Touch of Class

While we travel, Gary and I take turns driving the “big rig”. The cat, he just sleeps, begs to be held or gets sick in the most inappropriate places.

Before I get into this part of our story, a little history about the RV might be good. We bought the RV from the 2nd owner. One of the previous owners took off the factory tires and put taller tires on “so it could go off-roading”, like who “off-roads” pulling a trailer? Because they put on taller tires, the space between the tire and the fender is considerably smaller than it should be Now that you have the history, back to the story…..

I was driving when I noticed the fender on the diver’s side of the RV, or Kermit, as we affectionally named it, was starting to bounce. I mentioned the bouncing to Gary and he suggested we pulled off the road to investigate. Sure enough, a couple of screws holding on the fender had busted. We needed to find something to adhere the fender so we didn’t lose it. I think we found it at our next stop

Gorilla Tape is just as good a Duct tape right? It seemed to do the job and Gary was able to tape the fender on

Good as new. Now we just need to avoid those pot holes.

We made it to our next destination which was Skidaway Island State Park in Georgia. Our plan here was to check out Savannah.

As you can see, the campsite is littered with pine needles and sugar sand. That will keep the inside of Kermit clean.

Once we were all settled in, Gary thought outside of the box and decided to switch the spare with the tire on the drivers side. Then we wouldn’t have to worry as much about losing the fender. So, with my help (I held the umbrella because it was raining, of course), he switched out the tires. That should help keep the fender on till we get up north where we can do a proper repair on it.

I bought a couple of tickets for a trolley ride thru Savannah. I figured it was a good way to see the sites. We went early and got a free parking spot in their garage. Sweet! The car wouldn’t be out in the hot sun all day.

So we hopped on the trolley

Someone asked the driver which side would be the best side to sit on to see the sights “Both sides will have great views” she said. What a liar! We should of sat on the right side of the Trolley. All the good stuff was on that side. That’s the story of my life. One time we took a train ride up some mountain, I spent the better part of a hour looking at a rock wall a few feet from my window. I couldn’t see squat. I guess I choose poorly again.

But we had a good time anyway. We learned that there are 22 “Squares” in the city. The “Squares” are like little parks. The usually had some kind of statue or fountain in them with a civil war theme. They better watch out, someone will be ripping down all those historical statues and plaques.

Here is a few of them (the rest were on the right side of the trolley and I couldn’t get a good picture of them)

We also learned that the rocks that they used to build their streets and walls

Were built from the rocks the boats had in their bilge for ballast. When they came into the harbor, they tossed out the rocks to make room for provisions. Cool huh?

We visited Charleston a few years ago and I think Savannah was a much better place to go visit. Between the “Squares” and the architecture,

the fact that is it on a major sea route and the weather was much cooler than Charleston. I didn’t think Gary was going to pass out at all in this place.

There was also a really big tree in town

A cool War Memorial,

a boat fountain,

and my all time favorite

So, it was a great place to visit, and next time I’m doing the beer trolley

After not being able to visit family and friends last summer, we decided to take a full 3 months and visit. Hopefully my daughter and her family will be ready for the 3 month invasion

We decided to drag the RV

• 

as we plan on doing more camping during the summer closer to Minnesota. But first….there is preparation of the vehicle required before we leave.

• 

• 

Gary has a certain way to get the car ready for travel so we can not only haul all our stuff but make sure that if the cat barfs

he doesn’t do it on the interior of the car. That nice plastic saved the car interior but not, his bed, my hat, our treat bag….I guess it was too long a ride for him.

We did travel our normal 1700 miles but we added a few extra miles and took 2 weeks instead of our normal 3 days. Gary came up with the itinerary and I made the reservations. My first priority was to have a campsite close to the bathrooms. When ya gotta go, ya gotta go.

We decided that we were going to explore the country a little so instead of the fastest route on our Garmin, we set it to the shortest route. What a mistake that was. Going from point A directly to point B might be the shortest route but holy hoot, we drove down every little road the Garmin could take us on. Plus thru every little town on the map. It took us WAY longer to get to our destination than it should have. After our first day of traveling like that we switched our Garmin back to fastest route for the remainder of our journey LOL.

The first place we stopped was Silver Springs State Park, ya know, the place where they have the glass bottom boats….the place where they used to film Sea Hunt, Tarzan and Creature from the Black Lagoon?

The only problem with this campsite is there is no TV nor internet service. Looks like tonight will be another night of Chicken Foot. Now if I can only get him to play Canasta with me

The campsite did have some very nice trails we could walk.

• 

Here’s Gary at the trail head. We brought our coffee so in case we got lost we had something to drink. We smart cookies

We continued on our walk and came across this sign

What?! There are wild monkeys in this place! And they are telling us not to feed them? What idiot is going to walk up to a wild money and offer them some of their cookies? Or a piece of their banana? Apparently there are a lot of idiots that walk these trails if they have to have this sign posted. Well, we’ll be sure to keep clear of the moneys…..and the idiots

Gary and I haven’t been back to see the Glass Bottom boats in over 35 years so we were curious as to how much had changed. Gary didn’t think the place had changed much, me? I couldn’t remember. I have trouble remembering what I ate last night for dinner. Anyway, we found this place that was set up like an old time little village and we saw this old glass bottom boat.

This was one we probably used last time we were there, now it is a museum artifact. Here is what we went on this time

We had to wear masks while we stood in line and on the boat

I think the water was more weedy and mossy than it used to be

They said that the fertilizer was effecting their water here too, causing moss to grow. Better take the kids here quick before the whole place is full of it!

When we were done with the boat ride we took a walk around more of the park. We saw this really tall tree

Here is another one of these guys, and he is on a Palm tree!

Many of you may or may not have known, but Gary was part owner in a wholesale florist shop back in the day. They had a plant that grew there that he called a little boy flower. Here is what it looked like

In this park, I found a big boy palm

You could also do some kayaking here and I even think they had a glass bottom kayak you could rent…and the key word here is YOU. Cold day in you know where before you get me on one of those, especially in an alligator infested river.

It was fun to visit it again and see what had changed. The camp site and trails were nice but now we are off to our next adventure at Skidaway Island State Park.

This is our scheduled boat trip for our boating club. Each member of the club (and there are 14 of us) takes a turn being the “host” for a boat trip. Being the host means you find a marina, make reservations, find some place where we can eat our heavy Hors d’oeuvres the first night, and a restaurant to go to the next night. There must be a pool and if you can reach the beach by foot, all the better. You also need to bring the main meal when you are hosting. So a heavy soup, beef sandwiches, sloppy joes etc.

So Gary had to get the boat all ready

We normally only schedule the trips for 2 days but because this marina was a ways away, people wanted to go a day early. I had a doctors appointment Monday morning, and you know how they are, if you try to reschedule it you’ll have to wait for months, so Gary was taking the boat and I was arriving by car the next day.

The winds were suppose to be high for the next week, so Gary left very early Sunday morning

He called me when he arrived. When he was going thru Charlotte Harbor inlet it was like someone was throwing buckets of water on his windshield. Good thing his windshield wipers worked because he had them on for a good 1/2 hour straight so he could see. And because of the deep V hull, he was bobbin back and forth from the side waves. He figures from the bottom of the trough to the top, the waves were 6 feet.

But when he finally arrived, they gave him the owners spot

But when you look at this picture

You’ll see why they put him there….no one else would have fit LOL.

Gary’s first morning was nice and tranquil. He was able to eat his grits looking out over the water

There is an island across the way that you can see in the above picture. There are a few homes, a restaurant with a little ice cream/grocery store underneath, (Kind of reminded me of BearTrax.) and of course a beach that face the Gulf.

At the marina, they have a water taxi that will take you there for $3 per person, if you’re staying at the marina or for $55, round trip, you can take your car. Better not forget anything at the grocery store 😉.

Sunday night they took the water taxi across and had dinner at the restaurant on the island. Looks like Gary had a good time there

By the time I got there on Monday, the winds hadn’t diminished at all. The temp was over 90 degrees but the humidity was low, so it wasn’t too bad……in the shade. I was able to take a nice long dip in the pool before I had to play hostess.

They had some really pretty flowers there.

I don’t know what they are but I bet I wouldn’t find them growing in Minnesota…..at least not in my garden 😊

Here is the crew at “dinner” on Monday night

We are a bunch of old farts aren’t we? Turns out buying pizza was the wrong way to go, oh well, at least they are out of the sun.

The next day a few of them decided to cross over to the island and look for sharks teeth

If you think I am going out in that hot sun and walk on that hot sand, think again. Here is what I did while they were sweating away in the hot sun

My mama didn’t raise any fools. 😊. I enjoyed my ice cream and iced coffee while I sat in the shade and read my book. So relaxing!

Tuesday afternoon was another stressful day of lazing in the pool and enjoying a nice cool drink. Tuesday night we were supposed to have a restaurant all picked out and make the reservations. One of the reasons we picked this marina is because it has a real nice restaurant right on the premises. But guess what? Because season was over, they were closed Monday and Tuesday night. Oh no! We had to find another place to go to for dinner. Well good thing I drove, because we found this pretty cool place only 6 miles down the road.

We made reservations at the Lighthouse Bar and Grill. It took two trips but we got everyone there. They had music that was suppose to start at 6 so we made reservations for 5 knowing some of the people wouldn’t like music while they ate. Wouldn’t you know it, they guy starts early at 5:20. But Gary and I liked the music, so did our Commodore and his wife

I did find this cool Pirate I want to put in my lani

A few of them were partied out after dinner….if you want a strong Rum Punch, that was the place to get one LOL. The rest of us could stay awake long enough to enjoy the brownies and cookies we had back at the marina for dessert.

By 8 the next morning, everyone was gone in anticipation of high winds again. I helped everyone get off the dock and waved as the last one left. Bye bye till next time…..hopefully not again till 2023 😁.

First a little foot note from the last post, this bird

Thanks Mitch! I thought his bill looked a little spoony to me 😉.

So on to our next spot.

See, we’re still close to the water. This place was about 15 minutes from where we store the RV. We were back to the concrete pad and the picnic table had a nice hard roof on it.

We are nice and close to the bathrooms and I even remembered the trash bags this time.

Now this place even has a marina

Gary says we could come here by boat too.

One of the things that is so interesting, is to see the other RV’s and how people set up their camp. This guy arrived by motorcycle

I didn’t see anyone so I didn’t know if he had a companion or not. Either way, it looks a little to cozy for me.

Some of the people go all out. They put up little banners “The Johnson’s”, they have special rope lighting that lights up the ground around their camper or the trees around them. One guy had a 20 foot flag pole! Granted, the pole was retractable but still. I can think of a better use of my limited storage than a huge flag pole.

We had a couple park next to us the second day we were there. They drove up in two cars and proceeded to set up the Taj Mahal of tents. They had so much stuff! I thought we were bad LOL. And everything looked brand new. They even had a trail camera that they tied to the pole on the picnic table. I guess we better not sneak around their campsite in our birthday suits at night. That would be a shock when they looked at the pictures 😨

One time we were anchored out on the Navigator and I could hear the cows moo. Guess what? They had them here too!

And we saw one of the boats from Stillwater

We tried to figure out what that thing was doing out here in the middle of no-where but we couldn’t find anything. Maybe it is someone’s personal boat????

We were finally able to test out the awning. It had been too windy the other times.

Good to know that worked, and I’m told you never go to sleep with that out, a sure fired way to wake up with it gone .

And did you notice our new tire cover? Gary figured we have to have a little Florida while we are traveling around up north.

Well, this turned out to be another successful shake down. Our next adventure is a boat trip to Palm Harbor Marina with our boat club. And we are hosting it. What could possibly go wrong????

Once the kids were gone, we got ready for our next shake down trip. We choose Myakka River State Park. Can you see a theme here with our RVing escapades? Yup, that’s water. We’re always going to try to be on or by the water. We can just pretend we’ve beached our boat while we explore these places.

This place was a little more expensive at $25 a day. We couldn’t use the National Park pass but because we are old farts, and live in Florida, we could use the Florida Senior pass and get a discount that way.

Another difference was this camp site was on sand instead of a concreate pad. That makes for a dirty RV which we all know Captain Gary won’t stand for, so there was a lot of sweeping of shoes and sweeping of floors. Good thing one of our “must haves” was a little broom (to bad the head came off it )😢

Oh, and did I tell you? Apparently you have to NAME your RV. So, because there is a frog in an airplane on the side, we decided to name it

Setting up for the second time was a little easier and quicker. I only forgot one thing….trash bags. Only an essential item while ruffing it away from civilization. Luckily we were parked real close to the camp dumpster (or maybe not so lucky)

Not only that but as we were leaving for a walk one morning, something was thumping around in the dumpster, and it sounded big. But no way was I going to see what it was. I could just picture a racoon or something jumping out of the dumpster right at me! AAAAAAAH!

Well this place was much bigger than the lock and dam we stayed at. The first day we got up early and went for a trek to check the place out

Lots of fuzzy trees here

Right down the road from us was a bridge that went over the Myaaka River. Look at this pink bird with the big bill

And there were 10 or 12 alligators all swimming around the bridge

The railing on the bridge was barely knee high. I think they were hoping one of those silly tourist would look over the side too far and fall in…….”Lunch is served!”

We contined on our walk and found a few great paths to go on. One had this tree with this pink stuff on it

What do you suppose that is? Great! Now I’ll have to take some botany courses.

One of the trails even had this dock over some swampy land. See! You can even walk on docks while you are RVing, just like boating!

Hopefully there aren’t any alligators in that swamp cause the railing is not that high on this little dock and we are getting old and don’t run so fast anymore 😉.

On the way back there was a guy fishing on the bridge. Next thing we knew he got a bite. The alligator that had been watching figured he had a free lunch and started swimming real fast to the guys catch. Gary is yelling “Reel faster, reel faster”, the guys “I’m reeling as fast as I can!” Apparently not fast enough.

LOL, the guy was so excited, even if he did loose his catch.

That was the excitement for the day. And I mean the only excitement. We had no internet and no cell service. Oh Oh! What are we going to do? I, of course, was very content. I just took out my KIndle and started reading. Gary, not that big of a fan of just reading, started puttering around the RV, making notes of more things we had to have LOL. That night, with no TV service either, I got him to play……………….Chicken Foot (what did you think I was going to say? This is a G rated blog😉). Hay Mikey! He liked it!

The next day we got up early again (seems the rest of the people at this park are late risers which is good for us. By the time we are heading out of the trails, eveyone else was just coming in). This new trail went closer to the actual river

No alligators here.

One of the trails had this suspension bridge that we went on

I don’t know, I think they might have to do some tree trimming pretty soon.

This bridge was suspended between two “towers”. One was about 35 feet high and the other was about 70 feet high. You walked from the 35 foot tower to the 70 foot tower. After we walked over the bridge, they had put up a sheet of plywood so you couldn’t get up the stairs on the 70 foot tower. We tried to figure out what that was all about, we figured maybe something happened and they needed repairs. Later that day we saw a Park Ranger and asked him. He said the week befor it was still Spring Break and the place was very busy. All these 20 something kids going thru the park, climbing to the top of the tower and it was packed! A Supervisor of some kind happened to be visiting the park that day, saw all the kids in the upper section of that 70 foot tower and had them shut it down. Ya just never know what all those kids could do.

We continued our walk and I saw this colorful fungus. When was the last time you saw orange fungus? Such cool stuff in Florida.

So we enjoyed that spot, even if it was a little dirtier, had no cell service, no TV service….come to think of it, that was really roughing it. Maybe I better do a little more research on the other camp sites 😉

Next stop, Franklyn Lock and Dam. The closest spot ever.

You guessed it, my daughter and her family came for a visit. We stayed close to home because things hadn’t quite gotten back to normal yet. But we sure had fun. We went swimming

The turtle from last year sprung a leak so we had to get a BIGGER and BETTER one

Then we did a little fishing

We did some real fishing on the dock. That’s a sting ray!

And we went for a boat ride of course

Some of us got a little tired and had to take a nap

We saw one of our old boats that is still down here

And we saw this tree

Have you ever seen that before? That trees roots are all over the palm tree. Pretty cool.

Then we saw this crazy person

You’re not in Minnesota buddy, there’s probably a bunch of alligators following them in hopes the kid falls.

We also were able to get in a round of golf

And let me just say, it was hotter than a toot that day. I was sweatin bullets.

The kids stayed thru Easter this year so we had to color Easter eggs

I bet that is the first time that has been done here LOL.

Then we got the kayak out

There was even a little quiet time amongst all the chaos

Of course Gary had to do his favorite joke, “Pull my finger”

I don’t think they’ll be doing that again for a while.

After a nice visit we drove them to the airport and waved goodbye

Bye, we’ll miss you.

Lucky for us there was plenty of the snack stash left behind. We’ll be eating like Kings for a long time

So after getting what we felt was a really good deal, our plan is to figure out how everything works (can’t be that hard, we’ve boated for a REALLY long time), do some shake down trips, find some place to store it for a while because, hey, we live in a condo, can’t have that thing sitting in our parking lot. Buy insurance, plus what ever essenitial things we need because ruffing it is out of question. Then we just need to find some place to store it up north and then drive it there. Sounds like fun and a good way to kill some time.

So after $1500 in taxes and licence, and another $1500 in essentials and upgrades, we were on our way.

Many years ago Gary bought a senior pass to get into the Federal Parks, we finally get to get some advantage from it. The first place we go to is a lock and dam on the Caloosahathee River about 1/2 an hour from our house (don’t want to go too far in case something happens). It only costs us $15 a day to stay here, cheaper than a slip at a marina. We were able to get a spot right on the water

It was still prime season down here so the only spot available was a handycapped spot. Although some could say we were handycapped as we didn’t know what the heck we were doing LOL. But Gary figured everything out and we added more things to our list of needs to buy for future trips.

Unfortunately it was a little chilly

I know…..cry me a river….how cold can you be in sunny Florida?

As a side note, I better get a better cameraman, can’t be having fingers in your pictures. This is a professional act here

Anyway, this place was pretty cool. We were close to the bathroom, a requirement of mine ;), right on the water and they even had a fishing pier. Because we were by the lock, we got to see a bunch of boats go by.

At night, the manatee came right up to the shore and had a little dinner

We only stayed one night but all in all it was a good shake down trip. We even remembered to bring the slide in when we left.

Yes, yes, I think our being locked up for a year has driven us crazy! We decided to buy one of these

Now don’t get me wrong, we still have the boat, but after we spent a full summer down here in the heat and captivity, we decided we wanted to spent a little more time up where it is a little cooler but we also didn’t want to wear out our welcome at our home base.

If you don’t know, RV’s, of a reasonable price, are very hard to come by in these days of Covid. Gary did his usual search for many, many months before we were fortunate to found this one.

We did find another one that was practically identical to this one but it was on the East Coast. We wanted to check that one out….that was quite a trip.

We called the owner and asked if we could see it. We told him we were very interested in buying and then told him where we were coming. He told us it was at his brothers house and that he would let his brother know we were coming. Little did we know he wasn’t even in the state!

So we hop in the car and do our 3 1/2 hour trek to see this RV. We finally get there and see the RV on the side of the road, partway in a ditch. That’s kind of weird. You’d think they’d have it someplace we could really check it over. There was a bush close to the rv so we wouldn’t be able to open the slide all the way. Well we get out of our car and start checking the thing out expecting someone to come out of the house and meet us. When no one came, Gary finally called the brother whose house we were at. He apparently didn’t know we were coming. He told us he was not far away and would be there soon.

Eventually another guy comes out of the house. He is the nephew of the guy selling the RV. He knew nothing of us coming either but he did have the keys. He went inside to get them. In the mean time the brother showed up, pulling a boat that had a ‘For Sale” sign on it with another truck following him. He stops by us and wanted to know how serious were were because he was busy making a sale on his boat. Gary told him we just drove 3 1/2 hours to see it. Oh! Well, he’d help us as soon as he got done with the boat sale. What???? Maybe we should just go. As we were pondering whether to just go or stay, the nephew comes out with the keys, apologizing, “I can show you around”. I ask him why his Uncle is selling it, his says just his uncle used it used it only once and decided he didn’t like it. We asked him where his uncle was, he didn’t know and he didn’t know when he’d be back. He opens all the doors so we can check it out. When we try to push the slide out a little we find out the battery is dead. The nephew dinks around with the battery for a little, decides it must be dead and then goes in his garage and comes out with another battery. He hooks that up but apparently that one is dead too. (we found out when we bought our current one that there is a batter shut off switch that just needed to be switched LOL). So anyway, he goes back in the garage to get a generator. While he is doing that, Gary and I are checking out this thing. It is packed with a bunch of useful stuff. A lot of it brand new, still in it’s original packaging. This is looking better and better for the price, providing everything else checks out.

The nephew gets a generator out of the garage and trys to start it. While he is doing that, the brother of the guy selling the RV comes over and starts talking to Gary. While they are having their conversation I am watching the nephew. He’s pulling and pulling and pulling on that generator and nothing is happening. He is eventually huffing and puffing. I’m standing there watching him….I’m thinking “I bet there is no gas in it”. Sure enough, the light bulb eventually goes off in the nephew’s head and he checks the gas, nope, no gas. He apologizes some more and offers to go get gas. By this time we are thinking maybe this stuff is stolen, this whole cituation is really weird. No body calls anybody by their name. When the dad tell son to do something, he doesn’t call him by name. He calls him “son”, when he talked to his brother on the phone, he called him “brother”…who does that? Are they in the witness protection program and don’t want us to hear their real names?

The brother is apologizing, says he didn’t know we were coming but wait, he’d get his brother on the phone (who is up in Illinois BTW) and he could answer all our questions. While Gary is talking to the guy selling the RV, the guy RAISES the price! We decide we are going to pass, too many weird things. Gary hands the phone back and the brother and tells him we aren’t going to buy it. He starts tells us that his brother is a little wacky that the reason he isn’t here is because his wife got sick and he had to take her home. (Don’t you think that the nephew would know that his aunt is sick and that is where his Uncle is?) The brother went on and on about his brother and said he’d help us better after he took care of the sale of the boat. No thanks.

We thank the nephew for his time and trouble and we head out. Shortly after we leave we get a call from the seller. He is apologizing for the way we were treated. He was appalled that his brother, after our long drive, didn’t offer us come coffee and donuts. That they were raised better than that, if someone traveled from a great distance to see you, the first thing you did was give them coffee and dounuts. What??? Yah, okay buddy

He told us he was selling it because his wife got sick and he had to take care of her (That’s weird, don’t you think the nephew would know his Aunt was sick?). Then he said if we wanted, he’d come back tomorrow and meet with us (What? You’re up in Illinois and you are going to..to..what? Fly down just to meet with us?) The whole conversation was weird, we decided to pass on that one. Although by this time we figured there was definately something fishy going on there and we better pass. Although the coffee and donuts did sound awfully good right about now.

So we found a nice older couple that could show us how everything worked. They actually met us to show us the RV. This one had an extra battery, an extra propane tank and solar panels on the roof. We were sold. Turns out that after they had this one decided they needed a bigger “pusher” as they call them. We think after living on a boat together for 3 years and then living in a tiny condo, this RV would be just fine with us. But ya never know………

While we didn’t go on any boat trips with our boating club during the Pandemic, we did get out on our own. We always went during the week, early in the morning and back by noon. That is the best way to avoid all the crazy people that call themselves boaters

We saw this boat as we cruised up the Caloosahatchee River

A little too modern for my tastes.

We also saw a couple of boats that apparently were abandoned

I bet no one is going to be real interested in leasing an appartment that looks out at this.

See this dock?

This is what happens when you don’t put the plastic wrap on your pilings.

After we were vaccinated, we even drove the boat to breakfast one morning. Yum, my favorite!

We enjoyed our little trecks and look forward to more….gotta keep that Albin running smooth!

Gary was the Commodore of our boat club in 2020.

The Commodore of this club just needs to attend the monthly meetings, go over the agenda and host the Annual Change of Watch party at the end of the year. Sounds simple huh? So, how did being Commodore during a pandemic go? All I can say is, Gary is glad it’s over.

One of the first things we did is try to find a place for the Change of Watch party as we were hosting it in December. With it being in December, and everyone having their Christmas parites, we thought we’d get a jump on things.

We figured we try some place new this year. We planned on having it at one of our members senior living places. They had a great party room and dynamite food. We met with the guy who was in charge of the party planning, set the date and the menu. Great! That wasn’t too bad, now he just had to get back to us on the cost.

Then, BAM! We find out we can’t have it on the usual day in December that we always have it on because the Cape Coral Power Squadron had scheduled a cruise that day so we better change it because not everyone will come. Ok, we try to get in contact with the guy in charge of the party room to see if we can reschedule to end of November.

Then BAM! The Corona Virus hits! What the heck is this virus? Surely it can’t be that bad, can it? No way will it last till summer time and never all the way to December, so we keep trying to get a hold of the guy in charge of the party room.

Then BAM! The next thing we know that place we were going to have the party at went into shut down mode, no one in or out. Well, we figured, that’s OK, our party is not until November, we should be OK, he’ll get back to us eventually.

In April we were in charge of a cruise for the club to go on. But guess what? BAM! We had to cancel it because the marina closed down due to the Covid virus.

We waited a few months to see how things were going and when this crazy virus would go away. Then BAM! It’s June, and things aren’t looking much better. The place we had reserved the party room at is still in lock down. We better find some place to have the party at that will have a greater likelyhood of being open.

We canceled the party room and we made reservations at the restaurant we had used in the previous years, in hopes it would be open and we could have the Change of Watch there. They did have a minumun charge there of $750, so we were keeping our fingers crossed everyone could come.

The monthly breakfast meeting we normally had were non excistant for a while because everything was closed down. Then when they resumed, only a limited number of people showed up. Gary, as Commodore, went to the meetings, I stayed home.

The Change of Watch party date was getting closer and closer. Because the minimum charge was going to be $750, we were advised we should just cancel it. So, BAM, we cancelled that dinner. First time that has happened

So the reign of Commodore Captain Gary was short and painful. It will be a year to remember and hopefully not have to relive for a long time. Oh, “Good Luck” to our new Commodore for 2021, hopefully he’ll have a better year.