Thursday, looking for Friday

Temperatures are getting back to normal, this morning was a balmy 52°F, and we had a most enjoyable walk. I only needed a sailing jacket, the sweat shirt was left behind.

Today should be about 70° and sunny, so we look forward to Friday and a fun weekend.

Five pounds worth of holiday flab has been removed and there will be a savage push towards dropping another ten pounds of tonnage/ballast by March. I have been using the gym the past three weeks to good result, and I can feel the dormant muscle(s) responding to my weak effort.

I know, I just need to quit drinking beer. But I don't want to...

The Jacksonville Boat Show is scheduled for the weekend, our Boat Broker, Mark Zeigler is quoted in the story. Maybe we should go, but then again, we could also do something useful. Cleaning out the garage or scrub the diesel exaust stain off the stern of the Barco.

Boat shows can be fun! I remember going religiously to every show, looking at boats I could never afford and equally expensive aftermarket goodies that make boating better. There is never any real price incentives to buying at the boat shows. Just like flea markets and swap meets; There are retailers who count on customers thinking that there are lower prices because overhead is reduced. Not. It costs a lot to be at the show and the show's promoters clip both the seller and the customer via admission fees.

Never mind the five dollar hot dogs and five dollar bud lite.

I was at the Miami boat show a few years ago, intending to stop by and leave that afternoon. Our favorite musician, Eric Stone happened to be doing a gig. What great fun! We had acquired his first CD back in 2001, and we really enjoyed his sailboat centric songs. We enjoyed chatting with his lovely bride, who is described in the song Sailing Life; "I've got a magnetic fix on my compass, a true Northern Girl on my starboard..." His bride is from the Northeast with the accent to prove. OKELEMELUNA?



This gets us an introduction to the singer himself, and we shared a couple of beers between sets. That's when the Owner/Publisher of Latitudes and Attitudes magazine shows up and begins to buy us all drinks. He had quite the roll of bills burning a hole in his pocket, so we just did the right thing by helping drink all the libations Latitudes and Attitudes was buying. Yes, I got hammered with Bob. What a great life, huh?

The sun began to set and I realized that I was now unable to make the drive home. We were going to need to find a hotel room in order to camp for the night, since there was no way I wanted to negotiate South Florida traffic in my condition. There was a hotel across the street called the "Everglades Hotel". I walked in and boldly walked up to the desk clerk.

"Hi. I am needing a room for the night, it seems I have had too much to drink at the boat show and want to do the right thing by not driving. I hope you can help out a Navy Sailor by finding me a small room at the best price possible... We don't need me driving tonight."

The nice lady asked to see my id card, mentioned something about being full of Boat Show participants, and in a few moments said, "Sure. Got a small room. $75.00?"

I whipped out my trusty credit card and was soon up in the room taking a break from the warm day.

Later on, our friend Jeff called and asked where we were staying and we told him. While we were at dinner, he blanched when we told him the price.

"What? I'm paying $140.00 a night!"

Heh. I was willing to pay whatever price for the room, just having a room was enough for me. By the way, I pull that too much to drink stunt all the time. Generally, I find that hoteliers are really trying to keep our roads clear of idiot drinkers. It is much cheaper to pay $200.00 for a cheap motel room than get arrested for DUI or killing some innocent person. Most of the time there are some very deep discounts provided which should incentivise all persons of the drinking class to do the right thing.

Maybe we should go to the boat show this weekend. Never know who we will meet.

(Thanks, Eric and Bob! You made a great memory for the Barco Crew.)