Tuesday 1/31/12.  A few phone calls and I found the kit to fix the dinghy motor at a shop in Cape Coral. 

Then we took a walk to the post office.  This is a bit different than any we’ve seen before.  Along with the normal selections of Priority Mail boxes and envelopes there were racks of greeting cards.

 

Years ago next to the Yacht Basin you would have found the Ft. Myers Exhibition Hall.  Built in 1954, it played a significant role in the area’s events.  Elvis Presley performed here in 1955. Jerry Lee Lewis,Tommy Roe & The Romans, Lou Christie and Roy Orbison also graced the stage. Kenny Rogers was there too, in a concert with T.G. Sheppard in 1977. The annual Ft. Myers High School Living Christmas Tree, 1958 Hula Hoop Competitions, wedding receptions, car and boat shows, the Friday Night Record Hops hosted by WMYR Radio.   Rev. Robert G. Browning Jr. read a prayer there for President Gerald Ford when he made a stop on his campaign trail , in Feb. 1976...the list goes on and on.  But everything is temporary.  The Hall was demolished in 2007. 

   

Across the street now stands the new Harborside Event Center.  Many of the bricks in the sidewalk apparently were part of a fund raiser for the new center.  They are engraved with the names of people and companies who made “buy a brick” contributions.

Then we got wound up for the major excitement of the day…two hours of laundry.  The sun is warm and the breeze has stopped.  The temp in the salon is 90°. Outside is the mid-80s.

As evening arrived the cook took the night off.  Pizza was delivered to the boat and the rest of the evening was dedicated to relaxing.

Monday 1/30/12.        I arrive back from picking up the rental car just in time to get ready for a great reunion.

My cousin Rodney, his wife Linda, and their daughter Jeanie and husband Mike arrived from Naples at 1:00P.  We probably haven’t seen them in at least five years.   We shared stories of our trip here and gave them the “cook’s tour” of TwoGether.  Just after 3:00P we all drove to Ft. Myers Beach to visit Rodney’s Mom and Dad.  My aunt and uncle,Dot and Jim, have been coming to Ft. Myers Beach druing the month of January for twenty five years.  They got hooked on the place while visiting my Mom and Dad. 

We all walked from their cabin to McDonalds for supper. 

On the way we passed a young man playing guitar at the entrance to the pier for tips.  A little girl watched his every strum and stood there swaying back and forth to the beat.  It was like she was in a trance.  Her dad came over to get here to move along but she just stood there totally fascinated by the man and his music.  She was sooo cute.

Walking back Dot wanted to take us out on the pier. I remember an old wooden pier at the beach.  It has been replaced by a totally concrete structure.  The pier is as long as the old one but only half as wide. The beach is twice as wide as it was.  They pumped in thousands of cubic yard of sand and made the beach so much bigger. 

This brought back a lot of memories recalling when some of us from high school formed the West Coast Surfing Association.  A bit of a misnomer since the only time there is surf here is during a hurricane!  But we enjoyed the early days of Skim Boarding (now called Boogey Boards) and listening to the rock and roll bands play at the foot of the pier.  After all, everybody wanted to be like the Beach Boys.  Some bands even changed the lyrics to “Wish they all could be Southwest Florida Girls”.

Everyone went back to the cabin but I had to get my sunset picture.  So Linda and I stayed on the beach until the sun disappeared next to Sanibel Island…Then from somewhere on the beach we heard the sound of a Conch Shell.  Its official, the day is over and the evening begins.

We said our good byes and wished everyone a safe trip home.

Ft. Myers Beach       N26°27.110   W081°57.352 (aprox)

Sunday 1/29/12        Linda wanted to take a walk in the downtown area and see the different shops.  She said " Let’s explore a different street every day".   So today we went back to First Street.  The building that used to be McCrorys 5&10 is now divided into numerous enterprises from a small variety/convenience store, bistros and a nail salon.

Even when I was a youngster downtown was divided with arcades.  The Arcade Theater was a closed walkway but most of them were open air with common areas in the center.  The Post Office Arcade was home to the Snack House, a regular stop in my teens, and now is the entrance to the largest hotel downtown with a Japanese restaurant in the arcade. 

While looking around the hotel lobby we met Kathy. She is a Ft. Myers native born the year my family first moved here. She was a delight to talk to. It was like talking to someone we have known for years.  I was telling her about the Little Pigs Bar-B-Que restaurant I had on Cleveland Avenue in the late 1960s and she remembered it. Her family owned the largest dry cleaner and laundry service in the county. I remember taking our family dry cleaning there. As I recollect we used them for our uniforms for the restaurant. She remembers when Ft. Myers still had that small town atmosphere and everybody in town knew who you were. That atsmopshere still comes through when you are downtown.  I enjoyed how she helped take us a little farther down memory lane. We were invited to go to the roof top observation area and see the town from above. 

On the way back to the boat Linda commented how beautiful the downtown restoration is and how to us years ago, it was just downtown.  It would be great to see some of the towns around our home to take on such an initiative.  But then, this is a tourist town and it is geared to them. (Uh…That’s us!)

Saturday 1/28/12.    We weighed anchor at 8:45A.  Little Buddy had already made his appearance for the day.  He preened himself as if getting spruced up to say good bye.

On the way back we decided to “blow out the pipes” and I opened her up.  Soon the boat was on plane and the GPS showed 18.6 mph.  A little later we made good 21 mph for a short time.  Then as we got closer to traffic and the manatee zones we slowed down to our regular cruise setting and came back at 8.6.  It will be interesting to see how much change in fuel consumption there was.

As we arrived back in Ft. Myers and passed under the Caloosahatchee Bridge, we could see quite a party on shore in the park.

 After we had the boat secured in the slip we walked over to see the goings on.  It was the 9^th Annual Caloosahatchee Celtic Festival.  There were vendors selling T shirts, jewelry, hand crafts, giant beer truck and just about every Celtic delicacy to temp your palate.  On stage there were musical groups and dancers.  There were entries from the Southwest Florida British Car Club.  I didn’t see any one who wasn’t having a good time!

We walked back to the boat and Linda started some housekeeping (or should I say boatkeeping) chores.  I worked on the blog.  When we got hungry we walked back to the Celtic Fest for fish and chips, and bar-b-que.  We also had some of the world’s worst funnel cake!

We noticed that First Street and some of the side streets were blocked off.  There was a classic car and hot rod show downtown. 

 What a trip down memory lane.  I found a white 1965 Plymouth Barracuda, just like the one I cruised these very same streets in as a teenager.  It was kind of neat how they allowed 60s music to be played on speakers all down First Street. Linda loved the architecture of many of the old buildings downtown.  You just don’t find that at the mall.

When we got back to the boat we realized this was a big day!

Ft. Myers Yacht Basin.        N26°38.839   W081°52.186

Friday 1/27/12.        

I was awakened by the sound of gentle rain on the deck around 5:30A. Then the rain became  heavier and  the distant sky would glow with flashes of lightning. Just before 6:00 we both came up to the salon and the rain was heavy with pretty strong winds. It was still dark but the flashlight showed the burgee standing straight out. The lighting continued and the thunderstorm moved by several miles to the north. By 6:30 we were back to a gentle rain and the lightning was over. Slowly the darkness gave way to morning light. By 8:00 the rain stopped.

 This is a special day for us. 

Linda broke out the Captain and First Mate T shirts and then she fixed me a great omelet for breakfast.  This is our 44^th wedding anniversary.  She said at breakfast she would have never dreamed back then, in 44 years we would be spending our anniversary anchored out in our own houseboat.  Then she said “It’s been quite a ride.”

After breakfast we have our devotions.   Then we usually finish up whatever coffee is left in the pot.   I like to have a few cookies with my coffee.  This morning however, I found my cookies were being nibbled on by Hamster.  I wonder… how did a mechanical Hamster find  my cookies???

We had another email from my cousin Rodney and his wife Linda.  If you have been following the blog, you might remember back in November, when we were in Yorktown, VA, they were only about 12 miles away in Williamsburg.   Neither of us knew about it until after the fact, so we missed each other.  Now they are in Naples only about 40 miles south of Ft. Myers.  Rodney’s Mom and Dad (my Aunt Dot and Uncle Jim) are in Ft, Myers Beach.  If all goes according to plan we will be getting together Monday afternoon.  We live only 12 miles apart in PA but had to come 1200 miles to FL for a visit!  It’s great to run into friends along the way… but seeing family will really be something special.

Little Buddy showed up again.  When I went outside to take his picture, he stretched his neck, and called  “Guuul, Guuul, Guuul, Guuul” and took to the air.  He flew right to the overhang on the front deck and hovered in the wind.  I had to back up to get the pic.  If I would have reached out, I believe I could have touched him.  Linda’s really going to miss her Little Buddy.