~Friday, February 26, 2021~
Day 257 (Travel Day)
See you next time Everglades. It was a pleasure visiting you and have now for sure, completely exhausted everything there is to do here (well I guess there’ll always be something left). On to Fort Myers, FL area to stay once again at our Boondocker’s Welcome site on the river (one of Sadie’s favorite spots) 🐾. We made a mistake not getting gas the night before, since it’s always easier filling up “Hank” without the trailer. But aside from the Pilot gas stations, the “island” gas stations in Florida make it super easy for truckers and RVer’s to get in, and get out. As I’ve mentioned before, these island gas stations are such a great concept that every state should have these. They’re basically an all-in-one stop (food, gas, rest stop, etc.) in the center of the highway, that’s accessible from either side. Love it!
Arriving back at Larry’s was like seeing an old friend again. His property is nothing short of amazing, right on the Caloosahatchee River. I have to pinch myself that we’re actually allowed to stay here, for FREE.
We always show our appreciation with a batch of cookies and a little gratuity for allowing us the extra perks of water and electricity hookups. He put us in the exact same place we put the trailer last time…...parallel and only feet from the river. And it was nice to arrive mid afternoon to allow enough time for setup, and still have enough time to enjoy our river view and sunset. Now to call our Michigan friend, Larry, who happens to be staying in Fort Myers for a chunk of time. We met Larry at the infancy of our trip, in Bakersfield, where we stayed for 3 weeks waiting for our truck transmission to get replaced (remember that story?). Larry was staying at the site directly across from us motoring around on his electric scooter, I was inside the trailer working on building our website, Jeff was at the kitchen table working on route planning when he noticed Larry arriving back to his site on his scooter, coming in at what appeared to be a bad angle, only to end up falling completely sideways. That’s when the chance meeting took place. Jeff ran out to help, a conversation ensued, and a friendship began. Being retired, Larry had been doing the travel thing for quite some time, while his wife was staying back in Michigan continuing her work until her retirement this October. So there’s the story. Larry and I had been texting back and forth for a few months, keeping him posted on our whereabouts. So, he was happy to hear that we actually made it to the same city. We’re meeting tomorrow at his RV park to eat, drink and be merry…...and do laundry. Yes, I know, laundry. I had mentioned that we had this little chore to do before coming over, then offered for us to do it at his nice facility in his RV park. Wow-how nice!!
Boondocker Larry stopped by before running off to the local rodeo. What a story teller. He never runs out of things to share…..so we just let him do the talking. Tonight’s main story…..the property he’s on, the subdivided acre parcel he’s trying to sell and all that goes along with dealing with the government agencies. Fun, fun. But actually quite interesting. All while Sadie enjoyed some much deserved ball time. There’s another family staying here as well, with their black labradoodle, who seemed to be very friendly, but Sadie wouldn’t have any of the butt sniffing, so that meeting abruptly came to an end. There seems to be a lot of families RV’ing full time together, home schooling and working from the road, as this family is. I’m sure that has its challenges, but would be quite an awesome thing to do together as a family. I wonder if we would have ever done something like this? COVID and the ability to work remotely has definitely changed the conventional way of raising a family.
Time for some star gazing ⭐️,
full-moon gazing 🌕and dinner prepping 😋. Tonight’s menu….homemade oven fries and hamburgers/veggie burgers.