On the Road of Retirement

Strolling through some Lee County Parks…

2012-01-30T15:08:00.001-06:00

We really like the park we are staying in here at Seminole RV Campground but e really miss how much closer we were to things at Bonita Beach RV Resort. Having said that if we were to ever return to this area we would likely go back to Bonita Lake RV Resort if they don’t price us out of the market. Parks in Southwest Florida are very expensive and we have heard that many if not most of them plan to raise rates another 100.00 next year.

One thing about our new location is that it allowed the opportunity to discover places north and east of Fort Myers. With that in mind we took off for a drive heading east to check out some of Lee Counties Parks. The only drawback to visiting Lee County Parks is that there is a charge for parking… no charge for entering but we haven’t been many places that charge for park access in any fashion must less parking.

However, for $1.00 per hour parking it allows us to explore some of the lands that were bought by Lee County and set aside as natural preserves through their conservation 20/20 program. And looking over their list of preserves shows that Lee County has spent a considerable sum in purchasing and now maintaining these preserves. So the parking fee is at least well spent.

We visited two of these preserves over the last few days. The first one, the Caloosahatchee Creeks Preserve, is less than five miles from the park we are in and offers some short hikes on their of boardwalk and nature trails. The trail consists of what is called the “old Florida” vegetation with a mix of densely populated Live Oaks, Palms, and Sawtooth Palmetto. Stretches of the trail take you to spots overlooking the marsh on the banks of the Caloosahatchee river.

The second park we visited, Caloosahatchee Regional Park, is a larger park with more extensive trails for hiking and biking. With over 768 acres of pine flatwoods, scrub oak, cypress swamps and oak hammocks similar to Caloosahatchee Creeks Preserve it made for a nicer long walk. Spurs along these trails will take you to spots overlooking the the Caloosahatchee river.

We also made a quick stop to check out the RV facilities available at the COE park W. P. Franklin North near Alva, Florida. This park only has a 30 sites but they are very nicely appointed and all have views of the Caloosahatchee river. This would be a great spot to spend a few days to a week just relaxing near the river. While there we spotted a beautiful bald eagle on a tree top just across the river and we were told by the staff that it had a nest very nearby. How cool that would be to watch an eagle from your backyard…

We hope to visit more of Lee Counties Parks since they offer nice hiking trails and opportunity for observing nature in the lands being preserved… But our next journey will be north to explore Venice Beach.

Pine Island, Florida…

2012-01-27T04:51:00.001-06:00

We are finally getting settled in here in North Fort Myers and I have even become reacquainted with the toilet pedal in order to flush – why is there no handle in an RV toilet? We are slowly getting used to being back in an RV park and not in a neighborhood in a sticks and bricks house…. We are glad to be back in our home even though we miss the house with the pool in Key West.

Weather here has been grand and as a result we headed out in the CRV towards the ocean and found a new place to explore called Pine Island. There is no real reason for one to drive there since they pretty much deter visitors from coming to the island since there is no beach access or anywhere you can park to just check things out. We haven't seen so many “no trespassing” and “no parking” signs since we left the Florida Keys!

Nonetheless Pine Island has something to offer the visitor who is willing to drive around and take in the sights that you are allowed to trespass on… Not really sure what they are hiding here on this island but it has its own beauty and points of interest. At the north end of the island is Bocilla Island Seaport.

You are not really allowed to park anywhere there but there is a restaurant with parking that we borrowed for a short walk around the north end of the island… It reminded us a bit of the Keys with the water’s shallowness and its blue/green hues. Throw in a few no trespassing signs and a few no parking signs and we almost felt like we hadn’t even left the keys.

Nonetheless our walk on the north end was very rewarding as we watched the fishermen try their best to catch a wily sheepshead fish or the brown pelicans taking their best shot at spearing an unsuspecting fish There were also other tourists checking out the area, vacationers looking for their best sunning spots and locals checking us out and wondering what we were up to…

SO if in the area you might enjoy the drive to the north end of the island… the south end has less to offer, other than some interesting dining spots and one intriguing bar and grill. There is also a Florida Preserve stretching from north to south that may offer an interesting hiking/biking opportunity through the “real Florida”. We feel like you may only need to go to Pine Island once as perhaps that is enough. There is however, a small town when you first enter Pine Island called Matlacha. While driving through it, it looks like a place that has promise for shopping for a few knickknacks and there might even be a hidden gem eatery there…

Shark Valley–Everglades National Park…

2012-01-23T10:21:00.001-06:00

We left Key West, Florida bright and early Sunday morning and were on the road north by 7:30 am. We wanted to leave early enough to visit Shark Valley in the Everglades National Park. We had heard about a wonderful bike ride there and since we had brought our bikes along, we decided to enjoy a nice ride on an exquisitely warm, sunny day.

Driving north through the Florida Keys is always enjoyable as you travel over many bridges offering views of expansive blue water. The water, with many different hues stretches from horizon to horizon only interrupted by mottes of mangroves and occasional sail boats. It is about 120 miles from Key West to when you finally leave the Keys and enter the town of Homestead Florida. With no traffic on this sunny morning we made the 120 miles in little less than 3 hours.

Gassing up in Homestead since fuel is more expensive on the Keys we continued on towards the Everglades National Park. A visit to the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States should be on everyone’s bucket list.

We saw the sign to Shark Valley and as is typical on weekends, the park’s parking lot was already full and cars were parked along the state highway. We found a spot and parked, took the bikes off of the bike rack and rode to the pay station where we flashed our Nation Parks Pass, saving us the $5.00 per head entry fee.

The bike trail is a 15 mile paved road with no hills to climb or rough terrain to traverse making for a nice 2 or 3 hour ride. We know this now after having done the loop but when we first arrived we planned to ride 1-2 hours around what I recalled was a 6 mile loop… ooops!!!

The first half of the loop was teeming with various birds and oodles of alligators. We stopped for many photo opportunities but eventually made it to an observation tower just short of halfway on the loop trail. It was then that I began to suspect the bike trail was closer to 9 miles… Not to be deterred we went up the tower to look over the expanse that is the Everglades…

We continued on the trail which I assumed to be about the same distance as the first part only to discover it wasn’t as it meandered back and forth along the marsh lands. The first half of the trail had been a straight shot to the tower so as time passed we both started to get a bit tired and cranky. Because we didn’t eat lunch before we began the ride, this may have attributed to some of the crankiness along with the extra 3-4 miles of unplanned riding we undertook…

Nonetheless we made our way back and our CRV was still waiting for us so we loaded the bikes and continued down the road for the final three hours to Seminole RV Campground. We got our motorhome out of storage and took it over to site 65 to set up our home. We will stay here for one month and then slowly trek onward toward the western USA… We both might need the time to recover from the long day it took getting here…

Our Mini Vacation in the Keys is about to end…

2012-01-21T08:18:00.001-06:00

Today is our last day in the Florida Keys on this “’mini vacation”. We have really enjoyed the house we are staying in near Key West. It has been especially fun to spend time in our mini vacation villa by the sea…

Tomorrow we will leave the Florida Keys and head north to Seminole RV Campground in North Fort Myers. It has been fun living in a “real house” for the last couple of weeks even though it took some getting used to… For example, it took me about three days to stop trying to use the foot peg to flush the toilets here and we both almost got lost in the king sized bed and huge shower stalls. Sharon enjoyed the full sized kitchen and the dishwasher. That being said, it will also be nice to get back to our RV – our home!!!

What we will miss most when we leave will be the the swimming pool, the palm trees, and the blue water… Sharon will also miss the relaxation of the long, hot baths she enjoyed each evening..

Some of our favorite things we did while here in the Keys:

Best Happy Hour outside of Key West – Hogfish Bar and Grill
Best Happy Hour in Key West – Boat House Bar
Best local food establishment in Key West – Mr. Z’s
Best Beach – Higgs Beach
Best Happy Hour Menu – Boat House Bar
Best Street to Walk – Duval Street, Key West
Best Event to Watch/Photograph - Key West Race Week
Best Biking – Anywhere in Key West
Best People Watching – 100 to 300 block of Duval when cruise ships are in
Best Bartender – Patty Wacker at the Hogfish Bar and Grill
Most fun event – Key West Seafood Festival

We really enjoyed lounging in and around the heated pool as well as the comforts of the larger spaces the house offered during our stay. Combined with attending several different local happy hours and engaging in conversations with various people at each of the bars made for some wonderful and memorable experiences… We can’t really thank our friends Jerry and Kathleen enough for allowing us to stay in their beautiful home in Key West…

Could We Live in Key West?

2012-01-18T06:49:00.001-06:00

Last June we spent a month down in the southern part of the Florida Keys at Bluewater Key RV Resort (near mile marker 14). Now for the last two weeks we are staying near mile marker 5 in January less than a mile from Key West. Based upon these two short stays – one in summer and one in winter – I feel we have a pretty good sense of what it would be like to live in Key West.

Remember that one of our quests in this lifestyle of full timing in an RV was to seek out potential places that we could put our roots down into. Since leaving Texas we have come across a few promising spots but none as intriguing as we have found here in Key West.

So what are the pros and cons of living in Key West?

PROS

weather, weather, weather,always tropical
sun and palm trees everywhere
blue water that is always warm enough to get in
the locals we have engaged are real interesting and friendly people
great year round fishing and seafood harvesting
there is a regional airport nearby

CONS

hurricanes, obviously
lack of opportunities to earn any income if needed
very expensive cost of living (especially real estate)
no major medical facilities nearby
too many cruise ships clogging up the the downtown area
difficult for family members to visit (although they will more likely visit here than if we retired much closer to them)

Although we love the Florida Keys and really love being here near the Key West area we are not real sure we could live down here full time. It not just the cons above that tells us that it is something else.

What else could it be?

It is as simple as this, with as much partying as the conchs do here in the Florida Keys we are pretty sure our livers could never handle it… so our quest will continue…

Key West Seafood Festival…

2012-01-15T09:21:00.001-06:00

With a cold front blowing through there was a lot of talk about it being the coldest day of the year down here in Key West. But if this is the coldest day of the year we have found the spot to be in mid-January. The high temperature only reached 70F today and the jeans and jackets were out.

Seventy is not cold by any stretch but with the 20 mph winds blowing off the water it did make it a bit chilly. Not to be dissuaded we planned to hit the 7th annual Seafood Festival in downtown Key West to see what it was all about. Since it was expected that the traffic would be chaotic near the festival we chose to ride our bikes the 3 miles to Bayview Park.

With the wind behind us the ride was easy however this only meant it would be a more difficult ride heading back to the house in the headwinds. Traffic was pretty crazy but we found our way to the festival and locked up the bikes on a sign post. There was no charge for admission and the only charge we saw was for parking at five dollars. We just love FREE ADMISSION when on a budget…

Bayview Park was lined with tents set up by vendors comprised of local artists selling colorful Key West inspired art along with jewelry, soaps, tiki hut signage and t-shirts. On the back side of the park were the locals selling lot of delicious local seafood. Only seafood harvested by members of the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association was available here and included Key West pink shrimp, grilled lobster, fried clams, smoked fish dip, conch served several ways, and delicious stone crab!

They also had booths from the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary, Fish & Wildlife, U.S. Coast Guard etc… set up to educate the masses about many thing sea related. There was even a salt water touch tank, manned by marine scientists that would answer any questions.

We had a blast enjoying the sights, the people watching and the live entertainment at the grandstand. Lots of colorful locals, or Conchs as they like to be called, were in attendance. With the tourists trying to blend it people watching was the highlight of the day. If you are here in January bring your keesters down to Bayview Park and enjoy the Seafood Festival it was laid back and lots of fun!

A Key West stroll…

2012-01-13T12:42:00.001-06:00

I knew Sharon was starting to get a little better this morning since her color looked a lot better. After breakfast we lounged around all morning in the pool until I asked her if she would be interested in going for a walk in Key West to do a little people watching (always fun in the city). She said yes and surprised me by wanting to do a long walk so I knew she was feeling quite a bit better.

We drove the 6 miles into town and parked in one of the non-resident (free) parking spots on Southard Street. We headed towards Duval Street and then walked the full length of Duval taking small diversions off this main drag as we saw fit. We stopped for a while at the southernmost beach at the east end of Duval and just listened to the sound of the waves coming ashore while watching the assorted sun worshipers.

There was another Carnival mega liner cruise ship in port so there was a lot of good people watching – cruisers make the best people watching. After a couple of hours of walking and sitting Sharon decided she was fit enough to visit our favorite haunt at the Hogfish Bar and Grill for happy hour.

As always we had a blast at the Hogfish and tried one of the happy hour food items while there – a shrimp quesadilla. It was fabulous and we would definitely order another and probably will before we leave the Keys. After having a little too much fun we headed home.

The next morning was a repeat of yesterdays but we found a treat sitting in the outdoor refrigerator. It appeared as if our friendly neighbor dropped off a couple pounds of stone crab claws for our enjoyment. After 8-10 minutes of boiling water followed by an ice bath these claws were ready to eat. And eat we did – deliciously sweet and flaky fresh crabmeat topping off our salad made a terrific lunch. Still lots of leftover crab may mean another crab dish is in our future…

Yes it was another great day in Key West…

Quintessentially Key west…

2012-01-10T11:38:00.001-06:00

The day before we arrived in Key West Sharon noticed a small tickle in her throat… we were both hoping that she wasn’t catching something. We have been retired and on the road for over ten months and neither of us have been sick, not even a cold!

Yet here we are in paradise and Sharon has a full fledged cold… Sigh!!!

I am doing my best to take care of her and to make sure she is happy in paradise, despite the cold. After all,there are probably worse places to be with a cold. We are also blessed with the fact that we have a house to use while here and that makes it a bit easier as well. At least we are in Key West for a couple of weeks so she still has plenty of time to get better and get out to enjoy this little slice of heaven.

This wouldn’t even be happening were it not for our good friends Jerry and Kathleen who allowed us a stay in their beautiful home in the Keys. After nursing Sharon most of the day she urged me to take our planned bike ride into the town of Key West sans her. Appreciatively, I got on the bike and headed south…

We are about 6.5 miles outside the town but there are bicycle trails extending from way out here into and around.Key West. Should you come here, bring bikes as is a very bicycle friendly town. So it was off to Key West to have a nice bike ride and take in the sights… Seventeen and one half miles later I made it back to the the house.

I was only gone a couple of hours but had a really nice ride all through the town of Key West. There were two cruise ships in the harbor docked just off of Mallory Square thus the streets around Duvall Street were extremely crowded. Not to be dissuaded I continued on and really enjoyed this ride, that is, until… I started to head back and realized I was riding the last six miles into a a stiff head wind…

By the tine I got back I was winded (pun intended) to say the least but the good news is that there was a cozy house waiting for me with a wonderful pool overlooking a blue water canal in the back yard. When I finally got back to the S&B house I ditched the bike, checked on Sharon (still sickly), got into my swim shorts and headed for the pool… however, I did pause to get a cold adult beverage before getting in…

Sharon was still feeling puny but was able to come outside and wet her feet. I made us some pork tenderloin and vegetable shish kabobs and we settled in for the evening and settled in to watch the national championship for collegiate football.

The game was a bit of a bust as only one team showed up and it was all Roll Tide Roll…

Back in the Keys…

2012-01-08T09:17:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was a travel day for us and a long one at that. When we first woke up we finished packing up the car with all of remaining items including all the perishables from the refrigerator since we will be staying in the Keys for two weeks. It was a bit weird carrying all of our stuff from the motorhome to the car…

Once packed it was time to hit the road… Since we were only 25 miles from where we were going to store the motorhome and since I wanted to fill up the motorhome with diesel we didn’t hook up our CRV. So that meant both of us would be driving the 25 miles to Seminole Campground where the motorhome would be stored for the two weeks we were away. Fortunately Seminole has storage with electricity so we are able to plug in to keep the refrigerator going with the few non-perishables and frozen goods we couldn’t take with us.

After parking the rig and plugging in it was time to head off but we had a little problem. When I went to fill up with diesel I couldn’t find my wallet. Yikes!!! Not a good feeling so before we left the motorhome we looked everywhere for it… but alas, it was nowhere to be found. Not wanting to completely unpack the CRV I decided that we would just head to the Keys and if it showed up that would be grand. I did, however, open up our computer files to make sure the credit card had not been used. Reassured somewhat from seeing it had not been used, we were finally on our way.

We expected the drive to take about 6 to 6.5 hours and the drive was mostly uneventful. Cruising along highway 41 we passed many alligators sunning on the banks and thousands of wading birds in the everglades. Reaching Homestead we pulled in for a Subway sandwich where I then noticed a hole in my pocket and realized I had lost some cash… Okay I lost my wallet and now my cash… Not Good!!!

Hoping this wasn’t an omen warning of a bad trip Sharon paid for the sub and we pushed on to Key Largo. Now things were looking better as we passed the tangled mottes of mangroves with their green leaves creating a striking contrast to the azure placid waters of the Keys. Everything was looking better…

But then we came upon a stoppage of traffic and there they were… hoards of runners running a relay race along with the assemblies of vans and supporters. We had come upon a Ragnar Relay race. At mile marker 18 we apparently were at the tail end of a long line of relay runners running from Miami to Key West. What appeared to be a small road stoppage turned into a near death crawl as we crept slowly down highway 1.Occasionally we were even passed by a relay runner…

With the stop and go traffic it took nearly an hour to go the last 10 miles to our turn off. But we made it!!! Unpacked, and across highway 1 to our favorite haunt in the Keys, the Hogfish Bar and Grill…A couple of libations later and we had forgotten all about the long day we had…

P.S. We did find my wallet when we unpacked so not all was lost :)

Our final day in Bonita Springs, Florida…

2012-01-06T10:35:00.001-06:00

Today is our last day here in Bonita Lake RV Resort and it comes with a bit of sadness as we have really enjoyed our stay here. The park we are in may not be the best we have stayed in but its proximity to so many things to do and see have made this a special place to us.

Add to that the really nice people we met while here means we are saddened a bit to leave but we are also aware that more fantastic places and people are waiting for us in our future. We met two couples from Ontario, Canada while in the park and we really enjoyed their company. We hope to stay in touch and there may even be a visit back to the park to see them before we leave from our next monthly stop.

So where are we headed? Well first we will head to North Fort Meyers, Florida and leave our RV in storage at our next monthly stay park – Seminole RV Campground. While the RV is in storage we will be heading to Key West, Florida to stay at a friends house. We are very fortunate that he is allowing us to stay at his property. This mini “vacation” to the Keys will be a blast for us as we get to stay in a sticks and bricks place and re-experience what it is like to have so much space at our disposal.

Our friends may come down while we are at their house which would make the stay all the more fun… but let’s be real, if you can’t find a good time in the Keys you obviously aren’t looking very hard. We will miss our motorhome while we are away but when we get back in late January we will stay at Seminole Campground for a month. Where we go from there remains unknown but that is part of the fun of this lifestyle since it is up to us as to where we go from there…

So time to start packing and head to the Keys bright and early tomorrow…

Marsh Madness - A trip into the Everglades…

2012-01-04T21:12:00.001-06:00

With the cold weather heading our way we snuck out to the everglades one more time before the cold front made its way through southwestern Florida. We headed south and then west on highway 41 back over much of the same scenery we had traveled to earlier during our stay in Florida.

So not surprisingly we saw a lot of the same critters we had seen before but we did have a couple of more unusual sightings on this trip into the marsh. When one first enters the everglades it becomes apparent that you are in a different world. If the scenery doesn’t tell you, then the signs warning of panther crossings or the sign informing you that you have entered the home of the “Skunk Ape” surely will...

One critter is real and the other is not! Another blogger more than likely recently sighted a panther here but we were not so lucky, We did have an encounter with a young raccoon who scurried across the road in front of us and scampered up a tree seeking safety. We took some photos and watched from afar as he slowly crawled back down the tree, head first, as if defying gravity.

We also made the jaunt over to Everglades City, Florida and toured an RV resort that was quite upscale, but in reality this town is very remote… probably too remote for us. As we were driving back we took some of the back roads when I noticed something large and black up ahead in the road… What was it?

Could it be a panther? No, because it was much larger than any panther I had ever seen photos of. Maybe it was the elusive Skunk Ape!!! Afterall this thing was huge and black and hairy all over…But this thing was not walking upright like the supposed Skunk Ape is reported to walk… Nope this wasn’t a Skunk Ape…

What was the creature we encountered? It was a very large black bear and what gave it away was its posture and shape as it crossed the road. We stopped where it crossed and saw it look back towards us and then slowly saunter deeper into the wooded everglades marsh. Why was it here? Well as we looked over the area it became apparent that it had found a local resident’s trash can and was doing its version of grocery shopping…

With the mystery behind us we left the Everglades and headed back to our favorite haunt for happy hour… Buffalo Chips. Fifteen wings and several adult beverages later we called our adventure over and took refuge in our RV to escape the bitter cold heading Florida's way…

A day at the beach in 2012…

2012-01-02T07:26:00.001-06:00

With 2012 finally here it is our last chance to prove the Mayan Prophecy is incorrect. But we can only do so if we make it past December 21, 2012. So just in case the Mayans were on to something we decided that 2012 should be the year we enjoy life to its fullest. It will help that we are both already retired and living full time in our Tiffin Motorhome. It also helps that we are in southwestern Florida at the turn of the new year with a forecast of 80 degrees …

To start off the new year we decided we would spend the first day of 2012 at the beach. Thus, we headed towards Fort Myers Beach until we came to Lovers Key State Park. We passed the main park entrance and drove until we got to the northern end of the park where there is a dirt parking lot on the left side of the road just before the drawbridge entering the town of Fort Myers Beach. From here you can enter the state park for a $2.00 per person entry fee which gives you access to the park for the day. The park is part preserve for a nice sea oats dune community and has a long expanse of beautiful white sandy beaches for the public to enjoy either by sunbathing or by fishing from the shoreline.

This part of the park entry is near a ship cut and there is a fine soft white sandy beach along the channel. A short walk towards the Gulf of Mexico will take you to the end of the channel to a wider beach on the gulf. There were lots of of boaters out this day. This beach is actively eroding as can be evidenced by the dead and uprooted trees all along the shore. These trees make the scenery a bit eerie but are quite photogenic.

The brittle starfish were plentiful in the surf and even a few dolphins were spotted just off shore. The beaches were pretty crowded since it was a weekend, and a holiday weekend at that, but that didn’t stop the ospreys from snagging an occasional mullet from the surf to take back to their nests to feed their adolescent children.

We really enjoyed this day at the beach and since there is a strong cold front heading our way we stayed out most of the day in the surf and the sun. With Tuesday overnight low temperatures being forecast in the 30’s on the way we will probably make one more run into the everglades today before we leave Bonita Lake Resort…

At least we had a grand start to 2012 and hopefully the best is yet to come for us and for all of you… Happy New Year!!!

Plans firming up for 2012…

2011-12-31T08:00:00.001-06:00

We really enjoyed having our daughter visit us for ten days while we are down here in beautiful and warm Bonita Springs, Florida. She has now returned back to her much colder home so it is time for us to firm up our plans for where we are going to stay for the remaining months of winter…

Today is our last day to stay on the spot we are on now in Bonita Lake RV Resort. We just have to move to a different spot in the same park for our last six days stay here. We will leave this park on January 7th, 2012 and take the motorhome northwards to Seminole Campground. We finally decided that we really wanted to spend another month in southwest Florida (even though it is out of our budget) so we have booked a month long stay at Seminole Campground.

However, before we stay for a month at Seminole Campground we will be storing our motorhome in their park for two weeks. We are going back for another visit to the Florida Keys. We will be visiting friends who have a place down in the keys and stay with them for two weeks before returning back to Seminole Campground. We will leave the keys on January 21,2012 and stay for a month at Seminole Campground from January 21 to February 21.

By February 21st we hope there is little left of the cold weather. The next part of our journey remains unscheduled but we hope to spend some time in the Tampa area and then head northwards out of Florida on a slow trek. We plan to be heading out west where we will spend our 2012 spring and summer exploring the western states. On the way there we will stop by where we use to live in College Station, Texas to visit old friends and some of our favorite haunts.

It is really nice to have the plans firmed up for the winter. Now we must go buy some tamales and begin to prepare the cornbread and black eyed peas to ensure we have good luck for the upcoming new year - 2012…

Christmas dinner and reflections…

2011-12-27T07:34:00.001-06:00

December 2011 here on the west coast of Florida has been simply divine!!! The potluck Christmas dinner we enjoyed with the rest of the campers at the park was fantastic and most delicious. The only down side to potlucks is that I always overeat…

Having our daughter come visit us this Christmas has also been wonderful. Since she has been here we have been simply lounging around most mornings after coffee and breakfast. Then after lunch we usually end up at the beach most of the afternoon so our daughter can work on her tan before heading home. It has been fun showing her the lifestyle we now have… our life is pretty tough…

With our daughter leaving on Thursday it gives us time to reflect on our stay here in Bonita Lake RV Resort. The month has gone by fast! This resort may not be the nicest in the area but after visiting all the others around here we now know that when we come back to visit this area we may be staying at Bonita Lake RV Resort once again. What makes this park truly enjoyable is its location, proximity to the beach and its friendly people. It also helps that our favorite watering hole is within walking distance as well…

With 2012 looming in the near future it is nearly time to close this chapter called 2011. We will have to move on the first of January to another site here in the park for six days. Then we will store the motorhome to go visit friends in the Florida Keys for a couple of weeks… that will cover us till the 21st of January when we will need to get our RV back out of storage. Between now and then we hope to locate where we will stay through the end of February. Hopefully not too much further north than we are now but only time will tell.

Here is to hoping that everyone who reads and follows this blog has a wonderful and exiting New Year in 2012… I guess we better start thinking of what our resolutions will be…

Merry Christmas…

2011-12-23T18:53:00.001-06:00

Just a short blog from us to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and wherever each of you are may all your dreams and wishes come true in 2012 as they did for us in 2011…

Tis the season, and looking for future sites…

2011-12-21T07:23:00.001-06:00

Our daughter has flown down to visit us for the holidays. We picked her up at the Fort Myers airport the other day and she will be here through Christmas. It is fantastic that she is able to visit us during our time here in Florida. This Christmas will be the first time ever for us to be able to go to the beach and wear shorts outside if we want too.

Of course the first place she wanted to go was to the beach… so yesterday was a delightfully sunny and warm beach day. There was a bit more chop to the normally placid gulf coast waters and there was a lot more activity at the beach. I guess there are a lot of sons and daughters visiting their parents as the average age on the beach has gone way down over the last week as well. Parking was also a bit harder to find… so it must be nearing Christmas.

At the beach there were a lot of rays swimming very close to the shore in large groups. Hundreds of these rays could be seen as close as five feet off shore as they made quite a spectacle. It was fun watching the fins break the surface as they were frolicking in the surf. We also had the pleasure of spotting a couple of dolphins very close to the shore as well… I wonder if they feed on rays?

With Christmas nearing it is time for us to resume our search for our next camp site which now appears to be more north of here… We have been striking out finding a nice affordable site for January or February near here. I have been spending a lot of time searching on the web and utilizing RV Park Reviews as well as a new RV review site I discovered today GuestRated.com. This site is similar to RV Park Reviews as it provides rating of peoples camping experiences. It is affiliated with the National Association of RV Parks & Campgrounds so we may have another useful tool for searching for site in the future if more people submit their reviews

Does anyone have any other useful sites for park reviews?

Xmas as a fulltimer…

2011-12-19T07:42:00.001-06:00

Even though I put out a string of Christmas lights and we put up our makeshift Charlie Brown Christmas tree, it is really hard to get into the Christmas spirit here in Florida. I imagine it has much to do with the weather here in southwest Florida where we are seeing daytime temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s and overnight lows barely creeping in the upper fifties. Not to mention every evening’s sunset is outlined with the silhouettes of palm trees.

Actually I suspect it has more to do with the fact that we are doing Christmas differently now that we are retired than when we were working stiffs. So what are some of the major differences we are experiencing now compared to then?

we had tons more decorations inside and out of our home
we used to be out and about spending lots of time on several shopping trips and then in the late stages rushing out for the last minute stocking stuffers. Instead we now are able to complete our shopping in one shopping trip to a couple of stores then finishing up using AMAZON.com.
we had tons of Christmas packages to wrap and put under the tree whereas now, because we are on a more tight budget, there were fewer gifts. These gifts were wrapped, stayed under the little tree for the photo, then were quickly mailed away.
we were in the late stages of planning and preparing a big feast back home by now but now instead we are attending a park-wide dinner and all we need to make is a single dish
we would be planning on seeing our son and his family at our house or theirs (as they lived only 100 miles away) but now we will not see them at all until we return to Texas next spring.
we would be attending our respective workplace Christmas parties and Sharon would most likely be buying a new outfit for each. Here we bought a bottle of Champagne to have our own little party (I’m sure Sharon will still put together a festive outfit with some of her Christmas bling).

Those are some of the major differences for us as full timing RV’ers but the one that stands out most to us is that we don’t hear the nonstop Christmas music as much since we don’t spend a lot of time in the car with the radio on as we did in my working lives……

At least our daughter is flying down to spend part of her Christmas holiday with us. I think I might have to put on some Christmas music soon so we will know for sure that Christmas is coming…

Big Cypress National Reserve…

2011-12-17T07:37:00.001-06:00

Bonita Springs Florida isn't real close to the everglades but that didn’t stop us from making the 150 mile round trip to Big Cypress National Reserve into the heart of the Florida Everglades . The drive to the reserve is not overly scenic along the way but once you are nearing there you can tell you are in some place special.

From the first time we first noticed the signs to the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge until we saw our first alligator we knew this place was different than any we had visited before… Having studied about the everglades in college it was a pleasure to actually get to visit the place before it is completely compromised.

The continued draining of the everglades that has been ongoing since the early 1900s has converted much of the wetland ecosystem to land ready to be farmed or developed. It may be a necessary evil of our growing society but it is sad to see in reality nonetheless. The vast sheet of water that covered the everglades is but a remnant of what it formerly was…

The protection of the lands in this part of Florida is essential to the populations of endangered and threatened species. Not to mention these swamplands may harbor the next known cure for cancer or other diseases in one of the plant’s chemical makeup that has yet to be discovered. The beauty of the remaining wetlands and the density and diversity of the flora and fauna found in this area are all testaments to the pioneers who have helped preserve this land.

The Big Cypress National Reserve has several nice hiking trails and interpretative boardwalks that visitors can enjoy. There are also a couple of roadside parks that RV’ers can reserve and boondock in. We drove through them and they are nice and quiet parks and at this time of the year only had a few guests. If you are looking for a quiet and scenic place to boondock going from Miami to Fort Myers or visa versa this is a nice place to stop for a few days to explore the everglades from. But watch out for the ever present skunk apes…

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Bonita Beach Dog Park…

2011-12-14T07:10:00.001-06:00

With the exquisitely warm weather we have been having we decided to get out for a little drive and explore more of the area around us. So off we drove towards Little Hickory Island and once we crossed the bridge to it we were surrounded by the large opulent but brightly painted homes adorning the beautiful white sand beaches.

A short pleasant drive past the homes and the various beach accesses you cross another bridge which takes you towards Fort Meyer Beach and Lovers Key State Park. Access to the park’s manned beach access is $4.00 per person at the main gate but only $2.00 per person at a “self pay station” at the north end of the park. But just before you get into Lovers Key State Park you will notice a pullout alongside the road where several cars may be parked. What you will find here is a “dog beach” better known as Bonita Beach Dog Park.

They have set aside a special beach area for those who want to take their dog(s) off leash and let them just run and play with all the other dogs. We are currently pet-less but we have had several dogs in our adult lives and both had cats in our childhood. We have just found that the RV lifestyle that we wanted is better accomplished pet-less. The lack of a friendly companion was traded for a bit more freedom and a lot less responsibility.

But since we are dog and cat lovers we felt it would be a fun experience to visit the dog park and see what goes on there… When we first pulled up we were a bit worried that this might be an adult dog only park since there was a huge banner announcing that there was “hot dogs” in the park… :)

Instead, what we found was a bunch of furry critters romping around chasing each other and frolicking in the surf as children would. There were dogs chasing each other, dogs chasing balls, dogs digging in the sand, dogs chasing frisbees and dogs just being dogs…

It really is nice that they have set aside a special place for dog owners and their dogs to have a place to run foot loose and fancy free without offending those folks who take offense to dogs in general. The beach is just a small strip of white sand surrounded by mangroves but it is ample in size so that dogs have plenty of room to play. If you have a dog and are in the area I would highly recommend you that you stop by this beach, pull up a beach chair and spend some quality time with your furry friend…

Since we didn’t have a furry friend we simply enjoyed watching those that did! After having too much fun at the dog park we started to head back to our RV park but got side tracked at a place called the Fish House. Since it was happy hour we decided to check it out. Fantastic happy hour there with $1.25 domestic drafts and four food items on a special happy hour menu all only six bucks… (including a half pound boiled ship or ten wings). Nice place for a stop when going home from the beach…

The “Haves” are here…

2011-12-12T07:28:00.001-06:00

We have traveled a lot many miles and to all of the states along the east coast over the past nine and a half months and one thing we have always noticed is that the state of our economy seems to have impacted the lower and middle classes to a greater extent than it has the wealthy or the “haves”…

Throughout the southeast we noticed a lot of businesses and properties have been boarded up and listed for sale due to bankruptcy, foreclosure or short sales. We have seen a lot of run down areas in the east. It is sad for America to have degraded to such a state that it is slowly destroying the most important building block of the country – the working middle class.

However, when we walk along the beaches and in particular the beaches in southern Florida it becomes obvious that all the people in America are not suffering. The economy down here in the Bonita Springs and Naples area seems more robust than most of what we have seen in our travels. Strip malls are still being built and most of the area looks vibrant and energized with few signs that our economy is a bit disheveled.

This takes us back to the homes along the beaches here in southern Florida… These properties start at near $2,000,000 and go way up from there. The houses in these photos are examples of such properties. These homes appear, for the most part, to not be lived in annually and thus are likely “winter retreats for the haves”… must be nice, Huh?

A lot of hubbub has been in the news lately that the “haves” have not been paying their fair share of taxes because they are creative enough to tax shelter much or all of their income. When you look at these magnificent properties along the beaches of southern Florida you can only wonder who is living in these homes. Are they doing anything we wouldn’t do if the government allowed us to do so?

But there is no reason to muddle my post retirement thoughts since we never made it out of the working middle class… We were once envious of these people and wanted to excel in our lives for the chance opportunity to be like them. Now the only thing we are envious about are their infinity pools since we are able to enjoy their same backyard views and beaches without having all their property expenses and all their stuff…

You know they may only be the “haves” because they have most of the stuff.It is interesting to note when we talk with some of these “haves” that they are jealous of us and our lifestyle. Jealous of us??? What do we have that they don’t have??? We have freedom to do what we want to do when we want to do it… and of course we have all this while having so little responsibility and so little stuff. Maybe we do have way more than they could ever have in their current lifestyles…

Maybe we are the true “haves” in America…

Greyhound Races and Naples Florida…

2011-12-10T05:26:00.001-06:00

We were looking for something different to do in the area and we noticed that there was a greyhound racing track nearby and that on two nights during each month they had “DOLLAR NIGHT”… that meant that race programs, hotdogs, popcorn and draft beers were only one dollar American!!! I use to go to the greyhound races when I was in the Air Force in Rapid City, South Dakota and remembered having a fun night when all us guys went out.

When I mentioned to Sharon about the dog track she said she did want to go since she had never been to one before. So it was a done deal… we were off to the races. We got there a bit late but there was no fee for parking and only $2.00 per person entry. So with the one dollar program we started off $5.00 out of pocket… 3 hotdogs and 2 beers later we were out $11.00. We had some work to do to break even on the day. We watched a total of 13 races and bet on 9 of them with our our wagers ranging from 2-6 dollars each race. We actually did pretty well at the track winning several bets with the whole day costing us less than eight bucks… despite having’s muchos cervezas!!!

The next day we had a date with some other bloggers Jeannie and Eldo of Where’s Eldo fame in Naples Florida about 25 minutes south of our park. We spent some time on the way down checking out other RV parks in the neighborhood for potential camping places for January… we will be site-less unless we find something soon.

The parks we checked out were less than satisfactory or didn’t have any availability for January so it was on to down town Naples. We were to meet our soon to be friends at the Jolly Cricket which is a fine British Pub/Restaurant.They have a nice happy hour ($2.50 pints) and a great atmosphere. We walked up to the front of the bar and we recognized them right away from pictures in their blog.

With introductions out of the way we shared lots of stories about our RV travels and our trials and tribulations about locating future sites in the area for the rest of the winter. After happy hour we walked down the street on 5th Avenue to partake in the music scene (Evening on the Fifth) held on the streets in downtown Naples every second Thursday of every month (they provide free musicians along the shopping area).

I can tell you right now they had some very talented musicians there… we were strolling along the Christmas lit store fronts listening to an array of musicians when we came upon a band called Soundcheck and let me tell you, they could flat out play!!! Their upbeat sound along with the perfect weather that night combined with an amazing young fellow who could cut a rug better than Fred Astaire to the delight of the crowd made for a captivating evening. Sharon and Jeanie were out dancing up a storm while Eldo and I tried to look nonchalant holding their purses…

We had a grand time… great music, great weather, fun times at happy hour and great company with our new friends Jeanie and Eldo…. Thanks you two for showing us a great time in Naples!!!

Barefoot Beach…

2011-12-08T06:30:00.001-06:00

The last few days have been some really lazy days of lounging around the house till lunch and then venturing over to the beach about 10 minutes west of here. The weather here has been absolutely fantastic as we have had overnight lows in the sixties and highs in the low eighties… perfect beach weather.

Back where we use to live in Texas they had a hard freeze the last few nights which is pretty unusual there in early December. The weather forecasters here have been forecasting a cold snap starting today as they are calling for a low of 50 and a high of only 72…. Now this is how cold should be properly defined to retired people!!! The closest thing we have seen of fall here in Florida is the colors on the coastal Sea Grape (Coccoloba uvifera)

The days are filled with me waking to the sounds of pileated woodpeckers in the pine grove on the far side of the park followed by a beautiful sunrise. At the beach we are serenaded by the sound of the infrequent but periodic waves lapping the sandy shore depositing sea shells with each pass. The beach we go to is loaded with shells of every pastel hue known to mankind and these beaches also serve as resting spots for the various birds found near and off the sea shore in southwestern Florida.

The extent of my exercise lately has been the long strolls we take along the surf while examining the shells left behind by the sea. Occasionally a nice find will be discovered, examined, photographed, enjoyed and then left for the next person to discover it do it all over again…

There are some very fancy homes here along the beach some of which are rumored to be owned by movie stars and the like. But when we are on the beach with the sound of the surf it seems as if it is just us, the sand, the shells and the birds here on our beach along with a few others walking the same path as us…

You see there are many of us in Florida whom are enjoying our lives here, on the road of retirement…

Bonita Lake Resort–Bonita Springs Florida

2011-12-04T07:15:00.001-06:00

We made the tough 20 mile drive south to Bonita Lake Resort where we will stay for the month of December. I mentioned that we were looking forward to the sleepier town of Bonita Springs and after being here for a few days we do like the more laid back atmosphere here. There are some nice white sand beach accesses about 10 minutes away and the parking here at these accesses is free instead of two dollars per hour… that is a nice plus.

The park is a medium sized RV park with a mixture of some park models and RV’s. There are about 165 sites and the management appears to be be actively managing the park and adding improvements. The $698 monthly rate is higher than we hoped to get for the month but it pales in comparison to their January rate of $1250 per month. Needless to say we will be leaving before the rate increase in January. Monthly's also pay for metered electricity and the place offers free WIFI but no cable.

Our front yard view is spectacular but the channel in front offers some impromptu birding opportunities. The first thing we did when we got here was doing some general cleaning and laundry in the onsite laundry room. The next day found us lounging on the white sandy beach for a couple of hours.The beach was very sparsely populated for a Friday afternoon so this may be a good sign. I saw a fellow fishing who was from Massachusetts and he was catching a few whiting. The diving Brown Pelicans seemed to be catching quite a few fish just off shore so I will get to some fishing of my own later in the week.

Last night we found a nice little tavern called Buffalo Chips where we had a few adult beverages during happy hour. A lively establishment who claims to have great wings and from the amount of people in the place ordering them we will have to try them out anther day.

Our initial impression of this area is positive enough that we are sure we will enjoy our month stay… especially since we found our favorite Texas ice cream in the local area… Blue Bell!!

Bunche Beach Preserve is going to the birds…

2011-12-01T08:01:00.001-06:00

With the chilly weather hitting southern Florida we are amused at how bundled up some of the people are around the park. With highs just peeking into the seventies (Fahrenheit) there are a lot of wind breakers and jackets being donned by the residents of Siesta Bay RV Resort. So what do we do on such a chilly day?

Why we go to the beach, of course… When we leave this park the one thing we will miss the most is the two mile bicycle ride along the bike paths over to Bunche Beach Preserve. This may not be one of the nicest beaches around but that fact that it lies among the mangroves make it a fun spot to take in a little birding while relaxing and enjoying the beach.

Yesterday we headed out for the beach and the bike ride was a little tougher that it had been previously since we were riding into a pretty stiff headwind. Before you reach the beach there is a pull out with a couple of small boardwalks and perches over the mangrove swamp. While here one day I saw a soaked and gangly raccoon meandering across the road heading into the mangroves. I also saw a beautiful Yellow Crowned Night Heron fly in and sit just across from me on a mangrove until he finally spotted me and took off.

The pullout is a great spot to just sit, relax and watch the goings on. A large alligator gar was floating by while I was fishing one day. It was right on the surface and floating along with the current of the outgoing tide. Fishing was not very productive that day but watching wildlife was very successful.

Past the pullout a short ways down the road is the beach and some roadside parking (fees for parking). We road our bicycles onto the beach and then rode along the edge of the intertidal zone till we got to a sandbar that was crawling with shorebirds. So out plopped our blanket and out came the binoculars and camera… The diversity of shorebirds was fantastic as we saw 15 different species and we even spotted a banded snowy plover (pictured below).

It was just a great way to spend our last day here at the park. Today we will head twenty miles south to Bonita Lake Resort to stay for the month of December. If we had found this park a bit earlier we may have just stayed here for the month, but that is the problem with reservations as they commit you to a spot. We do however look forward to the sleepier town of Bonita Springs and the beaches there are only about a 10 minute drive away. I am sure we will survive and tough it out in Bonita Springs…

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Ding Darling NWR and Bunche Beach Preserve…

2011-11-29T07:02:00.001-06:00

A nice side trip from Siesta Bay RV Resort is the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on the subtropical barrier island of Sanibel. It is known for its display of migratory bird populations and that fact that has one of the largest undeveloped mangrove populations in the USA.

Visiting wildlife refuges is a past time I will always enjoy going back to my roots of having studied Wildlife Biology back in college. I am always curious to not only see the refuge and it flora and fauna but I am also curious to see how the refuge is being managed and maintained. While working for Texas Parks and Wildlife I was a Biologist responsible for maintaining the natural integrity of parkland ecosystems in the eastern half of the state of Texas.

As a Biologist I assisted in many events such from prescribed burning to maintain habitat for endangered species such as Attwater's Prairie Chickens to eradicating non-native species such as sika and fallow deer from the Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. So when I visit parks and refuges I am looking at them from two different perspectives… and from what I can see they are doing a lot of real good things here at the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge.

Also nearby the RV resort is a nice little park San Carlos Bay / Bunche Beach Preserve. This little gem is a mere 15 minute or so bike ride from the RV Resort. Here you are treated to a 719 acre park protecting some tidal wetlands and mangrove swamp that is more representative of the area before invasive plants and people moved in.

We biked over for an afternoon of fun in the sun and a little bird watching. The nice white sandy beach is inviting for a stroll along the tidal wetlands of the park. With nearby metered parking and its proximity to the city there is always a mixture of “city folk” and retired “peeps” relaxing on the beach. As the Old Fat Man says we are just having tooooooo much fun…

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