Come on Doggy!

Fort Myers is finally producing weather that we can get used to for being winter. After milling around RH yesterday morning we finally got our act together and decided to ride our bikes over to the beach and spend the afternoon working on our Coppertone hue. It's a little over a mile to the beach parking lot where we lock up the bikes. Again, the line of cars to go over the bridge was longer than we could see. We just whizzed right past them on our bikes and found a spot to lock up against a tree. Have you ever had a sick feeling in your gut right after you do something? Well, as I heard the "click" of the locking mechanism engage on my bike lock, Reta asked me "Do you have the key for that lock?". Oh O. I thought you had it, no I thought you had it. Tear the backpack apart, turn pockets inside out and look everywhere for this key. Do we have a hacksaw or bolt cutters that we can get the bikes undone? How are we going to explain it to the cops when they see us hacking away at this cable? Do you want to walk the mile back to look for the key in RH and walk back the mile? We decided to go chill on the beach and later we would walk back and get the pickup with some tools and come back. It's hard to sit there when you have this problem looming over your head so I decided to walk back over to the bikes and just look around. The gods were smiling down at me yesterday because after several minutes of cussing myself out and looking around, there it was. This little shinny, bright metal caught my eye in the tall grass next to the bikes. Hallelujah! The Key! It must have fallen off when I was stringing the cable through the bikes and didn't see it. Feeling on top of the world we decided to push our luck yesterday evening and drive half hour down the road to "Naples/Fort Myers Greyhound Track". Florida is known for its dog track so we decided to check it out.

These dogs are so fast. I tried to take pictures of them but all I got was a beautiful blur. After watching several races and studying the program we decided to try our hand at putting some money on them.

We each placed our bets and walked back to track side to cheer our doggy on. There was more at stake on race #9 because we each had $2 riding on our dogs. We each picked two dogs to finish first and second. We both got only one dog right and walked away feeling good that we were at least close. What a fun and entertaining night.

Marsh Harbor is a great little city to explore. Very safe to walk around and the people are very friendly. Everywhere you walk people always look at you, smile and say hello. We discovered how the rich live in Marsh Harbor. Their homes sitting atop a hill, over looking the clear blue water, with big cars in the driveway. On one of these hills we were amused by a street sign that you would never expect to find here, of all places.

Nice to see that someone has a good sense of humor.

The following day we had scheduled our scuba diving trip and we awoke with some excitement and nervousness. We haven't been scuba diving close to a year so we were trying to remember all the necessary steps needed to put your gear on. Finally on the boat, Captain Keith took us out to a reef and put us at ease by refreshing our memories with the necessary procedures and steps. He is also going to dive with us to give us a tour of the area, swim through some caves and show us the fish. Here he is before we get into the water, showing us what to do if this fish approaches us.

No, just kidding, they weren't that big. Do you really think I would get in the water if this came up to greet us? Our first dive took us to only 35 feet but as soon as we jumped into the water it was if you had jumped into an aquarium. Clear visibility with plants and fish everywhere. They were just as curious of us as we were of them. Getting the group together on the bottom, Captain Keith took off and we all followed single file. He would stop occasionally to see if we were still alive and point out some fish or coral. By the second dive that day we all felt more relaxed and at ease. Mistake. Never let your guard down because the shock could kill you if you're not expecting it. Case in point. Second dive, life is great. Reta and I are trying our hand at sign language to talk about this cute little fish swimming around us. As I am signing to her I see this dark shadow move over her shoulder. My eyes must have gotten as big at the local star fish because I didn't have to point. Reta quickly turned to look. There it was, about 5 feet in length and a mouth with more teeth than a boat with Cubans heading to Miami. The thoughts running through my head were to stay still and pretend to be dead. No wait, that's if a bear attacks, what the hell am I supposed to do? Relax. Captain Keith is right there next to us and he's calmly taking pictures of this thing. But wait, he's getting closer! This shark swam right between our little group huddled together at a depth of 45 feet. For the shark it was like going through a Drive-Thru window at your local McDonald's. I'll have a marga-Reta to start with followed by some spicy Brazilian meat. Supersize that for me and oh, that's To-Go. OK, so nothing exciting happened. We had such a great time the first day that as soon as our feet hit the dock we ran over to the dive shop and signed up to do it all over again the following day. The next day we had 4 sharks swimming above us when we were at 70 feet. No problem. It was a great time and thankfully Captain Keith took some pictures.

Tomorrow I will upload a video that he shot of us sitting on the bottom while we checked out some curious fish.