Sum Escape: Longboat Key in a Chilly Spell. January 18-31, 2018

On Thursday January 18, our Bahamas traveling partners Brigitte and Scott (Putz'n Around) and Carole and DeVere (Job Site) drove up from Fort Myers Beach and Punta Gorda respectively. We wanted to show them around Longboat Key including the Resort beach and pool but wouldn't you know it, the weather did not cooperate! It was one of the coldest days we have had here albeit nice and sunny. There was no one at the pool and the pool bar was even closed due to the cold. We had an excellent lunch at the Dry Dock, shared a bunch of laughs and made some preliminary plans to head to the Bahamas for year three. Carole and DeVere need to leave Punta Gorda on Saturday the 20th to cross across the state to pick up a new boat! They are purchasing another beautiful Sea Ray sedan bridge but must have gotten "10' itis" as it is a 58'!! We wish them all the best as well as congratulations on their beautiful new vessel!!
We will all keep and touch and see how timing works out with weather, my Mom's health, etc. Chances are Julie and I will stay at Longboat a while to be sure Mom is stable. Thanks so much to all for taking the time and driving up to visit!

On Friday, Julie's brother Kevin and sister in law Debbie picked us up and drove us to Punta Gorda to visit Julie's cousin Jill and husband Tom. Jill and Tom have just recently retired and moved to Florida. They had invited us for a day of fun and to see their new home which is beautiful! So Jill said to dress in layers and have cash for an excursion of some sort. We drove a few miles east of their home to a little pub along the Peace River, the NAV-A-GATOR. It was a cute little place and had boat excursions, both pontoon and air boats. It turns out Jill had planned a pontoon tour to see gators and bird rookeries. It was a very enjoyable trip and the sun came out just as we finished lunch at the pub so we would have a good chance to see gators sunning themselves. And it was great, we saw about a dozen gators, this one being the largest.

And note that none of the boat passengers is seeing the gator dead ahead!! Guess we all need some remedial training on where the gators sun themselves!

And the rookeries we were able to get close to had heron, egrit, spoonbill, osprey and others.

Not a rookery but note the osprey in the left part of the frame on the tree with a fresh fish for lunch.

Very nice outing Jill and Tom, thanks so much! And the dinner grilled and prepared after the excursion was excellent too!
Here is Julie enjoying Ziggy's company (Jill and Tom's schnauzer). Ziggy liked Julie's lap...

Thanks so much for a wonderful day Jill and Tom, and thanks Kevin and Deb for driving us.

Saturday Julie became the adventure coach for us and two other couples. Trisha and David (Lauryl Anne) and Jan and Doug (Day Dreams) accompanied us on the bus to downtown Sarasota to visit the Sarasota Seafood and Music Festival.

We also walked through the wonderful farmer's market and took notes for the next week as our refrigerator was full from a Publix trip this week. The seafood and music was great and the Johnny Walker free scotch booth wasn't bad either! Julie found a new lemon bitter, rosemary, lemon and scotch drink she likes.

The bus was a little late on our return trip likely due to traffic on Longboat Key. It gets pretty busy at this time of year for sure. So our first time bus travelers weren't as impressed on the return trip. But it is hard to beat $2.50 a person round trip to downtown. We have used the bus at least a half dozen times now and will continue to do so.

On Monday friends from the river system and Faro Blanco in 2015/2016 were planning to arrive at Longboat. Lila and Alan (Blue Haven) arrived and we invited them to the 5 PM gathering near the pool. Between Loopers and Kady Krogen owners groups we must have had 15 couples in attendance. It was great making new acquaintances as well as renewing old ones at the gathering. We went too dinner with them at Blu Kouzina later in the week and caught up on their travels. They are out on Loop #2 and Milwaukee is home port.

Tuesday we encountered a tragedy at the property. Julie and I were walking to Publix and heard and saw many emergency vehicles heading in the direction of the marina. When we returned the pool and restrooms were cordoned off and we learned a woman had been found lifeless in the women's sauna. An investigation is underway and as of this writing the restroom area is still a crime investigation scene and is closed. What a tragedy, the woman was only 54 years old and many boaters here knew her. Prayers for the family...

During the week, we did various boat maintenance with Tom becoming head mechanic, pun intended, for one item. If you don't want gory black water Vacuflush details, skip this paragraph.
Long story short, over years of use the vacuum accumulator tank had filled up with residue from undissolved toilet paper and other shi**y material. For you mechanically inclined readers, here is a diagram of the system so you can see what I am referring to.

OK, how to deal with this without removing entire tank and cleaning it out? Well, we used some Digest It and Toilet Tissue Dissolver products we found on Amazon. First we flushed all the Simple Green and water we could through the system. Then we turned off water, flushed toilet to evacuate it, turned off vacuum pump and then filled accumulator tank with these enzyme products, each separately, to "work" a few days. Evacuated again and then hosed out tank through toilet inlet hole after removing "in from toilet" hose while vacuum pump was running. Julie was flipping vacuum switch, pouring fluids into toilets, turning off water, feeding hose to bilge, handing me tools, etc while I was making like a pretzel in the bilge. I could not have done this without her help. Todd, note the equipment in use including the special headlamp.... Vacuum tank number one access was not too bad.

But number two was a much more difficult access. It is much harder to get out of than it was to get into this 16"x16" access hole!!! Body and shoulders cross wise is the only way!

The plan worked without clogging duckbills or any other complications. You have to love it when a plan works out! But I am not applying for a Head Mechanic job anytime soon. As one master plumber said, "hey it washes off" and due to a few splashes, a shower was the first order of business once done! And sanitizing tools and shop vacuums is not a lot of fun either. So, make sure the toilet paper you are using readily dissolves if you have a Vacuflush. We found that the West Marine tissue does not! (We tested it in a jar of water versus the Thetford Aqua Soft from Amazon which does quickly dissolve). Learn from us!

Friday we went to dinner with a group of 8 to the Blu Kouzina at St Armands. This is one of our favorites here. Here is the wait staff offering the fresh fish options for the evening. Ed got the pompano and said it was delicious.

Another late afternooon about 6 couples all played bocce ball. We will have to admit this is the first time we have really played and it was a blast. The resort has a nice court and equipment to use and everyone brought a snack and beverage at 4:30. We played a couple hours until darkness called the match...yes the men did win. Lot's of friendly and interesting people here and we are thankful we can enjoy this lifestyle.

Yes it was the cold north wind still blowing....

Saturday Ed and Diane (Coaster) invited us to ride with them to the Farmer's Market in Sarasota. We left at 8:30 as we all wanted to get the fresh seafood prior to them selling out. Success! We scored fresh grouper, shrimp and scallops. It was all delicious!!! We will definitely be going back for more! And we purchased a cooler full of fresh organic veggies too. We also went to an old Sarasota landmark, the Alpine Steakhouse and Butcher Shop. This has been featured on Food Network and has been in Sarasota for over 40 years.

We bought a few things there and will be back to buy some big steaks to grill out with Kevin and Debbie soon. Thanks so much for driving us around Ed and Diane.
On one of our walks as we were passing the Publix deli/café outside eating area we spotted this guy awaiting a snack.

Spent a lot of time this week evaluating Mom's living arrangements and potential changes to get her more help and safety. We have concluded we need to move her to an assisted living arrangement as daily tasks wear her out and she is just too tired all the time. We are going to stay here in Longboat Key so I can fly to Michigan to get her safely moved and stable in her new environment. We currently do not know how long this will take due to a flu outbreak at the facility we want to move her to. So we will monitor and fly to Michigan when the time comes. Thanks for the well wishes and prayers on behalf of Mom's condition. We will miss our Bahamas trip but Mom comes first.

On our walk to the dentist on January 30 we found the property where the Great Wallendas resided.