Caya Costa to Central Florida

Yesterday we went from Caya Costa to Downtown Ft Myers.  Caya Costa preserves the original florida barrier island, no resorts, but it does have palms and what the resorts try to copy in landscape.  We transversed the GICW, crossing lots of shallow bays, to downtown Ft Myer' revitalized riverfront area. 
Grebe parked next to $$$ yachts in Ft Myers, just where she belongs.

Todays trip went from the coastal region to interior river.  A couple of firsts for Grebe, Lock and Swing Bridge.

Frances and George in the Franklin Lock waiting for more boats.  The Ballard Locks in Seattle have a lift of 15-20 feet.  This lock had 2 feet!

Next a swing bridge, we use the radio to ask for opening. The guy goes out to the road to see when to stop cars, puts the car barrier down, then walks to the center of the bridge to operate the swing mechanism.

Tonight we are at a free town dock in the central Florida town of LaBelle.  Had a great dinner at Log Cabin BBQ after a very hot walk.  Pretty popular place, by 5:30 they were out of Beef (at a BBQ place) and by the time we finished our dinner they were out of the bananna pudding.  But just opened up Coconut cream pie.  The walk to and from dinner was under the amazing oak trees, covered in spanish moss, ferns, and "elephant ear" type plants.

 

The town dock is next to a bridge, we watched a truck full of oranges go by.  Tractor Trailer sized, open top, packed with oranges.  I am pretty sure these are for juice, the ones at the bottom are for sure.