End of the year 2014

December 20, 2014

Unbelievable.  Only 11 days of 2014 remain.  My brother, a statistician, explains the fleeting years by saying that each year represents a fraction of the total number of years lived.  Hence to a 2 year old, one year is ½ of life, and therefore a very long time.  By the time the fraction is 1/74^th it’s a very short hop to go from January to January.  Thanks, Gene.

The last portion of this year has flown by for us.  We did leave YOUNG AMERICA in Mobile, at Turner Marine.  I had a great visit in Albuquerque

Maureen and Freddie and Albuquerque's hot air balloons

with nurse friends Maureen and Freddie, and then flew back to Newburgh, where Fred was spending time with daughter Linda as she recouped from her knee replacement.  Happily, she is doing very well!

It seems there is always something happening---this time we stayed an extra week to attend the Congregational meeting at the UUCRT, and add to the number needed for a quorum.  Quorum was met, and the vote was overwhelmingly positive to call the Rev. Chris Antal to become a settled ½ time minister.  Very exciting!

We also had a pre-Thanksgiving dinner with the families of our kids.  Kids.  Hah. The oldest, Geoff, who is in Germany, has turned 50.  The other 6, who (all but the daughter in VA) showed up that day, are 42 and up.  They are, and shall remain, our kids.  We had a great time and laughed a lot!  But why didn't I take any pictures?????

The next morning we hopped in the car and headed south.  We arrived at Turner’s on Wednesday, just in time for the annual turkey dinner.  Fabulous.  And then the stay in Mobile got extended as well.  We’d planned on having the generator’s fuel pump replaced---it was on order while we were away. 

Brett checking the shaft seals

When Brett came (after Wednesday’s dinner) to install it, the conversation turned to the carbon on the engine room floor; a product of misaligned shaft seals.  The following Monday the parts were ordered, and on Friday the boat was hauled, so the new shaft seals could be put in place. 

Returning to the sea

Three days after that, we were back in the water, heading east

across the Florida panhandle.   On the morning of the second day we passed a 42’ Jefferson that appeared to be hard aground.  It was 10 a.m. and the tide wouldn’t turn until 4:00 to lift them off, so Fred maneuvered our boat while I tossed them a 100’ light line attached to a 100’ really heavy line.  With the heavy line cleated to their bow and attached to the towing ring on our stern, we were able to drive away, and they (Craig and Kathy aboard NORTHERN STAR) came bopping along behind us.  Lines were retrieved without incident, thankfully, and we all motored on to the new (to us) free dock at Ft. Walton Beach.

Kathy brought one of her quilts aboard to show us. Beautiful!

Next stop was Panama City and then, one of our favorite stops, Appalachicola.  What a hoot to chat with a couple on the dock, and after a minute say “Wait a minute, aren’t you Peter and Pam?”  They were---we met them two years ago when they were moving from MA and building a home in Appalachicola.  We chuckled as Pam had just noted to Peter that she liked “that boat, but not as much as the other one like it” they had seen before.   

Saturday, Dec. 13, we left Appalachicola at noon, motored east to the East Pass, and headed across the Gulf.  At midnite we saw a huge orange moon rising off our port bow, and for the rest of the night (and for the first time ever) we could see 360 degrees of horizon! 

Moon over the Gulf.  The red is our running light reflected on the rail.

It was a beautiful night, the wind was light and the water calm.  At 1:30 Sunday afternoon we tied up at the Gulfport Marina on the west side of St. Petersburg.

Next morning it was an easy run around the peninsula into Tampa Bay, and lo and behold, our friends at the Municipal Marina were able to find an empty slip for us.   We tied up the boat, called Enterprise and headed back to Mobile to pick up our car.  Man, it is a LONG way to Mobile.  And just as far back! So from the 15-17 of Dec. we were on the road again.

 Now, at last, we are settled in on the East Dock at SPMM, and busily decorating---tonight Fred built a light tree using the VHF antennas.  What a hoot! 

 I counted this afternoon and it is 311 steps --less than a city block---from the door of the Marina to the door of the Hampton Inn where, beginning Monday, four of the aforementioned ‘kids’—this time including Geoff and family from Germany, and Jen and family from VA—will stay as they join us for the Holidays.

So we are very much looking forward to a happy Holiday Season.  That is our wish for you, as well.  May your days be merry and bright, and may all your good dreams come true!

We expect to remain in St. Pete until May, so this will be the last epistle for this year and half of next.   Happy New Year!!!

Heading South

Oct. 30.  I choose to leave the following paragraph in place, as this blog is a record of our travels, and breaking the screen of the laptop certainly impacted my enjoyment of the trip!!!  I'm happy that all is well now, thanks to a relatively major donation to the coffers of the Computer Repair Store!
                   -----------------------------0-----------------------------

Oct. 28.   NO PHOTOS at this time.  A few days ago, this MacBook Pro leapt from the table, made some deep gashes in the floor, and rendered the lower 1/2 of its' screen unusable.  While in Mobile, the plan is to find someone to make it whole again.  And then the box to click 'add' will magically re-appear and the blog page will be complete!   
                    ----------------------------O------------------------------

St. Louis, going south, is the gateway to the ‘goofy 200’.   We were told at Hoppies’ Marina that the River had crested (wouldn’t be rising any more) at 20 feet above normal.  We decided to give it a day to slow down, and so stopped at the Kaskaskia River Lock, an easy 35 or so miles from Hoppies.

We’ve never seen anyone working at that lock wall before, but this time, Charlie was pumping water out of the floating cells that make up the long lock wall.  Twice a year, he says, this is necessary due to condensation as well as rain collection and, of course, leaks. Of course.  Charlie, bless him, checked with Matt, who was in charge of the lock. Result?  We were invited to climb the ladder and visit the Visitors’ Center.

‘Twas an interesting adventure.  Made more fun by two facts---one is that the lockmaster always says  “Don’t climb the ladders” when we arrive. tee hee. The other is that we could be considered by some (certainly not us!) to be slightly less than spring chickens, and we wonder whether or not the invitation would have come, had Matt known…

Kaskaskia is a narrow lock; it only accommodates tows that are two barges wide.  Southern Illinois coal was its’ major shipment out before federal regulation sharply diminished the use of high sulfur content coal. Now, limestone goes into Southern Illinois via the Kaskaskia Lock, and is used to remove the sulfur dioxide from the emissions at the local power plant, where the local coal is burned.  Business and industry are very complex.

Later, we were joined at the lock wall by Brian and Terry aboard POSH.  They quickly left us in their wake the next morning when we both set out for the debris-filled scoot to Cairo.   And a scoot it was.  High speed (for us) and hand-steering (vs setting the autopilot and watching...) as the logs and

trees coming at us were constant.  We reached the turn into the Ohio River at Cairo, IL at 5:05 pm, and 8 miles (at a sudden speed drop to 8 miles per hour) later were peacefully anchored for the night.  We averaged 10.5 mph for the 11 hours we were underway! 

Two days later we tied up once again at Green Turtle Bay, and caught up  with CAROLYN ANN,  Joe and Punk Pica. 

 Concern about the deluges of rain became a thing of the past, as we’re now in waters whose levels are managed by dams with locks for us to pass through.

Funny sights along the Tennessee River---a Cyprus tree growing several feet from the shoreline (today, at least—shorelines are quite movable!) whose knees make it appear to be sitting on a table. 

  We marveled at the difference in housing on the two sides of the river.  On our left (the Right Descending Bank—rivers are so designated as they do not run cleanly from north to south.  But they are always flowing downstream, so we are ‘upbound’ on the Tennessee, as it is hurrying toward us as fast as it can go, so it can spill into the Ohio and then add to the fun on the Mississippi) is a manicured, high maintenance, lovely home with multiple garages and a multi boat boathouse.  On the opposite shore, a flood-protected dwelling---built on very high stilts, also with outbuilding--for an RV, not a BMW. 

 After pausing at Aqua Harbor, a few miles from the Shiloh battlefields of the Civil War,  we entered the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway for our seventh excursion to Mobile.

The morning was misty at first, then downright foggy,

but we were able to proceed with confidence as we were motoring (with radar) up the 20+ mile long Divide Cut---the largest undertaking to date by the Army Corps of Engineers.  The cut is just that. A chasm sliced through the land and dug to a water depth of at least 9’ to accommodate towboats.  A major project where only land had to be moved, a huge undertaking to allow the trains to continue on their tracks…

This Waterway changes every time we traverse it, and the 12 Tenn-Tom locks (the “Not-so-dirty-dozen” according to Fred Myers’ guide book) seem like a breeze after the 27 'less user friendly' locks of the Mississippi!

We made the ‘usual’ stops at Columbus, MS—once again spoke with but didn’t see Jan and Dan Barnett, my Aberdeen, SD classmate and her husband-- and Demopolis, AL, where the new Kingfisher Marina was pretty full of Loopers, and those hanging out above 32 degrees of Laittude until the hurricane season ends on Nov. 1.  (Our insurance allows us to be wherever we dare to be).  The phase two portion of the Marina is also well underway!  

Rafted 'gate to gate' with CAROLYN ANN

Marinas don’t happen much in the 216 miles between Demopolis and Mobile.     We found two great anchorages before the  Mobile skyline appeared on the horizon. We covered about 80 miles per day!  Fast for us!  

In Mobile, the Austal Company has the usual big, ugly boat out in front, but close inspection showed it to be number 6, not the number 4 we photographed a year ago. 

Guess they are working!  Work is progressing on the new Maritime Museum, and the Cruise Ship dock.  We'll have to be tourists and go see!

So here we are at Turner Marine in Mobile.  Will again leave YOUNG AMERICA here for a few days while I have a reunion with Nursing buddies Maureen and Freddie in Albuquerque.  Fred will go to Newburgh to hang out with daughter Linda, who is recovering at home from a knee replacement.

Until we talk again, be well, and do continue to breathe!

St. Louis to the Quad Cities

As I mentioned when last we met, the traffic below St. Louis was a zoo, but once into the City, we slid easily into the Material Sales Corp.’s H shaped barge array, and Jimmy helped us  both tie up on the barge named Robert E. Lee.   We were too pooped to accept his offer of the car for sightseeing, but really enjoyed the stop!

SEA DREAM's bow and  YOUNG AMERICA at MSC, St. Louis

Locks and dams can be the bane of our existence.  The main chamber of the Melvin Price Lock (#26 of the 27 locks between St. Louis and MSP) was closed for repairs, so only the smaller, auxiliary chamber was open.  That means that tows that can’t fit have to lock in stages—-take apart, lock up or down and reattach.  That can  mean long waits for pleasure craft like us, as the paying customers definitely take priority.  In the case of Mel Price, the wait was 4 hours.  Sigh.  Once through, we parted company with SEA DREAM.  Mike and Linda went on to Grafton, IL to enjoy the pool and spa there, and we crossed the river to Alton, IL where I caught a cab to the St. Louis airport.

From August 5-8, I was in Burke, VA with  daughter Jen and grandchildren Matthew, Casey and Rebecca while Christopher did a US Forest Service gig (his job,that is) in Ketchikan, Alaska. 

Walking around the lake with Casey, Becca and Ruby.

a

Matthew awaiting surgery for a shattered heel.

While I was away, Fred moved YOUNG AMERICA to the Port Charles Harbor Marina, and there she remained until August 15.

So long, SEA DREAM!

They say boaters plans are written in the sand—-very near the shore— and often get washed  away.  So it was to be for this trip.  Joe and Punk, who’d visited their daughter on the West Coast after coming around the Great Lakes to Pt. Chas. Harbor, returned to CAROLYN ANN on Thursday;  SEA DREAM returned from an hour north of the marina on Thursday, and I returned from Burke on Friday, August 8.  The three of us had planned to be in MSP by Aug. 21 but Mike and Linda decided to return to GreenTurtle Bay instead, and do day trips with friends there this summer.  So we bade SEA DREAM adieu and spent the next week acting like retired folks without a care in the world.  Well, why not?  We are, after all, just that!   (The real truth is that CAROLYN ANN was having work done, and Fred and I waited around until it was completed).

Two N-37's in the Muscatine, IA harbor.

USPS Port Captains Ed and RoseMary Bielike came for a visit and   Joanne and Doug, Great Loop Harbor Hosts for the area, set up a dinner for 10 at a nearby restaurant, so we were far from lonely. 

We finally sallied forth, and have been doing 50+ mile hops—-to Two Rivers Marina near Louisiana, MO, the Quincy Boat Club in Quincy, IL, Keokuk and Muscatine, IA and a lovely anchorage on the side of the River when the next marina was too far away and too silted in anyhow.  The River is LOW,  Go figure, after we had to wait and wait for it to settle down.

Just above Keokuk, we attempted to assist a Personal Watercraft (Jet Ski) that was powerless in the water.  The JetSki had no steering and no place to tie a tow rope. When it tipped over, the operator, Kristin,  swam it toward shore, where she found, much to her dismay, that the powerlessness was caused by failure to engage the fuel.  Once the switch was turned on, she returned to us to collect her passenger and they headed home.    It is never dull.

Finally reached the Quad Cities of IL and IA—Moline and Rock Island IL; Davenport and Bettendorf IA. 

Rock crushes scissors....Joe got the 50 amp. plug--we had to use two 30 amp cords.

Had a late lunch with my big brother Gene,  always a treat!

Jet pilot and Submarinerr.  A very special pair!

He lives about 20 min. away, in Geneseo, IL.

An amazing squall blew through on Friday morning.  Winds went from 0-40 in a heartbeat, and my, how the rains came down!  And then it was gone.  Sun came out and Punk and I began to walk to the grocery—-2.3 mi. according to the iPad.  Happily, we got a call that Gene, bless him, had returned (by car, of course) and was on the way to our rescue with Joe in the co-pilot’s seat.  A quick grocery shop and a pleasant evening followed.

More rain this morning, and bless him, Mike the harbormaster rescued our forwarded mail from the postal person who’d been unsuccessful in his attempt to leave the package at the Marina’s Restaurant.  Hmmmm.  

By 11 the skies were clear,  and we were underway.  As we arrived at Lock #14, we were told to use the Auxiliary chamber.  New experience.  Coming out of the lock, we sidled past a serious storehouse of Corps of Engineers very heavy equipment, and then re-entered the main channel by way of a narrow cut between two wing dams.  Veddy interesting, and tricky!  

CAROLYN ANN is through the  wing dam gap.  Our turn. Note the wind blowing the yellow flag.

The alternative was a long wait at the main chamber as a backup of about 14 towboats come downriver after being held up by dredging of a shallow, impassable (for them) spot several miles north.  We were happy with the Auxiliary Chamber and all of its’ extras!

Today’s destination is expected to be Sabula Iowa, (home of the Bombfire Pizza) and thence to the Twin Cities, one day at a time!

Hope your days are extraordinary and that you remember to breathe!

Old Lock #1 to the Mighty Mississippi

Hi again,  

Our run from Old Lock #1 to our rendezvous with SEA DREAM in Aqua Harbor  was uneventful, save for one small violation of Fred’s rule #3. **  In case you’ve forgotten, or didn’t know them, here are:

        Fred’s  ‘Rules for a good day of boating’      

                   #1  Nobody gets hurt.

                   #2  Don’t hit other boats.

                   #3  Always reach a safe harbor before dark.  **

                   #4  No matter what happens, DON’T yell at the crew!

                            (#4 is, of course, my personal favorite!)

We hit a lock delay—inevitable in river cruising, and were mildly frustrated by the lockmaster, who had a penchant for chatting.   We wanted to just get moving, as the sun was down and twilight fading fast.  Fade it did, and we had 5 dark miles to go to our anchorage.   Attempted to slide into an inlet at 3 miles and ran hard aground.  Water went from 15’ to 0 in a heartbeat!  Fred was able to back us off (a week later the boat  was hauled to tighten the propeller nuts that probably got jarred loose) and we gingerly, but safely, entered and anchored in Sumter Landing. We hate when that happens, and it’s a case of ‘the best laid plans’……..(Actually, we've been there before, and the light is always on at the Lodge, so it wasn't a really big deal, but it was a  'happen'...)

Mike and Linda met us at Aqua Harbor, and we spent a couple of days there before heading north.

 I wasn’t much company, as I spent most of the days tucked away in a conference room working on the exam for a celestial navigation course.  (Completed it and sent it off for grading on July 29th.)

Green Turtle Bay Marina in Grand Rivers, KY again gets kudos!  This was our launching spot for the run up the MS.  There was plenty to do  during the week we spent there—the marina has a spa and yacht club dining room, and of course we had to shop, provision, and get the boat and the crew is shape for traveling, bur mostly we were waiting for the River to drop and slow! 

Getting ready to travel meant getting Fred's back squared away.  We found the Orthopedic Institute of Western Kentucky in Paducah, and can't say enough good things about them.  The first floor of their huge building is devoted to Urgent Care (Ortho only, please) and Physical Therapy.  Looks like about an acre of machines, with a steady flow of folks moving through their paces under the watchful eyes of lots of Therapists. 

 Fred was seen (as soon as he completed the inevitable  ream of paper work) by, among others, Ben, a very pleasant and competent Orthopedic Physician's Assistant.  In the blink of an eye, X-Rays of Fred's thoracic spine were read, and within an hour we were at a local hospital for an MRI.  Ben phoned us (we weren't even back to the Marina yet---can you believe it?)  to say that there is a fracture in T-11!  Fred's been walking around---slowly and with great pain---with a fractured vertabra!  Put more simply, he has a broken back. A brace was ordered over the weekend, and on Monday morning we were back to  pick it up.  

What a difference it has made!  Within a day there was a noticeable improvement in the level of pain, and by Friday he could lie down and get up again without so much as a wince!  Add in the PT exercises he was given and you have one super therapeutic operation!  The cause of the fracture is said to be compression from Fred's developing a 'kyphotic' (think question mark shaped back) curve--probably from the gazillion hours he spends hunched over his computer or the wheel of the boat.  Make that he used to hunch.  Now he leans in from the hip.  We will continue to follow up to be assured that all is well.

Rave reviews for the Ortho Institute.  Another of the worker-bees, Tripp, kindly printed out directions to the hospital, and thence to the Pharmacy, and as a bonus gave us a flier inviting us to the Fall Celebration in late September in Paducah!

So we are good to go!

The Mississippi flooding has continued well past spring this year, and the River is barely back in its banks in many places.  River levels came down a foot a day (confirmed by Joe and Punk aboard CAROLYN ANN just above St. Louis) and by Thursday, July 31 we were as ready as we were likely to get, and tossed the lines.     Had an oops as we were underway----I left my iPad in the Courtesy car the marina provides (and a fine Dodge van it is!!!)

Harbormaster Bill and his faithful pup "Pistol"

Bless his heart, HarborMaster Bill drove the iPad to Paducah (1/2 hour by car) and bless HIS heart, Mike took me for a dinghy ride to the boat ramp to retrieve it!  Good people going above and beyond!

A brief reminder about the Upper Mississippi.  Green Turtle Bay is on  The Cumberland  River, and we cruised down to the Ohio, and thence to where the Tennessee River empties into the Ohio, where we anchored to meet Bill in Paducah. Next morning we headed down the O-HI-O, through Lock #52 and over Lock #53.    Last year’s blog talks about these outdated locks and the expensive, stalled construction of the ‘new improved’ Olmstead lock on the Ohio.  Nothing much has changed…

We are told that cement blocks are going in to form the dam.

At Cairo, IL the Mississippi divides into the ‘Upper’—-875 miles north to Minneapolis—and the ‘Lower’—-950 miles south to New Orleans.  We very carefully turned to the right to enter the 200 miles of open water (no locks or dams) that stretches to St. Louis.  

Most people going to Minneapolis by boat enter the River above St. Louis, from the Illinois River.  CAROLYN ANN is there, having come from the Carolinas and through the Great Lakes to the Illinois River.   We didn't have that option unless we went all the way around Florida and up the East Coast, so it’s back to the ‘Goofy 200’, as we have fondly named it.

We made the turn carefully as the current in the Ohio was pushing us to 10.5 miles an hour!  90 degrees to the right later, we’d slowed to 3.8 miles an hour and that has been the story of this trip.

On Friday, the 1st of August, we travelled from 6 a.m. to 6:15 p.m., anchored at mile 29.2 (almost 30 River miles from Cairo—-probably 8 miles due west of Cairo).  The River doubles back on itself (oxbows) and did its very best to keep us from making headway.   

Little green frog attempted to stowaway.  He went swimming instead.

Saturday we again were off by 6 a.m.  Around 3 in the afternoon we started looking at possible anchorages suggested by the guide books and Active Captain.  Too much current here, too little room to swing there, and it took until 6:10 to find a spot where Mike and Linda could safely put down their anchor (mile 77.5—the Cottonwood Bar), and we rafted to their port side.  We were out of the channel where the big guys—-towboats pushing anywhere from 6-36 barges—-travel and all was well.

The looooooong lock wall at theKaskaskia River.

The next day, we actually got up to 6.5 mph for 2.5 minutes!  Averaged 4 miles/hour from 6 a.m. to 2:35 p.m.,  when we tied up to the newly re-done long lock wall on the Kaskaskia River, Mile 117.5.  Fred and I have been there 3 times before, and it has been different each time we stop. When the sun gets lower and it cools a bit (87 degrees out there now) we can go for a walk before we sleep. 

Monday morning the fog rolled in, and it was 8 a.m. before we left the Lock wall.  The current is slowing a bit, and we’re actually averaging  about 5+ miles per hour.  If I seem to go on and on about the boat speed, it is because, well, 4 miles an hour is really, really slow! 

The ‘goofy 200’ is just goofy, that is all there is to be said.  As we near St. Louis the industry picks up—both sides of the River have quarries, staging areas for the many barges that we see hauling ‘stuff’, shipyards, scrap yards, construction companies, power plants etc.etc.etc.  Fred has his binoculars at the ready and is loving watching the machines!  And it is good to see the output of product in America, vs the output of intangibles in our service economy.  

Enough.  On to the post, the photos, and the rest of the day.  Hope yours has been delightful. 

Be well, and do remember to breathe!

Back on boat--briefly!

Greetings from the Cruisers!  At least for the moment, we are aboard YOUNG AMERICA and heading north!

To catch up:  We went to NY in April for two weeks.  Did our taxes and hung out with children and grandchildren, visited the Power Squadron and the UU and took no pictures.  Wonder what's up with that???

Drove back to St. Pete so we could get the boat hauled out of the water on April 21.  Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance, and some repair, as well.

  Some items we knew about, and some were discovered as the work progressed.  Fred will be happy to share details.  Embree Marine (we can’t say enough good things about them) worked really steadily and by May 2 the last task, polishing the hull, was done.  Too bad the snazzy blue props don’t show when the boat goes back in the water. 

Aren't they pretty?

We lived in the Hampton Inn for those 10 days.  Not so bad—it is in our same neighborhood, and they host a happy hour from 5-7 Monday-Thursday.  Barb and Randy Semper (LAZY DOLPHIN) were in town on their way home to VA, and we spent a couple of evenings together. 

While Fred supervised the worker bees (He was amazed, and very happy, that he could find nothing he would have to re-do!) I swam in the hotel’s rooftop pool, did crossword puzzles and worked on my navigation class.  We also got to use the free tickets we’d won to see the Wiz at the outdoor theater next to the Marina.  When the boat went back into the water we stayed at Embree's dock overnight and entertained the guard dogs…Back at our Municipal Marina, we enjoyed dinner with Hugh and Sharissa Hazeltine (BLUE SKIES), shopped and provisioned the boat, and on Sunday morning tossed off the lines.

So long, St. Pete...See you in the fall!

Monday we crossed the Gulf of Mexico.  For once we had a beautiful moon to light the way.  We arrived in Panama City, FL on Tuesday afternoon ready for a nap so we could be up and at ‘em early enough on Wednesday to go 101 miles to Pensacola Beach.  Rewards?  We were able to easily travese the mudslide in the GICW---the dredge Kelly G was on the clean up job.

 Also, a momma dolphin brought her baby to show off for us---couldn't quite catch the jumps.  Adorable.

 On Thursday we zipped across Mobile Bay ahead of the icky weather,  and tied up at Turner Marine on the Dog River in AL.

Two Fun Things.

Thing One:  New owners for  47’  Great Harbour QUIET COMPANY (formerly JOHN HENRY).  Norm and Vivian Miller are moving the boat to their home in Indiana. With Ken  Fickett, owner of the company that builds the boats, (Mirage Manufacturing), on board, they crossed the Gulf a day ahead of us, and the boat is now pausing on the Dog River, preparing for the run up the Ohio  'Twas a pleasant surprise.
  

Thing two: My nursing buddy Maureen, who lives in Albuquerque, NM,  was vacationing on Dauphine Island, 45 minutes down the Dauphine Island Parkway from the marina.  Great timing!  We were happy to be able to have dinner with her and her friend, also a Linda.

As I write now (on Friday evening) we are again off the boat,.  We are driving to St. Pete in a rental car to pick up the lonely auto we left at the Municipal Marina.  Once the vehicles are sorted out, we’ll drive to Branson, MO for a Cutlass Submarine reunion.  From there to Baltimore for a Great Harbour get together, some quality time with the French family and on to Newburgh.  Fred’s going to help with some ‘on the water’ training for the Power Squadron, I hope to finish my navigation class, and two grandsons, Paul and JT are graduating from high school!

So guess what?  A bit of a break in the blog!  Something different.  As I’ve said before, the blog covers our boating life, and our 'land-lubber life’ seems to squeak in fairly frequently.

We expect to return to Mobile in June to hop aboard das boot, and once again head up the waterways to meet friends for a re-do of “Up the Upper”, quite likely finding ourselves in the Twin Cities late this summer.  Stay tuned!

Onward and upward.  Be well, remember to breathe, and count each and every one of those blessings!  And a happy Mom’s day, too!