February 2, 2017 Black Point Settlement hospitality

We spent the morning doing something I can no longer remember.  But we did start a load of laundry.  We decided to wait to hang the laundry because we wanted to go into town.  First we needed to arrange a ride for Kaitlin on Saturday from the airport.  We stopped at the first golf cart we saw, which had a rental sign on the side.  A man was working on it and said it hasn’t been running for a long time.  He directed us to Ida at Rockside Laundry. 

Ida was gone for a few minutes, so we sat outside on her harbor side gazebo.  She also has a nice dinghy dock for cruisers to come to with their laundry.  Really nice facility.  We met a couple from Denmark, Rene and Dorte.  We had seen their boat on the ICW in Florida 2 years ago.  They were familiar with the area our Danish friends were from.  They invited us to a cruiser’s happy hour at 4:00.

Dorte and Rene from Denmark

We talked to Ida about picking up a friend at the airport.  She said she would do that for us.  She took our name and the flight information.  Then she asked me to remind her tomorrow.  When I asked her how much it would be, she said “just tip me something”.

Then we went to Lorraine’s for lunch.  Her mother makes fresh bread everyday.  While we were waiting for our food, I went next door and put in an order for her coconut cinnamon raisin bread for Saturday morning. 

Next, we met Civian in grocery store.  She was home visiting family and was working in her uncles store.  She has been living in Delano, Minnesota for 30 years.  Her son went to college at Mankato State and played football.  He has friends that play for the Vikings.  She has been to 3 games in the new stadium in Minneapolis and even showed us pictures of the inside.  Her daughter attends Sioux Falls University in South Dakota.  She just loves MN.  We told her about our friend visiting that is a recruiter for Black Hills State University in SD.  She wants to meet her.  And if she can bring some cards or brochures, she will promote her school. 

The mail boat was scheduled to arrive later that day.  So she said to come back in the morning for the best selection of groceries.  We picked up a couple things and decided to come back.  She said she would be stocking the produce tonight if we wanted to stop by later.  Really friendly.

We headed back to the boat with our groceries and regrouped to go back for happy hour.  Needless to say, the laundry didn’t get hung to dry.  It’s good for it to soak.  At Scorpio’s, we sat with the Danish couple and another couple from Sweden.  It was interesting to hear about their adventures of sailing across the Atlantic.  It gave us new ideas about doing it ourselves.  They said that many people spend the winters in the Canary Islands and return north in the summer.  Hmmm, sounds tempting. 

We also saw the crew from Whipper Snapper and visited with them.  They were in their 20’s and 30’s.  The owner built this catamaran in Key West and sailed it here.  He has different friends/crew joining him for periods of time.  This boat is really like camping.  They don’t have a head, so they drop their bottom in the ocean every time they go.  Clay said he never thought he would be looking into someone's face and having a conversation while he was doing his business.  I guess he’s not married. 

We ended up having dinner at Scorpio's.  Great coconut shrimp, chicken wings, and french fries that were loaded like nachos.  We got our bar food fix taken care of.  On the way back to the boat, about 7:00 pm, we noticed Civian and her young niece stocking shelves.  So we stopped in and had the first pick of the produce and frozen meats.  What a deal!  But her eggs were $5/dozen.  We have been paying between $2-3 elsewhere.  It was a fun and productive day.

stingray with a school of small fish swimming with it