Bike Rides and a Visit to Naples Zoo

Sunday the 13th

Yesterday being the Christmas party, we took the today off to relax, spending some time at the pool, reading in the shade of the awning and just hanging about. Later in the afternoon, Fernando and I went over to the Sharks Den and shot pool for a couple of hours. We are fairly evenly matched but I managed to take the final race to five, shooting much better than last week.


Monday the 14th

The sun was out and it promised to be another nice day. Tina went to her exercise class while I stayed home and got our bikes ready for a ride. We decided to set up a loop ride that we could go on every morning after breakfast. With a fixed length of about eight miles we could time ourselves and see how much improvement we could achieve.

I had mapped out a ride that took us east through residential areas, then south to Davis Ave, across Davis to follow Lakewood Dr to US 41, across US 41 and into Sugden Park where we circle Avalon Lake on a very nice bicycle/jogging trail back to the park entrance. From the park we ride south on Avalon, then turn west on Thomasson Rd to Bayshore Ave. Following Bayshore north to US 41, we cross US 41 onto Shadow Lawn Dr which takes us back to Davis. Crossing Davis to Estey Ave, we turn east to Airport-Pulling Ave then head north to North Rd and return to Rock Creek RV Resort. The entire route is about eight miles.

We made the ride in a little over an hour, only getting lost for a quarter mile before finding out where we were and retracing to get back on route. Since we took a little over an hour, we figured we’d use tomorrows time as our baseline.

After we got back and cooled off, Tina did a little grocery shopping while I went down to the pool with my book. The rest of the afternoon we planned whaat we wanted to do this week, then relaxed until dinner. After dinner, I picked up Fernando and we went to the Sharks Den for the Eight-Ball Tournament.

There were eight players and after the draw I faced Marce, a young lady just learning the game. Winning that match, I faced Fernando. He won the first game, then I took the next two. My next match was against Nate, Marce’s boyfriend and a really good player. He took the first game, then using all my guile and several safeties, I took the next two games to take the match and move into the catbird seat on the winners side. Eventually Nate worked through the losers bracket and faced me for the final needing to beat me two sets to win. It turned out to be a replay of our first match with him winning the first game and me winning the next two with good safety play, winning the tournament and $50. Yipppeeee!!



Tuesday the 15th

This morning there was a pretty good fog settled in. We fed the kids, had our breakfast and saddled up for our morning ride. Fifty-five minutes today. After we got home and cleaned up we took the kids for a long walk then went over to the Naples Zoo (http://www.caribbeangardens.com/).

The Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens, formerly known as “Jungle Larry's” was named after founder Lawrence Tetzlaff and his wife, who was known as "Safari Jane". The zoo was built in 1969 on a botanical garden site, which was planted in 1919. By 1925, the historic garden contained more than 3,000 species of tropical plants and over the years, the plants and trees have matured to the lush habitats where many exotic animals reside. A natural pathway winds around the 52-acre area, with about a mile of trails. Enormous fig trees provide a sprawling green canopy over the paths, providing shade and enhancing the feeling of being in another country.

The variety of wildlife living in this botanical oasis is remarkable, and includes African lions, kangaroos, zebras, exotic cats, spotted Hyenas, leopards several species of monkey , golden and ring tailed Lemurs and American alligators. Many of the animals are endangered, such as the African wild dogs (only seen in 2 percent of American zoos), rare Indochinese tigers (less than 50 in the U.S.) and Florida panthers.

We arrived just in time for the first show, “Planet Predator” hosted by one of the zoo keepers. We were seated in a large covered amphitheater where assistant keepers brought out several animals starting with a Harris Falcon. This was followed by a Two Stripe Skunk, a small Kinkajou, an Emperor Scorpion, a Two Toed Sloth, a large monitor lizard and a dog that had been rescued and spent the first three years of his life growing up with one of the tiger cubs.

After that we walked over to Cactus Hill to watch the Alligator feeding in Alligator Bay. There are about a half dozen large, I mean really large, alligators in the lake and they are all moving toward a beach just across from where we are standing. There are three zoo keepers doing the feeding. The lead keeper has a microphone and gives an explanation of their activities as they entice the alligators out of the water and onto the beach with turkey drumsticks. Pretty cool.

After that we walk over to the boat dock where we board a cruise boat for a tour of Lake Victoria and the monkey islands. There are spider monkeys, lemurs and several lesser species along with a large monitor lizard basking in the sun on one of the smaller islands. After the cruise we continued on our walk to the Zebra enclosure where there were several Impalas and a couple of large Kudu Antelope. From there we walked over to the wildlife habitats.

As it was probably about 83 degrees out by now, most of the animals were sleeping or resting. The porcupine was nestled in his drain pipe while the leopard was snoozing on the porch of his home. The lion, a majestic male with a full main was seated atop his rock plateau while the hyenas were relaxing in the shade. A couple of Panthers (Florida Cougars) were laying down as were the kangaroos, black bear and Fosa (think Madagascar “Foosa”).

By now it was about 1:00 PM and lunch time so we decided to have a late lunch after a stop at the bike shop for a pair of riding shorts and cyclecomp for Tina. Leaving the bike shop we headed to downtown Naples to check out “Trixies Torpedo Sandwiches”, recommended by a friend as a great place for lunch. I ordered a Reuben and Tina got a Pastrami Sub. Both were excellent. We could only eat half so we brought the other half home for dinner.

After getting back home we took the kids for a walk then spent the rest of the day relaxing, eating the rest of our lunch and generally taking it easy. Later, Tina went to the club house and played “Hand and Foot” for a couple of hours while I read and watched TV.

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