Last Days in Paradise

Hi all, Dianne here:

Just a quick blog to update our last days here at Franklin Lock outside Ft. Myers, Florida. From here we will head to Longs, South Carolina to attend the RV Dreams Rally, then several state parks as we make our way back to Indiana to sell yet ANOTHER house and yet MORE "stuff." (Ugh...will it ever end??)

We got word that our RV lot at Retama Village is coming along nicely. The concrete pad is poured and they are now constructing our little "coach house" shell. Our closing is to be in a couple of weeks.

We have sure enjoyed seeing our daughter, Amanda, and granddaughter, Kaia, this past month. The time was too short!

We've had some camp fires, gone kayaking, and have been able to eat outside at the picnic table on balmy evenings. It's been great.

Several times we took our beach chairs down the hill behind our site to get a closer look at the river activity: Lots of jumping fish, pelicans, anhingas, swimming turtles, egrets, even a limpkin

on the grassy bank. The black duck with the bright red forehead is a common gallinule.

There are some lovely water lilies right behind our site.

You can be sure I'll be perched on my computer the moment sites here at Franklin Lock open up for next spring (six months in advance).

As Kaia mentioned in her guest blog, we spent yesterday at the Bonita Beach dog park (beach).

Kaia was on spring break, so while her mom was at work we loaded up the three dogs, Kaia, and a picnic lunch, and drove to the dog beach. Kaia had a great time running through the shallow surf with Jasper and playing with her beagle, Cinnamon.

Jasper ran at a slowed pace next to Kaia. It reminded me of when we first got Jasper (he was nine months old and Kaia was two years old.) Jasper would let Kaia, as a toddler, walk him on his leash inside our house. Even as a pup Jasper knew to walk r-e-a-l slow, and was always very gentle with her. He did the same thing as they ran through the surf yesterday; kept pace right with her, even though he could have gone into high 35-mile-per-hour gear. He also kept a close eye on her as she played in the water. Have I mentioned yet that he is the best dog in the world???

Chaplin was busy doing his own thing, walking down the beach and plopping down on towels and blankets, uninvited, even between people! I finally put him back on his leash, because even though most people thought it was cute, I didn't want to press our luck with that. (Nobody in their right mind would go to the dog beach if they weren't dog lovers; trust me on that).

After we left the beach, we drove over to Sanibel Island to give Kaia the "Pinocchio's" Italian gelato experience. She was skeptical when I told her Italian gelato was even better than ice cream until she took her first bite. Apologies to Cindy G. for these next two photos; one is of my

"purple cow" (raspberry with dark chocolate chunks) and Roger's "triple dark chocolate."

We definitely thought of you, Cindy, as we devoured them!

The

dogs were so tired from the dog beach that they didn't even bother us as we ate.

I'll close out this blog with a couple of beautiful Florida sunset photos, fitting as we leave Florida for our trek north.

Florida Guest Blog by Kaia

Dianne here: Long-time readers of our blog will remember occasional "guest blogs" written by our granddaughter, Kaia. I'll write soon to add additional photos and commentary, but first, here's Kaia's installment for this visit:

Hey this is Kaia!

Guess what, my grandparents came........again! haha

So i guess it is my job to tell you what we did! Well first we were at

Shady Acres, which i wasn't a big fan of, nether was mea-maw and pop-pop.

But i guess it was kind of fun - i mean it had a dog park, who doesn't like that, but still it was kind of a bore.

My grandparents already had wonderful guests: Chuck and Cindy Gemmer.

They were very nice people and let me tell you, when it comes to cooking food, they know what they're doing! Okay well lets not talk about that.

So after a few weeks, the Gemmers went back to Indiana and mea-maw and pop-pop went to W.P. Franklin lock and dam. It was very beautiful. One weekend i didn't spend with my grandparents. My friends came to my house: Anna Vaca, and Cheyanne Cobrera. Then, i went to the motor home and i was waiting to see them as i was in the car.

There was a dock and it wasn't finished yet but i had fun walking on it anyway.......ha ha! Then, one day when i was on the dock, i dropped meamaw's shoe! Me and poppop had to kayak to go and get it! It was her fav. shoe, so we had to get it. Luckily we did find it.

Then on friday, i had a friend stay over at the motor home:

Cheyanne Cobrera.

1st meamaw picked us up at school. Then she took us to blockbuster to get bandslam, new moon, and beetlejuice. we didn't watch beetlejuice though we watched bandslam and new moon. Cheyanne and i were in meamaw and poppop's room.

It was fun! We stayed up until 5:00!

In the morning, we had chocolate-chip muffins!

YUM!!! They were delicious!

Then, we went kayaking!

i went first, because cheyanne was afraid. Then she finally went after i came back with poppop. While cheyanne

was kayaking, i was in my own world.....haha! i was actually acting like i was at a concert.

Then when cheyanne came back we took a picture together.

On Friday we went to the dog beach.........after cheyanne left of course.

Jasper kept chasing me in the water hahaha it was fun! Cinnamon

couldn't be trusted, because she almost ran away.

Chaplin did run away. :-( until i found him. :-) YAY!!!

Well, thats all you have to hear and i'll i have to say: Again, recycle, stay in school, make sure travel with whippets is your number 1 website and well....peace! $upercheeee$y* and if your wondering what super cheesy is, it's my signature alright $upercheeee$y*

Franklin Lock Corps of Engineers CG - Back in Paradise!

Hi all - Dianne here. Well, Roger and I traveled less than an hour to our next stop, one of our FAVORITE places to camp in all of the U.S.!

Last winter we lucked into a terrific camp site at W.P. Franklin Lock Corps of Engineers Campground outside Fort Myers, Florida and spent two glorious weeks. At the time we vowed to come back, but didn't know when that would be, since at the time we had no plans to return to Florida any time soon.

All that changed last August when our daughter and granddaughter moved from Indiana to Fort Myers. There was NO DOUBT where we would try to stay while visiting them!

Like many state parks, the Corps of Engineers campground has a two-week limit.

This particular Corps of Engineers campground is pretty small, and VERY hard to get reservations in the winter unless you get lucky on your computer the instant one becomes available. It is unusual in that in addition to RV sites, there are a few boat sites as well, where folks can stop on their way east or west on the Caloosahatchee River and tether their boats for an overnight stop.

We wrote extensively about this place last winter (Feb. of '09) and took many, many photographs. (Some of you might remember getting tired of all our sunset shots last year!) Anyway, if you want to learn more about this place, you can click on "Franklin Locks" in the sidebar and it will bring up last year's blogs.

It is so easy to just while away the hours here, watching boats go through the lock, fish jumping, and the many and various birds, or just watching the water. The sites are large, private, and have covered picnic tables and concrete and gravel patios.

No full hookups, but with a little water conservation we can make it about a week before having to unhook to go "dump."

Amanda and Kaia are continuing to visit us most evenings after work and school. This Wednesday we had a special treat when our friends, Jay and Nancy, drove up from their Naples condo to spend the day and evening.

We hadn't seen them since we were in Indiana last summer and it was SO good to see them. They are only in Florida for a week this trip, so we were thrilled that they made time to come visit. They had recently purchased an inflatable kayak to keep at their summer lake home,

so Roger gave them a demonstration of inflating and then took each of them out to get a taste of kayaking. Nancy

especially enjoyed it and agreed with me that it is SO much easier than canoeing.

We broke out some bottles of our Texas Hill Country wines that we'd saved for this day, and spent a relaxing afternoon wining and cheesing it on the patio, watching the water and boats and getting caught up on each others' lives and kids. (The four of us have been friends for more than 40 years, were in each others' weddings, so we are technically more like family than friends.) Those blog readers with good memories will remember a prior blog when I explained that it was Jay and Nancy who set Roger and I up on a blind date; the rest is history!

Amanda and Kaia joined us for a delicious steak dinner. I can brag on it, because Roger did all the grilling. We used some of our Cooper's Texas BBQ rub and sauce that we'd purchased on our "authentic Texas BBQ excursion" in Llano, TX last December. Costco came through again with some high-quality beef, and the result of mixing the two was exceptional! I just had to get a photo of the steaks grilling

and of Roger, the grill master, acting silly with Kaia.

More silliness ensued as the evening wore on, with Kaia jumping in the air

for the camera and even talking her mom

into joining her antics. Nancy used my camera to get some good shots of Mandy and Kaia together.

Today Roger and I are resting up for Friday night, when Kaia and her little friend, Cheyenne, will have a sleepover here in the RV with us. Once we have recovered from that, we'll blog again!

Manatees + Old and New Friends

Hi all - Dianne here.  We are down to our last day here at W.P. Franklin Locks.  Tomorrow we pack up and move to our next site, and let someone new enjoy this wonderful place that we hate to leave behind.

After we saw that glorious sunrise (see prior blog) we went to Manatee

 park, since it was a cool morning.  Manatees gather in the warm runoff water of a Florida Power and Light plant.  They have developed a nice viewing area and park to take advantage of it, and it's a great place to see congregations of manatees.   They are elusive creatures, and it's very hard to photograph them.  Usually all that you can see are their nose, back, or tail when they come up for air.

  We took a lot of photos of black water until we actually were quick enough to get some shots.  Of course, after these shots we had some VERY good views, but unfortunately I got the dreaded message "change battery pack" on my camera, so there's no proof of our really close views.

When I was a girl scout "Brownie," we sang a round "Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other gold."  That is our theme for the upcoming days and weeks.   While parked at WP Franklin, there was a tan and fit couple camping next to us.  For several days, I saw them enjoying the same type of activities we were, and I even said out loud to Roger, "See, THAT'S what I aspire to."    When I saw the wife waving a bubble wand on a windy day, I knew she was my kind of gal!   Harry and Bobbi are from Michigan.  They have been all over the country, canoeing, camping, fishing, motorcycling, you name it.   We finally did get acquainted, and had some fun times.  We took our little boats out paddling across the river together and visited the Franklin Lock visitor center.  Back home, we sat around a campfire, watched sunsets and birds, and just had random conversations whenever the mood struck and we were both out.

They enjoy nature and the same types of camp sites we do.  (Note all the patches sewn on Bobbi's jacket; these are all state parks and places they have been).  They spent last winter in Texas, and gave us some very good ideas for our possible Winter Texan adventure next year.   Before they left for their next site, Harry even taught us how to download and get on Google Earth to check out our future camp sites, look at our house back home, etc.  The possibilities are endless!!  What fun!!   I am 58 years old and have never been bored, but if I ever am, I know how to spend some fun hours now.   Thanks, Harry and Bobbi!   "Happy Trails To You...."

Now from new friends to old:  Roger's graduating class keeps in touch via internet.  Lo and behold, come to find out that one of his classmates lives on the Caloosahatchee River, just up the road!   We met for dinner one evening and spent a very fun afternoon with them on their boat.  I'll let Roger elaborate on that. 

Roger here....  One of my high school classmates from Pendleton High School's class of '68, Judy, has managed to pull together the email addresses of many of our classmates.  It was a small class of 160 students, so most of us know or at least remember each other.  During one of the mass emails, Judy asked us to answer questions about what we remembered from our high school days and what we were up to now.  Since I now have the time, I was one of the responders and indicated what Dianne and I were up to.  The next day I got an email from an old friend, Mary, asking where we were traveling and suggesting that we give them a call if we were ever in Florida.  When I told her that we would be at the Franklin Locks near Ft. Myers, she wrote back saying that they live five minutes from there.  What an amazing coincidence that Judy's email allowed us to find out that we would be in the same spot at the same time!

We had dinner with Mary and her husband, Gregg, on Sunday night at the local "Alva Diner" - good and tasty comfort food.  Dianne and I went off our healthy food kick for the evening and had country fried steak.  Yummy.  We enjoyed lots of good conversations about old-times in the idyllic little town of Pendleton, Indiana, where Mary and I grew up.  

The next afternoon they invited us to join them on their boat 

on the Caloosahatchee River.  This very large river is part of the intracoastal waterway system.  It connects the Gulf of Mexico at Fort Myers to Lake Okeechobee.  Another river connects the lake with the Atlantic Ocean.  It is a busy river with all kinds of water craft, including wave runners, fishing boats, paddle wheelers, barges, tug boats, sail boats, ski boats, the S.S. Minnow inflatable kayak, and some pretty fancy yachts like the white beauty shown in this photo: 

 We met them at their house on the river, walked through their beautiful river-front garden, then boarded their boat and relaxed while Gregg steered us along the river. 

 We first went west about ten miles toward the Franklin Locks, where we were able to see our motor home parked in the distance.  We then went all the way to our next motor home stop at the Ortona Locks several miles (30?) to the east.  It was a great trip.  Gregg alternated speed and "amusement park-like maneuvers" with slow trips around the many jungle-like islands where the water was covered with water-lilies 

and filled with all sorts of wild life (turtles, fish, birds).   At one point a tiny tree frog hopped on Dianne, who immediately unleashed her obligatory scream.  I thought that a snake or gator must be attacking the boat.  We all had a good laugh when we saw the cute little frog that you can see on Mary's thumb. 

 Mary and Dianne insisted that the frog be released onto a tree - he hopped in the river before reaching the branch, but we all watched as he frog-kicked (had to describe it this way as a former swim coach) to the shore.   

Gregg also took us down a back water to see an abandoned tug boat 

that looked like something out of Disney's Jungle cruise.

We cruised by retirement communities, three-bedroom houses, and multimillion dollar mansions along the way.   At one point, when we passed Port LaBelle, we were able to see the condo complex where my parents owned a unit and spent several of their winters.  It brought back many sentimental memories of the visits that Dianne and I made there with our daughters, often with one of their friends tagging along.  

When we returned to Gregg and Mary's house at sunset, Gregg fed the wildlife from his dock - lots of long and skinny gar, turtles, etc.  It was a memorable day that we won't forget.  Thanks again to Mary and Gregg!

Dianne again.  Continuing the "old friends" theme, in another week or two we will be seeing our oldest and dearest friends from home as they come down to Florida.  They are not campers, so we will board our dogs and spend two nights with them in their beautiful condo on the beach in Naples.  Stay tuned.  I think that blog title will probably be "How the Other Half Lives"!   Then later in March we'll be meeting our camping buddies Chuck & Cindy from home to spend two weeks together in Fort Myers at the Grove campground.  

Some exciting news for us: we actually had a house showing the other day!   We still hope the right person comes along to fall in love with our house in Pendleton so that we can be truly free and start planning another winter adventure.   You can't fault me for trying, so I'm pasting in info from an older blog entry of ours :  The  MLS listing number is 2900560 and can be viewed at the F.C. Tucker real estate web site.  (I don't know how to link it).   I sure hope it sells while we're down South, but I realize that is a pipe dream.   There is an extensive album of outdoor shots taken in all seasons at our house that can be viewed at:  http://photobucket.com/125_S_Main_Pendleton   Please pass this info to anyone you know who might be looking for a great house in a small town that is very near to Indianapolis and only ten minutes to Indiana's newest mall!