Visit from Brian and Mary!!!

So today is our last day here in Punta Gorda.  We'll be packing everything up by tonight so we can leave EARLY tomorrow morning and head up to Sarasota.  Actually, our next stop is the FORD dealership in Sarasota!  Our "service engine soon" light came on while we were on our way down from Michigan and this was the first time we could get into a garage.  Technically we could stay here until the 1st of February, but we decided to leave one day early, take the rig to the garage and let them have it for the whole day.  Thursday night we'll just pull into a Walmart or someplace and then Friday morning we'll go to our next destination, which is Fort DeSoto in St. Pete's.  Cross your fingers for us that the engine light isn't anything big!

We've enjoyed our time here in Punta Gorda, but we are SO SO ready to get back into a campground.  We are very tired of having neighbors pushed in against us from every direction - we want to get back into a CAMPSITE, where we can have a campfire and some PRIVACY!  Two months in RV parks is about all we can take!  And Fort DeSoto is SO nice - we can't wait to get there!

So our BIG fun since my last blog is our visit from our dear friends Brian and Mary.  They flew down to St. Pete's on Sunday and stayed with Mary's mom in Bradenton, then came down to us Monday evening.  We took them to the Slip Knot, which is such a fun little bar here in town.  I don't have any pictures, which is too bad, because it's just a great "Florida" bar with the tiki hut look, a "pirate ship", big orange neon palm trees, and all the other tacky-but-fun stuff.  They stayed overnight and got up really early Tuesday to catch the ferry down to Key West, where they spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with Mary's friend Marilyn.  They came back to us late Thursday night and stayed until Sunday morning.  On Friday we took them "bar-hopping" to all our favorite places.  We went out to Pine Island and stopped in at Scott and Deb's for a minute (they weren't home so we kept moving), then we went to the Low Key Tiki, the Ragged Ass, then stopped at the American Legion where Scott and Deb were working the lunch service.  Brian and Mary got to meet our friends Paul and Mary, and then we headed back off the island, stopping at Bert's Bar in Matlacha for lunch.  We stopped back at the rig for a short time, then headed into Punta Gorda for a little tour of the area.  We made a stop at our favorite tiki bar by the Four Seasons, on the Peace River, and then took them up to Fisherman's Village for dinner at Harpoon Harry's.  I got some pictures, but I think Brian and Mary also took a bunch and I'm not sure we've shared them all yet, but I'll throw a couple in here just for fun.

Although we all had fun on Friday, Mary was dying for some R&R and sun-time by the pool, so on Saturday we did another little tour of Punta Gorda in the morning, stopping at the farmer's market for a quick walk-through, and then we came back to the park and let Mary "veg out" by the pool for the majority of the afternoon.  Saturday night we took them to the women's basketball game at the Alico Arena at FGCU.  We are so glad that they are both big-time sport fans and were happy to go to a game.  Both the women and men's teams were ranked #2 in their division and both were playing the #1 team, which was Stetson University from Deland.  The two women's teams were both 8-and-0, so it was a very exciting game and we all had a GREAT time watching the game - and our FGCU women WON, which of course made it even better.  It is just a lot of fun watching these games, and we're really glad that we decided years ago to look for basketball games to attend while we're traveling.  We didn't get home until late Saturday, so we all hit the sack and then Sunday morning we had a light breakfast with our friends and waved them good-bye as they headed back to St. Pete's for their flight home.  I think they had a great time soaking up some sun and we had a terrific time having visitors from home.  Brian and Mary are great guests-very easy to live with and very appreciative of every little thing.  They picked the perfect week to come down because Michigan had FRIGID temps last week.  We just wish they could have had more time down here before they had to go back to "real life" at home.

Other than our visit with them, the last week or so has been pretty much more of the same:  we rode our bikes into town, did a couple of "pool" afternoons, Dave put the kayak in a couple times and did a little fishing (...he has NOT had good luck fishing here in Alligator Creek and he is looking forward to Fort DeSoto if only for a new fishing venue!), took Brandi to the dog park in town a few times, and just generally relaxed and enjoyed life here in Punta Gorda.  I'm still trying to do a run every day or two, to get ready for a 5K at the end of March - the picture here is of one of the eight or so sandhill cranes that seem to live in the housing development I usually run through.  And I continue to do some work for Kerkstra, which I am enjoying, and that's kind of our life! Pretty good, huh?