Day 11 – Day 22 Rotonda West
We left St. Mary’s, Georgia and were quickly crossing the border into Florida and almost immediately the scenery changed to wide roads, immaculate verges and palm trees. We had originally decided to drive across to the Gulf Coast via Gainesville and stay overnight somewhere between Weeki Wachee and Tarpon Springs but, by the time we reached the west coast, it was very dark and cloudy and a 24 hour storm was being forecast starting that evening. Suddenly a night in our own bed became very appealing so we quickly got onto the Suncoast Parkway heading towards Tampa, I-275 and over the Sunshine Skyway. We immediately felt as if we are ‘going home’.
Finally we arrived at our villa - we had traveled 1500 miles, only got lost once and never seen any road repairs or cones in the entire journey! It had been an amazing 10 days for different scenery, meeting really lovely people, learning about America’s History and discovering places we would like to return to and we were still only part way through our holiday.
We had just got the cases out of the car when there was a huge clap of thunder followed by torrential rain. We quickly unpacked and spent the rest of the evening watching The Patriot, the film set during the American War of Independence. The names and places meant so much more to us than they would have 10 days ago.
Early next morning I was woken by lightening, torrential rains and very strong winds – needless to say Cliff slept through it. It continued to rain for most of the next 24 hours which gave us time to catch up with a few chores around the villa and drive into nearby Port Charlotte for some additional bits and pieces for the villa.
After all the driving we had done, it was enjoyable just to relax by our pool and spend a few lazy days re-visiting some of our favorite local spots - walking along local Stump Pass Beach looking for shells and sharks teeth while watching the sun go down,
Stump Pass Beach with usual crowds!
catching the ferry to Don Pedro Island where we were the only people on the beach with our own private dolphin ‘show’ a few yards away, and visiting the lovely old town of Punta Gorda and Fishermen’s Village where some of the fantastic boats in the nearby marina always raise the question of what do people do to afford them!
Although we knew we would be able to eat 24 hours a day on the final stage of our holiday it did not prevent us visiting some of our favourite restaurants – breakfast at Tiffanys (where else!), the nearby Lickety Split Café for sweet potato fries covered in cinnamon (yummy but not on the same day I hasten to add!), lunch at Sharkeys beside the pier in Venice where the waves lap on the beach just yards from the table and the water taxi to Rum Bay restaurant on Palm Island where we are hooked on their delicious home-made bread and honey butter. We always eat far too much before our order arrives! As usual, at sunset, we caught the last water taxi back from Rum Bay to the mainland and were delighted to be followed by dolphins.
This time we seemed to see far more of the local wild life. With Rotonda West having it’s own nature reserve and still having several undeveloped plots, we had grown used to the alligator in the canal at the back of our house, turkey buzzards sitting on the roof on ‘garbage’ collection day, watching the family of raccoons play on the opposite bank, fire-flies attracted by our pool lights at dusk and chasing off the armadillo who is determined to burrow into our lawn but returning from lunch at nearby Boca Grande we were lucky enough to see Osprey feeding their young in nests on tall nesting poles right beside the road.
Osprey Nest
A few minutes later we stopped at a Nature Reserve and saw an American Bald Eagle fishing from a small lake only a few yards from the main road. We knew that Eagles nes
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