#8: Adventures in RV Travel – January 18, 2017

We have ARRIVED!!!

Good evening, all! It’s not as late as I write this tonight as it was last night. We’ve arrived at our destination! We are at Pine Island, Florida. An island north of Sanibel Island and right off the coast of Ft. Myers and Cape Coral, Florida. Pine Island is not your typical tourist hangout. It is still a little bit of “Old Florida.” It is not developed into a cement and skyscraper environment. Most of it is zoned as agricultural land. Some of Florida’s finest fishing is done around Pine Island and in Matlacha Pass.

Matlacha is a small island between Pine Island and the mainland. The village of Matlacha is a haven for artists and writers as is Pine Island. Crops grown on Pine Island include palm trees for shipping to Arizona and California, mangos, and lychee fruit. Pine Island fruit is very sought after. I will tell you much more about Matlacha, Pine Island, and the other small towns on Pine Island as I explore them this next few weeks. This will be my sixth time here visiting their very nice RV park as a snow bird.

Along with exploring everything about Pine Island, I will take a trip, and take you with me, into the Everglades. Other trips into Central Florida. We will even spend a few days on a sunny beach in the panhandle. So, now that I’ve arrived, there will be lots of adventures and lots and lots of photographs I want to share with you.

We put in about seven hours on the road today and it was mostly uneventful. I calculated our mileage tonight. It was 1052 miles from my home in northeastern Kentucky to this little island in the sea. I think I feel every one of them. 🙂 We arrived after dark or I would have taken some photos for tonight’s blog post. All we had time to do was park the RV and visit with friends.

You may be wondering about friends in a RV park. Pine Island is such a great place that the same people come back year after year. It has been a couple of years since I have been here but most of my friends are here as they are every winter. I got to see a few of them tonight and will see more tomorrow. Then, we went to Bert’s Bar and Grill in Matlacha for a quick dinner. Bert’s has been written up in food publications, particularly their grouper sandwiches. That is what I was going to have to eat, until I saw LOBSTER ROLLS on their menu. Grouper will have to wait until my next visit to Bert’s, probably tomorrow! I had the best large lobster roll I have ever eaten!

Bert’s is an experience. We sat there and ate and listened to a live band play classic rock. Santana, if you can believe that, and they did an excellent job. I was off in my own little rock and roll world. It was 70 degrees on Bert’s patio, Santana playing, and lobster. How can you beat that!? Oh, I forgot. The patio is on the Gulf of Mexico! I remember listening to Santana when…..oh…..never mind! 🙂

Then, back to the RV. Everyone is in bed and I’m finishing this post to you. Tomorrow, I’ll start taking pictures and will describe everything to you. More “Adventures” coming your way then!