Marco Island

6.6

We made it through the overnight passage and arrived in the beautiful Marco Island around 11am on Sunday morning. We dropped the anchor in a very small bay that a friend had recommended to us. And as soon as we had taken care of all the "boat business", we crashed!
That evening we dinghy-ed into a nearby marina, the Esplanade. It was very upscale and our little dinghy looked mighty silly in comparison to all the nice yachts there. The slips were owned by people who rented the upscale condos overlooking the bay. We tied up to one of the docks and started our tour of Marco. Arriving in the Esplanade after being in Key West is like an out of body experience. There re rich people everywhere, small galleries and art boutiques and 5star restaurants - no dogs, no bikes, no sailboats, and certainly no drunk, half-naked people. It was official, we were back in the real world - and it was refreshing.
We walked around town, took note of where the West Marine and Publix were for the following day's errands and then went in search of a bar/restaurant in which to grab a bite to eat and watch the basketball and hockey games.
We soon realized how different of a place Marco was from the keys when we walked for thirty minutes and never once saw a person out of their car or a biker or anyone walking their dog, and much more to our surprise - not a single bar! We finally found a small "lounge" that seemed to be able to provide what we were looking for - of course it was attached to "Porky's Last Stand" restaurant (not what I would call normal in this otherwise ritzy, sleepy little town).
The TVs were small but watchable, the prices were right and most importantly, the A/C was on high - we were in business. We had a simple dinner and a few beers and were finally feeling normal again after the overnight voyage. Things were going well until a neighboring bar-going started talking to Brad, normal harmless sports banter at first. Then he launched into a story whereupon he referred to himself as "The Legend" at least 12 times - needless to say we left soon after that.
The next few days, we stocked up on food and walked the dog and just enjoyed the general laziness of the town and its residents; this is mostly due to the fact that all of its residents are over the age of 60.
We did run into some trouble with our generator and had to seek out a local small engine repair shop. We walked some 20-30minutes and hit a goldmine. We, of course, had not brought the generator with us but were rather hoping just to glean some knowledge on how to fix it ourselves or perhaps even leave with some magic spray that would fix our troubles. What we got was even better. We were greeted by two Australians, father and son, who heard our situation and quickly launched into rescue mode. Before either of us knew what was happening, Brad had driven away with the son - he was going to our boat to fix the generator on site! - and Koa and I had been ushered into an air-conditioned office and given water and a Popsicle and free use of the internet. Was this a scene from a horror-movie or were these people really just that generous?! Nervous though I was at first, I reasoned that as long as I had my attack dog here to protect me, nothing could go wrong, so I sat back and surfed the web and enjoyed the Popsicle. I even worked a bit - when it seemed he was too busy to answer his phone, I played secretary and also collected payment from a customer who came in while the owner was in the back.
Before I knew it, Brad was back, the generator was fixed, we were given a card with the instructions to call if anything went wrong again, we paid $20 and were on our way home. That was the best repair shop experience of my life!
We went back to the Esplanade, had a few drinks at the pricey outdoor bar overlooking the marina and then, after two bad drinks, decided we could do better ourselves and called it a night.
Wednesday morning, we leave for Naples.