No boat travel.
4 miles by bike.
The gusty wind continues to blow! It is relentless!
I took the day off from boat chores yesterday to celebrate my birthday, so we had a backlog of tasks to accomplish today. We decided we better do the shopping duty first and set off right after breakfast to do our errands. Clark mentioned before we left that with the east-to-west winds, our ride would be "interesting". I really do not like that word "interesting" very much!
Our first stop took us to SALT where Clark inquired about the estimate for the solar panels we have been expecting. He let the folks there know that we have a limited stay in town, so they better get around to us sooner rather than later. Next we stopped at Home Depot which is on the alternate side of Route 1. Getting across the highway is always a challenge. We waited at the crosswalk after hitting the walk/don't walk button ... It does not work! We finally got to cross because a car came up on the side street and triggered the light to change; otherwise, we might still be waiting.
By the time we traveled the 1.5-mile distance from the boat to the Home Depot, I felt like I had biked up a steep incline the whole way instead of traveling on a mostly flat surface. I had the bike in its easiest-to-pedal gear, as if I pedaled uphill, and still I struggled! I found myself happy to visit the store just to take a break from the bike ride.
Although Home Depot showed the item Clark was interested in online, it is not carried in the Marathon store, so we came away empty handed and headed to our next stop - the US post office. After a very quick stop there to drop letters in the outgoing mail slot, we continued on our way to Publix. Since we plan to go to the farmer's market tomorrow, I bought almost no produce. However, I still managed to fill up the backpack space with other items. When we left there, we were loaded down. Someone walking by saw Clark putting on his backpack and yelled, "Are you the pack mule?" Clark responded, "No! I'm the 'PACMAN'!"
On the way back to the boat, Clark suggested we stop by Blackfin Marina to say hello to John and Susan on Nuclear Fishin. Since I had perishable food with me, I told him it would have to be very quick. They happened to be on board so we did get to say hello. Of course I practically had to drag Clark away from John. Ultimately, I said goodbye and pedaled away hoping Clark would follow if I left him. I am not sure if that helped to expedite his farewells, but he followed soon after I departed.
With the traffic and the road construction on Route 1, we had a bit of a dilemma. To go back to the boat, should we travel on the southwest bound side or the northeast bound side of the highway? On prior expeditions to the store, the sidewalk on the NE-bound side was under construction. Today construction had moved to the SW-bound side of the road. After some debate, we decided to stay on the SW-bound side and take our chances on getting through the construction.
It looked good for a ways, and then suddenly, we found ourselves with the sidewalk blocked off. We had to ride our bikes on the highway. All traffic had been moved to the "fast" lane, so we had the "slow" lane to ride on. Clark zipped through, but I was just far enough behind him to get stopped. The worker directing traffic waved folks making a left-hand turn to come on across. I had to stop and wait.
Unfortunately, the traffic monitor was not looking my direction and had no idea I was there. I noticed this, so even though there was a very short break in the stream, I waited momentarily before going. Sure enough the next car in line wanted to turn, and he waved them on. About then he turned and caught sight of me out of the corner of his eye. He was so surprised he jumped, and his work helmet fell off. After that I got to continue my ride, but of course Clark was way up the road ahead of me.
He stopped at 33rd Street and waited for me to catch up before continuing. Shortly after that, I noticed lots and lots of children on the other side of the road - some sitting on the side, some standing. "What the heck is going on at 1:30 on a school day?" I wondered. A bunch of them started yelling and waving, and I saw an approaching vehicle that led me to believe that Marathon was having a parade today.
Clark had one more place of business he wanted to visit on our outing, so we stopped there (next door to SALT) and found salespeople from SALT standing in the parking lot that had come out to watch the show. I grabbed my cellphone camera while Clark went over to chat with the locals. He found out that the show was indeed a parade - the Marathon High School Homecoming Parade that had been scheduled for October but got canceled due to too much debris on the sides of the road from Hurricane Irma.
Although it started out looking like a typical home-grown parade, I found the mix of vehicles as the parade continued to be a bit out-of-the-norm.
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| Fire Truck |
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| Marathon Fire Rescue |
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| Marathon Football Team |
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| US Army Truck |
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| Paradise Towing Tow Truck |
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| One Lonely Antique Truck |
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| Monroe County Sheriff Pickup Truck |
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| US Coast Guard Boat |
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| A pleasure boat |
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| Marathon Fire Rescue |
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| Another pleasure boat |
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| Monroe County Sheriff towing the Sheriff's Boat |
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| Jeep carrying "Jordy & Alex" (whoever they may be) |
Clark also snapped some photos, but unfortunately, two interesting ones with "celebrities" turned out too blurry to add to the blog. Looking closely at one, I think it might have been the Homecoming King and Queen in the back of a convertible. Two people sat in another convertible though I cannot venture a guess as to their esteemed identities.
A police car with flashing lights brought up the end of the Homecoming Parade. Behind that car, however, I saw another parade of unlucky souls. This one consisted of all the cars that had bunched up on Route 1 due to the "real" parade. Sadly, I expect that the people in the second "parade" had no idea why the cars were stretched as far down Route 1 as I could see and even further.
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| Black car in front is unmarked police car with blue lights flashing Cars behind him are all unwilling parade participants. |
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| As far as I could see - cars slowed down on Route 1 following behind the Homecoming Parade |
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| When this happens, it pays to be on a bicycle! |
With the surprise entertainment over, Clark and I continued our bike ride back to the marina to stow our goodies and have lunch.
Just as we sat down to our rather late lunch, Don and Bruce, traveling on the Kadey Krogan named Mariah, stopped by to say hello. They came on board and chatted with us while we chowed down. Due to the strong winds, they do not know if they will leave Faro Blanco tomorrow as planned or stay an additional day or so. With so much wind, it makes me glad we have nowhere to rush off to.
I spent the afternoon doing laundry. I thought about doing it yesterday even though it was my birthday, but everyone in the marina seemed to have the same idea. Too windy to have fun, so let's do laundry! With only two washers and two dryers, the line of laundry extended out into the foyer. I decided that I could wait for another day. Today, I had the laundry room completely to myself.
As I carried the clean laundry back to the boat in a laundry basket, I thought it would all fly away. I had an empty bag on top that did take off, so I wore that as a shoulder bag. Then the t-shirts started to lift into the air threatening to fly out onto the ground. What a crazy, windy day! I managed to get all the clothes back on board without any landing on the docks or in the saltwater!
While I took care of the laundry, Clark went back out on his bike to a couple of stores. He went to West Marine twice because he decided to come back and measure the boat before making his wire purchase over there. That meant he crossed Route 1 four times. Oh my!
With so much activity earlier in the day, we simply relaxed on board the wind-tossed boat for the remainder of the evening / night.
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