Daytona ~ Continued

Overhead is a major flight path
for many airlines

TUESDAY, 12/4/18 ~  Pete had a very intense day of work with the clients.  He hasn’t adjusted to West Coast Time so he awoke at 4 this morning, and did some work before breakfast. At breakfast, he and George worked until it was time to meet with the clients.  Then they put in a full day, with additional work that needed to be done tonight.  Both will be glad to get home and sleep.

      I, on the other hand, was lazy.  After exercise, I made myself comfortable and read the afternoon away.  It felt totally decadent!

WEDNESDAY,  12/5/18 ~ Pete informed me that he and George need to return to LA next week to finish the project.  I need to extend our stay here at Halifax Harbor from a Monday departure to Friday.  Bailey and I walked over the to marina office. It is only about 300 feet from PEKABU.  Unfortunately, there is a bit of water between us.  We walked three quarters of mile over to the office.  Beautiful area to get a good mile and a half exercise. We will be here long enough to get a better deal paying for the month.  We could stay her till January 1^st! 

Space X launch with
supplies for the ISS

     We are 78 miles north of the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.  The launch of Space X was rescheduled from yesterday. Its mission is to resupply the International Space Station.  I wasn't sure that I would be able to see the launch from this distance.  I was able to get the live launch via the web and as the countdown finalized I looked south and I got lucky.  I was able to see the rocket as she climbed through the atmosphere.  It it always inspiring.  I have seen 2 night time launches from Wallops Island, VA.  Once from Solomons, MD and one from Portsmouth, VA.  This past spring r we drove up from Key West to Titusville to see the inaugural launch of Space X Falcon Heavy.  The payload was Tesla Sports Car that is still heading to the end of our solar system.  That rocket uses the external fuel tanks that are programmed to land at the Space Center.

THURSDAY, 12/6/18 ~ Today for me was exercising, cleaning and reading.  After dinner something started playing with my innards. YUCK!

     Pete and George finished with their client, for this week, and headed to the airport.  They had a lengthy wait for their midnight Red Eye flight to Baltimore.

FRIDAY, 12/7/18 ~ Pete was lucky to have a 1^st class seat for the Red-Eye Flight east.  He actually slept almost the entire flight.  He missed snacks and breakfast during the flight.

    George drove him over to the Marina to pick up the car. He grabbed breakfast then headed to the vet in Middletown.  When Bailey was seen at the end of September, I bought a year’s supply of anti-heart worm medication.  At the time, the expiration date of all their packages was June, so they owed me 1 more package.  This was the first opportunity we had to take care of it.  After getting the car cleaned Pete headed down to see his Mom.  She is our Energizer Bunny. She has her bad days, but then she has her good days.  She is an amazing woman!

     Pete and she had to stop in at her bank, then they went to her favorite place. . . Walmart.  She had her list.  There were no motorized carts, so Pete pushed her in the wheelchair. Pete didn’t know the layout of the store and she periodically remembered an item she forgot to put on the list.  As a result, they spend a lot more time crisscrossing Walmart.  By the time they got back Pete needed to get on the road and started his trek south.

     I wrote more for the blog, but I can’t post because Wi-Fi is unobtainable! The marina really shouldn’t advertise Wi-Fi!  Grrr! Add to my frustration, the intestinal thing is still present.  As a result, I didn’t attend the Christmas dinner party sponsored by the marina. Word on the dock was it was really fun.

SATURDAY, 12/8/18 ~ I checked Pete location periodically last night using the phone app.  He did stop just over the VA boarder in NC for a 2-hour nap, he then stopped again around 4 for another 2 hours. He finally arrived around 12:30 pm. After lunch, Glen of SV GRACE II, stopped by to invite us for hors d’oeuvres at 4 and dinner at 6 here on the dock with the Gourmet Supper Club. Unfortunately, Pete crashed and burned while I still had problems with an intestinal bug.  We wound up passing on another wonderful opportunity to meet others here at the marina.  After dinner Pete was determined to stay awake until 10. All night he had to keep re positioning in on the sofa.  While sitting, he kept sinking and sliding towards the horizontal, but he did manage to stay awake.  Hopefully, this will reset his internal clock back to Eastern time zone.

SUNDAY, 12/9/18 ~ Pete had slept well.  He beat the heavy rains by taking Bailey for a walk at 7:30 am.

     The rains made for a lazy morning, so we enjoyed reading after breakfast.  After lunch, the rains stopped, so we headed out to Volusia Mall, across from Daytona Speedway.  Pete needed shirts as the turnaround for LA didn’t allow for cleaners.  We walked the mall and found exactly what he wanted at Macy’s.  Then we took a ride over to the beach at Daytona. We decided not to drive on the beach. The day’s fee of $20 wasn’t worth the 15 minutes we planned. Instead, we headed north to Ormand Beach and simply parked the car and checked out the views, then drove south as far as we could get to the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse.  To see the light house, we would need to enter the park. Hence, we never saw it. 

Daytona Beach ~
        

    

     We decided to get dinner at The Olive Garden. Pete had the Tuscan Trio (Lasagna, Chicken Parmesan and Fettuccine Alfredo) I had my first Lobster, Shrimp, Mac and Cheese.  YUM!!! 

     The temperature is beginning to fall for another cool front.  Temps are supposed to only be in the 50’s tomorrow.

MONDAY, 12/10/18 ~ With Pete catching the 11:16 flight to LA and being away until Thursday, we took PEKABU over to the Marina Office for a pump out at 7:15 am, then had to redock. It is more challenging when the winds want to keep you from the floating dock.

      We then grabbed Pete’s things and drove to Orlando Airport, which is about an hour from here.  I stopped at WaWa and all their coffee sizes were $1. Then it was off to Publix for food, Dollar Tree for garland and cards. Then back to the boat to put things away and hang the Christmas tree.

         Two years ago, Pete bought a roll-up Christmas tree. It had interwoven artificial branches and decorated with white lights, small red bows and small red and blue Christmas balls. It was OK, but I missed our big tree and 1600+ individual ornaments collected over our 44 years. This year, to the boat  tree, I added some 10 extra ornaments I had left over from years of making ornaments for the family. I also used the leftover garland, cut into 6-inch strips folded them to make into circles and placed them on the tree. The garland is sparkly gold, so it moves with the air currents on board making the lights on the tree shimmer!  I really like this version of the tree.  After Christmas, I’ll just remove the 10 ornaments and store in a small box, while the tree garland, lights, ribbons and balls, will be placed in a large towel and rolled for storage for next year. It is fairly easy to place the 23-inch by 12-inch high roll in a sealed back and placed under the front bunk.
     Yep, as predicted, we only hit 54 degrees.  With the winds and dampness, it felt more like 50.  However, I am not complaining.  Back north the temp are in the 20’s and snow is in the forecast. Add to the present conditions, Pete, when driving from LA up to the Thousand Oaks area, reported on some of the massive destruction left behind by one of the monstrous fires earlier this fall.  I definitely have no reason to complain!

TUESDAY, 12/11/18 ~    Bailey and I were up and out by 7:30 this morning and headed to Green Cove springs for mail pickup at St. Brennan’s Isle, which is our mail service.  I needed to get to the bank and back on board by 11, but still managed to catch up with my sister, Stephanie while I traveled.

     Dan, Martha, Betty and John are spending the week at a resort in Cape Canaveral.  They invited me to join them today as they tour The Kennedy Space Center.  Unfortunately, I had to decline as I was meeting with friends.

       At the Annapolis Boat Show, we bumped into Dave and Alice of SV SEPTEMBER SONG and members of our sailing club.  They introduced us to their friends, John & Robin of SV STORYTELLER. They are making their inaugural trip south this year on their Manta 42 Catamaran. They left a few weeks after we did, but we have kept in touch.  They are enjoying their cruise despite the multiple fronts, and cold weather they have encountered.   With PEKABU stationary for a while, they have finally caught up. They anchored where we anchored, just south of the marina, and dinghied over to the marina.  We sat on board for a while, then decided to walk around town. We had lunch at Zappyi’s Italian Restaurant, where we all three of us enjoyed the Greek Salad with Chicken, or Blackened Shrimp. We walked around the down town, then over to the water front and into the historic homes district.  The weather was perfect and the company wonderful.  Once back at the marina, we said our good-bys, but are looking forward to getting together again in the future.

WEDNESDAY, 12/12/18 ~  I needed to get the laundry and cleaning done today.  I postponed it as much as possible, but clothing choices are very limited.  This marina has 4 washers and 3 driers at each of the 4 bath houses.  I found the other 2 after starting the laundry. Each bathhouse had 2 laundry rooms on opposite sides of the walkway.  One of the driers was not working properly and I needed to re-dry one of the loads while I was on a conference call for Pete’s Mom’s monthly health report.

     Thankfully, Pete’s mom is doing well. She has her good days and her bad ones, but her spirits are usually high. She is our “Energizer Bunny” and keeps surprising the medical team.  She has been on Hospice Care since May, but she makes sure she gets on her scooter and gets her hair and nails done, She is gone so much from her room,  I had to make her signs stating: I am playing Mah Jongg, I am at Bingo, I went to the Thrift Shop, etc., so that she can take to her door so that the staff has some idea where to find her.

     Pete will be flying home overnight again and will be back in the morning.

THURSDAY, 12/13/18 ~  I headed over to Daytona Airport to pick up Pete.  His flight had been delayed in NYC and his arrival time moved back about 20 minutes.  I arrived on time, but Pete’s flight arrived early so he was just exiting the terminal as I arrived.

     We returned to the boat, unpacked his stuff, and did some stuff on the computer. After lunch we headed down to Port Canaveral to meet our CCYC South group.  Dan, Martha, John and Betty have been there since Sunday and will head home tomorrow.  We are so glad we were able to get together. These are people we have known through the Chesapeake Catalina Yacht Club (CCYC) an made our crossing to the Bahamas with 8 years ago. (Hence CCYC South) It was wonderful spending the afternoon catching up. Rather than heading out for dinner, we had a wonderful pork roast dinner and the conversation never stopped.  The time share overlooks the Cape Canaveral Canal, where the cruise and container ships dock. We watched one of the casino boats return and one of the smaller cruise chips leave just before dinner. Pretty cool.
    
  View from the Condo

     The jet lag began to catch up with Pete, so we said our farewells around 6:30 and headed back. Pete was out cold by 9, so I took Bailey for her walk.  Pete never heard us leave or return.

FRIDAY, 12/14/18 ~  Pete knew he had a lot of work to do today, so we decided to stay put.  He and George were on a conference call all day.

      I exercised, got the blog caught up. I just need to process a few photos in preparation and after dinner get it posted, using our Jet Pack for WiFi access. I can’t believe it was 17-days worth!   We received notification that our plan data was almost depleted, so Pete needed to purchase more.  This is the longest we have been without WiFi.  I have tried to limit the data use, but we forget how much public WiFi is usually used.

     Well, it is time to get dinner started, then finish up here. Tomorrow we head to Titusville.

~ ~ ~ /) ~ ~  K & P