Another Milestone Today

  It's Easter morning here in St. Louis and the sun is just beginning to show itself. I took this picture with my iPhone; we have lots of pictures looking out our living room window for a view of the St. Louis skyline, this is not the best one, but it's the one I took today. What is significant about today is that this may very well be the last Sunday morning we ever wake up here at our condo in St. Louis. Until we leave on Swing Set in a few weeks, it's certain that we'll be staying aboard every weekend until then.
  We like this place, but even so, we feel it's best to sell it so we don't have an easy excuse to abandon our living aboard plans. Without a sales contract in hand, we still plan on locking the doors and leaving the rest to the real estate agency to take care of things.
  We were going to stay on Swing Set last night, but it's still on the hard at Bloch Marine until tomorrow afternoon. We went up to the river yesterday for a BBQ and stopped by to see how everything looked and we were pleased to see that Swing Set was sporting a nice shiny new wax job. The bottom paint looked marvelous and the only thing to be done on Monday morning is to install the saltwater "zincs", hang our dinghy back on the davits, and plop her in the water.
  As I said, we were going to sleep on Swing Set last night to avoid the drive home, but somehow it just didn't seem right to stay onboard at night without being in the water. I may have sleep walked off the swim platform and did a faceplant onto the parking lot at Bloch Marine. I don't mind so much if the same thing might put me in the drink one night, it'll just wake me up in a hurry, but the five foot drop to the pavement is sure to break something.
  We'll most likely spend what we intend to be our last Easter in St. Louis here at home. We might take a walk to the market a few blocks away and get something good to make for dinner later; they'll be open with a few employees as it's pretty much the only place downtown to get groceries.

  We had a full weekend already: Friday night we went to the famous Fast Eddies in Alton, Ill. Everyone around here knows about Fast Eddies, they serve more beer than anyone else in the midwest and the food is cheap. I hadn't seen Eddie Sholar in a few years, and when he came over to say Hi, I almost didn't recognize him. Eddie has lost some weight and is looking fit. Looks are deceiving though, as he is still running around raising hell. He's left the business of running the bar to his son, Eddie Sholar Jr., and he spends a lot of time in Key West. We made some plans to meet up when we get down there and have a beer or two.
  We went to Fast Eddies Friday night for a birthday party, and lots of people we knew came to the party, but even so, we ran into a whole slew of other folks we know just because we happened to be there at the same time. It is a very popular place in these parts.
  We answered lots of questions during the course of the evening about our plans; I feel like people ought to be sick of us talking about it, but they keep asking and giving us their support. More than one person has sincerely mentioned that they will miss us and are a bit sad, but are at the same time very happy for us. Makes us feel real good.
  Before heading to the BBQ yesterday, and after we stopped by Swing Set, we drove over to the Duck Club to see what was happening. Lots of people were around, some heading out for a boat ride in spite of a little overcast weather, our dock neighbors were milling about, some of them in a recuperative state after a bar hopping bus trip the day before.
  We were enjoying their company when a fella and his wife walked over and introduced themselves by mentioning how they like reading our blog. It turned out to be Dave and JoAnn Berg. They have a blog too, and you can see it here on my favorite blogs, and there is a link like ours on RiverBills.com. Dave shared some stories about their experiences living aboard for as much as seven months at a time on their 47 foot vessel, Great Escape. He really got my anticipation level going, and I think he got himself excited too about getting back out there for some more trips. There's no doubt about it, we like meeting people and talking about boats, period.
  We took Holly over to the BBQ where she used every weapon in her arsenal to make her presence known. Rosie and I kept handing her off to each other, and even to others, to escape her fidgeting and rude barking. Now, Holly doesn't consider barking at people to be rude, it's just her way, but we're used to seeing her at home all week behaving like a little angel. It was a little off putting to witness Holly behaving like such a....well, like such an animal.
  Fact is; we'd rather be on Swing Set, but here we are at home for just a handful of more days before it'll be full time on the boat. I think we'll just enjoy the day for what it is.