Monthly Archives: April 2013

Finished packing our stuff this morning and left cape coral around 11am. Sad to say goodbye to my parents, but excited for the road trip! Trailer rode smoothly up to Lakeland, which was about a 3 hour drive. Checked in and found our friends who had already arrived. Pulled the trailer into the spot after a few tries, then started our first unpacking and setup. Didn’t get the steps all done in the right order, but a good learning experience.

Looking forward to a good airshow tonight at sun n’ fun!

Its been quite an eventful week for us.  Bought our Rpod TT (travel trailer) on Saturday, then picked up my dad from the airport.  Was great timing to have my parents down the week before we left.
Spent most of the week online shopping, local shopping and cleaning/maintenance of the Rpod.  Kept the UPS guy busy this week with daily shipments from Amazon.  Knocked out some other chores of fixing the fridge and starting the bathroom rehab with some demolition.
Still amazes me how much you can learn on the internet, between how-to videos and articles for just about anything.
We depart tomorrow and will spend the next week working our way north and west out of the state.

A sweet looking combo: Tacoma and R-pod

Stay tuned for much more blog activity as we explore the west over the next 6 weeks!

Started the day doing some maintenance and cleaning of the trailer.  No major issues found, so it looks like we found a good deal.

Around 4 we quit our chores to walk over to the tiki hut.  It’s a bar nearby which is legendary for interesting late night characters.  We had been talking about going since we got to cape coral, but never made it over.

Met up with some folks my parents knew from Chicago.  Enjoyed the sights and sounds of the 50s band over a few drinks.  Was quite a different type of crowd in the afternoon.

Tiki hut crew

If any readers are SNL fans, you should understand the title on this post.

I have been reading many John D. MacDonald books during our travels, specifically the Travis McGee series.  Never been much of a fiction reader, but definitely got hooked on these books and his writing style.  Cindy and her family have read them for many years, which got me interested.  Always notice some interesting quotes in each book, which I thought I’d start sharing on occasion.  The author had a real talent for connecting a fiction storyline with intellectual thoughts and commentary on society and the state of Florida.  While they were all written between the mid-60 and mid-80s, it has some amazing relevance even in this decade.

This one seems to have a real connection with our escapade and other people’s amazement about quitting work, traveling without a detailed plan and basically leaving it all.

From John D. MacDonald’s book titled “The Turquoise Lament”, the main character is thinking about life and death in the context of a gaming table:

“The house takes a cut of every wager.  So you can play a close tight game, work out little conservative systems, calculate the odds to several decimal places, and no matter what you do, sooner or later They will bust you, because the house busts everybody.  The house percentage does it, sooner or later.

Or, if you want, you can bet the long shots, go for the hunches.  You will give Them a chance to bust you sooner, but you will maybe live a little bigger and better while you still have a place at the table.  Only children of all ages think they will play forever.  The man who knows in advance that They are going to bust him should not start whining about it in advance.  They will bust you with Big C, or a truck driver on uppers, or pilot error, or an Irish bomb, or a coronary occlusion, or gas in the bilge.  Other creatures play on smaller tables, and they all get busted, from mayfly to possum to quick red fox.”

Hopefully my sister and brother-in-law, in Vegas currently, don’t take this too literally with a massive bet on a roulette table.. 🙂

Made it back safely on Wednesday afternoon from our river camping trip.  It was nice to get back into camping, which we hadn’t done since mid-2012 on our first road trip.  Stopped along the way at my grandpa’s house to enjoy a dip in his pool and a couple cold beers which tasted great after the 7 mile paddle in the mid-80s. Also stopped in a fishy looking spot with a nice beach and actually saw about a dozen healthy snook cruising the shoreline, but couldn’t entice them to try our artificial baits.

Cindy and I were both ravenous after the peddling trip and hadn’t provisioned a lunch, so breakfast was the only meal prior to dinner.  That evening we enjoyed another delicious mahi dinner on my grandpa’s last evening in cape coral before he drives back north for the summer.

It has been great to spend time with so much family while we have been here in Cape Coral.  Living in Florida since 1997 has been great, but a downside has been not seeing my family enough.  Really glad we are achieving that goal of ours during this sabbatical.

Spent Thursday resting up and continuing our planning for the upcoming road trip out west.  Putting together some nice destinations so far.

My mom flew in on Friday afternoon, so we picked her up.  The timing worked out well in picking her up right after checking out another travel trailer on that side of town. Two sellers with similar trailers to negotiate, which is a good situation for us!  Plan to share some pictures of it this weekend when we finalize a deal.

March was a really chilly month here in south Florida, which was a bummer for visiting family at times.  Glad to see normal 80 degree temps return for the start of April.

Decided on an impromptu overnight camping trip.  Heading out from the house and down the caloosahatchee river towards sanibel.  Not sure where to camp tonight, but we noted a few possible islands as camp-able.
More to come along our journey…

Packing up the yaks for an overnighter, requiring many more pounds of stuff

Pre-launch check before departure

345pm update
Made it to our first area for a break. About 2.5 miles into the trip. Breezy conditions coming right into our face so its been a bumpy and slower ride so far.

Pit stop #1. Fort myers in the background

730pm update
Finally made it to a camping beach on a deserted island. First one we saw was a wildlife refuge, so no camping allowed. Next island over was a nice shell beach and large open area in the middle.

Slow going with an incoming tide and head wind. Sanibel causeway in the background.

A nice secluded campsite

Boo to lazy people

920pm update
Found a few wet items while unpacking the yaks..including my sleeping bag. Hopefully it dries out a bit before bedtime. Just enough daylight left to collect firewood, setup our tent and a makeshift kitchen. Worked up quite an appetite today from peddling for 5.5 hours.
Brought along some fresh mahi, onions, tomatoes and leftover orzo w/ mushrooms. Combine the mahi, onions and tomatoes w/ ranch dressing in a tin foil pouch and drop it on the fire for 20 minutes. A recipe we originally learned about in Tahiti… Deeelish!

Beachside campfire, warming wet feet with limitless driftwood