Bear is still asleep and I am munching on some wonderful cold Texas style brisket for breakfast with hot coffee, and peanuts. I tell ya, it was a real find to actually locate a fellow from Bulverde that owns a BBQ joint her in St. Pete. Turns out that he is kinfolk to a fellow with whom I worked many years ago. Glad I did not open my chops about that dude. Anyway, it is the first real BBQ we have had since leaving Texas, the Republic Of.
Settled in and all the tests are done in prep for Bear’s surgery tomorrow at 0830. The weekend is free time since nothing takes place over the two day period. We spent the day yesterday doing some tourism stuff thanks to pain killers. Bear had a good day yesterday and we capped it off with dinner with the crew of Breezin. Good visit and so good to see fellow boaters from Texas.
The Tampa Bay area has about a dozen or so communities all based on beaches, boating and golf. We visited the Clearwater area and drove by the City Marina where we spent several days. Talking about different perspectives, the view of the marina from the car is entirely different and gives one the impression that marinas are not important to the beach activities. The beaches were almost empty compared to the last time we were here. School and the heat have reduced the visitor count here to very small numbers. Wait until the snow flies up north.
Life aboard a cruising boat brings the world into a small circle whereas our few days in this hotel with a car expands it well beyond the horizon. We drove down the peninsula past St. Petersburg yesterday and happened to wind up at Fort De Soto (imagine that). This fort is just across the inlet from Fort Dade on Egmont Key. Without getting too historical, this place was first surveyed by Col. Robert E. Lee. It boasted several twelve inch seacoast rifled mortars and 2-six inch rapid fire Armstrong rifled guns. They were never fired in anger. A little tidbit I found interesting is that Mullet Key upon which Fort De Soto stands was used as a bombing range during WWII. Colonel Tibbett actually trained here. Who is he you might ask? Well, he was the pilot of Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima.
We have today to cool our heels, tomorrow is the surgery then we have another layday in this hotel during which Bear must cool it. Last evening, we agreed that as comfortable as this place is, we are definitely looking forward to boarding Why Knot and getting underway again. Although the facilities are nice, we are away from WK and the cruise. The life of seeing what’s next aboard a boat is in our soul now and there is something just not right about life on land at this point. While we have not roughed it during the cruise, we like our little water world. There is something about the cruising community that we really never knew while boating in Port A and CC. It was more like weekend visits to a boating world but this is different. We sail away as does other we have met. It is not unusual to see them again at anchor or in a marina. Several boats are going the same direction and yet it might be days between sightings. We wonder what has become of boats we met in the Gulf that had different goals. We always enjoy seeing those we have not seen for several months. Our plan is to make the Chesapeake this season. We had hoped to range north of that but given the events here, we might run out of time. Long range, we will head back north next year if we are capable. For the next few days, we are focused on the Bear like a road runner on a grasshopper. ‘Twill be so nice to have her back aboard as Admiral rather than guest. That’s what she(we) is looking sooooooo forward to. Thanks to all for the good wishes. The results will be posted tomorrow late after we get back to the hotel room.
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