April 27, Day 306 – In Sanford

Gerry woke up early this morning and decided we should go out for breakfast. He had been checking out the menus of different restaurants in Sanford and decided he wanted to go to the Colonial Room for breakfast – they had one of his favorites – country fried steak and eggs.

After breakfast we went with Michael and Jana to do a bit of provisioning. They had a rental car in order to pick up their daughter at the Orlando airport. She is going to spend a few days cruising with them before they pull their boat for the summer. Once we left the “historic” part of Sanford, it was a pretty vibrant area with lots of shopping and nice homes. Guess only the old downtown part is experiencing tough times.

One of the stores we went to was Kohls. We'd heard they had the sodastream machines and we needed some more syrup. Not only did they have what we needed -- but also lots of stuff we probably didn't need, but bought anyway because it was on sale. We got a foodsaver (or as we like to call it --a suck and seal). We have one at home, but didn't bring it because it was too large. We found a mini one which takes up much less space. When we got to the check out, the cashier asked if we might be over 60 (she was obviously looking at Gerry), because it was senior's day and you could save an additional 15%. What a deal.

Back at the boat we stowed all of our purchases and then did a few chores. It’s getting harder and harder to find a place to put things on the boat. One of our big projects once we get home is to store or give away all of the stuff we took with us but never used the entire year we were gone. We have a much clearer idea now of what is really needed to live on a boat – a lot less than we originally thought.

In the evening we joined Michael, Jana and their daughter, Jodi, for dinner at the German restaurant, Hollerbach Willow Tree Café. It was exceptional food – the best German food we’ve had since living in Germany. We had a great time and reminisced about our times in Germany and about the past 7 months we have been traveling together. Tomorrow we part company as they will be cruising slowly back down the river and then pulling their boat for storage over the summer while they go home to Colorado. We will be going a bit faster and will be heading north towards Maryland. Our plans are to meet up in late fall to cross to the Bahamas.

Back at the boat we took care of a few computer issues and then off to bed.



Both of us ordered good old German beer -- but one of us got more than the other. Can you guess who???
Enjoying good food and great company!!