A Taste of the Future? - Resort Life at Cypress Trails RV Resort in Fort Myers, Florida.…

As mentioned in the previous blog we were looking forward to our weeklong stay at Cypress Trails RV Resort in Ft Myers, Florida. This is a fairly new resort offering rental spaces as well as ownership lots. Upon check-in we were escorted to our site on a street lined on both sides with tall beautiful royal palm trees. We passed a few lots with coach houses and/or tiki huts included on what we assumed were owner lots. We backed into our spacious concrete pad on site number 294.

After setting up we wanted to take a long walk around the large resort to get acquainted with it and its amenities. The landscaping is immaculate and features two inner circles around small lakes with fountains. One lake also has a dock and chairs for visitors to relax in during their stay. The owned lots were not only tricked out with the large tiki pavilions and coach houses, but also had some impressive outdoor kitchens and tiled pads. Sidewalks are on every street and we found a large dog park near the trash/recycling enclosure.

Further along our walk we found shuffleboard, tennis and pickleball courts. The large clubhouse has a couple of meeting rooms and houses the lifestyle coordinator, main offices, a fitness room as well as an outdoor pool with a hot tub. We knew right away we were going to enjoy our stay!

We spoke to the lifestyle coordinator who directed us to the shed where the pickleball racquets and other sports equipment is stored for our use. We also picked up a calendar of activities noting that we would probably attend donut day, the ice cream social and margarita night (yeah we’re bad).

This is indeed an impressive resort and just the kind of place Sharon LOVES. This checked off all the boxes for us EXCEPT location. Its farther from the beach than we would like as it would take 45 minutes to an hour depending on traffic to enjoy our favorite beaches. However it was nice to see this resort and take note of what is available since we know one day we will eventually settle down. For now we are enjoying the road but this stay gave us an idea of what the perfect place would look like in SW Florida. Cypress Trails RV Resort in Ft Myers, Florida has everything anyone would need!

NOTE:We are now in Bonita Springs Florida at Imperial Bonita Estates until March 1, 2018.

Snook Fishing at Florida’s Franklin Locks Park…

We left the St Lucie Lock COE park and drove across the state of Florida from the Atlantic side to the Gulf of Mexico side. It was a drive of just a little over 100 miles and a quieter drive after my new tape “fix” on the bay CAC hose. We pulled into another wonderful COE park called WP Franklin North.

We pretty much hung around the park because of the beautiful campground water views on both sides of us. It was also Thanksgiving weekend and time to count our blessings as we are ever thankful we were able to retire early and hit the road at a relatively younger age than most retirees. To celebrate properly we bought a 9 lb. turkey and cooked it up in our convection oven. Of course no Thanksgiving would be complete without our traditional sides of some cornbread dressing, yams, green bean casserole, giblet gravy and cranberry sauce. Since it was only the two of us we had a feast. We spoke with our kids and grandkids which ended our Thanksgiving on a delightful note.

With all the leftovers we will be eating a lot of turkey and dressing over the next few days. Of course one of our favorite ways to use leftover turkey is to make a turkey tetrazzini. After some diced onion, garlic, red bell pepper, sliced mushrooms and seasoning along with a wine cream sauce, egg noodles and turkey, we  topped off the pasta with some shredded parmesan cheese making for a wonderful  meal not resembling turkey at all. Sharon also found a tasty apple cranberry crisp recipe which used up our leftover cranberry sauce. I loved our Thanksgiving prep and all the leftovers it yielded to our home on wheels.

The park also has a pier and the snook fishing has been really hot right now. I didn’t have the right gear to partake in the exciting fishing going on at the pier but I did watch and learn how the more seasoned anglers fish for snook. The lure that seemed to get the most action was the Bass Assassin Saltwater Sea Shad. Anglers would toss out out as far as they could in the swirling waters coming through the spillway.

Reeling slowly the snook would hit hard and begin a lengthy and furious battle.  I saw a lot of fish landed but with the limit for keeping them set at one fish per day as long as it was between 28-32 inches very few were kept. That being said, some fish approaching 4 feet in length were caught and it was amazing to see these beautiful fish. I took my light action rod and reel and tried using a weedless yellow bird spoon since I read they also hit spoons. I did hook one snook who put up quite a battle but it ended up winning as it broke off one of the barbs on the treble hook of the lure.

The only snook I got was a cold brew with the same name but it was oh, so good…

With Thanksgiving behind us it is getting close to December which will have us staying put for three months in Bonita Springs Florida. We have one more stop at a fairly new park in Fort Myers called Cypress Trail RV Resort that we are looking forward to seeing…

NOTE: We are currently at Cypress Trail RV Resort just outside of Ft. Myers.