Tuesday, December 6
Pig Pen LaNostra has arrived in Panama City for a month. This was the official end of leg #2. It was a rough and wet trip across Chactowacca Bay. Thank goodness for a sturdy boat and stabilizers. The outside is well crusted with salt and looks disgusting. Chelsea, LaNostra misses you…..she is a mess. We are going to spend the afternoon cleaning the boat. Oh Joy.
After the boat was cleaned we went for our usual bike ride to check out our surroundings. We are staying in a very nice gated community marina with a beautiful golf course and 4 restaurants on site. This is one first-class facility. We really did not bike very far. Frank has ADD Biking issues……he can not bike in a straight line & usually can’t hear cars coming. Fearless, Fast Frank fell over yesterday & landed in the road. And he pegged his fiancé right off her bike today.!!
So today, the one who can’t go in a straight like turns into me. Knocks me right over. My knees look like Susan’s when we do trail runs. Liz, (also known as the helmet nazi) I was not going to share the ADD Biker issue but when he starts knocking me over….. We will both start wearing our bike helmets. Hard to believe this is the same guy who’s logged half-million miles on a motorcycle and taught Motorcycle Safety Classes.
Monday, December 5
We are in Destin, Florida. Looks like the Caribbean. Beautiful white sandy beaches. Big storms and a cold front moved through this morning. It’s really cold here……… Again, we look like tourists wearing North Face parkas biking down Main Street. Feels weird, Christmas decorations, Christmas music, salt water & white sandy beaches….. We need to head back to Wisconsin to get into the Christmas spirit.
Sunday, December 4
We are in Pensacola, Florida. We are in the intra coastal waterway which runs parallel to the gulf. Our view has changed from mucky water to beautiful clear blue waters & dancing dolphins. The weather is very warm today but we expect a cold front to move thru tonight with big storms & much cooler for the rest of the week. The cold weather will prepare us for our trip home at the end of the week.
Saturday, December 3
We are at Homeport Marina in Gulf Shore, Alabama. Jimmy Buffet’s sister Lucy has her restaurant Lulu’s here. We crossed Mobile Bay today. We had the perfect weather opportunity. Frank is glad to have that crossing behind him. We officially entered the Intra Coastal waterway @ 12:00 today.
Friday, December 2
8 am: We are waiting a the last lock of the river system. A group of working boats have been locking thru for over an hour. We saw this group of river hands at Bobby’s Fish Camp last night. What a rough looking bunch. Very friendly but my, oh my. We see these workers on the front of barges but have never been so close. Lock just called, they are ready for us.
We ran into our working boats today. They guys we met last night were waving at us & joking on the radio. It’s so hard to understand what they are saying with the Southern Alabama Drawl. Frank had them laughing!
We are at a beautiful anchorage site 12 miles north of Mobile at 600pm tonight. Hopefully by Saturday we will have cell phones & computers. Camping on the Tenn-Tom in Alabama can be over now.
Hard to believe we found cell phone and computer service for about 10 minutes today, I was able to publish the web & email a few friends. Oh, I made a few phone calls too.
Thursday, December 1
We are at Bobby’s Fish Camp. Oh my my, never saw anything like this before. 118 miles to the Gulf of Mexico. I think they could have filmed Deliverance here.
Wed Nov 30
Frank’s all better. 8 hour flu I guess.
The fog kept us at anchor watching for Rattlesnakes until 8 am. We were anchored at a place called Rattlesnake Bend. We have ice on our teak decks. Perfect timing….today is the magic day that hurricane season officially draws to a close. We can officially enter past Demopolis today.
We did not get too far we are going to spending the night 2 miles away from where we anchored last night. The Demopolis Lock & Dam is broke. The door won’t close….Someone must have slammed it too hard. We are in at the Demopolis Yacht Basin. The town is close & they have catfish at the marina restaurant. Surprised?
We will publish the web today from the library. Actually, the library is closed so we will sit outside the library to use the wi-fi access. And we wonder why we look like strangers in these small towns.
Tues Nov 29 part II
We traveled 112 miles today with 3 locks. We are anchored a few miles above Demopolis in Rattlesnake Bend. Frank rarely gets sick …..guess what, today he is really sick. Wendy Laatsch I told you I would report the bad with the good. Some of the days events you just don’t want to know.
It’s 6 PM, pitch dark & I locked us in the boat. Frank has been sleeping since we arrived. I’m watching him like a baby to make sure he is still breathing. I feel so bad for him. We have no cell phones, no internet, no TV. I feel like I have no way of getting help if I need it. Oh, remember I have no idea how to drive the boat. I sure hope he feels better in the morning. (Frank is looking up boat driving schools while we are in Florida. I think he needs a break once in a while.)
It was a beautiful anchor spot – but when the sun goes down it is sooooo dark & just a little spooky when by yourself. I wish we would have docked & rafted off with other boats at Demopolis Yacht Basin. We are still looking for Lew & Karen & Lenny & Roxanne. I bet “You’re All” in Demopolis.
It’s 6:06 now. It’s going to be a long night.
Tue Nov 29
6:37 we are off! Leaving Columbus, Mississippi & head south.
Monday Nov 28
Here we go!
Busy day today – getting ready to shove off @ 6:30 am. We hope to be locked thru by 7 am. We had a great experience with Dish Network today. We have the equipment hooked up but had an issue with our KVH satelite not finding a signal. We hope to fix this along the way. If anyone needs our Dish installer Ron’s phone number let me know. He was awesome, we have never experienced better quality service with our TV issues before.
I have an issue with my e-mail. I can receive e-mails but I can not send. I must have 20 drafts that will send out as soon as I can hook up to our verizon wireless card. So this is my form of communication right now. Not sure our cell phones will work well the next few days.
We will be at anchor with Dream Catcher. Looking forward to finding our friends Lenny & Roxanne on Summertime!
Dan & Lisa….hey, I have not called you yet!!!! Do you miss us?
We had fun doing a local TV interview today. We were on the 6 & 10 PM news. Check out the photo’s.
Sunday Nov 27
Big Storms coming today. We’ll just stay put. Mother Nature will always be the boss. Better to be safe in a marina and wishing we were on the river than to be on the river and wishing we were safe in a marina. Frank always says “you never beat Mother Nature: She just lets you off until the next time.” He understands weather pretty well.
Saturday Nov 26
Hanging in Columbus today. Big Storms Sunday & Monday so we will wait to shove off until Tuesday. This is our 1st weather delay. Cell phone service is not great here. No e-mail service on the boat. We will try to read e-mail @ the marina later today. Weather is 60 & sunny.
Friday Nov 25
We already are off on an adventure and have not gone anywhere yet, the boat is still tied up. For our flight down, I decided to pack a ton of luggage at 4 am today. The plan was not to check any luggage due to we were not going to use the 2nd portion of our flight. Imagine that plan A turned to plan B.
So we arrive at the airport and they will not check my luggage to arrive in Memphis – must go onto Birmingham Alabama or re-ticket. @ $661 dollars each ticket My luggage was not needed. So I called Rick our driver from VIP Limo service, he drove back and picked up my extra luggage. We arrived at the gate with less than 2 minutes to spare.
I left some important documents in the luggage that is needed for our TV Installation on Monday. That’s just a losing battle. I don’t think I’m ever going to get local stations. Frank could care less! His dad told him as a kid..”if you watch too much TV you’ll get stupid.” I think he still believes that. But I really miss watching the 5:30 news. Frank thinks I should learn to sit still long enough and read the paper! Well actually he thinks I should get up at 500a like him and read a newspaper.
Oh, And to make living between states more fun – we forgot all our new looper friends phone numbers and addresses at home. So hey, we might see you around in a marina between Columbus Mississippi & Panama City, Florida.
Oh my aching ass – I just found out it snowing in WI. If we would have missed our flight today, got stuck in a snow storm in Wisconsin all due to MY luggage. Could you imagine! Suddenly our logistical problems are minor.