Barry’s cousin, Craig Patrick, and his wife Susan live in Jupiter, Florida. Since we were in Orlando and driving south to the Keys, Barry contacted Craig to see if it would work out to meet up. They hadn’t seen each other since a family reunion that was the summer of 1995. I, of course, had never met them. I was looking forward to meeting more family.
We drove down to a Cracker Barrel in Stuart, Florida. This was our first overnight stay at a Cracker Barrel. It was great. Barry called Cracker Barrel the night before to verify an overnight stay. The manager was super nice. Since we were going to go out for dinner with Craig and Susan, Barry went over the next morning to get a large breakfast to go. We wanted to patronize Cracker Barrel for welcoming RVers overnight like they do.
Craig and Susan came and picked us up. We went to Mulligan’s in Stuart, Florida for dinner. When Susan noticed I had braces, we had an immediate connection. The four of us clicked right away and talked and talked. We ordered drinks, but had a hard time taking a break to look at the menu. In fact, the waitress told us just to move the salt shaker to the edge of the table when we were ready to order so they wouldn’t keep bothering us. What a great idea! We all agreed that we should suggest that when we are out at other restaurants!
We finally ordered and got our meals. The seared ahi tuna was so tender. It just melted in my mouth. While we were eating, Barry brought up politics to see if we were unified or on opposing sides. I was a bit nervous. Things were going so well. They didn’t answer, but Susan asked where we stood, so I said that I couldn’t stand Trump. I thought she was going to come over the table to hug me. LOL Our bond was deep and complete. When we got back to our motorhome, Craig and Susan came in to continue our visit together. What a terrific time we had tonight! We may have to come back again to the Jupiter area to be able to spend time together again! We will definitely keep in touch. Tomorrow morning Barry and I head to Big Pine Key/Ohio Key for our Christmas week stay at Sunshine Key RV Resort.
