January 30, 2025 - Matanzas Pass Mooring Field, Fort Meyers Beach to Keewaydin Island, Naples, Florida

We woke early and left the mooring field at around 7:13 a.m.  We are heading to Naples / Marco Island to anchor out at Keewaydin Island.

 

We stopped for groceries and then continued on to Keewaydin Island.

Once we got settled, we took the dinghy to the beach and took a short stroll.  We were both coughing and figured out that it was red tide.  We went back to the boat, played Rummikub, and had burgers for supper.  We watched "Blue Bloods" for a while, until Kip started to fall asleep, then tucked in around 9:15 p.m.  

January 31, 2025 - Keewaydin Island, Naples, Florida

Kip got up early, and I got up around 7:30.  Kip powered up the dinghy and took me to the beach.  

Kip was watching the world go by, and I walked the beach for three hours looking for shells.  Kip said he almost called the Coast Guard because I was gone so long (funny)!  

Boats arrive early, filling up the entire beach.  Then at about 3:00 they all begin to leave.

We read on the back deck for a while, and I decided I was tired and took a nap.  Actually, we both took a couple of naps today!!  

We relaxed, snacked, and watched boats come and go.  We tied the dinghy back onto the back of the boat so we wouldn't have to do it in the morning.  

We played a couple of games of Rummikub, at supper, and eventually once it got dark watched "Blue Bloods".  

January 29, 2025 - Matanzas Pass Mooring Field, Fort Meyers Beach, Florida

We decided that tomorrow we are going to leave the mooring ball and explore.  But, for today, we had coffee and a donut.  Then Kip went to the dinghy dock to grab our bikes.  He ran out of gas in the dinghy, hurried to get the gas can and add gas, and ended up right next to a shrimp boat.  

We played a game of RummiKub (which Jeff and Laura taught us yesterday).  

We had lunch and went to the beach for a few hours - walking and reading.  

We came back to the boat and "battened the hatches" so we can leave when we get up tomorrow morning.  Destination?  Unknown.  

January 28, 2025 - Matanzas Pass Mooring Field, Fort Meyers Beach, Florida

Today Jeff and Laura picked up their boat, drove to Salty Sam's Marina, and launched it.  While waiting for them, Kip watched a boat that was pulled out of the water after the hurricane get cut up. 

Kip drove the truck and trailer, and Jeff drove the boat to their boat lift.  After picking up Kip, we went on a ride around the area.  There is quite a bit of construction, especially on the bridges.  Loud, smelly, construction!

We put the boat back onto the boat lift and stopped at Target for a few items.  Because of the long wait at the restaurant, we wanted to go to, we decided to have dinner at The Cheesecake Factory.  

We then went back to Jeff and Laura's RV, and they taught us how to play RummiKub.  Jeff dropped us off at Salty Sam's Marina a little after ten, we dinghed to the boat and tucked into bed.

January 27, 2025 - Matanzas Pass Mooring Field, Fort Meyers Beach, Florida

Today the temperature was about 75 degrees.  We dinghied to Mantanzas to shower and then went to the beach.  Kip sat for a while, and I walked the shore talking with people and looking for shells (kind of...  I found some and gave them away).   We are bummed that we forgot about the outdoor concert last night.

After the beach, we came back to the boat and sat on the back deck for a while.  Kip decided to do laundry.  I stayed on the boat and read.  The mooring ball was pounding against the side of the boat and was stuck, so I took the boat hook, moved it away from the boat, and retired the lines so it wouldn't bang and mark up the side of the boat.

Kip returned and took a quick nap, and I sat and read on the back deck.  Kip took some pictures of the dolphins that run through this area, usually to feed along the shore.

We also saw an eagle in the tree.

The tour boats and (loud) party boats are still going out every day.  The people in the boat next to us (Plane Escape) are from Stillwater, Minnesota.  We chatted with them, and they said if we need a car let them know and we could use theirs.  

We are happy to be getting into some kind of a schedule instead of constantly making decisions based on the weather, which is nice!  

January 26, 2025 - Matanzas Pass Mooring Field, Fort Meyers Beach, Florida

 Kip was up early and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise.  The temps are much more bearable - should be in the 70s today.  We went to the beach, had chicken for supper, and tucked in around 10 p.m.

January 25, 2025 - Day's Inn Hotel to Matanzas Pass Mooring Field, Fort Meyers Beach, Florida

Kip got up early, snuck out of the room, and went shopping for items we needed.  When he got back, he had coffee and a donut for me.  We checked out of our hotel room, had breakfast with Jeff and Laura, and went back to the boat.

The temperatures are much better and no rain.  Kip saw dolphins swim by - he is in his happy place!  

We unpacked all of our stuff, got a book, and sat on the back deck.  Eventually we took a nap and had spaghetti for dinner.  We watched "Blue Bloods" and tucked in around 9:45 p.m.  

We are grateful for good friends, warmer weather, and to be back on the water!  

January 23-24, 2025 - Day's Inn Hotel, Fort Meyers Beach, Florida

Our new temporary home is the Day's Inn.  

Jeff and Laura picked us up and we spent time with them:  dining out, shopping, a movie, billiards, board and card games, etc.  They were wonderful hosts!

Kip and Jeff had things to do (shop at Harley Davidson, axe throwing, etc.), and Laura and I drank coffee and talked and talked and talked!  

January 20-22, 2025 - Matanzas Pass Mooring Field, Fort Meyers Beach, Florida

 

Wow, what weather the USA is having!  We are running the Wallas stove heater most of the time.  It is cold!  At night the temperature went down to the low 40s.  We are tucked in the boat and trying to stay warm.  

Jeff and Laura have been picking us up to spend time with them, which has been very nice.  

Wednesday morning (January 22) Kip woke me up and said we were going to a hotel.  The low was going to be in the 30s and our heater will not be able to keep up.  

We packed the essential things and went to a hotel not far from Jeff and Laura's campground.  

January 16-19, 2025 - Matanzas Pass Mooring Field, Fort Meyers Beach, Florida

 Not much to report lately.  The weather has been overcast and on and off sprinkles.  

Kip has made a few trips to the grocery store on the bike.  We have determined that we must have left a bag of groceries somewhere because now our spaghetti noodles are missing!  We have been reading, playing dominoes, napping, and tinkering on and off of the boat.  

Jeff and Laura have been picking us up and we have gone out to eat and played some new games (a card game called "Golf" and adult sorry) at their rv park.  We stopped to eat at Doc Fords and Bonita Bill's has been bought out by Doc Fords.  There was crane outside of Bonita Bills and they were lifting boats sunk by Hurricane Ian out of the water an onto a barge.

Today, if it doesn't rain as predicted we are going to an outdoor concert in Fort Meyers Beach.  We'll see.

January 15, 2025, Wednesday - Salty Sam's Marina to Matanzas Pass Mooring Field, Fort Meyers Beach, Florida

Today we are moving from the Salty Sam Marina to the Mooring Field.  We have no power at the marina, and we won't have power on the mooring ball, but it is much cheaper.  

There was only one shower at salty Sams with a code on the door.  Once you shut the door there is a slide bolt that you push to keep others from walking in on you.  The bolt doesn't go in the slot very far!  As I was showering, someone tried the code and then started body slamming the door and of course it opened.  I yelled "someone's in here" and quickly grabbed my towel.  Yikes.  

From the mooring ball, we have a long dinghy ride to the dinghy dock.  We checked out the facilities we can use while on the mooring ball and walked on the beach for a short time.  We both are feeling tired and kind of off today.  We stopped at an Italian restaurant and split a burger and fries and a calzone.  

We talked about going to the grocery store via the trambus but decided to go back to the boat to relax.  We both napped.  Kip is still working out things on the boat that were changed or are being flaky, and all is fine now.  Nothing major.  Kip saw two dolphins going by while I was sleeping.  

We played dominoes and ate the rest of the calzone for supper.  Then relaxed.  We are still trying to find the salsa we bought at the grocery store a few days ago.  It is nowhere to be found.  Very weird!  

January 14, 2025, Tuesday - Salty Sam's Marina, Fort Meyers Beach, Florida

Today we continued cleaning and sorting all of the boat items.  Kip drove the truck and trailer to the storage area in Labelle.  Jeff picked him up and they had lunch.

I stayed back at the boat, slept, read, etc. until he got back.

Then we filled the water, cleaned the head, etc. for a few hours.  I've been slacking on my blog duties, so we had to juice up the computer for a while to work on it.  We decided dinner would be tuna sandwiches, chips and salsa, and fruit.

January 13, 2025, Monday - St. Petersburg, Florida to Fort Meyers Beach, Florida

Today we de drove to Salty Sam's Marina in Fort Meyers Beach.   We put the boat in the water and will be staying on the dock for two nights.  The dock was taken out by hurricane Ian, so they are working hard to get it fixed.  We don't have power.  The marina has a storage area and people can request that their boat be taken out of storage and put into the water for the day.  Between the boats being put in and taken out (beep beep beep) and the dock workers (pound, pound, pound, it is quite noisy.  

We spent lots of time cleaning, organizing, and searching for the salsa we thought we bought.  Can't find it, so who knows what we did with it!  

We watched two episodes of "Blue Bloods" and tucked in.  It is cooler today, so we ran the heater again overnight.  

January 12, 2025, Sunday - Carversville, Georgia to St. Petersburg, Florida

Well, today we searched for quite a while to get coffee (which is a MUST HAVE).  Many of the Starbucks are closed due to a strike of some kind, which kind of made us angry.  

We stopped at Buckees along the way too.  That is a must do.  We stopped at a rest area near St. Petersburg for the night.  Kip loves the rest stops because the trucks make many noises, such as:  pffffffs, beep beep beep, etc. 

We had salami sandwiches for supper, watched an episode of "Blue Bloods" and tucked in for the night.

January 11, 2025, Saturday - Bloomington Normal, Illinois to

Today was much like yesterday except we drove through a large area that got hit by the snowstorm.  It was like we were driving through the "Frozen" movie.  The trees were heavy with icicles and the sun was shining down creating sparkles everywhere.  It was beautiful.  Even with the ice trees, the roads were mostly dry.

Our entertainment on our 12-hour ride was looking at the names on the trucks (one of them was Dushane, so we decided that Andy must have finished his boat after he broke out of Shawshank prison and started a trucking company), etc.  You get the point here!  Not much else to do!

It is again too cold to stay in the boat, so we got another hotel room in Cartersville, Georgia.  We walked to Cracker Barrel and had dinner, which was very good!  We then got settled in our room, watched one episode of "Blue Bloods" and fell asleep.  

January 10, 2025, Friday - Elk River, MN to Bloomington Normal, Illinois

We took off at around 7 a.m. heading for Florida. The roads are clear, and it is very cold.  We are watching the storms that are happening south of us and are prepared to adjust as needed.  

We had a few pit stops before we got settled on the road:  stopped at Ashley's house and Mary's house to drop off items, then went to Lake City to pick up the boat from storage.

It is too cold to stay at a rest area in the boat, so we got a hotel room in Bloomington Normal, Illinois.  We walked across the parking lot to a restaurant at had dinner.  After that, fell fast asleep.