Excited for the plans of the day, I was finishing something at work and then we were off to Mount Dora. Sometimes I have to go to my lab on the weekends, and this was one of those days. I planned during the week that after work on Sunday we were going to explore Mount Dora, one of the things I had my eyes on, was on the train ride. Orange Blossom Cannonball is a 90 minute scenic journey on a steam powered or diesel powered train between Tavares and Mount Dora and vise-versa.
All week-long I keep checking the website for the hours of departure of the train. I wasn’t sure at what time I was going to finish at work and that was the key for me to know at what time we were going to be in Mount Dora or Tavares.I had to confess I was confused on how the hours and tickets worked. Let me explain, they sale the ticket as a round trip but you have to buy the tickets individually. I thought that you buy one ticket for a roundtrip, but in reality you have to buy two tickets for a round trip . Looking at the hours, I realize that the best time for us taking the train was at 3pm. Unfortunately we got there a little after 3pm and the next train was from Tavares to Mount Dora at 4pm. At that moment we were in Mount Dora, we had to drive to Tavares to take the next train but then that is when I notice that even that it said roundtrip,that last trip is only one way. In other words… NO TRAIN RIDE FOR ME 😦
Oh well!! We were there already, so of course we stayed and explore the classy town of Mount Dora. We parked and immediately I felt an invitation to explore and walk around. At the same time, “Mr. Heat” slap me on the face! Thanks God I had a summer dress and sandals, I can’t imagine nobody walking on jeans on such a warm day. Oh Florida summers!
One of the first things that took our attention was the Lakeside Inn, which is located in a dead end street. To be more specific in Alexander St. At first we didn’t know what it was… a house, restaurant, a shop… None of that, it was a hotel with history! Was built in 1883! Can you believe that is the oldest continuously operating hotel in Florida?
Everything around this place looks antique, elegant, cozy and inviting.
Even though we miss the train ride I wanted to see the train coming in to Mount Dora. While walking around my eyes keep looking at the rail road and the time…I didn’t want to miss the train coming in. There were not that many people in town, it was kind of quite. I wonder if is like that every Sunday or it just happens to be quite that day. I wonder if the heat was keeping everybody indoors. It was hot to the point of feeling the air kind of suffocating my lungs. In top of it, my hair was a mess I had to put it all up because the heat and humid environment was not cooperating with me. I guess that could be a good explanation of the emptiness of this elegant town.
Suddenly while sitting on a bench there it was,the diesel engine train arriving from its last trip. When I heard the announcing sound I jump from the bench we were sitting. With enthusiastic face I welcome the train and like a paparazzi I took as many pictures as I could. 🙂
Well here it is the train ride that I didn’t take arriving from Tavares to Mount Dora.
After watching the train, Jorge and me drive to Tavares, but that’s another is another story. I will be posting pictures from Tavares too. About the train I definitely want to take a ride on it. I am very interested to see the scenic route. The only thing that bothers me is the price, I think is a little bit expensive, one way ticket is $11.68 which make the roundtrip $23.36 if you are going with somebody makes the whole thing at $51.99 with taxes. Now I recently discover a groupon for $35 for two people! You can search for train ride and is the only one that will come up, supposedly have only 13 days left… If you are in the Orlando area or Mount Dora, or Central Florida take advantage of this groupon and ride a train in a vintage way. I definitely going to try to do it soon! You will know about it. One last thing, I encourage you to check their website, they offer other kind of fun and different rides, this special occasion rides are exclusive and the groupons can’t be use on this special events. Actually, some of the special event rides looked really interesting for me too… 0____o
Until then…
xamlinnette 🙂
TravelmyStories 
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