More From Southwest Florida

We have just completed our longest stay in one location, 52 days in Fort Myers, Florida. There are a lot of advantages to longers stays: less expensive, sense of community, making new friendships, more time to explore and in general, it’s more relaxing. It also makes it easier to schedule RV maintenance, doctor/dentist appointments and complete necessary chores. We crossed off a lot of tasks of our list, including getting our RV windshield replaced. Our windshield seems to be a target for rocks, etc. We have had a number of repairs in the past 18 months, and are thankful that there is no deductible for windshield replacement for residents of the state of Florida.

In addition to fabulous weather, Southwest Florida is beautiful and there are tons of things to do. Our most memorable activity was our bike ride at the Bird Rookery Swamp Trail in Naples. Mike was able take some beautiful wildlife photos and Julie enjoyed most of the ride. We did get a little too close for our liking to alligators that were hidden in the grass, and were thankful we were on our bikes! Hiking at Six mile Slough, biking in the Prairie Pines Preserve, relaxing at Lovers Key State Park, shopping at the Fleamasters Fleamarket and watching a Minnesota Twins Spring Season game were also highlights from our stay.

Mike really enjoyed weekly birding walks with the Sanibel-Captiva Audubon Society. Each week the location changed which kept it interesting. Some of the favorites were: Bunce Beach Preserve,
J.N.”Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Harns Marsh, and Lakes Park. Julie loved connecting with the local bike club, the Caloosa Riders for regular bike rides and running the City Of Palms Half Marathon. Best of all we made a lot of new friends and learned a fun new card game, “Dirty Queen”.

We are now heading back to Central Florida before we begin our journey back west to visit family.