Fort Myers, Florida

Another gorgeous day and we are on the road again. It felt a little strange to be pulling the 5th wheel after being at the beach house for 17 days. Our next destination was Fort Myers, FL. We arrived at Mark Dunham and Renee Jewett’s house in the afternoon.

We had not seen Mark in over 42 years and spent the afternoon reminiscing the good old days. On Friday, they took us to lunch at Miller’s Ale House in the Gulf Coast Town Center and showed us around the area. Later in the evening, we went out fishing on a charter just before sunset.

Fishing was slow but we did catch some grunt that were tasty. Mark caught a nice grouper but had to throw it back since the season was not open yet.

Saturday was spent at the Fort Myers Beach.
We took a long walk on the beach and could only go a few feet before all these college girls stopped to play with Renee’s Pomeranian dogs, especially the puppy who is a little ball of fur and as cute as can be. Bob decided that the college guys are missing the boat; if they brought a cuddly little puppy to the beach with them, they would be surrounded by women, oohing and aahing.

 That night we went back to the Gulf Coast Town Center to listen to music in the square. It was a lovely evening and we walked around the entire Center before having pizza at the Firepit City Grill.

Sunday was a day to relax. Bob and I went to get our haircuts and shopping. On the way back to Mark and Renee’s, we got caught in a rainstorm that came down so hard that we had to sit in the truck for 10 minutes before we could make a run for the house. Wow! We are not used to that in Alaska. Later in the day, they showed us all of the foreclosed homes that they have invested in, remodeled and rented out. They have convinced us that we should consider looking into buying one as an investment. There are definitely some good deals. That evening, Mark and Renee took us to a dance at a huge ballroom. We met several of their friends and had a great time. After seeing how much fun they were having, Bob and I decided to take some lessons…1,2 cha, cha, cha!

We were up early on Monday to get ready to go to Fort DeSoto, just south of St. Petersburg. Mark and Renee will join us on Tuesday and Wednesday. If you love white sandy beaches and being around water, this is the place to be. It is five inter-connected islands, making up 1,136 acres.

 It has also been named America’s Top Beach by Trip Advisor for the second consecutive year, as well as the Nation’s #1 Beach by Dr. Beach in 2005.

 We could not believe our good fortune that there was a cancellation and we were able to get a site for 3 days. After getting set up at our campsite, we biked to one of the beaches, and visited the QuartermasterStorehouse Museum, and Fort. This was a military post established in 1898 in Mullet Key.

On Tuesday, before Mark and Renee arrived, we walked for over an hour on the beach. In the afternoon, Mark took us all fishing in his boat.It was beautiful going out with the Gulf of Mexico on one side and Tampa Bay on the other.

Before we had any luck, the wind came up drenching Bob and I as we made our way back to the pier. We were both ready for a nice hot shower and some tea.

On Wednesday, we relaxed it the morning while Renee got some work done. While sitting outside checking email, I had a visitor looking for an handout. The Great Egret stayed next to my chair for nearly an hour.

In the afternoon, we went to Saint Pete's Beach and to see their rental condos on the water in Coquina Key.

From there, we went to the St. Petersburg Pier. We watched the sailboats and had a drink before sunset.

 I managed to get up close and personal with a pelican that was on the Pier and not intimidated by my presence, in the least.

That evening after dark, I asked Bob and Mark to empty the trash. When Bob opened the lid, a raccoon jumped out at him, scaring him half to death. We all had a good laugh. When we went for a walk later that evening, we could see the same raccoon in the woods near the trash. Mark thought it would be funny to come up behind me and give me a scare. My scream more than likely frightened the poor raccoon off. I owe him one!

We arose early on Thursday to say goodbye to Mark and Renee. We packed up and headed out later in the day, making our way over to Ocala to get some work done on our 5th wheel. While we were there, we went over to see Bernard and Annette LaClair. We had not seen Bernard since 1991 when he came to Alaska with my two brothers and another friend. They took us to lunch as one of their favorite places that served huge pulled pork sandwiches. We definitely should have split one! In the afternoon, we drove a short distance to Sanford and started packing for our trip up north to Plattsburgh, NY. Since it was 83 degrees, we wondered what we were thinking heading to the North Country for 10 days.