At last we arrived at Darryl’s & Lynne’s house after a very long journey by boat, plane, taxi & car. Being cruisers themselves, they had very kindly cooked beef for dinner, knowing full well that we won’t have had beef for a very long time; it was lovely. It was also nice to have a Holywood shower and sleep in a proper bed (which was to be the first of many before we would reach home).

Another great thing about staying at Darryl & Lynne’s is that Lynne understands my need to shop and saves all the money-off coupons from the department stores for me. So with coupons in hand, Roger dropped me at Orange Park shopping Mall while he went to visit Terry & Tina who were having a garage sale and had some stuff for Darryl.

I decided to set myself a limit, so withdrew $200 and went shopping. This is another great part of Jacksonville, I know where all the best places to get a bargain are, thanks to Lynne. So a couple of hours later I had bought a new summer wardrobe and still had change!!!.

I managed to persuade Roger to get some new clothes, especially as he had lost so much weight.

He is the slimmest I have ever known him to be and looks great (not that he didn’t before) and I think even he was impressed when he was buying ‘small’ instead of ‘large’, I know I was. 

We had dinner at the Florida Yacht club. A very posh yet friendly yacht club with great facilities and excellent cuisine (to all Little Ship Club members, please note I used the word ‘Cuisine’ and not food!!!!)

The next day, after a another quick shot of retail therapy, the four of us (plus Hyacinth, our adopted cat) went off in Barco Sin Vela II, Darryl & Lynnes’ new boat.

It was a beautiful day, hot and sunny, perfect for sunbathing, giving Lynne & I a chance to show off our new ‘tramp stamps’ (ok so they were only temporary, but it is becoming something of a tradition for Lynne & I to have one each time we get together).

Our destination was the infamous ‘Outback Crabshack’, where we would have lunch.

All the travelling was taking its toll on my digestive system, so I didn’t take full advantage of the enormous seafood platters they served, but Roger & Lynne did their best to make up for my abstinence.

Sunday, saw the last day of the Tall Ships’ visit to Jacksonville, so we headed downtown to The Landing to enjoy the festivities.

We had been planning to take the Curries’ other boat, Le petit bateau, but it was a scorching day and they had no bimini to provide the much needed shade, so we drove down there instead.

The restaurant overlooked a square, where children (both big and little) played in the water feature.

I took a lot of photos, because it was exactly what I had envisioned for the Village Centre, my last project in Hull, when I commissioned their water feature.

The atmosphere was wonderful and we watched the mock battles from our table as we had lunch.

All too soon, it was time to take our leave of Darryl & Lynne. We were scheduled to fly out of Jacksonville at 19.30. The hours passed and so did our flight time!!!! Top travel tip: Don’t fly out of Washington, when a) there are thunderstorms and b/ Airforce One (the presidents plane) is leaving!!!

Washington Dulles had closed due to all the bad weather they were experiencing (you can’t even taxi to your gate if there is a thunderstorm, because the little men [or women] who guide you in won’t come out in the rain!!!!! It’s true) When they finally did open the airport, we then had a further 3 hour delay because the President was flying off on his Middle East tour and they clear the airspace (I presume).

It’s funny how life works out really. Those of you who have followed the blog since I flew out may recall I spent several uncomfortable hours sleeping on an air conditioning vent in Washington Airport on my way to join Roger in Guatemala? Well here we were in Washington again with the only difference this time being that a) Roger was with me and b/) I was sleeping on chairs!!!!!!!

Anyway, to cut a long story short (wish we could have done the same with the journey!!) we arrived at Heathrow airport 12 hours later than anticipated and minus 2 of our cases.

Poor Roger had to fly to Austria the next morning, so only had two hours sleep before he had to get up for his flight!!!!! To make matters worse, it was his clothes that were in the cases that hadn’t arrived!!! So there I was, at 02.00hrs, washing and blow drying the shirt he had worn for the previous 28 hrs!!!

Oh yes, before I forget, a cautionary tale for all of those of you who smoke. Whilst we were on the plane the Steward announced “Ladies and Gentlemen, just a reminder that this is a no smoking flight and will the person who smoked in the toilet please refrain from doing so. We WILL find you and when we do you will be in a lot of trouble”. We heard no more, but on landing, as we all stood up to retrieve our luggage from the overhead lockers there was another announcement “would those of you who are standing, please sit in the nearest vacant seat so that the police can board the plane”. The steward then brought 2 (heavily armed) policemen down the aisle, stopped just beside us, then pointed to a lady a couple of rows behind us and said ‘That’s her, the lady in the orange’. Talk about name and shame!!! He could have just pointed her out to the police as she disembarked, but no he made a point of naming and shaming her. Hopefully, even if she wasn’t prosecuted, that would have been deterrent enough to stop her doing it in future. I wonder if she will try and sue United for the mental anguish she must have experienced?? Watch this space!!!

So ladies and gents, guys and gals as they say at Looney Tunes…….’that’s all folks!!!!’.

Stay well and we’ll be back at the end of the year with they next instalment the adventures of Beaujolais!!