Day 20, Feb. 9, 2013, p.m.

After spending most of the day working, I finally needed a break. It was unfair of me to leave Gail hanging all day waiting for my call. I should have checked my other file earlier to know I had a lot to do. Listings for the month of March are coming in and there were others. More organizations are recognizing the benefits of the free community calendar listings for non-profits.

I finally contacted Gail about 1:30 p.m. She had some errands to run and said she’d meet me here about 2:30. I still had one more list of March entries to do when she arrived, but that could wait. I have until Saturday to finish that.

We decided to go to the Cracker Barrel for a meal. Gail offered to drive my vehicle and I let her. That gave me a chance to look around more. So many stores and nothing appeals to me. Sitting in the passenger seat gave me a different issue with the seat belt. When I’m in the driver’s seat, the belt comes down the side of my neck. If I ever got in an accident, the belt would probably slice my carotid artery. On the passenger side, the belt comes completely across my throat. We stopped at Gail’s and she got a big clothes pin to try to hold the belt lower, but I couldn’t get it to work.

At the restaurant, the special was grilled chicken over rice. Sounded good and Gail opted for that, but I’d had chicken the last few days and was ready for some red meat. I had a sirloin steak. It was good. We split a warm coca cola chocolate cake with fudge frosting and a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert. I’m not a big chocolate fan, but I could easily become addicted to that. It was deeeelicious!

Our waitress was a little on the flighty side. When she first came over she stood there waiting and we hadn’t even opened our menus. “Oh, do you need a few minutes?” Well, yes. Then after she served us, she kept coming over to ask if everything was okay. Gail asked for a to-go box and a few minutes later the girl came back to see if we needed anything. “A to-go box?” “Oh, yeah, right.” Then she came back without it. Gail asked again. Finally, when we were getting up from the table, she rushed up and introduced herself, asked for our names and said she’d see us soon. She will?

Our original plan had been to go back to the hotel and take a swim, but Gail suggested we take a ride to the beach. I had no problem with that. Oooh, I got to cross another big bridge, the Jensen Causeway. With Gail driving, I could take pictures. Yes!

We found a parking space and got out. I only had my Birkenstocks on which are not good for walking in sand. Oooh, to go barefoot felt so good! Ahhh. I limped up the dune and got my first view of the Atlantic Ocean in Florida. Nearer to shore, the water was turquoise in color and further out was the darker blue green of N.H. waters. The waves were rough crashing onto an eroded beach. From the top of the dune, there was a short drop off like someone cut it with a knife and the beach itself was a steep slope. Gail said that just the other day, there was a lot more sand. I took photos, but we didn’t stay long. There was a cool breeze.

There was a father with his three children. What a beautiful family. We guessed the two little girls might be twins. I don’t normally take photos of people without permission, but I took a couple of shots with the girls’ backs to the camera. Their hair was almost to their knees; so adorable playing at the water’s edge.

Back in the truck, we headed north a bit. Gail wanted to show me a huge house. Wow! Someone very rich must own that! It was gorgeous and on the ocean side with that Spanish influenced architecture that I’ve fallen in love with. We turned around and went south. I was hoping to find a hotel and although a lot of places looked like hotels, we thought they were probably all condos. Crossing the city line into Stuart, we went over two big bridges on our way out to Rte. 1. How nice to be able to look around and not have to concentrate on the traffic.

Back at the hotel, we decided it was too chilly to swim. We checked weather back home, she on her i-phone and me on the laptop. Yes, Florida is a good place to be right now. I showed her on a brochure of a butterfly farm nearby which we would both like to check that out. She left and I settled in for the night. I felt a little guilty because she would have liked to have gone somewhere, but I am just not for doing much after 4 p.m.