December 4, Thursday

I cannot remember what we did this day – either I’m old or this traveling/vacation stuff is harder than I thought!

December 5-7, Friday thru Sunday

This weekend will be a travel time for the Kataras’. Tom rented a car from Enterprise for the weekend.  They do a good job of catering to the “loopers” with a weekend rate of $10 a day.   On Friday morning, we picked up the car and headed off.  We went to Osprey FL to visit your very good Friends, Bob and Laurie Wiesemann.  We spent the afternoon and evening reliving the boat traveling days for both them and us.  Tom’s first trip on the rivers to Florida was with Bob on his 49 Grand Banks.  Bob and Laurie moved their boat from north to south and back many times.  It was enjoyable to hear their experiences and to have them give us any helpful hints they could remember.  After a delicious steak dinner and lively conversation, we returned back to our boat with full stomachs and fond memories.

Saturday was another beautiful day in central Florida.  Tom checked the boat and the battery charger still was not putting out enough power, so it is time for a change.  He had a spare charger on board cause he is well prepared and carries spare parts for just about everything – a good cruiser needs to be well prepared.  Colletta went into town to run a few errands and get an exercise walk completed.  In the early evening we headed down to Dunedin to join Tim and Pam on Sweetwater to watch the Christmas boat parade.  The parade consisted of 23 entrees and Santa arriving on the last boat to light the town Christmas tree.  Colletta enjoyed the whole production.  It was our first experience with a holiday boat parade and we certainly will enjoy more in the future.  We were pleased when Connie and Bill from Simpatico showed up from Clearwater and brought their friends, fellow Loopers, Ray and Arlene.  We also met King and his wife on Blue Moon and Jennifer and Pierre who are paddling their canoe along the Loop with their dog Jasmine.  What an adventure!

A couple of the 23 boats in the parade. We had front row seats on Sweetwater

 

Still having the car on Sunday allowed us to attend Peace Lutheran church in Holiday Florida which is just north of Tarpon.  We enjoyed familiar hymns and meeting some locals.  After a quick stop at Walmart, Tom was back in the bilge finishing replacing the battery charger.  With a little assistance from the first mate, things are charged and working well.  A low key dinner of soup and a little football completed our day.