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Published: July 18th 2014
Thursday 10th July 2014 Today was a travel day, as we headed for Victor & Helen's home in Punta Gorda about 300kms away.
The only stop we made was at Lake Okeechobee, just over half way, to have lunch. This lake is huge by our standards, fresh water and over 60kms wide with the depth around 4 metres. No shortage of water here!
We had a lunch we purchased at Okeechobee on the way in, sitting under a shelter high up above the lake. Beautiful view across the lake, so wide you couldn't see the other side. Power and fan boats were seen, these set up for fishing the perch and bass in the lake. As what seems to be common here in any waterway, alligators also live there, putting a dampener for those wanting to have a cooling dip in the water. the girls had fun here photographing a family of sandhill cranes who loitered nearby.
We saw a dead alligator alongside the road not far from the end of our trip, the trip itself made a little more exciting by the deluge of rain we encountered. The sky had been getting darker and
Victor & Helen's home - back view
The flywire covered outdoor area encloses the pool & spasuddenly we were engulfed in water. This continued for several miles and just as suddenly we broke out into sunlight on a dry road.
The GPS behaved strangely for the next few miles, as we followed the other car, ignoring the way it wanted us to go. We had been warned that the address we were headed for was at the end of a street and that the road stopped within sight of the house where it started again. You had to enter the street from the right end, so with this in mind we stuck on the Riga's tail.
The house Victor & Helen live in is most impressive, set on a golf estate with the rear facing the fairway. It is very well presented and with its airconditioning and lovely pool setting we made ourselves at home in the comfortable guest room.
Friday 11th & Saturday 12th July 2014 We have settled in well in Victor & Helen's home, both of us appreciating their hospitality, enjoying the quiet, restful ambience of the area and generally resting up a bit. Judy is busy with her Uni tutoring as assignments
Blueberry pie
A delicious pie made by Victor are now due. This is the perfect place for her to be as she has a lot of work to do.
We did go to the local shopping centre and wander around Walmart for a while on Friday, mainly to pick up a few ingredients for dinner that night. Rags cooked Penang meatballs in a peanut sauce served up on rice, this was enjoyed by all.
Today we drove to the coast about 4kms away to the city of Venice. The first thing we saw was a Farmers Mart set in a park and we did the obligatory walk around but didn't purchase anything even though it did have several unique items, rather than the usual rubbishy stuff from Asia.
This most attractive town is set on man made-canals or the houses back directly onto the coast. The coastal houses are the most expensive but houses with their own frontage on a canal are reasonably priced by Australian standards, a nice house costing in the vicinity of $350K. Together with the low cost of vehicles, viz. a new Cadillac SUV for around $40K, and a new 16ft fibre fishing boat with a 200hp motor for $14K makes
Venice
A little warmer but still lots of canals living here look quite attractive. Medical costs and the distance from our family will keep us where we are though!
Lunch was at the next city up the coast, Sarasota, at a cafe named “The Cottage”. Victor and Helen recommended this place and it lived up to its promise. We shared tapas dishes washed down with Coors Light beer, mussels, prawns, mini tacos, salad to mention a few of the dishes.
Coscos was our main destination for the day, and we headed there after lunch. Here, all sorts of goods are available including electrical gear, clothing, meat and fish, grocery items as well as pharmaceuticals, all at wholesale prices and many items at prices much less than we can get them at home.
We walked out a couple of hours later with an electric razor for Rags, jeans, shorts and other clothing for both of us, enough painkillers and allergy tablets to last us for some time, as well as meat and fish to enjoy whilst we are here.
As there are no fitting rooms there we both went into the rest rooms to try our clothes (we picked correctly first time) and returned to the
Sarasota
A delicious tapas-type lunch had here car. Here Judy found that a small pack of knickers was missing, we checked and they weren't there even though we had been charged for them. Back we went, and to give them their due, the gave her another pack with little fuss.
At 1600 hrs the heavens opened as they have done every day lately, as we drove into it on the way home. We came across some slow traffic, this caused by a car skidding off the freeway into the scrub. The adults and several children were being loaded into a vehicle, they all seemed ok.
Rags and Judy spent some time repacking a suitcase, Judy finding the hat and sunglasses she had lost this morning in the wash basket, Victor finding a pack of knickers under the fish in the cooler box we took with us. Not her day, but we had a good laugh.
A delicious 'scratch' dinner of vegetables plus the chicken we bought today, plus spare ribs the neighbour, Mike, brought over, concluded another great day.
Sunday 13th July 2014 Breakfast was at a different golf course than the one the house backed
Venice Beach
Our first view of the Gulf of Mexico onto, about a 5 minute drive away. They have a special there every Sunday – 2 eggs done as you wish, bacon, ham or sausage, fried potato plus toast for $4.99. Great way to start a day!
The rest of the morning was spent lolling around, no-one was very hungry at lunchtime, and at 3pm the TV was on for the event Victor had been hanging out for all week. The World Cup Final between Argentina and Germany played in Brazil.
Even though neither of us are great watchers of sport we got involved in this game especially when they had to extend it because neither team had scored. It was almost a relief when Germany finally scored, putting an end to over 3 hours of excitement.
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vera stanley
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Wow Helen and Victor homes is just so beautiful