Louisville, KY to Point Pleasant, WVA

And here we are in West Virginia!  Every day has had something more special than the last.  Fabulous run up the Ohio!

Louisville was a hoot!  The waterfront has 2 sections available to ‘transient’ boats like us.   50 amp. electric connections and water hoses to fill our tanks made this a great spot.  Not to mention the ease of pulling into an over wide space—with 3 police boats at the other end of the dock!  Or that it was free.  We love free.

The Louisville Bats, a AAA farm team owned by the Cincinnati Reds were playing the Pawtucket Red Sox (owned by Guess Who?) at Slugger Field---get it?  Louisville Slugger Bats…We had fabulous seats looking right down the first base line, and with air conditioned “Club’ privileges in case it rained (there was the threat, but no rain fell) for a whopping $10 each!  

The place was beautiful---there were guys hawking beer, peanuts and cotton candy, and there were  kiosks selling hot dogs and baked potatoes and popcorn.  In right field there was a carousel and playground for the wee fans-to-be, and a team of announcers and videographers kept the crowd engaged in contests and games at every opportunity.  Did I mention fireworks?  Louisville got trounced, 9-1, but the fireworks were great!  We were 5 minutes (by cab) from the dock.  Fab.

In the morning we were entertained by swimmers, sculls, and a  fair with 5K race, face painting, boxing, ‘boot camp’ training and a great crowd. It was a fundraiser for Wounded Wear, a line of clothing developed by a Navy Seal who was wounded in Iraq.  He discovered two things during his recuperation.   There were no clothes that fit over the medical apparatus he needed to wear, and people did not know that his wounds were war related.  So he is making a difference on both fronts.  www.woundedwear.org.

14 miles up the river from Louisville, we stopped at a little dock called RiversEdge,  for fuel.  Best price around--$3.59/gal,  (most places are over $4.00) and as a bonus every $50 spent bought us a dollar credit.  We got a 'free' pizza, newspaper and 2 candy bars!  Love it!

Spent the night a RiverCrest Marina.  It was shallow but we docked twice—once where the electric connection was only 30 amps, and again where it was 50.   We're hooked on that a/c!   Michelle on the house boat next to us recommended the Bistro for dinner.  Nick the Greek provided great entertainment in addition to a good meal!

We were ready to leave at 6:30 Sunday morning, but there was no river. No trees, no nothing but fog.  It was 68 degrees and the change to cool was dramatic!  By 9:30 all was clear and we headed for Turtle Creek Marina.  There we met Paul and Marty McGraw, the couple who put together the guide to the Ohio that we have been depending on.  Their cd has photos of anchorages with great descriptions and lots of mile-by-mile information.  They invited us to their fabulous home overlooking the river (the summer living room is back to back with the winter living room which focuses on the wood stove). Marty makes jewelry and Paul stitches canvas bags.  They’ve lived all over the globe and are a fascinating couple.

Monday morning Paul drove me to the grocery store, and he went to the water tower to fill his portable tank to top off the 2000 gal. cistern they use until their new well is completed. Never saw that done before.

The rest of the day was maintenance---oil and filter changes, set up the Aero-Garden, etc. Mostly stayed away from the hot, muggy weather.

Our next stop on was at Rising Sun, Ohio.  Again, the city provides free dockage—we just had to sign in at the police dept.  On Main Street there is, of all things, a Harp Store.  The Rees family has made harps for over 40 years, and has developed a “Harpsicle”---a hand held harp with amazing sound.  After a tour of the shop—and factory, where harps were being built to ship worldwide, Fred placed an order.  We’ll stop on our way down to pick up his birthday present.

Wednesday we expected to stop in Cincinnati, but changed our minds and blew by (at 7 mph.).  Waterfront looks interesting---another  place to stop when we’re southbound.  Instead we headed for the next lock and dam, thinking we’d anchor for the night.  Nobody was using the lock, so we zipped thru, and 3 miles up the river found FatBoy’s Restaurant.  Tied up and chatted with 5 guys who kayak across the river every Wed. for dinner, then enjoyed having the 6 regulars at FatBoy’s tour YA.  Fun.

We’d  been underway for about 3 hours on Thursday morning when we noticed 2 stern paddle wheelers on the Ohio bank.  There were actually 3, DRESDEN BELLE was rafted to the one we couldn’t see.  Nosed YA in for a look, and were greeted by Connie who said come and tie up!  We did, of course!  Traded boat tours---they’re remodeling and got some ideas from our storage areas, and we loved checking out the DRESDEN BELLE.  

At 5 p.m. a huge black cloud blew in, and we cast off and outran most of the storm.

At 5:45 we tied our lines to the town dock at Mayville, KY. Once again the dock was sorta flimsy and lacking in cleats, so we wrapped the lines around concrete pilings ashore.  Felt very secure. 

Our new friend Sally and her lab were walking the dock and she came aboard for a glass of wine and a chat.   5 minutes after she left the rain came---and for an hour there was nonstop lightning and buckets of rain.   At 8 the rain stopped, at midnite it began again, and continued most of the night.  At 1 a.m. our generator stopped with an ‘overheat’ message.  Fortunately, when in the morning Fred flushed the hoses, all the gunky algae that we’d picked up washed out and once again there was power for a/c.  Sally stopped by with a bag of peppers, basil and green tomatoes from her garden. Yum.  And we’re off!

2 p.m. is not such an early start, and when the afternoon black cloud foretelling the storm of the day arrived, we simply pulled over to the side of the river and anchored.  It was nearly dark and Knute held us nicely.  In the morning the marina we’d opted not to shoot for---in case it didn’t work—Shawnee State Park, turned out to be beautiful, and easy to get into.  We filled our empty water tanks, left a donation and returned to the river.

Greenup lock and dam was our next adventure, and at 1:15 the lockmaster reported 4 tows going up river ahead of us, (translates to hours of waiting) then suddenly he said, “Just come on up and I’ll slide you in”.  In we went, and for the second time, our fender slipped into the well for ladders.  Happily, we moved it before it caught on a rung of the ladder.  At the top of the lock a southbound tow took up all but about 50 feet of the entrance.  The crewman on the bow of the barge offered to shake my hand as we eased on by!

Two hours later we left Kentucky, and West Virginia is on our starboard side!  Tied up at Huntington Yacht Club—free dockage with dinner and 50 amp electricity.  Hooray!  We were the ‘oldcouple’ (it said so on our check) as a high school was having its’ 30 year reunion at the restaurant.  Walked the 200’ ramp that connects the ‘barge and grill’ to the shore,  and investigated the old Railroad Station and Park before turning in.  And the band played on.

Sunday morning was clear and crisp and boy is our deck clean! Has to be some benefit to all this rain---besides, of course, easing the drought conditions.  R. C. Byrd lock and dam was empty and we sailed right through, and soon crossed the mouth of the Kanawha River.  Point Pleasant has a beautiful long, long free public dock. We were instructed to go way north on it as the AMERICAN QUEEN was due to arrive soon.  We did and she did—at 6 this morning, she came out of the fog with 300 passengers who headed off to be tourists in Point Pleasant. 

At the River Museum, Fred spent 2 hours with Jack, who is responsible for bringing a $200K simulator to the museum.   Fred drove a tug thru Houston harbor, a coast guard cutter nearly threw him when it heeled, and he had a generally good time.  I grocery shopped, and after the QUEEN got underway at 2, local tour guide and creative head of development in Point Pleasant, Charles Humphries, explained his vision for the area to me.  Amazing.  Already there is a huge pavilion, a fabulous mural on the flood wall and an 8 track sound system (not yet completed) that broadcasts surround sound explanations of the mural ---or plays Pink Floyd or Violin or Banjo music, depending on what Charles chooses.  I’d have sworn the Indians were shooting from canoes on the river! 

The plans for completion of the $10 million project include a convention center, an arch over the opening of the flood wall, bricking and landscaping of the whole waterfront area, as well as renovation of a 4000 square foot house once owned by Lord Dunmore.  Check out WikiPedia’s report of ‘Dunmore’s War’, the first battle of the Revolutionary War—where the British leader may have attempted to help the Shawnee Indians defeat the American Militia at Point Pleasant.  Fascinating!

As Charles said,  “You may be an American because of Dunmore’s War”.  His (Charles’) plans for creating a very special tourist venue in this area will help make  Point Pleasant a destination not unlike Branson, MO., or DollyWood in terms of numbers, but much more sophisticated and educational in content..  We’ll return in 2-3 years to see!

Whew.  Tomorrow we head north again, and next week Pittsburgh!    See you then!

Green Turtle Bay to Louisville, KY

Greetings from Newburgh!  That would be Newburgh, Indiana---not even the town…for the next fifty miles or so, we’ll be in what is called the “pool” of the Newburgh dam.  It took a  week to get here, to wit:

Once again the  ‘hook’ at Green Turtle Bay caught us, and we spent 3 nights there.  Important stuff---we spent an afternoon at the Verizon store sorting out problems with my phone, we opted for the Variety Show, Music of the 60’s, very well done at the Badgett Theater in Grand Rivers, we spent a delightful hour or so visiting with Michael and Christina Williams, who motored down from St. Louis in their boat, REAL ESC. As I said, important stuff.

At any rate, the batteries (generator and phone) got replaced, the holding tank pumped, the packages mailed and at 11:45 a.m. on Saturday the 14^th of July we headed toward the Barclay Lock and Dam.   Locked through with two pontoon boats as the blessed rain began to fall!

It rained for over 2 hours, at least on us. (maybe more in a stationary location). Brought the temp down into the 70’s .  At 3:45 p.m. we rounded the bend into the Ohio, and made a 180 degree turn to tuck in behind an island and drop the anchor

From Paducah to Pittsburgh is about 950 miles.  We average about 50 miles a day, give or take, and so for the next couple of weeks, will be negotiating the channel with tow boats—an average number of barges seems to be 15 (3 across and 5 deep) for most of the tug boats to push.   Every 60 or 70 miles there will be a lock and dam, and we’ll anchor or tie up at a marina.

The Coast Guard has issued ‘low water’ warnings as the drought continues in over half of the US.  We found the warnings to be spot on when we planned to anchor in the Wabash River.  The Ohio creates the boundary between (around here) Kentucky (on our right, or starboard side) and first Illinois, then where the Wabash separates IL from, Indiana.  We crossed IL easily in a day, and had been following a tug for awhile, chatting with the operator (that is a rare occurrence.  Mostly tug captains speak an unintelligible language to each other, and say the very minimum to us.). When Fred said we were going into the Wabash, the reply was a hearty chuckle, followed by “Not much water in there”.  Fred allowed as how we’d use the braille method to find a spot to drop the hook, and off we went.  

An hour later, after backing off the bottom twice and dodging an inordinate number of ‘snags’ or parts of trees in the water, we gave up, and returned to the “Wabash cut” 3 miles back.  Here, again using the braille method, we finally found 6 feet of water and gratefully lowered Knute.

The evening was beautiful.  Lots of locals were buzzing about until dark, enjoying the end of the weekend.  When they’d gone home, either to the RVpark on the shore beside us, or to some unknown to us destination, the darkness and quiet enveloped us.  Haven’t seen the Milky Way for a very long time, but there was a lovely glowing streak of stars across the that surely did look like the MW used to.

We’ve had two other beautiful stops since I wrote this.  One, in Derby, IN was a public dock by a park.  We found all sorts of interesting info about the Ohio River and the Derby area. (www.derby.com) The most notable statement was the obvious---which had eluded me.  Duh.  The construction of dams along the Ohio has created a series of beautiful, very pleasant to navigate, LAKES!  We're cruising up the Ohio Lakes.  Unlike the Mississippi River, where the current boils and scares (me), on the Ohio we are consistently running north, or upriver--into the current, at  6.6 kn at 2050 RPM.  For you non-boaters, that is about 7mph, marginally slower than our normal cruising speed.  Amazing!

Tied up at Derby we  weathered a fabulous thunder and lightning storm!  In the morning, the nice lady in the general store (newly re-painted and re-opened) said 6” of much needed rain fell.  In a very short time, I might add!

Last night we anchored on the edge of the Ohio, opposite West Point, KY.  As soon as Knute was set, the storm began!  It was longer lasting, and with less lightning than the day before, but still spectacular!  This morning was cool and delicious---actually sweater weather!  It was so lovely and peaceful that we spent the morning ‘mushing around’ in the boat—making phone calls, sending the emails that haven’t been possible for some time, and watching the river go by---tow boats and all.

We expect to be in Louisville, KY tonight---about 1/3 of the way to Pittsburgh!  Onward and upward!

Columbus, MS to Green Turtle Bay, KY

Cruising, cruising over the bounding main…oops, it’s the wrong song.   Cruising up the river on a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday etc. afternoon…is more like it!

YA was waiting happily for us in Columbus.  We arrived on the afternoon of July 3, and immediately moved the boat into a covered slip.  Brought the temperature down about 20 degrees---to 80+!  It has been seriously hot for almost 2 weeks, with almost no rain.  Our poor geranium is nearly gone, but bravely brings forth new buds on the few stems that have prevailed.

My friend from high school, Jan (Hunstad) Barnett, whose boat LONG GONE is across from us in the marina, very kindly watered the geranium whenever she visited her boat.  Jan came by for dinner on the 3^rd.  It was great to have a chance to visit!

Fred and I spent the 4^th in preparation.  While Fred sweltered (at least there was shade) outside scrubbing away a month of dust, dirt and bugs, I grocery shopped and got us organized indoors.  In honor of the holiday, we flew the oversized American Flag.  Fireworks had been set off over the weekend, so we had a quiet evening at home, and were happy to be there.

Thursday, instead of leaving, Fred solved the mystery of low water pressure in the starboard tank, and a very sad sounding water pump.  Happily, the pump is just fine.  It was the pipe ‘twixt tank and faucet that was totally closed off with sediment of some sort.   A couple of trips to the wonderful hardware store in Columbus, a bit of reaming and polishing, and viola!  Water pressure and a blessedly silent pump! 

Kroger’s grocery store sold the best, sweetest ears of corn either of us could ever recall eating. Grown in Mississippi, they boasted!  Had corn for dinner two days in a row!

On Thursday, (grandson Matt’s 21^st birthday!) we headed upstream, and had a very strange experience.   We’d just gone through the third lock of the day, and had made a turn to head into Smithville marina for the night, when a small storm Fred had seen on the Weather Works computer screen made itself known.  Within minutes the water went from totally calm to raging whitecaps and a howling wind.  We’d just approached the dock, and it seemed the best thing to do was to tie up, so, with great difficulty, we did.   As we were securing the boat, we heard the dock groaning, and could see boards lifting!  One of our fenders had become trapped under the dock and rather than snapping the fender’s line, the dock was lifting up, and before our eyes, our stout aluminum rail was bent down! With incredible tension on the line, we couldn’t untie the knot holding the fender, but we were able to un-jam it, and added a round ball fender which slid as the dock rose and fell, and didn’t get hooked.  10 minutes later the wind simply stopped---or moved on, and the air cleared.  Amazing.   Fred pounded the nails back into the dock; we had dinner and went to bed.  Heard later that this “straight wind” storm, or ones just like it, had done damage elsewhere during the past 24 hours.   It was something we’ve not seen before and will happily forego forever!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we continued wending our way north in the Tenn-Tom Waterway, which, according Quimby’s Cruising Guide, is the “biggest civil works project ever undertaken by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers”.  Using the Waterway, boaters, recreational like us as well as commercial tows, are able to bypass the southern half of the Mississippi River and reach the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile.

There are 12 locks on the Waterway, and recreational vessels are at the bottom of the list in priority of use, so we felt really lucky that only once did we have a wait of more than a few minutes.  That was at the last lock---and the largest!  Whitten lock lowered us 84 feet!  We tied to a ‘cell’, a large round structure placed in the approach for just that purpose, and as we freed our lines 45 minutes later, to enter the lock a deer swam across the river!   Missed him with the camera, and strangely, there was only one.  Aside from jumping fish, playing and diving cormorants, stately egrets and a dragonfly who adopted us for an afternoon, we’ve not seem much wildlife at all, so the deer was a real treat.

We found the Tennessee River to be much more beautiful, relaxing and interesting than when we came down in 2009.  Not sure why, but one theory (from Jordan, who will turn 21 next week, and who cooked our breakfast at the lovely Leatherwood Marina’s Pirate Cove restaurant)  is that the flood waters that swooped through after the big rains in 2009 cleared the shoreline.

In any case, we’re now at Green Turtle Bay Marina, in Grand River, KY.  Tomorrow morning Fred will install the new battery for the generator, we’ll mail mail, get the holding tank pumped, and be ready to head for Paducah, KY and the Ohio River.

Will talk with you all then!  Be well, and remember to breathe!

NY and Europe

Bonjour, Buon giorno, Guten Tag, and Hey…

For the past three weeks, Fred and I have been sort of acting like water bugs, skimming along the surface of about 4000 KM. worth of Europe.  This blog will reflect that. Out of over 1000 photos taken,  I have  room for, maybe, a dozen…  So here we go, a-skating!

The trip actually began on Tuesday, May 29 when I picked up my sister, Betty, her daughter, Jessica Wheeler, and Jessica’s daughters, Rachel and Elise, at Newark airport.  Betty has continued to live in Aberdeen, SD, where we grew up, and the Wheelers are ranchers from Philip SD, near the geographical center of the state. (ed. Note: Google ‘Rapid City Journal’ and search for Jessica Wheeler.  Good story.)   

Rachel and about 30 classmates graduated from Philip High School on May 20, and Elise turned 13 just before the first leg of their journey.  They drove the 300 miles to Aberdeen, then 350 more to Mpls., where Jessica’s brother, Jeff, lives with his family.  From Mpls., they flew to Newark.

Wednesday morning found us on a Metro North train to Manhattan where Jessica had scored tickets to ‘Live with Kelly’.  Martin Short was the guest co-host, and we were told to stay seated at the end, as a bonus show was being taped.  A new outfit for Kelly, who with Bryant Gumble as new co-host, talked with very special guest FLOTUS Michelle Obama about her new garden book. Then the FLOTUS jumped some double-dutch rope with a championship team!  Her presence explained the scanning of bags when we entered, and the suited guys with earbuds scattered throughout the auditorium. 

We rounded out the day with lunch at Zabar’s, then a walk around at Ground Zero, with a delightful stroll along the Hudson to greet Lady Liberty.  The train returned us to Beacon, and we were able to catch a ferry to ride across the Hudson to Newburgh!

Thursday we stayed local---did some shopping at Woodbury Commons and had a Japanese dinner at Gasho.  Fred and I spent Friday and Saturday in CT, assisting with a USPS On-the-Water training, while the SD contingent returned to NY to check out Times Square and Rockefeller Center.  Sunday we had yet another surprise treat, as Local Living Legend Pete Seeger was a guest at the UUCRT!  At 90-some he sang and sang, and made plans for a return visit, to be announced, that will, he says, fill the space!

Sunday afternoon, El and Kathleen, Linda Lee, and the Carhart cousins gathered to visit with the SD folks and we ate ice cream cake and sang Happy Everything to US!  

Monday we girded our cameras with batteries, packed our bags, and were off!  The six of us and all our ‘stuff’ fit in the Suburban we hired to bring us  to Newark, and soon we were up, up and away! 

There has to be an ‘in-flight story’ and ours is that a passenger became ill when we were about 2 hours out over the Atlantic.  The MD on board recommended a return to Halifax, Nova Scotia for medical assistance, so we did a 180, and rode the two hours back.  Patient was met by EMT’s and wheeled away.  We’ll never know if she had a collapsed lung or a panic attack. We do know that United and Air Canada spent the next 3 hours sorting out the necessary steps to get us underway once more, so instead of arriving in Paris at 10:30 a.m., it was 6:30 p.m.  No problem for us as we had no commitments for the day.

The rest of the week was filled, however.   Location, some say, is everything.  Ours was superb! Hotel Tourisme put us in easy walking distance of Le Tour Eiffel, and in the opposite direction, Napoleon’s alma mater, Ecole Militaire. The subway station was just outside the hotel door, (le Moet de Piquot) and on Wednesday and Sunday the Grennell Market, one block away, poured forth meats, cheeses and produce in a stunning array.  We rode the Hop-on-Hop-off Bus all around the city, and we rode the Funiculaire up the hill to the Basilica de Sacre Coeur for a magnificent city view.   We barely touched the Louvre but were able to--with our own eyes--see the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Michelangelo’s unfinished Slaves.  We walked Paris streets in the rain, and basked in the sun at the Toulleries Gardens.  We found a secret garden across the street from Notre Dame Cathedral, and had a picnic on the Seine (although we were across the street from the actual river, and Fred doesn’t drink wine and I can’t eat bread, we counted it a success!).  Fred engraved our initials on a padlock to lock onto the Pont (bridge) du Notre Dame, and we ceremoniously tossed the keys into the River.

We had a dinner cruise on the Seine with (and courtesy of) Betty, while Jessica and the girls did a bike tour. Passed the French miniature Statue of Liberty (prototype for the French gift to US) and also a flame from her torch, mounted over the mouth of the tunnel where Princess Diana died.  We had morning coffee on the sidewalk in front of Starbucks and people watched, always noting the striped shirts!  The South Dakotans took the chunnel to London for a day; I joined them on Saturday for a ride to Normandy.  Jessica’s husband’s uncle died there, and she was generously helped to locate his name on the ‘Wall of the Missing” where sand was rubbed in the engraving to make his name stand out, and photos were taken with French and American flags.  The flags and a commemorative folder were gifts to the Wheeler family, and Jessica signed a special guest book for family members of the 3000+ fallen soldiers remembered there.  The average age of a soldier in a grave is 24. 

We drank wine and sparkling water (water with gas), we ate snails and French onion soup, and we ate at McDonald’s.  We walked the Champs d’ Elysse, noting the French flag flying in the Arch de Triumph on the anniversary of D-Day, and we walked the pedestrian-only Rue Cler. We shopped on Rue Rivoli, and browsed in the Shakespeare Bookstore.  Betty and I got lost searching for a fabric store, but we prevailed and at the end of the week, we felt that we’d nipped at the surface of Paris.

On Tuesday the 12^th, we all returned to Charles de Gaulle airport, waved adieu to the four South Dakotans, and Fred and I made our way to the next part of our adventure, which began at the Hertz counter.

Our plan was to drive south, along the Mediterranean, then up to Siena in Tuscany, Italy where we would take day trips to Rome and Florence.  From Siena we would go to Venice, and on to Germany where son Geoff has recently been relocated to Schweinfurt Army Base.  We would then take grandson Peter, now 13, and spend 4-5 days sightseeing with him while his parents prepared for the Change of Command ceremony.  The reason for, and therefore the highlight of our trip was to be present for Geoff, when he was handed the colors and became 7^th Army Signal Brigade Commander on Tuesday, June 26. 

Obviously, this was not to be an in depth European vacation, but rather a ‘get a feel for the areas and find out what we’d like to return to’ sort of trip.  

First stop was Valence, on the left bank of the Rhone River, (which we did not see) where we relaxed over a 9 p.m. dinner and enjoyed breakfast in the newly renovated Hotel de France.  Wednesday’s stop was San Remo, after a wonderful drive through Provance, and past signs indicating roads leading to Marseilles, Nice, Cannes, and Monaco.  Next time.

San Remo was delightful—getting to our hotel an exercise in hill-climbing (think Princess Grace, or “An Affair to Remember”.  It REALLY is that hilly, beautiful and convoluted!).  I waded in the Mediterranean Sea, a ‘bucket list’ check.   From San Remo we wound our way through the Alps—tunnel after tunnel after scary (to me—I had no control as a passenger, and no guts as a driver.) tunnel.  We laughed at Gigi, our GPS voice as she attempted to lead us to our hotel in Siena.  It was indeed a maze, and she was sorely vexed when we missed impossible turns.   She finally uttered the blessed words “You have reached your destination” and she said it as we approached a piazza with one car in it.  Fred pounced, I ran across to the hotel to confirm our reservation, and it was with joy that we surrendered the keys for 4 days!

We simply bailed on the proposed tour of Rome.  3 days would be a minimum stay in Rome, and silly me, I’d said ” how about 3 hours for a tour---after a 3 hour train ride each way from Siena.?”   Learn, learn, learn.   We thoroughly enjoyed a ‘lay day’ in Siena.  Il Campo, the pedestrian only town center was 2 blocks away.  We roamed the circle, taking in the restaurants, the bell tower, and the racetrack, where on July 2 and August 16 a horse race is run!  It is a very big deal and members from competing sections of the City don medieval costumes and parade to raise enthusiasm for their horse.  One parade passed our hotel, as did an impromptu drum and flag led march from the Stadium to Il Campo for a celebration after Siena won the Europe Cup in Basketball for the 6^th consecutive time! It was never dull!

We did take the bus to Florence (an easy walk to the station at each end), but switched to an afternoon tour so we could do our personal version of ‘early’.   That meant that we went to the Uffizi Museum rather than the Academie (where the David lives), so we have a good excuse to return!  The tour was wonderful and having the city and the art in the museum explained by a lover of Florence, of Italy and of Art was delicious.

On Sunday, (Father’s Day) we were lucky to find Paolo, who gave us a tour of Tuscany.  He scored an educational wine tasting session at Tenuta Torciano, Degustazione, Venditi, Vini, Olio.   Got that?  The 5^th generation vintner and his wife provided a plate of food to try with 6 different wines.  It was great!  Paolo then took us to ---I don’t know where---the Manhattan of Tuscany, as it has several tall buildings.  Turns out they, too were having a festival---one that Paolo had never seen, either.  ½ hour of marching clerics, knights, serfs, ladies, oxen, clowns and horses.  Fantastico!  From there, Paolo made a special trip to his ‘pretty place’ with a wonderful view of Siena, his home.  It was a great send off, as the next morning we were en route to Venice.

We arrived early enough to step out of the hotel onto a ‘water bus’ for a ride through the Grand Canal.   People use this boat to commute from jobs in the City to the ‘people mover’ a train to the mainland (you do remember that Venice is on an island, yes?).  They flocked off the boat, and we hopped on, walked about in St. Mark’s square, were amazed by the architecture---that so much has survived since the 15^th century boggles the mind.   Dinner was very European---at 9 p.m. with several courses, and we were pooped when the water bus deposited us at the hotel.

Tuesday was hot, hot, hot, not to mention very humid.  We decided to complete our Venetian experience (and tour the glass factory) on the next trip, and drove off ( in the air conditioned car) toward Germany.   Back into the beautiful Alps, which this time seemed manageable!  We did get lost---Gigi said turn right, but really meant turn left, and we stayed on the wee back roads for most of the afternoon.  Delightful!  Had no place booked for the night, so we found an ad in Schoenburg, just south of Innsbruck, and chose a pension.   An awesome choice.  Beautiful room in an immaculate home, fabulous tub for soaking, and a delicious breakfast in the morning----all for a fraction of hotel rates!   Loved it!

On Wednesday we had an easy drive to Wurtzburg, Germany where we lucked out and were able to book the only hotel room in town (six hotels told us so).  A single room in a Best Western Premium hotel.  Ask Fred about it.  J.   Amy and Geoff were an hour away in Schweinfurt, and on Thursday we picked up Peter and moved into the Hotel Frankenland in Bad Kissengen.   

Over the next 3 days we toured the Residenz in Wurtzburg, (a palace frequented by, among others, our old friend, Napoleon); took a boat ride on the Main River, lunched in a 100 year old mill café on the Bridge of the Saints, rode the ‘Tschu-tschu’ train around Bad Kissengen, drank coffee at the airport while Pete had his first ever ride in a 2 seater airplane (with parental approval, of course!), toured Stanau on der Strasz, home of the Brothers Grimm, visited a Schloss (castle) there, and also toured a Bat Cave sans bats.  When the bats arrive in October, people are turned away.  Pete was disappointed

We moved to the Base housing at Schweinfurt on Monday evening in order to be ready for the Change of Command ceremony at 10 a.m. Tuesday.   The ceremony went off without a hitch---4 battalions responded to the first order given by the Colonel (newly installed) --- “Pass in Review!”   And they did.  It was very moving to see the pride and precision with which they marched by the reviewing stand.  Chatting with members of the military at the reception, we were again stunned by their youth.   We have very dedicated young men and women in our service, and we are immensely grateful for the sacrifices they make on our behalf.

After a delicious celebratory dinner at a restaurant frequented mostly by the locals, Fred and I said our farewells, and right after breakfast on Wednesday we were underway, closing the loop we’d made around Europe by heading back to Paris.

On the way, we were lucky (again) to connect with friends we met while we were on the North American Great Loop.  Gen and Bill were cruising on their American Tug, POTLUCK, when we met them in Hampton Roads, VA.   Saw them again in Stuart, FL and Sanibel in 2010.  That year they sold POTLUCK and bought the RIVER PIPET, a canal barge in France.  We’d missed them in Paris, but as they moved along the Moselle River, we were able to meet in Toul, France.   Had a great dinner and most enjoyable visit.  Love the way friends pop up in the cruising world!

Back in Paris, we returned our Skoda---ever heard of that?  An Eastern European vehicle (Russian? Czech?) that was actually pretty comfortable.  Four doors and an automatic transmission!   Nearly 4000 KM in our loop, and the Skoda, and especially Gigi, served us well!

We’re home in New York, now, briefly.   Fly to MS on Tuesday to reclaim YOUNG AMERICA, who has been sweltering there in record heat waves.  Our next task is to follow CAROLYN ANN and LAZY DOLPHIN, who have a serious head start on our trip to WVA.

Be well, and keep in touch!

We’ll ‘talk’ again….

Fred and Linda