(And remember, don’t drink while you’re driving–you could spill your beer that way !!!) 🙂  

Now that it’s finally stopped raining in Ft Myers, I was able to spend a day on Sanibel Island. Very nice.  🙂 Spent most of the day at the Ding Darling NWR, but there are also other trails on the island (and lots of bicycles everywhere). So here are some photos from a day spent … More Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge

[NOTE: I’ve blogged all these “how-to” posts before, but am gonna re-run them on occasion, since folks may have missed them, and many of them have been updated or expanded since they were first posted.] There is one weather condition about which a van-dweller can do very little: when it is hot outside for a … More Vanlife: Cold Weather and Condensation

The Koreshan Unity Settlement was a colony of Christian utopian communalists who settled in Florida in the 1890s. Though new members were allowed to bring their children with them, members were expected to practice celibacy—not exactly a great way to keep the group going. They had all died out by the mid-70s, and their former … More Koreshan State Park

Any time I am in Florida, whenever I see a Manatee in the wild, I always stop to watch. Manatee Park is part of Ft Myers FL’s wonderful park system. There is a walking trail, a playground, and a visitors center. The primary attraction though are the Manatees. In the winter when the water in … More Manatee Park

Typical Disney–lots of great eye-candy FX, but no substance.  The plotline was disjointed, silly, made no sense, and does not fit in with the other movies of the “trilogy”.  It is crushingly obvious that Disney had no overarching storyline in mind from the beginning and allowed each director to just make it up as they … More Star Wars: A Very Tiny Review

[NOTE: I’ve blogged all these “how-to” posts before, but am gonna re-run them on occasion, since folks may have missed them, and many of them have been updated or expanded since they were first posted.] Before you can set off on your cross-country journey, there are some bureaucratic paperwork issues you will need to deal … More Vanlife: Bureaucracy

This place is typical of the many roadside tourist spots that used to be found all over Florida until The Rat moved in and monopolized the tourist trade. The Shell Factory is basically a big enormous gift shop filled with Florida kitsch like seashells, stuffed alligators, t-shirts, flip-flops, keychains, and other novelties. There is also an … More Shell Factory and Nature Park

This is a very nice nonprofit nature center. There are walking trails, live animal displays and shows, fossils, and a planetarium. Some photos from a day at the center. ​The nature center ​Planetarium ​Box Turtles ​Peninusla Cooter ​Cage cleaning ​Butterfly room ​Monarch caterpillars ​Gulf Fritillary ​Red-Shouldered Hawk rescues ​Barred Owl ​Nature trail ​Feeding time for … More Calusa Nature Center

Yes, that plain ole ordinary Ficus that you probably have out on the patio is a cold-blooded (well, cold-sapped, anyway) killer …. In the tropical rainforest, the most precious resource is “light”, and the plants who do best at reaching above all the others through the canopy to get into the light, are the ones … More Strangler Figs