Imperial Bonita Estates, Bonita Springs, Florida…

Sunday morning came with Katie and her roomie packing to head back to North Carolina while Sharon and I packed up in order to be ready to head south just before lunchtime. Both Heather and Katie were interested to see what it takes to ready the motorhome for travel.  Katie even wanted to bring in one of the slides. Before we left Katie and Heather also wanted to ride in the motorhome so they rode with me in Abbey to the main gate while Sharon drove their car behind me. They both seemed to enjoy this brief encounter and especially the beach time they got even though the weather wasn’t perfect…

As Katie and her roomie headed east we pointed Abbey south onto the Interstate Highway. We only had a short drive of a little over 100 miles, just the way I like it. Traffic was light until we got near Fort Myers and then it picked up quite a bit. Soon thereafter we began to see signs for Naples signaling we were getting close.

As we turned west off the highway at our exit we only had about two miles left to go. We entered the park, Imperial Bonita Estates (IBE), around 2 pm. and noticed that they had already put up some Christmas decorations at the main entrance. We drove over to the office only to find it closed. They did however have packets near the door for arrivals that day and ours was in the stack.

As we looked over the information we were a bit confused as to which site we were on and with no one there we were a bit worried.. Finally I noticed that we had nametags and on the nametag under our names was “C201” which I assumed had to be our site number. So we looked at their map to locate our site and could only find one site that was site 201. Still a bit confused by the letter C in front of the site number we drove over in the CRV to look it over.

 

We almost always visit the site we are about to park on in the CRV or on foot so we can look it over for any possible “issues” in getting the RV in it. We also discuss our strategy of how we want Abbey to sit on the lot and how we will back into it so Sharon and I are on the same page. I don’t know if I ever mentioned this or not but our backup camera also has a speaker volume control. I crank up the volume to maximum when I am backing up the rig because I can easily hear Sharon directing me which requires a whole lot less hand motions. Now I have to admit I only figured this out after about a year on the road and I could tell that parking the rig became a whole lot easier and less stressful for Sharon once we started using it, Now I can see why so many people use walkie talkies so it is nice that ours is built in…

 

Once parked and set up into our new home for the months of December and January we took a stroll around IBE to see what amenities it had that would be useful during our stay. The park is a typical southern Florida over 55 park in that there are a lot of park models with RV sites scattered throughout it. We also noticed right away that it is a friendly park as we many of the residents struck up conversations with us as we strolled through the neighborhood.

They have a nice pool, varied recreational opportunities such as tennis, a putting green, shuffleboard, pool, ping pong and horseshoes but lacks two items that we wished they had: an exercise facility and a hot tub. So we will have to come up with our own exercise routine during our stay and Sharon has already made use of the large patio we have for that. Apparently more activities will appear on the calendar in January when another wave of guests arrive.  Overall we are very satisfied with our site and our new home for winter.  We really look forward to relaxing and staying far away from the chill of North America’s winter…

Thanksgiving and a visit from our daughter…

We had a few cold days here in Bradenton, Florida… well, at least cold for this part of the world. Just before Thanksgiving we had the pleasure of reacquainting with some  RV’ing friends, Eldie and Jeanie of Where's Eldo? They were RV’ers when we first met them in Naples a few years ago but now they have settled down into a sticks and bricks home not too far from where we are staying. We were hoping to cross paths again and luckily they were available.  The took us to a really nice place called the Blue Rooster where had dinner and drinks while enjoying some live blues music. Jeanie and Eldie were so happy to find their place to settle.  We told them we have yet to find the it place for us and they assured us that when we find it, we will just know much like they did. We really had fun meeting up with them once again and will try again to do so upon our return to this area in the future.

   

We were looking forward to Thanksgiving as our daughter, Katie, and her roommate, Heather, had planned to escape the cold of North Carolina to visit us. So although the weather turned chilly we created a fabulous Thanksgiving feast and really enjoyed their company. Turkey, dressing, green bean casserole and of course all the important sides and deserts were cooked in the motorhome and laid on our table. Before long we were all gorged and simply lounged around the rest of the evening.

Post Thanksgiving the weather improved considerably even though it was still a tad chilly. Given the warmer temperatures we headed out for Coquina Beach near Cortez, Florida. Still too cool to do a whole lot of laying out on the beach we still got in some nice hiking along the water’s edge. Katie and Heather were even able to sneak in a little sunning as the sun peeked out of the clouds and warmed up things a bit more.

Saturday we will hit the beach once again for the North Carolina girls to get their sand and surf hit and then Sunday they have to head home. Sunday is also our last day here as we will pack up and head 100 miles south to Bonita Springs Florida. This is where we will winter for the months of December and January at Imperial Bonita Estates. We are looking forward to our return to Bonita Springs and reacquainting ourselves with the area we first wintered at in 2011…