Bruce's Travels

Tuesday Feb. 21 Well, today is Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) and I can think of no better way to spend it than at Fort Myers Beach. I've invited Carol to spend part of the day with me. I slather myself with some sunscreen, and set out on my bike (with new cushion gel seat!) at about 11:30 and arrive at the beach at about 12:30. I settle in at a bar called "Top O' Mast." They are famous for their "Rum Runner" which is about eight bucks or so, but it's served in a souvenir glass, which you get to keep. They are strictly a bar, but offer food through a restaurant called "La Ola" (translation: "The Wave") which is across the street from them. It makes things a little confusing, because your drink waitress is different than your food waitress. And the food waitress has the added task of running back and forth to fetch food. But I guess it all works out. I rent two beach lounge chairs and a shade umbrella from yet a third company, which has ...

Monday Feb. 20 Today, I am off to Naples for a little investigating, and to meet "Cami," a woman who approached me on Match.com and would like to meet. (If you click on the link, her reference is toward the bottom of the page). I finally get on the road at 10:30, arriving in Naples at about11:30. It's only 32 miles, but it takes me an hour due to heavy traffic on Highway 41, the highway that everyone down here loves to hate. It's been described as a "six-lane Cuisinart" of a highway, where "bad drivers from all over the nation gather to tailgate and rush, only to wait impatiently at the next stop light. ... an unbroken strip of of tacky, plasticized commerce stretching 200 miles from Tampa to Naples, jammed with traffice that only slows when sirens scream and ambulances come to strap the broken and bleeding onto stretchers and cart them away." I'll definitely take I-75 back, but going there, I want to take the "scenic route" and s...

Saturday Feb. 18 - Sunday Feb. 19 Saturday. It's a beautiful day for a bike ride today, but first I must mail a package to an eBay customer. He bought a copy of Rene Rondeau's Hamilton watch identification guide. I bought this at the Daytona Regional watch/clock show for $20, and sold for $180. Ka-ching. I'm very happy with this, and wish I had a deal like this every week. I knew the book was worth some money. I grab my trusted Murray coaster bike, and head over to the John Yarbrough Linear Park bike trail , which I referenced earlier in this blog (click on the link for my entry describing this bike trail). I notice the tires feel a little bit soft, so I stop at a "Mobile" gas station, but they want a dollar for air. Fuck that. So the next gas station, a "Hess" service station, has it for free, so I give the tires a little boost. Does anyone but me remember the days when just about any gas station had air, and the air hose was located where it was su...

Wed, Feb. 15 - Friday, Feb. 17 Wednesday Feb. 15 -- after my big bike ride day on Tuesday, I figure the best thing is to get myself into the gym and keep those muscles loosened up, so I ride my bike over to the gym at about 2:30 and do a good workout. One small but interesting development at the condo complex: the electronic entry gate has failed, and now they have posted a 24-hour human "sentry" at the gate to check residents as they enter. It's not a huge hassle; in fact I can often get in more quickly than when I have to wait for that gate to slide open. All I need do is show my "reader card," (I don't have to show picture ID or anything). I know it's a necessity, and without anyone at the gate we would have all manner of people wandering around in here looking for trouble. But it must surely be expensive to post a guard here 24/7. I heard one resident say it's costing $20/hr (I'm sure the guard doesn't make that; but that's what the...

Mon. - Tuesday Feb. 13-14 Thanks, readers, for your continued patience, as I try to catch up! On Monday, I head over to the fitness center for a workout. I have made a dinner date with my friend, Carol, over to "Big Al's City Sports Grill" on Tamiani Trail (Hwy 41) a couple of miles from the condo. They run a special on Monday nights to drive business to their establishment on what is normally the slowest restaurant day of the week for restaurants in general. And, boy, does it ever work in "Al's" case! The deal is: ANY dinner on the menu for $10.95, regardless of the posted price. The special excludes any dinners that are marked "Market Price," such as the crab legs, lobster, etc. But you can order their most expensive dinner, which is is 10 oz. top sirloin with four shrimp, normally $17.95, for $10.95. The only other "catch" is that you must order some type of beverage. Doesn't have to alcoholic; just any beverage. So if you'...

Saturday - Sunday Feb. 11-12  Saturday After the big week in Daytona Beach, it's time to just kick back and relax. Of course, the news all over the Internet is the death at age 48 of Whitney Houston. I am sad, but not surprised. Yet another example of a star who could not handle their fame. I can well remember her self-titled debut album back in 1985 when she was new, fresh, and had a voice that brought chills. From there, she crested, and began to sink as quickly. I think the low point for me was her occasional appearances (mostly off camera) in the "Being Bobby Brown" reality show, where her cocaine-induced cries for "BOBBYYYYYY," became the brunt of jokes. Shame on the Bravo channel for airing this piece of crap, even for the one season it ran in 2005, while at the same time the cable channel was running other, mostly good programming that appealed to a little higher level of humanity. (Although they have now sunk into a pit of despair and human depravit...

Monday Feb. 6 -- Friday Feb. 10  Monday Feb. 8 After a breakfast of bacon and eggs, I change out the kitty litter, pack the car, and head off to the twin watch shows at Daytona Beach. According to Google, it's 217 miles, and about 4 hours and 20 minutes, assuming no stops and/or traffic snags. The first leg to Orlando goes the slowest, along U.S. Highway 17, that takes you numerous nondescript cities and towns in the inner section of Florida. Once you hit Interstate 4, you whisk along until you hit Kissimmee/Orlando, and then of course it's a crap shoot navigating the theme park corridor, then downtown, then north  Orlando and Winter Park. Then you have another clear shot for about 30-40 miles until you hit the dividing point where  Interstate 4 ends, and splits either to I-95, or to State Road 92, which takes you to Daytona Beach. It is here at this junction, I encounter a huge accident (one of many, I hear, at this busy and dangerous confluence of  highways) wh...

Saturday - Sunday Feb. 3-4 Not a whole lot to report. My usual m.o. on the weekends is to pretty much lay low because the beaches are pretty crowed, as are the restaurants and shopping venues. I listed a couple of watch lots on eBay ... first the Pulsar lady's watch that did not fit Carol's wrist; and second a pair of Swatch models called the "Chandelier" which was issued in "limited edition" (like, they only made a million of them or something!) during Xmas of '92. The interesting thing about them is that Swatch packed them in a wooden crate about the size of a shoe box with a sliding top, and a insulated them with a straw-like material. It was a really cool packaging concept. I don't have the boxes to go with my two; just the watches. But we'll see how they do. I got them for virtually nothing as part of a "buy all or nothing" deal. I got in a nice workout, and also took a walk to the local Starbucks and hit an ATM for $400 cash t...

Wednesday Feb. 1 - Friday Feb. 3 February gets off to a rather inauspicious start. I awake kind of stiff from the big bike ride yesterday, so I decide a good workout will be just the ticket to stretch out those sore muscles. And speaking of working out, I tally my number of visits to Anytime Fitness for the month of January, and they come to 10, which works out to just a hair over $6 per visit for the $61/month fee I am paying. There probably would have been more visits, but there was a big gap between between Jan. 8 and Jan. 13 during the cruise and Julie's time here with me in Ft. Myers. So I think this expenditure is well worth it. Heather (my landlady) will be meeting me at the condo at 5 p.m. today to pick up her rent check for February, and hopefully will have my box of watches that have arrived from Evansville via Dawn. Phoebe is doing better and limping less and less on that left foot of hers, and that is good. She will be 13 years old this year, and is still one toug...

Tuesday Jan. 31 Today, I decide to spend a deluxe day at the Fort Myers Beach. I say "deluxe" because I decide to ride my bike all the way there and back, which is 9.3 miles each way, including the quarter mile San Carlos Boulevard bridge over to the key which has about a 10% grade going up before it reaches the middle. This is will be a major undertaking. To add even a little more "deluxe," Carol calls me in the morning as I'm finishing breakfast and asks what I'm doing that day. I tell her about the beach, and she asks if she can join me, and I say sure, and we agree to meet at Pete's Time Out by the pier at around noon for lunch. I head out around 11 a.m., figuring about an hour to get to the beach. I head southwest on McGregor Blvd. which eventually turns into San Carlos which takes you to the beach. It's very level, but McGregor is a busy main highway with many intersections, and even though you're up on the sidewalk, you are very clos...