The past month or so......

Since we put the boat up at Telemar Bay Marina in Indian Harbour Shores FL, we've spent 3-4 weeks as a landlubber.  We immediately rented a car to drive back to Clearwater to retrieve our car from a brother-in-law's house.  The next day we headed to Mansfield OH (2 day trip) to take care of Sue's uncle, who had just been moved into a nursing home.  We spent the week visiting with him, getting his medical treatments lined up properly, clearing out his previous apartment at assisted living facility, and updating his finances (which had been neglected for the past 4 months).



One of the few non-rainy sunsets we saw in July

Towards the end of the week, we were able to visit Jim's aunt, who lives in Huron OH.  My sister drove down from MI to visit with us, and we were also joined by my mother's first cousin, who we hadn't seen in about 50 years.

We then drove down to TN to spend 2 weeks with Sue's mother.  We waded through our personal mail - 4 weeks' worth of it!  We also did the usual chores around the house, especially cutting the grass 3 times.  It seems the entire east coast of the US has had huge amounts of rain this summer, so even the weeds are growing like weeds!  Sue's mother seems to need more social interaction than she's getting at the house, so we're starting to evaluate some other options for her.  She's going strong for becoming 91 years young next month.

We were able to schedule our dental appointments while in TN, and also visit some Power Squadron friends in Chattanooga and in Cartersville GA.  Then, finally, back to the boat, where we found it in pretty rough shape inside.  A teenage relative had been "caring" for the boat while we were gone, but ended up moving aboard with a couple of his friends, and inviting even more friends to the frequent parties.  Modern day "squatters".



Most of the paddle-borders around here had their
dog with them, but this babe had her babe with her

We extended our stay at this marina another week to take care of some things before cruising again.  We saw more dolphins & manatees in the waters close by.  We drove to Port Canaveral to watch the Carnival & Disney cruise boats departing on Saturday.  We discovered that right next to the marina office is a Key Lime tree!  So, under cover of darkness.........  The biggest project has been cruise planning for the next month.  As we head north, the Intracoastal Waterway becomes very narrow and shallow and full of shoaling.  Some areas, especially in Georgia, we need to wait for high tide to transit the shallow spots, and the tides are 7-8 feet range!  For the next week or so, high tides are at 6 AM and 6 PM, so we have to be very careful when and where we travel.  Requires an awful lot of planning for a few short miles of travel.  The next month should be quite interesting.