The hot weather continued into July; however, the air conditioning was running full blast as Palmetto Moon was in the water. The first weekend of July is Croaker Festival and this was the first year we were able to attend. Saturday, July 7: we attended the tiny nautical flea market, and Jim looked at every item for sale and concluded he didn't need anything, or should I say didn't want anything. The parade started around 10 AM and we had been told that this was not a typical parade but was filled with crazy participants. We then wandered through the food stalls and crafts booths and decided to beat the heat by relaxing inside Palmetto Moon.

Jim and I know several of the people in this crowd from the Spinnaker Point subdivision. In fact, they tried to get us to join them in the parade; however, we knew that it would be tooooo hot!

Dave and Laurie along with their daughter Michelle joined us for dinner at the Toucan Grill. We celebrated our TWO years of living aboard Palmetto Moon and watched the fireworks, which were quite impressive, that concluded Croaker Festival.

On Tuesday, July 10, we drove to Greer so I could continue visiting doctors. Unfortunately, the decision was made to remove my thyroid sooner rather than later, so we abandoned our summer cruising plan of visiting the Chesapeake Bay. I now wonder why I am plodding through Michener's Chesapeake! We will cruise south to South Carolina where the drive to Greer will be shorter than the drive from Oriental.

On Tuesday, July 17, we attended Josh Groban's concert at the BiLo Center in Greenville, SC. He put on a great show (Jim counted 21 on stage with him) even though he told the audience that his voice was not 100%. As it turned out, he canceled the concert in Charlotte, NC the next night.

On Thursday, July 19, we drove back to the boat in Oriental and continued our projects. Our friends, Jim and Sue, returned to their boat on July 28. They painted the bottom of Water Dancer III with instruction help from us. Sue and I found time to relax at the pool; however, it was still so hot that we spent most of the time in the water.