FORT MYERS WE HAVE ACTIVITIES

To all our blog followers, this blog maybe a little weird because me, Herb, is writing it.  We have received a few request for updates.  I have been on Karen to do the same.  I like reading others blogs and really look forward to them.  I got the "well you can do it you know", Sooo here I go.

 

I am going to use a different approach.  More of a refresher than just the new stuff.  There is a good reason for this and that is because we haven't done enough to write about.

 

On Jan 16 we left home to begin our adventure.  I call it adventure because vacation would mean one of us had a job to come back to.  This is not the case of course.  It took four days to get to Hudson Fl., 1294 miles. 

 

 Anyone who knows me, knows this is only a day and a half drive, not four days.  What's wrong with me?  Mary if you would have been along you would have been able to look out the front window all the way.

 

After getting the windows repaired,

 

 we drove to Bradenton Fl. for one week.

 

  Days kind of quiet.  Weather cold at night, 30s and maybe 70 during the day.  Not much to do at campground so we might as well drive to Walmart and buy stuff.  Found a couple of orange groves.  First one we searched for, drove 26 mile to get to it, and didn't really buy anything.  Gallon of OJ.  On  our way back we passed an orange grove 1/2 mile from campground.  Mom & Pop business.  Talked with owner, husband, while wife in glass room working her ass off making orange sections that they sold in glass jars.  Reminded me of Karen making candles.  Way to much labor to justified end price.  Back at campground not too much to do but walk around campground, boring.

 

Stayed for one week, frost most mornings, decided it was time to move.  Made reservation in Key Largo, about 270 miles away.  Had three days to get there, but I really busted my A** and made it in a long two.

 

Calusa Campground Key Largo Fl. 

 

 Now there is a campground to go to.  All sites are owned by individuals .  Rules don't apply equally.  If you had a lot of money, and I mean a lot of money, you get to do what ever you want.  This means party till the cows come home.  One thing I didn't understand with all their money the only way they could play music was open the doors on their BMWs and crank the radios.  Good news they really liked the Oldies and country western.  The campgrounds themselves bordered on the Gulf of Mexico. 

 

These sites were really nice, a little pricey but worth it I guess.  Sites for sale here were $350,000 to $600,000 for a 40ft X 50ft lot.  This campground had a beautiful swimming pool, two years ago.  That was when they decided to upgrade it.  All that was there was an empty hole.   I thought we worked slow at the power plant, but they showed me what slow was all about.  Promised it would be done next year, but no guarantee.  Because of this the only activity was walk around the campground or drive the car someplace.  For the month of February that was what we did.  The weather was perfect.  It rained one day for about an hour.  Karen and I look forward to rain down here.  The storms can be awesome.

 

Now comes the 1st of March, time to move.  178 miles to Fort Myers.  Going to do this in one day.  I am hoping to make it before dark.  Made it. 

 

 

 Must be over 1000 sites at this park. 

 

 Three pools, these are two, 

  

 

8 tennis courts,

 

 8 shuffle board courts,

 

 3 bocce ball courts,

 

3 volley ball courts,

 

 8 pool tables,

 

 exercise room, card rooms,

 

 and so much more.  Weather has been so perfect it is really hard to describe. 

 

 Now that we have a thousand things to do it's time to dig out the bicycles and put them together so we have something else to do.

 

  Really we do need them to get around the campground.

 

Now what have we been up to here.  The pool is right in front of the coach. 

 

 We have been spending a good deal of the afternoon in the pool. 

 

We have taken up pickle ball.  It is a game like ping pong but played outside on a court smaller than a tennis court.  Paddles are solid like ping pong, but the ball is like a whiffel ball.  It will move pretty fast if you pop it. 

 

 It is very popular here so it is hard to get on the court.  Because of this Karen and I usually go over to the court around 5:30.  Seems most people are eating so we can practice. 

 

 The beach is two miles away. 

 

We have taken the car a couple of times.  Parking is a problem.  $2.00 a hour.  If that isn't bad enough you need change to plug the meters.  Real pain.  So they have a trolley. $.50 each way. 

 

 Seems a real deal, I get to sit and check the scenery. We decide  to go Saturday.  It is spring break here now, plus

 

 the shrimp festival is going on at the beach.  Get to the bus stop wait an hour, bus comes it is full.  Two block walk to where the bus makes it's first stop, like a park an ride but the parking lot is a shopping center. 

 

 We walk there to get on the bus, wait 30 minutes, the bus comes.  People start getting on, gets to be our turn Karen steps up on the bus and the driver says no more.  The bus isn't full understand, she just won't let anymore people on.  Why we ask, because I need to leave room for the people waiting at the campground stop, which would have been us.  We had to wait for another bus.  Traffic is horrendous.  It took the bus 45 minutes to go two miles.  We left the campground at about 12:00 and it is now 3:15.  I had a shrimp dinner,

 

 Karen had a hot dog and we had to leave to stand in line for the bus back to the campground.  Poor Max

 

 has been home alone and the line is really long for the bus again.  First bus comes, people get on and we move closer to the front.  Next bus comes we are just a couple of people from getting on.  The last person to get on was the husband of an older couple.  By older I mean 70s.  Why he got on and didn't let his wife go first I didn't understand but he was going and that was that.  As the bus left we were talking to some locals and the mans wife.  Come to find out you have to look at the sign on the bus to know if it is going down the beach, or to the park and ride where we needed to go.  The last bus was going to the park and ride, but the old man needed to go down the beach. The wife didn't expect to see her husband again. We had to wait for two more buses before we got on going the right way.  Coming back only took 15 minutes so we were home by six.

 

Now for all our friends and relatives who know us well know we don't cook.  Since leaving on this adventure Karen has been making dinner five nights a week.  I do the dishes.  I know this is hard to believe but it gets more unbelievable.  Karen never, ever eats left overs.  I can't tell you how many great meals we have eaten from leftovers.  All our meals are too good.  I am afraid to get on a scale.  Tonight for example we had a casserole that was to feed 8.  We, mostly me, ate half of it.  

Some eating habits I can't get Karen to change.  Friday fish fry, and Saturday are you ready, PIZZA.  We have not had one bad fish fry.  They just keep getting better the whole time we have been in Florida.  Pizza on the other hand leaves a lot to be desired most times.  We did find one place on Islamorada.  It was our last pizza in the Keys.  We sat out side and the pizza was OK.  Since being here in Fort Myers we have only gone for pizza twice.  Once at CiCi's.  It is a pizza buffet.  Salad bar, pizza, desert and drink $14.00 for the both of us.  It was OK because it was so cheap.  This past Friday we went to an Italian resturant and had a terrific pizza.  Going back there again I am sure, but maybe for lasagna or something else.

 

We know a couple here who are realtors.  We met them while trying to buy a house here a couple years ago.  We went with them to a Mexican restaurant that served pork short ribs.  Everybody had Mexican, I had the ribs.  Had to be the best I ever had. 

 

Karen and I have found a grill & bar on the water by the beach called "UGLIES".  This is the view from the table.

 

 The food was great, good prices, large drinks.  Called Tony and Sue our realtor friends and took them there.

Rib dinner $18.00

 

That plate is about 18 inches by 12.

Girls had pulled pork sandwich about $13.00

 

Our neighbooring table ordered one of the speciallity drinks, hugh

 

 

 

Now, a typical day here.  Get up around 8:30.  Coffee, & muffin and the Today show.  Around 11:00 walk or bike ride or both.  Karen went and bought a basket for her bike.  Max won't go in it no how no way so he has to stay home when we bike.  Afternoons Karen likes to read

 

  Swimming pool till 5 or 6 then dinner.   Tonight I went to play cards but that fell threw so I am doing this instead.  A walk comes after dinner to the ice cream stand at the mall in front of the campground.

 

  TV or rent a movie, Letterman and bed.  Again those of you who know me know I can turn a paragraph into a book.  For that reason this post has been going on for a few days now.  It is time to get it posted.  Our explotes here don't sound like much, which they arn't, but that is why you haven't heard much from us.  Soaking up the sun

 

 and relaxing.  Retirement is great but I still haven't gotten use to it yet.  We have two more weeks here but plan on staying a little extra, ten days or so.  Depends on the weather back home.  Relaxin and Chillin.  Hope you find something interesting in all of this.  Stay safe and remember to spay or neuter your pets.

  

Me

One Step Closer To OLD!

This is for Thursday

Another beautiful day.  It was quite windy all day which made it a little cool but still very nice.  The wind should die down tomorrow afternoon.  We went to the pool for several hours.  Not very crowded, I'm thinking because of the wind, but that was great for me.  I got to swim some laps again.  Herb never went in the pool.  Got some sun but not too much.  I don't want to ruin a week or more by getting a sunburn.
After the pool we walked further into the resort than we had before exploring our digs.  We found one of the other pools, tennis courts and a bocci ball court.  Here's where we get another step to being old.  We watched some people playing bocci ball and when they finished their game they invited us to play!  We had a very nice time.  At least we haven't played shuffle board yet.  That will take us over the top!  Officially OLD.

View from driver's side of coach

As we continued to walk we came on a pickle-ball court!  Pickle-ball you say!  I never heard of it before but it sure looks like fun.  It's played on a court that looks like a small tennis court or an oversized ping pong table.  There is a net across the middle I would guess about hip high.  You play with a paddle like ping pong only the paddle is bigger and the ball looks like a wiffle ball.  It looks just like ping pong played on the ground and it looks like the rules may be similar too.  I'm going to Google it cause I really want to try it.  We'll have to wait till no one is there to watch us.  Maybe Herb can put a court in the back yard so we can practice for next year!  LOL

Our site.  The pool is across this little street.

Oh yeah, I forgot to show you what I did when Herb went fishing on Sunday.  I didn't bring a cookie sheet so I used the bottom of the broiler pan.  I was anxious to try out the convection oven in here.  Anyway, they didn't turn out the best.  I think the pan was too thick.  We went to Wal-Mart and got a small cookie sheet.  I'll guess I'll have to give it another try. 

No, I didn't make the dough - Nestle's did!

This is for Friday

Another wonderful day in Flahridah.  There was an ad on TV for a shell craft fair on Sanibel Island.  Herb agreed to go.  We also wanted to go down to the Fort Myers beaches and try and find a house we rented there about 9 or so years ago.  Herb's friend from work, that we had lunch with in Key Largo, is thinking about staying in Fort Myers next year.  We told them we would try to get the info for them on this house.  So we took the dog and headed out.

Max checkin out Fort Myers Beach

We drove for a while not sure if we had passed by the house.  It was further down Estero Blvd. than we remembered but we found it.  There were people coming out of the house and sat on the beach so we went to talk to them.  Come to find out that the Dr. that owned it sold it to this guy's brother-in-law and they pretty much don't rent it anymore.  So we decided to walk down the beach.  $2 an hour for the parking meter!  The sand is the nicest sand anywhere.  Very fine and easy to walk in.  It really brought back memories of when we stayed there.  We took pictures of some places in hopes to help Herb's friend.

Walking the beach

Da Beach

Max had a good time walking the beach too!  Good thing I brought along a bottle of water cause he tried drinking the salt

water.

Then we headed over to the crafty thing on Sanibel.  WHOA - $6 to get across the bridge!  How do people afford living there.  Of course this is a very high class area.  It's very expensive to stay here so if you can afford to stay I guess you can afford the bridge toll!  This will probably be our last time on Sanibel.

Crossing the bridge to Sanibel Island

The little shell craft fair was disappointing.  There were VERY few booths.  Maybe 3.  All the items were made with shells.  There was more to see inside the Community Center but you had to pay to get in and no dogs allowed.  So we didn't see what was inside.  So many people stopped us to ask us about Max.  He is a great conversation starter!  The thing that made this all worthwhile was that the school kids had a booth to explain the different kind of shells and the creatures in the shells.  The kids were great and it was very informative. 

When you are crossing over to Sanibel there are a couple of places you can stop and enjoy the view.  We stopped and took this picture to show the sea shells.  The island is made from shells.  I've never seen so many.  Some of them are very big, I hope you can see that, and they are really heavy.

I bought my sister Mary a little thank you gift for her taking care of the house, plants and outside birds while we are gone.  Here's a picture of it.

Ooops.  Forgot to take it out of the bag.  My bad!

Heading back.  See the bridge in the background.  Click on it to enlarge.

It's been pretty breezy here the last few days.  The wind has finally died down.  The forecast for Sunday is thunder storms.  Bring em!

ALLIGATORS EVERYWHERE!!!

This was written last night.

Well today was moving day.  We left Key Largo this morning about 11AM and drove about 200 miles to Ft Meyers Beach.  I must say that I was sad to go.  A few people stopped to say good bye and that they hoped to see us next year.  Yesterday we spoke with a couple who owns a  rental lot on the point on the water.  We talked to them about the possibility of renting it next year.  It's a shame we didn't talk to them sooner.  They were so nice and they said the same.  It's a lot quieter on the point too.  Must start saving now!  They also have a motorcycle and ride with a group from the campground.  Wish we had a way to get the car AND the bikes here.

Good Bye Calusa

Herb had been helping the guy across from us with his motorhome.  His alternator quit on him.  He worked on it for 4 days but he ended up having to buy another one.  Herb helped him install it but couldn't get it to work.  So the guy, Joe, had to call someone to finish the job.  Come to find out you had to flash it with 12 volts first to get it to work???  Anyway, Joe really appreciated all of Herb's work and took him on a fishing charter Sunday morning.  Joe's wife has MS and we never even saw her.  I'm sure he was glad to have Herb's company.  I wish we would have gotten to know them sooner too.  They left this morning heading for Key West.  Herb helped him get his tow vehicle ready to go.

Crossing the Glades

We crossed the state on Highway 41, Alligator Alley.  You are cutting across the Everglades.  It started out like just another drive and then we started seeing alligators.  Herb saw several before I saw anything.  And then we saw them all the time!  It was amazing.  There were several places you could stop to look at them.  That's where I took this next video.  I have NEVER seen so many alligators before.  Very, very cool.  I couldn't stop looking for them.

Gators Everywhere

One thing that I saw that was totally unbelievable was signs guiding you to areas where you can put your canoes in the water.  WHAT?  This is not something I can even imagine doing.  There were SO MANY alligators in these waters I just can't understand why anyone would want to canoe here or even be allowed to do this.  You can believe this is not on my list of things to do!
Oh, before I forget, when we left this morning we discovered that the air conditioning wasn't working! Gr-r-r-rrrrr!  Thought we were done with having stuff to fix.  So we had to drive with the windows open.  When we first left it was hot.  But as we got going everything cooled off and I was glad we had the windows open.  It brought back memories of being a kid and going on trips with my parents where you can smell the smells and feel the air.  The real air!  It was very nice.  And now Herb has another project.

We arrived at the next campground to a light rain.  It seemed weird cause I don't think we've been without the sun the whole time we were in the Keys.  The rain has bumped up the humidity though.  This resort has 21 little lakes, I would call them ponds, and 3 swimming pools.  We are directly across from one of the pools, laundry and one of the rec halls and kitty corner from one of the "lakes".  As I am typing this the rain has kicked in and it is pouring out.  They can really use the rain here.
I don't have photos of this park yet.  We got here as the sun was setting, but it is very huge.  Herb doesn't think he likes it so far, we'll see how it goes.  We just got here and I wasn't too happy with the last one when we first got there and ended up liking it.  Ths place is totally different from the last one.  All of the homes and campers have skirting if they are permanent.  In Key Largo very few had skirting and it made the whole place look messy.  It looks like they have rules here and they are enforced.  It looks very clean and well maintained here and there is grass here!  In Key Largo there was no grass.  It was all gravel with cement pads for your patio area.
We  didn't get a list of the activites yet but the rec hall across from us had a Bingo game going on tonight.   The hall was packed!  With so many sites I'm sure the turnout for everything is big.  People actually drove their cars here to get to Bingo.  There is a craft fair the first Thursday of every month.  I sure wish I would have brought some stuff with me to sell :-(  I guess that means I'll have to buy something then.  Imagine that!

This was written today.

Sorry to say I still haven't taken any pictures.  I had a wonderful day though.  The temperature today was perfect with a much lower humidity and the pool here works.  We went grocery shopping in the morning and then to the pool in the late afternoon. Like I said it's just across the little road from us.   When we were at the last campground I ordered some swim goggles in preparation for here.  I waited everyone out and by 5 pm most everyone had left so I started swimming laps.  OMG.  I thought I was is heaven.  I was the last one out of the pool.  They had to kick me out when they closed at 6:30.  You can't wipe the smile off my face.  Guess where I'll be tomorrow?  You only get one chance.  I'll just have to watch the sun and cover up.  You may not get pictures tomorrow either but I will try.
The Minnesota Twins have their spring training in Ft Myers. We passed the baseball stadium when we went to the grocery store today.   We are hoping to go to one of their games.  I would also like to go to Sannibel Island one day and we are going to have dinner with the realtors that were helping us when we were trying to buy a home in Cape Coral.  They are super nice people.  So it looks like we have a few plans for the month.  We may even stay a little longer.  They have a special for April.  If you extend your stay into April it's only $12 a day.  That's hard to pass up.