January 13, 2014 Day 60 South
for the Winter
The
Marina at Ortega Landing Jacksonville, FL
The
best laid plans… as Dr. Seuss says (and we have used this quote previously…)
“I’m sorry to say so but sadly
it’s true that bang ups and hang ups can happen to you.”
We are just now updating
our blog after a month’s delay. We had a
fabulous trip over the holidays visiting our family. It would only have been better
if our son-in-law were with us and not overseas. But even then we did face time
with him Christmas morning so he could watch the children open their gifts. We spent a whole week in Texas with our daughter
and four grandchildren, ages, 5, 7, 9, and 11! We welcomed in the New Year with
Bill’s brother and family in Baton Rouge and had a wonderful time with them,
including a visit to a WWII Museum and to a plantation.
We returned to
Jacksonville on January 2 as planned and then started thinking about our journey
south for the winter, including destinations along the way, and projects to do
in the meantime.
And now it is January
13 and although our departure date was set for tomorrow, we will not be going
any farther south this year. We will
stay here until sometime in April as Joyce will have surgery (probably in
February). The recovery comes with a “no lifting more than 5 pounds” for six
weeks, so we have decided that line and fender handling would not be a good
thing. We feel good about the decision to
have the surgery here at the Mayo Clinic rather than be somewhere where options
are not as good. It is also too soon to take Carried Away back to Virginia.
In the meantime we are
meeting lots of boaters who are also staying here for the winter. The marina
has a beautiful clubhouse, hosts many activities, and has free laundry, a pool,
etc. We are happy here but will be even
happier when warmer weather becomes constant.
We have seen quite a range of temperatures!
We will update the blog
from time to time! We are having
overnight guests this week. (Gold Loopers Ricki and Carl (Quest) are arriving by car on Thursday, and we look forward to their
visit!
