Ft Myer's Anchorage
Sunday. Decided to anchor at Ft. Myers beach. Quiet night. Sunday, April 14th Ft. Myers Beach Beautiful morning. Dinghied to the pass with my net, pole, bucket, tackle box & , of course, Molly. Incoming tide so I managed to net a bunch of the good bait. However, by the time we got out into the pass, it was slacking off and fish not biting. On the distant shore, we saw cars on the beach so went to check it
out. Bunche Beach, states park. Dirty, icky beach. A far cry from the Bahamas! We stopped one more time to fish on our way back. Reeled in a trout but 
out. Bunche Beach, states park. Dirty, icky beach. A far cry from the Bahamas! We stopped one more time to fish on our way back. Reeled in a trout but 
too small. (his lucky day) One more cast...WAM a keeper! Again, fresh fish for dinner. Cleaned up, showered, changed and onward to the famous Reggae Night at the Bridge. Stopped at Bonita Bills first - a “Dockside-like” open bar - no music. The place was jumping & the same band playing as last year. My first taste of the new malt beers, 
Bacardi Silver and I’m hooked. Ran into a few people from Gregg & Jo’s crowd as well. Danced a bit with Wayne & a few strangers. (Literally, strange) Fun evening. Monday, April 15th Same beautiful weather. We were just deciding what to do when Gregg called. We met at Bonita Bill’s for lunch 
& & had another Bacardi Silver. Gregg & Wayne went ‘shopping’ at West Marine, I hiked it over the Matanzas Bridge to the beach side. And a hike it was but what a view. Explored the shops - same shit, 
different town. Stopped at Jimmy B’s cuz I heard great music. Cute little beach bar snuggled between
BLUE MAX in the middle of all the sailboats
Bacardi Silver and I’m hooked. Ran into a few people from Gregg & Jo’s crowd as well. Danced a bit with Wayne & a few strangers. (Literally, strange) Fun evening. Monday, April 15th Same beautiful weather. We were just deciding what to do when Gregg called. We met at Bonita Bill’s for lunch 
& & had another Bacardi Silver. Gregg & Wayne went ‘shopping’ at West Marine, I hiked it over the Matanzas Bridge to the beach side. And a hike it was but what a view. Explored the shops - same shit, 
different town. Stopped at Jimmy B’s cuz I heard great music. Cute little beach bar snuggled between
BLUE MAX in the middle of all the sailboats
& was going to take a nap. Shame, he would have enjoyed the place. Coctails & dinner. Programmed the TV & you’ll never guess...I finally got to see Aly McBeal- two hours worth…ahhh…what a night. We were undecided what to do or where to go. It seemed like time was getting short all of a sudden. We still had so much we wanted to do. Decided to go back up the Caloosahatchee to downtown Ft Myers so we could tour the Edison-Ford homes. We were unsure if we would have time to travel, dock and still catch a tour. Arrived at the city docks about 1pm, they had a slip for us, Wayne expertly backed BLUE MAX into the dock, tied up, registered, walked a mile or two 
Edison's home
Edison’s first wife, Mary, had 3 children but she died when she was only 29 years old. Two years later, he met and married Mina Miller. They also had 3 children. The only survivors are from his daughter so the Edison name has ended. The 14 acres is a
Beautiful Orchid was just hanging in the path
the circumference is over 400 ft., the largest in this country. It could be larger but because of surrounding buildings they keep it trimmed. I’m so glad Wayne wanted to come here as I learned so many things about this genius who had virtually no formal schooling. This is his 1917 Ford “woody”. 
They ‘kicked’ us out at 5:30. We wound up at a rooftop open cafe, which overlooked the Caloosahatchee River. They didn’t have the Bacardi Silver so I settled for the new Skyy Ice. YUM! They had an interesting happy hour. If you won the coin toss, the drink was free. Wayne paid, I won the first round - he won the second. Rain showers but we stayed dry. Had wings, salsa and dip. Home by 10. A bit chilly, I put on a sweatshirt and walked the docks looking at all the boats. We found a used dingy, all fiberglass, called a Jolly Boat. Pretty slick and just the right size too. Wednesday, April 17th We were undecided how we wanted to get back home (the Keys, that is). We both wanted to attend Meredith’s going away party at Chili’s on Friday night & I wanted to get my car. After much discussion, we decided to go for it & do an overnight to Key West. (I hate overnights, but, ya gotta do what ya gotta do) Wayne made a bunch of calls about current prices for various dinghies and also spoke with the original builder of the Jolly boat. Mel agreed to come see the old dinghy & give an estimate as a possible trade in on a new Jolly boat. After learning about the new boats and a list price of $3395, (which did not include tax, delivery and some optional items we wanted) Wayne made an offer of $1500 on the used dingy we saw the night before. Mel arrived checked the boat & found the possible source of the leak of our dinghy. He returned to repair the leak & got the base price of a new Jolly Boat down to $3195. (However, not enough to buy a new one) We also picked his brain about construction and different options so Wayne would be able to add these options himself. Burke, the salesman, stopped by to say that the owner of the used boat had not yet returned his call. Shame, we could have towed it back with us thus eliminating the aggravation and cost to pick it up later. Shoved off at 2:30, I was at the helm. With Wayne’s help, I got her out of the slip & on our way without a hitch. It was nice to not have to tend to the lines & put them all away. I like having a deck hand! We were met with intermittent rain showers along the Caloosahatchee. Just our luck that some were rather heavy just as we were navigating some tight, tricky areas. Took us a little over two hours to reach the Sanibel bridge & we still had about 20 hours to go!
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