February 26-28

Thursday, February 26^th

 

Yesterday, the Hausers returned from their stay on Marco Island and will be with us for another week. Otherwise, it was just an ordinary day for us.

 

 

There was no fog on our lake this morning as seen in this view from our bedroom.

 

 

When I opened the drapes in the den, I was surprised to find a little frog or toad clinging to our wireless outdoor thermometer. At first, I thought Cordell had affixed a wad of masking tape to the unit. That little guy was pretty well camouflaged and he stayed there all day.

 

 

The four of us went out to run some errands. The most important one on my list was to buy a new bicycling helmet. When we were biking on Sanibel Island with Kathy and stopped for lunch, I tossed my old helmet (the one that I liked very much) into what I thought was the basket on her rented bicycle. However, after we ate and returned to the bike rack, I was sad to note that it had not been her bike after all. Furthermore, the bike I thought was hers was gone along with my helmet.

 

We also planned to look for a few geocaches that were placed in the vicinity of where we were driving. There are lots and lots of parks here—not only state parks and county parks, but parks in neighborhoods. Today we looked for two caches in Manuels Branch Neighborhood Park.

 

 

Back at the condo, we each found something to do to while away the remainder of the afternoon.

 

 

 

Friday, February 27^th

 

We made another trip to Sanibel Island today. Jim and Barb’s time is drawing to a close and this was one of the things she really wanted to do. It was a bit cool, but since rain was in the forecast for Sunday, we concluded that we could not wait any longer.

 

We had considered riding bikes to look for geocaches, but decided to walk part of the trail instead.

 

 

We parked at the Shell Museum where Jim and Barb searched for a cache that we had found last year. I found it difficult to stand by and watch when I knew exactly where the container was hidden—especially when they passed over it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really liked the way the walls are painted in the museum’s restroom. I wonder if I could get my granddaughter to do something like this on my bathroom walls at home.

 

 

 

 

We ate lunch at Doc Ford's again. Jim had not brought his reading glasses in the restaurant and so I was glad to help him see the print on the menu.

 

 

After lunch, we walked on another section of the bike trail that we have come to refer to as the Alligator Trail. It goes away from the road and travels through areas that are not as developed as other sections. There is a sign warning people about feeding the alligators. Barb and Jim had an opportunity to find a couple of geocaches that we had found last week with Kathy.

 

 

Then we drove to The Bailey Tract which is part of the J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. We had already been to this area and thought that the Hausers would enjoy completing the earthcache that our local friend, Brian, created here. It is very interesting and educational because in order to claim a “find”, cachers are required to find and read information and then e-mail answers to questions posed by Brian.

 

 

 

Saturday, February 28^th

 

Today was Cordell’s birthday and we told him that we were ready to spend it however he wished. The first thing he wanted to do was to go to the Naples area to look for a couple of specific geocaches.

 

A bar/grill is there that is decorated with license plates from all over the U.S. and North America and a puzzle cache had been created which started at that site. Barb had solved the puzzle which required her to figure out the final coordinates by a long process of using various license plate numbers and State names. It was quite involved, but she was successful. Cordell wanted her to be a part of the “find” since she did all the work. We spent some time at the bar talking with the bartender and some local customers who became very interested in what we were doing and they asked us lots of questions.

 

 

We drove to the final coordinates which took us to Conner Park.

 

 

 

 

 

When Cordell was taking a selfie while we were walking on the trail in the park, an older gentleman coming from the other direction stopped and kindly offered to take a photo of all four of us. We declined and after he left we figured that he was so old that he didn’t even know what a selfie is. Barb had mentioned earlier in her visit that we are old like so many of the snowbirds here are, but then there are some really old people here too.

 

 

 

Finding the actual cache container was much easier than solving the puzzle which is often the case with these type caches.

 

 

There was another puzzle cache nearby in the park which required us to start at a sign, count the letter L’s and use that number to get the final coordinates. Solving this puzzle was very, very easy. However, it took a long time for us to find the actual cache container. The four of us were climbing all over mangrove tree roots and just not seeing it.

 

 

 

 

It was Barbara who saved the day when she saw it hanging on a tree limb. Since we have been training them how to geocache, we allowed Jim to climb out on the limb and retrieve the container. That should make our sons happy since they have tried to restrain Cordell for climbing in trees.

 

 

Cordell chose to eat lunch at Red Robin. Three of us ordered hamburgers and they were really, really good. We had a very friendly server, Michelle, who interacted with us during our time there. The Maryland Terps were playing a basketball game that was being shown on all the TV screens in the restaurant and I guess we caused a bit of a scene when we cheered rather vocally at the end of the game.

 

 

Our server gathered up some of her co-workers and they “sang” a rap type “Happy Birthday” to Cordell. When I asked Michelle if they had used the word “old” or the words “really old”, she told me that they have a few versions of the birthday song and she used this one with the word “old” in it because she thought Cordell would appreciate it.

 

 

Later, when Michelle stopped by to clear off some of the dishes off our table she told us that we could feel free to stay as long as we wished. I remarked that we were old people and needed more time. She replied that at least we were not “really old”!

 

By the time we got home, we all were tired, hot and sweaty. Since we had eaten a late lunch, none of us were ready for a big dinner. So we elected to snack on cheese, crackers and wine and go out for Cordell’s birthday dinner tomorrow night. It was a unanimous decision.

 

 

Cordell and Jim spent part of the evening working Sudoku puzzles while Barb worked on solving a puzzle geocache which involved names of snakes.

 

 

 

 

There was a good rain storm before we went to bed. While we didn’t hear any thunder, our weather app showed a lot of lightning strikes not very far from us.

 

 

 

This was a very enjoyable day.