Matlacha 03/26-03/29

03/26
Today we are heading over to Matlacha (pronounced Matt-la-shea) neat Fr Myers FL.  It is less than 100 miles so we are in no hurry.  We have made friends with our neighbors here in Bradenton and we really like this area so it is a little hard to leave so soon.
We have to get on the I-75 again hopefully there won't be any accidents today.  We finally arrive in Matlacha but can't find the street we are suppose to turn down for the RV park.  We ended up going all the way to Pine Island in order to turn around.  Time to trust the GPS!  We couldn't find it because there is NO STREET SIGN on it and it doesn't even look like a road.
We are staying at the Sugar Sand RV Resort.  It is very small and they back us right in the end spot.  Didn't think there would be room but we fit just fine.  This RV park is right on the Bay and everything in town is walking distance.

We discovered we made a costly mistake, we are a day late in getting here.  It is the 26th and we should of been here on the 25th.  When we registered at the Sarasota RV park they asked if we had the week with a free day, Joe said yes, but what he didn't think about is that it is a week plus one day.  Oh well live and learn.






03/27
Today is spent in Ft Myers touring the Edison/Ford winter residence.  I didn't know that Henry Ford worked for Edison and they became great friends and bought winter homes next to each other along with Harvy Firestone.  What a combination of inventors that group turned out to be!


The house pictured on the left is the Edison house and the one on the right is the Ford house.

Edison was quite the gardner and the grounds are beautiful.  Full of trees and plants that do well next to the bay.  They were also the first in Ft Myers to have an in ground swimming pool.


 Fig tree,  Coconut Palm and at the bottom is the Banyon tree.

On to the Museum for Edison's inventions.  All his light bulbs, and phonographs and all sorts of things are in this building.  It is pretty cool to watch the silent movies that he made with his movie projector.  Most amazing & fascinating of all was the cyndrical phonograph record (center of left picture and player in center photo) which played off a cylinder instead of a flat record.  I can't recall ever seeing one of these before.

03/28                                                                                                                                                           

This morning we walked over to the Perfect Cup for breakfast.  We have heard from several people that this is a great place for breakfast.  They were right.  I had a sausage and pepper jack cheese       omelet that was huge and delicious, Joe had their blueberry pancakes.   After we eat we take a walk around town.  It is very  60's ish with all their bright colored houses and flea market shops.                                                     

                

                               

 We take a drive back to Pine Island and drive from on side of it to the other with the Gulf on both sides.  It is not very far across.    It is really pretty here, there are a lot of nurseries here with all kinds of trees an plants.                                                                                                                                     

Back home we just laze around then Joe goes to the races in Punta Gorda.  Once he comes back home we walk over to Bert's Bar and Grill to see the Hypnotical's.  They are a pretty good band that we heard our first night here at the Fish House.  They play surf / rock a billy type music.  They have a very good stand up Bass player.  Very animated and reminded me so much of Shannon.  

                    

03/29                                                                                                                                                           Not much going on today.  Time to get ready to leave Matlacha.  Joe goes over to the rec center to watch the NASCAR race at Martinsville.     It is a great place to watch the race, the back is open to the bay and nice breezes blow through.  You can see the Dolphin's swim up the bay  and watch the pelicans catch fish.  Very difficult to concentrate on the race when you constantly run out on the dock to watch a group of Dolphins playing in the bay.  A nice ending to our last day here.                                                                                                                         

              

                                                                                                                  

Bradenton Fl 3/19-3/26

03/19
We left the Florida Key's Thurs. morning thinking we didn't have far to drive.  Maybe about 4 hours.  It started out as a pleasant drive, then we were on I-75.  Lots of road work and one long delay of about 50 minutes due to a roll over accident.  Then about 30 minutes later another roll over, luckily it happened not to long before we came upon it so we didn't have a big delay this time.
It was late afternoon by the time we got to the Sarasota Rv Resort in Bradenton.  Nice park but tight spaces to get into.  We had half of our street out there trying to help Joe back in.  There was a car parked in front of us that was making it very difficult and no one was available to move it to make things easier.  Once in and set up we were ready for a beer.  That evening I was wondering why the fifth wheel was squeaking so much.  The back legs were not on the cement solid and we had the front legs down quite a bit so the next morning we had to hook back up and move forward just about 3 inches and also add more blocks under the front legs.  Now we are very solid and don't have to worry.

03/20
Friday we went into St Petersburg to visit with my nephew, Doug and his wife Joy.  The drove over to visit us when we were in Tampa so we went to see them this time.  You have to drive over this long, high bridge to get to St Pete's.  Not liking heights it made me a little nervous.

We had a great time at their house.  We still had a lot to catch up on after our last visit.  They have a very nice house and a beautiful backyard, including a hutch of bunnies.  Later they took us to Biff's Burgers.   What a great place.  It is very much a locals hangout.  There was a car show going on and a band playing inside.  The hamburgers were really good.  Before we knew it we had to say good by.  They were very fun to hang out with and we will miss them.  We will be visiting my niece, Alma, in Sept at Myrtle Beach and we are hoping that Doug and Joy will be able to join us.  It would be fun to have all of us together again.

03/21
I am a little tired from our trip to Bradenton and St Pete's so we didn't do much today.  We are going to the car races tonight at the De Soto Speedway.  It is a little bit of a drive and the track is suppose to be a 3/8 track but it is a small one.  Sprint Cars are just one of the divisions racing tonight.  Also racing were mini stocks, pure stocks and street stocks and a few others.  The racing was fast an pretty good until the big accident.  It was a very scary accident.  Two pure stocks ran into each other and then a third really plowed both of them.  Now the scary part, all three cars burst into flames.  Two of the drives dove out the drivers windows quickly but the third car and fire all around it.  He did climb out the passenger side window and we all held our breaths.  When he came out of the flames he was on fire.  What a horrible  moment.  He finally dropped to the ground and started rolling until they could start spraying him.  I felt sick and almost wanted to leave, but they announced that all the drivers were fine no one even had to go to the hospital.  I hope I never have to see something like that again.  By 11pm the races were over and we were on our way back to the rv park.

03/22 
Sunday morning we decided to drive to the beach for breakfast, to our surprise we couldn't find a restaurant that was open.  We were doing the whole loop from Bradenton to Sarasota and back to Bradenton, we finally found a small place to have breakfast in Sarasota.  I was happy because I was really hungry by this time.  It was a really nice drive all around the bay.  Later in the day we went to the movies to see Insurgent, not a bad movie but it didn't follow the book very closely, so I was a little disappointed.  The Regal Theater was pretty cool, the first unusual thing about it is you pick your seat out when you buy your tickets.  So all seats are reserved.  The second cool thing is all seats are lazy boy type recliners.  I have never been so comfortable watching a movie before.

03/23
I am having back trouble so today is spent at the Chiropractors.  The one I had an appointment with we could never find it, even after talking to them for directions.  The map on their site had us about 25 miles the wrong way.  So I cancelled it and remembered there was a chiropractor next to the Regal Theater.  We just walked it and hoped he could see me in the next couple of days.  He did better than that, I filled out the forms and had to wait a bit but he was able to see.  Really nice Dr, and I was happy with the adjustment.  Just to make sure all was well I went back Wed afternoon for another adjustment.  Don't know when I will have another chance.

03/24
Today we are driving out to Ft De Soto.  We have to cross the big bay bridge again, the one we had to drive over to go to St Petersburg.  They have an RV park Joe had thought about staying at, but after the long drive we are glad we didn't stay there.  You are in the middle of pretty much no where.  It is right on the water and beautiful, but if you need anything from town it is quite a drive not to mention the tolls you have to pay.
The first thing we did was find a nice place to have a picnic lunch.  The gift store/snack bar had places to sit out of the sun and look at the bay.  It was perfect.  The white sandy beaches are really beautiful.  After lunch we went to walk around what is left of the fort.  All the building were built to close to the water and were washed away during the many storms in the early 1900's.  What we did get to see is the defense system they had for protecting Tampa.

03/25   
Today we are going to explore Anna Maria Island.  Again trying to find a place for breakfast.  The first pier we stopped at had a restaurant but it didn't open until 11, so we searched further.

Finally the second pier had a great place to eat right on the water.  We sat with a couple from Chicago. They have lived in this area for many years.  It is fun to share a table with someone you don't know.

 After breakfast we went to Coquina Beach.  It was a little cool out but felt good to be in the sun.






The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Chiropractor and getting ready to leave Bradenton in the morning.