Bill and Cathy McArthur on the Road 2011: 11

  Monday, March 28, Bill's calf was sore. Cathy went to her exercise class. Bill dug in to work on our taxes. It was a bit more complicated this year because of Computing Doc being closed and residing in two states (NJ and DE), but Bill plowed through. Jack and Sue picked us up at 10:30 AM to go to lunch at the Turtle Club. A weather front had come through earlier, but when we were seated on the beach, the weather was fabulous. We had a wonderful lunch in paradise. After we were dropped off around 12:30 PM, Bill went to Office Max to get some of the tax returns printed and to print, sign, and scan to a PDF file his signature for efileing the last Computing Doc federal return. When Bill returned via Starbucks, he efiled the two federal returns. Then, Cathy wrote two check to DE for our 2010 tax and for an estimated payment for 2011. Bill went to the post office to mail our returns. When he returned, he put an ad on RV Trader for our RV, referring to Delaware Camping Center. We ate an early dinner of pasta and a frozen meal while we viewed another farcical movie, "Operation Endgame." We went to country line dancing. We returned to finish the movie, but it started to rain too hard to hear it, so we stopped it before finishing. Bill received an email that our federal tax return had be rejected due to a bad zip code on a 1099-R.

  Tuesday had an iffy forecast, but it turned out to be hot and humid. Bill fixed the addresses on our 1099-R forms on the federal tax return and efiled it again. Bill went out for a 4.5 hour, 16.5 mile kayak paddle to the mouth of Rookery Bay. Bill saw lots of dolphins and spring breakers out on the water. He arrived back home for a late lunch. There were T-storms to our east, so Bill drove to LVCC for his tutoring session with Primo. Bill received an email that our federal return was accepted. We grilled burgers for dinner and then went to Fran and Denny's for a bonfire with guitars, singing, and good conversation. We got back around 9:40 PM.

  Wednesday, Bill slept in until 7:00 AM. He had been fighting off a sore throat and a virus of some sort and it had caught up with him. Cathy went to her exercise class. Bill paid the online bills and made a modification to the menu on CapeMayBeach.net. After lunch, Bill found 38 worksheets for ESOL online that looked promising for his tutoring sessions with Primo. Bill went to Office Max to get the worksheets printed. He stopped at Starbucks on the way home. Bill chilled out for the rest of the afternoon. Tom and Jean Reilly picked us up at 5:30 PM for dinner at Bonefish Grill with Jack and Sue Beatty. We had a good dinner except that Cathy's order was mixed up and her entree didn't arrive until everyone but Bill had just about finished their meals. After dinner, we drove downtown and attended "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" at the Sugden Theater. Bill thought that the play was about an hour too long, as it lasted from 8:00 to 10:45 PM.

  Thursday, Bill felt better. Cathy went to the gym. Bill went out on a 40 mile bike ride in a 25 mph south wind. It was a struggle riding into the headwind, but a thrill to have the bike going up to 30 mph with a tailwind. He finished with a 15.4 mph average speed. After lunch, Bill went out for a cappuccino. On the way back, he stopped at Custom Hitch and Trailer Sales and talked with Bob about hitch lights when we use our bike rack. Bob said he would order a kit and that Bill should call him on Thursday next to set up an appointment for Friday. At 3:30 PM, Bill headed on foot to LVCC for his tutoring session with Primo. All day long a wicked weather front banged on Central Florida. It stayed north of us until the middle of the night. Bill stopped at the bridge on the way back home. A lot of people were saying goodbye as they were heading out on Snowbird Migration Day, April 1. We had quinoa and a frozen meal for dinner. We watched several episodes from the first season of "30 Rock." It was great to be able to watch it without commercials.

  Friday started very humid but became less so as the day went on. Cathy went to her exercise classes. Bill did a 2 mile walk followed by 1/4 mile run, 1/4 mile walk repeated 6 times. After lunch we chilled out. We went to the bridge for Happy Hour and then returned home. Bill took a shower and then did most of our tortellini dinner. We viewed "Waiting for Superman" and were rather depressed afterward.

  Saturday was a beautiful day. Bill slept in a bit and then took his time doing his two crossword puzzles. He had thought of a 4 hour kayak paddle, but realized that he didn't have to do that. As he wrote later on FaceBook:

Finally "decompressed" after many months of training for Philadelphia Half Marathon, Bass River Half Distance Duathlon, Miami Beach Half Marathon, Goofy Challenge, and Sarasota Half Distance Half Marathon. It took a slight calf injury to get me out of the intense training mode state of mind. I didn't realize I was still in that zone until I came out of it. Nice day on the beach today with no guilt for not putting in hard hours of paddling, running, or cycling.

We went to Starbucks/Publix for some items. Bill put both bikes on the rack and cleaned them and lubed the chains. He also pumped the tires. We went for a geezer bike ride along the airport. After lunch, we walked to the beach via Starbucks and an art show downtown. We saw replicas of the Nina and Pinta as we crossed the Route 41 bridge. We lay on the beach until 4:00 PM. Bill went in the 80 degree water for a dip. After we walked home and cleaned up, we went to Sushi Thai for sushi. We kept up with the VCU/Butler semi-final basketball game via Bill's iPhone. We viewed some more Final Four action before bedtime.

  Sunday was sunny and hot. Bill went out for a 5 hour, 17.3 mile fishing paddle into Rookery Bay. He trolled with a gold spoon for many miles on the ICW and in Rookery Bay, but had no hits. Bill arrived back for a shower and a late lunch. We went to Naples Kayak Company and bought a tandem Wilderness Systems kayak, similar to the Old Town double that Cathy always liked. Cathy had talked with neighbors Ken and Judy about going together on buying a double, so they were given the option of joining in on the purchase, which we got at 20% off. We put the kayak on the rack at Rock Creek and then drove to Michaels for a framing job. We talked with Tom and Jean on Cathy's cell phone and arranged to drive to their home to meet their friends from NJ, Ron and Ginny, and to go out for dinner. We stopped at Target for Starbucks and lip stuff and then for gas and finally went to Tom and Jean's home. Ron is a Villanova graduate with Philadelphia roots. He was in Bill's Class of 1966, but in C&F, while Bill was on the other end of campus. We enjoyed talking about Philly and the Jersey Shore. We tried to go to dinner at Steamers, but it was closed. We ended up at the Swan River Seafood Company, where we had excellent meals. Bill had a great blackened grouper dinner and Cathy had a great broiled scrod dinner (the restaurant has locations in Cape Cod and Naples).

        Bill and Cathy