Perfect Bubbles wins in the seventh

We are back at the Isle Pompano Casino and Racing (map).

After leaving Miccosukee, we arrive here mid-afternoon Sunday and got settled in, and our friends Martin and Steph drove over from their hotel near the beach in Fort Lauderdale. We had a great evening catching up; the last time we saw them was a year ago in Naples, as they were preparing to embark on a year of cruising the Caribbean on their boat, I Got Lucky.

As it turned out, Lucky has been out of service for maintenance nearly half that time, mostly right here in Fort Lauderdale. Martin and I had discussed boats before he bought Lucky, knowing that we had been to a couple of shows and were investigating boats; he took the plunge well before we were ready. We've been following his adventures ever since, and so the saga of the problems he's had with the whizzy azimuth drives on this boat (the first year they came out) has been something of a cautionary tale for us. You can read about their adventures on their blog.

We had a nice dinner with them and made plans for later in the week. They are avid divers, and we will all rendezvous Thursday morning at Hillsboro Inlet; we've lined up an instructor to finish up Louise's last two dives for her open water certification. That will be important, because last night I booked us a 6-day Caribbean cruise over Christmas, and I think all three of the port calls are good dive spots (Belize, Costa Maya, and Cozumel, where we did our last "resort" dive).

I spent all day yesterday working on cruise reservations, travel insurance, and preparations for the class I will be teaching at the end of the month. Our thinking has been to hang here in Florida only until the Stuart boat show mid-January, then head west, but circumstances have changed, and it looks like we will be in the Southeast through the whole first quarter.

It was pretty late, for us, by the time we walked the two blocks south to a casual Italian joint for some dinner; the Walgreens on the way back was a handy stop to pick up a couple of essentials that just couldn't wait for our next grocery trip. When we got back to the bus, To The Post was playing on the track's loudspeakers -- we can just about see the trotters from here. The nearest trash can, though, is up at the grand stand, and I caught the seventh race as I walked over to drop off our small sack (yes, Perfect Bubbles won).

In a few minutes we will clear out of here; the brake linings arrived from England yesterday; the shop opened them and all is in order. We have a 9:30 appointment to get the brake work started. Whenever that's done, we will head over to our friend Steve's business, where he has a couple of take-off tires from his bus that we need for the tag axle.

Photo by Jan-Willem Swane, used under a Creative Commons license. Probably not Perfect Bubbles.