May 7, 2013 - Last Day in Paradise

From Caloosa Cottage in Alva, FL ... Tuesday, May 7, 2013 Whew! Another very busy day for us as we wrap things up around here. We left home this morning around 9:00 to run errands. We went by Camping World to purchase a tire cover for the RV. For some reason, one of our tire covers disappeared. Next stop was Bealls where we spent our Bealls Bucks. We had no problem finding some things we just had to have. Then we drove to Pine Island for one more wonderful fresh seafood lunch. We love Pine Island! Love driving through the colorful...

May 6, 2013 - Painting Done, RV Covered

From our Caloosa Cottage in Alva, FL ... Monday, May 6, 2013 Ahhhhh, I'm finally sitting down ... We had another busy day down here as we try to wind up our last two days here. Yesterday, my back was hurting, so I decided to "try" and take it easy. Charlie painted the kitchen, bless him. I did do some cleaning around the cottage and sprayed Roundup on the weeds around the house among other things. You may recall that our main objective for this trip was to put the RV cover on. Well, day after day, we keep putting it off. The last couple...

May 3, 2013 - Beach Day

From Caloosa Cottage in Alva, FL ... Friday, May 3, 2013 After another day of downpouring rain yesterday, we woke up to blue skies and low humidity this morning. So as we sat on the porch sipping our coffee, we made the impulsive decision to make it a beach day. More rain was forecast for this afternoon, although we never did see any. It was a gorgeous day. We didn't bring our "bag chairs" with us that we like to take to the beach. So we decided to go ahead and buy another pair to leave down here. The less we have to remember to pack in the...

May 1, 2013 - A stormy day

From Caloosa Cottage in Alva, FL ... May 1, 2013 It's May already? You would think from the weather we are having here in southwest FL, that it is the rainy season already. We did manage to get in our bike ride this morning and breakfast on the porch. But then as we headed out do some shopping, the rain started to fall. We did some shopping in Target first and then onto Bed, Bath and Beyond. While in BB&B, it started storming hard, and the power went out for about a minute before coming back on. By the time we checked out, the wind was...

Apr 30, 2013 - Cottage is taking shape

From Caloosa Cottage in Alva, FL … Tuesday, April 30, 2013 This morning we had coffee and grapefruit on the front porch. Then we headed out for our 2 mile walk. My feet were sore last night after several hours of painting, so we shortened our walk a little today. I was painting in the bathroom in a very tight space, painting the ceiling and above the bathtub. We sat and enjoyed ourselves down by the water at the “Key West” patio area. We enjoy watching the variety of lizards and their colorful throats playing on the rocks. We returned...

Apr 29, 2013 - Back at the Cottage

From Caloosa Cottage in Alva, FL ... Monday, April 29, 2013 We have been at the cottage since Thursday night, and it has been wonderful. Of course, the weather here is warmer than when we left three weeks ago, but it's great. Mostly in the mid 80s to around 90 but not overly humid. As everyone who lives in FL will tell you, get up to to do your work in the morning, and we can see the wisdom in that. Although I know it will be much hotter here in the coming months. But April is a wonderful time to be here. When we arrived Thursday night,...

Mar 31, 2013 - Easter Sunday

From Caloosa Cottage in Alva, FL ... Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013 On Friday, Chuck led a Naturalization citizenship ceremony in Fort Myers, and Charlie and I were privileged to attend. It was such a meaningful experience for us, and we enjoyed it so much. We watched as 51 people from 20 different countries became U.S. citizens. And Chuck did an awesome job leading the entire ceremony. He is great at his job, and it is so great to see him do something he loves. We are really starting to love it here. Each day we meet some of our...

Mar 28, 2013 - From RV to Cottage

From our little "Caloosa Cottage" in Alva, FL ... Thursday, March 28, 2013 As you can see from the first line in this blog, we have named our little SW Florida getaway ... "Caloosa Cottage." We named it "Caloosa" after the Caloosahatchee River where our community is built. The Calusas were a Native American tribe who were the original people of southwest FL in the 1600s. They were also known as the "Shell Indians." We are hoping that when my parents come down to visit that we can twist Dad's arm to paint a sign for us to put out front. :...

Mar 1, 2013 - Return to WP Franklin COE

From WP Franklin COE Park in Alva, FL (near Fort Myers) ... Friday, March 1, 2013 Yesterday we left Whisper Creek in LaBelle and traveled about 15 miles to WP Franklin COE Park in Alva. Once again, it was nice to have a short drive. :) Only this time the temps were much cooler and less humid which made it easier to get everything set up. It only takes us less than an hour to set up, but it's amazing how hot you can get when working. We are in Site #10, one of the best campsites in the park. You may recall that we were in this campsite last...

Jan 26, 2013 - Travel to WP Franklin Lock

From WP Franklin Lock Campground in Alva, FL ... Sunday, January 27, 2013 On Saturday we left Ortona Lock and traveled about 25 miles west to WP Franklin Lock in Alva. Alva is just outside of North Fort Myers making it very convenient to lots of fun things to keep us entertained. :) This park has a totally different feel than Ortona Lock, but we also like it a lot too. The campsites are a bit closer together and sit closer to the road, but most all of them are situated on the waterfront along the Caloosahatchee River section of the ICW. It...

Dec 13, 2012 - Telegraph Creek

Joan Rabin led 10 of us on a beautiful kayak trip up Telegraph Creek that flows into the Caloosahatchie River west of Alva. Last year we did this trip soon after a bad storm and a tree had fallen across the creek forcing us to do the limbo in our kayaks to get by it. This year, the tree is gone, the creek is high, and we made it all the way to a 3 inch waterfall near the beginning of the creek! Joan said we were the first Carefree kayaking group to have made it that far! We saw farm animals like horses, goats, roosters, alpacas and even...

Mar 8, 2012 - Winding up SW Florida

From WP Franklin COE Park in Alva, FL … Wednesday, March 8, 2012 We have really enjoyed our time here at WP Franklin Lock and most especially on this particular campsite. It feels so private unlike most of the sites here. It’s almost like we are living on our own little private island with water views all around us. However, that being said, I think we are ready to leave southwest Florida and move on to another area of the state. We have been in this area since the second week of January. We have noticed that the tourist season has really...