After south Florida and the Everglades, our next stop was Bonita Springs. We had a wonderful weekend there with Michael’s Uncle Carl and Aunt Clara, who graciously gave us a place to sleep, fed us delicious food, and even let us do laundry.
On Sunday (March 12th) we decided to take the dogs to the Bonita Springs dog park – the only off-leash dog park in the area. I’d seen a few negative reviews on a site called BringFido.com) but most of the complaints were from people with small dogs, so we decided to go anyway.
Normally you can walk out to this dog beach, which is actually a sandbar, but we arrived at high tide so we had to wade. And it was Sunday, during peak season for the area, so the dog beach was crazy busy. Lots of dogs, lots of people. Some of them arrived by boat.
It was a little too much for Elvis. He spent a lot of time looking lost. And we couldn’t convince him that the sandbar was a thing. As we were wading along the water started to get deeper. We could see that it got shallower after maybe 10 feet, but Elvis didn’t see it that way. He kept turning back for the shore. So we hung out in the shallow water, which was fine. Bailey had an absolute blast. We used the Chuckit and wore him out in about 20 minutes.
Passing back through the beach area of Bonita Springs, we snagged a free, shaded parking spot. So we left the dogs in the back with a bowl of water and went for a walk on the sand. It’s a wonderful beach, too. Goes on for miles. The water was nice and clear and we went for a dip at some point before heading back.
As we entered the parking lot I could see an Animal Control car parked right in front of Taco Negro. The Animal Control officer was standing next to the topper and a Sheriff’s deputy stood right next to her.
Well, shit.
We approached and introduced ourselves. The Animal Control officer said they’d received a complaint about our dogs being in distress. The Sheriff’s Deputy said the person who called said the dogs were “panting heavily” and “drenched in sweat.”
Then the Deputy said, “Look, I know that dogs don’t sweat, so I figured the dogs had just been up to the dog park. Is that right?”
Yes, indeed. The Animal Control officer added that when she arrived, both dogs were asleep.
They had already taken a temperature reading of the inside of the topper – about 75 degrees. So we were assured that we hadn’t done anything wrong, but still received a bit of a lecture about the dangers of leaving a dog in a hot car. Everyone was really quite friendly and polite. Still, it’s always a bad feeling when you find two law enforcement officers standing in front of your vehicle.
Monday the 14th we made our way out of Bonita Springs. Our destination was a paid campsite near Cedar Key, called Shell Mound. Primitive campsites (no water or electricity) were just $5. It was raining when we arrived, so we quickly set up the tent and ate dinner. We climbed up into the tent around 8:30, and I was asleep by 9:30.
I woke up at 3am to a howling wind and rain storm. The first thing I did was peek out the door at the two guylines. See, the way the tent works, those guylines are what keep the tent from accordioning into itself while we’re inside. I found pictures from an older campsite to try and illustrate:
The guylines attach to the main awning and are staked into the ground. Or, if we’re camped on something like soft sand, we tie the guylines to our handy GoRuck sandbags.
Unlike the campground above, Shell Mound had a nice, dirt/grass camping area, so we staked the guylines. During this wind and rain storm I checked those guylines twice and both times they were fine. I may have fallen back asleep – but the next thing I knew I could feel the entire tent shifting, the truck shaking. I haven’t felt wind gusts like this since Moab. I peeked out the door of the tent. Or tried to. The wind was so strong I could barely force that flap open. It was just light enough out there for me to see the awning of the tent flapping in the wind.
At this point I had to wake Michael up. (Have I mentioned that he can sleep through anything?) I told him what was happening. I needed him to sit right inside to the door of the tent, while I went and grabbed the sandbags out of the back of the truck.
In case you’re wondering why I didn’t make him go out into the rain and get the sandbags… he weighs more than I do. I zipped up my rain jacket and headed out into the maelstrom. Ooh it was windy. I opened up the back of the truck and pushed our very confused dogs aside. The smaller sandbag weighs 40 lbs so I grabbed it first, then went back for the 60 pounder.
Unfortunately Michael did have to come outside and help. There is a metal stay that keeps the awning taut, and it had popped out of place.
It took both of us to wrestle that thing into submission. After snuggling back down into our sleeping bags, Michael went right back to sleep. I read Harry Potter for a while, having just started the first one earlier that day. See, I was out of reading material, and all the Harry Potter books are available on Kindle Unlimited. Any guesses as to how long it will take me to finish all seven? (I read all the Game of Thrones books in three months, if that helps.)