Home again, home again, jiggity jig

Hey all, Robin here. While a bit later than expected, Michael and I are now back in Luray for a bit.

Hurricane season starts on June 1st in the Florida keys. It's supposed to be a mild season this year due to a combination of developing El Niño conditions and extensive Saharan dust outbreaks. Fingers crossed.  We won't be on the island for most of it. Originally we planned on returning to Luray on June 2nd (our 42nd wedding anniversary although we count our time together since 1980 so it's actually been more like 46 years). Unfortunately, we weren't able to hit that proposed date. Here's why.

The biggest problem was our boat, The Kobayashi Maru. I'm not sure if Michael has mentioned it yet.  It is a story in it's own right, but I'll leave it for another day. But in a recent attempt at an outing on the ocean it wouldn't start.  Not being experience boaters, we had no idea why, but in short order the issue was narrowed down to a problem with the throttle attaching to the motor.  As such, it was sitting in a "slip" but it really needed to be pulled out to dry land storage "just in case."  That sounds like a really expensive problem with a long repair time - but as it turned out it was only a few minutes to fix - but many days to have a very small part shipped to the "end of the world," and we couldn't do anything until that was taken care of.

The part came in on May 31st, and Troy - you'll learn more about him in the boat post - was nice enough to drop everything and get it installed. Michael went out to the boat on June 1st and he still couldn't get it started, but the next day we went out together and it started right up for me - the boat likes me better - again more on this in a future post.  Anyway, the seas were calm-ish, so we gassed the boat up and then Michael went to get the boat trailer out of the storage lot and over to the City Marina while I circumvented half the island on my own.  It took me a long time - as Michael is the one who normally runs the boat, but I can't maneuver a trailer so we each had to do what we could.  After a boarding by the coast guard - another story for another time - I got the boat to Michael and it was stored safely on dry land.  With the boat secured, we then figured out how many days to "weather protect the house" then start to head up to Luray. Since we were going to be passing through Orlando, we arranged to have dinner with Will Wight and his family the next Saturday. 

Now, I've been in Key West since early February and it never rains. I mean never.  Like many places, we were in a severe drought. For the first two months it only rained on a few nights and never for more than half an hour. While constant days of sunshine sounds wonderful it did get a bit monotonous (I know first world problems and all that).  By the end of May, we were supposed to have about 5.5" and we had only received somewhere around 1.6"

Well anyway, two days before we left Key West we got what I would consider "a good proper rain." It had showered on and off for most of the day, and we had maybe .25" - .50" total (although that varies greatly depending where on the island you are. It often rains in one spot and then is dry just a block away. We were glad we moved the boat when we did, but some of our "outside" preparations had to be put on hold.

Okay, so the day before we left - we got a real soaker - I think by the time all was said and done it was about an inch or two but the bulk of it fell over a span of just a few hours (just before lunch). Since the refrigerator had already been emptied, we decided to venture out to the Square Grouper. Normally we would ride our bikes but given the rain, we decided to take the Jeep.  It was a good thing we did.  It's just a half mile away, but this is what we ran into as we got close to the restaurant.

This was a surprising development - especially because our street - again just 1/2 a mile away -  was completely dry. Most of the people at The Square Grouper were completely unfazed by the conditions - but I'm guessing most of them were "locals" and they'd seen similar (and far worst) many times before. 

Keep in mind that in general, all of Key West is pretty close to sea level (the highest point on the island is only 17 feet), so every inch matters. Our place is a mere 8 feet above sea level - but it definitely makes a difference.

Interestingly, by the time lunch was finished, the street we "waded through" to get to the restaurant was back to normal, so most of the water receded quickly. The only real problem the rain caused was we had to put our storm shutters on he windows the day we were leaving rather than the day before. That meant our morning of departure was pretty labor intensive.

Okay, so the next morning we got on the road by 9:00 AM and planned to get to Orlando by 3:45, plenty of time for our dinner with the"Will Wight Clan: (Will, Mom, Dad, sister, Rebecca, and brother, Sam) at 6:00. Most probably recognize that name from Cradle fame. We've become good friends with them and we had a lovely dinner.  Here is a picture of the two authors.

Oh, I should mention that getting to dinner was a bit of a trial in it's own right. Normally, we would have stopped at our favorite restaurant in Key Largo (The Fish House). But we had Loki with us but not the Tesla - which has a nice "Pet mode setting" which keeps cars comfortable regardless of outside temperature. So instead we settled for Chick-fil-A eaten in a parking lot while the air conditioner cooled us and our kitty.

The hotel we booked has a pet policy, but it turns out they wanted $250 to keep Loki there for the evening, so I used Rover and on short notice found Loki a really nice overnight stay with Angela G, for just $27 and of course I provided her with a very big tip.  But we hit some traffic, and had to drop of Loki, so we got to the hotel/restaurant with less than 20 minutes to spare.

Anyway, the "second part" of the trip would be about 12 - 13 hours and our plan was to do it all in one drive, but as nightfall approached on day two, we were still 3 - 4 hours from home so we stopped for the night in Statesville VA.  With the sun down, a mountain climate, and being further north, the car was quite comfortable so Loki spent the night in the Jeep.

Just minutes before arriving home, I got a text message from a "Night in Avrlyn" guest that was checking in to see if 6:00 PM was a good time for them to stop by for dinner and an overnight stay. Doh! This was someone I had been talking with via email before the whole boat, flood, and 3-day road trip delay came up and I totally forgot they were coming! Luckily, Michael left the cabin in a really orderly state, but he did have to sweep and vacuum a few dead bugs from the guest quarters while I went to the grocery store, bought supplies, and made dinner.

They departed the 8th, so the 9th was pretty much back to the grindstone - exactly a week later than we had planned.  Neither Michael nor I get much work done while in Key West, but we're both quite productive here.  I'll be posting about what we've been up to, as I'm sure you'll find that much more interesting than our travel trials.