Sunday, April 28, 2013

Fort Pierce and other side trips April 15 to April 28, 2013


This guy is just unbelievable
We are still in Fort Pierce. We really like this town. There is always something going on; always people walking around taking in the scenery. Always wonderful breezes off the water.




Saturday is the Farmer’s Market with arts and crafts booths. They have fresh local cheese, local fish and meat, lots of vegetable stands, flowers, and prepared foods. Lots and lots of characters at the market. The music was good. These guys might look like old folks but they can really play!


 This guy was walking around the market with a fox he raised since a pup, or whatever you call a baby fox. Rusty didn't even notice and the fox didn't particular care that Rusty was hanging around.





This morning (Sunday) we got up and discovered a car show in the parking lot. Dozens of Corvettes ranging from old to new all decked out for us to look at. Kermit was thrilled.











Music at the tiki huts on either side of our docks. Last night was a neat duo that sounded like Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Sundays are reggae days.

We discovered a restaurant called Captain Jax Sandbar that serves Chicago style food because the owners are from Chicago. We can't wait to have a hot bait sandwich!!

Wednesdays there is a little market with fresh food and music that sets up at noon and stays all day.

Boat repairs continue apace:
  • Repair the railing – We bent it in St. Charles Mo when got the fender line caught on a cleat as we pulled out of the marina; ZZTop and his cousin tried to repair it with a blow torch and chisel; this guy seems to know exactly what he is doing. Still it was daunting to see the railing gone. It is odd that such a small piece of metal makes me feel safe up there. 


  • Toilet still not fixed. Guy coming back tomorrow to blow more air through it. In meantime we only have front head. Good thing we have two – we have one to spare. Need a pump out soon.. 
  • We tried to get the upholstery done but no go. I guess the couch and chair are a bigger project than it looks. At least we know how to remove the panels to the couch. We couldn’t figure that out before.
Rusty in the car on the drive to NC
I rented a car on Tuesday after we arrived and Rusty and I went to North Carolina to visit my sister Martha. I haven’t seen her in forever although we talk on the phone all the time. Her dog Maggie died about a month ago. The house seemed strangely quiet without her.

Rusty at Martha's house
I guess it wasn’t actually quiet because Martha has a new dog that Maggie adopted before she passed. Dieter is a stray combination of german shepard, lab, and pitt bull. It is the sweetest little guy, only about 30 or 40 pounds. He is about 2 years old so he has a LOT of energy. Rusty was a bit overwhelmed by all Dieter’s noise and energy. Serves him right. I think this is called payback because Rusty used to bother Maggie a lot and any other dog he could coax near him. Now Rusty is old, quiet, and slow. He doesn’t value Dieter’s energy. Whenever Dieter became overwhelming we put him back in his kennel to calm down. He was in there a lot.

 Rusty enjoyed sleeping in the bed with me, that is for sure!! He can't do that in the boat.

While in North Carolina, Kermit called and asked us to visit a boat in New Bern, about 2 hours away from Greenville NC. So all of us, Martha, Dieter, and Rusty, got in the car and off we went.
Martha and Dieter
Rusty and Dieter at the restaurant for lunch
 We arrived in time for lunch. We ate at Lawson’s Landing Riverwalk CafĂ© right at the history museum attached to Tryon Palace, the restored colonial governor’s mansion from the 1600/1700s. We needed to sit outside with the dogs. The only table had an umbrella that did not work so it was very hot. A nice young couple at a nearby table invited us to sit with them and share their umbrella. Wasn’t that nice? So we did! The dogs behaved and we ate and chatted.

Martha and Dieter
After lunch we walked the dogs around town, stopping to visit a nice dog store and see the corner soda fountain that first served Pepsi.

There is a neat church, Christ Church, with a graveyard since 1700s. The big oak trees make this a quiet space for contemplation. There is an archeological dig of the first church on the north corner. Not ever church can claim an archeological dig.

The dog store - New Bern is very dog friendly
Cool graveyard at Christ Church

Their "thing" is bears.
Christ Church, New Bern
The boat we went to New Bern to see
 New Bern is the birthplace of Pepsi-cola. Did you know that? It is also a very cute town with lovely little shops and two really neat old churches. When we come with the boat I want to go on the ghost tour. It looks like they have plenty of ghosts there.

We saw a really beautiful boat, a 2007 4150 Cruiser Aft Cabin in perfect shape. It has Volvo 370hp diesel engines and a great layout. A bit too rich for our blood but we think fondly about that boat often.


Tobacco used to be a really big crop in eastern North Carolina. Perhaps less so these days since cigarettes are much less popular.


Little family graveyards pop up in corners of properties

This barn didn't make it past the last storm

This is a tobacco barn
The little white building on the right is a pump house I think

We also saw these cute little dog houses made of brick. Funny to see brick dog houses in front of a beaten down home. Later we learned these are not dog houses but pump houses covering the family well. Sometimes a family can have several of these little houses when a well goes dry and is replaced. Why not make the pump house look cute, I guess. I didn't get a picture because the little houses are small and we were going fast. I should have stopped the car but I didn't. 

Marissa came on Friday night and went back to Washington DC on Sunday. Martha has a cute new dog named Dieter. We had a dinner party on Saturday night with Martha’s friends Larry, Marilee, and Liz. Dinner was delicious – pork tenderloin with bean salsa and quacamole. MMMmmmmm…. It was so great to see Marissa. I miss her a lot. At least she is closer now that she lives in Washington DC. We will stop there on our way north.

I stopped in the dive shop to say hello to some of the regulars that I met on previous trips and some new friends. A bunch of us participated in a PADI class on Wednesday for PADI Project Aware. Martha did a great job. Everyone learned something!!

These are Sarah's birds. They are wearing harnesses with leashes. If they can do it then Rusty sure can wear a harness!

Marilee with one on each shoulder. She looks calm. 

I have one bird on each shoulder. I was nervous.
Notice the new haircut?
Speaking of birds, I think I am hard on critters. One day we noticed a lizard got stuck in the garage door and died a long agonizing death. The next day I noticed a bird smashed into my car grill. It wasn't pretty. But I had to have a picture of it!

The return trip to Fort Pierce was very exciting. I left about 7:30am which would put me in Fort Pierce at about 6:30pm. I can deal with that. But I was being optimistic. Stuff happens, right?

Rusty’s front leg was really bothering him and he couldn’t walk well at all. I stopped at Walmart to get him some ice. I packed the ice in zip lock bags and placed them under him and next to him so his left leg was kept cool. I was hoping this would reduce the swelling.

A little later I got a flat tire which set me back about 3 hours. Fortunately AAA came promptly and the nice fellow put the donut spare on for me. Fortunately also I was only 2 miles south of the Savannah airport where I switched the car for a Mazda sedan. The good news is Rusty could get in and out of this vehicle much easier than the Dodge Journey. Too bad though. I liked that Journey. It had one of those keys that doesn’t need to be put into the ignition. Just being near the car allows you to push the start button and off you go. That is a handy benefit to someone like me who loses keys a lot. As long as the key is in the car or in a pocket we are good to go!

Switching cars at the Savannah airport

After all that excitement it rained during the last few hours after arriving in Florida. I got home about 10:30pm and dropped into bed. I was pooped.

After all the jumping in and out of the car, and the excitement with Dieter, Rusty’s legs clearly hurt him. I took him to the vet after returning back to Fort Pierce. I noticed a lump on his port (left) front elbow. The vet was concerned that it was a sarcoma of some kind and wanted to take x-rays. I agreed to the x-rays but said I would stay with him. I didn’t want to  leave him alone in a kennel. Nothing good can come from that.


When she took him back for blood tests, she had another vet look at him. After taking a sample of the lump they decided it was another one of those fatty tumors. No x-rays required!! YEAH!! She gave him some pain relievers that totally knocked Rusty out for the next 2 days. We stopped giving them to him when he stopped being able to navigate the steps at all. His limbs looked like rubber, like he had no control over them. It took a day or so but he is back to normal.

The vet suggested we get him a harnass so he doesn’t pull from his neck any more. This way he won’t choke himself. I think if we ever get another dog we will use a gentle leader like Martha uses for Dieter or have the dog wear a harness right from the beginning. But we hesitated before for Rusty since he was so old and used to a collar. But getting him in and out of the boat, especially when we are at floating docks, is very complicated.  We use a life jacket because it has a handle and Kermit has to manhandle him up and down the stairs. I ordered a special kind of harness that has handles at the back and butt ends. Kermit can use two hands to lift him evenly instead of taking a risk on the life jacket being strong enough. It will be delivered to St. Augustine in the next week so we will pick it up when we arrive.

This week we visited with Bunny and Evan a lot. They are great fun. They took us to dinner at The Quilted Giraffe for great steak dinners. We all ordered sirloin steak but that didn’t look like any sirloin steak I ever saw. It looked and cut like filet. It was so tender and tasted like a dream. MMMmmmmm… it was wonderful.
The moon was full and pink that night!

Bunny and Evan got us passes for their swimming pool. We owned a property in that complex for three years and never went in that pool. It is lovely. It would be great for laps but all we did was bob around and chat over margaritas. Life is tough!!



On Friday I joined Bunny at Notre Dame Catholic Mission for Sarah’s Kitchen. Bunny goes every Friday and supervises a bunch of volunteers who make a meal for homeless folks that is served on Friday night. We made beef stew. Actually we doctored up canned beef stew with extra meat, canned and fresh carrots, and a veg base. I chopped onions, peppers, garlic, and zucchini then took on a box of potatoes to be turned into potato salad for a child care class later in the week.

Bunny has a blue apron, which means she has been volunteering
for over a year and knows what she is doing.





Each week Bunny plans a meal for 450 but she never can be sure exactly what kinds of food donations will be made. They get bread from Publix and Panera, fresh vegetables from local markets and farmers and canned food from the food bank. Then they figure out what to do with it. It was a very rewarding morning.

While we were doing that Evan repaired my bike! It hasn’t driven that nice since I picked it up at the bike shop.

Bunny loaned us her car so we could return the rental. On Saturday Kermit and I took the bikes over the bridge to Hutchinson Island. We went swimming and watched the families taking boats out of the boat ramp. Kermit hates heights so in hindsight this wasn’t the best way to get there but it is always good to exercise and get out of the boat.



See Kermit walking his bike up the hill? 





Here is Kermit walking his bike over the hill

Kermit discovered an Anytime Fitness that we visited a few times. Our muscles appreciated the workout.

We think the boat repairs will be finished on Monday 4/29/13. We plan to leave here on Tuesday, weather permitting, to head north. We want to be in Amelia Island at the top of Florida by May 15, 2013 to meet up with Judy and Michael in One September. We are getting some of the group together to run up the East Coast. Sareanna will join us around that time too as will Jim’s Joy. It should be fun!

We think we will come home to Ohio in mid-September. Everyone says we have plenty of time. But we want to stop in NC to see Martha and the gang at Blue Region Scuba and we want to stop in Washington DC to spend some time with Marissa. We are at least a month or two later than we thought we would be. But that is why you should never have a schedule with a trip like this. 

To our boating friends in Ohio, we are very glad your boats are going back in the water!!

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