Tuesday, Jan. 29 – Sunday, Feb. 10
We departed from Boca Grande at 10am for the 42-mile trip to Fort Myers. By moving along on the GIWW, we were protected from the rough gulf waters. As we passed by Cabbage Key, we spotted a large truck being transported by sort of a barge or ferry. How unusual! (see photo) Though we now encounter numerous pleasure craft, we see very few barges and occasionally car ferries. Oh, for the good old days waiting for a 3x5 tow (that means a tow pushing 15 barges in front of it) to get through a sharp turn in the river and then getting rocked by its prop wash….
We left the GIWW and proceeded up the Caloosahatchee River for 15 miles to Legacy Harbour Marina near downtown Fort Myers. Just before the marina we spied the Edison and Ford Winter Estates. Several years ago while searching for this boat to make this trip, we’d been in Ft. Myers and spent an afternoon viewing the homes, lab and gardens there. Edison visited the area in 1885, bought the property along the river and created his winter home. After visiting Edison, Henry Ford bought the property next door in 1916 for his own winter home. Together, along with Harvey Firestone, they formed the Edison Botanical Research Corporation (EBRC) to do research looking for an acceptable natural rubber source from a plant that could be grown in the U.S. The complex is well worth a visit if you are ever in the area.
We planned to stay in Fort Myers for at least a couple weeks before heading further south. Grocery store, restaurants, and shopping are all within walking/biking distance. On our first day there, the back piece of Sue’s dental bridge broke off! Thankfully it did not hurt, but it needed to be checked out. Since it was originally made in the early 1970s to span a missing tooth (No - no bar fights … just an adult tooth that never formed to replace the baby tooth) it’s quite “old-fashioned” as far as dental work goes these days. Fortunately, just down the dock from us was another Looper couple, Kevin & Katie, we’d met a couple times before on the rivers. It turns out that they finished the loop here because it’s their home town and the marina is their home port. How lucky was that! They referred Sue to a great dentist who confirmed that it was an unusual bridge (“I’ve never seen anything quite like this.”) yet she did a fantastic job checking for additional damage (none) or infection (none), then was able to add material to keep everything in place until we get home again. Whew!
Katie also recommended a salon for Sue to get her haircut. So fortunate to get another great recommendation from her! Sue was beginning to get very frustrated with her hair and even though Brian can cut his own hair, it would have been scary for him to use the clippers on Sue! 😕
While in Sarasota we’d discovered a leak above the closet in the aft bedroom. (See 2 posts back) Our initial investigation pointed to a cracked fiberglass joint above the ceiling leading up the radar arch. With the sunny dry weather in Ft. Myers, Brian was able to make the fiberglass repairs. Nothing like the smell of fresh epoxy to help you get to sleep at night! Now if it would only rain, we’d know if the repair worked!
We had a couple days to get things cleaned up and cleared out of the forward cabin and head to be ready for the arrival of our first overnight visitors! So exciting! Brian’s brother Alan, his wife Tammy and their friend Chuck flew down to Ft. Myers barely getting out of Chicago’s Midway airport before the storm hit on Jan. 28. After some time in the Keys, they came to stay with us. It was great to see them and meet Chuck. They spent a couple of the days visiting friends in the area. We took them on a boat ride about 9 miles up-river and back and they took us to Fort Myers Beach. After several days enjoying warm weather, sunshine, a few meals and some amazing donuts, we said good-bye on Feb. 6. Wait – you ask, “What kind of donuts can be classified as amazing?” Well, across the street from the marina is a place called Bennet’s Fresh Roast, and OMG, the donuts were out of this world – almost too good, if that’s possible. One that we all agreed was delicious was the maple frosted bacon donut (see photo) – sounds a little iffy, but one bite and ohhhh - so good! They also had a lunch menu that included a “Donut Dog.” It was a "long john" donut split down the middle, with a beef hot dog, homemade chili, BBQ sauce, honey mustard and cheddar cheese. It was so unique that we had to try it. Unique is not always great. Consensus was that trying it once was enough. But the donuts – YUMMMMM! 🍩
We spent Feb. 7 doing a quick turn-around to be ready for our next overnight guest. Andy and Liz, friends who we met many years ago at our marina in Kenosha, moved to Arizona quite a few years back, then to SE Florida a couple of years ago. While Liz was traveling up north for a few days, Andy drove over to Fort Myers and spent a day/night with us - it was great to catch up! We will visit the Keys, then head around the end of Florida back up the east coast, then we can look forward to visiting again and seeing Liz too!