Thursday, January 1st - A New Year

Thursday, January 1^st

 

On Thursday, New Year’s Day, we awoke to yet another cloudy morning in Okeechobee. We felt like rain and clouds had been following us all the way from Maryland. We had not seen much sunshine.

We requested a late check out time at our hotel so that I could watch the Rose Parade before we continued on to Fort Myers. I have been watching this parade for years and always wished I could see the floats live. Several years ago we had the opportunity to join a volunteer group called the Petal Pushers. We traveled to Pasadena and spent some days helping to decorate some of the floats. Ever since then, I can appreciate the efforts that it takes to make these incredible pieces of beauty.

 

We visited Lake Okeechobee and took the time to look for two geocaches. While we were searching a guardrail at a boat launching site, someone ratted on us and called the police. The friendly officer did not know about geocaching so we were able to share information with him.

 

Once we arrived in Fort Myers, we made a quick run through the grocery store to buy just enough food to get us through dinner and breakfast. When we saw this convertible, we thought it would be nice if we had one to tool around in just for a week!

 

We enjoyed kicking back and watching some of the college bowl games. There was quite a bit of excitement here because Florida State was playing in a semi final game at the Rose Bowl. Too bad that the University of Oregon beat them.

We really enjoy the pretty sunset view from our condo.

 

 

Friday, January 2nd

It was foggy when we woke up on Friday, but there was a forecast for more Florida like weather—warmth and sunshine.

 

In the past, I have had problems with walking into the sliding glass door, not realizing that it was closed. This year I came prepared and brought some decals with me. They are part of my Christmas decorations and they will help me appreciate the weather we might be missing up north in the next couple of months.

 

We had to make a serious shopping trip to buy groceries and on our way I snapped a photo of the flowers being sold at Home Depot.

 

Our first meal outside on the lanai was lunch. We watched some more college football games in between taking some naps.

 

For dinner, we went to our favorite restaurant, Skip One. We found this place last year and learned that the owner along with his partner operates the largest shrimp boat fleet in Florida. Since they unload a large portion of their catch at Fort Myers, they serve the freshest Gulf Shrimp at Skip One. These are the best tasting shrimp I have ever eaten and I had been dreaming of them since we left Florida at the end of last March. I had a college professor who once told us that “Anticipation is greater than realization”, and I was a bit worried that I would be disappointed in this dinner. But, it was just as appetizing as I remembered. We will be eating at Skip One a few more times before we go back home.

 

Saturday, January 3^rd

 

It’s not all fun and games here in Florida and I spent the early morning doing our laundry. The condo owner replaced the appliances and since I have never used a front loading washer, I had to read the manual first. I find it hard to believe that both the washer and dryer can be controlled with a smart phone. Now, they need to figure out a way to transfer the clothes from the washer into the dryer by smart phone.

 

When my work was done, we spent some time at Ten Mile Linear Park & Filter Marsh. We walked 1.4 miles on the bike trail looking for geocaches. We decided not to bike along the trail as we felt like we needed the walking exercise after riding in the car for so many days. Also, our bikes need some maintenance since they have been exposed to so much rain and grit from the highway.

 

We met a local resident at the beginning of the trail who related that a few days ago he had seen an otter that had come out of the water and was walking on the trail. But, it detoured off the trail around him and then came back onto the trail. He also told us that he had seen a huge wild boar along the side the trail. I began to wonder just how effective my hiking stick might be if I needed to defend myself!

 

 

We found a couple of interesting geocaches that belong to a local man we met here last year. Brian has a reputation in the geocaching community for designing and placing containers that are ingenious and challenging to find. Our mission since last year is to find as many of his caches as we can.

 

We were not able to find the last cache we sought, but we did find an alligator basking in the sun. I hadn’t realized that there were any alligators along with trail and we heard two bikers commenting that they had seen two thus far.

 

After our return to the condo, we watched the Ravens game and were glad that they won. Last year, I bought a Ravens shirt at the flea market.  Finding Ravens gear here was difficult. I forgot to bring my shirt with me again this year. We saw a NFL display at the grocery store. I think it would be a lot of fun to be the person to assemble the boxes.

 

We had an even prettier sunset tonight.

 

Sunday, January 4^th

 

The sun rises later here in Southwest Florida than it does in Dunkirk and it also sets later. We woke up early this morning and saw a full moon outside our bedroom window. For the first time in my life, I watched the moon set. It seemed like it was only dark for half an hour before the day began to dawn.

 

We went to Hope Lutheran Church in Bonita Springs for their contemporary service this morning. We attended that church almost every Sunday last year and we really like their music and Pastor Browning. We found out that they have just this week instituted an additional service on Sunday at 7:45 a.m. They now have 4 services every Sunday.

 

 

The temperature reached 89° by noon which was plenty warm for us. Cordell was very comfortable while pumping gasoline.

 

 



 

We spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening watching the NFL playoff games and so wished our Redskins were playing instead of Dallas.