March 27, 2000 -- Last Day With the Car

Today was a busy day, our last full day with the car. After a quick breakfast, we picked up our laundry from the wash and fold place, and then went to mail the computer off, then headed to the storage unit to clean it out. We, then, returned to the boat and started unloading the car. I had been saying for several weeks that I wanted to go to the Book Exchange. So, Mike told me to gather up the books that I wanted to trade since we still had a lot of running to do. It took me all of 10 minutes to gather together 32 books! On the way to the Book Exchange, we started trying to find oil for the boat. You would think that wouldn't be a difficult thing; however, we only want to bring gallon containers of oil aboard. We checked 6 different auto parts stores on the way to the Book Exchange to no avail. I didn't spend as much time as I wanted to at the Book Exchange; but I did find a number of books that I hadn't been able to find in a long time. We left there with 24 nused books. Next, we decided to stop by the Coca-Cola distributor since the salesman never called us back. Unfortunately, he was already out on sales calls. However, the receptionist offered to page him and make sure he called us. We were happy with that, and headed off to find oil and food. We found the oil at the Boat Owners Warehouse. It wasn't that much more expensive than at an auto parts store. So once we had lunch, we headed back to the boat and unloaded it. You will notice, at no point do I mention putting anything away. That is because we didn't. That would catch up with us. Next, since we had decided to head north for the season we would need solar salt for the treatment plants on our heads. On the way to Publix, the Coke guy called. He suggested that we try Sysco since they have a 'walk up' window. I told him that we would try that; but if that didn't work, we would call him back to set up an account. We diverted to Sysco with no luck. In fact, the receptionist that I spoke to looked at me as if I had two heads when I asked about a 'walk up' window. She informed me that Sysco does not deal direct with the public. So, I immediately called the Coke guy and left a message for him. After that diversion, we continued on to Publix to pick up 100 lbs of solar salt for $15.00! We headed back to the car and emptied it completely since it was about to rain. We managed to get everything on to the boat before it started raining. This was especially good since the blocks of salt were completely uncovered! Since we now had completed most of the running around we needed to do, we called Palm Beach Fountain Services about refilling our CO2 container. They told us to bring the canister in between 4 and 5:00 PM. We had some time, so we started putting away the storm windows. We have no plans to be offshore in any weather that would require them, since we watch our weather windows and only make short offshore hops. As we have determined that we don't need these until the waves reach 10 to 15 feet and we do not plan to leave when the weather is that rough. At 3:30 PM, we left to get the CO2 tank refilled. This was interesting since I was working from memory. We found the place on the first try. They filled our tank for $15.00. We brought the tank back and put it back in place. Once the last of our running around was completed, we headed back to the boat and finished putting our storm windows away