Back in Florida

Well we made it back to the Sunshine State.  We drove our truck down with a load of supplies and new batteries for the boat.  (4 golf cart size).  It was fun catching up with the two treasures we discovered in Florida - our friends Dorothy and Larry.  Here is a picture of our boat moored at their dock.  Their boat is the blue one facing our boat.


Here is a picture of Dorothy and Larry at their home.

We took a trip to Punta Gorda and these birds were just walking across the parking lot.

After we returned the first of the year, Larry took us out in smaller run about boat.  It was a lovely cool day and I had told Larry that I really wanted to see an alligator.  Well as you can see by these two pictures, he got us an up close and personal view of an alligator on the shore of the Peace River.  It was so cool to see him.

Seeing this alligator was really awesome and it was my birthday to boot!  He was so close that when he jumped toward the boat all three people in the front of the boat made it to the center of the boat in record time.  He was amazingly fast, sure glad that we were protected by the boat.

One of the side trips we took by car was to Gaspirilla State Park.  It was a beautiful sunny day and just a little cool.





Here is a picture of both of us, we had a request for more pics of us.

We left the Peace River and our friends after a week or so of some great hospitality. All of the neighbors there on the channel are so terrific. We had a great time getting to know many of them.

We traveled over to Cayo Costa State Park and anchored for a few days to get back into boat life and living on the water.  While we were there, we had a wonderful reunion with Woody and Judy Post (Osprey boat) as they were close to our location in the waterway and came into the anchorage.  It was just perfect to catch up with them.  They rafted their boat off of ours and we chatted and caught up with each other for over five hours.

The next day we took a dinghy ride over to the state park.  We took the tram ride over to the Gulf of Mexico.  Even though the weather had been very cold for a couple of days, it was finally starting to warm up.

Here is a picture of Erwin with his long pants rolled up wading in the Gulf of Mexico.  It was a far cry from warm like it was the last time, and you can see by the fist he is making that it feels like Lake Michigan.  We checked later and the water temperatures were in the middle 50's which is much too cold for wading.














This is an Osprey perched on a tree at our anchorage.

We took a dinghy ride to one of the lagoons in the park and I snapped this shot of pelican.  He was actually fishing for mullet I think.














Here is a shot of Erwin in the dinghy checking our crab pots at the anchorage.