Another great day with great friends!

Here in the park is a "walking dredge" set up in a permanent display. This was an actual dredge used in the building of the Tamiami Trail, otherwise known as highway 41. This dredge was built in Michigan and sent down to Florida in the 1920's to build the road.

We have met so many people in the eight years we have been fulltiming. Many we remain in contact with and continue to visit on occasion when we are in the same area. We have exchanged correspondence with Al over the years on one of the RV forums. Today we visited him at his home in Port of the Islands outside of Naples. We were here last night, but it was dark and we wanted to see it in the daylight. It is a community of single family homes, condos and townhouses. A canal runs from the homes all the way to the Gulf. Many and probably most of the homes are waterfront with dockage available for a boat. Al has a boat and offered to take us out for a ride. As we would never turn down a boat ride, we all hopped in and we started out. The community is built with the one long canal that goes to the Gulf and other canals off to both sides of the main canal with homes built around the water inlets. Some have swimming pools. It is quite a unique development and I haven't seen another one like it.

We rode out all the way to the Gulf where it was a bit rougher with a light chop to the water. We puttered around a bit and I got a picture of Marco Island. It is a long way off and in the haze and overcast skies, it looks very hazy, but you can see it.

We saw lots of birds as we passed through the canal. I got some great pictures of osprey and one large blue bird that I originally thought was a great Blue Heron, but it is not. Perhaps someone will recognize it. We saw what we are sure was an alligator, but he was in hiding by the time we got to him. We drove back into the dock and offloaded. What a great afternoon and boat ride with our new friends, Al and his daughter Debbie.

Al suggested a restaurant down in Everglades City. We were in that town several years ago, but it has changed a lot since we were there. Course, a couple hurricanes have gone through and stuff needed to be rebuilt, etc. The restaurant where we ate years ago is gone now, but we were able to eat at the City Seafood and Restaurant and it was very good.

Once back at Al's house, we said our goodbyes and promised to come back again to visit. We have made more good friends this trip and explored more of the U.S. in the process. It just doesn't get any better!

Till next time. . .

Dale