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For an explanation of photos, position mouse over photo. October 2002 - January 2003 We've taken a little hiatus from sailing to embark on some land adventures.
It all started when Bradley returned from Australia in October of 2002 and was
offered a job as a senior executive at Allen Systems Group, the company that had
bought Landmark earlier in the year. They are based in Naples, Florida.
Bradley's parents and his sister all have houses in the Naples area and my
mother lives on the east coast in Cape Canaveral. We also have lots of friends
in Florida so we decided to make the move. Bradley ventured to Florida on Nov 1
and I followed, taking our Mazda Miata on the auto train and arriving in Florida
on Nov 9. After a nice visit with my mother and sister, I set off to drive across
Florida from Cape Canaveral to Naples. I wasn't in a rush so I decided to take
the scenic route and avoid the highways (the Miata is a tiny car and speed
limits in Florida are 70 MPH and everyone goes 85). Turns out there isn't much
scenery in Florida - just lots of interesting roadkill. But I made it to Naples
by mid-month. We stayed at Bradley's father's while I looked for a place of our
own.
Bradley's job started out well. It seemed like ASG could really benefit from
his expertise in operations and management. He was getting up early and working
late, getting to know the people and starting to get his feet wet. Of course, in
typical Bradley style he was also pretty outspoken. But things seemed to be
going well and he was making a difference. He was receiving positive feedback
from his boss and from the owner of the company. ASG seemed to be benefiting
from having someone from the outside on the team. So everyone was a little
surprised when one afternoon Bradley received an email from the owner of the
company notifying him that he had been fired and asking him to pack up his desk
and go home after just one month. We're still not really sure why this happened
and the owner has never discussed it with Bradley. In the meantime I had decided to concentrate on golf and had attended a four day golf school in Naples. It was great! It turns out I was the only one in the class that week so I had the pro, Dennis Meyer, all to myself for four days. He's a great instructor and a lot of fun too. I made big improvements in all parts of my game. Anyone interested in going to a golf school should come to Naples where there are more golf course per capita than anywhere on earth. Click here for more information on Dennis Meyer's Golf School. After Bradley's job ended, we had to decide what to do next. The boat is
still in Australia but it is cyclone season and we really can't take it anywhere
for a few months. I like Florida and want to stay here and play golf. Bradley
doesn't play golf and decided to head off for Colorado for three months on the
ski slopes. He's always wanted to spend a whole season out there and this is his
chance. So in early January he set off for the cross country drive and
arrived there just fine. I plan to join him for a couple weeks in February.
April After a great ski trip to Colorado and a fun week in Las Vegas, I returned to
Naples where we decided to buy a small house.
I had some special visitors for Spring Break. My stepdaughter April's kids - Brian (17), Kristina (14), and Jennifer (13) decided they had had enough of the Northeast winter and wanted to get away to Florida for Spring Break. So we flew into Miami and then drove across "Alligator Alley" to Naples. We visited Ft. Myers Beach where we all went parasailing and played on the Wave Runners. We went canoeing and took a tour on an airboat where we saw lots of alligators and other wildlife. And we spent a day in Miami relaxing on the beach and shopping in South Beach. We all enjoyed the warm sun!
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A very strange scenario but
apparently not unusual for this company. 
After searching for a few weeks,
we found one that meets all the requirements - reasonable privacy, a small
community with friendly neighbors, good location, and a yard adequate for
allowing the dogs to visit. We closed on the house on April 17 and hope to be
able to spend several months a year there.
