Sunday, the day prior to pulling our boat, happened to be one of the busiest days at Homestead Park! All of the park crew was busy directing traffic, collecting fees, and finally, closing the park temporarily since there was no more available parking! We left the park and saw a mile of cars waiting to get in. We were celebrating our last day in Homestead with Rollerblading and a visit to a local vineyard.
We were headed to Schnebley's Winery, where we tasted unique wines (avocado, passion fruit, eg) http://www.schneblywinery.com/Brewery
When we arrived back to the park, the process was reversed: 300 boats needed to be pulled and trailered; it was very interesting to see and very organized.
We continued to organize our gear. We emptied gas and water tanks, transferred clothes, food and equipment from the boat to the truck. We slept on the boat for the last time.
Because we wanted to pull the boat on Monday morning at high tide, that occurred rather inconveniently at 5:30 am. By 6 am the boat was out of the water; by some act of providence, the boat lined up perfectly on the trailer and was on the hard dripping salt water. The feeling was incredibly sad and I'm afraid a little prideful. We had spent 46 nights on the boat and never had fled to town to stay in a hotel.
By 11 am the boat was already in shape to be trailered the 1704 miles to Baraboo. Still we learned about the boat! Rather than using the winch on the trailer to lower the mast, we simply ran a line over the truck with two turns around the front grill guard, and with Hector's help, Nancy and Hector lowered the mast smoothly by letting out the line slowly while Dan guided it into place up in the cockpit.
Another of our biggest worries was the trailer. Dan replaced the bearing buddy in one of the trailer wheels. We checked the brakes and bearing daily on the way back. Luckily, we had no more problems in that area.
After a last visit to the Post Office, it was now truly time to say our final good byes to Florida and our friends. Good bye! Maybe we'll see you next year! We loved our adventure! Everyone has been super friendly!
Good bye Josiel, Jim and Julie, Good bye Alex and Carlos! Good bye Rhonda, Yadira, Hector, Corinna, Tatiana, Raul, Xavier! Good bye Ryan and Brian and all of the friendly faces of Homestead Park!
Good bye Patti and Bob and Gilbert and Family! What a fun last night that was at Playa Grill for Dan's last gig.
Good bye Don Pico, we enjoyed the week we kidnapped you!
Good bye camp showers in the cockpit!
Good bye everyone, we will miss you, here's to you!!
You may conclude that we are safe and sound at home. We enjoyed one day of 60 degree weather, but yesterday, it snowed in the morning. No, it sleeted/hailed/rained/snow. It was quite nasty. We didn't go outside until 2 pm.
Today, Dan went to work, and I did not.
Hopefully we will begin a new blog next year with a new adventure. We hope you have enjoyed our blog as much as we enjoyed creating it.
