Bill and Cathy McArthur on the Road 2010: 15

  Monday, May 3 , began our last week in Naples for the season. It was seasonably hot and humid with a burning sun. Cathy went to the gym for two classes. Bill prepared for his noon tutoring session. We received an email from Carol Menz in the morning with a higher offer for our house. We accepted the offer via email back to Carol. After an early lunch, Bill drove to LVCC for his tutoring session with Francisco, which went very well. Afterward, Bill went out on a hot, windy 4.5 hour kayak paddle. We had a quinoa and grilled chicken dinner.

  Tuesday, Cathy went to a class at the gym. Bill discovered that his Forerunner 305 wasn't working, so he went out for an untimed 5K run, 20K bike, and 5K run. He used his new speed laces and was happy with his shoe changes. Cathy went out for a walk. After lunch, we had a lot of leg work to do on getting our house contract signed, scanned, and emailed. Bill bought a $8 watch at WalMart to use while his GPS watch was out of commission. We also made a stop at Starbucks. Later in the afternoon, we drove to Lely Palms to pick up Jerry and Lou for dinner at Dock Restaurant. It took a long time for Jerry to shuffle into and out of the restaurant with the help of the other three in the party. We had a good dinner with a great water view.

  Wednesday, Cathy went to two classes at the gym. Bill went out on a 7 hour fishing paddle after buying 2 dozen shrimp at the bait shop on Shadowlawn Road. It was sunny, hot, and humid out on the water. Bill only caught two catfish, but enjoyed his last day out on the warm (82 degrees) waters of Naples for this season. When Bill got back, he stripped and washed out his kayak. He had a lot of gear to schlep back to the RV and to clean. We went for a last dinner at Grouper and Chips for this season.

  Thursday was hot and humid with a burning sun. Cathy went to a class at her gym and suspended her account there until October. Bill went out for a 7 mile intervals run. On the 3 mile intervals, he ran 8:20, 8:25, and 8:35. He sweated his iPod out of commission, but his Forerunner worked. Cathy did some last loads of laundry before we exit Naples on Saturday. Bill ate an early lunch and then drove to LVCC for his noon tutoring session with Francisco. Bill promised to keep in touch via email. The temperature climbed to around 95 degrees during early afternoon, so we decided that outside activities wouldn't be safe. We drove Marty Gross to Walgreen's to get some medication for her ailing husband Bud. Then we drove to Naples post office to mail a package to Cathy's student Elda. We also went to Starbucks and Publix. We went to Sushi Thai for dinner. Afterward, we viewed "House" and some "Daily Shows." During the day, we started to consider the Lewes, DE area as a possible location to buy a condo. The prices are reasonable, the property taxes low, and there is no sales tax.

  Friday was packing day. After breakfast, we got to work. Bill went out to gas up the car and to hit Starbucks and Publix for a few items. When he got back, Bill enlisted Cathy's help to put the kayak on top of the XTerra. After lunch, we met with Jan Nebus and her mother Ivy Jean to finalize our order for a park model. Bill emailed Kevin Sands afterward to let him know that we decided on a 6.5' x 12' front deck with steps along the front of the park model and on a door on the side of the utility room on the side of the porch with Jan providing the steps. We continued to pack until we had to get ready for dinner out. We helped celebrate the 5th anniversary of Al and Elaine along with their next-door neighbors Tom and Barb. We went to the Pewter Mug in North Naples, where the food was fair, although the salad bar was good. We chatted for quite a while after dinner and didn't leave the restaurant until after 9:00 PM.

  Saturday morning, Bill got up at 5:00 AM to get started on the chores of the day. After breakfast, Bill started working on the final stages of packing of the XTerra and the RV. Luckily, the 3 bikes went on the 2 bike rack without problem. Bill was amazed at how fast he was able to get everything organized into the RV storage area. One of the last steps was to dismantle the Comcast HD DVR and cable modem and connect the RV directly to the cable input. When we had everything squared away, we headed to the Marquesa Shopping Center at Pine Ridge and Livingston Roads to drop our equipment at the Comcast office there. When we were done, we drove to the Miramar Outlets off of I75 to shop for a small formal purse for Cathy. We ate lunch at Flatbread and Wine and enjoyed really good vegetarian pizzas. We also stopped at Starbucks. After lunch, we headed to Orlando and the Courtyard at Lucerne Circle B&B, where we were staying the night. We had a 3 room suite. We got ready for the evening and drove to a gala for Cathy's cousin Pat McNamee, who was retiring after 28 years as a school principal. The affair had 400 guests and was quite a fete. We enjoyed seeing Pat and her sister Catherine again after many years. We were late getting back to our suite and getting to bed.

  Sunday, we got up early and went out for a walk/run around Lake Lucerne, just across the road. Cathy walked for an hour and a half. Bill ran for 10 miles, 30 loops around the lake. There were several homeless people around the area. Bill enjoyed running negative splits for the run with an overall average pace of 9:21 min/mile. After Bill got a quick shower, we went over to a very nice breakfast spread in the Courtyard complex. We ate a leisurely meal on the porch of one of the historic buildings. After breakfast, we drove to the Orlando botanical gardens and enjoyed walking the trails and viewing plants and flowers. We headed to the rental house near Disney World and ate dinner at Mia Pizza nearby. After lunch, we drove to the rental house, opened the door with the keypad, and set off the security alarm. We bailed out of the house and drove across the highway to watch any police cars come screaming down the road. None came. We called Son Bill, still on the road, and got the security alarm code. We headed back to the house and found that the alarm had stopped. We entered the house and shut off the alarm. We started moving our stuff into the house when Son Bill and family arrived. We all settled into the spacious house. Son Bill, Cathy, and Billy went to Publix for supplies while Bill and Sarah swam in the pool and Stacey arranged the kids' stuff. We all spent some time in the pool area when we reconvened. Later in the afternoon, the three Bills went to Starbucks and Carrabbas for takeout. We had dinner, a Mothers Day cake, and presents for the moms, including an awesome spa afternoon for Cathy and Stacey at the Grand Floridian on Tuesday from Son Bill. Everybody was on their electronic devices after dinner, buying Disney tickets and doing other online chores.

        Bill and Cathy