Alegria

Palm Coast Marina is becoming our “Hotel California”, You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.  We are finishing up mounting the solar panels.  We went to Jacksonville and sold our Expedition, and we sold our jeep to Tim the wildlife officer or “The Nature Guy” as the kids call him.   So we are carless now which our daughter cannot understand.  “We don’t have a car anymore?  That is so stupid.”  We almost hit a major trip canceller the other day.  In casual conversation in the West Marine store, Dan just happened to mention that he wanted to get a small back up inverter incase something happened to the one we had on the boat.  When we were trying to decide which one to get based on the wattage I realized that it wouldn’t work for my hairdryer.  At this point in the trip he decides to inform me that I can’t use my hair dryer on our CURRENT inverter.  Since we have been on shore power and since I take a shower and dry my hair at the marina shower the lack of my ability to use a blow dryer on our boat has never come up.  I know we have had this discussion before and I know I made it clear that I never intended to go 2 years without drying my hair and why are we having this conversation now in the West Marine after I have quit my job and sold my house and car?  He replies, “I thought you knew.” No I didn’t know and I don’t intend to know that.  I am not a high maintenance person but I am simply not going 2 years of my life with wet hair.  No way, NADA.  I am not the air dry hair dry person.  That is a whole nother persona.  It is like when the vaccination records were lost for my daughter Tessa, the state of North Carolina was trying to make her get vaccinated again. When I said no, the option was given to me that I could  refuse on the grounds of religious reason.  I’m like, are you crazy?  I am not a religious protester!  I would have to take on a whole new persona.  I would have to stop shaving my legs and start wearing long skirts and Birkenstocks and probably NOT USE A HAIR DRYER!!!  In light of the current consequences we spent the next hour scouring the city until we found an 800 watt hair dryer.  The trip was back on.

When we toured Cape Canaveral earlier this month they mentioned the launch of Themis and how you could contact your senator to try and get VIP tickets.  We didn’t think we would be here that long but as we got closer to the February 16 launch date and realized we were still going to be in Florida, we decided to give it a try.  I talked to Mark Pendleton at Senator Elizabeth Dole’s office.   He wasn’t aware of any VIP tickets nor was he sure how to go about finding out.  He promised he would check into it and let us know.  We figured that was the end of it.  But he called me the next day and tracked down the information for us.  He needed to mail some paperwork to Cape Canaveral and since we were already so close to the launch date he wasn’t sure if they would get it on time.  But we got lucky.  He called me on the 13th and said we had the VIP tickets to the launch and also tickets to a cocktail reception where we got to mingle with all the people who had built, designed, and were responsible for the launch.  The launch itself was amazing.  They took us on a bus from the main center to the launch site.  It was windy and cold (of course), but they had a tent set up for us, free drinks and hamburgers and hotdogs for a dollar.  We endured the wind and cold for about and hour.  Then six minutes before launch it was called off due to wind.  They would try again the next day.  So the next day, we again drove to Cape Canaveral, got on the bus to the launch site, again had hamburgers and drinks, AGAIN it was cold but less windy.  This time we had a launch.  It was amazing.  As the rocket goes up, these 6 fuel tanks burned through their fuel and then dropped off where presumably they would land harmlessly in the ocean.   The very ocean we would be crossing to the Bahamas.  I am sure the odds of being on a sailboat and being hit by falling fuel tanks is miniscule, but still, they do land somewhere.   If you are ever in Florida and have a chance to see a launch it is well worth it.  And do call your senator for tickets.  We are very grateful Mark Pendleton for really helping us out!!!!  It is something none of us will forget.