On the road again!

Hi kids!

Well, FINALLY we are on the move again. After Christmas, Florida got
so cold we pretty much had to stay where we were, hunker down and wait
for the weather to change. If we had tried to sail when it was so
cold we would have been frozen by the time the day was out. As it was
we had to sleep under five blankets with our clothes on then spend the
morning under blankets on the couch with our toes under one another's
legs.

How cold was it? About twenty degrees colder than normal. That's like
having two weeks of below zero weather in Camptown. Woof!

It was still freezing this morning but by noon it was almost fifty
degrees so we pulled up our anchor and drove down the waterway to
Ponce de Leon Inlet near New Smyrna Beach. Ponce de Leon was this
crazy Spanish guy from way back. He sailed to the island of Santo
Domingo with Christpher Columbus on Columbus' second voyage to the New
World. When Columbus went back to Spain, Ponce stayed. He went
exploring. He went to the Bahamas. The Indians there got sick of him
pretty quick. They told him there was a place with a fountain to the
west and if people drank from the fountain they stayed young forever!
He's like,"Dude! Where? I gotta find that thing!"

They were like, "Over that way. If you don't find it, just keep going.
You'll get there!"

So Ponce took off. The Indians said,"Man, we thought that guy would
NEVER leave."

He ran into North America, thought it was an island, claimed it in the
name of Spain and named it Florida. Florida, in Spanish, means "Land
of Flowers". He kept going south looking for the fountain but he
never found it. He sailed all the way to the keys, and returned
defeated to Santo Domingo. Five years later he came back to Florida to
look again. Some Indians decided this guy has to go, shot him with an
arrow and that was the end of him. Some people just never know when
they are wanted.

Nowadays, lots of old Americans come to Florida. They don't find the
fountain of youth, either, but at least it's warm. USUALLY warm.

Now we have to figure out where to go next. Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I
love ya, tomorrow!

Here's a picture of Angel Jen looking at her maps, planning for
tomorrow as the New Smyrna water taxi goes by.

See ya, kids! Stay warm.