We're back in St. Paul!

We arrived back in St. Paul, MN on May 15, 2009. We have some catching up to do in our blog to share the rest of our trip with you after we left Fort Myers. In a nut-shell, we stopped in Orlando so Jeff could go to Universal Studios for the day. Then we went to The Kennedy Space Center and toured for a couple of days. WOW! That was awesome! We took a simulated space shuttle ride --- what a trip! We'll drop some pictures in later on that trip. From there we went to visit old St. Augustine. A bit too touristy for us, so we moved onto Savannah, Georgia. What a great city! It is preserved so well it's just unbelievable. President Lincoln told Grant to leave Savannah untouched during the Civil War, so it is very intact. In the yards of the beautiful old homes, there are HUGE Live Oaks with the Spanish moss dripping from the branches . The city proper is filled with so much "green" space you just can't believe it. There are tons of antique stores and lots of music, art, theater and lovely southern hospitality. We really liked Savannah! After a week there, we went to Charleston, SC, for a few days, then up to windy Myrtle Beach, then Wilmington, NC, then to the Deleware shore to visit with my sister Kathy and her husband Don --- who were gratious hosts for a few days. Our last big stop was Washington DC where we rode the metro into the city each day to visit the museums, go through the US Captial and stand in front of the White House --- what a thrill that was!!

So -- we are back in St. Paul now, catching up with friends & family, trying to work as much as we can and appreciating our home town.

Give us a call --- we'd love to see you!

Jeff & Wendy

Last Day in Fort Myers

Well --- time to push out-of-town tomorrow. After 3 wonderful months in Fort Myers (4 months in Florida), we’re going to start our trip home to MN. We are feeling a little sad to leave our winter home --- already feeling a bit nostalgic. But --- time to move on. We have 6 great weeks of adventure in front of us before we arrive home. Tomorrow we head to a park near Orlando so we can spend a couple of days at Disney World. We are really looking forward to going to Epcot Center and Universal Studios. From there we head out to Cape Canaveral to check out the Kennedy Space Center. We hope we can get a look at the last shuttle that went up in March (Discovery). Here I am on the roof on our RV watching it launch on March 22, 2009 --- wow! Isn’t photoshop incredible? I really did get up there to watch it, but I guess we weren’t quite close enough.
After Cape Canaveral, we’ll go up to St. Augustine --- the oldest city in the United States. I understand that it is very quaint and beautiful. We’ll be staying at a park near there for a day or two and then go up to Fernandina Beach, on the far northeast coast of Florida. After some beach time, we’ll head up to Savannah and hang out in that ‘ol southern city for a week (I can’t wait!) and then up to another ‘ol southern city, Charleston, So. Carolina. We’ll spend about a week in Charleston and then head up to Myrtle Beach for 3 days for more beach time and then to Wilmington, NC for more southern culture. On our way north, we’ll stop for a few days Delaware to visit my sister, Kathy and her lovely husband Don, at their summer place on the Delaware shore just south of Dover. We’re really looking forward to that!
Just a few notes of fun times since out last blog entry… Fort Myers hosted some great spring break fun on the beach. There were tons of college students here to celebrate and almost as many partying in boats docked off the main beach as there were packed up against this outdoor bar and live band spot. It was great entertainment.
The last time we drove home from the beach, we decided to take a few pictures of the “Florida” mailboxes. Floridians love their mailboxes. Here are a couple of samples of what we captured on our camera - a Mermaid and a Dolphin - but there were many more, such as full-size Manatees & huge sea-horses and full size sailors clad in rain coats. These are all over the place down here! Pretty entertaining.
A good friend of ours from Minnesota visited us a few weeks ago --- Mark Brewster from Lanesboro. He only stayed a couple of days, but we had fun. Here we are visiting the Twins summer training park here in Fort Myers. Brewster is our friend who’s Red Hotel housed our Strawhouse Studios Art Gallery on it’s main (street level) floor in Lanesboro.

I’m going to hand this over to Jeff now for his blog entries on a couple of interesting places we visited in the last few weeks. So --- here’s Jeff… pictured by a bridge in the Koreshan State Park
Just down the road from us is the Koreshan State Historic Site. My friend Carolyn suggested we check it out mainly because it is so unusual. She was right. We visited the state site on a beautiful Saturday afternoon with our usual open minds, but just couldn’t seem to shake the weird feeling we both had until after we left. The picture above is the "Seven Sister's Plantetary House". Yes --- they were definetely into astrology --- just not the kind we're familiar with.

Throughout its history, Florida has welcomed pioneers of all kinds. Cyrus Reed Teed was probably the most unusual, bringing followers to Estero in 1894 to build a New Jerusalem for his new faith, Koreshanity. The colony, known as the Koreshan Unity, believed that the entire universe existed within a giant, hollow sphere. The colony began fading after Teed´s death in 1908. In 1961 the last four members deeded the land to the state. Some of their beliefs include:
Cellular Cosmogony, which is Teed's unique form of Hollow Earth theory which puts forth the idea that the earth, and universe are contained within a concave sphere, or 'cell'.
"The sun is an invisible electromagnetic battery revolving in the universe's center on a 24-year cycle. Our visible sun is only a reflection, as is the moon, with the stars reflecting off seven mercurial discs that float in the sphere's center. Inside the earth there are three separate atmospheres: the first composed of oxygen and nitrogen and closest to the earth; the second, a hydrogen atmosphere above it; the third, an aboron (sic) atmosphere at the center. The earth's shell is one hundred miles thick and has seventeen layers. The outer seven are metallic with a gold rind on the outermost layer, the middle five are mineral and the five inward are geologic strata. Inside the shell there is life, outside a void." Pretty weird stuff when we now know that man has walked on the moon. The interior photo is a shot from inside Teed's house. Notice the prominent picture of Napoleon on the wall. All pretty strange indeed.

Another place we visited was Ave Maria, Florida. This town is a totally planned Catholic Community located about 45 miles from where we reside in Fort Myers. Its centerpiece is an awe inspiring cathedral like church located in the center of town currently under development. Wendy and I visited one recent Sunday and recognized a distinct similarity to the Koreshan experience we had a few weeks earlier. The town is planned for more than 8,000 residential units at build out, as well as many amenities. Amenities are to include a 17 court tennis facility, a golf course, a water park with separate lap pool, resort pool and water park, multiple soccer and softball fields, pickle ball courts, a dog park, an amphitheater, two indoor fitness facilities which will include indoor basketball and gyms, as well as walking and preserve trails and an activities director. The town and university opened in 2007. The driving force behind this development is Roman Catholic philanthropist Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza and the Chancellor of Ave Maria University. We both found this place to be a bit unusual (having a contrived, monastic quality) , but they did have some great architecture there as well as incredible sculpture. Here's a photo of an artist working on a sculpture of Ave Maria.

So --- we're off tomorrow morning for more adventures.

Here's Jeff and his altered ego

The Sand Angel

If you come from the land of snow, you know about snow angels. Every kid that grows up around snow has made one. You simply lie on your back in a fresh, flat area of the stuff and move your arms and legs in as large an arc as you can. Then you carefully stand up, without disturbing your imprint, and there you are…kind of a permanent imprint of your “spiritual self” to be admired by anyone with imagination who happens to walk by. It is intended to be a “work of art”, a temporary sculpture to inspire and cheer others during the long cold months of winter. Kelly (our daughter) had promised her friend Mike (the potter) that she would make him a sand angel on the beach during her visit. This I suppose was intended to cheer him in much the same way a snow angel would. She said that he had also agreed to make her a snow angel while she was away from the frozen, snowy tundra of Minnesota.

Kelly came down to Fort Myers to visit with us from Feb 18 - 24th. We had a wonderful time and the sand angel was what we did on her last day here. Late in the day on Monday, Feb. 23rd, we decided to go to the beach to make good on her promise. I had recently seen a very nice sculpture of a life-size horse that someone had made on the beach and suggested to Kelly that with her knowledge of horse anatomy, she might try that instead. At that point, we decided to do some research on Google. We typed in “sand sculpture horses” and “sand sculpture angels” and just for fun “sand sculpture dragons” We also typed in “sand sculpture tips” and picked up a few pointers from the pros.

Two hours later we arrived at the beach armed with a wonderful photocopied image of a stone sculpture of an angel (from the internet), some tools, a borrowed shovel, some buckets and spoons from Goodwill and we were set to go to work. We chose a location near the water then dove into our task at around 4 p.m.

Of course, it didn’t look like much at first…mostly we shoveled and piled sand, fetched water with buckets and generally worked on the proportions of the outlines and height of the figure. Eventually, with sunlight waning and the air cooling, our angel began to emerge from the sand and become more and more refined. People stopped and took pictures and asked if we were artists, how long we had been working on it, and if we did this professionally --- very motivating words to help us finish what we had started before sunset.

Finally, with the setting sun raking golden across what had become known as “The Arch Angel”, we were able to stand back and admire our efforts. Small crowds gathered. A family who had watched the entire process from their balcony nearby came over and took pictures with their small children hunched between the giant wings and explained to them that this had something to do with "Lent ". As we hauled our tools back to the car we noticed dozens of “street performers” relieving tourists of their money one dollar a time. It occurred to me that if we had put a tip jar alongside our angel, it might have paid for dinner :~)

Kelly spent her time here doing other things besides playing in the sand. She brought the 7th Harry Potter book with her (partially read) and managed to finish the 768 pager while here. She mourned the idea of finishing the last of the series and is hoping that the auther will consider writing more Harry Potter books. She did have some nice places to sit and read.

Wendy and Kelly also went horseback ridding on the beach up by Sarasota. They just googled the activity and found a small company nearby that offered the service. Isn't Google just amazing? They had a good time. On the way back, they stopped and had lunch at a little restaurant outside of Sarasota that is right on the beach. They sat by an open window and could actually reach out and pick up the soft white sand from where they sat. They had the special of the day (fish & chips) and a local Florida beer. The ocean was a beautiful pale greenish-blue. They went out to the shore, after lunch, to soak up the ambiance. The ocean breeze was a bit chilly --- thus the beach towel for a shawl. The 3 of us went downtown FortMyers Beach after a full day sunning, reading and swimming at the beach. It is a very festive place. There's lots of activity with street performers, sidewalk restaurants and bars and lots of souvenier shops with much of their wares out on the sidewalk.

The Captain and Kelly walking the streets of Fort Myers Beach

Fort Myers Art Fair

Nine years ago we sold our house in Inver Grove Heights and bought 36 acres of rolling farmland in Lanesboro Minnesota. We built our “Dream House” a 6,000 SF straw bale structure that was as much an artist studio as a house. That same year we rented the ground floor of Brewster’s Red Hotel in town and started Strawhouse Studios Art Gallery. We had decided to get into the” lucrative” business of making and selling artwork to tourists. Our plan was to operate our gallery, making art in our studio on the hill during the summer, and then travel the warmer climates during the winter selling our wares at various art fairs. With lots of help and encouragement from our friends and families we managed to do most of this except for the art fair part. What happened? We found out that we were simply not cut out to do retail. Other than that, the desire, ambition and who knows, maybe even the ability was there.

So, now this many years later we had the chance to visit one of the finest art fairs of exactly the kind we were aiming at right here in Fort Myers. The weekend affair was well organized and well attended. Hundreds of artists from all over the country and Canada presented jewelry, sculpture, glassware, painting and photography of the most upscale variety. For example, here's a painting of some Florida birds --- you almost expected them to walk off the canvas they were so realistic.

There was food, music and even some free stuff. The weather was great and parking was “no problemo”. We walked the entire 6-8 blocks and were never disappointed. The sculpture pictured below was incredible and larger than life. The feet were probably 24 inches long and the figure roughly 12 ft. tall. The glass sculpture on the left was also incredible. It was basically hot poured glass drapped over a metal rod and stood about 4 feet high.

Halfway through we stopped and had some lunch and listened to a guy playing his saxophone. Listening and talking to the artists was the best part though. Knowing how close we had come to being the artist in the booth next door was our little secret. We admired all these daring entrepreneurs with all our heart, but we were glad it wouldn’t be us tearing down at the end of the show, loading up our trailer and heading off to the next town. Instead we stopped back at a booth to pick up a painting that Wendy had bought earlier and headed back to the RV for a snack and then early to bed.

Check out this last photo. Do you see Wendy reflected in the glass in the upper left corner? She's taking this photo and ended up being part of the piece :)

The Captain

Kayaking with the twins

Our good friend and neighbor, Len (from Canada), had some very fun visitors last week. His daughter, Krista and her twin girls, Aurora Moon and Star Lynne, came to visit for a week. The girls are 9 years old and full of curiosity and energy. Len had to make sure they had plenty to do while here because they are basically non-stop energy from sun-up to sun-down. The six of us took a 3 hour Kayak trip down one of the Florida river’s here in Fort Myers. We had a blast! The girls really know how to handle a kayak. But considering that their Grandpa (Len) owns and operates a resort on a lake up in Canada, it didn’t really surprise us too much that they knew how to handle a boat, but they really did well for 9 year olds! Aurora is the one with the baseball cap on and Star is the one without.
We sure enjoyed having them around here for a week. It was so much fun to be part of their great 9 year old energy. We rode bikes together, swam in the pool together (during the day and at night, under the stars) had a couple of meals together and just hung out and chatted. We hope to go up and visit them in Canada this summer.

Here’ a shot of Len and his daughter Krista. They were both great fun on this trip too. Krista took some great pictures of the many wild birds that we saw. I don't have them reduced down small enough to post on this blog, but will hopefully get those on in the future. It was really awesome to quietly float up to these wild birds that live and fish on these rivers.

New Venture for Wendy:

As most of you know, I was laid off from my job this past September. I found a great opportunity for a new job as an E-Coach and have been taking an online training course since mid-December. Our class meets once a week for 1.5 hours and I spend the rest of the week doing homework. I hope to be certified this spring. Basically, I will be doing behavioral coaching with teams of managers from various companies that sign up for the course. I will take teams of 5 or 6 managers through a course that will last from 6 – 12 months. The coursework is designed to help them to become more effective mangers and hopefully more fulfilled in thier work. The training is intense and I think that the job will also be pretty intense, but the type of work that I really like. I just feel so lucky that I have found this particular job at this particular time in my life. As mom always said --- there is always a silver lining and everything happens for a reason --- I am a firm believer.




Wendy

So, I was walking down the street one day and…

you’ll never guess what I saw parked in the parking lot just off Hwy 41 in Fort Myers --- the GhostBuster-mobile! I think it’s the real one because it was parked in a lot with a bunch of other vintage cars “for sale”, looks exactly like the one in the movie and has a New York license plate on it. Looks like one of the ghostbusters was hard up for some cash! Anyway, it was pretty cool to run into.

I went to the bird refuge on Sanibel Island one day and saw some amazing birds. The first flock I saw that day was a flock of Roseate Spoonbills. They are big birds --- close to 3 ft. tall and are the color of a Flamingo. The bill is really long and flattened out like a spoon on the end --- very peculiar. What a sight that was! I saw a bunch of others birds that day, but they were too far away to get a descent picture with my little camera, but it was a thrill to see them. Jeff and I have become pretty good friends with our neighbor, Len, who lives across the road from us. He’s from Thunder Bay, Canada. He’s got a really good system down for himself --- he owns and runs a resort up in Thunder Bay in the summer and comes down to Florida in the winter. He plays on the park horseshoe league and has gotten Jeff down to the pits throwing shoes a time or two. They have lots of fun down there. Len’s the type of guy that needs to be doing something all of the time and he manages to do just that. Here he is buffing his 5th wheel. Jeff likes to be busy doing something all of the time too --- but he’s not exactly into buffing the rig. Here he is reading at the beach. This is more of his “winter style”.

We went out to a beach just south of Fort Myers ( about 10 miles or so) by a little town called Bonita Springs. There’s a beach there called Barefoot Beach. It is so beautiful. Jeff took a shot of the walk-way going out to the beach.

He also caught a picture of one of the raccoons that was rummaging through one of the trash barrels by the washrooms. This guy was not afraid of Jeff what-so-ever!

It was a quiet and lovely day at the beach. We did a bunch of reading, shell hunting, wave watching and just hanging out. It was a good day to dig your toes into the warm sand and wait for the sunset.

Later --- Wendy

CAPTAINS LOG 1.15.09

I never expected much, I still don’t. I only thought that spending the winter in Florida would be easier than trying to stay warm in Minnesota. It is. But it's not all easy.

Let me put a few things in perspective. Wendy and I live in a house on wheels. We live basically “on the road” not much different than the thousands of other RV “full timers” and “part timers” that become our neighbors for a month, a week or a few hours at a time. Everything is pretty temporary out here.

While most people, not living in an RV, basically get to enjoy their daily routines in the comfort of their familiar surroundings, we are adrift in a sea of interstate highways, gas stations, coin laundries, and Walmart parking lots.

As we drive along we sometimes comment “Oh they have a CVS” or “they have a TJ Max” or “Look…a Home Depot” We relish in the familiarity of it almost as though we just spotted someone that we know. Most of the time we cruise along wondering who Winn Dixie is or Dillard’s or Beal’s as though those stores are someone we haven’t met yet and maybe we should think about expanding our circle of friends.

Who could guess how this living arrangement would affect us? Right now we live in a park with three or four hundred strangers from varied backgrounds each living in separate mobile compartments that range from nylon tents to full scale motorized RVs. These units are parked ten or twenty feet from each other and each has a name printed on it. Names like; Bounder, Traveler, Tour Master, Canterbury, and Jet Aire just to name the ones I can see through my windshield. Many of them also have cute wooden signs with the owner’s names; “Barney and Silva Johnston, Big Lak,e Colorado,” or one of my favorites: “Here lies the last dog who peed in this garden”. The park offers clean showers, a laundry, heated pool, mail delivery, free WIFI and activities like pot-luck dinners, bean bag baseball, shuffleboard, and horse-shoes. If you are good enough you could even get on the shoes team and travel to other RV parks for tournaments.

98% of the men down here have beards. About 10% of the women have facial hair. Everybody dresses casual…baseball caps, t-shirts, shorts, no socks, sneakers or flip-flops. Almost everybody has a bike of some kind. Some of the guys drive small scooters or even motorcycles that they haul in special trailers. Oversized, 3-wheel trikes are common with the older folks…especially the ladies.

Over 80% have dogs. Some have two or three. The small dogs like to hang out on the dashboard looking out the front windshield. Most are quite well behaved. Sometimes I hear their owners repeating in loud whispers the words over and over “No barky…no barky…” or “Stay…stay…staaaay… staaaaay…stay!

One of our neighbors has a parrot. When we first arrived and Wendy was bending over to get something out of the car, the parrot gave her a loud wolf whistle. Now that’s a well trained parrot!

This week we are experiencing a cold snap along with the rest of the country…but our cold snap is only bringing our daytime temps down to the 60’s and dipping to the 40’s at night and the Floridian’s are running for their fleece. The cold weather up north is on the news every night. Because it’s so cold in Minnesota right now, we get to see video coverage from Mpls/St. Paul and have even gotten the low temps from Thief River Falls --- right here on our local channel in Fort Meyers. Guess we picked a good winter to be in Florida.

The Captain