This morning we were greeted by Mike inviting us to come up to the house and have a cup of coffee, but unbeknownst to him, we had already been sipping our coffee for an hour or so. But since we were such close neighbors now (and he had air-conditioning), we took him up on his offer.
We also decided that it would be best for us to move our trailer to a local campground, and we found a KOA that fit our bill perfectly. It took me a little while to extradite the trailer from their huge front yard, but with Marianne and Mike looking out for me, I got it done without any problem, well almost – Marianne had left our stairs down and it was only after I was heading down the street that I noticed this. Whew, another catastrophe averted!
One thing I must say about Naples: it’s an enormous city, no, not in population, but in physical area. Driving from anywhere to anywhere takes at least 30 minutes. And so it was that about a half hour later we pulled into a practically empty campground. When I checked in, the management noticed that we had our kayaks on the truck, and they let us know that they had their own private launch ramp at the end of their campground that went right into Henderson Creek. And if we crazy enough, we could kayak seven miles to reach the Gulf.
After setting up, and then resting because it’s so hot here, we did some sightseeing. We headed south and went through the community of Isle of Capri where they have canals behind almost everyone’s home where their boats are parked. My favorite sight though, was a sign on an establishment that heralded, “Closed for the Summer” – only in southern Florida!
Next we headed to Marco Island, where high rise condominiums, time-shares, and hotels guard the shoreline. We didn’t even get out of the truck in either of these two communities.
But we did notice a Wal*Mart very close to our campground, so it was time to pick up some more groceries and other paraphernalia that was deemed necessary for this odyssey to continue.
We headed back to the trailer for Marianne to stash our groceries, and me to walk the dogs.
Even though it was still hotter than Hades, I decided to walk the dogs to the river and launch ramp. On the way there, the dogs did their “poopies” and I picked up after them to place it in the nearest dumpster, which in this case was not too far from the launch ramp.
When I opened the dumpster, I was greeted by a pair of beady eyes and a strange smile. I immediately slammed the dumpster shut, trying to focus on what I had seen as the blood was reentering my body. It was a raccoon foraging among the trash looking for a tasty morsel here and there.
I still had the poop in my hands, so I bravely opened up the dumpster again, yet the raccoon hadn’t changed his (or her) expression. I tossed my baggies of crap into the dumpster, closed it up again and headed to the river.
After I thoroughly (15 seconds!) inspecting the launch pad, I decided that I should go back to the dumpster and shoot a photo of the raccoon so folks would believe my tale. When I opened the dumpster the third time, Rocky (that was the name I had now given him (or her)) wasn’t quite as happy to see me. I guess he’d figured out by now that I had thrown two baggies of shit into the dumpster, and not remnants of some delectable meal.
With camera in hand I was getting ready to document my meeting, but Rocky turned and headed to the back of the dumpster. I squeezed a shot, but the flash didn’t fire, so the photo wasn’t the best. I closed the dumpster, and with two impatient dogs tugging on their leash, I fumbled with my free hand to set the camera to manually fire its flash. Now I opened the dumpster for the fourth time, but Rocky was now totally perturbed and hid as far back in the dumpster behind bags of trash as he could – out of sight. I resigned myself to the fact that I would now have to edit the image of the photo that I shot to try to make it work.That evening we ate one of our infrequent dinners in the trailer, and decided that we were going to tour Old Naples on foot. It needs to be noted that for some odd reason it’s warmer after the sun goes down here in town.
Our first stop was in their old harbor, where we found a gift shop that had a total nautical theme. I bought another pair of sunglasses and a sunglass leash that would keep my sunglasses floating in the event they plunged into the drink – perfect for my kayaking glasses.As hot as it was, Marianne and I continued playing dueling cameras, each of us trying to get a better shot than the other of the night images of town.
But we remained amazed at how many people, probably locals, who had their dinners outside in the heat and humidity. Marianne would walk about 25 feet in this weather before she ducked into some very well air-conditioned store to cool off. This is how I got to see almost every open store in this ritzy area.
When we got back to the trailer, it started to rain again, keeping our Florida rain record perfect. We were so glad we have an air-conditioned trailer!
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