It's Going to Be a LO-O-N-N-G Month!

Thanks for everybody that understood and made appropriate sympathetic comments about my dental trauma--I needed them! I told that story because I wanted to share a little of my personal self in my blog so my kids remember a little more about their mom than just travel stuff.

After being initially encouraged by the activities calendar for January, it's uncertain now just how many activities are actually going to take place! (Hold on, Sparky! It's a little early to be saying that!) True, I shouldn't say that, it's only the first week of January. Went to the knitting class this morning, only to find I was the only one who showed up! I guess I didn't get the memo that went around...seriously, there was a memo! The gal was sick...we'll try again next week!

Decided to ride my bike around the park for about 2.5 miles...in 46 degree temperatures..Here I am ready to ride, no gloves or mittens, I don't have any idea where those things are! It was funny to see everyone digging for their winter coats, hats and gloves out of their tow car this morning! That's where we keep our bulky jackets instead of in the coach taking up valuable YARN space, ha ha! Sparky's got her priorities straight, that's for sure! (E. laughs....You DO?????? hahaha....) Well, I think I do! Heck, all that yarn is INSULATION behind the sofas for this cold weather we've been having here in Webster.

Florida Grande hobby room

After finishing knitting a sock for my daughter, and watching old C.S.I. shows on Direct TV down in the hobby room, I decided to go ask at the office if they needed any help, ANYTHING at all I could do to assist? Boredom is setting in already! She handed me a package of toilet tissue and said, "Well, this is not very nice but it would REALLY help me out if you could refill the bathroom toilet paper holders...." I said SURE! So I did! That took all of three minutes, so back I went to the office. Somehow we got into a discussion about how fast the toilet paper disappears, and part of that is because people walk off with the rolls, thinking that it's ok to take them. And they think it's ok to take off with anything else left out after parties and get-togethers, even the salt and pepper shakers are free game! Can't believe some people think they are entitled to anything that's not nailed down....But that's the same principal applying to people taking home office supplies, I suppose.....

Met some really nice people next door on the next site to us...Their names are Ritchie and Nick...Ritchie is Scottish, which has to do with her unusual name...They are fun to talk to and we are really enjoying getting to know them.

Eldy took a nap, I baked some cookies--from a prepackaged mix--Betty Crocker I am not! Although I got the Betty Crocker Homemaker of the Year award in my senior year of high school...(HAHAHAHAHA!) Hush, Eldy! I have to admit it WAS sort of a goody two shoes award for being such a NICE, teacher-pleasing student and the home ec. teacher really liked me. It didn't have anything to do with cooking but I was a HELL of a sewer! (Now I can believe that! says E.) Then I signed up to be a volunteer for the local elementary school. But you have to have a background check, maybe fingerprints filed and by the time all that gets approved, I MIGHT get to go help one day in the school before we leave at the end of the month. Frustrating that I have to go through all that to just go volunteer in a school....It takes so much time that I won't get to make a difference and work with kids. Maybe I'll just apply in every state we visit and on the next go around, I'll be able to start helping right away!

So that was our day today......tonight temperatures going down into the TWENTIES....We'll be toasty in our Tiffin..bays are heated, no worries, mate! And no wind....last night the wind kept the awning toppers a flappin' and Eldy doesn't sleep well when that happens! Until tomorrow......

Sparky Gets Traumatized!

It was bound to happen, sooner or later....ONE of a full timer's several possible nightmares, besides something going wrong mechanically, a fire, or some other sort of disaster-- something happens to your teeth! You break a tooth, you lose a filling, no biggie, right? Well, if you have capped front teeth, and nothing under them but little stubs, it's a BIG DEAL when one falls out of your mouth!

Sparky was feeding her face as usual at lunchtime, when she felt something weird about her teeth, her bite seemed "off". For the last few days, she had been feeling "grit" in her mouth, it turns out that was crumbling cement.....All of a sudden, she felt a big glob of something hard in her mouthful of food, spit it out, and there was one of her porcelain crowns staring her in the face. She promptly burst into tears. Now, you'd have to know the story behind Sparky's caps and her somewhat extreme reaction. It starts back in the fifties, when she was an impressionable 7 years old.

If you lost your front teeth (Sparky lost hers while ice skating backwards and falling face forward ON HER NEW PERMANENT FRONT TEETH) there weren't very many options for replacing front teeth...They didn't have all these fancy porcelain veneers back then...No, siree....Sparky was taken to the local dentist and still remembers the appearance of the office at 6:00 PM at night. She remembers where all the tools were, the view out the front window over the drugstore below, and the dentist standing over her, blowing air with the air compressor or whatever you call that awful tool, on the raw exposed roots of two little stubby remains of her relatively new front teeth to make sure she still had feeling in them before he slapped stainless steel caps on them.

"Are you SURE you feel this?" And he did it about three times....Finally, Sparky walked out of the office with her mom, wearing silver stainless steel "jackets" on her stubby front teeth. Those stainless steel jackets didn't always stay on through the years. Sometimes they would clunk on a Coke bottle by accident, (a Coke bottle? Of course! Sparky was a Coke addict back then, even though her mom didn't allow pop in the house except for special occasions) or by diving into the pool and skimming the bottom too closely because she had her eyes shut, and back to the same dentist she went. Once again...."Are you SURE you felt that?" Because she would have had to have a root canal if she didn't! For YEARS Sparky endured questions like, "How come you got gold teeth?" (I don't know how many people couldn't tell the difference between the color gold and silver, but it was a LOT!) And she had to listen to her dad sing the "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" every year for YEARS....Sigh!

By the age of 12, new plastic materials were starting to be used for teeth, so Sparky's silver caps got yanked off to get new tooth colored plastic jackets on...And THAT is a whole other story, how they yank down and try to strip off the stainless steel jackets...CLUNK, CLUNK, CLUNK, that awful thunking sound as they pulled downward...she still remembers to this day the pulling and the yanking to get those stainless steel caps off...There was some kind of tool that came down hard on the edges, it felt like a chisel and they had to really work to get them off!  And do you know, NOBODY noticed when the stainless steel caps got replaced by the tooth colored enameled ones! Not one comment from her school age buddies back then....

Things went well for years....with only one incident where one came off in her early twenties. She had her little daughter with her at the time of an emergency visit to the dentist and her daughter said, "Mommy, you look like Dracula!" It looks pretty awful when you see nothing but a sliver/stub of a tooth, plus you have a really bad lisp. Eldy can attest to that, he looked at it today, but he's saying nothing. Smart man and smart for not taking any photos with his camera phone....

So... A new dentist in the seventies finally went with porcelain crowns backed with hardened metal on the back to protect the fronts. He did a great job, matching the tooth color, and being a calming influence. Flash forward thirty years to today....Looking at that crown in her hand, all those awful memories came rushing back, and that scared little girl inside thought, "Here I go again, at the mercy of a local dentist....."

Plus, we were in the tiny town of Webster, there wasn't much from what we could see of it...After leaving Naples, it was going to be a challenge to find a good dentist, we thought. Eldy got on his phone and used YELP to find one....Not the best way, to be sure, but Sparky was desperate to at least get it cemented back on so she didn't look like Dracula! We could have queried the office personnel, or long time residents in the park, but Eldy quickly found one that said, "Bushnell Family and Cosmetic Dentistry"...She had HOPE! It had the word COSMETIC in it...It couldn't be too fly-by-night! And it wasn't! It was clean, it was modern, they had the latest equipment, TV's in the room in front of you to take your mind off your impending doom, and it was a wonderful place, very impressive. They got me in right away. Dr. Novak took care of me, along with his very capable staff, and for two x-rays, the crown went back on, 187.00 total cost, and Sparky got her smile back! Yay!

Where are the photos you ask? Sorry, Sparky was too traumatized to have taken any, and if Eldo had taken any, she would have shot him! All is well.....We'll have photos in the coming days if we can find some things to do! He did get this one of Sparky calming her overly frazzled nerves with a glass of wine or two this evening......

Bye, Bye Naple, Hello Webster!

What a difference a four hour drive makes! We are now in the middle of central Florida, in the small town of Webster--home of the HUGE flea market that swells the town to thousands (Are you sure about your facts, Sparky?) every Monday. Well, that's what everybody is saying...but let's say hundreds, (let's just say LOTS of people!) just to be on the safe side....We missed the flea market today, but that's because Sparky had a DENTAL DISASTER...see tomorrow's blog for the gory details....(There was no blood folks, just a lot of tears, assures E.)

Here's a photo of the entrance of our new "digs" for January....

Florida Grande Motorcoach RV Resort Clubhouse

We are at the gated resort, Florida Grande, with an "e"....it's grande all right, it's BIG! Hundreds and hundreds of sites, (499!) but not all developed. One hundred year old oak trees, beautiful open fields, nature preserves..hm-m-m-m...didn't see those yet, or they were missed. The resort is in bankruptcy, which is too bad, because this could be a WONDERFUL place with a few more amenities and development. No tennis courts, and no "lakes" unless it rains, but people are sitting facing the "lake" sites and the owners probably paid for a "lake" view.  Apparently, the developer was a crook, 'cuz he's in jail right now, and there's an auction coming up for this beautiful, motorcoach resort this week. Price is right for our budget, we understand not for others, 650.00 a month, full hookup. Many of the sites have coach houses on them, and owners can rent their sites out privately, allowing use of the developed coach houses for extra room and entertaining and TV watching....nice!

It has a beautiful, large pool and the biggest sites we've ever stayed on. How does 54' X 94" and LARGER sound? It also has a humongous clubhouse. There are lots of activities here which look promising---knitting (yay! says Sparky), crafts, some classes, woodworking, laundry and postal facilities, a really nice billiards room, a nice exercise room, a card room, a library, and a busy activity calendar for the month of January, golf lessons at a nearby course, potlucks, spaghetti suppers, hors d'oevres every Friday night, and some entertainment.


Which is good, because there isn't much here in the town of Webster...But you've got Orlando about fifty miles to the east of you, Busch Gardens and Tampa, 50 miles away, Ocala and the horse farms 35 miles, Leesburg and Clermont, about 20-25 miles and of course, did I mention the marvelous flea market? which we will check out next Monday. (Uh-oh, something tells me Sparky is going to be a regular at the flea market! worries E.)...No wifi at the sites, you have to go to the clubhouse for that...That's ok.....Mi-fi works great, AT & T varies with bars but ok....we're set! Oh! Almost forgot, you can get a really nice bike ride in and around the park, about 3.5 miles doing the circuit today....So no excuses for not getting some bike riding in this month, right, sweetie? (Hmph! We'll see....riding around and around in circles doesn't sound all that appealing to me! says E.) Here's the view at the back of our site...huge pine tree with HUGE cones and you can hear the wind through the pines in the fields behind us....it's VERY peaceful and VERY quiet, and VERY dark at night....

Cold weather is coming....right around freezing tonight, highs in the fifties tomorrow, BELOW freezing tomorrow night....they've told us to disconnect the water and drain the lines! But it's gonna warm up after   Wednesday.....(I KNEW we shouldn't have left Naples!) Yeah, but we had to, it was too expensive! But we sure had a wonderful visit there......one last shot from Naples.......

At the Pier

Bye for now.......Stay warm!

Adventures in Paradise

We opted to take advantage of a Groupon coupon for a dolphin sunset cruise, 24.00 for TWO people! Good deal! Normal price was 25.00 a person.....We managed to get onboard for New Year's Eve, a great way to say goodbye to 2011...An hour and a half cruise along Sanibel Island and Pine Island. No food on board, just a soda pop and a beautiful view.

After taking the cruise, we wouldn't recommend it for the original cost. For only an hour and a half, short straight trip out and back between the islands, very little narration, just cruisin' mostly, it seemed like too much money. But for the great Groupon offer, we thought it was worth it. It's sponsored by the Adventures in Paradise  company, and the boat tours leave out of Port Sanibel Marina. We've learned you can't expect the dolphins in the wake of the boat show despite what the brochures show you. With nature, you never know what you are going to see. It's a matter of getting lucky! (Ahem!) Sometimes this tour sees manatees, (we saw one in the distance), sometimes the dolphins are extremely active, up close and personal, other times distant and moody, like a teenager! Got a fin photo, that's it!

What did we see? We saw the largest colony of white pelicans that we have seen on our Florida travels. They were an interesting lot. They were lined up like a bunch of theater goers at a movie premiere. They stood in line silently, all facing the same way into the sunset, then gradually shuffled their way forward towards the end of the land strip to move into the water, the ones in back patiently waiting for the line to move forward! There were several hundred of these big white birds, the second largest bird in the continental U.S. I didn't know that! There were a couple of brown pelicans in the bunch, and they were dwarfs compared to the huge white pelicans!

There was no wind, the skies were clear, the temps were mild. That part was WONDERFUL!

The young captain (28 years old!) tried his best to find a pod of dolphins, but our luck was not with us this evening. We were disappointed because although the world's largest resident dolphin population lives here in the Sanibel/Captiva/Pine Island area, we saw few dolphins. We saw a pair here and there in the distance, but they were very elusive. Eventually, a pair did come closer to the boat, but slipped away very quickly and with the night light closing out the window of the perfect photo opp, we settled in to watch what we could still see with the naked eye and enjoyed the beautiful sunset.

After we got off the boat, we knew it would be almost impossible to find a dinner reservation back in Fort Myers or Naples, so we took our chances at the Lighthouse Restaurant, right there at the Port Sanibel marina. It was FABULOUS! A moderately priced restaurant, about what you'd expect to pay for a good meal at a very nice restaurant on New Year's Eve...The food was expertly prepared, steak done just the way Sparky likes it (EXTRA rare), Eldo's  BBQ ribs fell off the bone with mouth watering Jack Daniels flavor, everything was perfect down to the sauteed veggies and creme brulee for dessert. Delicious! That's all Sparky needed for a wonderful New Year's Eve celebration....

Happy New Year!

We are leaving tomorrow for Webster, FL, to the Florida Grande RV park. It's a very decent price for Florida for 650.00 a month. We've had a FABULOUS time in the Everglades, revisiting our favorite places to see alligators, anhingas, egrets, and the elusive roseate spoonbill. We've canoed, kayaked, biked and hiked our way around Naples, Florida. We've discovered just  how expensive it is to stay in Florida over the winter months. We'll be exploring some other places and alternatives to the Naples area, but none can compare to what this area has to offer, at least not in the way of landscaping, an exceptionally beautiful city, activities, nature watching and birding in the Everglades!

Our last day here, we revisited Ten Thousand Islands preserve, hoping to see some roseate spoonbills..They are still not here yet. We revisited Collier Seminole State park, walked the boardwalk to the observation platform and saw ONE spoonbill flying in the distance, with it's gorgeous pink plumage too far away to get a photo. We got eaten alive by mosquitoes this morning, neglecting to spray ourselves down before heading out on the boardwalk. The boardwalk is nice because it has some self guided placards along the way that tell you what you are looking at. We saw a gumbo limbo tree, its nickname the "tourist tree" because of its red, peeling bark. They used to make carousel horses out of it's lightweight wood.


At dusk today, we headed out for a boat ride that we got on Groupon for 24.00 for TWO for a sunset dolphin cruise. We'll be posting photos tomorrow about that...We're just going to have a quiet New Year's evening at home after we get back from our boat trip...thinking about all the wonderful things we did and have seen this year.....


I found this blessing on the internet and wanted to share it with you. BOTH Eldy and I wish this for all our readers and hope that 2012 finds you healthy, happy, and living your dreams....Happy New Year!
With love, Eldy and Jeannie
                                                           
                                                           
                                                                 New Year Blessing

Collier Seminole State Park Guided Canoe Trip

We had looked over Collier Seminole State Park Campground yesterday, and saw that although we could possibly fit in a couple of spaces, it was a very tight campground. The campground is small, laid out in a triangle, sort of, and the organization of it looked tight all the way around. There were tons of tent campers in there mixed in with some fifth wheels and travel trailers. No more than a couple of motorhomes in there, and nobody bigger than about 36 feet. It just didn't look very inviting....

The park itself is VERY cool...there's an interesting welcome center inside the park...small, but architecturally cool....

There was a walking dredge machine that was used to build the Tamiami Trail back in the 1920's, and a great canoe launch and boat dock with a resident gator....I guess the alligators' territories are very limited...their whole lives are spent in a very small area...Here's the resident gator keeping an eye on things....

We checked out the canoe rental yesterday, and found it was very reasonable...$5.30 an hour. What we didn't realize is, when we got information about the guided nature tour through the mangroves, there was nothing said about an ADDITIONAL fee of 25.00 a person to go on the guided trip.  So we thought the canoe rental included the guided tour. We almost backed out at the time of renting the canoes at the shock of paying 50.00 for the two of us, but we gulped and paid after a LOT of encouragement from others standing around about how great the tour was. (Yeah, and I bet they all worked for the park, says E.) We were really glad we decided to go ahead and book the guided canoe trip. It was WELL worth it! And besides, all the money goes to improvements for the park.

We had a fantastic guide, Diane, and for three hours (only about 2 1/2 hours of actual paddling), we were entertained with stories and information about the mangroves, and the native Americans who inhabited the area first....She really knew her history and nature stuff, and her love for the Everglades and mangroves really showed through her narration....I always thought paddling through the mangroves was rather boring until I learned all the stuff I learned today..

We learned so many things on this tour...That the mangroves are the best line of defense during a hurricane..They have a triangular based root system, which in nature, is the strongest formation against high winds. They have a unique filtering system to survive the salt water and thrive....When developers take out the mangroves for condos and high rises, they remove nature's best windbreak for hurricanes. Different types of mangroves (black ones and red ones) propagate differently. Some bear fruit which grows into an elongated "pod" which drops into the water and can live for up to two years (!)  floating around until it gets implanted somewhere and starts a baby mangrove tree. See that little "tail" sticking out of the fruit above? That's the pod shaped structure starting...The pod has a fancy name, but I don't remember it now....

We learned about the tree snails that have beautiful patterns that grow in the hammocks of the mangrove and the Everglades....The Seminole Indians use some of the snail patterns in their garments...We learned that the Seminoles outsmarted and outfoxed the U.S. government in their attempts to push out the Seminoles to reservations. The Seminoles knew how to navigate the mangroves, to walk in them, and to hide. They ambushed the U.S. soldiers so many times that the U.S. government gave up trying to get them out. The Seminoles never surrendered, and they are the only Indian tribe to have never signed a treaty of any kind. They are a proud people and rightly so....

It was a beautiful day out on the water...We saw a wood stork flying, they are beautiful birds in the air, but they sure look sorta ugly on the ground! You wouldn't think they would be such graceful flyers judging from their appearance when standing. We saw grebes, a kind of duck, and the usual egrets and herons. And we saw the resident alligator at the boat landing--- on the other side. Lots of people were out on the canals today...Including this guy and his best friend...

We really enjoyed talking to the volunteer guides today...Eldy and Sparky are THINKING about volunteering down the road at national or state parks or campgrounds, so we are getting all the information straight hand from the volunteers out there now...It's fun to hear their stories...like the two Italian friends in their 80's from New Jersey who went out on the canoe tour last year, and argued and yelled at each other how to steer and navigate the canoe the entire trip! It was a great tour, and we highly recommend it!

The canoes were the most comfortable canoes I have ever been in...padded seats with kayak style back rests....Mad River Canoes, I believe....They looked more like kayaks than canoes...

How did Sparky and Eldo do together in the canoe? They were an AWESOME team! Except Eldy was such a strong paddler, Sparky had to work twice as hard to compensate for his strong paddling skills to keep the canoe straight! He thought he was being very helpful at paddling hard....But we both got a good workout today, at any rate.....

We'll sleep well tonight! Tomorrow is our last day here in beautiful Naples...sniff, sniff! Eldy's sad to be leaving this beautiful area, too...We've got a great last activity to do...Got a Groupon coupon at more than half off to take a sunset dolphin cruise taking off from the Port Sanibel marina...THAT should be way cool! We'll see you on the boat, New Year's Eve!

An Old Soul Town

We're not talkin' Detroit...We're talkin' in the heart of Naples....It's called Tin City, a historical district dating back to the 1920's, when the Gordon River was the hub of Naples' fishing industry.

In the seventies, seven of the old buildings were made into a shopping area, a marketplace that mixes restaurants, gift shops and unusual boutiques in a waterfront setting overlooking the Gordon River. There are 30 gift shops and 2 restaurants there...lots and lots of gift ideas from candy to seashells.
I like seeking seashells for sale in a shop by the seashore...heh, heh, heh! It's a good way to learn about what you see on the beach! I bought a little starfish for .99 for my Christmas tree to replace the one I dropped and broke the other day.

I also bought a tee shirt for 20.00 that reminds me of the beautiful Christmas lights at night and all the wrapped palm trees....There's just about anything and everything "kitschy" in these shops....

The shops are old, but that's part of the appeal of visiting something historical...lots of dark wood, beams, tight space and surprises around the corners.

It's fun to sit in one of the restaurants and watch the yachts go in and out and under the bridge which crosses the Gordon River, overlooking the gorgeous shopping centers and urban condos across the river.

Fun, but we haven't tried either one of the restaurants at Tin City....Too busy doing everything else! (And eating elsewhere--Boston's Pizzeria and Roma's in downtown Naples, and the Jolly Cricket for "happy hour") There's a nice boardwalk along the two restaurants which makes for a great viewing point for the boat parade that they had a couple of weeks ago....

Tomorrow we head over to Collier Seminole State Park for a ranger led canoe trip!  Eldo and Sparky will be SHARING a canoe! And guess who's going to be steering? (Sparky, that's a no brainer, you're always in charge! laughs E.) Yep, thirty-four years of being a special education teacher, I admit it, I'm a control freak all the way, old habits die hard....(Sigh!)