All aboard!

Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain.

Hard to get the family outside when it won't quit.

My little guy and I have watched the new Masters of the Universe on Prime about five times this week.

There are worse ways to ride out a storm.

The worst part of the week was fall baseball registration — opened and closed almost the same day, full waiting list already.

Jeez.

Hoping Buffalo Creek Little League gets the support to expand before next season.

Plenty of other ways to get the kids running, catching, hitting, and kicking something in the meantime.

Enjoy the newsletter.

— Greg

Here's the part nobody puts on the calendar.

The car line at every Parrish school is going to be a disaster for two weeks.

Leave fifteen minutes earlier than you think you need to, and don't be the guy who cuts the loop.

Buffalo Creek Little League fall registration opened and closed in about a day, waiting list behind it.

If your kid got shut out, you still have moves:

A rec league selling out in 24 hours isn't a scheduling problem.

Parrish is adding rooftops faster than it's adding ball fields.

That's the whole story, and it's going to get louder before it gets quieter.

County commissioners take up the Parrish Lakes development agreement Thursday, Aug. 6, 9 a.m., Patricia M. Glass Chambers, 1112 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton.

The ask: raise residential entitlements from 3,401 homes to 3,778, cut commercial square footage from 260,000 to 211,750, and add a school as a permitted use.

Parrish Lakes is roughly 1,155 acres running from Moccasin Wallow Road south to Erie Road, just east of I-75.

More houses, less shopping.

Read that sentence twice, then read the public notice.

If you circled Aug. 6 for the 131-home Ivy Run rezone off Rye Road, uncircle it.

The county's own hearing notice lists Ivy Run as continued to Sept. 3, 2026.

Check the posted agenda before you burn a vacation day.

Same batch of notices: a rezone on about 9.97 acres at the northeast corner of that intersection, for up to 57,064 square feet of retail.

It's filed under the name "Palmetto Grocery."

Nobody has named the grocer.

We'll keep asking.

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Brightwood Pavilion lawn, 11510 Little River Way, North River Ranch.

Free to walk up. You pay the trucks.

This week's lineup is The Black Cat Cafe — quarter-pound all-beef dogs, breakfast sandwiches, cold brew — and Currywursttruck SRQ, which is doing Philly cheesesteaks, garlic fries, and homemade apple strudel.

Street parking, then walk in.

Strudel out of a food truck sounds like a mistake right up until you eat it.

Gates at 5 p.m., Marauders first pitch at 6:30.

Free for Manatee County students, staff, and their families: game ticket, meal voucher, and fireworks after.

The first 500 kids 12 and under get a backpack loaded with school supplies.

About 30 minutes down US-301 from Parrish.

Show up at 5, not 6, unless the backpack doesn't matter to you. Details here.

5801 17th St. W., Palmetto — about 25 minutes from Parrish.

Open sunrise to sunset, 365 days, free.

Eight hiking trails, a boardwalk, a kayak launch, and an observation tower that looks out over the Manatee River, Terra Ceia Bay, and Tampa Bay.

There are Native American temple mounds out there too, which is not a thing most people know.

Go at sunrise.

There's no shade on that tower and August in Florida does not negotiate.

Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 11 to 9 Friday and Saturday.

It opened back in January, and it's the Tampa chain's first location in Manatee County.

The menu is pitas, bowls, salads, gyros, and soups.

Order the gyro pita first — tomato, onion, tzatziki, nothing clever.

Order the Philly Pita second: gyro meat or chicken, mozzarella, grilled peppers and onions, tzatziki over the top.

It's counter service in a strip plaza and the lunch rush moves fast.

Go at 11:15 or after 1:30 and you'll walk right up.

HIDDEN GEM

It's ten minutes from most of Parrish, and half the people who live here have never gone.

The Willow Express is the main event: a 13-mile round trip from Parrish out to Willow and back, roughly an hour and a half, diesel-pulled, rain or shine.

You get off at Willow, walk the rail collection, and poke around a recreated Seaboard Air Line station.

Rides run weekends.

The ticket office is open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Admission runs about $18 for adults and $11 for kids 3 to 11 — call 941-776-0906 or check online before you go, because prices and schedules move.

The open-air coaches are the ones you want.

If you've got a kid who's deep into trains, there's a cab-ride ticket that puts them up front with the engineer for the whole trip.

Here's the part that matters.

It's a nonprofit, run by volunteers, on a real six-mile stretch of track.

That's why the train theme around this town isn't a marketing gimmick.

There's an actual railroad out there, and somebody's grandfather is still keeping it running on a Saturday morning.

We ran Percy back in June.

He's still there.

Adult male, mixed breed, medium build, neutered, at Manatee County Animal Welfare, 305 25th St. W., Palmetto.

He has been on that list longer than most dogs ever are.

The county waives the adoption fee for animals who've been at the shelter more than 60 days, and every Tuesday is half-price on everything else.

Percy is not a project dog or a hard case as far as anyone has said.

He's just a medium brown dog in a shelter full of medium brown dogs, which is the worst luck a dog can have.

Call 941-742-5933 before you drive over — listings move fast. Percy's listing is here.

You know it's Parrish when a rec league sells out in a day, and the guy behind you in the car line still says this whole place used to be nothing but cows.

Both things are true.

See you Monday morning at the bus stop.

Until next week — stay gritty, stay healthy, and keep Parrish strong. — Greg.