Florida Explorations: Extraction Mission

       We successfully reached Millers Marina in the thriving City of Suwannee. Millers Marina rents houseboats as well as providing dockage, fuel, and the all too critical pump-out service.
       I had a chance to inspect their houseboats. They are a bit bigger, at 14 feet wide, than our ship and have a better layout for large groups. Our houseboat is set up for a single couple with a foldout couch bed for guests.
       Would be a unique and fun vacation compared to the usual "mouse trip" many take when going to Florida. Prices are listed on the website. A 7 day week can be had for $1495.00 which for two couples ends up being a bit more than a fifty dollars a day per person. Not bad for a unique experience on the only federally recognized large "wild river" in the Southeastern United States.

http://www.suwanneehouseboats.com/flash_site.html

       We fueled, pumped out the black water tank, and parked the boat in our assigned slip. Tamara has to fly to Seattle to do a presentation to her corporate overlords. So the plan was to leave the boat there and I would come back on Tuesday after she flies out. Then she would join me when she returns on Friday. So she was supposed to drive up to pick myself and Gilligan up for our return to Port Richey.
       Then we waited, and waited, and waited. I really began to appreciate what life was like before cell phones. None of our cell phones worked in Suwannee. We were completely isolated and it was frustrating. The one communications link we had was the internet via Millers Marina's WiFi.
       I and the crew did manage to wander down to downtown Suwannee to take a look around. Downtown Suwannee consists of a nice little waterfront restaurant and bar, a real estate office, and another bar on the outskirts of downtown. The residents of Suwannee travel about mostly via golf carts. It is a charming slice of Old Florida.
       Our extraction team finally arrived and we headed home. We chose to explore some of the culture on the way back. We stopped at Bubbas bar where Gilligan was refused service. Gilligan had a DWI a couple months earlier; the court had seized his driver’s license. We drank in front of him and told him how good the beer was so he could share in our experience. He continued to be rejected when carded at all but one of the many stops we made that night and we continued to tell him how good the beer was that he was missing.

We then stopped at several more social establishments in Chiefland, Inglis, and finally Crackertown (where I hear that the sheets are not just for bedding). The most memorable event of the night was watching our adopted son, Jesse, get shot down by the 75 year old bartender at the Chiefland VFW when she told him she’d love to get together with him but she “forgot her tweezers at home”.