Turkey Creek Subdivision, one block off the Okeechobee Waterway, slightly east of Ortona Lock.
 
Here I sit in the great room of Joyce and Mark’s stilt house on a canal which is a short block to the waterway above Ortona lock while quietly listening to Lynn, Joyce and her friend, Georgia, who drove down from Sebring talk about tobacco growing and farming in Kentucky many years ago.  This charming octogenarian is now talking about her golf game that happens twice a week.  She gave up on 18 holes recently for nine.  They have now determined she is a tough old bird and Joyce is the tender leafed blossom.  Aww, as it always does, the talk has now changed to the foibles of men and how they relate to the trials they place on the human race in general and women in particular.  Even though I am ten feet away, they talk as if I am deaf or do not even exist in their all encompassing Venusian world.  I feel privileged that they allow me my voyeuristic episodes.  It is comfortable here.  Oh, poor Mark.  His ears must be burning even as he attends his work oriented meeting in Okeechobee.  Mark, Mark, Mark, you’re so lucky these three women like you.
 
I must take this opportunity to thank Dawn & Dave for suffering us for over a week.  They are so kind and were so good to us, as always.  We thank them, yes, but the words feel so darn inadequate.   Dave, Dawn, thank you SOOO much.  We are so grateful for your generosity.
 
Now we are staying for a couple of days with Mark & Joyce.  This is a cruising relationship.  Mark has cruised, until recently, fulltime for the previous ten years.  Joyce is equally salty having crossed the pacific and cruised here and there on a sailboat.  They are the Ying & Yang of cruising couples in some regards and their differences uniquely meld with each other and us.  It is always exciting sharing stories and experiences with them. 
 
Mark’s engineering background encourages and almost demands him to develop highly functional systems with good material that is often salvaged from a dumpster.  Let’s put this into perspective.  Mark converted a sailboat to a trawler of his own design and it is better than any professional conversion I have seen with the possible exception of John & Penny’s boat, the Seahorse, believed to somewhere in the Caribbean.  So those of you that see Winnie the Pooh on the waterways give Mark and Joyce a hail and ask for a tour of their boat.  Oh, yeah, try to get a sample of his Mark Beer or Joyce Wine, both of which he makes himself.  Mark is frugal with his funds and it never ceases to amaze me how much he can do with so little.
 
Every day for the last month Lynn & I have tried to organize the next few weeks and every day something changes or intervenes rendering the previous day’s tentative plans shredded or altered beyond use.  So, we are currently enjoying a vagabondish lifestyle ashore bouncing from one friend’s to another’s spare bedroom until we can sort out all of the silly things we are attempting to complete.  Currently we are hoping we do not run out of friends until we complete our appointed medical rounds, house closings and repairs and can get back on the boat, down to Stuart for our next presentation and back to here, Ortona, where Mark and I will be done with my electrical renovation of the boat.
 
Next up, Kyle & Margaret in St. Petersburg.  Keep your heads down kids, we be coming pretty darn soon.
 
From the heights of the stilt house we cherish our friends and time ashore even as we yearn for the boat life again
 
Capt'n Lynnie and Skinwalker