Pine Island and Teener & Carl's wedding

I rode the Guzzi down to Pine Island, FL yesterday for the wedding of Carl and Teener.

The trip down was nice...I left around 8 a.m. and tried to take a sort of scenic route. I followed highway 17 for much of the way and passed by many, many orange groves and through many older Florida towns, like Fort Meade, Zolfo Springs and Arcadia.

Arcadia seemed particularly interesting, with a lot of old structures. Driving through town it appeared there is a heavy hispanic influence, with many of the stores, shops and churches bearing spanish names.

The entire area I was visiting was devastated by Hurricane Charley in 2004. In particular the site of the wedding, Tarpon Lodge on Pine Island, was greatly damaged, but looking at it today you would never know. They have done a marvelous job of rebuilding.

Just as I arrived on Pine Island, I stopped for fuel (the Breva has a nice 6.2 gallon fuel tank so I can ride 250 miles without needing to stop). I checked my cell phone and had several messages. These turned out to be from the caretaker of the Knolls Court Motel, which was to be my resting place for the evening. Apparently there had been a plumbing problem which rendered two rooms unsuitable for human habitation...and of course one of the rooms was mine :=0

Thankfully the caretaker, a nice fellow named Larry, had taken the measure of securing me a discounted room at an inn just down the street. Very kind of him....he also offered me a free night's stay at Knoll's Court in the future...so I'll be back!

The new lodging place was the Bridgewater Inn, a motel built on piers over water! I got a great corner room with excellent water views and the water was mere feet from me outside my door(and under the floor)!

I arrived quite early (12:00) but Sheila, the caretaker at Bridgewater Inn in Matlacha, FL, hurriedly prepared my room whilst I headed over to a local watering hole, Bert's Bar, for a cold Tarpon Spoon pilsner and a thoroughly undercooked burger.

I spent a couple hours exploring the area on foot and on motorbike. Matlacha is a sleepy, relaxing, colorful little town with fishing as its main activity. I saw a dolphin swimming right outside my door! The inn was about 8-10 miles from the wedding site on Pine Island. Around 5:00 I headed over to the Tarpon Lodge for the ceremony.

The wedding (outdoors on the bay) started around 6:30 and I got drafted to videotape the procession of the wedding party down the sidewalk. I hope they are not expecting quality videography! It was a spectacular and classy ceremony and a fun party afterwards. A beautiful bride and I guess you were handsome too Carl :=) Thanks for inviting me!

Congratulations Teener and Carl!!!