A month at Imperial Bonita Estates

   

     It's been nearly a month since we arrived at Imperial Bonita Estates at Bonita Springs, Fl.  We arrived with a little trepidation, not knowing what to expect but our blogging friends John and Sharon (On the Road of Retirement) had stayed here previously and recommended it.  It was going to be a new experience for us to sit and relax in one spot for a month, and I was wondering how long till what they call "hitch itch" would kick in.  "Hitch itch" refers to that anxious feeling one experiences when one wants to pack things up and get moving down the road.  But our fears were soon calmed as neighbor after neighbor welcomed us to the park, wanting to know where we were from and where we were destined.  Debbie knew I would be fine when she started looking for me about 7 minutes after leveling the coach, and finding me sitting with a neighbor, sharing our first adult beverage.    Our first acquaintances were John and Diane from Ontario Canada who are long term snowbirds.  They've been coming to IBE for years and filled us in on all the goings on around here.   "Red" from Syracuse, who has a park model across the street, invited me to join in on the morning horseshoe game which starts promptly at 8 AM.  John likes the "cornhole" that occurs every Wednesday at around 4 PM or the beanbag baseball games that occur each week.  Then about 3 days into our stay we met Jean, formerly from Syracuse, now a resident of Buffalo, who also has a park model right behind us.  Turns out she's really from Ilion, NY, and a great friend of Vivian, Char's mom!  As she started going through the family history, I thought for a moment she was going to end up being a relative!
     A few days later we met Steve from Indiana, who had contacted us through RVillage.  RVillage is a website currently with over 14,000 members and growing, who are living the RV lifestyle.  The site is very similar to  Facebook with the common theme being anything pertaining to RV's.  One of the most interesting functions of RVillage is having the ability to sign in/out of the various campgrounds through RVillage, and also be able to see  any other RVillagers are also camping in your campground or nearby.  When I checked-in, I saw that there were 2 members in the park.  Steve was interested in our Tiffin so I invited him over to see it.  We soon found many common interests including the fact that he is the Sheriff patrol on his lake in Indiana.  We ran into him at the RV show in Tampa, and we've stopped to visit each other in IBE.  It's just a nice way to meet fellow RV'ers if you're the bashful type.

     Time has passed very quickly at IBE even though we've found ourselves relaxing more on the premises than out touring around as we usually do.  Traffic around here can be a little heavy especially on the weekends. We've made 2 attempts to visit Ft Myers, and each time have turned around because of the stand still traffic, especially over near the beach.  We did work our way around Ft Myers and over to Sanibel Island.  After crossing the bridge to get on the island, we noticed 2 guys fly fishing out in the bay.  There was a Ranger parked across the street, so I wandered over to see if I could get some information on fishing.  The poor girls looked at me like I had 3 eyes, and responded that she had no idea on fishing tactics from the shore.  She must be really enjoying her job as a Ranger!  We grabbed a quick burger at Schnapper's Hots, a little burger joint on the island.  The burger and fries were great, and I would bet there's quite a challenge to get in during the busier season.  We were lucky that day, and found a parking spot without much trouble.
     Debbie has made sure that we attend Sunday Mass and we've been amazed at the cash this local church collects each Sunday.  Even more amazing was the collection at Christmas....nearly $57,000!  The following Sunday they picked up an additional $26,000!  With just a little help from this parish, we could pay off the debt at St Mary's in just a couple of weeks.
     We've made a few attempts at getting to the beach, but as ya'll know, I'm not a beach person, and even Debbie is starting to enjoy the pool over the beach.  Maybe the Princess is right...."Too Sticky"! But the temps have cooled down a little and the wind is up, but not to the point where we have to start worrying about windchill.  So Debbie and I meandered over to Barefoot Beach anticipating that the cooler weather would lessen the crowds.  We had no problem locating a parking spot and pulled our chairs up and enjoyed the pounding surf.  The beach is very nice with soft white sand, and it would be interesting to visit when the wind has quit and the surf isn't so rough.

 There were hundreds of these star fish all along the beach and people seemed to be picking them up for souvenirs.  I bet today when they open up that plastic bag and the odor hits them, they'll be headed for the trash.  With the cooler weather, the manatees have returned to IBE and it's always fun to see them.  They are pretty ugly....but harmless...and they just keep to themselves.
      And everyone seemed so concerned with my lack of visits to the barbershop.

 I haven't officially been to a barbershop since March 2014 in Ocotillo, Ca.   So Erika volunteered to clean me up a little bit.  My only concern was that she kept me handsome, and I think she succeeded!  So I'm all cleaned up and I told her I'll be back next year for a little trim.
     We closed out our bingo season at IBE last night, and out table ended with 7 bingo's!  I brought home $17.50, having to share a $35.00 pot with some senior citizen.  Debbie still hasn't been able to figure out how the game is played, but she's a sport for going every week.  Although I don't think I'd get her back for a game next week. Today we're making final preparations for our Friday departure.  Debbie is cleaning up the inside and I've been checking all the tire pressures making sure everything is ok.  Everything appears to be fine.  Tonight we're going out for pizza with Erika and Dave.  Steve stopped over this morning to say goodbye, and hopefully our paths will cross again.  He had several suggestions for parks for us to visit, so we've got to check them out.  I'm sure our paths will cross again, and since we're "friends" on RVillage, I'll be able to keep track of his location.  I think Big Red is anxious to get back on the road also.  Everything needs to get lubed up again.  So we'll be doing 2 more weeks in Key West at Bluewater Key, our favorite haunt.  Then up the west coast of Florida to visit Annette in Pensacola.  Then we'll have to make a decision on how fast we want to get to California and how we want to cross Texas.  Plenty of time before we need to make those decisions though.  Hopefully I'll get a lot better a keeping up with this blog as we get moving along.  Goodbye IBE and hello Key West!

       
   

Key West up to Bonita Springs

     Amazingly, here it is January 5, 2015, nearly 3 weeks since I've updated our travels.  There are several reasons for this....Christmas Season....MAE visiting from Syracuse....days too short & having a great time.  But the most compelling reason is because a few weeks back, I stupidly placed the laptop on the ground next to my chair after checking emails and such, and as I stood up, I stepped directly onto the laptop.  I realized it before all of my weight was on it, for that surely would have caused major damage.  But I did manage to completely destroy the LCD screen.  As I turned it on, the screen went completely haywire, and I was unable to do anything with it.  Not a tremendous problem I thought, for I had a backup plan.
     Last year after Debbie's other laptop's LCD screen went haywire, we purchased another monitor, so all I had to do was plug this laptop into the new monitor, and I was back in business.  So I pulled out the box containing the monitor, but found a few things missing.  NO CABLES!  Somehow I had managed to pack everything up in the original box, but failed to include the cables.  So after settling into Bonita Springs and after the New Year, I located a computer store down the road and scored a monitor cable and a power cable for $5!  What a deal!  Back at the RV I plugged the latest broken laptop into the monitor with my $5 cables, and everything works fine again.  So now I knew the LCD screen was the only thing needing replacement. After a visit to You Tube for directions, a visit to Amazon for parts, and words of encouragement from Debbie, I gingerly started the process of replacing the LCD screen.  Ten screws.....how difficult can it be!  To make a long story short, I was successful in my 2nd attempt, (didn't quite get the cable connected) and everything is back working like a dream.  Well kinda.....the clips that hold the laptop shut are not seated properly, so right now I can't close the lid, but that's just a minor problem.  I've got a pretty good theory on how I'm gonna fix that, but that will be another day.  Now, when Debbie told this story to MAE, she thought it was hysterical.  Then she threw in the story of my dealing with Directv, and that fiasco, and I guess MAE was nearly rolling on the floor.  Some of these things you just can't make up.  I think she's got a warped sense of humor myself.
   

         
     MAE's week in Key West passed too quickly, but the weather held nicely for her.  She was able to spend several days at the pool which she really enjoyed.   We toured around KW a day by tram which saved a tremendous amount of walking.  Parking is a problem especially downtown, but the tram had several stops around town and got us pretty close to our car at days end.

     The day we picked to venture over to Fort Zachery Taylor State Park for some swimming and snorkeling turned out to be a little too windy.  MAE and I attempted to swim out to the rocks and snorkel around but the waves and current were a little rough, and the visibility in the water was minimal.  The water itself was a nice 74 degrees which went along nicely with the air temp. of 75.   MAE spent most of the day working on her tan.  I spent most of the day with my factor 50 sunscreen on, up in the shade under the trees.  At the end of the day, we were both successful.  At the end of the day we wandered over to Mallory Square to watch the sunset and to be entertained by the street performers that fill the square every evening.  They hawk the tourists pretty hard for a few $'s tip, as they eat fire, swallow swords, juggle knives and work to keep the tourist's attention.

 Sunset is nice from the square and everyone seems to disperse into KW after the sun goes down.  We stopped for a cold beer at the Hogs Head Tavern in downtown KW which is something every tourist has to do.....once.  It's quite honky, quite noisy,  but something every visitor has to experience.
     Being able to share our experiences with our kids is special for Debbie and I, and visiting KW with MAE, we hope, is something she'll talk about and laugh about after we're long gone.  She seems to be catching onto this game of life, and tolerates all of our wild ideas.  As we start thinking about our upcoming visit with Ben, Joanne, and the PGD, we hope they realize that we think of them often on this Journey Across America, and hopefully someday all the families will get to settle a little closer, and everyone will get to enjoy our madness.

     The day after Christmas, we took MAE back to Ft Lauderdale Airport for her trip home.  It was a 3 hour ride from KW to Ft Lauderdale and we made it in plenty of time.  Quick goodbye's were made curbside, with the local Sheriff doing his best to keep the traffic flowing.  Remember those days when you used to be able to walk your party all the way to the gate?  We stopped for a quick breakfast before making our way to U.S. 1 and our return to BWK.  I was glad we did.  MAE arrived in Albany long before we arrived back in BWK.  Traffic was backed up at the beginning of US 1 into the Keys and didn't let up till almost the end.  It took us nearly 6 hours to get back, and we were absolutely amazed at the amount of people and traffic that were SB toward KW! 

     The following day we headed out of the Keys and checked in for a month at Imperial Bonita Estates in Bonita Springs.  But that's another story for another day.