February 19 -March 22, 2021 Social calendar

February 26-another ladies luncheon.  We try to do this once a month at the marina.

February 26-Close to the full moon, several boaters like to test their outboard motors with a “dinghy drift”. We head out away from the marina and raft up our dinghies.  We used to share drinks and snacks.  Now people just bring their own refreshments.  We had about 8 dinghies and 20 people.  Fun night.

we started out a little buggy, hence the bug net on Lorie

 

 

full moon rising

 March 5-one of our boating friends received permission from the marina for his friend to land a helicopter at the marina.  He was transporting it along the coast and planned an overnight in Brunswick.  It was fun to watch it land.   Dave and I each made a video.

 

March 8- 3 boats decided to make the dinghy trip to Marshside grill for lunch again.  This time, when we called the restaurant to have them open the gate at the dock, they didn’t have the key to let us in.  The dock actually belonged to a fishing company next door.  They were doing some repairs to the dock and hadn’t given them a new key.  We were all pretty hungry, so we found a spot nearby that we could tie up and get to shore near their parking lot.  What troupers!

 

 

 

 

March 10-Dave continues to work on our bimini and dodger.  It was Christened today with a couple good bird droppings.

 Dave scavenged a piece of bow from another boat to add a hand rail for us in the cockpit.  Very handy.  He also used pieces to add support to our dodger.

March 13-This is the Saturday before St Patrick’s Day.  Pete was hired to play Irish music in a couple of the squares in downtown Brunswick.  It was a beautiful day.

this leprechaun found the pot of gold

 During the week or St Patrick’s, Pete’s previous band members in South Dakota decided to come here and play a couple places with him.  There was a blizzard in SD, WY, and CO, so a couple of them were delayed.  They played together Tuesday night at Tipsy McSway’s downtown.   We had a large table of boaters there to support them.  It was fun to hear them together again.  I was videoing for Facebook Live.  The photos were taken by Lorie from our dock, or I should say "of Lorie" with her camera.

Lorie and Doc Art from Hawaii

Pete and Lorie

other dock 9 friends-Dave, Lorie, Mary, another Dave, Kent

Bruce from Rapid City, SD and Lorie

On St Patrick’s day, The River Liffey Boys played on St Simon’s Island at Gnat’s Landing in the afternoon and at Murphy’s Pub in the evening.  We listened to them in the afternoon, but returned to our marina for our own St Paddy’s party.

Bruce, Nick, Ted, Pete.  Dave thought Nick had Spanish Moss from the trees on his head

Doc Art sets up a DJ system during their breaks

Moe and Janet from our dock, Art, Dave, Julia we met on Saturday and she came to hear Pete's band today

March 19-Dave has been working on some electrical issues near our mast.  He replaced 4 wire clamshells that  protect wiring that runs through the deck without leaking.   He had been using butyl rubber to seal things and it was looking “suspect”.   Wires to our VHF radio, nav lights, anchor light, deck light, motor lights all to be cut.  He had 4 clams with one wire each.  Now there are 2 wider narrow clams that can run 4 wires through each one, doubling our capacity.  

just a cool reflection of the clouds on the water at the marina

February 14-18, 2021 Oklahoma City snow storm

Then the weather moved in. It snowed Sunday and Monday, and Wednesday in OK, but Texas was a mess!!  They had many places without power or water.  I shoveled snow 3 times that week.  I would have felt guilty if I hadn’t helped my sister who is 8 years older than me.  

On Tuesday, I tried for over an hour to get a Lift or Uber ride to the airport.  Bev ended up driving me there.  Once we were out of her neighborhood, the roads were ok.  My flight was delayed leaving, and I would have missed my flight in Atlanta, so I opted to stay 2 more days.  I made it home safely on Thursday the 18th.  We were spaced out nicely on the airplanes.  They gave us an antiseptic wipes as we boarded, which I used to wipe down my area.  Everyone wore masks in the airplanes and airports.

Bev let me wear my old wool coat that I gave her when we moved onto the boat

February 9-13, 2021 Brownsville, TX condo and sights

We enjoyed our pool several days with Janice leading us in water aerobics, then soaking up some sun.  

 

 

 

As we were driving back to our hotel one day, I realized our condo was about 4 blocks from a border crossing to Mexico.  

 

We were at the blue dot on the right

tents set up on the Mexican side

My 65th birthday was Wednesday, February 10.  We went out for a nice seafood dinner that night.  The staff sang happy birthday to me and gave me a free piece of pecan pie.  It was a great day.  

Janice made guacamole with fresh market ingredients

 

missing my hugs from Dave

We knew Thursday was going to be rainy, so we scheduled massages for the 3 of us.  What a nice treat.  Afterwards, we drove past SpaceX, the private space station owned by Elon Musk.

 

 

 

building the next rocket

we drove past SpaceX to find the water

 

unusual cactus

We rented the condo until Saturday, but we had decided to take Janice back to Donna, TX on Friday, spend the night at their RV park and head back to Oklahoma on Saturday and Sunday.  On Thursday, Bev talked to her son back in OK.  He said if we didn’t make it back to OK by Saturday night, we wouldn’t make it back for another week.  I guess we hadn’t been paying attention to the statewide weather.  He was right!!

Had fun with the monkeys throughout the week!

 

 

 We packed up Friday morning and drove along the Mexican border to see “the wall”.  We dropped off Janice and headed north.  There had already been some pile ups of automobiles with icy roads in the cities, so we took the scenic tour halfway up the state on Friday.  On Saturday, we checked with the Texas Department of Transportation and got the go ahead to travel through Dallas.  We made it back to OK in time to have dinner at our favorite German restaurant in Norman, OK.  

Jim and Janice at their rental in Donna, TX

we were a little worried when we saw the frost in the trees and on the grass and tracks going into the ditch

one of the few places in the United States where you can get German beer by the liter