Happy New Year  Straub Park Downtown St. Pete

This was a most unusual day. I believe it is an omen that 2006 will be a most unusual year. We'll see. I peaked outside early today and got the paper. it was a little foggy but looked okay. However a closer examination showed the streets were wet. Hmmmmm, didn't know the fog would do that. Oh well it can't be that bad. About 8:30 AM as I was about half way to Straub Park, Janice gave me a call and indicated it was wet up her way and she would meet us for Brunch at 10:30 AM. I started noticing these little puddles of water along the way. Hmmmmmm. I had to slow down on the interstate. Even though I had gone this way a million times it didn't look very familiar in the fog.

Eleven (11) bladers gathered at Straub Park. Well, Jeff came on this funny looking bicycle. We scratched our heads, paced up and down the street. The streets looked a little too wet to safely blade so we headed to Harvey's for Brunch. I should have waited a few more minutes to see if we would have some late comers but I didn't and I apologize. Learned later Kim showed up a few minutes late and no one was there. She tried to blade out to the Pier and the streets we so slippery she quit.

We had a nice Brunch at Harvey's. Not many other people were there and we had pretty fast service. However, Rob struggled to rate his Brunch an 8. He indicated 7.5 was probably closer. I didn't get any arguments from anyone. Harvey's used to have such great Brunches.

Without Jeff or Janice to guide us we were pretty much lost as we headed towards Coffee Pot Bayou. In just a few blocks, we saw the waters of Coffee Pot Bayou peering through the fog. Wheeeeew! We stopped at the bridge for our foggy group picture and continued to Kim & Joel's where Kim told us of her aborted skate. She couldn't join us then as she and Joel were headed to relatives. On the way back to Harvey's, we noticed some people peering into the water. Amazing! Counted 5 or 6 manatees near the boat docks. I've been here 50 years and have never seen a manatee in Coffee Pot Bayou. Our blade today was most unusual. Hope we are ready for the challenges 2006 will present to us.

We had a brand new blader with us today, Brian. Welcome Brian. Gerald and John had bladed with us before but not often. Welcome John and Gerald. This guy Mike showed up. I knew he looked familiar. Ha, welcome back Mikey. Mike even renewed his Sponsorship. Thanks Mike. Sorry about this long report but it is only about half of what happened. Awe yes, I should also point out one of our bladers had this tantalizing outfit on. It did draw some attention at Harvey's. A most unusual blade to start off the year