Awake: 7:03am Temp 52 sleep 6+55 sunny overnight @ Punta Gorda, FL.
We motor to Port Charlotte & pay Diana & Max another visit, arriving promptly @ 11:00am. M & D invited us to visit Max’s daughter, Kathy, & her friend, Barbara, who live in Englewood, FL.; about a (45 min) drive.
Kathy & Barbara’s house is a sleeper, we found out. 1st of all the yard is loaded with fresh fruit trees; oranges, mangos, bananas, grapefruit, etc. And behind their house is an inlet that leads to the Gulf within a mile. Their motor boat is winched up & ready to go @ a moments notice. Different plants & flowers adorn the side yards & back yard.
In the lanai, we sit & get educated about one of Kathy’s hobbies: repairing religious statues. She not only explains the process but also reveals some of the before & after repair jobs. Painting the statue after the repair is also one of her unique talents. During this relaxing class time, Kathy brings out dishes of ice cream to further cool our palates. Kathy’s paying job is an ER nurse; she does the statue repair free of charge (although, she will accept donations) as one of her works through the Legion of Mary.
Their house is small but very well decorated & organized. Before we leave, my Kathy & Max’s Kathy fetch a bag of grapefruit & oranges from her trees for our personal enjoyment in our motorhome.
After we say our goodbyes to Kathy & Barbara, Max & Diana tour us over to the nearby Blind Pass Park & beach to look out over the Gulf waters. Another beautiful spot; definitely more private & cozy than the white sandy beach of the Siesta Beach of Sarasota.
Driving along the beach front, we couldn’t help but notice how many deluxe homes & mansions have “for sale” signs @ the end of their short driveways; economic downturn symptoms perhaps?
Then we stop @ Applebee’s for dinner; “My gosh Max, you guys don’t have to do this!” I say. He explains that good friends gave them a gift card & they were waiting for the right couple to come along to share it with & we are the lucky ones. So it’s dinner @ Applebee’s where Kathy I each have our own separate meal of: sirloin steak with portabella mushrooms & veggies. Again, we thank them for their hospitality & generosity. Like yesterday, today’s adventure was filled with awe & oh-wows at seeing so much beauty in nature combined with comfortable weather, and, of course, our visit with Kathy & Barb. We know about the comfortable weather Florida has @ this time of the year & it’s great….but like all good things, this too, comes & goes. We plan on seeing Max & Diana in Nicktown during the summer.
We scratch the movie: “Tom Jones.” I saw it yrs ago & it’s not worth continuing. Tonight’s movie: “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers” with Barbara Stanwyck, Kirk Douglas, Lizabeth Scott, Van Heflin, Judith Anderson, etc. Gripping melodrama, with Stanwyck bound to her husband by crime she committed long ago. Douglas’ film debut. 1946. Gripping describes it best; our eyes were glued to the screen.
Lights out: 11:38pm
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