I was woken at 7:30am by the sound of hammering on the wall between my bedroom and Katrina's. In true landlady fashion, Jeanie was on a rampage. I'm not sure if it was spring cleaning or some menopausal overload but she was hauling everything out of the closet, actually, half the furniture out of the bedroom, at the same time scrubbing, vacuuming and running multi-loads of laundry.
I didn't fight it, I just got up, got myself a cup of coffee and set to it with my packing. I had a rough plan to load the car tonight and, if I woke at 3am as I have for the past three nights, head out then or at the latest, 6am, getting a full 12-15 hours on the road. Unfortunately, things wouldn't go as planned.
Around 11, I felt I'd done enough, loaded the car up with my boat and beach gear, grabbed a Starbucks misto and yogurt w honey and hit US19 south.
I parked on the Dunedin causeway and paddled out to Honeymoon Island. I could see Peter's truck and trailer parked further along the road and hoped I'd run into him and the campers at the beach. The water is a beautiful turquoise here, a nice change from the Anclote River which is currently a blood & dirt red from the recent storms.
I had a wonderful dolphin moment along the way. I could see two of them playing in the shallows to my right. As I hoped, one of them came over to check me out. Instead of leaping along beside me as they sometimes do, he rolled on his side and cruised along beside me for about 50m looking intently into my face. Just as I realized I was having an animal planet moment, he skimmed under the boat, directly under the boat, shadowing my path. Then he gave the boat a nudge and dropped off behind. It was probably the coolest thing that's ever happened to me on the water!
I was on a bit of a high so instead of turning into the beach, I paddled to the furthest end of the island before turning back.  On the way back, I could spotted the outriggers pulled up on the beach and headed in to find the group in the cafe. They had just finished up lunch and we went back to the beach together. They hung out for a bit while Peter snagged a nap on one of the benches. I was reading a book and listening to 80s radio on my scorpion. They left about a half hour before me. Once I'd had enough of my book, I packed my gear and launched my boat. I just don't enjoy lying around the beach anymore. Honeymoon Island is my favourite destination - it never disappoints. I wish it was my home paddling site!
I was driving home craving a hamburger when I noticed that there was a clunk in the front end and the brakes were grabbie. It was 4pm on friday afternoon but I took a chance and called Tim who had put the new hub on when I first arrived and found out my wheel was falling off. He said to bring it right in. He asked if maybe I wasn't just paranoid because of what had happened on the way down and I said possibly but could we go for a spin. I drove for a bit and then he said, "Okay, chinese fire drill!" I haven't heard that since high school when we would load up the car with people and then, at a stop light, all jump out and run around the car, getting back in at other spots. Made me laugh. We switched spots and then he put it up on the hoist when we got back to the garage confirming that the brakes had seized on the other wheel. By now it was almost 5pm. even though his garage is usually closed on Saturday, he said he'd order the parts right away and he would come in at 9am to fix the problem. What  guy! He's confident he'll have me out of there by noon so fingers crossed!
I went to Muzzies and got a Bungoburger. While it was cooking, I went to the liqour store and picked up a case of BL lime. I sat at the kitchen island eating my burger with my beer and, all things considered, felt pretty content.