09/10JAN09 - Seffner & Tarpon Springs, FL

Since we needed to meet some friends in a couple of days on the Gulf of Mexico side of Florida, it was time to leave the eastside of the state and drive westward. Due to the distance involved we decided to split the drive into two legs and stop about half way outside of Tampa. In fact we stopped at the Lazy Days RV dealership in Seffner, FL, where we bought our RV over two years ago. Lazy Days is the largest RV dealership in the world, and they say one of the top five most visited attractions in the state of Florida. We can tell the economy isn’t doing well, because Lazy Days only has about one third the new and used RV models on hand as compared to the last time we were here.

http://www.lazydays.com/

While surfing the internet Dan discovered that right down the road was Airstream “Ranch”. The original “ranch” was the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, TX. Cadillac Ranch is several 60s vintage Cadillacs stuck nose first into the ground. If you remember our below BLOG entry (see below) when we were in Amarillo, Dan not only visited Cadillac Ranch, but Love Bug Ranch and Tractor Ranch. Turns out that a local Airstream Trailer dealer has half buried old Airstreams in the ground as an artistic statement. Unfortunately, the county doesn’t view it as art and has started actions for their removal.

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2008/06/31may-01jun08-amarillo-tx.html

Saturday we headed to Tarpon Springs home of a sponge diving Greek community, otherwise known as the Sponge Capitol of the World. The reason Tarpon Springs is viewed as the capitol of sponge diving is because around 1905 a Greek immigrant, John Cocoris, introduced hard hat diving to harvest the local world class sponges. He sent word back to Greece and soon Tarpon Springs was the largest Greek community outside of Greece.

When we lived in Holland we twice vacationed on the island of Crete, and we have to say the look and atmosphere of Tarpon Springs is very similar to tourist towns and villages of Crete - blue and white colored buildings; shops selling replicas of ancient Greek pottery and statues; streets lined with restaurants and Tavernas; etc. And outside every establishment is a Greek gentleman urging you to step inside their establishment since it is the best and cheapest in the town. But if you wonder off the main street on to the side streets you will find the old timers drinking Greek coffee, eating baklava, and discussing the world’s problems in Greek.

We did have one disappoint on our visit to Tarpon Springs. Dan wanted to check out a local museum dedicated to the Greek sponge divers of Tarpon Springs called Spongeorama. According to Dan’s internet research the Spongeorama would be “...ever-enlightening with dioramas depicting the history, biology and lore of the sponge. Exhibits like "Popular Greek Foods" and "How Spongers Are Paid" are behind grimy glass. The most memorable is about two thirds of the way through -- a sad diorama that should be called the "Sponge Diver's Nightmare”." Sadly, the museum is closed supposedly to open in a new building sometime in 2009?

http://www.spongeorama.com/