Please just get the election over with!
02 November 2016 | Tregoning is in Whangarei Town Basin Marina, Whangarei, New Zealand but we are soon to leave Gainesville, FL
Photo: Our Halloween pumpkin...or as brother-in-law Michael commented, our "Trumpkin"...giving you a clue about our current nightmare
We will be leaving Gainesville later today (Nov 2nd...Randall's birthday) to drive to Denver where we will stay with Heather, Kaeden, and Atleigh until our departure for New Zealand on November 10th. We will be leaving the US just a couple of days after the election and from our perspective, this may not be a bad thing if he-who-shall-not-be-named wins the Presidential race. This has been a painful year of election campaigning on both sides and the ugly, uncivil, contentiousness of it all have been exhausting and stressful to witness. We will be so thankful when it is all over...although it is hard to imagine that the divisiveness and mean-spiritedness off it all will diffuse very quickly, if at all. With Florida being a swing-state, the campaigning is particularly intrusive here. There needs to be a term-limit on the election process...
Despite this unpleasant droning in the background, we have enjoyed our almost-four-week stay in Florida. This has included numerous final doctors' visits (everything looks very good for Randall) and another trip south. This included a fun dinner in Stuart, FL, with Dan and Marilyn (who have returned to Jupiter from Gainesville) and with Jackie and Steve, neither of whom we have seen in nine years or so. We were very happy to stay with Sue and Jerry again and in addition to some lovely long beach walks, Sue and I went to the Bodies Exhibition which was an absolutely fascinating display of the human body systems...but only recommended if you can tolerate seeing preserved and dissected humans.
Our return to the Florida Keys (I will always feel joyfully on vacation there) to see Kathy and (this time) Dan, was a lovely visit and was the site of our happy pumpkin carving. Sadly, although Dan had planned to take a couple of days off work to spend with us, an outbreak of New World screwworm in the Florida Key deer population at one of the US Fish and Wildlife Refuges that Dan manages, kept him at work each day from 7 am to 8 pm. They are trying to eradicate this nasty pest and many resources and volunteers are being provided to help rescue affected mammals, eliminate the flies, and provide a preventative treatment to the wild deer. However, out of the total population of the diminutive Key deer of about 1,000, there has been mortality (frequently euthanization of severely infested animals) of at least 100 deer so it is a very serious concern for this endangered, endemic subspecies of white-tailed deer.
We also got to spend a night with Michael at his house in Groveland. It was strange to be there without Wendy but we were very pleased to see that Michael is doing well and has been enjoying his various hobbies, including fishing from a barge-like kayak with all the bells and whistles. We could not believe how big their pit-bull, 11-month old Ridley had grown since we last visited in April. He is a lovely, happy puppy but we had to be sure that he did not bowl us over in his spirited enthusiasm.
We also went to Titusville where we stayed in the well-sheltered marina with our cruising friends Kathy and Dan from SV Sea Star. We sailed with them (and Jamey on Windsong) from Georgetown in the southern Bahamas to Panama but had not seen them since 2010. It was not only lovely to rekindle our friendship so easily but they took us bird-watching at the nearby Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (just north of the Cape Canaveral Space Center). We saw plenty of shore and wading birds including wood storks, ibis, egrets, herons, and a large flock of roseate spoonbills. We could see why they have chosen to stay in Titusville when they are not cruising in the Caribbean or traveling inland. It was also wonderful to sit in the salon of their beautiful boat and know that before too long, we would be enjoying the cozy comfort of home aboard Tregoning.