First Days of Cocoa Beach

Please forgive my frail words as they falter through the thrift shop of thoughts in my mind these days. Few daily routines or rhythm have come to us and we haven’t forced many disciplines into the schedule as the backlog of errands piles higher and higher.

The apartment is a bit of a mess and we have almost nothing for sitting. We picked up a nice mattress at Costco upon arrival as well as some beach chairs. These treasures left us with our ‘Bougie Beach Chair Lounge’ in the front room. This is because no furniture made the trip.

“If it doesn’t fit into the Honda, it doesn’t go!”

Well, that sounds like the edict of a madman, but it helped drive a harsh eye towards what we really needed for this adventure. The long-term objective of living on a sailboat requires abject minimalism, the exchange of goods for experiences; acquisition for activity. At least, that’s what it says in the hippy handbook…

So we left our Illinois junk behind in search of new Florida junk from whatever Goodwill and Habitat for Humanity might offer.

If only they were open on Tuesday…

But they weren’t, and getting to the shop in Melbourne on Tuesday was a hassle.

Apparently we live on an island.

It’s beautiful, but comes with the supply issues one should expect of all islands. There is a 20-minute driving tax for nearly everything. I know this is ‘first world problem,’ but after living in our little town of Morton, IL where nothing was more than 5 minutes and 3 stop signs away, actually stopping at a light with other people seems untenable. Having three lanes in each direction, well that’s just improvidently lavish.

Thankfully, riding along the causeway between islands brings such joy. Out the car windows I see what once was miles of corn and soybeans replaced by open water and it simply thrills me. I catch myself smiling every time I look out across the Indian River and the ICW. Shannon says she can’t wait to look back at these roads and bridges from the other side, anchored on our sailboat. Every drive reminds us of why we are here.

But this drive was all about finding some furniture, and nothing was open. Habitat was closed and the three Goodwill stores we checked were limited on what we needed. Thankfully a second trip to the Titusville Home Depot netted us four patio chairs for $15/ea which was a huge improvement over the beach chair bougie lounge of day one.

The new chairs meant we could sit upright and in an evolutionary sense, we were making progress. I also picked up a small Milwaukee battery-powered vacuum for a new challenge slowly creeping into our world.

After visiting the beach we have discovered a new addition to the Honda floor. Something strange is slowly accumulating amongst the sunflower seeds that normally gather alone on the floor mats after long trips.

It’s a very old friend to me, something found in peanut butter sandwiches, between toes, and constantly falling from my mottled hair growing up. Sandwich sand is simply the worst and not fully compressing your teeth was the only solution for a PB&J.

For the Honda, I would blame Henry the dog, but I know better. The sand is mine as are the vivid memories.