At our last posting, we detailed our trip down the St.
John’s River to Sanford and back to Jacksonville. After returning to Atlanta,
we tended to Coast Guard Auxiliary business with Flotilla meetings in our
“local” area around Georgia.
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| Getting ready for Thanksgiving Dinner |
Thanksgiving was spent with some of our friends coming over
to our house for dinner. I cooked two turkey breasts on our Big Green Egg and
Nan Ellen and I prepared the remainder of the feast. I told our friends that if
they liked it, I prepared it and if not, it was Nan Ellen’s responsibility.
Everyone just laughed and said they enjoyed it all. This was our first holiday
without Nan Ellen’s mother Ethel and it was good to have some of our friends
over to take away some of the loss.
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| Bob, Dave, Sharon |
While the boat remains in a slip at Ortega Landing, it is
not going unused. We have used it as a sort of “floating condo” when we had
Coast Guard Auxiliary business in Florida and December was a month where we
used it more than once for this purpose. I had a meeting in Miami scheduled for
December 12, and since Jacksonville is about the halfway point to Miami, it was
nice to break up the trip and give us another excuse to visit the boat. We
stayed a couple of nights before traveling to Miami for my meeting. On the way
back, I had to stop at the Port Canaveral Coast Guard Station for a Division
Change of Watch where we changed out our leadership for the coming year.
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| The Marina at Ortega Landing lit up for Christmas |
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| The entertainment for the evening |
We returned to our boat at Ortega Landing that afternoon and
attended their annual Christmas Party where we were able to meet some of our
fellow dockmates. As part of the celebration, we placed a couple of red and
green balls (navigational buoy colors) on the tree. Lo and behold, we ran into
fellow Loopers Jack and Denise Almeida, (formerly on Jade) whom we met for the
first time a couple of years ago in Rogersville AL when they were there on the
Loop. They are selling Jade and have purchased another boat (Lapis) to become
liveaboards at Ortega Landing. They are from Brazil and he is a retired
neurosurgeon. Their 4 year old daughter went trick or treating in her costume
among the other boaters at Halloween in Rogersville. She is still a precious
little girl and has just as much energy as we recall. After this celebration,
it was back to Atlanta on Sunday morning.
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| Merry Christmas from Ortega Landing Marina Clubhouse |
On the way back to Atlanta, our good friend Dianne Dimmick
invited us to her house for her Christmas Party and our timing could not have
been better. She lives in Hapeville (immediately north of Hartsfield Atlanta
Airport) - directly on our way home. Finally, we made it back home after a week
on the road staying in hotels and three nights on the boat.
We have more Christmas Parties planned before our next road
trip to Indianapolis just after Christmas to celebrate my Mother’s 80th
birthday. We have been invited to our neighbor’s house for New Year’s Eve and
will simply have to walk across the street without worrying about getting out
on the road with all the amateurs on New Year’s night.
In January, we will be going back to Jacksonville for
another Change of Watch at the Mayport Naval Station. I will be conducting
training at Coast Guard Air Station Savannah at Hunter Army Airfield and at the
St. Augustine Airport Conference Center. Just after this training concludes, we
will be back in Jacksonville for the US Power Squadron 100th annual
National Conference. We are also members of the Power Squadron and I will be
wearing hats of both organizations at the Conference. Since the 7th
District Commodore will be in St. Louis attending training sessions, he has
asked me to represent the 7th District Auxiliary at the Conference.
We have additional Changes of Watch scheduled for Augusta GA, Blairsville GA
(North Georgia mountains along the North Carolina border) and Dobbins Air
Reserve Base in Marietta GA during January and another Change of Watch in
Central GA during February. We have a VERY busy travel schedule.
February should be a slower month for us with travel, and
March will have some travel with Division meetings. With any luck, we hope to
restart our Loop towards the end of March or the first of April 2014.
We want to wish everyone Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and
a safe and prosperous New Year. We will update again in 2014.
