Our Campsite at W. P. Franklin

Went for a walk this morning. Ron and Jan came over and hung out for a while. Had burgers for dinner. A beautiful day—mid-80s again. A huge cigarette boat came up the river by the campground. After Ron and Jan left, sat outside until the sun set. A beautiful evening.

Ft. Myers, FL: Left Land-O-Lakes at 10:30 this morning. My turn to drive. Arrived at W. P. Franklin Corps of Engineers Campground at about 1:00 and got set up. I backed it into the site—a little crooked. This is a really pretty campground on the Caloosahatchee River and in a beautiful area with large estates and beautiful homes. Went for a walk after we got set up and later we met Ron and Jan for dinner at Pastabilities. Back home and watched the Missouri football game.. Ron and Jan coming over tomorrow. There’s an eagle hanging out in the area. Very warm—low 80s. YES!

Land-o-Lakes, FL: We didn’t get together with Sandy and Dan today because we had some maintenance chores to do before we leave tomorrow for Ft. Myers. Sandy wrote 7 articles for her Master Gardener certification. She’s also volunteering all day Saturday at some function in Dade. Sounds like she was busy. I walked up to the CVS and bought a pedometer for the hell of it so I can keep tract of how much I walk. That should be interesting. So far today I walked about 2000 steps.

Casita

La Setima

(the main street of the historic district)

Land-o-Lakes, FL: Sandy and Dan picked us up this morning and we drove over to Ybor City. What a neat place! It was founded by Vincente Martinez Ybor (e-bor) who immigrated to Cuba from Spain and started a cigar factory. He then moved it to Key West and after having labor problems purchased a tract of land north of Tampa and built a brand new cigar factory there in 1884. Along with the cigar factory he built stores and restaurants and then built little houses (casitas) for the workers. The workers could buy the house for $400 interest free. They could walk to work. The work force consisted of Spanish, Cuban, and Italian immigrants. The workers hired lectors who would read to them all day. First he would read the newspaper—and always in Spanish. Then he would read novels. The workers decided what they wanted the lector to read and each worker paid him 25 cents a week. They became very educated and the Italians learned to speak Spanish to boot. Each ethnic group had their own social clubs—beautiful buildings—where they could socialize, receive cheap medical care and other help. This is a really neat place with red brick buildings, wrought iron balconies and narrow brick streets which give it an old world charm. We had lunch at the Columbia Restaurant. A beautiful building with Spanish architecture and really good food.

The Lani and Pool

Tue, 11/27/07

Land-o-Lakes, FL: Hung out on the lanai again today. Ate more turkey. Played Spades. Another warm day, but cloudy.

Land-o-Lakes, FL: Taking a break from Sandy & Dan’s today. They have a bunch of stuff to do. Did a load of laundry, and while it was in the dryer we went for a walk around the campground. There are some really nice “permanent” or “seasonal” sites in here. Most people keep them up really nice—with nice landscaping and neat, clean grounds. Also some really nice park models in here. Some of the sites are on a couple of little lakes and some of them back up to a bunch of pine trees. Not too bad. We’d rather be further south in the Keys where it never really gets cold. It can get pretty cool here in the Tampa area in the winter.

Sponge Docks, Tarpon Springs

Sun, 11/25/07

Land-o-Lakes, FL: The four of us drove over to Tarpon Springs and walked around the craft fair. Then went down to the sponge docks and checked out some of the shops. A beautiful day—80s. Humid. Back to Sandy and Dan’s. Lorell and Danny came over and we all played Spades for a while. Eating way too much.