Steve and I got up early this AM and i headed to the washeteria to take care of the clothes, halfway thru the drying cycle Steve busts in catches me eating a coconut chocolate pattie and says, “Jim and Pam are going to flea market how much time do you have left?” I told him that i need 45 minutes on drying and would wait to wash the last load until we came back home. So we took off to the Pinellas county flea market. We have never seen so much stuff WOW. Table after table of fruit, vegetables, fruit, herbs etc. This place is huge, we came in to the outside market with app 8-10 rows of tables filled with whatever at least  100 yards long. After that we bought a hot dog and went in to the enclosures which in each large area there was live entertainment, the restrooms had attendants that worked for tips,(needles to say the bathrooms were spotless and the attendant was very efficient. It would take two days to go thru this place plus after the enclosures were more tables outside on the other side of the buildings. Junk never ending!  I think i found the new Wal Mart. After almost running thru it we left and came back by Target to try and find a portable icemaker for the boat. Luckily it was on sale the shelf was empty but they had some in the back YEAH! Jim and Pam invited us to the boat for burgers and fries. Jim has a boat called an Island Trader, it has hand carved doors with dragons and oriental carviings, there is a hand carved dragon on the bow of his boat starboard and port! Look up the boat online they are beautiful. It is a 1980’s model and from what i learned the best sailboats are not normally the newest ones. Craftsmanship means a lot i have found out. Anyway we got into our dinghy which is an adventure in itself. I have to climb down off the bow of the boat holding on to the handle on the deck of the boat and perching precariously on one foot in the dinghy for balance and jumping into boat while maintaining enough balance not to tip dinghy over, or just fall off the side and in to the cold bay water, OOOOSSSHHH! Well into the dinghy without incident and revving up our Yamaha and into the wild blue yonder out to the Eros II for burgers and home fries. Jim used to own several restaurants and i cant wait for meal. Our dinghy has no lights so we have to be very careful even though the boat is not that far away the big boats come in and out of the bay all day long. The waves hit our dinghy and bounce us around like a piece of styrofoam on the water. The waves bouncing up over the bow a little bit is fun. Bobbing like a fishing bobber we finally made it to Jim’s sailboat and tied it off climbed the ladder to the deck and crawled over the pads that cover the helm seats. Jim has a center enclosed console on his boat with seats all around the wheel. Small wooden doors that lead down to a large salon with a walk thru kitchen ( all down one wall ) behind that is the big master berth and bath. Also past the salon is another berth and second bath. It is all beautiful wood. We had a wonderful time. We played with the cats and one of them is huge like Garfield. They are both brothers and 9 years old. After our wonderful meal we hopped back into the dinghy and made our way back to the Thingamajig. The water looks beautiful and it feels great out here in the water. Moonlight gleaming on the water making the waves look etherial. Loving this life couldn’t ask for more. Thanks to Steve I am the happiest woman in the world right now. I wish my son Daniel could be here too. After climbing back on the boat with the dinghy moving back and forth i managed to pull myself up on the deck. tied up the dinghy so Steve could climb aboard. His “pirate beard” is coming along fine. My own pirate! Everyone have a great day!

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