Waking up to the sunrise, warm air with the smells of the earth and vegetation after last nights thunder showers. Doing my coffee routine in my familiar one cup espresso pot after the more than three weeks trip to the Northwest.

While doing my laundry I met several cruisers. Among them: John and Mary from Seattle on the 34 foot Pacific Seacraft “Slappey II”, from Seattle.                       ( www.svslappey.wordpress.com ) John got in on the ground floor of the personal computer, in the seventies. He worked for Microsoft when they were still in Bellevue with a workforce of 200…..  In the short conversation I received a clear picture of the history and the future of computer science. Vero Beach is spread out from the Atlantic sea shore inland over 10 miles but a free shuttle service stops every hour at the marina and got me to Harbor Freight to replace the cordless drill Blanco the Black Cuban mechanic talked me out of for his $20 and to get supplies for the maintenance job in Green Cove Springs. The stores are a long distance from the marina in Green Cove Springs. I found the correct lengths and dimension for the fan belt that I had replaced with a belt that was too tight and this seems to have fixed the problem I had with overheating. The real test will come tomorrow when I head up to cape Canaveral on the ICW and then into the Atlantic for Green Cove Springs via Jacksonville. I bought groceries to last me for this three/four day trip.

Yesterday evening I met my friends Linda and Ron who moved here shortly after I had met them in Green Cove Springs in the spring of 2008. They married as high school sweethearts in Flint, Michigan where Ron had a life long career with Chevrolet and took early retirement. A number of their friends have followed their move to Vero Beach. The nickname Velcro Beach is appropriate. I could easily get stuck on this part of Florida. Please, keep this a secret.

Linda and Ron the rolling Flint stones and Moss in the Live Oak tree