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Saturday, November 26, 2011
The Tween Weeks. And Dunwurkin is gone. Hello No Hurry
Friday, November 25, 2011
Thanksgiving in Florida, and, The Plot Thickens!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Speaking of Rooster Tails.
Really Fast Boats!
The Purple Porpoise Pub
Key West- The first visit
The Keys - Getting There
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Fear and Loathing in Sarasota
I have discoverd my new favorite song...Red Solo Cup by Toby Keith. This song has firmly imprinted itself into my mind. The other day we were driving around the area at about 4:30 in the morning. It seems that I have not yet been able to break my early-to-bed-early-to-rise habits so our first effort of each day is to head out around 4:30 or 5:00 to get some real coffee because the coffee available on the little magic single cup size brewers in the room kind of stinks. So we were driving and we heard that song. It is a musical homage to the red plastic cups made by Solo that are omnipresent at almost any function that involves beer. Its a jaunty little tune...the kind of tune that burrows into your brain like a parasite. Watch the video. Very funny.
I almost got a ticket by the Longboat Key police department. On this same drive we drove along the main road of on of the long barrier islands, Longboat Key. I was driving 55 miles per hour minding my own business drinking 7-11 coffee when I looked in my rear view mirror and saw the spinning red lights of a police car that I immediately connected to the thought, "Oh, I guess the speed limit is not 55 mph. Oops." I pulled over and the policeman walked up and asked for license and registration which I provided to him. He went back to his car to perform the necessary investigation. A few minutes went by when he came back to my car with a warning. Whew! He then commented that he sees I am from St. Louis and that he recently moved down there from Philadelphia. So we ended up talking baseball. Go Cards!
The cable television in the hotel room is horrid unless you are really into business and stock market reports, ESPN Classic or local talk programs, of which all of these I am not.
We played miniature golf at the Smugglers Cove establishment right down the road from the hotel. We tied 48 each. That burned up a total of 45 minutes. Though I will say that it is a very nice establishment - very clean and kept up well. And they have live alligators in a pond. They were all lying on a platform in the middle. They looked bored, too. Oh, they do have an albino alligator in a display tank. Her hame is Pearl. She looked bored too.
I think tomorrow we will break out the Scrabble game and have a go at that.
Gosh, it would be swell if Charlie Pendergrass could borrow a boat and take us for a ride.
All is well. We're excited about the possibilities of the endeavor that we have set out to accomplish. We are looking forward to making progress.
Sarasota is a black hole
Thoughts on Sarasota
Monday, November 7, 2011
How to buy a boat in Sarasota Florida
During my search I literally looked at at least 100 different boats of most configurations. Ours is a boat built in Taiwan by the Chien Wha Shipyards. The main features that I was looking for were it to have a single inboard diesel engine, have a center berth main cabin (that means that the bed is centered in the cabin rather than offset to either the port or starboard side of the boat), that there is plenty of deckspace for enjoyment and that it not be a "handy-man special". I first found this boat, named "Dunwurkin", about two months ago.
Heading to Sarasota
We left St. Louis about 5 am on the first of November 2011. It was a clear crisp mornin and we quickly made our way out of St. Louis south on Interstate 55. Once we got past Sikeston the highway opened up infront of us fast and smooth. There was a segment that I had the RX-8 cranked up to 115 mph. When we got to Mississippi I knew that we were going to be able to open her up but I did not think that Missouri would be so fast.
Interstate 55 runs south directly from Memphis TN and in a few miles south of Graceland we entered Mississippi and almost instantly every driver on the road pushed their pedals down hard and we were flying. Cruise control at 80 to 85 mph. Sweet. The weather was absolutely wonderful and the RX-8 handled the speed and the highway wonderfully. Lisa and I had a blast. We'd listen to some music sometimes but most of the time we would talk and laugh. Wonderful. When we got down to Jackson Mississippi we cut southeast to Hattiesburg MS, then on to Mobile for the night.
The next morning we blasted of east on I-10 and were once again in the fast track perpetually pushing it at 80 mph. There was a point that we were following a lady in a 5 series BMW. We trailed here for 30 miles or so. At one point she pulled over to a rest stop. We followed here. We introduced ourselves to her. She was on her way all the way to Jacksonville. She told us that going 80 was normal in that everyone, including the police, accepted the fact that there were great distances between waypoints on the intersate and that 70 mph was waaaaay too slow.
and more about Sarasota in the next post.