![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/12-4-12-014.jpg\" "\\"OLYMPUS")
<\/a>When I was in high school I worked in a hardware store so this sort of business is familiar to me and I never miss an opportunity to visit a hardware store when I can. \u00a0However, there was nothing in my experience that prepared me for this place with it’s four floors and multiple buildings. \u00a0 When you enter the store you see what looks like a typical old-time hardware store with a bunch of guys sitting behind counters waiting on customers. \u00a0 However, that’s about all that they have in common with a “typical” hardware store. \u00a0![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/12-4-12-012.jpg\" "\\"OLYMPUS")
<\/a>As I looked around near the front desk, I immediately saw a set of wrenches that you’d never see at a Home Depot. \u00a0How about a crescent wrench that’s over four feet long? \u00a0They have a whole set. \u00a0I asked the owner, Osborne, “so, how many four foot crescent wrenches do you sell in a year?” \u00a0 His answer…” I sell one to every person who walks through the door that needs one”. \u00a0 \u00a0Ok, got it… \u00a0hesitation as I processed this. \u00a0 Another question: “so, what sort of person buys one of these?”. \u00a0 \u00a0“guys with really big nuts”. \u00a0 Check. \u00a0 \u00a0No more questions for now.![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/12-4-12-013.jpg\" "\\"OLYMPUS")
<\/a>Here we are in Florida and Travis has a large inventory of wood burning stoves. \u00a0 Huh? \u00a0Well, the dust on them suggested that they have been in inventory for some time. \u00a0 I actually asked the one “lady” at the desk. \u00a0“so, I’ll bet that there are plenty of items here that have been here for say, 20 years.”. \u00a0She rolled her eyes suggesting that I was way low. \u00a0So, I said “50 years?” \u00a0Another shrug. \u00a0I said, this time with less certainty, “100 years?”. \u00a0Her answer… “that’s probably closer and we don’t charge extra for the historic dust”. \u00a0There is just so much stuff in that store.\u00a0![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/12-4-12-007.jpg\" "\\"OLYMPUS")
<\/a>Need an empty 50 gal drum, with lid, to mix up some sort of toxic substance? \u00a0Rocket fuel perhaps? \u00a0Got em… Me, I am more used to the orange “Homer Buckets” that they sell at Home Depot. \u00a0No dust on these puppies. \u00a0I guess that they are big sellers.\u00a0![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/12-4-12-009.jpg\" "\\"OLYMPUS")
<\/a>All hardware stores have plenty of nuts and bolts. \u00a0Not like Travis. \u00a0They have literally hundreds, no make that thousands, of bins of every size and description. \u00a0 \u00a0And, they have them zinc coated, galvanized, un-coated. \u00a0 EVERY SIZE. \u00a0 Need a 3′ long galvanized turnbuckle? \u00a0“yeah,we got that. \u00a0How about 25?” \u00a0![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/12-4-12-011.jpg\" "\\"OLYMPUS")
<\/a>And, there is row after row to choose from. \u00a0Little stuff, big stuff and lots of it. \u00a0 Rope? \u00a0Have they got rope? \u00a0How about a 500′ spool of 3″ nylon rope? \u00a0You could tow a barge with this stuff. \u00a0 And, their customers probably do.\u00a0![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/12-4-12-006.jpg\" "\\"OLYMPUS")
<\/a>Me, I needed a tube of Lubriplate grease to pump into my prop. \u00a0They had two kinds of Lubriplate but not the exact type that I needed. \u00a0 Can you believe it? \u00a0 They have stuff to build space shuttles but not grease my prop? \u00a0I mentioned this to the owner. \u00a0“I can’t believe that I need the one item in the world that you don’t have!”. \u00a0He sternly, but in a nice way, reminded me that he had two types of Lubriplate and that my problem was that I had a boat and they weren’t a marine store. \u00a0I guess that they serve vehicles that run on roads and go into space but not on the water.<\/p>\nSo, speaking of water. \u00a0I had a productive day yesterday. \u00a0I changed the engine oil and filter as well as the two fuel filters. \u00a0I also went for swim to change the three zincs on the prop and shaft, something that I had been meaning to for some time but the visibility in the water has not been good enough. Here, the visibility is about 3-4 feet which is pretty good. \u00a0And, while the water is in the high 60s, I still needed to suit up as an hour in 69 degree water can get pretty cold.<\/p>\n
So, do I look like a mini Jacques Cousteau? \u00a0Not bad for a semi-old guy. \u00a0 Believe it or not, I was able to remove 13 itty-bitty screws and replace all of the parts and I didn’t even drop a single one. \u00a0 Using a grease gun under water proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated. \u00a0 \u00a0Alas, mission accomplished. After my “swim” we headed into downtown Cocoa and enjoyed a late lunch. \u00a0Me, I also had an ice cream cone because I was confident that I had earned it after my aquatic exploits. \u00a0 Folks question me as to why I don’t hire someone to handle the under water work. \u00a0My answer… “I get to have desert!”. \u00a0 After burning all of those calories I have to put them back and have found that ice cream is the best mechanism that I have been able to come up with.<\/p>\n Cocoa also has a really nice waterfront park, complete with a fountain. \u00a0 The fountain is one of those where there isn’t a pond under the fountain at all. \u00a0The water squirts up through holes in a flat tile base and runs off into a grate at the edge of the fountain. \u00a0I was amused by a sign posted near the fountain stating that there was “no diving”. \u00a0 What’s that all about? \u00a0 There isn’t a pool under the fountain at all. \u00a0It’s just a slab with water squirting out of holes. \u00a0Well, they warned you. \u00a0NO DIVING into the cement slab. \u00a0I guess that the town lawyers made a case that those that needed to be warned were the same folks that watch prime time TV, perhaps not the brightest stars in the\u00a0galaxy. I have been thinking about how to begin this post as it’s really about my visit to a hardware store. \u00a0So, what guy isn’t interested in such a visit? \u00a0However, there are hardware stores and there are HARDWARE STORES. \u00a0The S.F Travis hardware store in Cocoa Florida isn’t just any hardware store. \u00a0It might very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1329"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1345,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions\/1345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>The downtown streets are very quaint with shops of all sorts to choose from.\u00a0<\/a>Cocoa is a really nice city and well worth the visit. \u00a0 The sign as you enter the waterfront park reminds you to enjoy the holidays. \u00a0 Bummer about the miss-matched type. Perhaps they should talk to Osborne at Travis Hardware. \u00a0I’ll bet that they have a proper “H” in stock. \u00a0No, make that 100 in stock.\u00a0<\/a>We plan to enjoy yet another day in Cocoa before we head south to Melbourne to the SSCA gam on Wednesday. \u00a0 Oh yeah, the sun is out and it’s another beautiful day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"