Space Coast and Friends

We have had a whirlwind time here the last couple of weeks with friends and exploring.  Before we left for the cruise we had one last dinner with Joe and Kathy.  The day we returned we had a long lunch with Cal and Marie, who we know from Betty's.  Then Mike and Sherri flew down from WashPA for a five day visit and on our last day here we met our friend John in New Smyrna Beach for a long, getting caught up lunch.

 Our last dinner with Joe and Kathy at Fishbone Willy's, a neat and very good local restaurant in Melbourne.  We had a great time with them in the Keys and in Christmas and are looking forward to seeing them on our next cruise in April'

The day after we returned from our cruise we drove to the other side of Orlando to have lunch with Cal and Marie.  Lunch turned into a three hour event of getting caught up with each other's travels.  We were sad to hear they were not going to be able to make it to Betty's this year. 

On Wednesday I went to the office to let them know that our friends Mike and Sherri were coming to stay with us for a few days.  I don't know if their visit and these pictured vehicles were connected, but they both showed up in the park shortly after I left the office.

Sherri and Mike were happy to be in the sunshine state even if they did bring some cooler weather with them that required long pants and jackets.  Even when it is chilly, having the sunshine makes a big difference,

We went to Coco Beach for a look at the Atlantic and to check out the fishing pier.  It was sunny with too much wind but we still enjoyed a stroll along the water.  We stayed busy and never did get a chance to fish.

Our next stop was Port Canaveral where we saw this pelican strutin his stuff as he waited for fishermen to toss him some scraps.

True friends Sherri and Nanc sharing the big chair.

Check out the sign.  How cool!!  And, very true.  Of course the picture of Mike and me has him reverting to middle school behavior, using his fingers to make it look like I have horns.

We watched two cruise ships setting sail out of Port Canaveral where we had sailed from the week before.  This is the Disney Magic. 

 SpaceX, a private company, had a launch scheduled for the evening Mike and Sherri arrived and we did not want to miss it.  It was postponed the first day so we returned to New York New York, a local restaurant that is a good place to watch a launch from Cape Canaveral.  We were all bundled up against the cool, windy weather.  And we were disappointment again as the launch was cancelled until a fueling issue was resolved.  What a bummer! 

The launch was rescheduled again for Sunday.  We returned to New York New York and waited, only to have a short delay caused by a boat being in the restricted area.  After almost an hour the countdown began again and went all the way down to zero only to have the computer deny the launch because of some other glitch.  Another big bummer!!!

We did get to see this osprey and a pod of dolphins while waiting for the launch.  Each evening after dinner we played a little guys against gals euchre and I'm happy to report the guys came out on top three of the four evenings.

Other days we visited the Kennedy Space Center, The Merritt Island NWR and the Canaveral National Seashore, all stories for other blog posts.  On Tuesday Mike and Sherri left on a coast to coast drive across Florida to Bradenton so they could take in a Pirate spring training game. 

We had a three hour lunch with John at the Yellow Dog Eats.  It was great hearing about what has been happening with his family with three new grand babies since we last saw him in September.  John and I coached together so we also got the inside stories about what was happening in the high school basketball scene in Western PA.  As we say so many times, seeing friends on the road is one of the best things about our roaming lifestyle.

  

We know many RVers who say their rigs can host eight, feed four, but only sleep two.  We have found that sleeping four is not a big deal and we love having friends come and a visit.  That said, we sometimes have issues like we did when Mike flooded the water closet with the sprayer and  Sherri broke the clip that holds the closet door shut.  These were no big deal because things like that can happen anytime.  But because they are such good friends, we really had to give them a hard time about them:-)  We are already looking forward to sharing our RVing adventure with others when my brother Rick and his wife Denise and Tom and Georgie visit while we are at Betty's in the spring.