First
thing today Clark and I made a quick trip to the Marine Trading Post boat
supplies store. We only needed one item - an anchor shackle. Clark
noticed that the one currently attaching the anchor to the anchor chain is
undersized for the size of this boat. Since, as they say, it’s only as strong
as the weakest link, he figured we better swap it out for a larger shackle. We
don’t want to leave our anchor at the bottom of the sea because the connector
broke!
Later
this morning, my college roommate, Ginny, and her husband, Matt, arrived as
planned to spend the afternoon visiting. We decided to walk into town to a
restaurant with a good menu and good reviews called Gwendolyn’s Café that I
found via Google. On the way there we walked past Ford’s Garage which was
packed with people and appeared to have a waiting line – obviously very popular
choice.
Arriving
at Gwendolyn’s Café, we found only a few other customers. We grabbed a booth
and sat reading our menus. As per usual, after a few minutes, the waitress
asked if we were ready to order. She seemed quite dismayed when we said we
needed a bit more time. Then she said, “Well, can I have your menus? I need
them for the customers at the next table.”
Taken
aback, we surrendered two of our menus to her. I suggested to Ginny that they
might want to consider printing a few more copies. After all, the restaurant
appeared mostly empty. Weird!
When
the waitress came back the next time, I ordered first and chose a sandwich that
came with a choice of sides: fries, sweet potato fries, potato salad, macroni
salad, and fruit. Before I could ask for the fries, she said, “We are out of
fries and sweet potato fries!” What American restaurant runs out of fries??!!
Of course that was my side of choice! She offered breakfast potatoes instead,
but I declined that option and opted for potato salad.
Ginny
ordered a pasta dish with a side salad. The guys ordered fish sandwiches. After
a rather long wait, the waitress came back and told Ginny that the restaurant
was out of pasta, so she would need to make an alternate choice. Really?? No
fries and no pasta. Ginny chose quesadillas instead.
After
another long wait, Ginny’s side salad showed up. The waitress said it did not
come with Ginny’s quesadillas but she was giving it to her anyway. That was
nice. Then, finally, after another long while, Ginny’s quesadillas showed up.
Now Ginny had two dishes and the rest of us had none. Eventually the rest of the meals appeared.
Even
though the place appeared empty, the waitress seemed rushed and I wondered what
was going on in the kitchen. The waitress said that they were extremely busy
earlier, and she mentioned something about catering in her explanation of
slowness and lack of food. Ultimately,
and without our asking, she gave us our drinks for free and did not charge for
a portion of the meal.
Ginny
summed up our feelings on the matter quite nicely when she said, “We’re
retired.” We had time to wait for the food, and we chose not to stress over the
lack of food choices. The fact that we could sit and talk without interruption and
without a lot of noisy other customers was a plus. Besides I really enjoyed my
sandwich, and I really don’t need to be eating French fries!
After
we left there, we decided to walk two blocks over to the ‘Scoops on First’ ice
cream shop for dessert. I cannot remember the name of the flavor I chose, but
it was vanilla with a mix of caramel, chocolate chips, peanut butter cup, heath
bar, and maybe more good stuff I have forgotten. It was scrumptious!
As
we strolled through downtown, we got some pictures of the area. These rusty statues are scattered around town.
We also got pictures of the four of us to commemorate our second annual get together.
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| Matt, Ginny, Ev |
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| Ginny, Ev, Clark |
Afterwards,
we walked back to the boat where Clark got a call that his $900 alternator was
in at the shop ready for pickup. Clark took Matt with him, and they went to
retrieve it while Ginny and I chatted on the boat. After the guys returned with
the alternator, Matt and Ginny could tell that Clark was anxious to get working
on it. As they had over an hour’s drive to get home, we said our farewells.
What a lovely day we had together!
In
less than an hour after they left, Clark had the new alternator installed. We
had to leave to pick up a rental car for tomorrow, so he had to wait to test
his work until we returned from that quick trip. Almost as soon as we set foot
back on the boat, my phone rang and it was my son, Jeff, calling to wish me
happy birthday. We talked and talked and talked while Clark tested his
alternator installation and put the engine cover in place, etc. Only a sea trial
will tell for sure, but so far, the tests indicate that the repair was a
success. Fingers crossed!!
Once
again we ended up with a late dinner. I cooked since we had lunch out
compliments of Ginny and Matt. Clark has promised me a nice dinner out for my
birthday; we’ll save that for another day.
After
dinner Clark had me download battery monitoring software on my laptop since his
is not Microsoft-based. The software connects to a USB cable on the boat and
provides data on the operation of the batteries. Nice except he took my laptop
to look at the displays which meant I could not use it. That made working on my
blog challenging to say the least.
Tomorrow
we take our car and the rental car and drive to Marathon in the Florida Keys.
We will leave our car there and return in the rental car so our car will be
waiting for us when we arrive by boat. It will be about 10 to 11 hours of
driving round trip. Yech! I am not looking forward to a full day sitting in a
car.
Good post.
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