Day 171: Friday, February 22, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers, Florida

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

Mile to Mile: Our friend Cliff from Minnesota and now Florida decided to drive down from Sarasota to visit today. Caroline had to work but we thought about her a lot – especially when she texted us that today is National Margarita Day. We were already enjoying a couple amazing margaritas at Mel’s Diner but now we had something else to celebrate. It was fun catching up – they are in limbo waiting to here if their offer on a house near Sarasota is accepted and can’t really make plans until that is done. Stressful but exciting.

Before our lunch stop, Cliff drove us to the mega West Marine store where I was able to exchange a defective folding seat we had bought there in November – the ratchet stopped working correctly. No hassle and they had new ones in stock. (Much easier to accomplish by truck than trying to get there by bus with a large cushioned seat that won’t fold properly). And I surprisingly didn’t find anything else I needed. Thanks Cliff.

We went on a long walk after Cliff headed back to Tampa (to pick up Caroline and drive another 2+ hours to Cocoa Beach to visit some old neighbors of theirs). The shorefront along the river is perfect for walking – nice scenery, quiet, wide sidewalks and a beautiful river. A  welcome change from the walking challenges in Fort Myers Beach. We stopped at Publix on the way back to get a few groceries including popcorn to enjoy with our Netflix movie tonight. We watched Abducted on Netflix and were pleasantly surprised. A good movie picked pretty much at random. Here’s to National Margarita Day – cheers!