Enjoying a Snow Day ... Vicariously, of Course

Days 203 |  Tarpon Springs  

Heavy rain began falling much earlier than I anticipated and lasted through mid-morning. It was gray and heavily overcast so we left our Christmas lights turned on. We settled in and did some more inside projects as we received tornado warnings with our phone's weather alert service. I went through and deleted 3,000 bad pictures from my laptop and freed up 20 Gb of memory. Although I have been much better recently at managing pictures on a daily basis, I needed to sort through photos from early on in our Loop journey. This project was long overdue and hopefully now I won't get the dreaded "hard disk is full" warning for a while longer. As the hardest rain was falling, Barry realized that the dinghy drain plug was in, meaning it was filling with water up on the flybridge. Normally stored out so that rain can drain through, we had inserted the plug for our Gulf crossing so that the dinghy would be ready for launch in case of emergency. He got a little wet, but all was good as the water quickly drained out. He came back in and watched a PBS program on the Florida Keys to get his mind off of our current rain and wind. I brought the vacuum out and stared at it for a while before giving in and running it around the salon. Where does this stuff come from?

By early afternoon the sun peeked out for a while. We did three loads of laundry onboard. I went up to check on my Christmas Cactus which has been spending the past few weeks in front of the pilothouse window, soaking up the sun. It is loaded with buds and I hope it will bloom before we leave for Christmas. Fellow Loopers Jim and Allie (Meraki) stopped by at 5:30 for appys and to catch up on our trip down the inland rivers. They live nearby and Jim's office is here in Tarpon Springs. We met in Cape May, NJ and traveled up the Hudson River together. They left their boat in Alexandria Bay, NY, and have flown home to Florida for the winter. We had a great dinner at Mykonos, a Greek restaurant on Dodecanese Boulevard. I will say it once more, the Loop is as much about the people you meet along the way as it is the route you follow.

So the same front that brought us the heavy rain, dumped a foot or more of snow in North Carolina and Virginia. I was texting and talking with family and friends all afternoon, getting the latest report. There were snow angels, one happy dog, and an odd-looking snowman in Clemmons. The amount of snow that fell on Richmond was about double what was expected. It doesn't look like they'll be heading to work anytime fast tomorrow morning. It is no secret that I hate the cold and despise snow, and feel that snow is best when visited. That said, I sure hope it all melts by the time we return for Christmas.

We will be in Tarpon Springs for one more day. Tomorrow we'll do another load or two of laundry, get a pumpout, and fill the water tanks. Weather permitting, we'll also make a final walk up into town. Travel plans will be worked out with Miss Utah for our final two days together before saying goodbye for Christmas. I sure hope we'll catch up again as we continue around Florida and to the Bahamas. Its been a fun six weeks with them. Yes, its all about the people you meet along the way.