I don’t want to tell you what the temperature is today down here in Clearwater, or yesterday in Naples.
You have to trust me when I say we are not gloating about missing the coldest spell in Kansas City in many years. We feel a bit guilty. That we missed the frigid front was just dumb luck.
When we left a week ago Friday, it was normally cold, not ridiculously so. It took us three days to get to Naples, and the temperature didn’t hit 70 until we got well south of Gainesville, where we spent the second night. But when we got to Naples, our destination for the first week of our winter sojourn, it was close to 80. It stayed that way, during the daytime, much of the week.
Yesterday was moving day. We departed in the early afternoon, drove through some rain and got to Clearwater about 5 p.m.
Today it’s cloudy and muggy. Patty and our good Kansas City friend Julie, who with her husband Jim, owns a house in Clearwater, have gone to the beach. Jim, a retired contractor, is working on their house. And me? I’m writing this winter letter to my readers, friends and relatives back home.
Tomorrow, I play golf…I played twice in Naples with our Louisville friends, Bill and Denise. To show you the difference between Naples and Clearwater, it cost $120 to play 18 holes in Naples, and it will cost about $55 to play at the Clearwater Country Club, which isn’t really a country club in the true sense because it’s open to the public.
Anyway, I know that some nice hot-weather photos will help tide you over to the weekend, when it’s due to get bearable again back home. So away we go…
Here’s the house we stayed in while in Naples. It’s owned by a Louisville physician, who rents it out to friends for part of the year. Our friends Bill and Denise have rented it for three weeks each of the last several winters. It looks rather small from the front, it’s got a large addition on the back. Altogether, it has four bedrooms and four baths.
For the most part, Naples has become a retreat for people of phenomenal wealth. Every day we saw or heard numerous big, private jets flying overhead on their way out of Naples. Homes like this are the exception. Modest houses are being bought, scraped and replaced with enormous new ones all the time.
To give you an idea of what’s been going on, this house stands next to the one in the previous picture. Both are on 11th Avenue South, several blocks from the beach, in an older area of Naples.
Many streets are lined with large palm trees, the seminal sign you have found your way to the Sunshine State.
The beach
This is the Naples pier. At one time, Naples was accessible only by water. (The big breakthrough was completion of a railroad line in December 1926.) In the 1880s, a 600-foot-long pier was built as a lifeline to the outside world. It was washed away by a hurricane in 1912, rebuilt and then burned by a carelessly dropped cigarette in 1922. It was repaired and lengthened to 1,000 feet in 1924 but was wrecked again by storms in 1926 and in 1960. After Hurricane Donna in 1960, two local philanthropists donated the money to rebuild the pier, and it reopened in 1961. It has a concession stand at the halfway point, and visitors can fish free of charge…No license needed.
A father and daughter (presumably) frolicked in the water just before sunset.
One day, we made it to the Everglades. While we didn’t go to Everglades National Park, we went to the nearby Big Cypress Nature Preserve, which basically is 729,000 acres of swamp.
A park ranger told us, “If you want to see what it’s like to be out in the swamp, this is it.”
Then there are these guys. This alligator was about 10 feet long…At least it looked that way to me. When I sent this photo to daughter Brooks she was concerned that I had edged close to the gator to get the photo. Not to worry…I shot it from the boardwalk above the waterway.
Before we left the swamp (thank God for the boardwalk), the park ranger took our photo. From left, me, Patty, Bill and Denise.
And that brings us to today, and our new place — an Airbnb on Union Street in Clearwater. It’s got two bedrooms and one bath. Everything works, and there are four bikes in the garage. Another bonus: It’s a block from a convenience store named Munchies. We’ve already been there three times. Tally-ho!
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
There is a criminal couple with Kansas City ties who own a very nice mansion in Naples, FL. James and Gayle Miller were the owners of Wright Career College, a proprietary school at I-435 and Metcalf that swindled thousands of people _ many of them poor young single mothers_ who were coerced into taking out five-figure student loans for a career-based education that was never delivered. This all happened through a common scheme devised by the Millers. I don’t know their address, Fitz, but I’m sure there is a stench coming from their mansion that permeates that entire city.
I got the feeling there was a lot of off-color money in Naples.
What’s criminal is a) they have a mansion and b) they’re not in prison!
Enjoyed your letter and photos/captions. The timing of your trip was fortuitous.
Looks very nice! I hope the pipes in your house here don’t freeze!
Our daughter is staying at the house. She says everything is fine.
I lived in Tampa as a young boy, 1957-61. My brother and I learned to swim at one of the many freshwater lakes that dot the area. We were at a private home, but there were also public beaches at some of the lakes: Colonial Beach, Lake Ellen for two. We went to YMCA day camp on another; swam and canoed in the lake. In those days alligators were nearly extinct around Tampa. We frolicked through the “jungle” they hacked our subdivision out of, being mindful only of the snakes. Today I wouldn’t let my dog run free in the woods or wouldn’t put my toe in a lake because of my irrational fear of alligators. They’re back baby!
I didn’t know about your Tampa days, Leigh. Sounds like a great period of adventure for a kid. Those alligators get all the respect they deserve. One of them yawned while we were watching, exposing a wide and deep sea of pink tissue. I was glad to be up on that boardwalk.
While you’re lollygagging around in Florida during our misery, may I go off topic and remind everyone that today is the anniversary of Rick Alm’s death. If you want to know what my idea of the perfect journalist is, it was Rick. RIP brother, you earned it.
John Altevogt, thank you for bringing to mind Rick Alm, whom I had the honor and privilege to work with at the Kansas City Times and Kansas City Star.
Jim, we are glad to see you are having a wonderful time in Florida. I visited Naples a time or two when I was a reporter for the Fort Myers News-Press from 1979-82. I fondly recall my late mother visiting me during those years and the two of us venturing over to the annual Everglades City Seafood Festival.
Enjoy the rest of your visit, Jim. But remember, you’ve got a hell of a lot of work to catch up on when you get back to Kansas City. Your annual review is coming up. But we’ll graciously let you buy us off with a sumptuous KCK lunch post-pandemic.
Rick Alm: May 19, 1948 – February 16, 2017.
I remembered it too, John. A sad day that was.
You dog!
Where are your shorts??
Wish I were there! Enjoy your vacation and upcoming birthday everyday!