2020 May: Fort Myers Beginning to Reopen

Updated: Feb 15, 2021

Hope for Limited Re-opening After Covid-19 Lock-down: Through most of May, Fort Myers remained closed – except for essential services.

By early May, FL and Fort Myers restaurants could open at 25% capacity. A couple of restaurants opened the 1st week; a few more opened the 2nd week: a few more the 3rd.

Salons were still not allowed to re-open. If the governor could see my +2-months shaggy hair, he might agree that salons are essential. My bangs are annoyingly long, so I wear a visor/headband almost all the time to keep them out of my eyes. No solution for my long sideburns. Oh yeah -- I have a mullet now too. 🙄

We also enjoyed catching up with some friends who drove over to see us at the marina. We kept our distance at the picnic tables and tried the local brewery’s sangria. (It passed my test. 😊)

Exercise: We have been keeping ourselves as busy as we can outside!

We had another low wind day and were able to kayak 3 miles -- past the Edison Ford Winter Estates and back.

We walked 5 miles -- across the tall Edison bridge and back.

We bicycled 7 miles and stopped in for a beer at a quirky outdoor bar. (I’m still smiling….at this half-way point.)

We walked to different areas of town and found a couple of small creek-side hikes. (More large trees.)

Everyday Life: We both got a few more projects/maintenance done, and I practiced more sourdough baking.

Third attempt at sourdough pizza crust was successful!

We made no-see-um bug screens for the salon window covers and the cockpit door.We can now escape tiny bugs (like we found in the Everglades) – without sacrificing the breezes.

Ray was intrigued by the knots in the wood picnic table (he also likes shiny metal things 😊).

I think the knotty wood provided inspiration for his art project. (He ordered barn wood from Amazon.)

Nature: Ray flew the drone near the Edison Ford Estates. We noticed a shark swimming in the drone footage (around 00:30). He also captured interesting video of a bird fishing next to the boat. (Thanks to Ray’s sister for identifying the bird as a green heron).

Click for video: https://vimeo.com/415146668

Lovebug Season: We endured “swarms” of lovebugs for about 10 days. They were on and around the boat, as they are attracted to light-colored surfaces. They fly around in pairs (connected) while mating, then live just a few days, so Ray had to hose the boat of dead bugs a few times. They were all over the Publix entrance area. Glad I didn’t need to stop at the ATM.

Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovebug

Garden of Palms (downtown): In 1955, the Fort Myers Garden Club established a small acreage downtown featuring a variety of palm trees from around the world.