Travels With the Captain: Chapter 20. A Time of Contrasts

January, 2015...

Seacrets, Ocean City, 1/2/2015

Stan's Idle Hour about the same time. Pictured are, left to right Louise, Leslie, Marilyn, and Vaughn.

Note the conspicuous absence of snow and ice.

Couldn't resist showing you this... From l to r, Murphy, Opie, Rocky, Tyson, Tanner, and the Captain. (Also in January). The only ice is in the tequila...

Ocean City, MD, January 2015

Marco Island January, 2015

The astute reader will, no doubt, detect a theme here. Namely, it's just better in Naples and vicinity.

Which gives rise to this...

Envy is SUCH an ugly emotion, don't you think??

No matter. Buck up me hearties, as we've a fair lot of partying to do this inaugural month of the good year 2015. Let us begin:

Gordon, one of the most gracious hosts here in Pelican Lake has parties with heroic frequency. Here are pics from the one on January 3...

First, using his patented time division multiplexing staminfritzit (pronounced just as you'd expect), he resurrects none other than...

Elvis.

Then, using his pure animal charm and the promise of free adult beverages, he attracts...

Beautiful ladies. (L to r, Louise, Bev, Randi, Cindi [who is apparently drinking milk])

Who, in turn draw...

A crowd.

And of course, as with any A List function during THE SEASON, there will be in attendance the usual luminaries of high society...

The luminaries...l to r, Terry, John, Kathy, Jim, Leslie, Louise, Captain Stan

Now some of you are wondering, "Can they keep this up? It's only the third day of the new year." Take comfort, my friends, that despite the various differences in age, education, occupation, and personal thoughts on global warming, they are all the hardiest of breeds...they are Motorcoach people.

Know this, dear reader...

Neither sandy beaches, nor warm gulf waters, nor warm tropical sunshine, nor the relentless clear, 80 degree days shall keep these heroes from fulfilling their sacred duty to uphold the time honored traditions of the Lake called Pelican. They WILL party on...

On another front, your on the scene reporter is saddened to inform you, dear reader, of the untimely demise of the Beast's forward air conditioner. Untimely, cause it's hot down here in the near tropics, saddened for the same reason. The astute reader will recall that last season your resourceful Captain was able to resuscitate this same A/C with the installation of a near magical thing-a-ma-bob called a start capacitor. Dutifully, your brave Captain climbed the rear ladder of the coach ready to install yet another start capacitor. Unfortunately, the whole A/C had breathed its last and could not be salvaged.

After dealing for weeks with the idle promises of a Naples based repairman, the Captain contracted with RV DOCTOR in Ft Myers, FL to install a brand new unit.

As you can see, they come in two stylish designer colors, Black & White. Black was chosen to match the mood of your frugal ship's purser when he learned that the cost of maintaining comfort in the forward section of the coach was about $1,400. (I believe that the high price is because the unit is the largest available...15,000 BTU. BTU is British Thermal Unit. I personally think that importing thermal units from the United Kingdom needlessly inflates the prices of the A/C's!!!).