March 26, 2016
After almost two full months of hanging out at Faro Blanco Marina in Marathon in the Florida Keys, we leave here tomorrow. We have tons of memories to take with us as we leave here - most great, others not so wonderful. The great part has been the people we spent time with here especially the looper (and non-loopers) who gathered here during the month of February. The place just did not feel the same after the bulk of the folks departed at the end of the month. On the negative side, we certainly could have used slightly warmer temperatures and less severe winds during our visit. All-in-all, I am not complaining. No matter how cold it got, it was always warmer here than in New Jersey, and we never had to shovel snow once!
I had a last-minute to-do list for today and managed to knock off all but one item. My first agenda item of the day meant collecting up the laundry and dragging it up to the washers. I decided to strip my bed and wash the sheets to give myself a complete fresh start. Fortunately when I got there, no one else had the same idea, and I had the wash room to myself. The washers and dryers here take tokens and when the final load came out of the last dryer, I still had two tokens left. Before heading back to the boat, I went and turned them in to get a refund of $2 each. Hey, I thought as I walked out, $4.00 will just buy me an ice cream down the street!
The main item on my gotta-get-done-today list was shopping for produce. We did all the meat and non-perishable shopping two days ago but did not buy any fresh produce. I had nothing left - no potatoes, no onions, no green veggies or any veggies of any other color for that matter. Definitely time to go to the store again. We grabbed our two backpacks and headed out.
To stay out of the blistering mid-day sun, I told Clark we needed to leave as early as possible to get our veggies. Between my laundry, which I completed by 10:20, and his making reservations for our next stop, we did not leave the boat until 11:30 -- just what I was trying to avoid. We stopped at the marina building to use the "head" before going on our way, and Clark said he needed to tell the folks in the office that we planned to leave tomorrow. At 12:15 we were finally biking out of the marina. Grrrrrr!
We did our usual drive-by of the produce stand before going on to Publix. Inventory changes daily at the farmer's market, so we never know what they will have until we get there. If we scope it out first, we know what to buy at Publix. At Publix I loaded myself down with broccoli and spinach. At the farmer's market I put everything we bought into Clark's backpack. It doesn't take too many potatoes, onions, and squash before the backpack is quite heavy. Add to that several grapefruit and a whole pineapple and the scale starts to tip pretty seriously. I would guess that his pack weighed at least 20 pounds or so. He still pedaled his bike back to the marina twice as fast as I did.
When I got dressed for today's activities, I slathered SPF 50 sunscreen all over any exposed skin. Thank goodness I did. That midday sun baked us both going and coming back from our food-shopping outing.
Earlier, as we passed a bank near the food store, I asked Clark if he wanted to pick up any additional money for the next leg of our trip. "No, I'll do that at the bank near the marina", he said. Long story short ... after we got back to the boat and he did some online research on ATMs, we ended up making a second two-mile each way trip back to Publix to get cash from the ATM located right there at the store.
Truthfully, we actually biked another four additional miles on top of that because the internet lied to us and told us that a TD Bank ATM was located here in Marathon across from the airport. When we got there, we found that the building it had sent us to is under construction. Perhaps the internet was foreseeing the future. We certainly found no existing TD Bank ATM in the area. When I checked the website for ATMs while in that vicinity, the closest location for a TD Bank ATM (not the bank itself) came up as 68 miles away. What gives with that?
Clark said the good news is that I got my exercise for the day. I would say so, twelve miles biking in the baking sun at mid-day served as an excellent workout. I must have lost a few pounds just from perspiration. I have to admit that after all that biking we did stop for an ice cream. I figured I more than deserved it. That plus some refreshing ice water rejuvenated me for the final two miles of the trip.
On the way back, Clark came across this guy ...
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| Lizard in the brush by the road |
Even with the SPF 50 sunscreen I could see my skin turning redder. All I could think of on that last two miles was getting back to the marina and going in the pool to cool off. We did eventually manage to get in the pool, but it did not do its job very well. The water was far too warm to be refreshing. After only a very few minutes in the pool, I climbed out and went to take a shower where I could get cooler water. Now that felt good!
Since we are leaving tomorrow, we definitely wanted to see our good friends Ben and Jane from Jammin Jane one more time. Their friend from home, Chuck, is visiting them here. The five of us went out to dinner at Lazy Days restaurant which was recommended to us as the "best place in town" by a local. I hoped he knew what he was talking about as I was the one who suggested we go there for dinner. We were not disappointed. The menu was diverse and everyone seemed well pleased with their dining experience and the price.
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| Ev, Chuck, Jane and Ben |
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| Clark, Ev, Jane and Ben at dinner at Lazy Days in Marathon, FL |
Clark's yellow-tailed snapper dish was served looking at him. Frankly, I prefer my fish served without the head or tail. Ben told Clark, however, that the sweetest meat is found in the cheeks and showed him where to find it. I would have given the head to Ben so he could find it (and eat it).
Chuck had a rental car and picked us up for the ride to the restaurant, a relatively short distance away. After all the exercise I got today I certainly appreciated the door-to-door service using a vehicle I didn't have to pedal to make it move.
Somehow Clark finds things to photograph that I never even notice. That happened again tonight. The rest of us walked out to the car, and when we got there, no Clark. We waited and waited. "Where did he get to?" Jane asked. I thought he might have stopped in the restroom, but Ben informed us that Clark was busy taking pictures in the restaurant. I could not imagine what he found worthy of the amount of time it was taking. Here is a sample of what he found ...
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| Restaurant Shell Collection (bottle with coral attached to it / shark's tooth) |
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| Coral and Scallop Shells |
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| Conch Shell |
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