Rain, Relatives and Friends

Koreshan State Historic Site, Estero, FL - Overflow Lot

It rained on and off yesterday, sometimes quite heavily. As the sun set we could see lighting in the far off thunderclouds even though the rain had stopped where we were.

We started off on Monday morning with a stop at the Naples Whole Foods. The primary reason for stopping was to get some pastries (cupcakes in this case) and some wine. We managed to take the long way there, time-wise. The GPS routed us up US 41, which goes through downtown Naples and, seemingly, a million traffic lights. The way we took coming back was a lot quicker.

We stopped there on the way to see Ellen's cousin Kathy and her husband Paul. They live in a nice older neighborhood with large lots, but since it is not on the coast, it hasn't been super-sized yet. We had lunch with them and Ellen and Kathy caught up on all the family doings and history. Paul, a retired mechanic who owned a shop in Cohasset before moving to Florida many years ago, and I talked cars and golf and listened to Ellen and Kathy. A good time was had as we sat out on their covered screen porch with the rain ringing on the metal roof. They provided lunch and Key Lime pie; we provided cupcakes and wine.

After we left and were almost back to Collier-Seminole State Park, we decided to go out for dinner. The place next to the park is basically a biker bar, so that wasn't all that appealing. The road next to it lead to Marco Island and the town of Goodland. Google maps showed five restaurants in Goodland, the closer town, so off to Goodland we went.

Only two of the places were open on a Monday night, The Little Bar and Marker 8.5. They were both rated pretty highly and had similar menus, so based on the online menu prices, we chose The Little Bar. It was obviously quite popular, as their parking lot was packed. We had to wait about ten minutes for a table. The food was pretty good, but not exceptional. Ellen had the fried oysters; I had snapper with lemon caper butter sauce. The fried oysters were fair and the sweet potato fries were crisp. The quantity was good, but the ones we had at Flamingo were tastier. My snapper was floured and pan-sautéed. The fish was quite tasty, but the flour coating was rather tough. The prices were about $5 an item higher than in the online version of the menu,which was surprising and disappointing. What was reasonable for what we got, became overpriced.

When we returned to the park, we decided to go over to the paved picnic area parking lot to see if we might overnight there. It has a nice view of the lake and we didn't relish pulling into our crowded and most likely muddy campsite. We didn't really need any hookups overnight. When we got there, we noticed several other campers there, two other vans and a Class C RV. We joined them. The lot is large and we were all spread out. It was a dark and quiet night. Much more comfortable than the main campground.

At the time, we just figured that they were all campers with same idea as us....getting away from the crowd, but with tonight's site, I've come to the conclusion that the campground may have been using the picnic lot as an overflow area since the campground was full.

After our morning coffee and showers, we drove over to Marco Island. Primarily we were visiting our old friends, Rod and Ellen, who moved here from Massachusetts a couple of years ago, but first we were on the search for the Burrowing Owl. It is a tiny protected owl, about Blue Jay-sized, that lives underground and hunts in the daytime as well as evening. Marco Island has about 100 living in burrows in empty lots. Following a guide from a local bird club, we toured the owl burrow lots for most of the morning, but saw no owls. There are even burrows at the end of Rod's street. He says that he sees them often, but we aren't ready to move here just to see owls.

We had a great afternoon visiting and catching up, as we hadn't seen them since they moved down here. They had been back in Massachusetts, the last time we were here. They are enjoying living on Marco Island and even like the summer heat. The section of the island they live on is quite nice and they have a comfortable corner lot and house right across from a canal, only a couple of blocks from restaurants, a movie theater and the Gulf beaches. Markets are within a couple of miles. The fishing is good and the town is easy to get around in by bicycle. It is primarily a seasonal town. Much like Waiheke in the summer, the town swells about five-fold in the Winter and is much quieter in the summer.

After we left in the late afternoon, we headed north with no destination in mind. We figured that, at worst, we could stop over in a Cracker Barrel restaurant, as we often do on long drives. On a whim, we pulled off at Koreshan State Historic Site, a state park with a campground. We knew that they were fully booked via ReserveAmerica, but thought there might be an off-chance of a walk-in site. We got there just in time as the park closes at sunset, but there were no sites available in the campground. I asked if they had an overflow area. It turns out that they do, in the historic village parking lot. You must have a self-contained RV with toilet, electricity and water. No pop-ups or tents need apply. We met the criteria. We can just stay the one night, but that is all we need. It is level and dark, not as quiet as last night since the village is just off US 41, but we've been in worse.

Tomorrow we are off to Tarpon Springs to visit with my mother. She is staying the winter with my brother, Jeff, who lives there. After that we will do another overnight stopover, most likely at Withacoochee State Forest. We are on the way to Ft. Pickens in the Gulf islands National Seashore. We have reservations there starting Saturday. We are still winging it until then.

No photos today.