As usual, I was up far earlier than Karen and enjoyed a quiet hour by the pool before she finally emerged to a disappointingly cloudy sky.
Today’s plan was to drive down to Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve near Fort Myers while the weather was still dry, as light showers were forecast for late afternoon.
After driving for about 30 minutes, just as we were about to take the turning off I-75 to the preserve, a light shower started. We therefore replanned and drove on to the Miromar Outlets, a few miles further along. Karen was secretly pleased, as it meant she would be able to get a coffee earlier than she had hoped.
The outlets were pleasantly deserted as we walked to Starbucks. I found a table outside under cover as the very light shower continued and waited for Karen to return with the drinks.
And waited. And waited.
After 20 minutes, she eventually returned with just one drink, for herself, fuming at the apparent ineptitude of the staff inside. They were getting all the orders wrong and had even taken money for my tea when they had run out of teabags. Karen said everything was taking so long because customers kept complaining and returning their orders.
Never mind, I said. I was sure we would find somewhere else to get me a drink during the day. Spoiler alert: we didn’t. I remained rather parched until we ate later in the day. It was turning into one of those holidays where Karen’s coffee requirements were met, but mine appeared to be an optional extra – even if it wasn’t her fault.
We wandered in and out of a few shops before making our first purchases at the Columbia outlet. Karen then got herself some trainers, and I purchased some golf tees. The final stop was the Old Navy outlet.
As the skies were now clearing, we drove back to Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve, where we were keen to walk the 1.2-mile boardwalk through the slough (pronounced slew, for reasons only Americans will justify).
The parking charge was a pleasing $1 per hour. We splashed out on a full two hours and to heck with the cost.
After visiting the Interpretive Centre, we set off along the boardwalk. Although it promised plenty of wildlife sightings, all we really saw was a nine-foot gator basking in the sun and a few squirrels. Still, it was a lovely walk through the tree canopy, or hammock, as this type of wooded wetland is known.
We sat quietly for a while by the otter pond, but I think they were out at Disney for the day. Perhaps they had heard about the coffee problems at Starbucks and decided to stay well away from the area.
Karen kept saying she was sure we had been to this preserve before. I disagreed and said I would have remembered. After all, I am always right.
It wasn’t until I started writing this blog that I looked back at our photos and previous entries and discovered that Karen was right. Indeed, we had been there only two years ago. It had been a very fleeting and rushed visit, which clearly explains why it had escaped my memory.
Karen is right once each year, and it has been a long ten-month wait this year for this to happen. Still, at least we have got it out of the way now, and I can start preparing for next year’s occasion.
While completing the walk back to the car, we received a message from Barry asking us to call him at home before midnight to give him some advice about his heating problem. We decided to have dinner on the way back before returning to the villa, which would make the timings easier.
After almost two seconds of contemplation, we settled on Outback again, as we knew it was on the route back to the villa. We set Waze to direct us there accordingly.
We were seated immediately, ordered the usual and, as usual, thoroughly enjoyed the well-cooked, good-value steak. It is reassuring to find that some things in life can be relied upon, even if Starbucks can’t manage a cup of tea.
We were in and out quite quickly and decided to nip into the Aldi next door, where I was sent in to purchase a couple of bottles of wine. I marvelled again at the size of the store, the wide aisles and the prices of the stock. It is always a pleasure to shop somewhere where you don’t feel you need to remortgage the house to buy a few essentials.
Back at the villa, we quickly called Barry and Ellie, who were huddled under a blanket trying to keep warm because their heating had gone kerplunk. Sadly, my limited plumbing and heating knowledge was not much help, and I couldn’t suggest anything they hadn’t already tried or checked. Instead, I recommended a plumber for them to call in the morning.
We did feel a little guilty telling them that it was still 29°C at 7 pm here. It is difficult to sound sympathetic about a broken heating system when you’re sitting in Florida in the evening sunshine, although we did try our best.
After Karen put on the first load of washing of the trip, we settled down to watch another couple of episodes of The Bear, followed by the first episode of Celebrity Race Across the World. Unlike the last series, which started in China, this one failed to inspire us to want to visit Borneo. Perhaps we are becoming harder to impress, or perhaps the prospect of another long-haul journey simply needs a little more persuasion.
I left Karen watching the BBC’s 10 pm News and retired to bed, tired after another good day in Florida.
We had managed some shopping, a walk through the swamp, a decent steak and a successful phone call home. I had also learnt that Karen was right about our previous visit, which means my annual quota of being wrong has now been used up. I shall endeavour to remain correct for the rest of the holiday.
