De Soto National Memorial

Bushnell, FL – Events of Wednesday, February 19 to Friday, February 21, 2014

Last Wednesday, we headed a few miles north of Bushnell to Alliance Coach in Wildwood to have the brake system on the motor home flushed. Because brake fluid can absorb moisture, flushing the system is recommended as routine maintenance every several years to avoid the kind of problems we had a couple of years ago on our old Saturn Vue when one of the front brakes kept hanging up. With our bank account several hundred dollars lighter, we were back in Blueberry Hill and had the motor home set up again shortly after noon.

Because we weren’t sure how long the work would take, we had previously made plans with Marilyn and Alan to go to Coyote Rojo for lupper just in case we got back too late for Margery to cook dinner. Coyote Rojo is a Mexican restaurant located right across the main road from the campground.

Coyote Rojo

We started off with the traditional corn chips and salsa. The corn chips were especailly good – nice and thin, hot and very crisp. We also like the salsa at Coyote Rojo because it has fresh cilantro in it.

Prices at Coyote Rojo are very reasonable. Dinners range in price from around $6 for combo specials to $13 for fajitas. Marilyn and Alan shared a steak and chicken fajita combo, Margery had a pick-two combo with a chile relleno and a chicken burrito, and Paul had a supreme chicken burrito. Everything was yummy!

Margery, Paul, Marilyn and Alan

With beautiful weather in the forecast for Friday, we decided to head out for some sightseeing. One of the things we wanted to see while we were in Florida this year was the De Soto National Memorial down in Bradenton, FL.

Hernando De Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador. During our visit to the memorial, we learned he was the first European to explore deep into the eastern part of North America.

De Soto was born in Spain around 1500. He was influenced by other explorers like Ponce de Leon, Balboa and Magellan…