Back to Pine Island

On Wednesday morning, February 3rd, we left Ramblers Rest around 9:20 and we arrived at Pine Island Campground around 11:00.  We got checked in and drove back to our sites which back up to one of the two small lakes in the campground. 

It took some maneuvering to get backed into the sites that are really meant for smaller campers. These sites were flooded a week or so ago when this area of Florida got 13 inches of rain and both of our RVs were within just a few feet of the lake.  The view of the lake was beautiful but it was so cool and windy most of the time that we didn't get to sit outside to really enjoy it.

After getting set up and checked in, we walked around the campground with Ken and Bonnie and saw Bonnie's sister and brother-in-law, Cindy and John, and we also saw Neil and Nancy whom we had not seen since we were all at Pine Island last winter.  We checked out the pool also but it's going to have to warm up a lot before we'll be taking a dip.

Later that evening, Ken and Bonnie came over to play cards and the women emerged victorious this time winning both SkipBo and Pinochle.  The Pinochle game was extremely close with both teams having a tying score of 159.  (You only play to 150.)  We played one more round with the women winning the round and the game!  Ken and Bonnie said in all their years of playing Pinochle they had never seen a tie for both teams over 150. 

We got up early Thursday morning so we could play pickleball at 7:30.  We had some very good games and did pretty well considering it had been last fall that we had played pickleball. 

Reggie and Paul, some friends of Ken and Bonnie's in the park, invited us to go to Mexican lunch at the VFW post.  We had a delicious lunch and enjoyed meeting and visiting with some other campers in the park who were there for lunch.

Later that afternoon, we got together with Cindy and John to play cornhole.  They have some beautiful cornhole boards and this was the first time they had been used.  We played several rounds of cornhole and had some very close (and very long) games. 

On Friday, we rode with Ken and Bonnie down to Estero.  Our first stop was at the Lakes Park Farmers Market.  We walked around and tasted a few samples and bought some fresh produce.

Bonnie had a doctor's appointment early that afternoon to have her lip rechecked from skin cancer surgery the week before.  Fortunately, they had gotten all the cancer when the surgery was done the previous week and they were just wanting to check her lip to see how it was healing.  We all waited in the waiting area and in typical Ken & Chuck fashion, they started giggling and laughing about something they were reading in the paper.

I think they may have even taken Bonnie back a little quicker to see the doctor so that the boys would be separated.  :)  Bonnie's lip was healing nicely but when the nurse began to scrape some of the white film off of where it was healing, it began bleeding profusely.  They got it stopped by applying pressure and Bonnie was fine except for a very sore lip.  Ken, on the other hand, looked a little green as they came back out to the waiting area.

After we left the doctor's office, we stopped at Sweet Tomatoes for lupper.  It was after 2 in the afternoon and the place was packed which was surprising for that time of day.  We enjoyed a relaxing lunch and just getting to chat and talk awhile longer.  We made two more stops on the way back to Pine Island stopping at Costco and Wal-mart.  We didn't get back to Pine Island until after 6.  But that didn't keep us from getting together a short while later to play some more card games.

On Saturday, Ken & Bonnie, Neil & Nancy, Cindy & John and Chuck & I, all got together over at Cindy and John's for a cookout.  We scheduled it early in the day because it was supposed to start raining later in the day.  Unfortunately, the weather forecast was incorrect and it started raining before we even started grilling.  Cindy and John had their awning out and the picnic table set up where we were able to all sit outside under the awning and enjoy a very nice lunch together.

After lunch, Cindy and John took their cornhole boards to the clubhouse where we had an inside cornhole tournament between the four couples.

Ken thought he would lift some weights
while waiting their turn to play cornhole.  

John gave Ken and Chuck a lesson on how to properly tie your shoes.

The rain didn't stop us from having fun and we had a great afternoon of playing cornhole in the clubhouse.  Ken and Bonnie emerged the victors of the 2016 Pine Island Rainy Day Cornhole Tournament.

On Sunday morning, we went to church service in the campground and Cindy sung a beautiful song as part of their special music.  She has a beautiful voice.  I think she and Bonnie are singing a song together this coming Sunday.  I'm sorry we're going to miss that!

On Sunday evening, we got together over at Ken and Bonnie's for Super Bowl 50.  We enjoyed some delicious snackies before and during the game.  Of course, we were pulling for Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos.  If you watched it, you know it was a close and very defensive game but we were all very, very happy to see the Denver Broncos emerge the winners of Super Bowl 50!

On Monday morning, we played pickleball with Ken and Bonnie for a couple of hours and had some very good games again.  Later that afternoon, we rode our bikes to Low Key Tiki for a late lunch.

We had originally planned to ride a little further after lunch, but the wind was so strong that we decided to just ride back to the campground.  We stopped on the way back to try to find a couple of eagle's nests we had seen in previous years back in a subdivision, but the brush has grown too tall to be able to see them.  We did stop and watch a rancher feeding some of his cattle.

They were mooing like crazy.  I think they were saying "Eat Mor Chikin."  :)

We got together later that evening for cards again but by the time we finished playing, I wasn't feeling so good.  I had started with a little cough while watching the Super Bowl Game and had felt a little more tired than usual today and by the time I was ready to go to bed, I was really feeling puny.  I took some Nyquil hoping that would knock it out but I ran a low-grade fever, was achy and was coughing worse with a really nasty sounding cough on Tuesday.  So, I just laid around most of the day Tuesday hoping the rest would help me get rid of whatever I had.

On Wednesday, I woke up with a nasty headache but after I took some Tylenol and drank some coffee and it went away and my temperature was gone.  But my cough was still pretty bad.  Chuck thought I should see a doctor so we went to an urgent care clinic over in Cape Coral.  They tested me for flu and thankfully, it showed up negative so I guess I just have a bad cold or a touch of bronchitis.  They gave me several prescriptions and while we were waiting for the prescriptions to be filled at Walgreens, we drove to Sweet Tomatoes to have lunch again.  We just missed Ken & Bonnie and Ernie & Noela who went there for lunch after seeing lots of manatees up at Lee County Manatee Park.

After picking up my prescriptions, we headed back to Pine Island and Chuck cleaned the outside of the motorhome and began taking things down to get ready for our departure on Thursday.  Ken and Bonnie came over to play some cards later Wednesday evening and we had some good games of Pinochle, SkipBo, and 5 Crowns.  I won't humiliate the men any further by telling you who won all three games.  :)

We woke up to a cool 44 degrees on Thursday morning but at least it was not windy and raining.

We said our good-byes to Ken and Bonnie and are looking forward to meeting up with them again and Cindy and John in two weeks at Ramblers Rest.  We wanted to get one last picture of the bearded guys together.

Don't they look mean and serious!  You better not mess with these guys!

I like this picture a lot better!  

Neil and Nancy, we will miss you guys!  Sorry we weren't able to spend more time with you.  Safe travels and we look forward to seeing you again down the road sometime!