Finally the wind settled down and the weather was nearly pefect today. Unfortunately, all day long I suffered from allergies with watery eyes and a problematic nose. It basically sucked the energy out of me. Nevertheless I managed to get my laundry done. As the clothes made their way through the wash and dry cycles, I made progress on the Mary Balogh novel I was reading about coal miners in Wales in the early 1800s. I love novels based on historical fact, and she is a favorite author of mine.
While I enjoyed my novel, Clark spent the afternoon on the boat strumming his guitar. During the day several boats came into the marina, so we had some new folks to meet and some old friends to catch up with. Among those who came in yesterday were Nuclear Fishin', Jammin Jane, and Friar Tuck. At the point in time that Jammin Jane came into port, we had a number of folks who knew they were arriving, so as they tied up to the dock, they had a whole welcoming committee to greet them.
Having wiled away the day between our hobbies and chatting with other boaters, we headed over to "dock"tails at 5:00. The last time we walked over to the lighthouse for 'dock'tails, no one was there. On Monday, however, with all the new additions, we found a large crowd.
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| "Dock"tails Crowd at Faro Blanco Lighthouse |
Earlier in the day, John and Susan from Nuclear Fishin' invited us to join them and Ken and Jo from Friar Tuck for dinner at the Sunset Grill, so that was the plan until John heard about docktails. He wanted to go. Susan said she could not see any point in going to the Sunset Grill if we arrived after sunset, so we put off going to dinner until Tuesday night.
Day 213 - Tuesday 1/9
Today the high winds were predicted to come back again. Although we noticed some wind, it was nothing compared to this past weekend. Clark asked me what I wanted to do today, and I immediately said that I needed to go to the food store. With that in mind, he suggested that we go visit Mazel Tug (Ralph and Linda) at Black Fin Marina first because it was on the way.
Before heading out to see Ralph and Linda, we stopped by to chat with Ben and Jane on Jammin Jane. They told us all about the problem they are currently having with their forward head. We had quite a few laughs about head jokes including a discussion on them serving up chocolate pudding later if we stopped by. We declined the offer, said goodbye and took off on our bikes.
We spent about an hour visiting Ralph, Linda, and their dog "Chewy". Finally I told Clark we had to get moving because we had shopping to do before we could eat lunch. Before leaving we took a spin around the marina to see the sights.
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| A "house in the keys" |
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| Black fin Marina |
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| Black fin Marina |
We bought enough items at Publix that we filled our two backpacks. I planned on stopping at the Farmer's Market on the way back, but we had no room in the backpacks for more. Clark suggested that we ride back to the boat, unpack, eat lunch, and then head back out to go to the Farmer's Market to get our produce.
When we got back to the boat, we found that Clark had a missed call on his cellphone, so we followed up and found out that Susan from Nuclear Fishin' had called to arrange dinner for tonight. We decided to make a pit stop at the marina restrooms before heading off on our bikes. As we pulled up to the bike rack, we found John and Susan there. Susan was waiting for a taxi to go to the food store, but John was on his bike.
We invited John to go with us to the farmer's market, and he readily agreed to join us. We went to West Marine first, then the farmer's market, then The Home Depot, and then the Discount Sandal store. Between the three of us, we bought something at every place we visited. Very quickly my watch showed the time approaching 5:00 "dock"tails, so we pedaled back to the boat to get ready for docktails and dinner.
Suggested time for dinner was 6:30 which meant leaving the marina around 6:15 for the walk to the restaurant. We were a little late leaving docktails and therefore late leaving the marina, so it was getting dark by the time we started walking down the path that follows along Route 1. The marinas are all on the north side of the highway and the restaurants and stores are almost all on the south side, There are almost no crosswalks to help pedestrians cross the road. The road is extremely busy, but with patience, breaks do appear in the traffic.
The six of us got down to where we needed to cross the street and looked for an opening. Of the six of us, three decided that the traffic had thinned enough to cross. Three of us decided not to attempt the crossing. As the three of us that had decided to hold back stood there, one of our party who had decided to make the crossing was knocked to the ground by a passing truck right there in front of us.
I think I am fortunate that I was looking down at the time. I missed seeing the accident. Clark saw it. I heard the hit. I froze as I saw my friend lying there in the middle of the highway. I am not the best person to have around when an accident occurs. I behave like the proverbial deer in headlights. Two young twenty-somethings ran past me and out onto Route 1 waving their arms and yelling stop to the traffic coming at them.
They were from Iowa and were really helpful. After they got the traffic stopped, the young lady immediately got on the phone to call 911. I was still in shock watching this surreal event going on around me not believing that this was actually happening as I watched. The young man from Iowa said he saw the accident and was afraid he would be hit next as he tried to stop the oncoming traffic and thought they would not stop.
Somehow a bunch of people managed to get the injured person to our side of the highway. The person who was hit had a head wound, and as I have always heard with head wounds, there was a lot of blood. Once again the young lady from Iowa stepped up to help. She told a person from a store across the street that we needed towels for the bleeding, and he went back and got some. How he managed to cross Route 1 multiple times so quickly is beyond me, but he did it.
It felt like forever, but eventually the police arrived. As the police car came racing down Route 1, we started waving our arms. Initially we thought they would fly right by. In fact the man standing next to me said, "Where are the going"? At the last minute they stopped. After a much longer wait, the ambulance finally arrived, and after a much longer time still, the medics put the injured person in the ambulance for the trip to the hospital.
Since Clark had seen the accident, he and other members of our party, who had also seen what happened, gave written statements for the police. When the police finally finished with us, Clark and I headed back to the boat to see what I could cook up on board. I had no appetite but knew I should eat. We ended up with hot dogs for dinner. Earlier in the day when we were visiting the folks on Mazel Tug, they gave us two DVDs to bring back to the boat to watch. It seemed like a good time to watch a DVD to take our minds off the accident. We watched the movie RED with Bruce Willis.
We received a phone call during the movie that our friend was being well taken care of at the hospital and was doing well - a blessing really as the whole scene, although awful, could have been a lot worse.
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