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Jan. 17
At first glance out the hotel window the wind wasn’t moving the palms at all. I was relieved and anticipated a rowing day for a change! I had my cup of coffee and looked again. The palms were waving back as if taunting me. I had decided yesterday that we could row along the shore and be protected enough to fill in this gap between Edgewater and the WSEG boat ramp. So we packed up, checked out and drove to Edgewater’s Menard Park. As I parked to look at conditions I felt that the car being rocked by the gusts of wind. It was worse than yesterday. I examined the route along the shore and the whitecaps were breaking in the shallows. The wind was from the Northeast now instead of Northwest so the shore gave no protection. My spirit dimmed. Rowing this stretch was not going to happen this week.
We drove South stopping to drive through another seven-mile bird watching road and added many more birds to our list. Being a holiday it was crowded with cars and we took our place in line to watch each successive flock of Roseate Spoonbills, American Avocets, Pin tailed Ducks, Blue winged Teals, Grebes, Coots and on and on. This was an ornithological paradise.
After another hour and a half of driving down I-95 I stopped to find a cheap room before getting to the Gold Coast where that would be impossible. It seems I was too late. The usually cheaper hotels were over $100.00 and almost full. We took the last room at the Sleep Inn and brought in our bags. I wanted to take a nap. As soon as I lay down there were screaming kids with their loud and unkempt parents yelling up and down the hall. After a while I had had enough and with the sternest expression I could muster opened my door and asked if they could please do their yelling in their rooms because I and others wanted to be able to sleep. My stern expression must have made me look like a clown based on the response I received. I closed the door again having accomplished little. In half an hour we went to find some dinner and chose the Red Lobster a few blocks away. After waiting ten minutes for our table we were led in to sit in a booth next to our Sleep Inn neighbors. They took two large tables. The children sat at one table and the grownups at the other. Needless to say it was not a great meal!
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