After two solid months of work, including moving home and business in the month of February and putting out a two month publication in one month in March, I finally caught a break for a few days while my friends at the Boca News were printing the paper. Two of my old friends from New Hampshire recently bought a house in Punta Gorda that was pretty much destroyed by hurricane Charley. They are living in a camper and working on the house. They invited me over. So I went to the bank to take out a loan so that I could afford to fill up the gas tank of the Green Hornet Travelmobile and Mafia Staff Car and I proceeded across the state.
The cement, condo developments, tourists and traffic jams were quickly behind me as I drove through the sleepy Florida towns of Belle Glades, Clewiston and LaBelle. In a couple of hours I arrived in Punta Gorda just north of Fort Myers and South of Sarasota and just across the bridge from Port Charlotte.
My friends and I had a great reunion but since they were working I was on my own during the daytime hours for two days. I got right into my travelling drill and bought a local map, found an AA clubhouse and took off for places unknown. Over the past two years I have been able to partake in my favorite pastime which is travelling to new places and just sort of poking around and getting a feel for the new areas. The advantage of being in the program makes it possible for me to be always close to new friends yet unmet.
There is a lot of water around Punta Gorda but I am more interested in the Gulf of Mexico where the sun sets over the ocean and you drive west to get to the beach. It’s a little disorienting at first but on the first day I find the Gulf of Mexico west of Port Charlotte on 776 in a little town called Englewood. Englewood has a beautiful public beach that is set up in a convenient way. There is a shell parking lot with a machine that allows you to pay for parking at 50 cents an hour. A short 50 yard walk takes you to the beautiful beach with light colored sand, sand dunes and more seashells than I have ever seen in one place. There are bathrooms, showers, and a beach bum tourist shop and a Circle K across the street. Paradise!! All a man needs for a day at the beach.
Being an East Coast Florida guy I am trying to get a feel for Florida’s west coast and I really like what I find. The Gulf is tamer with no surf either days and the water is a little murkier, not that crystal clear water of the Atlantic Ocean. But the area has more of an old Florida feel and seems a lot more laid back and relaxed than South Florida. Also I haven’t seen a New York Yankees cap since I got over here.
I have brought my basic “beach kit” to Englewood Beach which consists of a Mexican blanket, a cheap beach chair, a container of Panama Jack SPF 30 sunscreen, my camera, a towel, a long sleeve shirt, a Red Sox cap, a bag of pretzel and cheese Combos, a book by Jimmy Buffet, a pad of paper and a pen and some water. Add to this a canvas bag for shell collecting and I am following the tenets of my old boy scout motto “Be Prepared”.
Two of my favorite pastimes in life are tending a campfire or fireplace fire and beachcombing or looking for beach glass. I think it goes back to some primal DNA component that wants me to be a hunter-gatherer. I haven’t been able to earn living at either but I do partake in these pastimes as often as possible. It always seems to have a calming effect and puts me in that place of serenity that I long for.
There is a line in a song by Sheryl Crow that expresses the idea that “happiness is not having what you want but wanting what you have” As I walk for a couple of miles beachcombing, with my mind at peace, totally in the moment I realize that not only do I want what I have these days but I also have what I want. I am truly blessed with sobriety, good health, a wonderful family, great friends, a beautiful design for living and a loving Higher Power.
I always recommend to my friends that are stressed out that they take a break, get away and stop and smell the roses. We all get so busy and time goes by so fast. Why not try Florida’s west coast for a relaxing change of pace?