Our April rally with
the Suncoast Allegro Club was held at Riverbend RV Resort near Labelle, FL. What a fine place this is. We can
honestly say that this is the nicest RV facility we have been to, and one of
only a handful of facilities we have seen that has earned the right to use the
term “resort”. It is admittedly a high-end resort, and prices reflect this, but
the landscaping is gorgeous. The facilities are immaculate and the staff and
residents are very friendly. We are here after their high season, and many of
the owner-residents have departed to the north. As such, most of the activities
are no longer being offered and the restaurant is not open. The pool and
adjacent clubhouse were available and we held our potluck dinners in the
clubhouse. The RV sites are nicely spaced, fully paved, and each one offers a
wonderful view of the several lakes or wooded areas.
Because we wished to
extend our stay an extra day our originally booked site was changed and we
ended up in a site that has seen little use over the past few years, and
occasionally a neighbor would stop by asking if we were the owners since they
had never seen anyone on this site. It has not been updated or extravagantly
landscaped, but it was fine for us. It was a nice end lot looking out on a
greenway and lake; nice and private. We loved it.
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| The view from our pull-in site. |
We joined another
couple in visiting the Edison Museum in Fort Meyers. The museum provides a history of
Tomas Edison’s life and accomplishments. Edison and Henry Ford were close
friends and Ford bought the property adjacent to the Edison estate. There were
items in the museum that were Ford related, like a nicely restored flathead V-8 engine.
The museum also has the restored laboratory used for Edison’s research in
rubber production from plants native to North America. If you are in the Fort
Meyers area the museum and estate tour are a worthwhile investment of our time.
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| Edison brought music into the home. |
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| 3kw DC current generator, or Dynamo. |
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| Early Ford Flathead V-8 engine. |
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| Edison and Ford went on extended camping roadtrips. This is the chuckwagon. |
On Saturday the guys
got together for a discussion of technical issues with the coaches, and the ladies took over the Nature Center crafts room to make Memorial Day Wreaths.
After gathering for
Sunday breakfast the group broke up and headed home, but we stayed to enjoy a
quiet Sunday catching up on motor home chores and just relaxing. This gave us
the opportunity to finish installing the Magnashade windshield cover that
arrived at the house just before we left. This is a mesh cover that blocks 80%
of the sunlight from entering the coach through the windshield while camped.
This cuts down dramatically the amount of heat the builds up during the day. It
allows you to see out and enjoy the view, but provides privacy at the same
time. The shade is held in place by very strong magnets. One set is stitched in
to pockets on the shade. A matching set is adhered to the inside of the
windshield. Installation amounted to lining up the interior magnets while the
shade was held in place from outside. Once the interior magnet locations were
set, the protective cover on the adhesive was removed and the magnets pressed
in place. It takes a little time, but is not difficult. It does take two
people and a ladder, but once the initial setup is done one person can put the
shade in place without the need of a ladder. We find this to be a great
improvement over our previous snap-on shade that did require a ladder to
install each time. It was just enough hassle to cause the shade to go unused on
short trips.
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| Magnashade in place. The wiper covers are separate pieces. |
