up a conversation with a lady who had bravely decided to sit at the table across from me. 

The shop was worth everyone of those country road miles to Trenton.  My mom bought fabric, Natalie got whistled at by a parrot, and I was sated with good food, so we all left the shop happy.  While we walked back to the car a 1 ton truck drove by us and blew its very loud air horn.  The lady at the table across from me smiled and waved out the truck window as she drove away.  That is me making friends and drinking some fine ice tea.