Day One at Indian River

 7-10-2021

The long-awaited day is finally here.  We have been planning this trip since sometime last year, during the pandemic, and our journey this summer was based on being at John and Bridgette's by July 10 so we could go camping with them.  We all had a few chores to take care of this morning, but we were on the road by 10:05.  It was hot, of course.  For some reason, Catalina chose to wear her pretty party dress for the trip, and she wasn't in the mood for pictures when we stopped for our first break at McDonalds.  That was about 11:15 in Lake Wales.  

The trip over was uneventful.  We did have to fix the top on John's boat, it was ballooning in the wind, apparently one of the straps broke, so when we stopped at McDonalds, the guys took care of that.

We got to the campground right at 2:00, which was check-in time so that worked out perfectly.  We drove 141 miles.  We are at Long Point Park on Indian River Lagoon, just north of Vero Beach.  Sebastian is right across the lagoon from us. We have two great campsites, which John and Bridgette booked some time last year.  This place is usually full in the summer.  Our spaces have lots of room between for the kids to play, and we are right on the water.  In fact, they all got in the water after we got camp set up, but it was too hot for me and Joe, so we stayed inside.

 It was unbearably hot, it took a while for the campers to cool down inside, but they finally did.  And it clouded up enough that we were able to eat outside.  A storm missed us, but we got some thunder and lightning from it.  John grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and we threw a meal together.

We brought some new games for the trip, so Joe is putting together a ladder golf set.  The directions were a bit lacking, but he finally got it figured out.

So then the game was underway.

After Catalina got tired of playing, I took on Andrew.  He says he won, but he kept changing the rules so I'm not so sure of that.  Meanwhile, John put together the other game, a kind of croquet with inflatable balls that you kick through the larger wickets.  But it wasn't made very well, and fell apart almost immediately, so that one was a waste of money.  Hopefully, they will get some use of out the balls.  

Joe had seen a guy go by on some kind of new "segway" type board, with a big wheel in the middle.  They came around again, so I got a quick picture.  We don't know what this is called.

The neighbor walked over with her granddaughter, so the kids played for a while, and we visited with her.  John built a fire, though we certainly were not cold, but it never really took off, so we came inside and played rack-o until it was time to go to bed.  

John didn't put the boat in the water today, but we will go out first thing in the morning.  We are hoping it doesn't get quite as hot and humid today, but the other choice is probably rain, so there's no winning with Florida summer weather.  But at least we have the water, so we an all cool off there.