Vero Beach Vacation and Gear Issue

We are headed back to Vero Beach. Vero has become or favorite go to place over the last few years. We have searched for a condo for two of those visits but with Ziva nobody would take a large dog. 

This year we renew the hunt but we are also considering apartments. Mary and I have worked all the numbers and the easiest way to avoid an initial purchase cost with a possible land lease or HOA fees is to just rent an apartment. We even ran numbers to compare renting a pet friendly place for two or three months to the tune of 6-9k a month. For an additional 4k we would have our own place available all year round. As bad as my body feels when it gets cold I would be happy to head south in October and not come back until April. 

The Weather Watch

Some of my go to weather pages have changed or gone away but I have been working on some new to me weather tools for my cross country flight planning. I always use Foreflights Imagery and MOS on the weather selection along with Windy, Aviation Weather Center, Weather Underground.

Sunday 3.10 Pre-Flight 

It's the day before departure and I am going to complete my preflight and fuel sump. Total fuel on board for our flight south is 55 gallons. 3 Tango Charlie is ready to go and I'll turn on the preheats overnight for our planned departure of 8am.

Monday 3.11 Departure Day

Rise and shine we're on vacation! Well, almost. Bags were packed yesterday and the SUV is ready to go. Mary and I will make a breakfast stop at the local eatery, Abi's Diner. We have a few snacks and water packed for the flight.

Todays routing will be Ocean City (KOXB) to Mt. Pleasant SC (KLRO)for a fuel and go.There were no cameras today, I just didn’t feel up for it. 

We departed Ocean City in very strong gusty winds and pointed for Snow Hill VOR.  As we reached the mid peninsula we were rocked by strong wind gusts between 40 and 49 knots at six thousand five hundred. I believe the gust actually pulled the gear door open which triggered a gear warning light. I canceled flight following with Potomac approach and diverted to Accomack. 

I needed to loose altitude so I circled around and worked my way down to a safe altitude and activated the auto pilot for heading and altitude to perform the emergency gear dump just to be safe. I heard and felt all three gear drop with the nose gear needing a bit of a shake. Finally three green confirmed. 

I contacted Accomack (KMFV) operations to ask for a gear check as I made a low pass with a visual confirmation. The gear was down, now I hope it indeed was locked. Mary and I talked about what if situations when she asked if the gear isn’t locked then what. Awkward pause, then we’re done flying because it will belly in. I felt her anxiety with just her look. My bride said, trying to ease tension, I’m done flying if that happens, me too. 

It seemed like a long flight back to OCMD. I tried multiple times to have OC Ops give me one more confirmation but nobody answered. Did I mention the gusty winds? It was a serious ride em’ cowboy landing. I held off and somehow gently rolled the mains on followed by a nice wheelie, gently letting the nose gear touch. We were still rolling on three good gear.

I tucked 3 Tango Charlie in the hangar and we decided to drive to Vero Beach FL. I haven’t made this drive in forty years, but I was up for the challenge. After switching vehicles from my 2003 MB ML 320 to our 2017 MB GLC300 we were on our way, it was 10:30.

Two fuel stops with one fast food stop coupled with the second gas and go, and we were back at it. 15 hours later we arrived at our hotel, on the beach, in Vero at 2am.

Tuesday 3.12

Not exactly an early start but we did manage some sleep. A must stop at the Lemon Tree for breakfast and then a few errands. I needed to fill the tank on the GLC 300 and clean the hundreds of bugs off the windshield and grill. Really gross!

We made a stop to surprise Mary’s friend Jen at her new location. Her store is beautiful and she was surprised to see us. We’ll catch up later this week. Next we’re off to the super market for water and P&J Crustables for beach snacks. Mary also had to shop for a new bathing suit since her brand new one was still at home. We both forget the most simple things. The rest of the day will be relaxing on the balcony listening to the crashing waves while Mary reads her book and I work on this blog post. 

We decided on an early dinner at the Edgewood eatery. Wow, once again this place did not disappoint. I had the Bolognese that was awesome and Mary had the roasted chicken over polenta, spinach and chicken-Dijon jus which she said was tremendous. Sorry, the food looked too good not to dig in, so no pictures. 

Wednesday 3.13

The plan was to get up early, do breakfast, then some much needed beach time. Mary and I are going to meet my brother and his wife for lunch at 1pm in Fort Pierce. Instead, we slept in, I really needed the down time. My bride said I was out by 8pm and I woke up around 7:30.

We were both slow moving but did manage to make breakfast at 9am. Good eats and service at the lemon tree. 

With full tummies we headed west back across the Indian river Merrill Barber bridge to look at property. We liked the complex we checked out but they are not taking applications at this time because the waiting list is full. Why do I think this will be like the hangar wait list. 

The ride back to the hotel is twenty minutes. We freshened up and then headed south to Crabby’s Dockside to meet up with my brother. Lunch was excellent! Mary had scallops and I had the coconut shrimp. My bride also had two mojitos which made for a sooner then I hoped departure for the hotel. Lately it’s been a once a year visit with my brother so I was really looking forward to spending more time together. I plan on heading back down solo when Mary and our friend Susan, from Newport News, heads off to Rhode Island on a bus trip. We returned to the hotel and I worked on the blog while the princess slept. 

Thursday 3.14

Finally some beach time! It felt good getting some sun and just relaxing. Mary pulled her chaise out from under the umbrella to work on a tan, I turn brown just being outside.

We got a call from the hotel to switch rooms because we had a maintenance issue so we packed up and headed back to our room. We moved to the second floor ocean view where we should have been from day one, but that’s another story. 

It was nice to sit on the balcony and watch the waves and leave the sliding doors open for the sea breeze. 

We cleaned up for dinner and then made the short walk north to Bobby’s. Dinner was excellent, and so was the service.

Friday 3.15

Rise and shine! What a beautiful start to the day.

It was time to change things up for breakfast so we crossed the Indian river and headed over to Beach Bum Bagels. A busy little place that was very good as far as customer service and the food was also very good.

We headed to the beach and the umbrella/chair set ups were all reserved. The young man working this morning said we needed a special pass from the hotel. Hmmm, typically we pay cash or credit and we’re good to go. The new hotel policy requires a pass to rent the set up.

Mary walked over to the office to find out if we need the pass as guests, yep, we did, and there are none left. I kept chatting with the young man and eventually he rented us the set up since I convinced him we would be three hours max. He then could re-rent our set up for another full day charge, since we would not return once we left. Cha-Ching! He took my $30. 

Once showered and ready to find lunch we headed over to look at a few more properties. We found one apartment complex we really liked but would need to furnish. Mary and I also revisited some communities that are land lease, which seems to be the norm. We found one home, just a thousand SF, 2br/2bath. 

After meeting with the agent it was confirmed the roof and A/C are 17 years old. Most of the kitchen appliances will need to be replaced, and the big red flag is the bedrooms back up to a busy roadway. It was a super clean cute place that would be perfect for us, but I think it’s a pass. One good point was a new Wawa just up the street. One not so good was me twisting my already messed up right knee stepping out of the SUV on to the uneven yard. 

We’ll keep up the search but for now we are going to find a late lunch early dinner destination. 

Station 49 was our choice. We hit this place every year and we order the same thing. Mary gets the Carbonara and I ordered Paradelle with Bolognese. I also had a side of two Advil's, it helped eased the knee pain.

Saturday 3.16

We decided to try a new place for breakfast this morning. The Kountry Kitchen was really busy but service was excellent and the food just as good. Mary and I both were bums most of the day, her reading and me working on the blog. The balcony afforded us some sunshine without having to do the beach as we both just relaxed. 

Sunday 3.17

We decided to bug out one day early and head for home. Here we are crossing the Dames Point bridge in Jacksonville Florida. I made two fuel stops along the way and completed the 15.5 hour drive, arriving home at midnight.  

Now for the fun stuff. I scheduled gear service at Sussex aero for Thursday. I am taking today off to let the back get happy again then do some preliminary checks on the gear tomorrow. Update posts and pictures to follow.