Indiana retirees Joe and Sharon Kratz didn’t exactly pull their La-Z-Boys closer to the fireplace in 1997, when Joe retired from General Motors. Instead, they moved to Texas to live on a boat.
“We had taken a 25th anniversary private charter in the Caribbean where the small sailboat had a captain and a woman who did all of the cooking, cleaning, and mixed lovely sundowners (cocktails) every day. Based on this 7-day experience, we decided that we could do it too! We didn’t even know how to sail a sailboat when we bought ours!”
Which gives you some idea of how optimistic they are.
With the large shady dining room and the nearly guaranteed afternoon breeze, the Crow Bar is a great place to spend some time. Opening at 7:30 am, you can have coffee or breakfast while listening to the local net, Monday through Saturday. Calamity Jane has tasty lunch specials daily (except Sundays), and you can get a late bite until 8 pm. While waiting for your meal, you can access the free internet service that the Crow Bar offers. Roy can scan your passport or boat papers and send them to your e-mail address for safe, readily available access. Que buen idea, no?
Every boater eventually shops at Tienda Reed. This is the place just past the bridge heading upriver, on your portside, home of Don Chiqui and the first, oldest store on the river. Our favorite inscrutable owner, Chiqui, is a wealth of information, whether you need it or not. His shop reminds one of the old-time general stores, where you could find anything from foods to hardware to paints to boat parts to outboard motors to ice to booze to camping equipment to medical supplies to propane refills to frozen meats, ice cream.....need i go on?
