Frustrated in Fort Myers

Fort Myers has more to offer than the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins Spring Training camps. It is the county seat of Lee County and a city with good beaches and an interesting history worth a short period of your time if you are ever in Southwestern Florida.

Fort Myers is known as the City of Palms by locals and along with Cape Coral a short drive down the Gulf Coast, it's a well-populated area of about 625,000 people throughout Lee County.

Fort Myers is a relatively young city that was only established in 1886. Before that, Fort Myers was a military fort built by the US Army to keep the Seminole Indians out of the town. Fort Myers was named for Colonel Abraham Myers, the son of the fort's commander who was stationed in Fort Myers for seven years. In 1858, the Army drove the Seminoles out of Fort Myers and forced them further west. Fort Myers was abandoned soon afterwards, but during the Civil War in 1863 Fort Myers was occupied by the Union Army until the end of the war. Before the end of the Civil War, Fort Myers came under attack by a small Confederate Army that was driven back by the Union occupiers.

After the Civil War, Fort Myers was abandoned until 1866 when the first settlers came to live here, but the population of Fort Myers didn't increase until 1882, and Fort Myers was incorporated in 1886. For a while, Fort Myers became the second largest city on the Gulf Coast next to Tampa and began to become a well-known winter resort stop for the rich and famous such as Thomas Edison and Henry Ford especially after the Tamiami Highway (SR 41) was built allowing people to get to Fort Myers easily.

Thomas Edison and Henry Ford's winter homes are now popular tourist sites along McGregor Street. To get to Fort Myers from Northern Florida and Tampa, take I-75 South all of the way to the Fort Myers' exits. Fort Myers is easily accessible by car or airplane with flights going often into Southwest Florida International Airport.

After having a great time at the ball game and not wanting this experience to end, Mom and I returned to our hotel room to freshen up and headed back towards Downtown Fort Myers to find an inexpensive sports bar to have dinner and enjoy ourselves among several of the "Faithful" as Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan call the thousands of devout Red Sox fans.

I am not a big fan of driving in downtowns, and Fort Myers turned out to be another frustrating place to drive around in. The map we got from the ball game showing where many of the restaurants were located was not drawn out right, and after driving on Cleveland Avenue (SR 41), I turned around to get back towards the downtown and was able to do so onto McGregor.

So Mom and I are in the downtown looking for Dean Street, which is home to one of the bars that is one of the Red Sox Spring Training sponsors. The ad said it had food and drink and a good time, but after driving around the downtown looking for Dean Street (a little side street) and free parking (there is a big parking lot on McGregor), we finally walked over to the bar which was packed with Red Sox fans and St. Patrick Day revelers. The only food on the menu that night was Corned Beef and Cabbage (UGH!). When I finally flagged down a waitress to ask for a menu, she said there wasn't a menu for food. GRRR! Mom and I left, and I told Mom that my store manager was right about customer service. Even though you are busy as a one-armed paper hanger, you have to take a second to acknowledge new customers, and we were pretty much ignored.

After we left Dean Street, we went further into the downtown to look at other restaurant options, but they were way out of our budget range. I am more like Rachael Ray's $40 A Day and would rather pay $20-$30 for two meals rather than that amount for one meal. By this time, I was resigned to the fact of getting out of the Downtown and heading back towards North Fort Myers to a restaurant near our hotel. Hell! I would have been happy having food brought to the hotel, but Mom and I wanted to have at least one meal in a restaurant.

Once again getting back to SR 41 was a pain in the butt with one way roads and crappy signage. Mom and I did catch a glance of Thomas Edison's winter home on McGregor in our adventure, but it was too late for a tour. Maybe next year, I thought to myself. I just wanted to get out of the Downtown and be near our hotel.

Mom and I finally got back onto SR 41 and stopped for gas at a Sunoco station where the manager said that there are a lot of nice and inexpensive restaurants across the bridge and wouldn't have trouble finding one. I was so happy to be across that bridge and after 7 p.m., Mom and I had the luck to find Jerseys Sports Cafe and had one of the best meals of our life with great service and a cute owner named Burt to flirt with.

Next year, Mom and I will be better prepared for Fort Myers and I don't care, I will eat in Jerseys every night we stay in Fort Myers just to avoid the traffic!

I gave Mom a pair of Red Sox Spring Training tickets for Christmas and made plans to drive to Fort Myers on March 16, spend the next day at the ballpark before heading back home to Pensacola on March 18. I pulled directions from Mapquest and thought we had the best route to Fort Myers from Pensacola. Boy was I wrong!

Mom and I got an early start from our home in Pensacola. The first leg of the trip on I-10 East was a piece of cake, and after a quick gas stop near Perry, Florida, we were ready to get onto SR 19/98 or so we thought it was SR 19/98. Mom and I were pretty relaxed for the beginning of the trip talking, listening to CD's, and checking out the scenery. There was a Confederate flag in front of one place on the route followed by a church with three wooden crosses in front of it. "Are those crosses for decoration or burning!?", I cracked to Mom, who thought the "Stars and Bars" was outlawed for its racist undertones.

Come lunchtime, and we are ready to pull over in High Springs, Florida, and Mom, who had been dozing on and off throughout the ride, wakes up and says, "I think we are on the wrong road." "WHAT?!", I say, and I look at the map and realize we are on SR 27 and not SR 19 South. After a few curses against Mapquest for crappy directions again, Mom and I go into the gas station we have pulled into for a potty break and bring the road atlas with us. Bladder empty, I find room on one of the counter to look at the atlas to see where we can get back to SR 19. The girl behind the counter asks where we are heading, and I tell her we are heading to Fort Myers and need to get back to SR 19. After cursing Mapquest, she agrees with me that Mapquest sucks and proceeds to get me in the right direction towards SR 19, which meant heading back into High Springs and turning left onto 441 to SR 26 which will have us on SR 19 in 30 minutes. Mom and I thanked the girl and after eating a quick lunch in the car, we were off to SR 19.

We made good timing to get back onto SR 19, but this lovely little gaffe caused us a couple of hours of travel time, and we were not looking forward to hitting the Tampa/St. Petersburg area and I-275 at rush hour. As we got closer to Tampa/St. Petersburg, SR 19 became more congested with towns along the way and more traffic lights that you can shake a stick at. Luckily, rush hour traffic was pretty light getting onto I-275 South, and Mom and I thought we were scot-free for the rest of the trip!

Wrong again! After circling I-275 around St. Petersburg, we get onto I-75 South and hit the cruise control button. Then we hit a traffic jam that we think is because of road construction, but before we can curse the Florida Department of Transportation, we realize it's an accident causing the jam. As we got closer to the accident site, we see that it's a pretty bad accident, and one car is in the woods near the interstate while the second car is on the side of the road in bad shape. The worst of the accident was the third car, which has rolled over and on its roof. An ambulance was just shutting its doors to take the injured parties to the hospital, and this scene will be in our minds for the rest of the trip.

After a while of riding onto I-75, we get off the Interstate to SR 41 which is smooth sailing considering we have to stop at red lights every few miles. By this time, I am vowing to look for an alternate route for the ride back home to Pensacola in two days not wanting to deal with stop and go traffic the whole time.

Mom and I finally hit Fort Myers about 8 p.m. and over 13 hours on the road. The sight of the Motel 6 sign on the right side of the road is a welcome sight for both of our tired and numb bodies, and after checking into the hotel, we cleaned up and ordered take out food from Pizza Hut to be delivered to our room.

Two days later the ride home was a lot better with us getting onto I-75 North at Punta Gorda and hitting Tampa/St. Petersburg before 8 a.m. With a couple of extended stops at Wal-Mart in the morning and a lunch break, we make it home safe and sound with numb legs and butts by 4 p.m.

I told one of my co-workers about our adventure, and he said it would be a lot faster to go further down I-10 East into Central Florida to I-75 South and follow it all the way to Fort Myers avoiding red lights and traffic. Mom and I are going to take Eddie's advice very seriously for next year's trip to Spring Training. The trip for us was very daunting, but we will not let it stop us from seeing our beloved Red Sox next year!

After Mom and I went to the Red Sox game, we returned to our hotel room to freshen up before going to dinner. We planned to eat somewhere inexpensive in Downtown Fort Myers at one of the restaurants that sponsor City of Palms Park and the Red Sox during Spring Training. Mom and I stopped at one of those locations that advertised food and drink, but when we got there after going the roundabout way into the downtown, they were only serving corned beef and cabbage for St. Patty's Day. UGH! I am 1/8th Irish, but I never enjoyed boiled meet and veggies for dinner. After flagging down a barmaid and asking about a menu, she said they didn't have one. Mom and I left that establishment and checked out a few more establishments that were too expensive for our budget. After that, we decided dinner would be closer to the hotel back across the bridge. At that rate, I would have been happy having food delivered to the room again, but Mom wanted a sit-down meal in a restaurant instead of pizza cartons all over the hotel room!

Mom and I saw a pizza joint that looked promising, but when we got to the red light to make a u-turn towards the place, I noticed Jerseys Sports Cafe to our left. "That's one of the places mentioned at the game, Mom!" Mom acknowledged me, and we agreed that would be our dinner stop. I wasn't in the mood for pizza anyway!

Upon entering Jerseys, I noticed right away that there was food, and a waitress running to another customer said that we could seat ourselves anywhere. For a Tuesday night, Jerseys was a hopping joint, and we were happy to find a seat in the back of the restaurant below a Shaquille O'Neal Orlando Magic jersey and an autographed Carl Yasztremski warm up top. Our waitress was over to our table quickly and took our drink order, water for me and Guiness for Mom.

While we were looking around the place at all of the Boston Red Sox, New England Patriot, Boston Celtics, and Boston Bruins sports memorabilia, a good-looking guy came over to our table to check out our Red Sox shirts. Mom had on her fancy Red Sox jersey while I had changed into my Size Doesn't Matter Dustin Destroia (Pedroia) t-shirt. I told cute guy I was hoping to get the Jonathan Papelbon Wild Thing t-shirt in the near future, and he asked Mom and I if we had been to the game and who won. We told him the Red Sox won 9-5 and we had met Johnny Pesky. He left our table, but came back when he saw me taking pictures of Shaq's shirt and offered to take a picture of Mom and me. No problem, and we posed for a nice shot together.

Cute guy gone for a while, we looked at our menu and Mom and I settled for the Fried Clams Basket and the Shrimp Basket. At $7.99 each, this meal wasn't going to kill our budget, and it would be a good meal to satisfy our hunger. Hey! Cute guy was appetizer enough!

After ordering, Mom and I watched TV on one of the numerous TV's throughout the restaurant and were happy that they got the MLB Network and were able to watch some of the World Baseball Classic game between the USA and Venezuela.

Our food arrived within 15-20 minutes, and Mom and I immediately dug in. The food was hot and fresh, and my clams were huge meaty pieces of meat, and Mom's shrimp was sweet and yummy. An order of fries came with our meals along with cole slaw, cocktail and tartar sauces and we were happy campers.

Bellies full, our waitress came over and asked if we wanted dessert, but we were full, and she brought our bill. Then cute guy came back to talk to us more, and introduced himself as Bert, the owner of the place! COOL! Mom and I introduced ourselves, and Bert asked us where in New England we were from, and we told him we were living in Pensacola, but were originally from Rhode Island with 16 years in Idaho. It turned out that Bert was from Dartmouth, Massachusetts, which is a stone's through from my old stomping grounds in East Providence, Rhode Island. He wished us a good night and took our bill to the register. After watching an inning of the game, Mom and I left really full and happy with the service we received.

Jerseys Sports Cafe is located about a mile north of Motel 6 on SR 41 in a shopping center. Open late every night, it's a great place for Red Sox fans to stop after a Spring Training game and enjoy themselves. Mom and I have vowed to return here next year!

When I originally made reservations for a hotel in Fort Myers for our trip to the Red Sox Spring Training game, I could not book reservations for Motel 6, and I was resigned to booking a room at Howard Johnson's, which was about $30 a night more than Motel 6, and that would have broke Mom and I big time for the entire trip. Rest assured, dear fans, Mom came to the rescue when she started to surf the net in a momentary time of panic and was able to get into the Motel 6 Fort Myers location without a problem. At $59 a night with an internet discount, that was going to be a more wallet-friendly option for Mom and me to stomach. When I got home from work that night, I instantly cancelled our Hojo's reservations and reserved a non-smoking room with two beds for us without trouble! WHEW!

After 13 hours on the road thanks to an unexpected two-hour detour that had us driving through Tampa/St. Petersburg in rush hour, Mom and I were very happy to see the Motel 6 sign in our sights once we hit Fort Myers. Located on Florida SR 41 in Northern Fort Myers near the Days Inn and other hotel chains and the Bob Evans' Restaurant, and only 2.5 miles from City of Palms Park, Motel 6 #1071 is one of the less expensive places to stay when you visit Fort Myers.

Mom and I dragged our tired butts into the Motel 6 lobby about 8:15 p.m., and the lady behind the counter, Dawn, pleasantly greeted us and immediately processed our reservation. She was very understanding when I could not remember our license plate number (Mom wrote it in her phone book) and was very nice when Mom and I asked her if she had any menus from local restaurants that delivered. There was no way I was hauling my skinny butt back into that car that night!

Room keys in hand, we only had a short skip across the parking lot to our room, #205, and unloaded our luggage and other provisions needed for our stay in Fort Myers. Our room was small with two queen beds, and it had a table with chairs along with a place to store our clothes. Both the room and the bathroom were spotless, but when I went to take a shower that night, the water pressure was iffy and the water took some time to drain after I was finished cleaning up. At least the water was warm, and we had enough clean towels for both of us to use during our stay. The room had a TV with basic cable which was great for us to watch ESPN and other programs before bed and when we got up in the morning. Since Mom and I stayed at Motel 6 for two nights, our room was cleaned the next morning, and we were almost ready to go to the ballgame when the cleaning woman knocked on our door to see if she could get in there to clean. I told her we were almost ready, and she went on to clean another room. When Mom and I left the room, we let her know the room was ready, and the lady asked us if we were going to the game. It was obvious with our Red Sox shirts on, and we told her we were on the way to the game.

If you are on a tight budget if you visit Fort Myers, Florida and need a comfy and clean place with just the basics, then Motel 6 is the place to be. If we make it to Spring Training next year, Mom and I will definitely stay here again. It's in a safe location near the Days Inn, and it is nicely laid out with four buildings making up the layout of the complex. There is a swimming pool for guests to use and access to WiFi and free local calls.