More Birds

Sunday, February 26, 2017


More Birds. Nope, no more airplanes. We are talking real birds. 

Today was windy and the water very choppy, so we stayed another day at Titusville. We visited the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Of course we couldn't get very close to get good pictures, but it was a nice sunny day to be outside.

And the vultures followed us around all day. I don't know how we attract them.




Then the roseate spoonbill. Pretty in pink.

Bald eagles.

Manatees.

And alligators, oh my!

I Dream....AND The Birds

Thurs-Fri, Feb 23-24, 2017

The rain quit and the fog lifted enough to say goodbye to paradise--Hiram's Resort in Sebastian.

Cocoa Village is a very nice town with a riverfront park and historic buildings. 

We wandered around town looking at all the restaurants (no to pizza, Thai, ritzy steak) but eventually sat down at a restaurant's sidewalk table. They had meatloaf and fried chicken and plenty of it-enough for 3 meals! 

The next morning we caught the bus to Walmart. We paid special attention to transfer to the correct bus! Uber back to the boat with groceries and stuff.

We walked back to the historic village to look at Travis Hardware. It is 125 years old with the 4th generation of Travis family ownership. It is so large you could get lost for a long, long time!

If you wonder what the title "Dream" is for, remember the TV show "I Dream of Jeannie"? It was all about Cocoa Beach and the space center! Unfortunately, we did not find a bottle with a genie in it!

Saturday, February 25, 2017

It only took a couple hours to cruise up to Titusville. There are plenty of birds to see, so we called Lyft to take us to see the birds.

The Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum finds, restores, and preserves historic aircraft. Many of the aircraft are restored and flight worthy--all by volunteers. The museum also has a large collection of wartime memorabilia. Just a few pictures to tell the story.

Fort Pierce and Sebastian

Sat-Wed, Feb 18-22, 2017

Another farmers market right there at the city park beside the marina. We had some fantastic jambalaya. And a few more veggies. And live pea sprouts for salad. And then we walked over to the crafts part of the market and I bought a seagrass hat for protection from the sun. 

Then we called Uber to go to the Navy Seal Museum. It was a facinating story of the transformation from the original UDTs (underwater demolition team) to the modern SEAL (SEa Air Land). You could actually get in their delivery boats and landing craft in the outside display. However we did not attempt any of the Seal training obstacle course.

Sunday was Kelly's birthday!!! He is so low key about celebrating, but I managed to get a card and his favorite candy--Whoppers! 

A gold looper in the marina sat with us for 2 hours sharing some travel tips for the East Coast. We ended a great day with dinner at the original tiki hut.

Monday was another good walk to Save-A-Lot and then getting the boat ready for traveling. I have been trying to keep our location posted on a Looper app just so we can locate fellow loopers. And loopers that we crossed the Gulf with are here at the Fort Pierce. We met with Jim and Cindy on "The Journey" at the tiki hut for drinks and appetizers. We will certainly see them on the loop again.

Tuesday was a gorgeous day for traveling to Sebastian. The dolphins led the way!

It was a short half day trip to get to Captain Hiram's Marina and Resort.  Just 4 miles from Jerry and Barb's. They came over to visit and then we all had dinner in the Sand Bar here at the marina.

We had only planned on staying one day, but the weather changed our mind. Heavy rain and wind gusts will keep us here another day. And right after coffee, Bob and Eileen also from Huntington braved the rain and came to the boat to visit for an hour.  We watched rain all day until Jerry and Barb picked us up to meet with Bob and Eileen at the local burger joint. Good burgers and great friends!

The marina pelican

Down to the Details

Thurs & Fri, Feb 16 & 17

We are still at Ft. Pierce enjoying the beautiful weather. We've been mainly waiting. We waited on Thursday for the marina to find another slip for us since we are staying longer than our reservation. Today we waited and waited for mechanics to show up. At least they finished by 5!

I managed to walk all the docks to look at boats and see fish and manatees.

So Kelly spent his time working on statistics! I know you have all been waiting on these details:

2169      total miles

    28      locks

      8      states

    20      rivers/waterways (approximate)

    37      marinas

    13      anchorages

And another beautiful sunset.

  

  

Ahhhh....the Atlantic

Tues-Wed Feb 14-15, 2017

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

We woke up early to leave St. Lucie. The marina was right there at the lock so we radioed before we loosened the lines from the dock. The lockmaster had the gate opened by the time we got the 100 feet to the lock. Another boat slid in the lock also. The lockmaster (Scott Peyton) asked if we were really from Huntington WV. He was from Chapmanville!! More folks from home! The 15 foot descent in the locks was nice and slow and easy to hang on to the lock ropes!

It was a beautiful cruise down the St. Lucie River to the ICW and our first glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean! That seafoam green color of the ocean and the hot sunshine was welcoming!  

We cruised up the coast to Ft. Pierce to the City Marina to relax for a few days. The line at the "original tiki hut" was short and we had a great dinner. This is the kale salad we shared and still had leftovers!

And guess what? Today is the local Farmers Market and look at the goodies I found!!! 

I also walked to the Save-A-Lot grocery store. But google map failed to mention that the street I was on had this tall bridge.....

I did find a different route back to the marina!!

And then here's a picture of our afternoon. Haircuts and ice cream for us both!

The clouds blew in before sunset, but every sunset is a good sunset.

Across the Big "O"

Sat-Mon Feb 11-13, 2017

We departed Ft. Myers looking forward to new adventures. But I will miss the Florida west coast water. It is such an amazing sea foam green. 

Just 15 miles on the Okeechobee Waterway at the Franklin Dam, the lockmaster hollers at us that he is from Parkersburg, West Virginia. Never too far from homefolks!

LaBelle was a nice place to stop for the day and it was free! Only a 4 block walk to Dollar General Market for fresh veggies.

Sunday we entered the Ortona Lock and they opened the upstream gate to let water in the lock to lift us up to the next level--we had to really hold on to the lock lines! The water leveled out and the lock gates fully opened. But we let loose of the lines too early and the current spun us completely around. Kelly kept the boat from crashing into the walls and we finished the spin heading in the correct direction. Whew-we were lucky! It happened too fast to get pictures or a video.

We arrived at Roland Martin Marina for the evening. Remember way back, he had a fishing show on Saturday mornings? He no longer owns the marina, but this iguana was really cool!

Today we had to travel across the Okeechobee Lake. The route around the southern shore is more scenic, but the Corps of Engineers was working on a bridge and had the channel blocked. So the weather forecast was decent and off we go across for a 3-1/2 hour ride. The sunshine was bright and a slight chop on the lake for almost half the lake. Then the wind picked up and with it the clouds and 2 to 4 foot waves. 

 

Much of Lake O is very shallow, so we had to pay attention to stay on course until the last 5 miles when the wind died down. A good time to stop at the St. Lucie Locks Marina.

Ft. Myers

Tuesday-Friday, February 7-10, 2017

So what did we do in Ft. Myers?
Short Answer: not much and we are happy with that!
Long Answer: we walked (no bicycles) to Publix every other day. And of course watched the river!

One day we ubered (is that a word?) to West Marine to get oarlocks for our dinghy. The driver waited and then drove us to Edison Ford Winter Estates. The houses and gardens were preserved as if the Edisons and Fords still lived there. I never realized there were so many types of palm trees.
Then we toured the museum of everything Edison. Wow!! He invented and improved so many different things in addition to the lightbulb. Telegraph, phonograph, recorders, cement, rubber..... This place is a must see!

Plenty of sunshine and friends this week. We did some chores like laundry and washing the boat. 
Our 21st anniversary was Thursday so we walked over to Joes Crab Shack. On the way back we met with Dan and Jean from Time Out! We hope to see them many times at different ports along the Loop. 

And then on Friday our friends Don and Anna, and Bruce and Beth drove down from Bradenton. Great day to just visit and relax and eat sandwiches.

And I think you need to see some more Florida sunsets!