Day 298 – 303; 3/12 – 3/17: Tuesday, 3/12 we bid Melbourne goodbye and headed north to Titusville, FL – a 3.5 hour run. Gotta love Starlink as Carol had one meeting in the middle of the run; works great except when we go under a bridge! We eased into our slip in the Titusville Municipal Marina, which provided basic services like showers, laundry and 2 boaters gathering areas – one outside with picnic tables and grills and one being a big screened in porch with lots of seating. The people were super friendly and facilities nice enough. What was surprising was the number of boats in the marina that haven’t moved in years! They are literally floating apartments with “window wart” air conditioners tacked onto the architecture of the boat, lots of accumulated stuff everywhere and years of growth on the bottom of the boats. Some were quite the sight!
We passed Mike and Darlene on Riversong at the last bridge before the marina, so they pulled in a few minutes behind us – their slip on the next dock over. We decided we’d all walk over to the nearest restaurant (about 1 mile) called Pier 220 for dinner. They’ve been on the loop, starting in Cincinnati, OH, since mid September, but have met hardly any loopers! We scratched our heads how that could be….6 months on the loop and so few looper encounters? We realized the problem – they started down the river system from Cincinnati about 3 weeks before any of us could pass through the locks in Chicago. Remember how the locks in Chicago were shut down for several months and didn’t reopen until 10/5? So their first several months, navigating the entire river system and most of FL western coast, was spent traveling alone and meeting only the locals….no loopers! That is not at all your typical looper experience and rather sad! Well, we were pleased to break that pattern and welcome them to looping with loopers!
They hadn’t experienced ‘safe arrival drinks’ or docktails on the pier, rafting up together, group potluck dinners, tall tales of fish caught or stories of looper helping looper. Carol promptly swung into action contacting all the other loopers in the area, finding them on NEBO and setting up docktails on 3/13. Best laid plans, however, didn’t work totally as intended….Mike and Darlene were leaving the next day to go to Kentucky to see their kids and grand babies for a week! Oh well – next time! We pressed on without Riversong joined by Walter and Alanna on Echo’s Too and Sacha on Live de Life for some looper time!
Back to Titusville – we were very much looking forward to this port so we could visit the famed Kennedy Space Center. Feeling like little kids, we bought our 2 day passes and started mapping out our path to maximize the things we could see, minimize time in line and avoid groups of screaming elementary school kids…. Yes they come by the bus load! Neither of us had ever been there as kids, so it was a big treat!
Part history and part theme park, we brushed up on our space race history starting with JFK challenging the nation to go to the moon, “not because it was easy, but because it was hard.” JFK wouldn’t personally see that happen, but his challenge on May 25, 1961 (as well as Russia launching the first satellite into space (Sputnik 1) in 1957 and first human space flight (a Russian) on April 12, 1961 (Yuri Gagarin) was the catalyst. The US responded with amazing achievements including the first humans on the moon in January of 1969…..I can remember being huddled around our black and white TV to watch that historic event as Walter Cronkite reported. It was Apollo 11; Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon…..”One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The United States would go on to put men on the moon 6 times between 1969 and 1972, something no other country has been able to do. Now NASA, with help from industry, is vowing to do it again.
From the Apollo missions to the Space Shuttles to the International Space Station (ISS), Hubble and James Webb Space telescopes and all the discoveries and improvements to life here on the planet Earth that came from the Space program (GPS, Solar power, and cell phone communication to name a few) it was a great 2 days. A highlight was the Space Shuttle Atlantis on display, after completing 33 missions in space. Like little kids we rode the Space Shuttle simulator to know what it felt like to take off on the Space Shuttle and enjoyed the simulation of future space flight that would take visitors to Mars. Like we said earlier, part science/history and part theme park, just about every exhibit ended in a gift shop and ice cream for 2 exceeded $20! Regardless, it was worth it and made us proud.
Both days, we returned in time for what was supposed to be a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch to carry more Starlink satellites into orbit. We sat on the bow of the boat ready for a launch on both 3/13 and 3/14, but both never happened. As luck would have it, we had tickets to the community playhouse on 3/15; show started at 8:00. Launch was scheduled for 6:00 pm; then rescheduled for 7:00; then, of course 8:05 when it finally went….. so we missed it! Oh well. The show was great fun and now we will have to return to see a launch when we return to FL in future years to go to the Bahamas!
Friday, 3/15 took us to the American Police Hall of Fame and Museum – an exhibit dedicated to those who serve as police officers all across the country. It was a very interesting mix of memorabilia, history, trivia and tributes. We capped off the night with docktails with Echo’s Too, Hoppy Trails, Seabatical, Carpe Diem and Next Chapter. Next Chapter has only been on the loop for 10 days…. Virgins! After docktails, it was onto the play at the community theater where we saw “May We All,” a fun play featuring lots of country music and heart warming Americana themes.
Saturday, 3/16 we said goodbye to Titusville and headed to New Smyrna Beach, FL where we planned to anchor for 2 days. We arrived in a little less than 4 hours, leaving around 11:00 am. Along the way was an interesting mix of sightings of manatees, dolphins, flocks of birds and gators. We had a few dolphins ride along with us on the way, but not like before. They were short stints and only one or two at a time.
Our planned anchorage looked a little dicey with strong currents, tidal changes, wind and some severe shoaling. We consulted with Linda and Scott (soon to cross their wake in Charleston) on ‘Faith’ as well as Norma and David (gold loopers from AZ) on ‘Dream Catcher’ who were already anchored, then chose a safe spot to drop the hook. Of course our next step was to drop the dinghy and join them on their boat for a “safe arrival” celebration.
We had communicated with Linda and Scott (‘Faith’) on Facebook and stalked each other on NEBO, but not actually met…so that was great! We hung out for a bit then returned to Legacy for dinner and to watch the Baltimore Blast Game at 6:05 pm. Baltimore played well and handily beat Harrisburg 7-5 with Michael in goal. Unfortunately, the Blast’s path to the playoffs is a difficult one. Sitting in 5th place, they need to win their last 4 games, all in regulation time, and need the 4th place team (Kansas City) to lose their last 2 games, all in regulation time. Why regulation time you might ask? MASL uses a scoring system whereby a regulation win earns 3 points, an OT win earns 2 points, an OT loss earns 1 point and a regulation loss earns nothing. It’s a pretty steep hill, but not statistically impossible for the Blast to make the playoffs. Love them all dearly and hoping for the best, but not putting hard cash on this one!
We will stay in New Smyrna Beach for one more day (3/17) and then it will be on to Daytona, FL. New Smyrna beach is a lovely and eclectic beach town with miles of white sandy beaches, cute shops, great restaurants and art galleries. The big ‘HOWEVER’ this week is that it will be College Spring Break Week AND St. Patrick’s Day. What could go wrong with that???
Stay tuned!
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