Contents

Rearview Mirror - Summary of the past week
Headlights - Our schedule as to where we will be heading

(Note: click on any photo for a larger image/slideshow)

Rearview Mirror

Chilly Business
Business took me first to Chicago to start a consulting engagement with a new client--I can tell it is going to be a great relationship. The weather was a tad “un-Florida-like” though. I awoke Wednesday morning to 7 degrees! From Chicago it was on to Atlanta for a couple days working with another client. I took my little camera, but didn’t take any shots.

Chili Business
Some friends from Michigan who are staying in Southwest Florida came over to visit, and we took them as our guests to a Pine Island Boat Club outing--the first ever Chili Cook-Off. What a fun event! Twenty people brought their favorite chili and all of the 140 attendees served as the judges, walking around tasting the various chili and casting their votes.

Here is a pic of the start of the tasting…



Some of the chili was mild…



Some of the chili was on the spicy side…



Some of chili cookers were quite elegant, such as Chef-Buoy-Our-Dee…



Some of the chili cookers were quite sophisticated…



And some of chili cookers were just plain nuts…



Here are a few more shots of the chili participants...















In true Pine Island fashion (and just like the U.S. Congress), money talks--the judges voted with their pocketbooks. If people liked the chili, they put money in a bowl by their favorite chili chef, and the cook with the most money wins. Here is a shot of the officials tallying the votes…



And here is a picture of Commodore Ron putting the official apron on the first annual Pine Island Boat Club Chili Champ…



Quite a day at the Alexander’s--not everyone gets to sleep with a Chili Champ!

Pelicans and Pups
Here are shots of Mitzy and Jerry out on a walk and some young brown pelicans hanging out under the Sanibel causeway.

Headlights

MAA ’12 tentative departure date is set! We are pleased to announce that Motoring Across America 2012 is already in the planning stages and our tentative date of departure is April 13. More to come…

See you next week!