Still in Clearwater

 November 20^th to November 28^th

 

Yes, the GPS tracking map is still correct.  We are still in Clearwater, FL.  This is the longest time we have ever spent in one place.  At first I wasn’t too crazy about it because it’s pretty commercialized.  There are several tour boats here and plenty of charter fishing boats.  This one pirate ship boat goes out twice a day and every time they return, they have the same song blaring, “Who let the dogs out…ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff”.  It’s the ambiance of Florida, the touristy part.  Every morning, when I take Louie out, I see the same 3 guys sitting on the bench in front of the marina office:  a mailman, a shop owner and a charter fisherman.  But it’s a great location with the beach so close and plenty of stores nearby.  

 

Roger left me here with Louie and the boat for 4 of these days.  He went back to Indy for a meeting and caught one of Travis’s hockey games and got to see all the kids too.  I spent time with Heath who lives in Tampa and got ready for Thanksgiving dinner at his place.  Roger ended up leaving Indy at 3:00 last Monday afternoon and drove his car back down here.  He drove straight through, slept about 3 hours at a rest area in Georgia and arrived in Clearwater at 10:30 Tuesday morning.

 

We spent Thanksgiving at Heath’s apartment.  I bought a 6-foot folding table and 8 folding chairs so that we would have a place to put our plates (other than our laps).  He’s got a great bachelor pad and I was able to put out a full Thanksgiving meal there.  Our friends from Barefoot Shoes came and Heath also invited two buddies.  Rae Mason helped me prepare the meal and the guys watched football – a very typical Thanksgiving, even in Florida!

 

We don’t have any real plans between now and Christmas, other than Roger is going to Houston on Tuesday for a day and back to Indy on December 13^th (his birthday) for a few days.  Then the kids and my brother Bill will come to Florida for Christmas, and we are really looking forward to that!!  In the meantime, Roger will work and slip in some boat projects in between.  We had some visitors yesterday, Judy and Dave from the boat Jejuda, stopped over to see us and we had lunch with them and Heath and his girlfriend Kara.  It was a little chilly and windy, but sunny and definitely NO SNOW!  

 

This morning we had more surprise visitors.  Cindi and Randy who own Morningstar, another Krogen Manatee, live near here and saw our boat, so they stopped over to say hello.  I was on my first cup of coffee and Roger hadn’t had his.  We are learning that we need to be company-ready at all times!  You never know who might stop by!  Today we took a (car) ride up to Tarpon Springs (only ½ hour from here).  Tarpon Springs is renowned for its sponge fishing and Greek fishermen.  It was interesting learning about sponge fishing and the different types of natural sponges.  That’s about it, not much else is going on, but it’s okay to have NO excitement for a while!