Aptravelnews-January 7th, Indianapolis, Indiana–Its 20-below wind chill factor and Barb and I are getting ready to set up a Click-It Hot Use It Cold booth at the Convention Center. Its so cold that the pipes froze at our rental house our team is holed up at . But, we have a great fireplace, electric is still on and we had a hardy breakfast. 6-inches of snow outdoors and we have thought back to our recent trip to Punta Gorda, FL and our fishing day with Kingfisher Fleet. Oh, how we wish we could head back to 80 degrees again!
Looks a bit rough, but it wasn’t this time! Just nature turbo-charged at its best!One more of our over 40 grouper we released. Barbs wrist held out against the pull of these big mouthed, beautiful rock and reef holding fish.
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!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!
Wild Turkeys followed the bus because our fearless driver fed them corn on each of her trips around the Ranch.
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!
Fishermen’s Village has the best candy and chocolate shop, ever! The Village was all dressed up in their holiday lights and “festive” is the word! We loved it!
APtravelnews-Dec. 19th,-Bob and Barb writing from Fishermen’s Village, Punta Gorda, FL.–Its really hard to say anything else then; Barb and I really loved this place. So many animated and excited folks-from children to old timers really having a ball, looking at the lighting, meeting Santa, tasting chocolates, buying gifts, visiting a real Military Museum with hero Veterans talking about past wars and their recollections and through it all; friendly shop-keepers and visitors! We ate seafoods, destroyed sumptious desserts, a few cocktails and after dinner libations as well. We stopped to listen to chorals of the season, popped into the Village Fish Market (www.village-fish-market.com) for the aforementioned seafoods such as the ubiquitous shrimp done many ways, crab cakes, scallops, fish dishes, delicious’ too! Our dinner was hosted by owner Sue Randall.
We ended off the evening with a Christmas Canal Cruise through Punta Gorda’s canals with the Kingfisher Fleets excursion boat loaded with all kinds of appetizers-we sure do travel on our stomachs too! www.kingfisherfleet.com Stay tuned! Much more coming of our trip to Punta Gorda! Go for some great info: www.CharlotteHarborTravel.com
Scallops and very tasty side dishes we all love! Fabulous meals all around!The Military Museum had wonderful Veterans who we stand with anytime of the year, described the realities of their times in past war theaters!The way it used to be. Local Indians coming in to trade in the “Islands” depicted in this giant mural at Fishermen’s Village! The old mingled nicely with the new!The whole town and dozens of waterfront homes seen on a Kingfisher Charter, all decked out in Christmas Lights WOW’d everyone in the Holiday frame of mind!Tasting goodies at the Simply Sweet, A Confectionary Cafe’. Homemade fudge, flavored popcorn, a great sweet note that we experienced and will not forget! https.//facebook.com/simplysweetaconfectionarycafe
