Catching up in Stuart

We are parked at the Elks Lodge in Stuart, Florida (map), just a few blocks (and across the river) from the empty lot where we parked during the boat show.

We squeaked one final night out of that location; the show ended Sunday, but they were still packing it up well into Monday and the street also remained blocked off. I'm guessing we could have stayed even longer -- no one so much as gave us a second glance, least of all the local constabulary -- but we did not want to push our luck, especially with this Elks lodge so close. In fact, this spot was our "backup" plan had we been unable to park right at the show; it would have meant leaving our scooters at the south entrance each day and hoofing it to the Expo, though.

We rolled down here about mid-day on Monday; since the show still had the route to the Roosevelt Bridge on the Old Dixie Highway closed off, we had to backtrack a few blocks and take the new US-1 bridge instead. The lodge here just has a parking lot, but it's free. We pulled the scooters out and rode to dinner at Luna restaurant right downtown, now easily accessible since we are on the correct side of the river.

We decided to stay right here in Stuart and get some downtime to catch up on a few things. The weather has been pleasant and there are plenty of services and restaurants here. Yesterday Louise rode across to the nearby laundromat and caught up on laundry as well as some essential shopping, and we rode down to the Honda/Suzuki dealer where were were able to find a mirror with a usable right-threaded stem for her scooter, so she can now use the nifty quick-release our new friend in Largo made for us.

They're working great, by the way, and we're ecstatic about how easy it now is to set up and tear down the scooters. On our way back, we stopped at Carrabba's for dinner, and it was packed to the gills at 5:30 -- early crowd here in Stuart.

The big news is that we finally have the makings of a plan for the next few weeks. The Red Cross finally nailed down the meeting we are scheduled to attend, which will be starting February 25th in Tucson, Arizona. You may recall we hinted earlier that this meeting might be somewhere in Florida, which was possibly an earlier plan, and we've been casually hanging around here waiting on official word -- no sense expending diesel to drive someplace else only to have to come right back here. Now that it has been confirmed to be in Tucson on a specific date, we are free to leave Florida and start heading west.

In the meantime, however, we've put the next space shuttle launch on our calendar, which is scheduled for February 7th. This is one of those things where I've been saying for years "one of these days, when it's convenient, we'll watch a shuttle launch." Well, of course, the shuttle program is in its final months, so we may not get a more "convenient" chance than right now, where we are already in Florida just two and a half weeks from launch. That still gives us plenty of time to make it to Tucson for the meeting, albeit on a faster schedule that we would otherwise choose, and so we have decided to remain here through the launch. As a bonus, it is scheduled to be a night launch, which will be particularly spectacular.

Shuttle launches, of course, get scrubbed on a regular basis, sometimes for weeks or even months depending on launch windows. Fortunately, there is also an Atlas V launch scheduled just two days later, on February 9th, so once we are in position for the shuttle, if it gets postponed, we will still have a good chance of catching a rocket launch within a couple days. Now all we need to do is figure out a good place to park Odyssey for the duration, starting the afternoon of the 6th, or possibly even the 5th to beat the weekend crowd. That week is also the lead-up to the Daytona 500, which might bring additional crowds. Which reminds me, perhaps that week will be our big chance to take in a race from our race-ready roof deck -- maybe I should look into infield tickets for one of the warm-up events.

As long as we're going to be here at least through the 7th, we'll head back down to Fort Lauderdale for Trawler Fest, the last three days of January. While we enjoyed Cruiser Expo, and especially meeting the DeFever Cruisers group, who represented the lion's share of attendees as it coincided with their rally at the Harborage Marina, there was not a good representation of trawlers in the boat show. We got more out of cruising the docks (pardon the pun) at Harborage when the DeFever folks had their boats open for an informal trawler-crawl Saturday afternoon. That said, we did spend a fair bit of time on a pair of new American Tugs, the 34 and 41, at the show, and both those boats appealed to us a great deal.

I had really hoped to see more power cats (one of the DeFever folks actually had an Endeavour 38, and we enjoyed seeing that), as well as some other trawlers that are notably absent on the west coast, where most of our show attendance has happened thus far. The lineup for this Trawler Fest seems to be more comprehensive, and so we'd like to at least register for the boat show portion (the seminars are getting to be old hat for us now). That gives us a good ten days to travel only 75 miles -- one of the reasons staying a few extra days in Stuart made sense.

We've been using the time to catch up on projects that have languished around the house. In my case that's included quite a bit of writing, between submissions to Bus Conversions magazine (I am now writing a monthly column answering electrical questions), writing recommendations for former employees (the job market is brutal right now), and helping a good friend with a business proposal. Whenever I get caught up, I then have some items to list on eBay.

I'm also going to try to line up someplace to change our engine oil as well as someplace to have the alignment checked in the next ten days, preferably somewhere along the direct route from here to Fort Lauderdale. If I can get all that taken care of, we might even try to squeeze in some more scuba diving before we have to leave the warm-water part of the state.

The Red Cross meeting and our travels thereto will mean we will once again miss our friend Linda's birthday bash, held each year on Presidents Day weekend, usually in Death Valley. In fact, we already have reservations at Furnace Creek this year, which we will have to cancel. I am especially bummed because she has just announced her engagement (via Facebook -- welcome to the 21st century) and we'd like to pass along our congratulations in person, but it will have to wait. We missed her party last year as well, which was in one of our favorite spots, Baja, while we flew off to Hawaii for yet another wedding -- the last of our single friends are dropping like flies, but we enjoy any excuse for a party.

I expect we will leave Stuart tomorrow or Friday, heading for another Elks lodge in either Palm Beach or Del Ray before heading, most likely, to the Isle Casino in Pompano Beach. A lot will depend, though, on what arrangements I can make for the oil change and alignment.