I suck at taking pictures of people and I can only tell you SingingtoJeffreysTune doesn't look at all like this. But I did actually get to meet him in Fort Myers yesterday.
I think he has been following my blog as long as anyone and how silly is it we've never met? Done that, got the photo and my wife was there to witness the encounter in Southwest Florida.
We talked a good long while over a slow lunch so when it was time to go back to the blessed Florida Keys it was afternoon and the light over the Everglades was lovely. Check out those clouds. It was hot and dry and windy in the Everglades yesterday on the birthday in 1890 of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the woman who write so passionately about this area that she is credited with saving it from total destruction. Florida is a state that has only slowly one to terms with the importance and beauty of its peculiar geography.
Jeffrey and I were talking about being slightly mentally deformed; he writes code for a living, I answer 911 calls. We talk to much and too fast and we understand each other perfectly. The world shrank, my wife was a spectator and my dig was asleep in the car in the air conditioning. At the Micosukee Service Plaza on I-75 she sank her forelegs into a retention pond and drank deep. No alligators appeared and she drank deeply.
Jeffrey wanted to meet Cheyenne, the dog of a million photos on this page but all she could think as she shook herself and descended from her air conditioned chariot was how bloody hot Fort Myers was of a Spring afternoon. 91 degrees actually. She posed for a picture and got back into our cool breezy Ford Fusion to escape the heat.
We stopped for a pee at the Indian service area off the freeway in the middle of the Everglades. It was hit and dry but it was break from the four lanes she malls of the congested I-75 corridor we had left behind on the coast.
The Miccosukee are a branch of the Seminoles who retreated to southFlorida swamps in the19th century along with a few runaway slaves to make a life away from white people and their intrusions. They have extra-territorial lands next to the Seminoles in the middle of the state.
We white transgressors pay fullump price out here as we stand and listen to the wind. I love this part of Florida as flat and uninteresting as it looks when you first see it. It is wilderness, hot and buggy and remote.
They live in villages behind privacy fences and they build tiki huts with palm fronds tightly woven as roofs.
I miss you already, Parker's Dad, with the enthusiasm of youth and the wisdom of parenthood.
And no, I still cannot read computer code.
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The trip takes three hours and they have the usual food drink and television on board. It's for passengers only, no pets no vehicles and I don't know about bicycles. The basic fare is $146 for an adult round trip, less for seniors and even less for children. You can knock the adult fare down to a the kid's rate of $119 by booking in advance. You can get a cheaper trip by taking the ferry from Marco Island which is closer to Key West but that only runs through the Winter.
Clearly the ferry service across the southwest corner of the state makes sense as it has been going for quite a while and Ferry service to Miami has never been successful. I've concluded the Ferry's website link as well. 
Historically Southwest Florida was the retirement place in the sun for union auto workers from the Upper Midwest. I-75 runs straight here from Michigan as though a conduit for people of modest means to enjoy old age away from blizzards. During the boom years this area attracted younger people and families looking for an inexpensive place in the sun and businesses were attracted to the relatively low cost of land. The airport is big and has connections all across the country, Naples to the south is the wealthy opposite number to Fort Myers, a city that attracts millionaires and has, like Ft Myers grown out of all recognition from its more humble origins as a small Florida backwater. 
My wife and I found it impossible to live here. Politically Naples is the epicenter of tea bagger knee jerk Republicanism, and Ft Myers isn't far behind. This is the town that flies billboards proclaiming the ten commandments and anti abortion messages, cars carry the pro choice tags approved by the state despite a court case arguing their implicit government endorsement of a religious message and so on. Stuff I don't have to put up with in the Lower Keys. My wife the Jew encountered overt anti- Semitism when she started her teaching career here and to be gay and a teacher is simply not allowed ( a state law totally ignored in Monroe County). My wife's personal trainer and her husband retired here and our main mission was to spend a morning with Sandy and get some new exercises to take back to Ramrod Key with us. 
One thing I can't stand about living in Ft Myers is the way I speak and it's effect on my daily transactions. I have a rather peculiar mid Atlantic accent after 30 years residence and when I open my mouth anywhere in Southwest Florida heads swivel all across the supermarket. My wife made endless fun of me when we checked in to the hotel. I said nothing at all, filled out the paperwork and when we were safely outside the office I turned to her and said, "See, she didn't ask me where I'm from!" Triumph. "Because you didn't say anything!" she teased me, she who knew what was going on and answered all the check in questions. In Key West, known to many as Key Weird I don't stick out. In Ft Myers I am an alien from another planet and it gets tiresome. 
It's these kinds of restaurants that remind one of some of the limitations of life at the end of the Highway. Indian food is one of my wife's favorite ethnic cuisines, and the shortage of that and reliable Mexican food in the California style is her major complaint when eating out in Key West. the fact that we don't have it at home means we get extra pleasure from it when on the road...
Garlic naan and lamb and fragrant basmati rice which we shared with a selection of appetizers made lunch a memorable meal. We used to eat here a lot when we lived in Ft Myers and we are always glad to see this place is open when we return.
Distances between Ft Myers and Cape Coral seem endless, miles of four lane streets running hither and yon, which when we are on vacation doesn't matter too much at all, but every junction is a Le Mans style start when the light goes green. There is another phenomenon I have noticed in Ft Myers that I call the "west coast creep." Vehicles leave excessive distance between them when they stop at lights and then nudge forward a few feet at a time until they are tail gating each other waiting for the light to change. On a motorcycle that kind of behavior is massively irritating as you have to paddle forward or engage first gear and disengage to keep up with the creeping cars... Vehicles with Ft Myers tags do it also in key West I have noticed.
It's a pretty enough drive out to Pine Island which is a rural lump of land nestled between the barrier islands and the mainland. Matlacha is a dot on the road.
And, just like the Keys they do bridge fishing around here.
...with pelicans and stuff.
Matlacha is a fine destination for a two wheeled cruise of a weekend afternoon. Harley Davidsons rule the roost in Lee County where conformity is at a premium.
When my wife and I tried living on our boat in Fort Myers a decade ago we looked around but the housing boom was starting and things looked pricey. Besides Matlacha is rather small to sustain life all by itself. Our "recovering" economy is asserting itself here and as you can see excessively high prices are dropping to moderately unreasonable levels. One hundred and twenty five thousand US dollars for a seawall? In 2011?? Where do they think they are, in the Keys?
If we had a private income Matlacha would be a fine place to dawdle away the sunset of our lives.
This place is called Sandy's Old Town Deli and it was pretty obvious to me it's owned by an expatriate Key Wester. Too bad it was closed... 
...but the decorations outside were familiar to anyone visiting from Key West. 90 miles to Cuba? Margaritaville?
Matlacha goes out of it's way to be pretty and possibly overdressed but the cute stores and brought colors work because they are so outrageous in this corner of the world.
Buildings are painted with colors not found in Nature. The banana tree looks positively drab by comparison.
Chain stores are not in evidence in Matlacha and if you want to spend the night this motel is a fine example of the type that is a local business.
Though I was left to wonder where snatch hooking is legal.
