Good morning! It is a bacon and egg morning on the Unwinder. Up and ready to go wash clothes and explore Biscayne. We ate and called Ally to go with us, and we all headed to the bus stop with our loads of dirty clothes to find the laundromat. Thank you West Marine for the blue fold up buggy that carries my dirty clothes and whatever. That thing is a lifesaver for us when we have to walk to our food stores and laundromats. OK we jumped in the dinghy, rode the waves, tied up at the dock got permission to leave it there for 2 hours and asked how far it was to Biscayne. We went to Biscayne on the bus Tuesday with Dan and Ally and we had to take the bus because the dockmaster told us it was one mile we walked one mile and guess what?! No Biscayne just a bridge and a cop that said it was 6 miles to the village of Biscayne!! Now you know why we take the bus. We figured out in Miami if you ask distance it usually is just a mile away so we figure 1 mile in Miami actually could mean 6-10 miles away. The dock master today said it was a mile or so but it was too far to walk. So we dont ask distance anymore we just take the bus if we have to. Welll we got off the bus and headed to the laundromat, guess what we went to the street we got directions to and the CVS pharmacy and was advised that there are not laundromats on the island. As we walked around back to the bus stop we saw why. These people obviously have their clothes cleaned (there are cleaners all over the city) and dont want the kind of people that a laundromat might bring!LOLOLOL Sooo we went to 7-11 and got lunch and ate outside the Golden Hog with Ally. The Golden Hog has healthy and gourmet foods and a food buffet witih wonderful dessert breads. So we figured out we take the bus back to the marina get in our dinghy and head to South Beach to the first laundromat Steve and I used when we first arrived. So here we go in the dingy over to the the publix dock in the waterway. We climbed up on the dock and headed down the street to the laundromat. Walking is becoming a way of life now that we dont have a car. While our clothes were washing we went to get lunch I actually saw a Panera bread!! I almost ran to it. Steve laughed at me for getting so excited. You dont know what youve got till its gone 🙂 Ally had checked out the blockbuster, Really! They still rent movies down here out of a store for 99 cents. Leaving the laundromat we walked to the Vespa store to check out the rides. They are nice but still would be a little awkward loading one into the dinghy and then locking it to the boat. I say we put a weedeater motor on a bicycle like the guy in Miami that raced past us on his motor/bike lol. We decided to cook spaghetti for supper and stopped in at the Publix for supplies. Ok we over bought (why we werent surprised beats me) 🙂 We tried to take the buggy across the street but it had a mechanism that doesnt allow you to take it off the lot it locks up when you go from the parking lot to the street off the curb it slides over the front wheel and brings you and your groceries to a grinding halt! Ok now that my groceries have been slung to the front of the buggy and Ally and I are laughing hysterically as we tried to get the buggy across the street we could not so we backed it up with me holding the front of the buggy off the ground so it would roll. But then the back wheel tried to lock up so we left it and took all our groceries across the street. It is bad enough trying to get across a street in Miami it is a life or death situation. So here we go running across the street stopping in middle to wait on cars to go by and give us a break in traffic. Finally over to the dinghy now loaded with food laundry and three of us we climbed down into the dinghy since the tide had dropped a little more. We took off down the waterway to the main channel and home to our boats. I cooked spaghetti in my little square tin pan and my tiny skillet with spaghetti sauce. We went over to Allys and Dans to eat. Alley had the table sat with a beautiful salad and cheese and crackers. We watched a funny documentary and Justified the show. Learned how to look through a sextant and headed back home and to bed. We had a wonderful time. Goodnight everyone.
Denise – Love reading your blog and hearing about Unwinder’s great advenuture. We’v had similar direction challenges from a dockmaster and too enjoy our blue cart from West Marine. Happy sailing! Cindy and Dick Grimes