Apr 28, 2013 - A Day in Venice, FL with Joan and Bill

We spent the day with Eileen's long-time friend, Joan, and her husband, Bill. Bill has recently restored the family 1951 Packard and generously took us for a ride around Venice, FL. We got a kick out of the surprised looks, "thumbs-ups," and admiring stares of the passersby. We stopped at a jetty, where we spotted a manatee, had dinner at a wonderful marina-side restaurant, and visited the beach at sunset where Eileen learned how to find sharks' teeth.

Mar 28, 2013 - Geithmans Family RV

We moved once again to our cousins home in Englewood near Venice. The Geithmans are very gracious to have us back to their wonderful home. We’ll attend Easter Sunday church services with them. Otherwise, this stop is just a hangout stop to continue getting to know our newly found relations and probably eat too much. With this posting we just passed 7K photos An update has been posted for www.purposefulrving.blogspot.com

Feb 20, 2013 - The Geithman Family RV

We had a great 85 mile drive to Englewood on the Gulf Coast and the beginning of our week visiting with 2 sets of cousin in-laws of Rebecca’s. We met these “cousins” for the first time last Sept while we were in Wisconsin. We parked in their front yard on the circular drive way. This afforded us a great view of the beautiful landscaped front yard. That evening seven of us went to dinner together. We caught up on times gone by and other such things. Our gracious hosts opened their home to us, fed us well and gave many great suggestions for...

Mar 7, 2012 - Shark (Teeth) Hunting

Today we had a really great day and a new experience. Our “across the street” neighbors, Cindy and Dave DeChano, invited us to go to Venice to look for shark teeth. We went to “Sharkey’s” which is a restaurant on the pier at Venice beach, where we met Cindy’s cousin Ellen and her husband Steve. Thankfully, we arrived a bit before the lunch crowd completely took over the place and had a wonderful lunch. Then we walked farther out onto the pier, and the guys rented what Dave calls, “Florida Snow Shovels” to shovel and sift sand to look for...

Mar 4, 2012 - Enjoyin the beach

Sunday, March 04, 2012 Hey Gang, I’m not gonna complain now, not in the least ya understand, I’m just tellin ya the facts. Damn it’s been hot………and humid. 80’s every day, sunny skies. How does one live thru this and keep a proper perspective. Well one way is to just take a hike across the beach and throw oneself in the ocean. AAAAAHHHHHHH, good idea. We drove to Marco Island on the gulf side which is just south of Naples. It’s an upscale place and has 2 public beaches. We hit the northern one and I enjoyed a refreshing dip. B doesn’t like...

Nov 5, 2011 - Enjoying Florida

Well I am enjoying Stone Crab at last. I did get some at a seafood market while we were staying at Topsail State Park. Now that we are down by Venice, FL there is a fantastic seafood restaurant only a few miles from the park. We went to the Vencie Art Festival on Saturday and had a really good time admiring all of the art work. There are some very talanted people in this area and if I owned a house, I would have certainly picked up some of the art work. Went walking on Venice and Casperian beaches. As you all know I love to walk on the...

Sep 18, 2011 - Shark's tooth hunt. Last day.

Hot again. Rex & I went for drive up and down Manasota Key (this Key runs from Venice City to Englewood, and is basically a sandbar on the other side of a dedged channel they call the Intercoastal). We walked along the beach a fair way. There were dotterels, snipe, pelicans, egrets, and fenced off areas for turtle nests. There were people collecting shark's teeth at the shoreline. One guy had a hand dredge, and he seemed to be the best collector - showed me a whole handful. They make the fossilized teeth into jewellery. We didn't find any,...

Sep 17, 2011 - Florida Whites and other critters

I have been observing a certain lack of human cultural diversity in South Venice, and it came home to me when I suddenly observed a solitary black woman that this is Persil country: whiter than white. Wikipedia confirms this; last census shows Venice is over 98% white. Just about Te Kowhai figures. Today I saw a number of the said species (Florida whites) about their weekend activities. Most of the males (including Rex) go out and mow lawns. A lot take their shirts off, exposing the all too common hairy paunch reddening in the sun, with...

Sep 16, 2011 - Don't wait till the wiggling stops (and other gator lore)

"Don't wait till the wiggling stops", said Kenny our guide, when we were only a metre or so away from a fairly large gator. No fences, no bars. Just in a pool beside the road. Looking pretty mean. Apparently gators make a kind of cat-like tail wiggle when they're preparing to strike. He told us a whole lot of other fearsome stuff, about people being stupid...I wasn't quite sure how much was tourist-guide hype. But I sure wasn't going to put it to the test! We left early, about 6 am, because the tour was leaving from Naples, which is about...

Sep 15, 2011 - House "tenting" and more gators

Celora's house was tented this morning. It is literally covered with thick airproof fabric, sealed, and then gassed, to exterminate termites. Apparently they leave it for a couple of days, then remove the tent, and then after a couple more days it can be re-occupied. So all food, valuables and necessary living stuff had to be removed. We brought the goats over here (to Rex's place) but they don't seem to want to stay in the paddock, so when Celora and I got home from a shopping trip, they had got out and were back home. Just went to get...

Sep 14, 2011 - Sharkys and gator

Rex offered to take me into Venice to see the sights. I had found an official website for the town, that said there was a butterfly garden next to the library. Big lotus pond, but no butterfly garden that I could see. Went in to the library to Ask a Librarian (they know everything!) but neither person on the desks had heard of it. I found lots of host plants and nectar plants beside the lotus pond so presume that was it. Too early in the day for butterflies (silly me!). We went in to the historic town centre which is all warm coloured...

Sep 13, 2011 - Kayaking in the mangroves, South Venice FL

The squirrels are back. Jumping and playing and leaping in the oaks outside Rex's house. Have been scared off by the osprey, but it wasn't around today. Spent morning walking and looking at butterflies. New ones spotted a tiny blue too blue for Cassius Blue so probably a Ceraunas Blue, and several Viceroys (flight pattern different to Queens and Monarchs). Also Phaon Crescents, Pearl Crescents and a couple of skippers, too hard to ID. I walked down to the boat ramp and ferry wharf. The ferry is a little local ferry, funded by the...