Good morning, East of Tampa family.
Hillsborough County Public Schools is hiring bus drivers and mechanics this morning, 9 a.m. to noon, and they train you for free. That is the most useful thing happening today. The second most useful thing is knowing that it rains every single day between now and Labor Day, and Thursday is a 90 percent.
Let's get into it.
Journeys by Jess | Somebody in your family does not get a vacation. It is whoever booked it.
Every family trip has one person who spends the week as the operations department. They picked the destination, compared the flights, built the itinerary, and now they are the one everybody asks what time dinner starts.
Jess is a travel advisor and the founder of Journeys by Jess, working out of Riverview. Cruises and family travel are the whole focus, not a sideline she picked up. She is an ambassador for the Family Travel Association, which is how she stays current on what is actually working in family travel rather than what a resort's own website says about itself. She is also a Certified Family Travel Advisor and a registered Florida Seller of Travel.
The work is the part nobody enjoys. Destination, cabin, flights, transfers, dining times, excursions, and every confirmation number you do not want to be responsible for. Jess handles the whole spine of the trip so you get to be on the vacation instead of running it.
Labor Day is when the good winter and spring break inventory starts moving, so this is the week to ask. Email Journeys by Jess at [email protected] and tell her what your family actually likes.
Enchantment of the Seas, docked at Port Tampa Bay.
Short version. It rains. Every day. (Source: National Weather Service Tampa Bay)
🌦️ Wednesday: 91, 60%. Morning is fine. Afternoon is not, so move anything outdoors to before noon.
🌧️ Thursday: 91, 90%. The wettest day of the week by a wide margin. Plan indoors and do not fight it.
🌧️ Friday: 92, 80%. Sunny start, then showers. Friday night football is a real question mark, so watch the radar before you leave.
🌦️ Saturday: 92, 70%. Isolated storms early, likely showers later. Morning sports should get through.
🌦️ Sunday: 91, 60%. Same shape as Saturday. Get out early or get wet.
🌧️ Labor Day: 90, 70%. A wet holiday. The grill still works under a carport.
Six days, no dry one. If you have been putting off the thing that needs a dry afternoon, this is not the week.
Go here first. Chill Cawfee and Quig's Kava Lounge has moved out of Valrico and is now at 16741 FishHawk Blvd. in Lithia. Lisa and Tom Quigley started it in 2020 and Lisa runs it with Hunter now. Open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends, which makes it one of the few places on that side that is still open at 9 on a Tuesday.
Meow Mixer, today, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Adoptable cats from Raining Cats and Dogs come to the library and you get to sit on the floor with them. There is also a cat-ear headband craft, which is either the point or a bonus depending on how old you are. Free, all ages, no registration, but space is limited and it is first come first served. Bruton Memorial Library, Marion Cook Room, 302 McLendon St., Plant City.
OneBlood donation drive, Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The bus parks at the library and you walk out with four movie tickets. Blood supply always dips after a holiday weekend, so going in before one is genuinely the better time. Register online in advance or just walk in. Bruton Memorial Library, 302 McLendon St., Plant City.
Family Story Time, Saturday, 10:15 a.m. and 11 a.m. Books, rhymes and songs for ages 2 through 7 with a grown-up. Free. Tickets go out at the service desk fifteen minutes before, and they cap it at 20 kids per session, so get there early rather than exactly on time. Riverview Public Library, Green Room, 9951 Balm Riverview Rd.
Squeaky Clean Comedy Show, Saturday, 7 p.m. Nationally touring stand-ups doing a set you can bring your mother-in-law to. The theatre is a 1930s room on the main drag and it is worth seeing on its own. Plant City State Theatre, 111 W. J. Arden Mays Blvd.
Brandon's Legacy Labor Day Family Picnic, Monday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. BubbaQue's barbecue, strawberry shortcake from the Florida Strawberry Growers Association, live music, kids' crafts and a silent auction. It is the second year, and it pays for the preservation of the Moseley Homestead, the 1886 farmhouse on 14 acres off State Road 60 that most of us have driven past a thousand times without knowing what it was. $20 in advance, $25 at the door, $10 for ages 6 to 16, free under 5. Winthrop Barn Theatre, 11349 Bloomingdale Ave., Riverview. Tickets by email at [email protected] or 813-230-4680.
Advertise with East of Tampa Local Sports. Game cards, final scores, Athlete of the Week and school calendar posts across Hillsborough high schools, some of them landing 10,000 to 50,000 impressions. One school, football and volleyball plus school calendar and admin posts. $250 a month for six posts, $500 for twelve, three month minimum. See the packages here.
Photo: East of Tampa Local Sports
Victoria Street is closed to through traffic between Limona Road and North Parsons Avenue, and it is going to stay that way. Crews work Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. If you are getting a kid to Brandon High, the route is Sadie Street south, Kings Avenue north, then Victoria Street west. North Knights and North Moon avenues will close at Victoria as the work moves east.
Ronele Drive is closed at South Kings Avenue. If you live in there you still get in from John Moore Road. Everybody else is going around on South Kings and Bloomingdale.
Two more, both ending this week. SR 60 has night lane closures between Buckingham Place and Lithia Pinecrest Road, 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. through Thursday. US 41 at Bloomingdale Avenue has daytime closures, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., through Friday.
Give yourself the extra ten minutes. Six days of rain is going to do the rest.
Babe's Pizza has been at 107 N. Kings Ave. in Brandon since 1978, which makes it older than most of the people reading this. It opens at 4 p.m. on a Wednesday, dinner only, and closes at 9.
The thing to order is the one nobody else in the county makes. The double decker is two layers of pizza stacked on each other, cheese and sauce in the middle and on top. A 14-inch cheese double decker is $22.99 and it feeds the table. Babe's Special, with pepperoni, red onion, mushrooms and green peppers, is $25.99. The fried cheese ravioli is $10.99 and eight of them do not last long.
It is Wednesday and it is going to rain at dinner time. Call (813) 413-1005.
Photo: Babe's Pizza
Presented by WeWed.
Ask your person this tonight. "What did I do this week that bothered you, and you said nothing about?"
Whatever comes out of that is not the problem. The problem is that it has been sitting there since Tuesday. Coach Lovey has been doing preventative relationship work on the east side for twenty years, and that question is the one she starts with.
Her free guide has four more like it, plus the rules that keep the conversation from turning into a fight. Get The 10-Minute Check-In.
Photo: WeWed
The school district needs bus drivers and it is hiring this morning. Hillsborough County Public Schools is holding a hiring event today, 9 a.m. to noon, at the Transportation Services Building, 5275 N. US Highway 41. Training is free, the schedule runs on the school calendar so you are off when your kids are off, and it comes with medical and retirement. Details and registration are here.
College Fair Night is at Newsome High on September 10. More than 50 colleges, universities and technical schools in one room, 6 to 8 p.m., free, open to every Hillsborough junior and senior and their parents. If you have a senior, this is the single highest-value evening on the fall calendar. The district has the details.
Mary and Martha House is raising $15,000 for two deputies hurt on a domestic violence call. The Ruskin shelter has run domestic violence services in south county for decades, and the call happened near their facility. They have two fundraisers on the calendar, starting with musical bingo at Bullfrog Creek Brewing in Valrico on September 24 at 7 p.m. Here is how to give.
Rock and Roll for Rescue is September 20 at the Firehouse. Jack Willhite does 90 minutes of comedy rock parody and the money goes to C.A.R.E., the animal shelter in Ruskin. $25 a person, 3 p.m., doors at 2:30. C.A.R.E. is also short on paper towels, bleach, wipes and Royal Canin food if you would rather bring something than write a check. Firehouse Cultural Center, 101 First Ave. NE, Ruskin.
Week two is in the books. Six of our twelve won. Here is how it went, biggest margin first.
Newsome 55, Freedom 0.
Bloomingdale 41, Middleton 0.
East Bay 35, Chamberlain 0.
Durant 44, Strawberry Crest 14.
Lennard 41, Morgan 20.
Riverview 27, Parrish Community 12.
Plant City 27, Fletcher 25.
Tampa Bay Tech 35, Sumner 10.
Robinson 20, Spoto 12.
Don Bosco Prep 38, Armwood 14.
Mulberry 3, Brandon 0.
Game of the week: Newsome at Bloomingdale, Friday, 7:30 p.m. Both teams are 2-0. They are four miles apart. Newsome has outscored two opponents 86-24 and Bloomingdale has done it 67-15, and neither has played anybody who could test them yet, which is exactly why this one matters. Somebody's zero comes off the board Friday night. Bloomingdale hosts.
The rest of Friday night, week three.
Armwood at Plant City, 7:30.
Gaither at Sumner, 7:30. Both 1-1, and the best matchup on the board after the rivalry game.
Riverview at Alonso, 7:30.
East Bay at Gibbs, 7:30.
Spoto at Lake Gibson, 7:30.
Durant at Kathleen, 7:00.
Lennard at St. Petersburg Catholic, 7:00.
Strawberry Crest and Brandon are both on an open week.
If you are at a game Friday, send us the score and a photo. Students, coaches and parents all welcome. That is how this section gets better.
The businesses that keep this free.
Environmental Protective Solutions was founded in Lithia in 2005, so 21 years this year. Adam Key is a certified mold remediator and the work is mold and mycotoxin removal, water damage, leak detection, crawl space encapsulation, and the repairs afterward. Six days of rain is exactly the week that finds a leak you did not know you had. One-year warranty on remediation, 24/7 emergency line, (813) 438-5937.
Tabatha Pugh is a licensed Florida broker associate with Keller Williams Realty Smart, working out of Plant City. She has been licensed since 2017 and she knows the east side of the county better than the search portals do. 813-476-8457.
The #1 Meat Man is Shawn McCranie, and the Premium Family Meat Box is $220. That is 24 steak burgers at 12 pounds, 24 individually packaged all-natural chicken breasts at 9 pounds, and a 10-pound box of Duroc pork tenderloins. Fill out the order form below to get in touch with The #1 Meat Man.
Herford Upper Choice Cowboy Steaks
Glaros Law is Steve Glaros, the current 2026 Honorary Mayor of East Hillsborough, at 350 E. Robertson St. in Brandon. Family law, personal injury and estate planning. Two of those three pick the date for you. The third one does not, which is why it is the one to handle on an ordinary Wednesday with nothing wrong. (813) 854-1234.
Stoner's Pizza Joint is Allison Hardy's shop at 3428 Lithia Pinecrest Rd. in Bloomingdale. Pizza, wings and calzones, and the Pick 2 runs $6.99 each. (813) 436-0016.
Madison Patron sells residential real estate with Foundation Realty Group across the same east-side footprint most of you live in. Cell 813-955-9092, office 813-729-6000.
Maid Pure Cleaning is Dionne Cona, a former teacher and a mother of four, cleaning homes in Brandon, Riverview and Valrico. More than 250 local customers, bonded and insured, and a 24-hour satisfaction callback if something was missed. She also partners with Cleaning for a Reason, which cleans free for people going through cancer. (813) 670-2004.
Photo: Maid Pure Cleaning
Fix It Today Plumbing is family owned and it is the same people as Environmental Protective Solutions, which is a useful thing to know at 11 p.m. The crew that stops the leak is the crew that dries the house out. Leaks, drains, water heaters, sewer lines, repiping and water filtration, flat-rate pricing and financing. (813) 743-7793.
Brandon Crossroads Bowl has been at 609 Crater Ln. since 1990, 40 lanes across 40,000 square feet with a pub and grill. Cosmic bowling runs Wednesday nights, 9:30 to midnight, $10.99. Their sister house, The Alley at SouthShore at 10221 Big Bend Rd. in Riverview, runs Team Trivia every Wednesday at 7 p.m. with The Craiger hosting. Both are indoor, which this week is the whole argument. (813) 621-2363.
Photo: The Alley at SouthShore
Team Plumstead is John and Danielle with Red Sash Realty, selling residential real estate across FishHawk, Lithia, Valrico, Riverview and Brandon. (813) 495-2136.
Running something the rest of us should know about? A fundraiser, a grand opening, a tournament, a church festival, a garage sale with actual good stuff. Send it in here and we will get it in front of 5,000 of your neighbors.
See you Friday.
John
The East of Tampa Guy
Six days of rain, and every one of them says "60 percent" or higher.
Which in Florida means one of two things. Either it rains for nine minutes at 3:15 and the driveway is dry by 3:40, or the sky opens up the exact moment you decide to walk from the truck to the door.
There is no third option and there is no way to tell which one you are getting. I still leave the umbrella in the truck every single time.
