Wednesday, January 29, 2003
We managed a fairly early start on our way north to do the Sanibel Island walk. We first tried to find the start/finish box at the Shell station on Gladiolus street, but the woman there “had never heard of it” and her body language clearly stated that “I’m not going to move a muscle to try to help you find it.” I tried calling the station manager and the point-of-contact to buy a clue about where the box was, but both lines were busy so we gave up. We drove over to the seashell store also listed as a starting point on the island, and fortunately it was open and the people were very helpful.

The Sanibel Island walk is basically a streets, sidewalks, and bicycle path type of walk, but we were disappointed that it had almost no beach segments. The town is pleasant with low-density development like tennis resorts, and there were a lot of folks walking and riding bicycles on the paths. That was predictable because traffic was bad and parking worse. I especially noticed the $50.00 fine for parking beside the road or having an expired parking ticket. These people take their parking seriously!

The high point of the walk was the island lighthouse where we had a glimpse of the beach. Monika took one look at it and nominated it for the “Ugly Lighthouse Award”, and she generally likes lighthouses. We even spent a couple weeks one summer taking pictures of lighthouses on Prince Edward Island with my sister, her husband, and my mother (see 1995 vacation in the northeast story). I had to agree that it was a lighthouse that only a mother lighthouse could love. Maybe the good citizens of Sanibel will see fit to paint it some more becoming color, which might help a bit.

Despite the traffic, I decided to drive the single road up to Captiva Island to see what was there. What we found was somewhat more exclusive development on a very narrow neck of land. Along the way, however, was a nice national wildlife refuge which covers much of Sanibel Island. There is a separate bike path for the entire length of Periwinkle Drive (the main street) on Sanibel, so the Volksbike which is also offered might have a very nice path to use, but we didn’t have our bikes with so we didn’t try it. I found some wood in a curbside trash can and decided to throw it in the bed of the truck. Monika waited in the cab, trying to be inconspicuous, while I did this but I felt that kiln-dried lumber was just so nice for campfires that I couldn’t pass it up. Split fine, the kiln-dried pine burns quickly and without any smoke, so you can start and end a fire when you want to and not suffer thru the “smoke gets in your eyes” stage very long.

We trundled north to Oscar Scherer State Park near Venice, Florida, and set up camp for the night. The campsite was small but right on a little creek and very picturesque. Another advantage was that it was far away from the road so there was less noise to keep us awake. Monika was not feeling too well, so we just had some light snacks, read a book for a while, and turned in for the night.