Day 25

We woke up today at 8:00 but decided to stay another day in the marina and make sure the boat was in tiptop shape before moving on… We took the bikes out for a couple hours in the state park that was attached to the marina. They have 56 neat little cottages for rent throughout the year, a golf course, and access to the marina/boat launch for the lake. Tabbie found a post office for her mailings, and Grant was itching to rent some golf clubs, but we decided it was a bit too overcast and cold today.

The rest of the day was spent drinking, playing cards, and our new favorite game – Lord of the Rings Risk… We went to bed early so we can get a good start in the morning. Pushing to get 70 miles up river to the next marina. That would put us on track to be at the Tom Bigbee riverway by Friday night, which is almost exactly halfway to Tampa!

Tabbie had to leave her little duck friend “Jose” whom she had befriended from the day we arrived here. If we were in the boat he would wait patiently under the swimming platform for Tabbie to come out and feed him some crackers or bread. And if we happened to go somewhere, he would go back to his nest, but as soon as we got back, sure enough you could see him swimming from across the bay, back to the boat. Sometimes he had a friend with him, but in most cases he just hung out by himself. Even all night. Tabbie was going to build a little nest for him on the platform. It seemed like he was so fat that he couldn’t fly, so she wanted to help him get south. However, Grant nixed that idea. He wasn’t about to take responsibility for feeding another mouth!