Day 156: Thursday, February 7, 2013
Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach
Underway: 0:00 am Motor Off: 0:00 pm Miles Traveled: 0 Stayed At: Marina
First Things First: First time making beef stew in rice cooker.
Mile to Mile: It was an active morning for the local fire department and rescue squad. We hear sirens probably 6 times per day at least – well this morning the sirens started early. Although there is a station on the island, the ambulance and fire engines also come from a station about a mile over the bridge. It turns out, a garbage truck caught fire at the Red Coconut Mobile Home Park down past the library and was still smoldering 2 hours after we first heard the sirens. It was a total loss and also burned down one of the homes in the park. Traffic near the area was a nightmare at 9 am in the morning.
We took advantage of another free guided tour this morning – this time of the Matanzas Pass Preserve. We have already wandered through the park but it was fun to learn about some of the history of the park and why it is so special. The park packs a lot of nature into only 60 acres. On our way to the park we could see the smoke from the fire to the south and saw the remnants of a car crash where someone crashed into a small city street sweeper tipping it over, totaling their car and sending everyone to the hospital – idiots. I can’t figure out how someone can get into that bad of an accident on extremely congested roads where traffic seldom can go faster than 25 mph.
The guided tour was excellent and we also wandered through a small museum with pictures and information on the history of Fort Myers Beach. Wandering these parks takes on a whole new dimension when you actually know what to look for and how everything fits into the surrounding ecosystem.
I got mail today – Jess and Sarah sent me some welcome homemade treats for my birthday. Perfect timing since the treats Cindy brought back from her trip to Arizona are basically gone. Thanks girls.
Even though it is warm and sunny, we are making beef stew in the rice cooker. We have some stew meat that we need to use. We threw browned beef, some red potatoes and carrots with water and let it cook for almost two hours – it turned out perfect. This rice cooker cooking is amazingly easy and you only dirty one pan. It’s always nice when an appliance can be used for multiple applications.
