Invasion of the Roach Coaches

The Roach Coach is the name given to the food trucks that show up at noon time at the gate of a manufacturing plant, especially one located far from town.  It gives the worker-bees an option to bringing their brown bags for lunch every day, BUT the quality of the food is questionable at best.  So, I was definitely surprised last Saturday night when a dozen Roach Coaches set up shop in the vacant lot across from the marina.  How could anyone VOLUNTARILY eat at these things, especially on a Saturday night?!?  Since my Admiral was looking for an excuse to quit our projects around the boat, we meandered over to join the crowd to see what we were missing.

Turns out that these were “gourmet” Roach Coaches that actually served edible food, everything from gourmet ice cream to sandwiches from El Salvador.  One coach had photos of their owner, taken with several famous chefs such as Paula Deen and Emeril.  And the food that we tried was very tasty.  So, who’d a thought that the bustling metropolis of Sanford Florida would host, every month no less, a coagulation of Gourmet Roach Coaches!

Yesterday was Mardi Gras.  I’m sure y’all remembered to wear your Purple, Green & Gold!  We had invited some good boating friends to our boat to tell us of their vast experience cruising the Chesapeake Bay (that’s our goal for this summer).  Don & Becky live on their boat in Daytona Beach, and we visited them last summer as we cruised northward along Florida’s East Coast.  In addition, they used to live in the New Orleans area, where we first met them when Don taught the US Power Squadrons weather class and Sue & I were just meek & humble students.  So, yesterday they show up wearing Mardi Gras beads around their necks & bring Sue and me our set of Purple, Green & Gold.  We wore them when we ate lunch at the nearby German restaurant & we got lots of stares & smiles.



A happy, but soaked, Mardi Gras
reveler, holding the prized Zulu coconut



Of course, we had to text our son & his family, living in New Orleans, to see how they are celebrating Mardi Gras.  Even though it was 45 degrees & raining, the party went on (Laissez les bons temps rouler!)  They went to the Zulu parade, and our wonderful, special, perfect granddaughter got one of the hallmarks of the parade – a 2014 Zulu coconut!  If you don’t have fun at Mardi Gras, it’s your own damn fault!

We have a litany of projects to do on the boat in the next 10 days.  We then drive back to TN to work on the outside of the house (which is up for sale), before we head farther north to Ohio to visit Sue’s uncle in a nursing home.  Sue is trustee of his property (in addition to being responsible for her mother’s health & finances), and we’ll spend 2 days taking care of things.  The end of March will find us in the Big Easy for medical appointments & Sue getting her “Oma fix” with our granddaughter.  Mid-April we’re looking forward to a visit from my sister-in-law and her daughter’s family here in Orlando.  They will spend a week in town acting like tourists, bringing lots of that good Yankee money.  Additionally, my sister will fly down at the same time for about a week to go cruising with us as we depart Sanford FL heading northward.  She’ll ride with us down the St John’s River as far as Jacksonville, & then fly back home to that cooooold Michigan winter.

It’s time to start thinking about CRUISING!!