TIM PATTI RILEY BIG ADVENTURE: February 2018

2/18/2018

Still in Faro Blanco. We have about 1.5 weeks left here. Still undecided about where to go next. We wanted to go to Islamorada, but 2 things are conspiring against that. Irma hit that area pretty hard & some of the marinas are not up & running at full capacity. Also my research has shown some pretty skinny water. That was confirmed when we drove up there & visited some of the marinas. To be continued.....

So what has been happening here....

We continue with our morning walks along the Overseas Highway. It is 4 lanes & the speed limit is 35 to 55 MPH. Very noisy with many trucks. Very few traffic lights. The closest one to us is 2 miles down the road. If one needs to get across the street, you run when there is a break in the traffic. Not my favorite thing to do, but I always need to know what is on the other side! The sidewalks remain littered with broken glass.

We have only had a few days without the wind. I will not complain about that until it comes time to leave! We are in a protected spot & it keeps us a little cooler. A few light sprinkles, but till mostly sunny, created some perfect rainbows. Did not get pictures that would do them justice, nor did I find the pot of gold😟

We have been spending some of our time at the pool. It is surrounded on 3 sides by the hotel, so even with the wind it is comfortable. When we first started going to the pool, there were many iguanas. Now, not so much. Seems they are a nuisance & people are afraid of them, so they are exterminated. We are seeing more by our dock now. Not sure if that is due to warmer temps or they passed the word it was not safe to go to the pool.

Tim sometimes turns on the underwater swim platforms lights at night. Usually the only thing to see is minnows, but one night we had a brief shark sighting. About 3' in length. He was gone in a flash.
Speaking of sea creatures, this AM, a manatee was hanging out at a boat a couple docks down from us. Once again, no good picture. He would not surface long enough for a face shot. Could only capture his tail as he went back under.

Getting Riley on & off the dinghy here is a problem, so he has not been out.😟 But we have only been out once & that was yesterday. Went with a group of loopers to a couple of waterside bar/restaurants. We had to use a ladder to climb up to their docks. On the up side, we did find a sandbar & hopefully we will go there to clean the dinghy bottom & let Riley do a little swimming.

Speaking of Riley, he finally got to the groomer. He is no longer my "surfer dude", now he is my "preppy boy." He was there for 4 hours. Have to admit, I am sweeping up a lot less fur.

We have had some company while here. Marsh & Linda stayed with us for a couple of days. They are snowbirds from Avon Lake, who drove down from their winter home in Ocala. It was fun to see them. Anne & Dan & June & Tommer, also from home stopped. They were visiting FL & stopped on their way to Key West. We went to the No Name Pub for lunch. It is papered with dollar bills. In 2006 it was estimated there were 70,000 of them. Mary & Jim, also visiting FL. stopped. They are docked at our marina back home. They did the loop in '09/10. They have always been patient when answering all my questions about looping. A good time was had by all. At least we enjoyed it.