Fort Meyers, Florida area Rotonda West

Since Sally was still keeping us from comfortably staying at our condo, we set off for Southwest Florida for a few days. We rented a house in an area called Rotonda West that had its own pool and near some bike trails. We brought our own bikes after not being able to rent earlier this year so of course, the house had a variety of bikes in its garage. 

While the theme of no bikes was broken with this trip, the theme of no food delivery was not broken.  We had trouble getting out the door and the condo complex so we got in later than we would have liked and had not eaten dinner. We had passed a Dominoes pizza not far from the house so we tried to order pizza delivery. Again we could not get delivery and Jeff set out to go get us dinner.

Babcock Ranch

A couple of years ago I read about a new community in Southwest Florida which would be strictly solar-powered. The ecological side of me wanted to know more and to visit it - maybe even consider it for a future home. Happily, it was located near where we were staying and Jeff was agreeable to going and checking it out. We had trouble getting the map system in Jeff's car to pull the town up or even an address we had, so it was challenging to find. Funny thing for the rest of the time we were in the area, I was always finding it on maps! Anyway, the town is still very much in development, but there was a lot I liked about it. Unfortunately, it is not near the beach and is kind of out in the country.  It will be a town of about 50,000 people when complete. There is already a huge solar farm, a small downtown area, a golf course, trails, and a couple of small lakes. Right outside the development, a new shopping center with a Publix is under development. There is already a public elementary school and a high school starting so it is a growing community. We toured 3 or 4 houses and liked a couple of them.  One thing you see a lot in this area is the back of the house "caged in" so an area where you can sit outside without fear of bugs bothering you. Which gives you a hint of one problem - bugs!

Bike Trails

As I said above, one of the reasons we chose the area we did was that there was a bike trail that we could get to on our bikes. The Cape Haze Pioneer Trail is 7 1/2 miles long.  It is a former railroad line.  A very straight trail!  It was nice to be able to ride to it and we did ride it twice but it was so straight it was kind of boring. From our rental house, we joined the trail close to the middle of it so we went the opposite direction each time. The first time we rode it, we found a part we were enjoying when we realized we had left the end of the trail and was on something else. We turned around on a bridge after circling a country club.  The second time we rode it to the opposite end which helped me at least with some perspective as to how some of the community was connected.  There was also a small park at the end with a historical building.

Hang out at the pool

In addition to the bike trails, one of the compelling reasons we chose the house we did was it had its own pool.  In Covid times, having a pool of your own right outside the backdoor was quite nice.  Several days we would sit on a chase lounger reading and then get in the pool for a while.  All of it was screened in so no fear of bugs really.  We saw little lizards climb up the screens some.  We enjoyed our short swims and some floating in a lightly heated pool in October!  Oh one of the first days we were there we had a visitor to the backyard - a bobcat stretched out at the end of the woods looking at us.  I had read up on local wildlife the night before so I knew it posed no threat to us but it was fun to see.  As soon as it realized we had seen him it left.  I kept a lookout for it the rest of the time we were there to no luck.

Golfing

We visited 2 different golf courses within 10 minutes of the house.  One was called The Links and the other was the Long Marsh golf course.  We weren't playing our best golf but enjoyed ourselves anyway.  My dad used to tell me that part of the joy of playing golf is enjoying the scenery. Well, we saw a lot of wildlife (birds) we are not used to and were on the look out for alligators while we played.  We played the Links twice (9 holes each time).  The first 9 we did pretty well for us, but the back 9 was a different story.  I have NEVER lost so many balls in one round of golf - I don't think I lost that many all summer in Collinsville.  Part of the problem was it had a small lake pretty much somewhere around every hole.  For example, one hole had a long narrow lake right next to the tee box that went the distance of my tee shots so if you went just 3 feet to the left your ball was swimming - our balls went for a swim/dunk.  Then on the same hole, you had land then another pond that was horizontal to the green so you had to get over a second pond before you got to the green.  The second course we played, Long Marsh, was a golf cart only for good reason.  It has 27 holes, so you get assigned a particular set of 9.  Well to get to that 9 holes we had to ride the cart along pathways paralleling streets, crossing them several times and over a bridge or 2 for about a mile before we got to the first hole.  It was a nice course, but it too had a fair amount of water on it so it too ate balls.  Before we left my mother's house at the end of summer, I had gotten a bunch of old Titleist brand of balls to be my water balls - I need to restock over Christmas.

Island Hopping

Before we left for the area, I had asked a couple of friends for advice of where to stay or what to do.  All mentioned visiting the islands in the gulf for the beaches and the lifestyle.  So while we did not stay on an island, we did visit Anna Marie Island, Gasparilla Island, Boca Grande Island, and Manasota Beach, and Sanibel Island.  In short, I think we visited all of the islands in the area - we did a lot of driving while we were in Florida.  We also got some beach walks in and did spend one afternoon on a beach.  One of the first we visited was Anna Marie Island where we had a drink at Sandbar restaurant at the northern end of the island after driving around for a while. It was an enjoyable experience. We also drove around Gasparilla Island and Boca Grande Island early on. Later we went back to Boca Grande for a day trip. There is a bike trail that is a former railroad line so the plan was to ride it and then go to the beach. We deviated a little in that we started on the trail in town and went south to the tip, past the lighthouse, and then on our way back, we decided to ride through a community on the bayside.  Good decision! By wandering around in there we saw some gorgeous mansions - yes mansions and it was nice and quiet for bike riding. It was a fun ride which we followed up with lunch at the Loose Caboose and some beach time. We ended the day with dinner at an outdoor beachside restaurant  (Mucky Duck) where we had a nice meal and a very pretty sunset.

Pictures from the beaches

    Birds

The birds in the picture above are Sandhill cranes.  The sign was near our house.

Wood storks - they liked a house right down the street from us.

This bird is the Anhinga or snakebird.  When it is the water, you can only see its head so it resembles a snake and when out of water it likes to stretch its wings out to dry them.  This one was on a golf course.

Unfortunately can't find my picture of the gopher tortoise, but this is his hole and sign for his crossing in the neighborhood.

friendly neighborhood iguana

Englewood Farmers Market.

Englewood was a neighboring town that has a large farmers market which doesn't start until October 1 each year and then goes through March or so.  Different growing season.