Trying again...

Not too many places where you can still find a drive-thru package store. I guess they figure that with all the traffic you can't get going fast enough to hurt anyone. Either that or they're trying to get rid of the old, slow people.

Here is the gazebo on Sanibel where we took the boat to get lunch at Grandma Dot's restaurant.If you look on the very right side of the photo, you can see a friendly "pirate" who watched us eat! Our boat is the little one just off my left shoulder- a pretty great docking job in such a small space!

This is a little spreader canal on Sanibel. There are private residences on both sides. The depth is about 4 1/2 ft. and it is just wide enough to turn around by doing a 'K' turn. A very beautiful area with friendly people.

Here is the new haircut- I look tired, but it's just me "au naturale"- no make-up and VERY relaxed and happy! Behind me is the enclosed porch which overlooks the Gulf of Mexico- I wish it would stay warm like this all year round!

Proof that Cory is still alive and our prisoner.

This is Barbara and Paul our next door neighbors - at least until today. They left this morning to head north. They have a cottage on Lake George and we had a wonderful evening at their cottage here swapping stories of Lake George and looking at their pictures. We hope to visit with them again this summer in NY. Wish them luck on the drive north - from what we hear all the northbound routes are packed as of 04/01.


Just to bring you up to date - I finally gave up on the Averatec Computer which I hoped would work until I got home. It just wasn't worth the trouble. This posting is brought to you courtesy of a Toshiba Satellite A135 from Best Buy. It was on sale. Let all your friends that don't read this blog know that I have a real deal for a mint used Averatec laptop for sale. Comes with the "White House Guarantee" - Linda says, "It comes with the anchor line attached!" See you all tomorrow - which is our house cleaning move out day! Ken and Linda

We were going to post pictures...

Aaaarrgg!!! I'm starting to hate this computer. Once again the wireless is not working. The card works but the computer doesn't. I didn't need to take boating courses for this trip - I needed to take computer courses. Well... that will explain why there are no pictures. However, both Linda and I wrote our blogging narrative without knowing that we wouldn't be able to download the pictures tonight. So I'm just going to post the narrative and if they refer to a picture just try to imagine what it might have looked like.
We'll try again tomorrow. Ken

Today was another long boating day. We put 4 more hours on the engine by going to Sanibel for lunch. We found a marina where we could tie up to the dock (for free) and they had an excellant restaurant on site. We sat in a gazebo watching a white egret-looking bird fishing. Everyone was extremely friendly, moreso than we expected. Linda had her haircut again today, the shortest yet, and it looks great. We’ve posted a picture of Cory at the dog park yesterday.

Today I saw a dolphin as we were boating, and 2 rays (I don’t know if they were “sting” or “manta”!)feeding at our marina. We rode thru the “miserable mile”- a stretch of the ICW that is definitely misnamed. You can go 25 mph -it’s about 40 feet wide- 8 feet deep, and surrounded by mangrove islands! It should be that “miserable” all the way home!
I got brave & had my hair cut REALLY short this am. Tammy, my hairdresser in CT, knows I am a chicken & took it easy with me! “Rosie” (here in Fla)- must think I’m much braver than I really am- so she chopped it off! But I have 2 months or more to grow it back. See- retired people have lots of things to do!!!! Love to all-Linda

To everything- tern, tern, tern......

Today there were lots of terns on the beach -fishing away with the pelicans. I wonder at what point on our trip it will be too cold and too far North to see pelicans anymore? Furthering our torture of poor Cory- today we took him to a "dog beach"- in other words- "We don't need no stinking leashes!" There were lots of big dogs, some small dogs, but every other dog seemed to enjoy getting wet & romping. Cory preferred to sniff every square inch of the beach. We did make him go in up to his chest- prompting the ever-popular bath in the sink when we returned home! The poor thing! Tonight we are having fresh fish & a salad & green beans (yes, Sandy, I am TRYING not to look like a manatee!) Tomorrow I have a haircut appointment (again!) this time shorter so I don't have "wings" over my ears! And then we take the boat out to get more hours on the engine. We did lots of errands today- I bought Ken one of those windshield reflectors for when we store the truck next week! We got a box to ship some things home in- really trying to pare down on the weight of the boat (and to save precious space!) More photos tomorrow- we didn't feel like hanging out at the Holiday Inn to post photos- reality on the beach is just too beautiful to leave! Love to all- thanks for the comments- and welcome to my Maid of Honor (circa 1975) Suzie-Q! Linda
Like Linda said - just an errand day. Making appointments to get the boat pulled and serviced next Monday, finding a location to store the truck and trailer, and then the ever pleasant job of completing our taxes before we leave. We are still on track to leave early next week. We've pared down to just the necessities for the trip but we still have too much stuff. The heaviest are all the charts and guide books that we need - they take up an entire storage tub. I'm thinking about trying to trade with south bound travelers for their charts because we still have no charts above the Chesapeake Bay! Nice day today but the wind has shifted and there are white caps on the Gulf - I hope the wind changes back tonight or I'll never be able to dock the boat tomorrow. Talk to you later - Ken

Caloosahatchee River

Another couple of hours on the boat this morning and we are now up to 9 hours on the engine. I don’t believe I’ve ever been ahead of Alison in boating hours in a season! I’m feeling a little smug after making several perfect dockings in a row. To be completely honest I have a very strong breeze everyday pushing me onto the dock - I can’t help but land. Getting off the dock is another story - we have to springline the boat from the midcleat to get the rear end to come away from the dock, then we back out. It’s working like a charm and will probably be a useful skill in a few days. The first time we tried it it took both of us with boat hooks to fend off a neighboring boat. We are now currently planning on starting our voyage next Tuesday or Wednesday. We get kicked out of our house on Saturday and will be moving onto the boat the same day. No sense sitting at our dock for too long. We still need to get the boat serviced which I’m hoping can happen next Monday, then we’re off. This morning we headed East on the Caloosahatchee River to see what is in that direction. I’ve posted a picture of a bridge we went under. The channel narrows to about 40 ft. wide with a pretty constant depth of about 9 ft. There are a lot of “Manatee Zones” and other areas where you have to go slow. Other than those areas the speed limit is set at 25 mph. The Intra-Coastal Waterway (ICW from now on) is pretty full of boats heading to the east coast and then north. We will be in plenty of company. Apparently April 1st is the setout date for a lot of boaters to head north. The boat police are in full force out here - when they say “No Wake” they mean it. In a construction area under one bridge the maximum fine for a wake is posted as “$27,500” - I wonder if my badge would work, probably not! I don’t know what the fine is in other areas but I’ve been told by the marina dock master that the “police are not shy about giving tickets - that’s how they pay for their equipment.“ We saw a large boat and a jet skier pulled over by the police today on our short trip but we saw several more violations. The radio is full of private boaters and marinas reporting violators to the police. We have noticed a trend among the boat owners down here - the large boat owners never wave or look our way as they pass, the small boat owners couldn’t be more friendly. There has been no rain down here and Lake Okechobee is so low that they are now restricting the eastbound locks to only opening 4 times a day - we’re going to have to take that into consideration when we time the trip. We got 30 gallons of gas today and, after counting the BOATUS discount - it only cost us $90.00. Tomorrow we are planning a boat trip to Sanibel where we are going to try and dock up for a couple of hours. Dockage is very scarce around here so that may not come to pass. We are dreading moving out of the house and away from the beautiful beach but we are also excited and anxious to get moving north. Still have not seen a manatee - but one was seen off our dock yesterday - along with a tarpon! Ken
In response to some of the comments - yes the ICW is this crowded during this time of the year, the beach is public in front of the house, and you can (maybe) teach an old dog new tricks.

Cory still needs rescue!!!

Cory is definitely going to report us to the ASPCA! Yesterday Ken took him out on a float ride -and then we tried to get him to swim a little. If I wasn’t holding his rear end up, he would have sunk like a stone! When we brought him inside, he of course had to be washed off- so into the sink he went! Then he had to schnarf on the couch! He is pretty embarrassed to be looking so wet & naked in these photos!!!!
Our trip on the boat today was very cool- we feel a lot better about the ICW after seeing how well-marked and friendly it was! We saw a wood ibis soaring above- very beautiful! And, today Terminex came!!!! The man explained that it’s been SO dry (NO rain)that the bugs are coming in looking for water. I guess there’s a price to pay for living in paradise!
We received a package from Garth & Alison today- an early Easter goody package! It’s nice to know that people at home are pulling for us! Today as I was floating on a raft in the Gulf of Mexico, I thought to myself- I really made the right decision to do this trip. We are so lucky to have this opportunity. Cory will forgive us some day!!!Love to all- Linda

pictures,pictures,pictures

We've had a lot of trouble the past few days with the wi-fi connection on my laptop - we appear to have it going again. We took out the boat yesterday for a 40 mile, 3 hr. ride from the marina to the front of our cottage on Ft. Myers Beach. The pictures below are some of the pictures that we took along the way. There is a ice cream boat, a picture of our house on the beach (it's between the 2 big houses, it's the low one with the trees in front),2 pictures that show why I couldn't possibly get lost in the channel (rows of boats in front of us and rows in back of us) and a picture of Cory who wants to report us to the ASPCA for making him go on the boat. Hopefully we'll have more pictures later. Ken

More computer problems in paradise!!!

No photos today due to more problems with the wi-fi internet- even at the Holiday Inn! We had a 3-4 hour boat ride today- south down the river to San Carlos Bay- and around to the Gulf side of Fort Myers Beach! We took photos of the house from the water out in front of it- I promise we will get these posted sometime, somehow! We were in a boat parade down the river- LOTS of boats-all different kinds- in a slow line thru the areas of slow speed (to protect manatees), lots of waves and wakes when 25 or so power boats increase their speed! We saw everything from jet skis to huge yachts- perfectly blue skies, green/blue water, and the usual 20 knot wind from the east! Cory was a trooper- he sits next to Ken at the helm seat that we carefully chose so that I would be the one sitting next to Ken! In the river we saw 2 dolphins swimming- very close to the boat. It was the best part of the trip for me. Ken is VERY VERY frustrated with the computer situation and has tried everything he knows to get us on the internet via wireless.
On a lighter note, we met the couple who is renting the house next to ours at the beach- Barbara & Paul. They have a cabin on Lake George!!! They invited us for drinks tomorrow night next door where they will show us photos of Lake George. Barbara is a painter (non-professional) and showed me a photo of one of her oils of the lake- just beautiful. She painted a water color of the baech yesterday which is just incredible. Well, I've got to wash the dishes before more "buggies" appear- Ken looked in the dreaded cabinet last pm, and told me not to open it again! Terminex comes Tuesday!! I can hardly wait!!!! Love to all- Linda