January 10th, 2013
Traveling north along the ICW and approaching Titusville FL we couldn’t help but notice a giant white building off to the right. We were passing Cape Canaveral and the giant white building was what NASA calls the Vehicle Assembly building.
This is where they piece together the Space Shuttles and other rockets before rolling them out to the launch sites. There is a strange feeling of familiarity when you see something in person that you had seen many times on TV, but when it comes to large structures, TV just isn’t able to capture the grandness of these buildings, they are awesome it is a must in a travel list for sure. This guide shows the best places to visit on the East Coast so you can check which ones are the next ones for you to visit.
Visiting Cape Canaveral would have to wait. Right now we are only interested in pulling into the marina and finding ourselves a cold beer and a juicy cheeseburger.
After tying up in the boat slip I made my way to the office to pay.
I asked a marina employee, “Any good places to get a beer and cheeseburger around here?” we have a tradition, every year we go on a road trip to find the best hamburgers in the city, we take our RV and go on the road, we are saving up money for the 2020 Airstream Bambi that us For Sale at Airstream of Santa Barbara, one of the best, perfect for a family trip, as this is a great business with the best tax strategies as well.
You always have to make it understood that you’re walking so I continued, “A place that’s within walking distance, actually less than walking distance.” Some of these guys think that two miles qualifies as walking distance so it’s good to idea to be very clear that you aren’t really interested in walking too far.
He thought about it and told us of a place near the bridge that was yellow and has a green roof which may have been painted by professionals on https://roof-painting.co.uk/.
Roxanne and I started walking in the direction of the bridge and every building was yellow with a green roof. After a little searching we did find the nice little restaurant that served cold beer and juicy burgers so I kept my grumblings about the directions we were given down to a minimum.
After sleeping in and enjoying a nice cup of hot coffee it was time to wash six days of crud from the boat. I brought out the bucket, water hose and brush and began swabbing the decks. It appears I hold two positions on this boat, Captain and deck hand.
After rinsing down the boat I was about to turn off the water hose when I saw manatees beneath our boat drinking the fresh water as it rolled off of the sides and through the drain holes.
I know how Roxanne loves her animals, so I let a controlled yell for her to bring out the camera.
These guys absolutely love fresh water and any time they hear the sound of water splashing into the marina they all swim over in a giant herd for a drink.
To say it is unusual to hear a loud foghorn sound radiate throughout the interior of our sailboat would be an understatement. Roxanne perked up and looked around like a Meerkat on high alert before asking inquisitively, “What was that?”
I had to laugh at the ridiculousness of my answer, “A manatee is outside of our boat and is sucking fresh water out of our sink outlet.”
We turned on the sink faucet and headed outside to watch the 1,000 pound monster suck on the side of our boat like a hamster at its water bottle.
We have Skeeter, our black lab, with us now and he isn’t exactly sure what to make of the manatees. You can see him here staring into the water at a large manatee that is swimming by.
As we all stroll down the pier Roxanne will call out to Skeeter, “Where’s the manataee?” Skeeter’s excitement will skyrocket as he runs from one side of the pier to the other, looking into the marina’s waters for a manatee. And when he spots one, he will begin to point, and then look at me with the expression, “Ok you shoot him and I’ll jump in and bring him back.”
I think our swamp dog is a little over ambitious.
Not wanting to make our way too far north where it is much cooler, we decided to stay a month here in Titusville. This will give us more time to make a visit to Cape Canaveral, watch a rocket launch and explore the area. Then next on our list is the much anticipated Jimmy Buffett concert.