Fort Myers back to Brainerd, only an 80 degree difference!

Peggy and I love living in Brainerd, so much to do for fun and great scenery, lakes and people.

But... we wanted to go from this:











To this:










Air travel is not glamorous or wonderful, the way the advertisements portray. Flights were oversold, there were weird delays and a missed connection in Atlanta.... but we did get a free upgrade at Budget Car Rental.

We reserved a compact, and after long lines, more delays and crashed computers at the rental agency, Peggy and I kept smiling and calm, telling the attendant that pretty much our whole day had gone that way, so don't worry about it... we were not in any hurry. The guy smiled and said "I'm gonna give you our new 5 liter Mustang GT for no additional charge." It was a hoot to drive and amazingly powerful with a nice growling exhaust. There is so much heavy traffic in the Fort Myers area, that it was not really that much more fun to drive around, but if we had been on a road trip.. whoopee! This must be Ford's new high performance engine, returning to a 302 cu.


It didn't take me long to get into trouble though, I thought this alligator was dead and crawled close to touch it. It quickly spun around and grabbed my arm and rolled. Glad I had my Martial Arts training, I rolled on top and using leverage and a few blows between its eyes, it released my arm and scurried off... I did chase it a few yards, kicking at its tail and rear end, shaming it. "Bad Alligator, You Go Home!"





More our size, these little lizards or "gizzies" are EVERYWHERE. Literally hundreds of them scurry around the yards making little rustling noises on the dry leaves. They jump about 3-4 feet from tree to tree or rock, and are hard to follow.. nervous little things, this one did pose in the Sun for a picture.







We went out to eat at Sonny's BBQ, just down the road from my sister Paula's house. Paula had a meeting at church so Peggy and I had a lil' romantic meal.

Peggy had the pulled pork with mac and cheese.. Sonny's Sweet Ice Tea is delicious and comes in a huge glass...











I had the pulled brisket of beef with mac and cheese... tender and delicious! We had been on the beach and were starting to feel the Sun on our skin as we sat, so the ice tea really hit the spot!

I'll be posting more about our adventures and fun in Florida with many more pictures, I just needed to give a teaser of our travels... we did have fun!








It is nice to be back home though, we picked up Scooter and Charlie from the Doggie Hotel on the way home from the airport and we got no new snow while we were gone... BUT it was 7 degrees here, it was 87 in Fort Myers.

Life and Love are Blessed as our seasons slowly begin to change here in Brainerd!

Peace!