Stuart

Did you know that are towns named Stuart in Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Virginia? We certainly didn't until we got to Stuart, Fl. Our plans were to stay a couple of days but Mother Nature decided that we needed to stay longer. The wind has blown strong and steadily since we pulled in on Saturday afternoon.

Stuart is located on the picturesque St. Lucie River that empties into Lake Okeechobee which is the passage to the Gulf Coast. The countryside surrounding it has a little bit of everything for which Florida is noted: citrus, winter vegetables, flowers and cattle. As the county seat, it has most of the facilities found in an urban area, including Martin Memorial Hospital, which accepts emergency patients at its own dock. Drive-thru medical care...well almost. It's claim to being the “Sailfish Capital of the World” is sometimes disputed by other Florida cities but no one denies that both it's inside and outside waters has outstanding fishing.

Historic Stuart was originally settled in 1880 and named Potsdam. Local residents didn't like the name because they said the railroad people called it Dam Pots. So in 1896 it was renamed Stuart. In recent years the downtown area underwent a facelift and today is a charmingly preserved town where people actually walk around at night. Lots of gift shops, art galleries, and trendy restaurants. And yes, pricey by small town standards. We wandered into an ice cream shop and ordered to 2 single dip cones. It taste like regular ice cream but it must have been some special because it costs us almost $10.

There are 10 marinas in the area with amenities ranging from boatyards offering just dockage to upscale facilities with their own restaurant. We chose Sunset Bay Marina because it's the only one that has a mooring field. It's a very nice place with clean, well-kept showers, large laundry area and a captain's lounge with tv and book-swapping. These pictures were taken from the balcony outside the captain's lounge.

This is me blocking the sign showing you where we were.

There is a broadwalk that runs from the marina under the railroad and highrise bridge into downtown Stuart. Here are pictures of the bridge and the train that comes through several times a day requiring boat traffic to stop until it's gone.

Since we had to stay here longer than expected we needed something to do. On Monday we did laundry, on Tueday we went groccery shopping and Wednesday we had to invent something. One of the ladies at the visitor's center suggested that we might want to take the bike path out to the Savannas Preserve State Park. What she failed to tell us is that there is very little to see without leaving the bike trail. We rode for about 8 miles (one way) without seeing anyone except other bikers and a few hikers. And there was no place to get water or go to the comfort station. We did manage to catch this one interesting picture.

You may say that we're gluttons for punishment because today we took the bikes out again for another marathon ride...but with better results. What we went for was a dud but we found 3 thrift stores and a great hamburger at a restaurant owned by former Miami Dolphin linebacker Bob Brudzinski.

Tomorrow we hope the weather allows us to move a little further north.