From Panama City Beach, Florida to Fort Myers, Florida
February 21 to February 26, 2003
To see other portions
of our long trip

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That's Jackie and I and the Burb basking on the Florida beach.  (Actually, we have
been doing so much sightseeing, our "beach time" has added up to a few walks
and one hour late one day as it started to cool off).

Well, we have been busy out here in the southeast.  Just saw a weather report
that showed most of the US with rain, snow and/or cold.  Just to let you
know, it is 10:40pm February 26th as I write this and we have the air
conditioner on!  Wherever you are, I hope your weather improves soon.
(Of course, we turn north in a week!)

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There is a quote that says something like "Behind every
successful man, stands a woman...".  Something like that,
anyway (please don't all of you send me the real quote!)
Anyway, Jackie is the one who directs me when we
back the trailer and she does a GREAT job of it.

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These 3 pics are from Mexico Beach, Florida.  It is on
the Panhandle and about 30 miles east of Panama City,
Florida.  (No, I did not make these names up!)  Panama
City is fairly large and way too commercial for our tastes.
Mexico Beach is much smaller and laid back.  If we could
return to this beach we would love it.  The sand is very
white and it is soft.  It tends to "pack" underfoot, much
like snow.  This makes it easy to walk on, which is real nice.

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Jackie and I have been in Florida once before, in 1977.  We came into the state during the July 4th weekend and stayed at one campground.  We drove around a bit, then turned north.  A few days ago, we spent another night at the campground.  It is the Suwannee River State Park.   This is the river that Stephen Foster made famous with "Swannee River".   I'm not sure why the spelling is different.

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During the past three weeks we have gone thru several storms.  As we came into the Tampa area Saturday, March 22nd, a storm hit.  We saw waves crashing into the road in Tampa Bay that would do well in the north Atlantic!  As we got to the area where our campground was, it was raining so hard we could not see.  We pulled into a store parking lot and Jackie took the first picture thru our windshield.  The second pic was about 90 minutes later at our campsite.  The storm was "letting up".  Note the rain pouring off the front corner of the trailer.

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BUT... this is Florida!
This picture was taken the next morning
around 9:00am.  Dry, sunny and near perfect.		 3_tampa_bay_area002.JPG (128546 bytes)
This is a beach at a small town called Indian Rocks Beach.
It was Sunday and only about 60 degrees, but the beaches were packed!  Indian Rocks Beach is on a set of islands just west of Tampa & St. Petersburg that face the Gulf of Mexico.		 3_tampa_bay_area005.JPG (67060 bytes)
The Tampa area (and much of Florida) is dominated by water.   This is a picture of a small part of Tampa Bay. 3_tampa_bay_area008.JPG (41972 bytes)
We spent a day at Busch Gardens in Tampa.  This Peacock held a pose for me until I had managed to take his picture. 4_busch_garden008.JPG (124787 bytes)
Wow!  They have a lot of flamingoes at Busch Gardens (BG).  They really have a lot of animals of all sorts; including giraffes, elephants, alligators, zillions of birds and everything else! 4_busch_garden010.JPG (127785 bytes)
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This guy was getting a bit fresh with Jackie! 4_busch_garden018.JPG (109492 bytes)
To say it was a slow day at an amusement park, would be an understatement.  For any of you have waited in long lines and seen signs that say 30, 40, 50 minutes; eat your heart out.  There were no lines on a Monday in February. 4_busch_garden022.JPG (101442 bytes)
"BG" had several fine shows.  We saw an ice skating show (Yep!) and a rock and roll show with a Moroccan twist (?).  We got to see just a part of this show, but it was great.  They were from Russia and did tumbling, jump rope, etc. and were great!! 4_busch_garden026.JPG (64256 bytes)
Jackie trying to entice a bird with food that she did not have.  (The bird might have seen this ploy before, since he ignored her pretty well.) 4_busch_garden039.JPG (131929 bytes)
Orangutans!  They are just special to me! 4_busch_garden040.JPG (156845 bytes)
Nope!  I did not even think about picking this bad boy up! 4_busch_garden042.JPG (138225 bytes)
Another view of part of the waterways
surrounding the Tampa/St. Petersburg area.		 5_tampa_bay_area021.JPG (40851 bytes)
We finally got to go sit on the beach in St. Petersburg Beach ( a separate town from St. Petersburg).  Christie recommended we try "Crabby Bill's" and we found a beach right in front of it to spread our blanket and enjoy the sun.  Then we walked in and had a nice dinner as the sun set.   Sounds idyllic, doesn't it?  Of course... the manager came to our table to inform us that VISA had not only rejected our bill, but told her to DESTROY (!!) the card.   (YEP!)  It turns out that our VISA carrier made an error.  It is all settled now, but we are without one of our two VISA cards!  (The food was good, though!) 5_tampa_bay_area026.JPG (69007 bytes)
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We have been taking pics of "odd places and things" we see.  We stopped here (in Fort Myers) for an ice cream.  Jackie got distracted helping me make change and hers was melting all over her hands! 6_to_fort_myers001.JPG (69020 bytes)
We went out to the "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge Wednesday, March 26th.  It is on Sanibell Island, about 10 miles southwest of Fort Myers.  We saw lots of birds; Pelicans are very common here (much like seagulls at home). 6_to_fort_myers004.JPG (66497 bytes)
While in Ft. Myers, we toured the winter homes (and
laboratories of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.  They were
good friends and lived side by side.  When they first built here
in the late 1800's, the only way here was by ship.		 7_edison_ford030.JPG (139789 bytes)

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Thursday, March 27th, we head into the Everglades.  I am not sure
if our cell coverage exists there or not.  The map we have from Verizon
says we have coverage most everywhere.  Of course, if we don't have it
where we are....  We plan to spend 2 days on Chokoloskee Island and then
one day near Homestead.  Then we will spend 3 nights down in the Keys.
Our "next door neighbor" at our park tonight (Wednesday) just got back
from 3 months in Key West.  He and his wife come down from Michigan
every year for the past 6 or 7 years.  They love it there!

We see a tremendous number of people from Michigan here.  Sometimes,
1/2 of the cars on the freeway will have those plates.  We also have met
many people from Boston (not Massachusetts)(?) and a lot from England.
Jackie had an interesting thought.  How many of the Florida plates that we
see... are rental cars driven by people from out of state?

At Busch Gardens, Trey rode five roller coasters.  (Jackie joined me for one
that went upside down!)  On two of the coasters, he set next to people from
England.  They say just a lot of people come here to escape the winter!

Being new to cell phones, we have made an interesting discovery.   Our cell
phone adjusts it's time to the local time.  Obviously, it is getting information
from the local cell towers.  Automatically!
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Updated February 20, 2003

 

 

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