Punta Gorda A Day in the Wild With Babcock Wilderness Adventures

We traveled through some of the wild areas of the ranch in this bus with no windows or frames to obstruct our view of the animals and vistas. Safe and relaxed we viewed more turkeys than Winn Dixie has in their freezers and these turkeys were wild!

Aptravelnews-Dec. 26th, Punta Gorda, FL.–Bob and Barb Stopping to Smell the Roses, with Babcock Wilderness Adventures, at the 90, 000 acre Crescent B Ranch.

No matter where we are or what we do, we always opt in when it comes to a look at the natural areas of where we travel. This time it was Punta Gorda’s turn to “WOW” us with G-D’s original plan for this amazing earth of ours. So, after our walk to nearby Punta Gorda Farmers Market, where we found the local wildflower honey we enjoy so much, we found ourselves on the Crescent B Ranch, viewing all manner of water birds, wild hogs in hasty retreat, probably thinking we wanted pork tenderloin (they are not stupid and take no chances) both jakes and tom turkey, early Spanish heritage cattle as interested in us, as we were interested in them. Gators, anyone? All sizes of gators both swimming and sunning themselves on the bridges to “a land that once was all over Florida, and fortunately still is here at the Crescent B Ranch. Barb and I loved the narrated ride through diverse eco-systems such as open prairie, pine-flat woods, cypress swamp and freshwater march. The “cracker” cattle, along with the all the other bird and animal life truly punctuated a trip back in time for us! Go: www.babcockwilderness.com and set up a trip for yourself! Besides the numerous excellent things to see, do, eat and boat to, this trip to Babcock was worth the 3-hour drive all by itself!

**Other tourists on our bus viewed and photographed gators for the very first time and were quite excited about it!**

P1030095 — **Gators were anywhere they could sun themselves all over the bridge adjacent to their fish ponds!**

Lulu the "horniest" cow in the land. No kidding this cow in addition to side of the head horns had a center of the head protruding horn too! — **Lulu the “horniest” cow in the land. No kidding this cow in addition to side of the head horns had a center of the head protruding horn too!**

**Wild Turkeys followed the bus because our fearless driver fed them corn on each of her trips around the Ranch.**

Fishouflage Shirts Comfort and Sporty From Frabil!

A Fishouflage Shirt-comfort to the "max" in a 100% Polyester material-smooth and soft, I can wear this sporty Muskie model almost anywhere! — **A Fishouflage Shirt-comfort to the “max” in a 100% Polyester material-smooth and soft, I can wear this sporty Muskie model almost anywhere!**

APtravelnews-New Product Reviews–December 21st–Bob and Barb Product review–When I received my Fishouflage, 100% Polyester long sleeve shirt, it was of the Muskie design. The whole idea of these sporty shirts that come in Bass, Walleye, Redfish, European carp and the aforementioned Musky is that they show the fish in a camouflage mode in their respective habitat covers. When I put the shirt on and headed for a fishing club on Florida’s east coast, everyone I met liked the shirt and asked where I obtained it. After having checked Google, I found the shirts being sold at Bass Pro, Walmart and several other sporting goods outlets. So that’s the answer to anyone reading this. The shirts, while recently released, are now available just about anywhere. Especially, in the big box stores!

Go: Fishouflage.com or call 877-750-1188 also try [email protected]

MOVING TO ST. PETERSBURG-THE UN-TOURIST GUIDE-136-PAGES OF KNOWLEDGE FOR NEW RESIDENTS AND OLD ONES TOO!

Moving To St. Petersburg book offers the info. you'd need to transition from anywhere to Gorgeous St. Petersburg! — Moving To St. Petersburg book offers the info. you’d need to transition from anywhere to Gorgeous St. Petersburg!

APtravelnews-Dec. 21st- Book review from Bob and Barb–Cindy Dobyns book: “Moving To St. Petersburg-The UN-Tourist Guide” is just that! The 136-page book lets every reader know all about the “real” St. Petersburg from the generally, non-tourist paradigm. The book offers all types of information and non-static, statistics in an interesting format for anyone considering a move to St. Petersburg.

Just a few of the informational things a potential new resident would love to know about are: Cost of living-real estate-Art, music and other cultural amenities-all about the enjoyment of the outdoors-shopping-schools-finding jobs-property taxes-History of St. Petersburg-Boating and beaches- media-Fishing-Sport teams and just about everything else you would want to know. In pictures and words, this is a must have book if your considering a move or even for locals who really do not know much about the many things available to them would like this book. Barb and I are happy where we are now, but after looking over this book we’d certainly consider St. Petersburg as the next best place we’d move to in our retirement years!

The book is published by the Voyager Media, Inc. Copyright in 2014 by Cindy Dobyns. We met her and received our signed copy. Yes, after review we can highly recommend this book-Period! Check the book out on Google! Or go: ISBN-978-0-9899523-3-0 in soft cover. The book is also available as an e-book.

Kingfisher Fleet Showed Us Where they Live-Offshore for Grouper, Snapper and a Dozen Other Species

Offshore with Kingfisher Fleet and mate, Matt holds one of the 15-grouper caught and released by Barb! — **Barb offshore with Kingfisher Fleet and mate, Matt holds one of the 15-grouper caught and released by Barb!**

APtravelnews-Dec. 20th, Punta Gorda, FL.-Offshore in the Gulf of Mexico–It was a laid back day and the seas were laid down too! Mostly calm with a 3-foot following sea as we headed out from Port Charlotte towards where concentrations of ground fish held among rocks and bottom cover. Our quest: catch em up and release the ones out of season (grouper) but take some porgies and Key West large grunt and a snapper or two for dinner for our group. Successful by end of day, yes and yes! The Captain and Mate performed their jobs perfectly! The Captain found the fish, the mate assisted us all in uhooking, baiting the hook with shrimp and cut fish, we Barb, yours truly and Bob Nesoff, writer from New Jersey pulled on some fiesty fins that of course in no way wanted to visit with us, topside. We got a workout, pulling and reeling them in. Yes, it was great fun for us all! None of the fish that shouldn’t have been kept were and they all scampered back to their bottom homes with only a tiny hole in their lips, much less damage than a gal or guy with a piercing in their tongue, lip or elsewhere, unmentionable! Take a fishing trip or excursion with the King Fisher Fleet. For info.: www.kingfisherfleet.com located at the Marina at Fishermen’s Village on Punta Gorda. Stay tuned-next up will be our fabulous adventure at the 90-thousand acre, Babcock Wilderness!