(Catch-up post, slightly out of sequence)
January 2019 – Since we knew we were going to be in Marathon for at least two months, we needed to go back to Cape Coral to pick up our car, where we’d staged it before Christmas with friends. Ben had to catch the early bus (5:30!) to Key West, to get a one-way rental back to Ft Myers, since they wouldn’t do one from Marathon. They didn’t have the small SUV he had reserved, but it turned out OK.
We had a fun dinner out with our hosts Greg and Nancy, and the crew of Here’s To Us (our New York Harbor buddy boat), finished up at the house with a Key Lime pie we had picked up in Key Largo on our way up from Marathon.
On our way back to Marathon the next day, we took a side trip to visit Everglades City. Some cruisers do venture up through the Ten Thousand Islands area on the edge of the Everglades, to dock at the very upscale Everglades Isle RV park, or the famous Rod and Gun Lodge.
Ben talked Chantale into going on an airboat ride through the mangroves, which wound up being very different from what we imagined; this area of the Everglades is not the wide-open grassy marshland – totally different geography and ecology.
After our tour, we headed over to the Rod and Gun Lodge for lunch; history from their website-
Historical Everglades City dates back over 1,000 years. The Rod and Gun Club is built on the original structure of the first permanent white settler who founded Everglades City in 1864. In 1922 Barron G. Collier, a banker and railroad man, bought almost all of Southwest Florida including the Rod and Gun Club which he operated as a private club. He hosted international dignitaries and several United States presidents here.
In 1972, the Bowen family, from Michigan, bought the Club and is still operating it today. Celebrity guest, past and present include Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Hoover and Nixon. John Wayne and Ernest Hemingway visited in 1942. In 1945, while on location filming “Winds Across the Everglades” Burl Ives and Gypsy Rose Lee visited. In 1983, during filming of “Cannonball Run,” Kate Jackson, Burt Reynolds and Sally Field were visitors here. Other guests included David Carradine, Roy Clark, Mel Tillis, Eddie Arnold and Jack Nicklaus. Location filming of “ Just Cause” brought Sean Connery and the shooting of Walt Disney’s “Gone Fishing” brought Danny Glover and Joe Pesci. Peter Jennings, Phi Donahue, Marlo Thomas, and the list goes on…
https://rodandguneverglades.com/
We saw a Looper boat, Shoreline Traveler, docked in Everglades City; they later came to Sombrero Marina, and it turns out that Pierre and Renee are from Sabrevois, Quebec, just above Lake Champlain on the Richelieu River. We had a good time getting to know them, and hope to cruise together in the North Country this summer.
We have continued to get a lot of use out of our bikes, even though we now have the luxury of a car parked right behind the boat, but we’ve been able to explore a little further – perhaps more on that later.