Smart Car Tour of Florida Part 2 - August 1st

[Wdhitch]

Good Evening Everyone,

For the second installment of The Smart Tour of Florida, we’ll be taking a trip down to the Ft. Myers area of south west Florida. For many years of my childhood I was blessed with the opportunity to spend time on Sanibel and Captiva Islands off the coast of Ft. Myers. The islands have a unique culture and atmosphere with beautiful beaches, world renown shelling, shopping, amazing wildlife(wild flamingos are regularly seen in winter) and some of the most interesting and quirky restaurants you’ve ever seen. They truly are a treasure of Florida and something that everyone should experience at least once.

The trip will take place on Saturday, August 1, 2009 and will originate from the parking lot of the Prime Outlets in Ellenton, FL. We’ll plan on meeting at 7:45 and will leave at 8am. The mall is located at exit 224 on Interstate 75. From there we’ll make an hour run to the rest area at exit 161. If you live south of Sarasota in North Port, Venice or Port Charlotte and would like to meet up with us at this point please plan on being at the rest area by 9am. We’ll then continue down I75 to Daniels Parkway on the south side of Ft. Myers.

During this part of the trip we’ll pass directly thorough where the eye of Hurricane Charley passed in 2004. It’s been almost 5 years but it’s still quite evident where the damage was… just look for the trees that are broken in half. The winds at that point were 115mph and the damage at the time was hard to put into words.

Once on Daniels Parkway, we’ll follow it toward the coast, make a left on 6 Mile Cypress Parkway and follow that all the way to the bridge to the island. There is a $6 toll to get over the bridge to the island. Sunpass works if you have one… if you don’t I would strongly encourage you to purchase one before the trip as the line to pay cash can get quite long on Saturday’s. Sunpass’s stickers are only $5 and can be found at Publix or CVS.

Once across the bridge, we’ll make a right onto Periwinkle Way… this is the main road for the island and has most of the shopping and restaurants. Take Periwinkle till it dead end’s into Tarpon Bay Road and make a right. Go one block and make a left on Sanibel Captiva Road. Follow Sanibel Captiva Road for 10 miles as it crosses over to Captiva Island and you will see a large pink structure on your right. This is The Bubble Room Restaurant and it’s where we’ll be having lunch at noon. The Bubble Room is one of the craziest places you’ve ever seen… the interior is full of trinkets and reminders of yesteryear and has an atmosphere all to its own. While eating we’ll decide what to do with the remainder of the day. Like I said, there are days worth of stuff to do and we may even break up into more than one group.

In order for The Bubble Room to staff and have their kitchen prepared for us they’ve asked for a solid number by July 18, 2009. If you are planning on joining us please reply by email to me at bill@suncoastsmarts.com by that date. Like last time, I’ll have maps and directions on the day of the drive. Please feel free to send me any questions you have and I hope to see you on the 1st!! J


Bill Hitchcock
Suncoast Smarts

[Wdhitch]

It’s with great regret that I’m announcing the immediate and indefinite suspension of the Smart Tour of Florida. We've had very few (3 counting Jennifer and I) cars sign up and I'm no longer in the position of being able to coordinate events at this time. I hope to be able to resume the event at some point in the future when there is more interest.

[psimison]

This tour sounded like fun. My new Smart arrives this week. Let me know if it gets re-scheduled.

[Ozzie]

Definitely let me know if this re schedules also. I'm in Miami and Ft. Myers is a bit over 2 hours away, would be a nice drive. And August 1st sounded good.
All the best,
Ozzie