Friday, February 27, 2009

John Prince Park



John Prince Park

Goodbye Ft Myers and WP Franklin Lock and Dam. Hello West Palm Beach and the John Prince County Park. Goodbye Gulf of Mexico; Hello Atlantic Ocean!

Our crossing was uneventful. Miles and miles of sugar cane fields in various stages - of being burnt, causing thick black clouds of smoke as the bright red orange flames worked their way across the field, of bright green new growth and of tall tan jungles of thick cane.

John Prince is a county park with 10 miles of bike trails, a golf range, playgrounds and picnic areas and sits next to a pretty lake that is supposed to be full of great fishing. I hope to find out just how “great” before we leave next week. The campground itself is large and crowded. It seems like at least a half of the license plates are from Quebec.

Monday afternoon we located the West Palm Beach Zoo and wound in and out of the jungle-like paths to find some really neat animals and birds. The river otters were doing some back flips and swimming back and forth against the glass walls of their pool. The big black bear was enjoying his bath, sitting in his private pond. There were bright coral colored Flamingos and Scarlet Ibis! Blue-billed ducks, brown-headed ducks and multi colored Macaws!

Tuesday we finished up all the estate paperwork at the attorney’s office and then took 2 of Aunt Ruth’s favorite neighbors out to lunch at the golf course down the street just past Ruth’s home. The Jeep was left parked at Sherry’s home and we chatted as we walked to the restaurant. Aunt Ruth’s other good neighbor, Mark, also joined us and the 4 of us enjoyed a delicious meal as we reminisced about both Aunt Ruth and Uncle Irv. Harry’s aunt and uncle sure had some great neighbors who looked after them very well!

Our dear Carolyn back home, sent us another big envelope crammed full of mail. Too bad it was all bills and bank statements! There was only one fun piece of paper in the whole stack and that was from a State Farm friend who has been trying to call me at home and thinks I’ve had her calls blocked! I must send her a card soon - maybe a Florida postcard! Then she’ll understand!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

OUR SECOND WEEK AT WP FRANKLIN


OUR SECOND WEEK AT WP FRANKLIN

Monday- President’s Day and I got to spend it with Emily, my good friend from home. I needed a “girls day” and H didn’t want to spend his day without a vehicle so he dropped me off at Fisherman’s Village in downtown Punta Gorda. It is a shopping mall in an old restored fishing wharf with lots of neat little shops, live music and several restaurants with some good smells wafting out from their open doors. Emily chose the best one for us to enjoy our lunch of clam chowder and a piled high chicken salad sandwich. The onion rings were good too! And then we drove down the road to shop at Beall’s Outlet before we called H to come and get me. Yes, I did buy a few things that I didn’t need!

H and I stopped at Home Depot and then Wal-Mart and came home with a 15ft piece of solar shade screening. Before dark settled in we had a sunscreen sewn and hung from the trailer awning! We have a really neat spot here at WP Franklin but we have sun from 7am till after 6pm when the sun sets! This screen sure helps! Our next spot at John Prince County Park in West Palm will most likely be a sunny spot also, so this awning will get used again!

Wednesday, we drove back over to the Sanibel Island causeway bridge, just in time to stand in all the traffic trying to squeeze out onto the island. We finally found a parking spot at Bowman’s Beach, which was packed with other sun seekers and folks collecting shells. There was one spot on the crowded beach that was piled high with a billion small shells. The pile was at least 3 ft tall, 8 ft wide and 20-30 ft long! I brought back a bunch of burgundy scallops, a variety of other clam shells and a little red prickly ball of a creature like we used to see in Hawaii when we snorkeled there.

Go back and look at the picture of our “mobile motel” parked in this campground. See the beautiful motorhome in that picture? It belongs to Roger and Diane who are from a small town near Indianapolis Indiana. They travel with their 2 whippets and Charlie the cat! In the last week, we’ve grown to claim R & D as good friends and we sure hope to meet up with them again! We’ve enjoyed several gorgeous sunsets and some interesting bird watching, too. There is a pair of eagles that roost across the canal. Cormorants, egrets and ibis roost in a tree at the end of the island. The doves down here are Eurasian Collared Doves, which are bigger and louder than our Mourning Doves at home. This bird in the picture is a Yellow Crowned Night Heron who took his time hunting along the rocky shore by our place.

Today, Sunday I got out the sewing machine and finished up more of my heart shaped potholders and then ended up selling a dozen of them out of my stash!!! Wow – get me to Joann’s!

The trailer is just about ready to hook up and move east to West Palm in the morning.