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Published: February 6th 2014
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It was a leisurely get up this morning with a nice cup of coffee, a great shower and sitting outside to enjoy the fresh air. Then my neighbor Mike came over and asked if I’d like to join him on a short hike. Of course I said yes so off we went to a place just down the road called Thousand Islands Trail. It was a trail straight out into the mangroves on a road built for the hiking path. There was a 2 story tower to overlook the swamp with lots of area to see what birds were about. Not too much doing so we continued on the trail and saw a black snake, about a 5 ft alligator and some wading birds. We walked for quite a ways and it was getting hotter the longer we walked so coming to a crossroads we opted to turn around. Don’t know how far we went but the water in the car and the ac sure hit the spot.
Then Mike said he’d like to drive into Marco Island and look around and have lunch. Sounded like a plan to me so we drove the 9 miles onto the island and
saw lots of fancy houses, beautiful landscaping and some handsome boats. That’s were the other half live.
We found a cute Mexican restaurant and we enjoyed a delicious meal. A little more driving to see what the island had and we were both ready to head home. Never saw the gulf, too many tall hotels. I had left Oscar in the camper with the ac on because it was 84 and he is not liking the heat. So he was very happy to see me and after his walk he was content to watch the world go by as I read my book.
I had invited Mike and our neighbors behind me to come for cocktails about 4 so I fed Oscar and got some goodies out to go with our drinks. We had terrific conversations and I just marvel at the very educated and interesting people who choose to spend their winters camping.
When the mosquitoes told us it was time to go in, about 6 pm, I took Oscar for a walk and passed one of our volunteers here at the park that make everything happen, and he handed me a paper asking if I
heard about the talk tonight. It turns out that a man was giving a talk on Carlsbad Caverns at 7 and all were invited. So after gulping down dinner I walked over to the screen room and listened to this incredible story about this man’s experience with the caves in NM. He is a potter by trade who lives in Maine but what he loves best is cave exploring. He has become so well known that the Nat’l Park Service employed him to photograph Carlsbad for their brochures, giving him free access to all the rooms in the Caverns. He had a slide show and I was just in heaven listening to what he had to go through to get the pictures he did. Profoundly knowledgeable man and very interesting.
Everyone kept asking questions so the hour long program turned into 2 hours.
I came back home, walked Oscar again and sure am ready for bed. It’s been a very people intense day, fun but I’m really tired.
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