Gulfport 2

Aug 22, 2012

My first full day in Gulfport.  This is a quaint town of 13,000, with a vibrant arts community, located on a bay off the Gulf of Mexico.  I think.  I'm staying in a nice guest cottage, about a 3/4 of a mile from the center of town.  It's an easy walk, except that the humidity is a killer, much worse than in Costa Rica.  But I'll acclimate.

From sleeping on so many different pillows over the last few weeks, my neck, which is always prone to pain,  was really acting up, so I found a chiropractor about two miles away.  No problem, I thought.  I walk two miles every morning.  So I went, the chiro adjusted me, and then it started to rain.  Pour.  Gallons were dropping at a time.  My measly little umbrella kept my head wet, but nothing more.  So I stopped at a thrift store, and don't you know, the first item at the front of a store was a yellow poncho, but big enough for the entire town of Gulfport.  I paid $1, put it on and did a little shopping along the way home.  The woman behind me at the supermarket took pity on me and offered me a ride home.  Two rides in two days!  What friendly people here.

The Gulfport Casino is a huge building on the water that offers different types of dance classes and public dances.  Wednesday night was Swing Dance night.  I had had a brief lesson last December when I was in St Pete, and knew I liked it, so I went.  It was fun - not as fun as salsa - but the best part was I met a woman from Salem, Massachusetts, the town next to where I grew up.  She's my age and we had so much in common.  Holly brought her daughter down to college in Tampa and will be here for three weeks.  She has a rental car and we are going to have some fun together!

Aug 23

My Internet connection has been problematic at the guest house, and Holly has none where she is staying, so we brought our laptops to T and Me, a cute little restaurant with wifi.  Then she suggested we go to the beach.  I never go to the beach, but I was ready for some R&R.  So we headed over to St Pete Beach and stayed from 3-5pm.  It was a little cloudy with a gentle sea breeze, and the water was warm and inviting.  Ahh.

Thursday night is salsa night at the Gulfport Casino.  I'd been looking forward to this night because I was sorely missing my Sunday afternoon exercise.

There was a dance class for an hour before the public dance, and I learned some new turns.  But overall, salsa here is very different from the salsa I have been taught in Costa Rica, and not as much fun.  Here, they count 1-2-3, 5-6-7.  I was taught 1-2-3-and, 5-6-7-and.  The difference may sound picayune, but the foot movement is plainer here.  Plus they don't do the basic steps the same way.  And there was hardly anyone to dance with.  I don't know how I'm going to feed my salsa jones here.