Through most of Kentucky we had a bone dry I-75 but beside us, we had ample testimony of the terrible ice storm that had ravaged that state earlier in the week. Our own trip was blessedly uneventful and we pulled into Chattanooga in time for supper as planned. Late Sunday afternoon, we arrived at the Lake Eustis SC where we dropped off SHADES once Nick had hosed the road dirt away with an impressively powerful LESC hose.

Although the club was virtually deserted, we had a couple of Grolsches to toast our arrival before continuing on to Nick's St. Petersburg condo where we would spend the night before making our annual pilgrimage to Sanibel and Captiva Islands, stomping grounds of one of our fictional favourites, Doc Ford, in a series written by Randy Wayne White.

Back at Nick's condo on this cold Wednesday afternoon where his car is illegally parked (bow out!!) and a notice of infraction from the condo board was awaiting Nick! Frank Goulay (r) has arrived by air and expects his crew, Andrew Haill on Thursday morning. Notice how pale Uncle Al (middle) still looks!! Of course, this would be a relatively radiant, healthy look compared to how both he and Nick looked when they came down with food poisoning (from a local dinner?) in the middle of that night. Thus, our planned Thursday morning departure, was put off. We invited Frank and Andrew to leave as planned since by morning Nick and I had thrown up everything there was available and were now only feverish and severely suffering from the runs - ah, gotta love those nautical terms!! - and expecting to be fine pretty soon. It speaks volumes about the character of Frank and Andrew that they insisted on staying with us until we felt better - a day they could have very profitably spent getting used to sailing with each other and in Nick's W864 which they would borrow. Thanks a million, guys!! (To hear Andrew tell it: "I arrived Thursday early afternoon somewhat anticipating the airport pickup in Tampa to be a brief stop in the convoy en route to Eustis.  Frank arrived alone to inform me Montezuma's revenge had overtaken you and Nick.  On arrival at Nick's condo in St Petersburg, it was clear that some Imodium, dry crackers, and ginger ale would be essential for recovery.  As the afternoon progressed, it was also clear that the best plan was to delay to next early morning [Friday] to provide you guys a quiet evening in lieu of cross state travel.  Fortunately all patients made a full recovery... to the surprising extent of watching Nick down a couple of deep fried Quail at dinner a day later.")

To make a long story a tad shorter, Nick and I slept pretty well all day and all night, and were feeling much better when we woke up to a frosty Friday morning before sunrise at which time all four of us whipped off to Eustis at last!!