Last Updated: 25-AUG-2018
The recession is working for us ! We got an excellent price on a beautiful home on Marco Island Florida. Again, like in 2009 we went thru VRBO.com and we had a number of options to choose from. In the end we made an excellent choice and are looking forward to renting this house for even a longer time in 2012.
Again, another super easy ride to Florida from here. Its a easy first day (we made it to Ocala, Florida appx. 890 miles) and then it was not far to Marco for the second day. Last time we made the mistake of driving back on the weekend. So, this time we left Monday morning and visited a number of places (more in the photo pages) and made it to Savannah, GA 540 miles with only a hour of night driving. We had very little traffic but many lights as we had less than 100 miles of Interstate travel. Also, I wanted to pass by Brunswick, GA late in the day as we have had issues here before and observed a 30+ mile northbound traffic mess in this area on our way down.
The second day from Savannah, GA to Glen Rock, PA (655 miles) was easy except for some delays in the tornado damaged area of Central NC (they had I-95 down to one lane in one area near Wilson to clean trees that fell in teh right away) This cost us 20 minutes or so. We stopped in Fredericksburg, VA for dinner to kill some time so we would not hit the DC traffic at 6 pm.
The only rain we had on the entire trip was the last 30 miles or so north of Baltimore so another easy drive. The truck got 20.1 mpg over the 2,500 miles which is very good.
We like Florida because its close, friendly and being a pro gun state I can travel heavily armed !
The camera we used on this trip was a Cannon S90 10mp Digital Camera
We left at 4:35 am and arrived at the Florida line at 4:16 pm Not bad as this was over 750 miles...
Tampa Electric's environmental education facility in Apollo Beach - when Tampa Bay water temperature falls below 68 degrees Fahrenheit - manatees! The water temp was 88 degrees so most of the manatees had left the warm lagoon.
Next stop was Manatee Park in Lee County. The manatees had all left since the gulf temps were in the upper 80's but they had butterfly gardens and native plants.
First view of Marco
First views of our rental home - very nice. I am critical with home maintenance and found little wrong with this home
The truck just fits... Extra bracing on the garage door for winds.
Ken particularly loved the pool
Tiger Tail Beach
Great beach - With the water area you have to cross this feature reduces the crowds ! Excellent sunset beach also !
Mary decided to fish a little bit off our pier. I had a fish come after the rubber bait but I couldn't hook it.
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Kirby Storter Boardwalk was a nice hike but due to the drought we only saw 1 or 2 gators and few birds.
This is the first time we've been to the Ten Thousand islands NWR. This short hike leads to a tower overlooking the everglades. Would have been great if it had water! We still saw 2 black necked stilts. This would be great at dusk.
Immature great blue heron in foreground
Black necked Stilts
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