Arrival Date 3/1/2015 UpRiver RV Resort - Fort Myers FL
From Key Largo we are crossing over to the gulf side of Florida. We will stay at the UpRiver RV Resort in North Fort Myers Florida. We have stayed at this RV Resort in previous years. Again the Bournes will also be staying at this resort at the same time we are. The resort has a lot of residents that return each year and many own their built in mobile homes. We stayed between two stationary mobile homes and the owners were very nice. One of my new neighbors gave me a golf bag stand that he was re-gifting. The WIFI was decent but I really needed my WIFI Ranger to pull the signal in. The bournes were half way down the road and had much less success connecting to the WIFI. This RV Resort was several miles down the street from Dick Pritchett Real Estate of SW Florida Eagle Cam fame (http://dickpritchettrealestate.com/eagle-feed.html ). We stopped there several days to check on the eagles, take pictures, and watch the horses. The resident eagle pair are named Ozzie & Harriot. Their current eaglet is named E6 (but Linda and Lennie call him Sixer).
Fort Myers is one of the Florida MLB Spring Training towns. We went to three games while we were in town. First the RedSox played Northeastern University at Jet Blue field (attempted copy of Fenway Park). Since Rick and I are NU alumni we went to the alumni cookout and game. It was fun attending the cookout and hearing the NU team captains speak. They were both engineering students and the one that was a pitcher was very good. It is estimated that he will be drafted into MLB. We had a picture taken with Wally the RedSox team mascot. After the game we went to the Outrigger Beach Resort and Tiki Bar for drinks and to watch the sunset. It is right on Fort Myers Beach. The second game was the Twins vs the RedSox at twins stadium. It was a fun night game with free grapefruit given out and fireworks after the game. The third game was the RedSox vs the Miami Marlins. This was a surprise game because we aquired free tickets to the game. After the game we had drinks at Tomatos restaurant and ended up seeing Wally again. It was fun sitting with him but he does not talk so its a lot of nonsense sign language.
A couple of days the girls went off to visit local attractions like Sanabel Island and Rick and I stayed back to do work around the rigs. The girls spent a day on the beach on Sanibel Island collecting sea shells and watching dolphins swim by. They had a really good lunch. After they got back we had drinks with friends outside the Bournes rig. That night it was Hogbodies for BBQ. A really good day had by all.
We had a special adventure that day. I did nnot originally report it but Linda sent out this email to our children about her special day:
On Mar 5, 2015, at 8:44 AM, lokvist@me.com wrote:
Well we had quite the day yesterday. Lennie and I along with Alissa who is a friend of Lennies niece and is visiting this week, all went to Sanibel for a day at the beach. Beach was great as expected. After the beach we went to a late lunch and we were joined by the guy that Alissa is dating. Turns out “the guy” is Rick Porcello, new pitcher for the Sox, we saw him pitch 2 innings in the Northeastern game and he looked great. Hr’s incredibly nice, very normal and really good looking. Very tall, about 6’ 5”. So they joined us again for cocktails at the rig then we all went out to dinner at Scott’s recommended place which despite the name and looks of the place has great food. Rick, (the pitcher), seemed to really enjoy himself, did a lot of laughing and told us he would get us tickets to any games we want to go to, even after Alissa leaves this weekend. Rick Bourne bombarded him with baseball questions which he answered and did not seem to mind at all. He said it was nice to talk about the game and answer questions with normal (?) people instead of the media. Oh, and he’s a big fan of Miller light! So we have a new reason to root for the Sox this year!!!!
On Apr 7, 2015, at 8:21 AM, Linda Okvist <linda.okvist@icloud.com> wrote:
Sox just signed him to a 4 year extension for 82.5 million, it’s now safe to buy his jersey!
He’s pitching tomorrow night and the game is on ESPN2, WooHoo!!!
You probably already know this but I figured I’s send out the info just in case….
Linda
One day I had my Starsky and Juan adventure (Ricks name for it). A diminutive mexican worker showed up looking for help getting his stuck truck free. I eventually went off with Juan and another RV’er with a BIG truck to the sugar cane wilderness to get the truck out. The other rv’er had second thoughts when the other half dozen mexicans with machetes materialized out of the cane. We got the truck out and the mexicans were very thankful. Alls well that ends well but it was a true adventure.
As usual we went out to eat and drink with the Bournes (and their guests) several times. Just off the RV resort was Hogbodies. This is a locals place with very good BBQ. Linda loved their ribs. It was an interesting mix of RV’ers and good old boys. Definately a hangout place with out too much frills. Catcus Jacks was a chain restaurant that was on the river with several other restaurants. The night we went there, they had five singers backed up by a boombox. There was a lot of people dancing and a very festive atmosphere. At one point a small troop of women showed up in patriotic 40’s UFO outfits and did step dancing for contributions to a veteran’s cause. You just can’t make this stuff up! The food was good. I will try a Catcus Jack’s back in New England. The Bournes had friends visiting the Fort Myers and one day we had lunch at Junkano’s On The Beach, really good food and an excellent view of the people on the beach. One afternoon we went to Redbones Saloon and Grill AKA The Monkey Bar. The decor was eclectic. There were a broad spectrum of society represented. A unique place. We even ate there.
We played golf at Eagle Ridge Golf & Tennis club. Nice upscale place in great shape. We liked the layout but it was not friendly to my score. We were paired up with two german women. They could really play. The younger one (daughter) spoke english well. The mother not so good. They were fast players and a pleasure to play with.
The Bournes have been going to Fort Myers for several years. They like the area and started looking to aquire a house there last year. This year the hunt got more serious. We went to see a home that they were interested in. It was a nice home on a canal. They ended up making an offer on the house but it was rejected by the owner. That lead to a further search which came to a successful conclusion later when we were in Alabama. The house is on a canal with good access to the gulf and it’s a beautiful place. We are so excited for them. So they will sell their RV after they get back to New England. We will miss not meeting up with them on the road. However it’s great they found what they were looking for in Fort Myers not too far from Fort Myers Beach.
