It is kind of a long short story. Early last week I had to order a new surfboard for a customer. I got myself so excited thinking about surfing, that I booked a last minute trip to Florida to hang out with Tom (and family) and do some surfing.
Sarah and I snowboarded all day at Liberty on Sunday. On the drive home it started snowing hard.
When the alarm went off Monday at 4am for my 7:05 flight there was about 8 " on the ground. I checked the flight status and saw that my flight had been delayed a couple of hours. Rather than go back to bed and risk over sleeping, I threw my bag in the car and headed up to BWI. 4-Wheel drive and 35 mph on the interstate, but no real problem getting to the airport. Upon arriving at the airport, I found my flight had been pushed all the way back until 11. Bummer. I curled up under my down jacket and tried to sleep for a while with marginal success. We finally boarded the plane and then off to the de-icing area before taking off. Some of my fellow passengers were a bit frumpy waiting to be de-iced. Me......no problem. Please take as much time as you need. Do it again, I'm fine with that. Just don't miss a spot. Anyway, it was almost 2pm before arriving in Orlando. So much for a noon surf session.
Florida was cold. I pretty much lived in my jeans and sweatshirt the whole time.
Florida was also windy. I arrived in Melbourne to no waves and a lot of wind chop. No surfing for Mark on Monday!
Tom got home from work and grilled up a nice piece of Salmon and threw together a great salad.
Once again "let's play then eat", except no play!
Tuesday after the kids left for school and Tom and Janet went to work, I drove around to check out the surf. It was still cold and windy, so I went down to Vero Beach and had lunch with some friends that had driven down from Annapolis a few days earlier. Later that afternoon I climbed into the wetsuit and paddled out in the wind chop and slop. The current was strong, so about every 15 minutes it was back to the beach for a long walk back up wind. I got a couple of rides, but it was pretty lousy conditions. Still, I guess some is better than none.
Tom fixed up another dinner that couldn't be beat and we talked trash about the fun we had in college, before turning in for the night.
Tom arranged to go to work late on Wednesday, and we drove north looking for a place that might be sheltered from the wind. We paddled out at Lori Wilson Park, near Cocoa, and got a few rides before the wind picked up and turned the few waves there were back into a washing machine.
Tom and I enjoyed a quick lunch at Roberto's Cuban Restaurant before he headed off to work. I drove over to Calema Windsurfing/Kelly Park to see what was going on and possibly rent a windsurfer. Even though it was blowing hard ocean side, not much was happening on the river. Go figure. There were a lot of people there getting geared up for this weekends Formula Mid-winters. I got to meet and talk to the owner and designer for Exocet Windsurfing, so that was pretty cool. I headed south to Melbourne and hung out on the beach for a while, before going back to Tom's to drop off my board and grab my bags for the trip back to Orlando. I arrived at BWI just before midnight to 20 degree temperatures. All of a sudden 65 in Florida didn't seem so bad!
Keep playing in the the frozen snow. Keep playing in the un-frozen snow. Just keep playing!Aloha,
MB
