March 31 - April 1, 2015 Final Posting

Tuesday, March 31^st

 

Not only is this the last day of March, but it was our last full day in Florida. We had a couple of errands to run this morning. When we took our car through the car wash, we saw a rainbow. I took this to be a good sign.

 

 

 

We have thoroughly enjoyed looking for geocaches for the past three months and have actually found 374 of them. Cordell, the retired accountant, has calculated that we have found caches on 63% of our days. Even so, on this day he wanted to take time to find just one more geocache.

 

 

Back at the condo for lunch and then I went for one last visit to the community swimming pool. I’m not sure how Cordell filled in his time, but since he had been packed since yesterday, I feel pretty sure whatever he did it involved a nap.

 

Wednesday, April 1^st

 

April Fool’s Day and the birthday of my youngest son who played the biggest April Fools' joke on me when he decided to make his appearance 19 days late.

 

We had packed up all our things last night and Cordell put most of them in the car before we went to bed. Since we both work up early, we decided to hit the road and get some breakfast later.

 

When we left at 6:30 a.m., it was still dark since the sun rises later in Southwest Florida than it does at home. I think it was easier for me to leave at that time when I was hardly able to see the green grass, trees and flowers which I have enjoyed so very much for the past three months.

  

 

There was also some fog which became much heavier once we left the developed areas. That continued for a good amount of time and it reduced my visibility of the vegetation. It was pretty when the sun finally arose.

 

 

 

 

After driving for 1 ½ hours, we stopped in Arcadia for a McBreakfast. I noticed that most of the cars had Florida tags which was a huge difference from the parking lots and roads in Fort Myers.

 

We were not the only ones leaving Florida today. Seems like a big part of the United States was at one of the rest stops where we saw vehicle license plates from lots of different states and Canada.

 

We always see semi trucks hauling huge loads of oranges this time of the year.

 

 

It was cloudy almost the entire morning and I felt like we had left the Florida sunshine behind. We even drove through some rain for a brief period of time.

 

 

 

 

 

When we crossed into Georgia at 1:30 p.m., it was 85° which was a lot warmer than the same time last year.

 

We saw a pick-up truck from Pennsylvania that had a large plant visible in the back window. Cordell surmised that the owner carries it along with him so that he doesn’t have to worry about finding someone to water it while he is away from home.

 

 

We skipped lunch and kept driving until we got to Brunswick where we are spending the night. Tomorrow we plan to stay in North Carolina and then on to home by Friday.

 

It has been a wonderful three months and I know that the sunshine and warm temperature have spoiled me. We have great memories to carry us through until January when we plan to become snow birds again. Hopefully, we have brought some of that wonderful Florida weather with us.

 

 

 

March 29-30, 2015

Sunday, March 29^th

 

We had another quiet afternoon after attending church today. We spent a couple of hours at the community swimming pool. It was a bit crowded since there are lots of family members visiting for the Easter holidays.

 

 

We took some time to start packing for our return trip home.

 

 

I think we did a good job decreasing our wine inventory.

Before

 

 

After

 

 

 

Monday, March 30^th

 

We had planned on making one last trip to Sanibel Island today. However, upon considering that there are many more people here now during the Easter holidays, we figured that the bike trails on Sanibel which are always very popular would be crazy crowded today. Not even to mention the time it would take to drive there and back in outrageous traffic.

 

Instead, we loaded our bikes and spent the day geocaching in the Cape Coral area. We parked in a shopping center parking lot and rode about 6-7 miles along a trail that had several geocaches hidden along the way.
 

 

 

 

 

This was an interesting bike trail in that I saw various marking on the pavement.
 

 

 

There are a lot of fire ants all along this trail. I learned my lesson well last year when I stepped on their nests twice and was bitten lots of times. Today, I was very watchful.
 

 

Some of the trees have pretty blooms now,

 

 

I saw a palm tree that seemed to be just my size.

 

 

One cache was located among some Australian Pine trees and once again it is easy to understand the reason these trees are considered invasive when you see that they kill out all other vegetation.
 

 

 

 

 

We stopped at McDonald’s for lunch and considered using the drive through while riding our bikes.

 

 

But, we didn’t want to wait in line so we ate inside where we were able to keep an eye on our bicycles that we had parked outside.

 

 

 

We crossed a bridge along the trail and when we looked in the water, we saw an alligator swimming around. Apparently, he was more afraid of us because he went into the storm sewer pipe which made me feel more comfortable, too.
 

 

 

We went back to our favorite restaurant, Skip One, for one last delicious dinner.

 

 

On our way back to the condo, we saw a pretty sunset in our neighborhood.

 

March 25-28, 2015

 

Wednesday, March 25^th

 

I had some intestinal issues for a few days and didn’t feel like doing much of anything. So, it was a very relaxing day for us. We spent the afternoon at the community swimming pool

 

After dinner, we went to the Ash Wednesday service at Hope Lutheran Church. They have a beautiful tree that seems to have been blooming ever since we arrived

 

 

Thursday, March 26^th

 

We spent a good part of this day geocaching in the Bonita Springs area. One of the caches is placed in a little known park—many of the local residents do not know it exists.

 

 

 

 

Besides having a place to launch canoes and kayaks, there is a nice trail along the Imperial River. Cullum’s Bonita Trail has been described as “one of the best little trails hidden in plain sight”.

 

 

Afterwards, we visited Victory Park which was developed by the congregation of Christus Lutheran Victor Church and dedicated to The Reverend Thomas G. Slater in recognition of his 20 years of ordained ministry.

 

 

 

This is a well-designed park and exudes much peace. There is an outdoor chapel which I imagine can be used often considering the climate in the part of Florida.

 

I really liked the walk around the lake which contained Stations of the Cross. In addition, there are park benches with plaques that contain the names of people, inspirational messages, Bible verses and a lovely wind chime.

 

 

 

 

On our way back to the condo, we stopped at Bass Pro Shops where I bought a cushion that is designed to be used in a swimming pool

 

 

 

I like the way they have marked their pedestrian crossways.

  

 

 

As we drove through the neighborhood, I noticed that the stuffed animal that sported a St. Patrick’s Day message now has an Easter message. I still think the animal looks a bit weird suspended from the bush.

 

 

Before we went to bed, I spent a good amount of time organizing my geocaching supplies.

 

 

 

Friday, March 27^th

 

The weather forecast for today called for clouds and rain. A man who is staying in a condo across the road from us was fishing in the lake this morning and he caught a fish.

 

 

 

We went to an early movie this afternoon and saw McFarland. It is based on a true story and we enjoyed this show very much.

 

 

 

 

It had just begun to rain when we left the theater and by the time we reached our car it was really pouring. A huge streak of lightning came down from the sky while we were driving and it caused me to jump—especially since I was talking on my cell phone at the time and I got a loud noise in my ear.

 

 

 

Saturday, March 28^th

 

Our local alligator made another appearance this morning.

 

 

Our neighbor was fishing again until Cordell brought his attention to the alligator that was swimming in our direction.

Our big adventure today was retrieving a geocache (Leave Your Pacemaker at Home) in the Port Charlotte area with our friend, Brian. This was particularly challenging because the container was hanging about 40 up in a pine tree. Since there were no branches between the ground and the cache, Brian was willing to climb the tree.

 

 

A local cacher had told Brian that she wanted to be in on this find if he ever attempted it. So he called her and Pam met us at the site.

 

 

Brian brought ropes and other equipment which he fashioned into a homemade apparatus to use to scale that tree. He had a fishing reel that had a small rope tied to the fishing line. He was able to hurl the rope over a limb on his first attempt.  Then we helped pull his climbing rope up over a limb.

 

 

Brian slowly, slowly made his way up the tree and signed the log for all of us.

 

 

When he was ready to descend, he discovered that he needed the three of us to help get him back down.

 

 We have a You Tube video of The Climb.

 

http://youtu.be/5QIbwycAIsk

 

We were relieved that Brian did all the hard work because there is no way that any of us could have reached that cache. He knew that he would not be able to do it by himself and I am glad that he suggested that we make this a team effort.