The Red Coconut

Our schedule has always been directed to spending a week at a beach. I'm not quite sure why--we don't suntan, a little stroll down the beach in the morning and in the evening is quite sufficient, and Heaven forbid that we would ever put on bathing suits and actually get in the water. Florida just seems to call one to a beach holiday, however, and so here we are along with everyone else. We had a short drive yesterday with Miss Charmin getting us off the interstate earlier than I would have advised but what do I know? We have blind faith in our travel boss. In fact, we are planning on being on the road until we are 100--Jim says that I will be doing the driving then--since it won't matter that we don't know where we are; we will just program in our destination and follow her directions. We drove through an absolutely beautiful area of Ft. Myers but were surprised when we approached the bridge to Ft. Myers Beach and traffic suddenly became sluggish and then stop and go. There must be an accident ahead, we thought. Then, as we came to the traffic light that was funneling two lanes of traffic into one lane , we realized that this was just the way people travel to get to "The Island", very slowly. Once over the bridge traffic continues to be one lane and slow. There was a reason those people on the bridge were on Segways and many people are riding bicycles. It is faster. Ft. Myers Beach is a very popular public beach. Traffic on and off the island is a horror. We had planned to rent a car and drive up to Sanibel but that may have to wait.

Our place for the week is the Red Coconut, an RV park with many permanent trailers as well as as transients like us. The prime spots are across the road next to the beach; we are very cozy with our neighbors here where we have to walk across the street to the beach. The good news is that there is a large bar and restaurant across the road. Last night we ate at the upscale dining portion of that establishment and it was lovely--and pricey. We discovered Heidi's, a tiny German restaurant just down the road, and plan to get some breakfast and lunches there. Yesterday we just stopped in to scope it out and have a drink. Our waitress told us proudly that she hasn't been off this island for five years. Hmmm, sounds a bit like Alcatraz to me.

The week is ahead of us, and we will see what we find to do here besides eating and drinking. Today I plan to ride the trolley that goes up and down the island to get an idea of what there is to see.