Day 123, Year 10: A Little Slice of Paradise
Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Weather: Sunny and Windy, High Temp 70 degrees F
Location: Visiting with Mark’s Brother Steve in Alva, FL
We left Bonita Beach this morning and drove toward Fort Myers with Steve. We stopped along the way to see another of the homes that Steve designed that is under construction. This one had a movie theater and a sports bar! Who has the money to build homes like this?
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| 150210 Day 123a Florida, USA–Another Steve Handley Home Design |
Our next stop was where Steve lives out in Alva. Every time we come to visit Steve, I feel like I have been transported into a little slice of paradise. He lives on a piece of property just off the Caloosahatchee River about 20 miles east of downtown Fort Myers. As you drive out here, you feel like you are entering Florida cowboy country and then you take a left off the main road and head toward the river to what used to be Rialto Marina. Steve has lived here on his trawler for more than 20 years. When he came here, there were very few trees and plants and only one little A-frame home, long since removed. He designed a home for the owner of the property in the old Florida style. And then he was contracted to design a guest house which also houses his office. The property was slowly transformed from a mundane lot to a botanical paradise. Rialto Marina came into existence, but it is no more as the owner and his wife are deeply into horse cart racing with no time to run a marina. Now there are horses, barns, and fenced fields. But it is the botanical garden setting–surrounded on two sides by water, a pond, a lovely swimming pool, and areas to just sit and contemplate that give this place such a feeling of serenity. Mark and I both really love it here and truly enjoyed the day and evening with Steve. Tonight Mark and Steve grilled chicken on a Weber grill over a wood fire. I mention the type of grill as the inventor of the Weber dome-shaped grill, George Steven, once stayed here and shared the story of how the grill came to be with Steve. Like Mark and Steve’s grandfather Handley, Steve is a backyard inventor and tonight he showed us his Smorkit for making foolproof s’mores—no more marshmallows falling in the fire off the end of a stick and perfectly melted chocolate every time. Like the Weber grill which was developed by cutting a metal marine buoy in half, Steve’s Smorkit is made from a piece of track from a boat. In addition to the grill story, we enjoyed the warmth of the fire and the smell of the wood burning. Dinner was great and then we spent the remainder of the evening talking. It is now late and tomorrow morning early we head to Fort Lauderdale for Mark’s cancer treatment.
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| 150210 123b Florida, USA–At Home with Steve at Rialto |
