4/1/11 -- April Update
We spent a day at the Edison & Ford Winter Estates in
Fort Myers.
The estates encompass 20 acres of historical
buildings, gardens, a research lab and museum.
We enjoyed the self-guided audio tour,
strolling at our leisure.
The first thing we saw was beautiful orchids on
trees along “Orchid Lane.”
They looked just like you would find in a
corsage.
The property was definitely designed by an engineer’s
mind, pretty much straight lines with 90 degree angles, even the tree plantings!
The Edison estate contains original
furnishings; the Ford estate reproductions.
Both are quite exquisite, sitting along the
Caloosahatchee River.
It is definitely a must-see in Fort Myers.
Afterwards, we had lunch at The Veranda in the
heart of historic downtown Fort Myers.
We ate in the enclosed veranda looking out on a
lovely courtyard dining area.
On the way home we stopped at The Shell
Factory, probably not something we would do again.
It is a glorified flea market!
We attended the Arcadia All Florida Rodeo, billed as a
top rodeo in the Southeast.
We enjoyed ‘Mutton Bustin’, 4-6 year olds
trying to ride sheep; bare-back riding; saddle bronco riding; steer wrestling;
team roping; tie down roping; women’s adult & junior barrel racing and bull
riding.
We also show an excellent Quadrille show, described as
“square dancing with horses.”
It was very well executed.
We were able to spend a few days with son Eric, and
daughter-in-law Kat prior to Eric’s deployment to Iraq.
We enjoyed spending an afternoon at the
Indianapolis Museum of Art while in Indiana.
We spent March 25-27 in St. Petersburg, enjoying the
Honda Grand Prix, our first street car Indy car race.
We had paddock passes, so we were able to
wander through the garage areas, and get great pictures of various drivers.
We talked with Bob’s friend Joe with Panther
Racing, whose big sponsor is National Guard, an organization close to our
hearts.
We also met and talked with Christopher, the team
trainer; it was interesting to learn about his role with the team.
He is also involved with the Green Castle, IN
National Guard.
Kathy is definitely now a Panther
Racing/National Guard fan.
Driver
JR Hildebrand did very well, moving from 25th
starting position to finishing 10th.
Our seats for the race were in the first turn,
where we saw a lot of action as well as being able to see the start/finish line.
It was a great race and an excellent start to
our IRL summer!
We will be leaving our winter home at Oak Haven Mobile
Home & RV Park and will begin our journey north.
We plan to visit state capitols in Florida,
Georgia, and Alabama, as well as the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama in
Birmingham.
We will spend a couple of weeks visiting son
Mike & family before returning to Indiana early May.
3/7/11 -- March Update
We recently visited
Solomon’s Castle,
a very unique and interesting sight in nearby Ona, FL.
As the brochure indicates, it “is one man’s dream of paradise.”
We toured the home and galleries of Howard Solomon, an internationally
renowned artist who built the castle, stained glass windows and countless metal
sculptures from recycled materials.
Our tour was led by the queen of the castle, Mrs. Solomon, and each sculpture
had a unique name and story. We had
lunch at the Boat in a Moat restaurant on the property, where we enjoying dining
dockside under the spectacular live oaks.
We spent an afternoon at Hermann’s
Original Royal Lipizzan Stallions of Austria farm near Myakka City, FL.
Founded in the 16th century for the exclusive use of the
Hapsburg Royal
family of Austria, the Royal Lipizzans are unquestionably the rarest, most
aristocratic breed of horses in the world. The pride of the Hapsburg Empire, the
Lipizzan breed was first established by Archduke Charles at Lipizza (now part of
Yugoslavia). Only a few hundred
have ever existed at any one time. Gen
George Patton rescued 500 of the stallians from certain death at the hands of
the Nazis during WWII. Assisting Patton in the clandestine mission to
rescue the regal Lipizzans, Colonel Herrmann and his father, Colonel Ottomar
Herrmann, Sr., smuggled the horses out from far behind enemy lines, riding at
night and hiding by day. "We moved out into the night with nothing," recalled
Herrmann, "only a handful of horses". We
enjoyed watching a 90-minute training session that was absolutely fabulous.
It was interesting to see how the staff works with the stallions and the
various levels of training among the stallions.
We also walked the stables to see the various stallions and enjoyed the
grounds.
We continue to enjoy the beautiful Florida weather, the nice park pool and the
activities at Oak Haven. We are
beginning to make our summer travel plans, and hope to attend multiple Indy car
races as well as see more of our beautiful United States of America.
2/10/11 --
February Update
We recently enjoyed the Fort Myers RV show where we browsed lots of units but
still didn’t find anything we like better than what we have.
We bought a new personalized welcome sign and ran into fellow NOMADS Gary
& Joan; what a pleasant surprise!
We attended the Warbirds Air Show in Punta Gorda, where we enjoyed looking at
vintage aircraft and talking to owners.
We just returned from a 5-day Western Caribbean cruise with friends from Highland Wheel Estates. We really enjoyed both the cruise and connected with old friends.
We spent a day in Roatan Island, Honduras where we enjoyed a dolphin encounter in the beautiful Caribbean receiving kisses and hugs from Bailey, a 5-year old dolphin. We also enjoyed an authentic island lunch of red beans & rice, boiled bananas and oxtail. You can see Baily perform here.
We spent a day at the magnificent
Mayan ruins of the
walled city of Tulum, Mexico, rising high above the crystal blue Caribbean Sea.
These ruins are the only remaining Mayan ruins in Mexico and our
guide, Julio, was very informative as he explained the history and life in the
Yucatan and the mysterious Mayan culture.
The city sits 40 feet above the Caribbean and the views are spectacular!
We enjoyed an authentic Mexican Buffet right on the water; the buffet was
delicious and the view indescribable.
It was a wonderful day. We
both enjoyed all the delicious food onboard the ship, Celebrity Century as well
as the shows and just relaxing.
When we returned to Highland Wheel Estates, we visited with some friends who
didn’t take the cruise before returning to Oak Haven Park.
The southwest Florida weather has improved so we’ve enjoyed getting out to walk,
bike and enjoying the pool.
12//6/10 -- We are currently staying at the Oak Haven Mobile Home and RV Park just south of Arcadia, FL.. We spent the fall in Greenfield, IN at the S&H campground. We spend most of November working with NOMADS at the Vashti Center in Thomasville, GA. It was our first project with NOMADS and we thank Gary, Joan and David for all the help and all the hard work. Vashti is an institution for severly troubled children. They have a cottage for the girls and one for the boys. The cottages are lock down facilities. Because many of the children are violent at times, we spent most of our time there fixing up things that had been broken. We worked there for 3 weeks. We were able to work in some sightseeing. Thomasville is a very old, rather rich town surrounded by Plantations. One of the things we did was to visit the Pebble Hill Plantation which is open to the public.
January 2011 Update
Before Christmas, we spent an afternoon at Fisherman’s Village in Punta Gorda,
FL, a waterfront mall on the Charlotte Harbor.
It’s filled with interesting & unique shops as well as places to eat
right on the water. The Military
Heritage Museum was especially interesting.
We spent an afternoon at Ft. Myers Beach, where we enjoyed walking on the beach,
people watching, wandering the shops and dinner on the water at the Beach
Pierside Grill. While eating
dessert at our table on the deck, we saw a dolphin frolicking in the gulf; what
an added treat!
We had a wonderful Christmas visit with family and got our annual snow fix! It was nice to visit friends and family for the holidays! It was cold and snowy but we managed without any problems.
We spent an afternoon at Siesta Key a beautiful barrier island west of Sarasota, where the sand is boasted as the “World’s Finest Whitest Sand”. We had a picnic lunch while fighting off the gulls who were apparently also hungry, then walked the beach where we talked to Sean, a parasailer and met a nice couple from Pierre, SD who were vacationing in Sarasota.
Last week we spent an afternoon at Alligator Creek Preserve where we saw our
first “up close and personal” armadillos who were totally oblivious to us.
We enjoyed walking a nature trail through various vegetation and seeing
an alligator sunbathing on the far side of a pond.
We then spent some time at Port Charlotte Beach Park on Alligator Bay.
We enjoyed walking the beach, watching the water activity and watching
people playing bocce ball. It was
fun to watch, but we certainly didn’t understand much!
We ended the day with dinner at Harpoon Harry’s on Charlotte Harbor where
we enjoyed a delicious meal & a beautiful sunset.
