Travels with haRVy

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first.

The thing we most dreaded has occurred – having to get haRVy towed! The “start error” problem we thought we resolved a year ago, returned to haunt us on Halloween Day. The good part of the day was that an extremely capable tow truck driver was sent out. Unfortunately, the shop our insurance company determined was capable of doing the job has provided an unreasonable estimate. Al has now spent the entire next day on the phone with mechanics and insurance companies trying to get approval to have it towed to the Mercedes dealer here in Sarasota, FL where we are lucky enough to have generous hosts in Marcus and Linda.

Hopefully my next post will tell how the problem was resolved easily… Now let’s get to the three days previous to this incident when good times prevailed.

On Linda’s recommendation, we headed to Boca Grande, FL first and we were very glad she thought to tell us as we may otherwise have passed by this idyllic island community. We enjoyed the crystal clear waters and soft white sand as we walked around the southern tip of the island, took a dip in the Gulf, and watched the colorful sunset. Later we stealthily parked and stayed overnight right on the Gulf. I wasn’t sure we would pull that one off, since this is such an exclusive community, but nobody said a thing. The stargazing was astonishing as the sound of nearby small waves put us to sleep!

We were off to the much touted islands of Sanibel and Captiva, which proved to be quite a disappointment. The beaches may be beautiful (as advertised) but there is very little access unless you own or rent property there. We did a relatively quick drive through both islands and headed westward to our privately owned boondocking spot in Olga, FL. Our hosts David and Lucy welcomed us with open arms and recommended we kayak nearby Telegraph Creek the next day. That turned out to be one of the most interesting paddles ever – we even saw an alligator slither into the creek right in front of my kayak! He was only about 3-feet long, but it was still exciting.

View Al’s video here.

Fortunately, the breakdown occurred just an hour and a half from Linda and Marcus’ house where guest quarters are available. Plus, the shop (where we are now NOT getting the work done) got us a $20/day rate on a nice rental car, which we will use for errands and some local sight-seeing. The situation could definitely be worse.