It's the last day of April, and even though we had intended to remain another week, the weather is going to push us north. Not bad weather! Hot weather! It's been 94 +- for the past few days, and even though the weather is questionable to the west and north of us, we just aren't capable of surviving in this heat. Debbie was able to sum it up quite simply. It's revese winter.....we stayed indoors from the cold up north in the winter, and Floridians stay indoors from the heat in the summer.
We won't be heading straight home though. We've got a stop planned in Gaffney, SC at the Freightliner Service Center. We've heard that Freightliner does a great job servicing the motorhome's chassis, so we're gonna give it a shot. We'll be on a waitlist, but perhaps we'll get lucky and someone will cancel. We've got time to spare, and as Debbie says, "This isn't a vacation we're on. It's a lifestyle."
Our visit to Florida passed pretty quickly, and even though we repeated ourselves by returning to Sun-N-Fun, our exploits on the inter-coastal waterway made possible with our membership in
Freedom Boat Club, has made this portion of our journey very enjoyable. We especially enjoyed being able to use boats in numerous locations along the Gulf Coast including Sarasota, Bradenton, Venice, Pine Island, Punta Gorda, and Fort Myers. Hard to say which one was the most enjoyable. Each one presented separate and unique challenges to our boating skills.
Debbie did a great job navigating the ICW, while I worked at keeping myself hydrated. It's an awfully bright sun down here!
The beaches along the ICW can be a little trickey to locate and navigate, but we managed to find a few nice spots to stop and enjoy. We did discover that the big boats don't give a damn that you're a little boat, as they maneuver past us, kicking up some huge wakes. Once we learned to get out of their way, it was a much nicer afternoon. We didn't take the time to get our "open water" certification, which would open up the blue water to us. But so far, we're quite content in cruising the ICW. Babysteps first!
We both celebrated birthdays this month, and Debbie was successful in catching up with me, if only for a few days! She does seem to get awfully excited when I break out into the lead again. It's also a good thing neither of us had a birthday cake as I'm not sure the smoke detector could handle it!
On the 17th, we fired up the GMG and we threw a rack of lamb on. Debbie does her magic with the seasonings, and let them sit all day getting ready. I set the grill for 500 degrees, and this is what we ended up with after 12 minutes each side! They were so delicious!
As you can see, our activities the past month or so have been for the most part, focused on boating. We found
Turtles Restaurant down by ICW marker #48, in Little Sarasota Bay, by following a well marked channel into the boat dock. Alongside us was a very lucky pontoon boat, who chose not to follow the channel and just cut across the bay. He made it in just fine, but venturing outside of a marked channel is not the wisest thing to do. The hamburger and salad we had was delicious, and the beer was cold. There was also plenty of shade under the red umbrella, and we enjoyed watching the boats pull into the marina next door.
We're anticipating a 2 week journey home, so you'll have to wait and see how we do. Our friend Jeannie Harwell just posted some photos from Mooers which show the trees are just starting to bud up in Mooers. The weather at Chateaugay Lake is about 2 weeks behind Mooers, therefore, according to our precise calculations, Spring should be arrive in about 2 weeks. So, we're right on schedule. I'm sure MAE will be excited to hear that we're on our way north.
Liam will be coming to visit us in June, so we're pretty excited about that. I haven't published a photo of Liam in a while, so I'll throw a few in. He's becoming quite a handsome young man.
Ben has taught him to throw kisses when they Facetime with Grammie, so he's becoming quite a suck up too! Grammies always fall for that.
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