Life in LaBelle, FL

We moved to Oak Grove RV Resort in LaBelle, Florida from Key West a couple of weeks ago. It was nice to have hook-ups (utilities) again and run our air conditioners to cool off because it was in the low-80s with high humidity.

We’ve settled in for our 5-week stay at Oak Grove. We see old friends from our stay here last winter and new folks who are staying here for a few months. The RV park has doubled in size since last year as it is still under construction.

Every few days we visit and do something with my sister Marcia and brother-in-law Mike who are staying at another RV resort about 20-minutes up the road from where we’re at. A week ago, Saturday we went together to the Everglades City seafood festival, about 60 miles straight south of here. The seafood was very good with vendors from all over Florida.

We’ve enjoyed playing Bingo at Mike and Marcia’s resort and Julie won a game this past Monday.

Last Friday we enjoyed a seafood lunch sitting outside on a beautiful day. Mike and Marcia’s resort has a clubhouse with an outside deck with a great view of the Caloosahatchee River.

After lunch we watched the model railroad hobbyists run their trains. The buildings in the train village are all hand-built and donated by RV resort residents and there’s a story behind each building.   

Yesterday we all headed into Fort Myers to see the Edison Festival of Light parade. We went in around noon to stake out a spot on the parade route sidewalk with our lawn chairs. Thomas Edison and Henry Ford both had homes, next to each other, in Fort Myers and spent winters here.  

Once we secured our spot, we walked to the nearby Ford Garage burger and beer joint in historic downtown Fort Myers. The food was very good and the garage décor was interesting. For example, using shop cloths as napkins; hose clamps as napkin holders, gas pump fuel nozzles as sink faucets in the bathroom, etc.   

We sat about two-thirds the way along the parade route so the parade reached us around 7:30PM and lasted over two-hours. It was good and we were lucky enough to see the fireworks display afterwards.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Key West

We arrived in Key West on Tuesday, January 22^nd, for a two-week stay at NAS Key West, Sigsbee Annex military campground. It was our friends Kris and Jan’s first visit to Key West. We spent our entire two-weeks in the dry camping area (no utilities) because the wait for a hook-up site is just over three weeks. We survived with our generators and a long hose for water. It was a little inconvenient, but worth it for a stay in paradise!   

One of our first stops was Alonzo’s Oyster Bar for some broiled oysters and Kermit’s Key Lime Pie Shoppe for some Key Lime pie. We also stopped by Sloppy Joe’s Bar and Capt. Tony’s Saloon where Jimmy Buffet got his start many years ago.  

One night we tried a new place in Key West for dinner, Half Shell Raw Bar. It was very good and the seafood was yummy.

A week ago Sunday we went to one of our favorite places, where the “locals” hang out, Geiger Key Marina. Their tiki bar food is good and the location on the water is awesome.

Kris and I planned to rent a boat while we were here in Key West. We knew the Navy recreational marina had nice 21-foot center console boats for rent. We had to complete an on-line Florida boating safety course first, before we could rent a boat. Kris and I both completed the course before we got here.

Early Tuesday morning we went to the marina before they opened because the rentals are first-come, first-serve. It turned out that we were the only renters that day, but the weather was a little too breezy and we couldn’t go out. The marina called us a couple of hours later when the wind calmed down and we picked up a boat. It turned out to be an awesome day out in the Atlantic and on the Gulf of Mexico to go for a boat ride. We saw dolphins up close and the expensive homes on Sunset Key.  

We enjoyed going to Mallory Square one evening. The were lots of people there for the nightly main event…watching the sunset from Key West.

Last Saturday, Kris, Jan and I took the boat to Dry Tortugas National Park, a 70-mile, two- and one-half-hour ride straight west of Key West. The boat trip was enjoyable and the tour of Fort Jefferson was very informative. The fort construction began in 1846 and lasted over 30-years but was never finished. During the Civil War the fort served as a Union military prison for captured deserters. The Army abandoned the fort in 1874.

We enjoyed dinner tonight with Kris and Jan, our last night in Key West, at Blue Heaven, an eclectic outdoor restaurant in the heart of old Key West. The food was exceptional.

We started coming to Key West in 2011 and this was our seventh stay here. It’s always lots of fun with plenty of places to visit, things to do, and restaurants to try. We leave paradise tomorrow and head back to reality and LaBelle, Florida for a five-week stay.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Tampa

We left LaBelle last Tuesday and drove back to Seffner to get settled in at Lazydays RV Resort for six nights. Our friends Kris and Jan from Albuquerque met us at the campground.

Wednesday morning we headed to the nearby Florida State Fairgrounds to go to the Florida RV Super Show, the largest in the country with over 1,550 RVs on display, 450 vendor booths, covering 26 acres.

Our RV show tickets were good for two days so we went again on Thursday and met my sister Marcia and brother-in-law Mike who drove up the 120-miles from LaBelle.  In the late-afternoon we headed to the Columbia Restaurant in the Ybor City Historic District area of Tampa. The Columbia Restaurant is the oldest restaurant in Florida and was founded in 1905. It has remained in the same family for 114-years since it first opened. The Spanish style food is very, very good.

We head south tomorrow for warmer temperatures and a two-week stay in Key West.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Wintering in Florida

After spending Christmas in Cedar Key, we drove to Seffner, Florida for a short three-night stay at Lazydays RV Resort. We visited Julie’s Aunt Jo, who turns 92 in March, and enjoyed lunch together. She loves to garden and grow flowers in her backyard.

On Saturday, January 29^th, we drove south to LaBelle, about 20-miles east of Fort Myers, to spend a couple of weeks at Oak Grove RV Resort. We spent several months here last year. My sister Marcia and brother-in-law Mike are also staying in LaBelle, but at another RV resort up the road. We enjoyed New Year’s Eve, but at these 55+ resorts, the ball drops a lot earlier than midnight!

We enjoyed going to a musical a few weeks ago, On Your Feet, The Emilio & Gloria Estefan Broadway Musical, in Fort Myers with Mike and Marcia.

Mike and Marcia invited us over for dinner one night and Marcia made Key Lime pie martinis. They were yummy! The sunset was awesome too.

Last Friday we enjoyed going to the Friday Night car races at Mike and Marcia’s RV resort. The cars are all radio-controlled and battery or gas-powered. There were eight racing heats and then a feature race with the heat winners. We liked all the races and I got an idea of how hard it must be for the drivers to control their radio-controlled cars.

We enjoyed an evening out tonight at The Boathouse Tiki Bar & Grill in east Fort Myers on the Caloosahatchee River with several folks from the RV park we're staying at. It was our first time there and we'll be going back.

  
We head back to Seffner tomorrow where we’ll spend six nights at Lazydays RV Resort. We’re going to the 2019 Florida RV Super Show, the country’s biggest RV show, which is open Wednesday-Sunday. Our friends Kris and Jan from Albuquerque are meeting us on Tuesday.

Steve & Julie Cornelius