2010 Jan. 26, Tuesday.
Cool morning, so I drove the car to get the paper. For lunch, we went to the Sandy Parrot just a few blocks south of us. They have an open-wall Tiki hut bar area, which looks out on a large waterfall and lots of nice plant landscaping. Linda had a crab roll with a salad, and I had a pulled pork sandwich with corn chowder, both good. After eating, we rode south about 2 miles to look at a resort called The Springs, just to see what it costs to stay there for next year. We could not find any office, nor was there anyone around to talk to. There is a motel with the same name on the corner, and they may do the booking for the resort as well. [This is where Diane stayed, as well as the Esgars, where we first met David and Kate from England.] Just a few blocks east of it is another place with unique buildings in the shape of pyramids. No one was in that office, so we did not get any information. It is not likely, but we are just checking to see if we can find an efficiency room for $1000 or less for the month of January 2011. Otherwise, we will pay the fee to transfer some Wyndham timeshare points to RCI points. RCI has many timeshares in the area, and when we first came to this area in 2000, we stayed in some of them. After packing a few things, we took our usual afternoon break at the bookstore. Home for supper. Now only four days before we head to Orlando.

WEATHER: High 71, low 45. Predicted high of about 80 on Thursday, then another front with rain on Saturday. Now the month is about .7 inches below normal for rain for January, so Mother Nature is trying to make it up.

FL NEWS: (1) “Mesa ups the fight for the Cubs” The Mesa, AZ, city council voted 7 - 0 Monday night to approve a memorandum of understanding designed to keep the Cubs in their city and out of Collier County, FL, where a group of investors has been wooing the baseball team. A bill offering an additional $15 million in incentives to Collier County to get the Cubs is in the Florida Legislature. The Mesa memorandum calls for a 25-year deal to build an $84 million facility with a 15,000 seat stadium. The proposal also requires help from the Arizona legislature and approval by Mesa voters.
(2) “Lee set home sales record in ‘09” Sales of existing homes in Lee County ended the decade with a bang - a record 16,260 were sold with the assistance of a realtor in 2009. That shattered the old record of 12,123 set in 2005 at the top of the residential real estate boom that collapsed the following year. Meanwhile, prices were moving in the opposite direction. The median sales price for an existing house was $278,200 in 2005 but only $90,400 in 2009. One realtor said, “Prices finally reached a point in 2009 that triggered a wave of buyers. The moral to the story is that there’s never a shortage of buyers, only of willing and realistic sellers.”