Anther day at Joe Wheeler

We rode our bikes 10 1/2 miles today through the park, into the campground, and to the boat launch.  John enjoys the challenge of the hills, Mary can't wait to ride at Pensacola Naval Air station and in the Keys, where the terrain is flat, FLat, FLAT! Mary got on and off her bike alone twice today. Hurray new hip!  John washed the boat, Mary blogged and cleaned up some e-mail.

Mary and friend at Florence (don't you love it, Sara?!)

Last year, during our 7th summer on this boat, Mary realized that she could bring the bow line along the side of the boat to hand to whoever was helping us dock.  Previously, she would have handed a stern line off from the stern, then clambered along the side of the boat to reach the bow line to hand off.  Now she could hand off the stern line and, with only a little scrambling, reach the end of the bow line to hand it off. If the lines were just a little longer, she could have held both at the same time, instead of that little reach. So it only took 6 1/2 years to figure out this amazingly simple solution. Well, our boat has not only a stern cleat and a bow cleat, but also a midship cleat.  You've already figured it out, haven't you? Yup, by using the midship line and the stern line, she can hold both at the same time, even from the swim platform, so she can hand the midship line off if someone is assisting, or step off onto the dock with both lines, if we're on our own.  How could something so simple elude us for so long?!

Is it Puff or Nessie?

In the same vein, we bought a new laptop 2 years ago.  We have been wrapping the cord around the plug for all that time.  Last week John said, "What are these little indentations on the plug?"  They are little prongs that fold out to wrap the cord around.  It only took us 2 years!