A Sentimental Journey back to Mom and Dad's Florida home near Melbourne



It seems as though we sail hard for three days or so and then take a couple of days off.  So we are in one of our leisure breaks.

After the first big winter cold front blew through St. Augustine, we departed in chilly waters one December 2 for Daytona Beach, Titusville, and, one the third day, a short ride to Melbourne Harbor.  I wanted to spend a few days retracing the steps my Mom and Dad and brother Don used to take with me during my visits here from Oklahoma, from 1983 until my Mom moved to Stillwater in 1998.  They really loved it here--the climate, the vegetation, the Manatees, the beautiful Indian and Banana Rivers, the Chart House Restaurant, and the many pretty parks along the beach where one could stop and take a walk or just pause to meditate.

We are in a slip in a very rundown-in-need-of-updating  urban marina.  Its good location--two miles from the Melbourne airport, for convenience in renting a car--and the fact that the Chart House is only two blocks away, made it desirable.  We needed a visit to the commissary, a round or two of golf at the lovely course in Manatee Cove at Patrick AFB, about a mile from my parent's former home in Satellite Beach, and a chance to remember the wonderful family meals we had enjoyed over the years at CH, especially the relish my Mom took in eating their fabulous Mud Pie.  Glen and I shared one in a salute to the parents.  Here's to you, Mom and Dad.  We're thinking of you.

The sail here from Titusville, where we stayed in a marina alongside Pekabu, was calm and warm.  Titusville was an early arrival for a change and we enjoyed the walk downtown and dinner with Pete and Kathy at a restaurant in town. There was a friendly small town feel with a Main Street Christmas celebration, groups of schoolkids singing their loudest, and lots of candy and crafts for sale. 



Bite yo'  tailfeather!



The vistas as we travel along the ICW in Central Florida have changed:  fewer wild areas; more houses of all different types from the very modest doublewides to the grand maisons; big wide rivers with lots of bridges; plentiful porpoises who don't play much, just fish;  Manatee zone warning signs everywhere.  And beautiful birds everywhere.  And sometimes they duke it out with one another.  The scenery is still gorgeous but riding in the middle of the ICW channel is a long way from shore.

I'm having a little, or maybe a big, problem with my laptop--I think my CMOS internal clock battery in the Toshiba laptop is or has gone bad.  It has flat out refused to start over the last couple of days, so if I cease writing this post, that will be the reason. Let's hope that my bowing, scraping, massaging its innards will keep this baby going.



Glen at Manatee Cove Golf Club

 We'll be here for one more day of golf, and then time to press on --ALONE--for Vero Beach.  Weather predictions are for a BIG cold front with temps in the low thirties to hit here this afternoon.  So far, that hasn't materialized but we will probably freeze our bippies on a mooring ball in Vero BeachTuesday night and Wednesday moarning when it is supposed to be 32.  But for the time being we have shore power and heat, so we are very comfortable.

I'll let you know if "Velcro Beach"--so called because once you get there you don't want to leave--is as much fun as predicted. We bought Christmas lights to put up on the boat, so we'll do it there to get into the spirit of the season.  Let us know if you're able to view the Blog.  We've tried to make it more public, to link it to Facebook and to e mail it to some of you who have said you're having problems connecting with us.  We hope you're enjoying all the holidays parties. 

Glen and Maureen