We’re still here! We’re stuck in a vortex! Didn’t I think we’d be outta here by now? Yes. Didn’t I think we’d probably be basking in the warm sun diving for lobster to put on the barbie? Yes. Didn’t I think I’d be swimming every morning around the boat after I had my coffee? Yes.Then why am I freezing here in Florida? It was so beautiful and warm when we first got here in late November.
Having returned from spending 3 weeks of wonderful quality fun…a joyful, huggable, warm/fuzzy, laugh-filled, emotional time with our fabulous family out west, celebrating with our Christmas dears and ringing in the New Years’ cheers, we thought we’d be on our way. Apparently not.
Pictures included are of our son-in-law Greg who took the above picture of the other kids: Kim, our soon-to-be-daughter-in-law, our son Skip, daughter Lacey and son Kevin....below pics: grandbaby-girl Ella, grandson Austin, and soon-to-be grandson Kai...all at Shaver Lake, CA.Threw in the picture of the beer. Niiiiccce.
There are a few reasons we’re later than usual.
I had a dermatology checkup back in Fresno where our doctors are. In the sun a lot, you know, so I’m trying to keep track of things before they get out of hand. I was given some lotion to apply twice a day to get rid of bad skin cells, and by the time we returned to the boat I looked like I had leprosy and my lips were so blistered I could hardly talk! Ouch! So we put off moving on for a few days.
Then…the weather wasn’t great for moving on. Big winds… and then it got terribly cold for Florida, in the low 30s, and since we don’t have heating when we’re ‘on the road’, only when we’re in a marina, we decided we didn’t want to freeze each night. So we’d wait that out. They said the coldest it’s been in 7 years. Great.
Then…Randy got a chest cold. Down for the count.
So, what they say about the best-laid plans?….’tis true. They often go awry.
The plan right now, this second, is to head out on Sunday, January 25. Weather is getting warmer by the day and next week looks good. Our escape is imminent! I started getting concerned about our length of time here in Florida. Florida has a 90 day rule, I believe it is, in that if you stay more than 90 days you get to pay them money! I guess they figure you’re homesteading or something so they’re going to tax you! Like the omnipresent Tax Man in the old film Popeye…always knocking on your door.
I had a dermatology checkup back in Fresno where our doctors are. In the sun a lot, you know, so I’m trying to keep track of things before they get out of hand. I was given some lotion to apply twice a day to get rid of bad skin cells, and by the time we returned to the boat I looked like I had leprosy and my lips were so blistered I could hardly talk! Ouch! So we put off moving on for a few days.
Then…the weather wasn’t great for moving on. Big winds… and then it got terribly cold for Florida, in the low 30s, and since we don’t have heating when we’re ‘on the road’, only when we’re in a marina, we decided we didn’t want to freeze each night. So we’d wait that out. They said the coldest it’s been in 7 years. Great.
Then…Randy got a chest cold. Down for the count.
So, what they say about the best-laid plans?….’tis true. They often go awry.
The plan right now, this second, is to head out on Sunday, January 25. Weather is getting warmer by the day and next week looks good. Our escape is imminent! I started getting concerned about our length of time here in Florida. Florida has a 90 day rule, I believe it is, in that if you stay more than 90 days you get to pay them money! I guess they figure you’re homesteading or something so they’re going to tax you! Like the omnipresent Tax Man in the old film Popeye…always knocking on your door.
The Tax Man: You just docked?
Popeye: I has.
The Tax Man: Ah ha, let's see here, that'll be 25¢ docking tax.
Popeye: What for?
The Tax Man: Where's your sea craft?
Popeye: It ain't no sea craft, it's me dinghy and it's under the wharf.
The Tax Man: Ah ha. ahh-ha. This your goods?
Popeye: They is.
The Tax Man: Yeah. You're new in town right?
Popeye: If you call this a town, yes.
The Tax Man: Well, first of all, there's 17¢ new-in-town tax, and there's 45¢ rowboat-under-the-wharf tax, and one dollar leaving-your-junk-lying-around-the-wharf tax, so all together, you owe the Commodore $1.87.
Popeye: Uh, who's this Commodore?
The Tax Man: Is that the nature of question? There's a nickel question tax.
No escape if you stay toooo long. Good grief. We’ll be gone in plenty of time, but seriously…this tax stuff is ridiculous, even WITH representation.
In the meantime, we’ve enjoyed our stay here at Harbortown Marina. Haven’t done too much but we did rent a car before we left for California and toured the Kennedy Space Center; unbelievably neat. Saw the gantries that hold the space shuttle (love that word…gantry), saw the HUGE engines from the Apollo flight.
Unbelievable. They have a wonderful complex there. I learned something I never thought about: Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center are 2 different things. Cape Canaveral had the Apollo launches and some of the earlier launches. Kennedy has the shuttle launches. Just last week we witnessed an NRO (National Reconnaissance Organization) spy satellite launch from Cape Canaveral. Really cool. It was delayed so I got on their website where they had a webcam with live action from command control. As we waited on the deck of our boat to see the launch we could watch what was going on prior to that on the computer. Really interesting and spectacular to see in the middle of the night. 
We drove out to Port Canaveral one Sunday for a late afternoon lunch. And as we're sitting enjoying our wine, we got to see the cruise ships leave. First Carnival Cruise Line, nice, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, very nice, then the Disney Cruise Line, super duper nice! That was fun. I never realized Canaveral was a big port of call for cruise ships.
No escape if you stay toooo long. Good grief. We’ll be gone in plenty of time, but seriously…this tax stuff is ridiculous, even WITH representation.
In the meantime, we’ve enjoyed our stay here at Harbortown Marina. Haven’t done too much but we did rent a car before we left for California and toured the Kennedy Space Center; unbelievably neat. Saw the gantries that hold the space shuttle (love that word…gantry), saw the HUGE engines from the Apollo flight.
Unbelievable. They have a wonderful complex there. I learned something I never thought about: Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center are 2 different things. Cape Canaveral had the Apollo launches and some of the earlier launches. Kennedy has the shuttle launches. Just last week we witnessed an NRO (National Reconnaissance Organization) spy satellite launch from Cape Canaveral. Really cool. It was delayed so I got on their website where they had a webcam with live action from command control. As we waited on the deck of our boat to see the launch we could watch what was going on prior to that on the computer. Really interesting and spectacular to see in the middle of the night. 
We drove out to Port Canaveral one Sunday for a late afternoon lunch. And as we're sitting enjoying our wine, we got to see the cruise ships leave. First Carnival Cruise Line, nice, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, very nice, then the Disney Cruise Line, super duper nice! That was fun. I never realized Canaveral was a big port of call for cruise ships.
We drove across Florida to Largo to see the Island Packet plant…where they made our boat. We had a great tour. It’s so interesting and reassuring to see how well made these boats are. 
We didn’t get to Disneyworld or Epcot Center, etc. We weren’t sure we wanted to spend the money or deal with the crowds; perhaps another day. What we DID try to do before we left was an airboat tour around the swamps with our friends Jack and Marianne. You know…see some alligators and manatees. (Jack and Marianne were next to us in Deltaville. We have run into them along the way here and there.) But it ended up being way too cold and windy to be out on the water in an airboat. We wanted to be in our shorts and flip flops and would have had to wear our ski hats, gloves and heavy coats! NOT what we had in mind.
We did have a great late lunch with Jack and Marianne before they took off for points south. Dixie Crossroads. Apparently a very famous fish restaurant in Titusville. You could tell they served a lot of patrons as their waiting area was huge! Because of our timing we got right in, and out come hushpuppies; those wonderful hushpuppies. But get this! This time they’re covered in powdered sugar! Oh good grief. Warm with powdered sugar. And they keep bringing you more. It’s so not fair that this stuff puts on pounds.
We all ordered their rock shrimp with drawn butter and the best coleslaw ever. I’m telling you people…you gotta experience this great stuff out here! Unbelievably good.
Did I tell you how much we’re enjoying our bikes? We’ve particularly ridden them here in Florida as well as in Charleston. They are so fun. Really makes you feel like a kid again. I could ride forever, except my rear-end starts getting really sore. Now operator error can be a problem. Remember the old man on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In? He would ride his bike, I think it was actually a trike, and then just stop and fall over…that would be me. Twice. “Mommy, why is that lady lying on the sidewalk laughing with her bike beside her?” Can you just picture it? Lord. Randy’s no help. He just laughs at me. But twice should be enough. Each time I’ve done it…only twice remember…I have stopped and put my foot out to brace myself and the ground is on a slant…unfortunately a downward slant. So there I go in slow motion. Awwww yeah...not an attractive site.
We’re going to ride our bikes one more time before we put them away for this leg of the trip. We’ll go visit our favorite pub and then hit the store for some essentials. Never know what kind of stores will be available for awhile.
We’re anxious to get going. We’ll anchor at night as we head again down the Intracoastal Waterway to Lake Worth. Anchoring out is a bit more rugged in that we can’t use our lights or run our water as we would if we were in a marina. We have some LED lights that we’ll use at anchor so we don’t need to use the energy normal lights take. There will be no heater, but we can turn a clay flower pot upside down on the stove which actually gives out quite a bit of heat. We’ll take navy showers and quick wash any dishes. Our solar panels and our big battery bank keep us in good shape. We’ll be running our engine a lot along the way which will keep the batteries purring. The waterway isn’t conducive to good sailing. We purchased an internet booster antenna which should help us pick up internet sources along the way, but we won’t have TV for a long while! I’ll have to search for my American Idol episodes on You Tube. Yes...I like American Idol. =)
We didn’t get to Disneyworld or Epcot Center, etc. We weren’t sure we wanted to spend the money or deal with the crowds; perhaps another day. What we DID try to do before we left was an airboat tour around the swamps with our friends Jack and Marianne. You know…see some alligators and manatees. (Jack and Marianne were next to us in Deltaville. We have run into them along the way here and there.) But it ended up being way too cold and windy to be out on the water in an airboat. We wanted to be in our shorts and flip flops and would have had to wear our ski hats, gloves and heavy coats! NOT what we had in mind.We did have a great late lunch with Jack and Marianne before they took off for points south. Dixie Crossroads. Apparently a very famous fish restaurant in Titusville. You could tell they served a lot of patrons as their waiting area was huge! Because of our timing we got right in, and out come hushpuppies; those wonderful hushpuppies. But get this! This time they’re covered in powdered sugar! Oh good grief. Warm with powdered sugar. And they keep bringing you more. It’s so not fair that this stuff puts on pounds.
We all ordered their rock shrimp with drawn butter and the best coleslaw ever. I’m telling you people…you gotta experience this great stuff out here! Unbelievably good.
Did I tell you how much we’re enjoying our bikes? We’ve particularly ridden them here in Florida as well as in Charleston. They are so fun. Really makes you feel like a kid again. I could ride forever, except my rear-end starts getting really sore. Now operator error can be a problem. Remember the old man on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In? He would ride his bike, I think it was actually a trike, and then just stop and fall over…that would be me. Twice. “Mommy, why is that lady lying on the sidewalk laughing with her bike beside her?” Can you just picture it? Lord. Randy’s no help. He just laughs at me. But twice should be enough. Each time I’ve done it…only twice remember…I have stopped and put my foot out to brace myself and the ground is on a slant…unfortunately a downward slant. So there I go in slow motion. Awwww yeah...not an attractive site.
We’re going to ride our bikes one more time before we put them away for this leg of the trip. We’ll go visit our favorite pub and then hit the store for some essentials. Never know what kind of stores will be available for awhile.
We’re anxious to get going. We’ll anchor at night as we head again down the Intracoastal Waterway to Lake Worth. Anchoring out is a bit more rugged in that we can’t use our lights or run our water as we would if we were in a marina. We have some LED lights that we’ll use at anchor so we don’t need to use the energy normal lights take. There will be no heater, but we can turn a clay flower pot upside down on the stove which actually gives out quite a bit of heat. We’ll take navy showers and quick wash any dishes. Our solar panels and our big battery bank keep us in good shape. We’ll be running our engine a lot along the way which will keep the batteries purring. The waterway isn’t conducive to good sailing. We purchased an internet booster antenna which should help us pick up internet sources along the way, but we won’t have TV for a long while! I’ll have to search for my American Idol episodes on You Tube. Yes...I like American Idol. =)
Back to the basics. We’re ready!
