Livin' the Dream: Sunset coast invitation

After the exhausting, yet exhilerating evening watching the space shuttle launch we headed back to camp.

I lasted behind the wheel about 30 minutes. The bumper-to-bumper traffic that stretched from the space center to Orlando added to my sleepiness so Bill, apparently fearing for his life, offered to drive. I was hoping someone would notice my head resting on the steering wheel and we motored along, weaving between the lane markers. Actually not all that unusual here in the land of the 'wrinkle ranchers', but my passengers had other ideas, thankfully.

The girls had already left the day before so I caught a little rest before heading off to the west side of Florida. Bob and Bill continued on after dropping me off probably congratulating themselves for toughing it out and keeping awake for the 3 1/2 hour drive. Melvin (Bob and Bill's late father) would have been proud.

My trusty GPS unit guided me along the way to Bill and Susie's house. Situated on a small peninsula near the intercoastal, this beautiful home has water views on all four sides. It's a house as comfortable as the folks who own it. Spacious and well appointed, it reflects the tastes of both Bill and Susie and is indeed a place we felt very at home. We thank them for their hospitality.

View from the road

One of Bill's past-times is 'crabbing'. That not complaining at Susie ... but gathering stone crabs in his traps he sets in the local waterways. Delicious little critters but not that easy to fool into climbing into a trap.

Baited with old chicken necks and other odd chunks of stinky meat, these traps are placed along the main channel and harvested about once a week. Since it's apparently always a surprise what will climb into the traps, the lure and excitement is always there. Anyway big brother Bob decided to head out in the crabbin' boat with Bill to find out what today's catch will be.

Returning about an hour or so later, the catch was small but immediately cooked on the dock and tucked in the freezer for a later meal. Bill wanted to show us some of the surrounding area so all six of us got on board his 26 ft catamaran offshore boat. We headed north to Venice along the various waterways. A fantastic day for boating and we were treated by witnessing a pair of feeding dolphins along the way. These large mammals are not the cuddly "Flippers" we all know and love from TV. They eat for a living and are really efficient killers. They will herd smaller fish into shallow areas and then race through the schools devouring all they can on each pass. In shallow water this is pretty spectacular. 500 to 600 pounds of smooth grey fury can make quite a ruckus on the water. They also seem to use the tremendous power of their tail to shock small fish into some kind of unconciousness as I witnessed and photographed several instances whereas smaller fish were catapulted several feet into the air when the dolphin made a pass. I assume they would return and pick up their bounty. Bill noted that he had never seen dolphins feeding before so the exhibition was exciting for him as well.

Sharon watching dolphins feed.

Probably lunch

We were about 50 ft away when this charge took place ... pretty neat eh?

After a few short days we had to leave and get the coach ready to head north to Jacksonville and then Hilton Head Island. We have been treated by Susie's fantastic cooking and Bill's various collections of peaceful and 'feel good' objects from his travels. We greatly enjoyed both.

We sincerely appreciate the opportunity to get together with family and especially in such nice surroundings.

Bill and Susie are very special people and we thank them alot.