Florida and keeping the dream alive

You know those post cards that say "Having fun in Florida, wish you were here"? Yep, I used to send those to my friends back in Minnesota while on family vacations in the 90s. (I literally wished they were, because if you've ever been a kid you know how kids feel about family vacations without their friends.) Now, apparently it's coming back to bite me because Florida is as far south as we're going to get this winter.

For months, Scotty and I had planned to make it to the Bahamas with Wind-Lass. It was a lofty goal for new sailboat owners with limited finances and we knew it. But Scotty and I are nothing if not dreamers and go-getters. And so we persevered.

And then our rudder decided to go for a very long swim. Without us.

By mid-January, Florida had started to seem like the promised land, especially since that was where our rudder would be made. So we made the 12-hour drive south to Williston, Florida, where we dropped off our original rudder post to be used with the new rudder mold and kept on driving.

Sometimes when all else fails, it helps to put one foot on the pedal and watch those mile markers fly by.

Before reaching Williston, we spent 24 hours in Charleston, South Carolina, and then one night in Jacksonville, Florida (not to be confused with Jacksonville, North Carolina). As I've mentioned before, the South can be a tad bit redundant when it comes to city names. Okay, the entire East Coast, too.

Anyway, in Jacksonville, we just wanted to get a good night's rest since the rudder shop was already closed for the day. We booked a hotel on Hotwire and wound up with the Omni Jacksonville hotel. It was under construction, but we did manage to get a room on an upper floor away from the noise.

We could even see our van in the adjacent parking lot below, always a plus since we tend to worry that the Yakima box will attract unwanted attention...

Downtown Jacksonville is very corporate. But we did get some decent food at this place and someone kindly snapped an iPhone pic of us together by the waterfront.




And then, we saw some sailboats docked there and wiped away a few salty tears thinking of Wind-Lass.

The next day, our southbound road trip continued. We kept driving to Miami and booked another hotel via Hotwire.

It was right on the beach, but the view from our room left something to be desired...



Still, we made the best of it.

This man cracks me up. I am so lucky.

After two days and some pretty good Cuban food, we gave up on unseasonably cold Miami (in the 50s!) and headed south to the Keys. Because if you can't get to the Bahamas, they're about as close as you can get.