fort lauderdale to indiantown

at least it isn't snowing. dave and the gang in p.g. hav reported two feet then another foot of snow this past few days. here in hollywood it's been rainy but warm. yesterday was a shopping day. of course there was a pile-up on 95 south and we had to get off amidst a mess of angry, impatient nobodies going nowhere. some americans don't cue well. off the freeway and into the second coming of noah's flood. at times it seemed we should be driving the jeep rather than the little corolla. our good old gps put us right in front of the west marine in hollywood where we didn't find any man overboard flags but did get a spot and renewed our towboat u.s. the gps must have been confused by the rain because the wal-mart we requested ended up being in the parking lot of a luxury hotel near the beach....?????
so, it was 'home' to the st. maurice and a quiet evening of the worst noisy jazz group assailing a warm on-shore breeze. the next door neighbors dog must have been really frightened by the din because he was up all night complaining in an agravating yappy little voice.
so, it's mid-morning and my poor polly is finally asleep. we may drive to indiantown this p.m. but that's yet to be decided....billie dancer isn't going anywhere without us.

we're most excited and almost ready. the forecast is for sun in ft. lauderdale. i had dreams last night about broken sailboats.............
the picture i posted today was taken at elliot key. the area was a weekend party destination for folks from southern florida but we were there during the week so we had the place much to ourselves. billie found a little plastic figurine of buzz light year in a couple of feet of gin water, we mounted him right out on the end of the bowsprit. anyway, the picture was taken from our dingy. it's one of my favorites and in many ways demonstrates one of the best parts of cruising.
stay tuned.

january 16, 2011
we're off to florida on tuesday. we're sad to leave the kids and grands but not sad to leave the winter. we've booked into the st. maurice inn in fort lauderdale for a few days to walk the beach and catch our breath. billie dancer will be moved to the maintainance area on friday, january 21. new bottom paint for her. we've forgotten much. i'm looking forward to looking up and checking what kind of palm tree i'm resting against.
i'm not sure how to get the dingy back up on its davits. last year there was a fifteen foot long alligator who hung around the marina so i won't be getting into the water any too soon.
all the gang, sans mike, was over last night for a last evening together. ian was in form so everyone had exhausted head muscles by evening's end.