Road Trip to Clearwater, Florida

1/24/2017

Immediately after breakfast this morning, we got underway on our road trip to Clearwater, Florida to get the raw water pump repaired. I drove so Clark could make phone calls along the way. The drive turned out to be uneventful, and I was pleasantly surprised that we could travel interstates at 60 -70 mph most of the way.

We arrived just after 11:00 a.m. The clerk at the desk, Rob, was the same one Clark talked to the day before, so he knew what we needed and that we wanted to have the work done “while we waited”. As we left the shop to go find an early lunch, we saw that he already had the pump apart and had begun the repair work.

After fueling the car we found the local, combination Greek restaurant pizzeria that Rob had recommended. The waitress told us it was two-for-one Tuesday, so we chose two Greek dishes from the select menu. I had a gyro and Clark had Greek lasagna. We both enjoyed our choices very much even though the sandwich I got was not the one I ordered! When I asked the waitress if the brown meat in my pita was chicken, she immediately realized her error. I had ordered chicken! The lamb was delicious, however, so I told her she could not take it back!

On the phone yesterday, Rob told us that he would need two hours, but when we dropped the pump off, he said one hour would be sufficient. We had planned to visit Best Buy to kill the other hour, but instead we went directly back to the shop after lunch. Other than waiting a few minutes for paint to dry, the pump was ready, and from what Clark said, basically rebuilt with new bearings, gaskets, … along with a new coat of paint. It looked great.  $148 later, we were heading south on our way back to the boat.

Since we drove right by Best Buy to get back to the highway, we stopped in to buy a router for the boat. A few days ago I found I had neither a router nor a printer cable when I went to use my printer. We ended up writing a business letter by hand as we had no way to print it. As soon as Clark gets a minute away from engine repair, I am looking forward to once again having a router on board, so I can use my printer at will.

As we drove back to the boat, we reviewed what Clark refers to as his “punch list”. We allocated chores / tasks for when we arrived back at the boat. Clark headed straight for the engine room to get the pump reinstalled. I decided that I really had to take time to wash the road salt off the car from our drive down to Florida two weeks ago. I cannot believe that Florida sun baking NJ road salt is a good combination for a car.

We had torrential downpours over two days, so I expected most of the salt to be gone. I brought a quart-sized bucket of water to rinse off the remaining salt and dirt. By the time I was done, however, I had filled that bucket half a dozen times, and the charcoal-colored car had returned to its original silver state after I washed all the road dirt off the chassis.

Since I happened to be in a “wash it” frame of mind, I started a load of laundry going and then set to washing down the boat. We still had sea salt on the hull from our trip into Fort Myers. As I worked on cleaning the boat, Clark tested his pump repair and reported it fixed. Everything seems to be working properly, and water is no longer dripping into the bilge attempting to sink the boat.

As we worked, Clark got a text message from our Gold Looper friends Dan and Angie on Sea Horse. Surprisingly, they had driven to Fort Myers for the day. Clark texted back and they came to visit us!! We talked non-stop while together. Their visit was way too short, unfortunately, as they were headed back to Sarasota for the night.  We were thrilled to get to see them again, and we clearly did not want to let them go as we walked several blocks towards where their car was parked before we finally said our last farewells and headed back to our boat!

As we stowed the items we had out while washing and working on the boat, our boat neighbors returned to their boat. Clark and I started talking to them and got a tour of their one-year-old, custom-built Endeavor Trawler Cat. Nice boat with tons of storage!  After our tour of their boat, we gave them a tour of ours. By the time we finally said goodnight to each other, it was approaching 8:00 p.m., and I had not even started to cook dinner yet! We finally ate dinner at 9:00.

Tomorrow is my birthday, and I am excited that Clark and I are meeting my college roommate, Ginny, and her husband, Matt, for lunch. I am glad that even though our calendar is full of boat repairs, we have still been able to find time for friends both old and new!