A Tough Passage, Jimmy Buffet and Easter  -  Madera Beach

                                                             

Jimmy Buffet Concert in Tampa

  

The weather turned downright scary on our 10 mile trip down the ICW from Clearwater to Madera Beach.  Halfway there we were hit with 45 mile/hr. winds and a bad thunderstorm.  The water started separating and rising off the surface.  The visibility got so bad we couldn’t see the markers 20 feet ahead. It turned out there was a tornado warning a half mile away (the tornado didn’t materialize).  We were SO glad to get to Charlie and Al’s dock (where we stayed for 3 days). Al was there to help us tie up - a struggle in the wind. We do not want to go through that again! Weather around here is so unpredictable! Unless you want to stay in one place a long time it is difficult to figure out when to leave.
                                                                  

Jimmy Buffet Tailgate Party

3/4 of the "Flotilla " here

Won shirts in a game like Taylor's washer game from a radio station

          We had a great time at the Jimmy Buffet tailgate party/ concert in Tampa.  Dennis and Carol, part of the original “flotilla” rented a car and came across Florida to join us.  With Charlie and Al, Dennis and Carol we had ¾ of the “flotilla” there.  We went to the concert in a big group including 15 of their other friends. They really had this concert/tailgate stuff down as they have been going to see Jimmy Buffet for the last 20 years.                                                           

         The tailgate/concert was awesome. Bill and I would describe the 8 hr. tailgate party as wild and crazy, “spring break for adults of all ages”.  We were surprised that about 40% of the people were in their 20’s, 40% were our age and 20% were older than us.  We never figured there would be so many young people there. We sat on the lawn (actually everybody stood up the whole time) for the concert .  It never  rained hard even though I put my black trash

 bag on several times when it was threatening.

          We all spent Easter at Al and Charlie’s along with Dennis and Carol.  We dyed eggs (with names of the Buffet songs on them), had an Easter egg hunt, Easter breakfast and dinner.

                                                                

                                                                                 

                                     The Al and Charlie dock gets 6 stars on Active Captain from us!!

          .