Tuesday, February 18, 2014

It's very early in the morning and we are

headed for West Palm Beach to pick up our generator!

 Still moving on

and waiting for the sun to peak !

 

We are here!

And the genny is here!

And it starts!

 

 I stopped to get gas and this picture was hangin' on the wall

I couldn't resist!

"The stares!  You'd think people had never seen a Thong before."

 

Boy what a day! Very, very, long!  We were on the water at 0540 this morning, in the Jeep at 0550, and headed North! 

 

We got to the generator place around 1030 and finally picked up our genny.  We dropped it off somewhere around the end of November (I believe) and are just now getting it back.  It wasn't as expensive as we thought it was going to be so that was good.  It runs quieter, I think, until something gets plugged into it, then I'm sure it will roar!!

 

After the genny we went to the PO in West Palm Beach to hopefully pick up our Ice Maker that arrived there on December 4, 2013! As luck would have it, they remembered the package because it sat there so long, but no one came in to claim it so they sent it back to the company as unclaimed a week and a half ago!  So close, yet so far away!  Let's see if we ever get our money back for that!

 

Now we need to drive south for an hour and a half to get Bob to the Miami International Airport for his 2 o'clock flight!  We left West Palm Beach around 1115 with the hopes of getting into Miami, 1st, to meet up with Gary and Jayne, and 2nd, to have lunch before Bob left!  Neither happened!  We got in the vicinity of the airport around noon-thirty and was afraid to go anywhere in fear of hitting an accident or something and not being able to get Bob to his flight on time.  So I dropped him off, and skeeaddled out of town.  The traffic was horrible, I'm in a vehicle I don't know driving through this horrible traffic, and let's not forget, I haven't driven for 4 months! AND I have to have the Jeep back at the rental place by 6 p.m., but first I have to go to the dinghy dock to drop off this heavy, heavy, generator, get it in our dinghy and lock it up so I can take the car back!

 

Once I dropped Bob off and followed the magenta line on our GPS to get out of town (I have no idea which way I went, I just followed the magenta line!) I had to make a couple of potty breaks, almost ran out of gas, got behind a 24' RV that had a kid following behind him on a moped and for at least 20 miles drove anywhere from 20 to 40 mph before he finally made it to his destination! I finally get my speed up and an iguana decided to hightail it across 4 lanes of traffic right in front of me, so of course I had to stop for him, and then I'm on my way again.  I did get a smile on my face when I saw the cartoon picture of the thong and had to take a picture of it!

 

Anyway, I'm finally back at the dinghy dock and realize I don't have my key card to get into it.  Luckily some guy was getting ready to walk in and was kind enough to let me in, so I grab a shopping cart that was sitting there and went back to the Jeep to unpack it.  Getting the genny into the cart wasn't so bad since all I had to do was basically slide it out from the Jeep into the cart.  Now getting it onto the dinghy was another story.  I get it to the dinghy, and keep in mind I'm pretty exhausted by now, so I decide to just lock it to the dinghy and leave it on the dock and deal with it when I get back from dropping the car off, once I pedal my butt back here of course on my bicycle.  Nope, that's not gonna happen either.  The lock decided it wasn't going to unlock!  So I had to put the genny in the dinghy and unlock the other lock from the inside of the dinghy so I could lock the genny.  Do you know what it's like trying to put a heavy, heavy, genny on a small inflatable dinghy in water without dropping it in the water!  It's tough!  Of course there was no one there to help me so I had to do it myself so I could get this darn Jeep back in time and as it was it was already 5:40!  But, somehow, I did it and I'm now heading back to the Jeep.  I get to the Jeep and the darn thing doesn't want to start!  Can you believe it!!  I finally get the darn thing started, drive to the airport, and as luck would have it....a flight just came in and I had to stand at the end of the line so I could turn my key in!  I finally get done and I walk over to my bicycle and I happened to look down at the brand new white t-shirt I was wearing from the Bahamas and I have dirt and grease all over it from the genny.  Luckily I had Bob on the phone otherwise I would have probably sat down on the ground and just start crying....instead I say a few explicit words to him, get on my bicycle, and hightailed it back to the dinghy dock with the hopes that no one closed the door and locked me out!  I even pedaled my tired butt over this bridge (very steep) I normally try to avoid at all cost.  I just wanted to get this day over with! 

 

As you can see, I made it back here, got the genny on the boat without dropping it in the water, and locked and lifted the dinghy out of the water and am now finishing my day.  Bob is back in Baltimore, had a great flight, enjoyed some quality time with my daughter, Jenny, had a great spaghetti dinner made by Jenny, got his car from MRYC, visited with Scott for a few minutes to make sure he was thawed out and still moving the body, talked with family and friends, and has made sure he was available to answer the phone and listen to my rantin' when needed!  All is good!  Thank you to all our friends who have checked to make sure Bob made it back ok and now it's time to end this day!  There's more I could add, but I'm too tired!