Bella Luna Log

"On The Road Again"

2009-10-29T08:15:00.002-04:00

Willie Nelson has always been one of our favorite singers and songwriters. His way of expressing emotions through song seems to convey a perfect emotion for a perfcet setting or period of time. Thusly, when we decided Bella Luna had been sitting still for too long (6 months), we thought of Willie Nelson's song, "On The Road Again"! And like that song says, we.... "just can't wait to get on the road again"!

Ever since returning home, we've been working on Bella Luna's appearance--poor thing, she looked really weary after going 7000 miles in 11 months with only minimal care. All her exterior teakwood has been completely refinished--professionally too, thank goodness! The interior teak paneling and flooring were given fresh coats of polyurethane as well. Two new stern canvases were added, keel work was done to repair a hairline crack, both sets of props were polished and recalibrated, and her hull was touched-up and buffed/polished to a rich blue shine. When we bought the boat in October of 2007, she didn't look nearly as pretty as she does now! And through Louis's many Cabella's credit-card points, we even purchased two new folding Schwinn bicycles--complete with their own pretty black carrying bags! Now that's special!

So this time around we're coming out of Pellitier Creek in Morehead City and heading south--south to Florida and the Keys. We plan on doing the St. John's River in northern Florida before coming home for Christmas. Then after the holidays, we'll return to the boat and head for the Keys--joining other friends there for a couple of months. When we leave Morehead City, we'll be traveling with another couple, Lisa & Jim Favors aboard their boat, "Kismet". Lisa is an expert with blogging and will help me post pictures here this time around---which should be fun for me too! And if all goes well, Bella Luna will not be back for six months this time--returning in April. We'll keep you posted.

My Final Blog--We've Crossed Our Wake!

2009-04-28T08:48:00.002-04:00

(We have been home now for eight days. Last Thursday, I was literally in the final stages of writing this last blog when I hit a wrong key and deleted the whole story. Sadly, all attempts at retrieving it failed—even with the expert assistance of our daughter, Geni. So this will be an attempt at recreating that blog before all my memory fails!)

We left Georgetown Saturday morning, in a lot of wind, headed for our final night at anchor with “C-Life” and their family at the Oxbow cut-off just south of Myrtle Beach. Passing through the Waccamaw River on our way up, we saw the most concentration of ospreys on this trip we’d ever seen and heard of two alligator sightings. The Waccamaw River is a coffee-brown, rich-tannin, cypress filled, narrow passageway—very unusual, but very picturesque. We had a wonderful evening rafted together—with Kay & Robert grilling hamburgers and hot dogs and Louis making his ice cream and signature grilled Twinkies—and in fact, Robert said, “If it gets any better than this, please let me know!” Amen, Robert.

So Sunday we pulled into Barefoot Landing at North Myrtle Beach just in time for Louis and me to grab a quick lunch/salad at T-Bones—a must stop for any overnight boaters there. After lunch, we walked around the fun shops and enjoyed a beautiful, warm afternoon. There were two mega-yachts right there at Barefoot Landing with us, one being 110 feet long and its owner was one of the members of the band called “Hootie & the Blowfish”—such a pretty boat too.

On a “drizzly” Monday morning, we said good-by to “C-Life” and headed out solo for the North Myrtle Beach Yacht Club. That would be our home for the next week. I needed to do several loads of wash and we had plans to get together for dinner with our dear friends that evening, Ann & BJ Maynard who live near-by,—which we did do and had another hilarious several hours together “catching back up” with our long time friends. Thanks, you two—we can’t wait for the next time to get together!

Just after lunch Tuesday, Geni and our four grandchildren came to visit us—it being their Spring Break. For the next three days, we had a fast paced, fun-filled time together. We had a room just beside us at the Holiday Inn reserved for them, and the grandchildren took turns sleeping on the boat at night with us—the boys one night, the girls the next. In those days, we went to see the IMAX movie, “Under the Sea” in 3-D, we spent half a day in Ripley’s Aquarium (which is fabulous), we went shopping (how do you like your “Wheelies” Clay?), we saw the endangered blonde and golden tigers, we visited with the Creeches’ grandchildren, we ate Mexican and Mongolian food and lots of pancakes and ice cream, and we went to Calabash with “Nightingale” and “C-Life” one night for seafood (all 15 of us!). However, Geni, Gail and I will not be eating tartar sauce for quite a while—we all got sick from it!

We can’t believe how much our grandchildren have grown since we last saw them at Christmas. HT is now 13, so smart and taller than I am—unbelievable. Clay at 8 is sprouting too—and lost a tooth on board one night, much to our surprise and delight. Katie is 5 ½ and reading on a level far beyond her age (big words too)—she starts kindergarten this summer! And our precious sweet Taylor at 4 tries so valiantly to keep up with the others—and is doing a great job at that—she came home covered with “boat bites” on both shins! We so enjoyed having them on the boat with us, cramped as we were though with all our stuff.

Friday, Geni had planned all along to go back to Oxford with her boys for soccer games on Saturday. Catherine, who had planned on coming to Myrtle Beach on Thursday afternoon, would be staying with us for the next few days with her girls. Good planning for all. But during the time Geni was with us, Catherine and Travis got a “full price” offer on their just listed house in Cary. The problem arose when the contract stipulated they move out by May 22nd—and thinking the market would be slow, they hadn’t even begun looking for another house! They had no house to move into—yipes! So, with us trying to help out with the situation, we changed our plans and kept Katie and Taylor to give Catherine & Travis a few precious days alone to go house hunting. Having already done fun things with all the grandchildren, we decided to head back to Morehead City—forgoing our plans to drag our feet in returning home and skipping a few days in Wrightsville Beach with friends. (We’ll definitely catch up with those fun people later on this summer!) Catherine could meet us Sunday afternoon at our marina and take the girls back to Cary. Everyone was happy with that plan—most of all, us!

So Friday noon, we said good-by to Geni and the boys and Myrtle Beach, got refunds from the Holiday Inn and the marina, threw off our lines, and headed the 30 miles or so up to Southport—to spend the night with Kay & Robert, now Gold Loopers—congratulations are in order! We had an easy trip—the winds seem to slow down a bit, and the girls enjoyed being on the boat—especially since they were getting a “long boat ride” and their cousins weren’t! Taylor took a long nap in my lap up on the flybridge and Katie surprised us when she didn’t—boat rides have always put our children to sleep!

On arriving into Southport, just like we’ve done so many times, we pulled into a slip right beside “C-Life”. But this time was very bittersweet—Kay and Robert have finished the Loop and we won’t be together daily like we’ve been for months now. We are so close to home now also and finishing our loop as well—everything feels sadly different. But we were all so happy to see one another again—had it only been three days since we had been together—seemed longer! Our girls quickly got off the boat and had a great time running barefoot in the Creeches’ front yard and playing with all of “Miss Kay’s” wonderful yard toys and her sandbox. It was such a pretty afternoon—we got to visit again with Debbie and Buddy Barnes (hurry up and buy a boat!) and we were treated to pizzas by the Creech family—Katie and Taylor eating almost a whole one themselves! After the girls took baths in Miss Kay’s tub, we all walked back down to our boats and quickly fell into bed. Kay and Robert haven’t moved from their boat back into their house yet—wanting to extend the experience as long as possible—understandably so. We thank Kay & Robert and Sharon & John for their continued hospitality—next time we’re together, it’ll be up our way!

Before we left Myrtle Beach, Geni had taken me to the Dollar Tree and I had loaded up on craft supplies for Katie and Taylor to keep them busy during our three days of cruising. Knowing full well that spotting the occasional ospreys and dolphins would not keep their attention for long, I was determined that they not do anything “electronic” while on the flybridge and being underway. With our flybridge looking like a schoolhouse art room, we all were happy at the amount of time the girls took using their creativity and imagination. Consequently, the girls never got bored and we now have several “pretty pictures” as lasting mementos of our final two days on the Loop.

So we left Southport (and our now life-long friends) Saturday morning and headed for Topsail Island—a long day’s travel through several bridges which needed openings—to Beach House Marina. We got there with ease and pulled into a nice slip—Katie quickly reading the sign for the near-by Dairy Queen. For the next hour all we heard from the girls was, “When are we going to Dairy Queen?”! After a disappointing seafood dinner at a near-by recommended restaurant, we walked over to the DQ for a promised dessert—color both girls and Louis happy! Again, bedtime was easy and early.

Sunday, April 19th, was to be our last day on the Loop—if everything went as planned. We had an easy time getting away that morning from Surf City on Topsail Island and the girls were happy doing their crafts—by now all well worn and used. We came through Swansboro feeling so comfortable in our familiar surroundings—we felt we could almost close our eyes and make it back safely the rest of the way to the Coral Bay Marina. And as fate would have it and as we crossed under the Cape Carteret Bridge, (we later learned) we had a witness to our coming home that day. Liz and Bob Stagg were at that moment coming over the bridge in their car and saw us as we were coming under them—they honked and waved at us, but not looking for them, we didn’t hear or see them at all. As unexplained and wonderful things have happened to us all along the way, that was a very befitting and special thing to happen to us on our last day—the Staggs were the first Looper couple we ever met and they have been such an inspiration for us all along our journey. We’re so honored to call them special friends but we never seem to have enough time together because there’s always so much to talk about!

We traveled another few miles up the so familiar waterway and just before we were to make our port turn off the ICW and head into our marina, we stopped the boat and Louis put up our gold Looper flag (thinking of you, Margie & Larry) signaling that we had finished the Loop. And at 1:56 pm the afternoon of April 19th, 2009, we crossed our wake—our journey now complete. Realizing that we had told our family and friends we were coming in the following Saturday and thus thinking that only Catherine would be waiting for us at the dock, we rounded the corner and were treated a wonderful surprise at our slip. Lo and behold, joining Catherine, were Kay & Robert & Debbie—shouting and jumping up and down with excitement and waving a yellow poster, with champagne and “gold medals” in hand & honking a very loud air-horn over and over! Precious things, they had driven up from Southport to properly welcome us home—Looper style! Louis and I couldn’t believe they were in Morehead City, but knowing them as we do now, of course they would have wanted to have been there when we crossed our wake. We had a marvelous time on the dock clinking glasses and toasting each other—all of us saying several times, “Wow—what a ride!” (We insisted that they all three stay with us overnight at the house, but they declined and drove back home.) Both Louis and I felt it was a perfect ending, albeit early, to our year-long journey.

Since being home, many people have asked us basically the same two questions: “What was your favorite place?” and “Would you do the trip again?” One we can answer, one we can’t. After nearly a year of traveling almost 7,000 miles; going through 163 locks; making our way through eighteen (!) states and two provinces of Canada; crossing the Georgian Bay, the North Channel, the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico and the Everglades; spending five weeks in the Florida Keys—we couldn’t possibly say which place was our favorite, they were all so unique and different. Every day and every region was wonderful and special—we saw spectacular things few of our family and long-time friends will, sadly, never see. We were “wowed” almost daily—I tried to document most of them here. And in answer to would we do the trip again—“you bet” we say, “in a heartbeat!” And we’re not selling our charts or the boat anytime soon either.

So, what have we learned on our journey?
*First, we learned things about both Louis and me that we thought, after 40 years of marriage this year (!), were impossible not to know—we both admit a year is a long time to constantly be together 24/7 in a small, confined space. I remember someone we met at our first rendezvous in Charleston telling me that, and I didn’t believe her then—but she was right.
*Second, we learned not to load our boat down with excess “stuff’ ever again! We wound up using the second stateroom as an attic/pantry—limiting our enjoyment of having an extra room for guests and cluttering up our boat—shamefully so. We had almost 175 pounds of charts, maps, guidebooks, etc. that we did need with us on a daily basis, but we had way too much excess of clothes and canned goods, a few tools and linens. We found out we really did have easy weekly access to shopping (love Wal-Mart!) and we found out we could do very well with limited amounts of clothing—like everyone else, we would wear it, wash it, put it in the “clean” pile, and put it right back on! It was embarrassing when it took three long, back-breaking days to unload “Bella Luna” with things some of which we hadn’t even touched in a year!
*Third, we learned that it was all the many people who “made” our trip—not the places we went to, as we had thought would. We met so many kind and generous people all along the way both on land and on the water whom we’ll never forget—beautiful faces all along our amazing journey. And we’ve met a whole “boatload” of wonderful Loopers whom we now call “family”—special friends we’ll have for a lifetime. They have helped us, guided & led us, laughed and cried with us, and enriched our lives in too many ways to list here now or ever. We treasure those faces and friendships immensely and can not imagine our trip without any of them.
*Fourth and lastly, we learned how lucky we were to ever be able to take this trip. Even more so now, we realize how fleeting the years are and by “slowing down”, as we tried to do daily, how quickly time is still passing us by. We both knew we had maybe ten “good” years left to be able to physically do this particular and sometimes exhausting trip. When planning this over a year ago, we were both lucky enough to have good health; we both had good energy and lots of enthusiasm; we both wanted an extended adventure; and both of us had the time and good fortune to afford a long journey of this type. We were not afraid of the unknown or our inability, we were excited! Our children and grandchildren were at “good places” in their lives—we were too. We were lucky and blessed; we knew it and were so thankful for it all. If we were ever going to do the Loop, we needed to do the trip before any of the above changed. So, taking advantage of it all, off we went saying, “We have no schedule and we’re sticking to it!” We were very lucky indeed.

In closing, I’ve been thinking for a year now “in blogs”. When we’d see or experience something worthy of remembering, I was constantly figuring out how to word it for a lasting memory here. Writing these blogs was very time consuming, yet all the feedback (even from people we’d never met!) made it worthwhile—I was surprised by those who read it, and crushed by those who I thought surely would, and who didn’t. But along our route I found a long, brown sign which I bought (while Louis was off with the guys!) and Kay & I proudly placed it in the salon of “Bella Luna”. It simply says what we believe our fantastic journey was all about from beginning to end—and one I thought befitting to “wrap up” this last blog. So in a fond farewell and summary of all we have been witness to and accomplished in this marvelous, exciting, and rewarding year, I end and complete my journal with:

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but rather by the moments that take our breaths away.”

South Carolina--Almost Home!

2009-04-12T16:04:00.002-04:00

(This is a long one, folks, sorry!)
It was so hard to believe that while we were in Savannah, Georgia the land just across our narrow river was South Carolina! So it wasn’t far that we had to travel Saturday morning to cross the “state line” into South Carolina—in fact, it was only just minutes. But in those last few minutes of being in Georgia, we saw a truly spectacular sight—two bald eagles sitting on top of the same pole side-by-side—we’ve never seen that before on this entire trip, so it was very special. We also saw another owl sitting on a dead low-lying tree out in broad daylight—I must read up on owls when I get home—I always thought they were nocturnal birds.

So on our way up the ICW to Beaufort on that pretty day, we passed Windmill Harbor Marina in Hilton Head and talked about raising our gold Looper flag because that’s where we bought our boat. But on “thinking it through”, we realized we hadn’t actually started our Loop from there, nor had our boat been renamed or provisioned for the Loop at that point. We had just bought a beautiful and rare boat there in the fall of 2007 and we were still hoping to be taking the trip the following spring—which we were lucky enough to actually do. So our battered and dirty white Looper flag still flies proudly on our bow waiting for our port turn off the ICW into Pelletier Creek, when the poor piece of fabric will finally come down.

We got to Beaufort, SC, early enough in the afternoon for me to get 3 loads of laundry done in the nice municipal marina’s facilities there. We’re still with “C-Life” and “Nightingale” and all of us walked up the street just from the marina after cocktails on the boat that evening for a delicious dinner of fancy pizzas—we love pizza and these were different shaped and delicious! Sunday mid-day, Gail, Kay and I took off to explore some of the cute shops and galleries along the two-block section of waterfront downtown Beaufort. We got back to our boats just before a huge rain storm hit us—and it continued throughout the night blowing and rocking our boats—thankfully we were tied up to floating docks!

Monday morning, just at “first light” and very early for all of us, we left Beaufort headed for Charleston—the wind was expected to really kick up and we wanted to get into our next marina before late afternoon. By the time we got into the harbor of Charleston and rounding the Battery, the wind was howling and the waves crossing the bay were at least 5 feet—not a pleasant boat ride, but we were headed in the right direction and had the waves behind us! After getting all three boats safely secured to floating docks, we had a big pot of homemade vegetable soup for dinner that had been simmering all day on “Nightingale”—the weather had turned really cold and the soup was just perfect for us all—delicious too. Thanks Gail! Tuesday morning we had an early lunch at a nearby deli and took the totally packed, 345-person ferry out to the island of Fort Sumter for a very cold and windy (we were freezing!) tour of that famous place. Fort Sumter was where the first shot of the Civil War was fired. The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering through the famous and very crowded straw market in downtown Charleston—which had all the curtains pulled down because of the wind and cold—a sadly different sight from the last time we were there. Tuesday night we went to Hank’s for dinner—another delicious and trendy spot.

Wednesday, my dear cousin, Carol Shropshire, drove the two hours to and fro from Columbia to Charleston to visit with us for the afternoon. We were so excited she was coming and bringing her son, Colin, too!! We had a wonderful four hours together—having lunch at a fabulous French bistro, “Rue De Jean”—just off King Street; spending time with Colin and his precious girlfriend of 3 years, Virginia; and helping Colin out in a most embarrassing dilemma he had gotten himself into—his car getting towed during lunch! Life is interesting and continually full of surprises, isn’t it Carol?! I’m looking forward to spending more time with my precious cousin later on this summer—one short afternoon together just wasn’t enough by any means.

Wednesday night for dinner (on Colin’s excellent recommendation) Kay & Robert, Gail & Gene, and Louis & I walked up to Jestine’s Kitchen. Seeing the line of hungry patrons wrapped around the street told us all we needed to know—this place was going to be another delicious “local” spot. And delicious it was—southern cooking at its best. We all chose something different as our meats and our choices of vegetables were varied too—I had chicken livers, collard greens, and okra gumbo—wow!! Definitely worth another visit when we’re in Charleston!

It was still so windy on Thursday morning when we left Charleston. We left on slack tide, hoping the wind would calm down during the ebb, but were disappointed when it hadn’t. We’ve had fierce winds for almost three weeks now—and it makes our dockings difficult too. We were headed for Georgetown that morning—Louis and I think we’ve been there before, but neither of us can remember when—CRS disease strikes again! Along the way we saw two alligators—always thrilling and scary too. One of them was especially large—yikes! We also spotted several eagles and many ospreys—with six pairs of eyes constantly on the lookout for wildlife, it’s hard to miss anything along our route!

As we passed McClellanville, both Louis and I held our breaths—that’s where we spent three unscheduled, nasty and rainy days in the fall of 2007 tied up to a shrimp dock when we were bringing the boat back and we lost the port engine. Thankful that we had made it past that small fishing village, shortly thereafter we pulled into Boat Shed Marina in Georgetown and were glad we got alongside our floating docks before the really bad winds blew in. Is it ever going to stop blowing?! I’ve thought numerous times about Liz & Bob and their battered and torn Looper flag—poor things, they had bad winds most of their entire trip!

After cocktails and a surprise “birthday party” for me on “C-Life” (thanks Gail and Kay!), we headed down the street several blocks to River Road Restaurant for dinner. To our delight, we ran into Lyn and Scott Edwards from Durham there at the restaurant—what a treat to see them! We had a delicious dinner and walked back to our boats under another full “bella luna”—a beautiful night—I’ve lost track of the number of beautiful full moons we’ve seen on this trip!
Friday morning we woke up finding Kay and Robert’s middle son, John, and his wife, Sharon, and their 3 children, Kylie, AJ, and Ivey, who had come in late the night before. Most of them will be making the final leg of this trip with the Creeches—it’s great fun having children along! We’ll have Geni and our four grandchildren coming in this Tuesday while we’re in Myrtle So Friday night, Louis and I were “alone” for the evening—a rarity for us. Kay and Robert had the whole gang onboard and Gail & Gene had left earlier that morning bound early for Myrtle Beach—they’re shuffling their car along for a while and it is still in Brunswick, GA. We decided to take Carol’s recommendation for Georgetown and go uptown to The Rice Paddy for dinner.

Many people ask us about the Loop, “What’s your favorite city?” or “What’s your favorite restaurant?” We have so many favorites on both questions that it’s really hard to name a particular one for either. But in my estimation, The Rice Paddy in Georgetown definitely ranks in the upper three—and it’s surely the best restaurant I’ve been to since coming back to the boat after Christmas. We didn’t have reservations and were lucky to get in on a Friday night (what did we know?!). With Natasha as our waitress, we were treated to the best low country food to date—all prepared and served to perfection—I was in Heaven it was so delicious. The best shad row I've ever tasted. We can’t wait to get back to that marvelous place.

So now it’s Saturday night and we’re rafted together with “C-Life” in tranquil Oxbow Creek in the coffee-brown and tannin-rich waters of the Waccamaw River—just 35 miles south of Myrtle Beach. We got here about noon and have had a wonderful, lazy afternoon surrounded by ospreys. (We’ve never seen so many ospreys in one stretch of traveling—needless to say, the ospreys are thriving in the Waccamaw River!) Kay and Robert fixed hamburgers and hot dogs, complete with all the fixins’, and Louis made another batch of ice cream with grilled Twinkies, chocolate sauce and cherries—his signature dish on the Loop! Yum. And it’s a bittersweet night for Louis and me as well. We realize this will be the last night of anchoring and being rafted with Kay and Robert—they have been our constant companions and dearest of friends for so many months now—how will we ever be able to leave them? Like Scarlett O’Hara said, “I’ll worry about that tomorrow!”

Tomorrow, Easter Sunday, we’re headed to Barefoot Landing for one night, then moving over to the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club on Monday for a few days with our children—beginning Tuesday. I hope to get this blog posted there tomorrow. We also hope to see Ann & BJ Maynard in Little River for a while before our children get here—and after that, who knows what we’ll be doing, but it will be fun and we’ll be with our precious family. So I’m thinking/knowing this will be my last posting until we leave Myrtle Beach and head for an overnight in Southport and then on up solo to Wrightsville Beach for a couple of days. Draging our feet, we may spend a night or two in Swansboro. Then finally, we’ll let “Bella Luna” take us home. If all goes as planned, we should be leaving North Myrtle Beach sometime around the 20th and be in Morehead City that last weekend in April.

The Old North State, here we come—at last!

Georgia On Our Minds

2009-04-04T21:04:00.003-04:00

There’s not that much to see and little tourism along the ICW of Georgia—with exception to the Island Areas of St. Simons, Brunswick, Jekyll, Sea Island, and Savannah. We traveled mainly through beautiful, deserted, brown-turning-green marshes, seeing the occasional small areas of gorgeous coastal homes—I’ve been taking pictures of the really spectacular ones. In addition, there are only five bridges we have to go under throughout the whole state of Georgia—amazing! So Sunday night when we tied up at Kilkenny Marina (up a pretty creek) there was nothing much more there than just that marina and a whole lot of tide—the restaurant which had been closed will reopen April 15th. But we were able to get a handful of live shrimp and try our luck fishing off the side of the boat—Kay catching and releasing the only small catch. Go Kay!

Monday, we passed the pretty lagoon area of “Moon River” just south of Isle of Hope—named from the same song written by Johnny Mercer (a local hero) and musical score added by Henry Mancini—made forever famous by Andy Williams singing at his very best. Gail and Gene, “Nightingale”, had the song on their boat and played it for us as we went by that very place—so special for us all—we won’t forget that day ever! Monday, we had hoped to get reservations at Thunderbolt Marina—Louis hearing (and it was confirmed!) that they gave fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts to the transient boaters every morning. When we found out they had very limited transient space on that particular day, our plan #2 was easily put into place. We wound up stopping just a few miles short of Thunderbolt at Isle of Hope Marina—a very nice and very accommodating marina—plus they had a courtesy car and a courtesy van (perfect for six people!)—much better for us than complimentary doughnuts for sure! “C-Life” and “Nightingale” and “Bella Luna” all three signed up for the van (which we got for 6 hours!) and took off for West Marine. a liquor store, and a grocery stop. Plus, we wanted to drive the short distance over to Savannah and check out the public dock for available space—hoping to get our three boats there Tuesday by noon. We planned to spend several nights there. After finding an empty dock, we headed back to Isle of Hope for dinner at a wonderful, local, hot-spot—Driftaway Café. (http://www.driftwaycafe.com/) This restaurant has to be one of my most favorite places on the whole trip—everything was seasoned just right, the portions were perfect, we loved the atmosphere, and the wait staff were all so pleasant. We even called our “Looper Restaurateur”, Phil, and told him he must add this excellent place to his list!

Tuesday morning early, we left Isle of Hope in a swarm of relentless “no-see-ums” and headed to the public docks of Savannah—which do not take reservations—“first come, first served--as the sign said”. As we rounded the curve leading up to that dock there, we saw—to our dismay—a small cruise ship tied up in the very spot we wanted to be! Oh No! Robert tied up his boat in a small space and was quickly met by the Captain of the cruise ship. We soon found out that only twice a year do two cruise ships tie to this dock on the same nights—once in the spring and once in the fall. As luck would have it, we just happened to pick the one two-day period! So, being so good at this now, we settled for plan #2—we found a “marina” (just really a floating dock) only a few hundred yards from where we would eventually be for a few days—once the cruise ships left. But we would all have to pay a hefty price for that one night at $2.50 per foot. Yipes.

So now it’s Thursday, April 02, 2009—we have been in Savannah for two nights and will stay here another two, if we don’t get “run off” on these public docks by city officials. (So far, there have been no other boats wishing to use this dock.) We’re witnessing huge container ships coming right by us almost hourly into this busy port city and the small, green ferry boats taking people back and forth across this busy “highway”—we’re getting rocked by their passing (especially by the tugboat, "Diane"!), but not uncomfortably for any prolonged length of time. There’s a bad storm on top of us now—no one should be moving on the water now or tonight and probably not tomorrow morning as well. But since we’ve been here, we’ve taken a trolley bus tour of the historic district, been shopping in the quaint river front stores, been to several delicious restaurants (eating oysters and shrimp), and yes! Jane, we went to “Wet Willies” on your recommendation. You were right—the margaritas were absolutely delicious and I got a cup for you too—we’ll be back there, for sure, before we leave!

It’s now late Thursday afternoon and it’s raining hard and “we six” are sitting on our boat discussing our itinerary for the next few remaining weeks—I’m multi-tasking –listening to them, adding my two cents every now and then, and trying to finish this blog while our generator is running and I have power to this computer. (However, we have no wireless here at this dockage, so my posting will probably be when we get to Beaufort on Saturday.) We want our last big South Carolina stops to be in Beaufort, Charleston, Georgetown, and Myrtle Beach and we’ll hopefully be anchoring out some in between. Our girls and their children want to join us in Myrtle Beach over Easter week/ their Spring Break—having not seen any of them since Christmas, we can’t wait to see them all again!!

With Thursday being a total “wash” day of heavy rain, we decided to stay over in Savannah through Friday night—Friday was predicted to be beautiful. And beautiful it was, but high winds—good thing too, we had had over 3” of rain the day before and everything needed a good blowing off. We also wanted to experience “Mrs. Wilkes on Jones Street”—a 50 plus year old “boarding house” restaurant still going strong today which serves only weekday lunches from 11 to 2. So Friday morning off we went, expecting to have to wait in line about an hour for a place to sit at one of her only 8 big tables. Smelling the fried chicken wafting out the door every time it opened, we all were getting very hungry as we stood in line with about 100 plus people lining the sidewalk. Sure enough, after about an hour, we were finally “let in” and led to our table which was already filled with about 15 yummy dishes. This was to be a “family style” lunch and we were all ready to dig in!! Passing what-turned-out-to-be 25 dishes of meats, vegetables, salads, breads and desserts (unbelievable!) around the table quickly became work for the people in the middle of the table! But boy, was it ever delicious and worth the wait—we were told on two separate occasions from totally different people that this was absolutely the best restaurant in Savannah—forget the tacky Paula Dean’s—and they were so right. What a feast for the eyes and the tummy—we all left in acute pain—but all of us knowing we would definitely visit this place again!

After that so delicious lunch, we walked, so slowly!, through various gorgeous parks on our way back to the boats and stopped on purpose to see and appreciate the Cathedral of John the Baptist—a truly beautiful and historic Catholic Church which has just undergone a several million dollar renovation—a must see in Savannah, for sure. After a little bit of shopping too, late in the day we were back at “Wet Willies” for more margaritas & the crazy concoctions they serve & then the six of us went up on our flybridge to watch the sunset and the huge container ships passing. This being the first Friday of the month, the Westin Hotel (across the water from us) had fireworks at 9:30, which we all enjoyed tremendously. Saturday morning before we left, we were also able to enjoy just-as-they-were-setting-up the Street Arts Festival, which is held the first Friday “weekend” as well. We’ve had a great four days in Savannah—we’ll be back!

Cumberland Island and St. Simons

2009-03-30T14:24:00.002-04:00

We left Palm Coast Monday morning, March 23rd with “C-Life”. We were bound for an anchorage about 30 miles up the coast of Florida just north of St. Augustine called Pine Island. Traveling through marsh lands most of the day, we were almost at our turn-off for the anchorage when we saw a big, mature eagle sitting on the shore eating a freshly caught fish—we haven’t seen any eagles since leaving Marathon—so this one was very special for us all. As we turned into Pine Island, we found several other boats already anchored there—not to worry though, it was a big space surrounded by beautiful, brown marsh—another good pick from our Captains.

After a beautiful sun rising over the marsh, we left our quiet spot Tuesday morning and got back out on the ICW—going through the busy entrance of the St. John’s River with its huge container ships moving in and out of the port of Jacksonville. We decided this trip to forgo going up that river—maybe next time! We were headed for another anchorage behind Cumberland Island—a 17 mile long treasure of an island and a designated National Seashore Park. Just at the tip of Cumberland, we saw five “marsh tackie” ponies grazing on the green salt marsh of the island. These small, wild horses are believed to be descended from the Spanish ones left there over 200 years ago—back then, they were easily transportable in small ships and yet they were strong enough to do heavy work in the fields once they got to land. They reminded me so much of our native Shackelford ponies—I’m excited about seeing them again this summer!

Around 3pm that afternoon, we entered Georgia—only two more states to wind our way through before we reach North Carolina! We found a nice anchorage behind Cumberland Island, rafted again with Kay and Robert, and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon—especially when we saw a nuclear Trident submarine coming into the King’s Bay Submarine Base facility with some of its crew standing outside on the hull! After the sun set, we enjoyed a pretty star-filled dark sky.

Wednesday morning, Robert and Louis put our dinghies in the water and we went over to the Island to explore. There is not a bridge to Cumberland Island, so everyone visiting must come by boat. We wound up walking a long, lush, quiet, green nature trail through the woods filled with saw palmettos, palms, live oaks and pine trees, grape vines, and lots of moss up in the trees all leading to Dungeness—a massive four-story brick and tabby estate home (think castle!) built by the Carnegies at the turn of the century during the golden era. The Carnegies at one time had over 300 workers on this island, making it a fully self sufficient paradise for their family and friends to enjoy. Ice was even cut from the Hudson River in the winter and shipped by barge here and stored in an ice house on the island! Reportedly, it burned from arson in 1958 as a result of the shooting death of a poacher and the poacher’s family seeking retribution for the fatal shooting—never proven though. The four-floor ruins still stand today as a testament to the period in American history where the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers, and the Carnegies (among others) were all conspicuously enjoying their amazing wealth—the period before income taxes were levied. With a dozen or so of the wild horses grazing along both sides of the estate in the open fields, and an unobstructed view of acres upon acres of marshland, and even in a state of ruin, we got a quick glimpse into the lives of the fabulously mega rich of yore. Also, there was a very nice display in the visitor’s center showing pictures of what the home once looked like, plus other historical facts about the island and its many nationed inhabitants. Of recent, this is the secluded island which hosted, in the ever-so-tiny First Black American Baptist Church, the wedding and honeymoon of Carolyn Bessette to John F. Kennedy, Jr. I remember quite well the photograph of them leaving the small church—it’s hard to believe, even now, that they were actually able to pull it all off so secretly and away from the harassing press. We tried to get reservations for dinner at Greyfield Inn either night, but they were already full. While we were walking on the trail though, we played with two armadillos—they were not afraid of us at all—how fun!

We pulled up our anchors Thursday morning shortly after seeing another submarine coming out of King’s Bay which was headed out to sea. Surrounded by Coast Guard boats carrying machine guns on their bows and sterns, we stood in awe as having seen yet another sub—all the times Kay and Robert have been through this area, they haven’t ever seen a single one! It took a while to get the anchors up—they were covered in black mud—but we were underway earlier than we had planned. Good call, guys! There’s a bad cold front moving across the country and we want to be in a marina before the high winds get to us. Plus, we have to cross St. Andrew’s Sound—very tricky and sometimes treacherous. But just as we were approaching King’s Bay, a third submarine was quickly making its way through the waterway behind us. A heavily armored Coast Guard boat came up behind us with its blue lights flashing and told us to “move along quickly” past the King’s Bay facility—the submarine was traveling much faster than we were and the Coast Guard didn’t want us anywhere near that sub! In fact, if one of those subs is coming upon you and you can’t get away from it quickly enough, you are required to point the bow of your boat towards shore and maintain that position until the “coast is clear”! That’s three nuclear submarines we’ve seen in two days—a real record for most Loopers, for sure!!

Well, we did get through St. Andrew’s Sound even with me at the wheel! Louis was trying to secure us reservations on his cell phone, so I was driving—the boat bouncing up and down through the white-capped and “squirrely” chop. I can now see why boaters hesitate to cross this body of water—and thankfully we got through it just as the winds really picked up—if we had left an hour later this morning as planned, we would have had an uncomfortable ride. Glad that’s behind us.

We pulled into Golden Isles Marina at St. Simons Island mid-afternoon, and with the storm approaching, I quickly jumped off the boat to do laundry in the nice facility there. Gold Loopers, Lola and Larry from “Lola Marie”, were alongside us on the floating dock and asked if we four would like to join them in going to dinner at “Gnat’s Landing”—we immediately said, “YES”! So off we went in their car over the bridge later that afternoon to that great little restaurant—enjoying fresh seafood and Caesar salads—the place was very popular with the locals.

Friday, we borrowed the courtesy car at the marina and did errands—Louis and Robert trying to chase down a fuse we needed for our boat and Kay and I checking out and enjoying so much the historic Christ Church there on St. Simons. Surrounded by blooming dogwoods, azaleas, camellias and wisteria, this precious white-wood church was truly beautiful and serene—we could have spent hours just wandering through all the history in the adjacent gravesites, but time didn’t allow us that. We could have the car for only 2 hours, but we did manage to get in a fix at Burger King—yum! Later on that afternoon, Mary and Robert Drake, whom we met in Tarpon Springs, came to our boat for another interview. With Mary being the writer and Robert being the photographer, they both contribute articles for “Soundings” magazine and they wanted to do a feature article on us, the Loop, and “Bella Luna”—imagine that (!) and how exciting for Louis and me! With both of them being such experienced boaters (and sailors), we spent several hours chatting about our mutual experiences in and on the water—ours, however, can’t even hold a candle to going around the world like they did! Thanks go out to both of them for taking even more time with us—and in our excitement and by me not thinking, I can’t believe I didn’t take a single picture of them taking our pictures! Sorry, Mary & Robert—can you send us one?! Later on that evening, eight of us wound up eating at the marina’s restaurant (Coastal Kitchen) and sadly, most of us were disappointed—expensive for what we were served.

We’ve had terrible wind now for three days. Saturday, the slow-moving cold front with predicted heavy rain, possible tornados, and winds of 60 mph still hadn’t come through our area but it was forecasted for late in the afternoon—so we decided to stay put another night safely tied to the marina. We borrowed the courtesy car again and went to the grocery and Chick-Filet. It’s a real treat for us all to be able to have lunch away from our boats—so any chance for us, we gladly take it and won’t feel guilty at all! We met another couple (new Loopers) on our dock yesterday from Ohio on an Endeavor, Gail and Gene Knight on “Nightingale”, and asked them to join us for dinner on our boat Saturday night. Kay and Robert came over too and all six of us had a great time—it was one of our latest evenings going to bed to date! The storm with 5 inches of rain finally barreled through all night long—thankfully, we had taken all our flags down and no one encountered any problems on their boats, except that we lost power on the dock early Saturday night and it still wasn’t on when we left Sunday morning. We loved having Melissa as our dock-mistress—she’s definitely one of the best ones we’ve had on our entire strip and she really knows the business. We left on a beautiful (but damp) Sunday morning with “C-Life” and “Nightingale” and were all headed about 50 miles further up Georgia’s coast and up a creek to Kilkenny Marina—in the middle of nowhere too!

Working Our Way Up Florida

2009-03-23T07:56:00.002-04:00

It’s hard to believe we left Ft. Pierce a week ago today (Sunday). The week has flown by so quickly, like all the others have, and this has been another great one, with very nice weather—albeit high winds—it’s March, for sure! We’re now on our third day here in a marina at Palm Coast—this area being just about equidistant (30 miles) between Daytona (to the south) and St. Augustine (to the north). I spent a couple of days earlier this week writing the previous blog about Sunday’s fantastic space shuttle launch when we were at Dragon’s Point, and today just realized I hadn’t caught “Bella Luna” up to where we are now. Opps!

So after finally getting to sleep Sunday night, (and I don’t want to miss mentioning Kay’s great day of fishing that very afternoon on the back of her boat—go Kay!), we left Dragon’s Point Monday morning and headed to the neat little town of Cocoa—we would stop just for a couple of hours for lunch. There’s a free city dock there at Cocoa, and “C-Life” wanted us to not miss that particular town. So we tied up to the dock (saw several manatees lazing just several feet from our boat), and walked through the nice park one block to “main street”. We were headed to Travis Hardware Store—an unbelievable two-story, whole-block long, brick institution. We saw things there we’ve never seen anywhere else before—from new wooden wagon wheels to sleds (imagine those here!), to every dimension of pipe, screw, nut, bolt, tool, and anything else you could ever need or want. I can’t imagine what their inventory must amount to—and if they don’t have it in stock, no one else does anywhere else around here for miles and miles! Louis and Robert had a ball and could have stayed there all day—Kay and I were greatly impressed too. But hunger called us all, so we went to the recommended Ryan’s Village Pizza for lunch—having the best pizza and strombolies on our whole trip to date! If we ever make it back this way, this will definitely be a stop for us.

After lunch, we walked back to our boats and headed just a short way up to Canaveral Barge Canal for fuel and an overnight—Harbortown Harbor Marina. We found fuel there for an inclusive $1.75—the lowest fuel “Bella Luna” has ever received—color Louis happy! “Sunshine” and “Blue Max” pulled in just a few minutes ahead of us into the marina—it was good seeing them again.

Tuesday morning, just as we left the marina at Harbortown, we saw our first alligator or croc—we couldn’t tell which—swimming alongside the boat in the canal—thanks, Kay, for spotting it! We got a quick photo of it too—the first one we’ve seen so far on our whole trip! We also passed under the Christa McAufille Memorial Bridge—so named for the woman astronaut who died when the space shuttle Columbia tragically broke apart and all aboard were killed. A somber reminder of just how dangerous space travel really is.

From Canaveral Barge Canal we were headed up by Titusville to an anchorage. On the way, we passed NASA’s huge assembly building where all the rockets and shuttles are stored and eventually “rolled” 3 miles out to the launch pad. Having “the largest doors in the world”, this building was awesome even from our far-away vantage point. A huge American flag painted on the outside of the building—110 feet x 209 feet vertically—was painted on its exterior. As reported in Skipper Bob, it took 6,000 gallons of paint just to paint 1 stripe on this American flag—imagine!! And then just a little later on, we came through another canal and took a hard left and saw behind us the rocket launch pad sitting out on a tip of land where the shuttle took off Sunday night! What fun it was to see firsthand that famous spot where all launches take place—even from 3 (?) miles away—I’ve seen it all before on TV—so recognizable. I took several pictures, but they were from far off and it wasn’t entirely a clear day—I hope they turn out. Next trip, I’m going to have a really good zoom camera!

We were headed Tuesday to an anchorage about 30 miles up the ICW, but fierce winds forced us to go another 20 miles further up to New Smyrna—it would have been miserable on anchor—making a longer day of travel for us than anticipated. We wound up tying late in the afternoon to a city dock marked “No Overnight Docking”—how funny. I have a picture of Robert & Louis tying our boats up right at the sign—but we really did need the comfort and safety of a land tie-up that night regardless of what the sign said! Robert hoped to get a new battery the next morning from the local Napa store—which he did get—and so we hoped his/our excuse would let us stay there overnight without any problems. As it turned out, no one came to chase us away and we stayed comfortable, snug, and secure for the evening. People walking alongside the park and talking with us continue to be so interested in our extended and year-long trip.

The next morning, after the old battery was hauled away and the new one installed, both boats headed off a short distance to downtown Daytona. Along the way, we passed one particular stretch of “fill islands” where we saw our old friends the white pelicans—hello again! These magnificent birds with their huge wing spans (imagine, 8 feet!) have been migrating with us since our days on the Illinois River, yet we haven’t seen them in a while. Along with these white pelicans, we also saw for the first time many beautiful pink spoonbills. Huge birds too and looking so much like flamingos, these birds were fun to see flying and fun to spot sitting in the marsh and up in the low-lying trees—pink is easy to spot. We’re told these birds don’t migrate too much further up the east coast—but they sure were plentiful here.

Soon we were arriving at The Halifax River Yacht Club in downtown Daytona. Early last summer we joined MTOA and The White Rocks Yacht Club in Rock Hall, Maryland with help from our boating friends, Robbin and Roger Seal—thanks again for a great evening with you! We were therefore able to have reciprocal privileges with other yacht clubs along the way and we really hoped to use this privilege as we traveled. Yet, here were on the last leg home and have just used our membership for the first time—boy was it a good place to begin! We had just tied up our boat there and got a call from Brantley and Brenda—they were on their way to Marathon and were just coming around Daytona. They drove to the marina, we got hugs all around—even from “Rudder”, and they brought us some Wilber’s bar-b-que—how great to have a “taste from home”! Thanks, B & BG—hurry and catch up with us—more good times ahead!!

We wound up staying two nights at the yacht club and all the time there, the members made us feel so welcomed—it was just like being in Morehead. The facilities at HRYC were pristine too—an inviting 88 degree pool, a spotless laundry (did 3 loads!), good cable TV, high speed wireless, a great “swap” library, a really nice shower facility—plus the fabulous restaurant/clubhouse was so delicious and wait staff were so pleasant that we ate 5 meals there! We met Commodore Lyn and his board of directors over drinks one night up in the clubhouse—a really super bunch of dedicated people—we can see why this club is so viable. Also, West Marine & other specialty shops (a chocolate factory, yea!) were so close by too—even the Jackie Robinson Ballpark was right across the street, although Spring Training doesn’t begin for another few weeks yet and we, disappointingly, weren’t able to take advantage of any baseball games. A lot of the HRYC members wound up traveling Friday morning, like us, up to Palm Coast for a rendezvous weekend there—they all wanted us to join them for more fun, food, and fellowship on their docks—making us feel even more welcomed.

So we arrived here in Palm Coast Marina Friday afternoon, coming through some narrow parts of the Florida ICW dotted with dolphins, ospreys, pretty homes and docks—looking more and more like home—we’ve lost our pretty aquamarine water though. But thankfully we arrived just before small-craft-warning winds began to blow— getting into our slip with no problems. Robert and Louis rented a car (actually a pick-up truck, the last they had—Hi, Betsy!) for Saturday and Sunday—we all four needed a major grocery shopping trip. We also planned to drive back down to Daytona Saturday to go (the girls) to the famous weekend flea market there—(hello Barbara!) and the guys to West Marine, Boater’s World, Home Depot, etc—Louis and Robert needed a good McDonalds fix too. Kay and Robert have long-time cruising friends from the Chesapeake staying here at this marina for the winter on their boat, “@ Home”, Cathy and Jim Fisher, whom we will be spending some time with over the weekend—Jim is the Vice-President of MTOA. Sunday, Kay & I will have the car by ourselves & plan to do some “retail therapy”—Bealles is having a huge sale (50% off & then 50% off of that!)—we just can’t pass that up and we’ll take advantage of near-by Target and TJ Maxx too! After three nights here in this nice quiet marina, we’re off to St. Augustine & Jacksonville tomorrow—Monday, March 23rd. The weather has really cooled off as we have traveled up the coast to the top part of Florida—we’ve been in long pants and long sleeve shirts each day—I’m not so sure we’re headed in the right direction! I know it’s spring now and we should be headed home, but is it too late to turn around?

The Space Shuttle Launch

2009-03-19T16:55:00.005-04:00

My family was fortunate enough in 1958 to be able to build a beach cottage at Atlantic Beach, NC. It was a dream come true for my parents, who had always enjoyed “the beach” so much with their friends. It was right on the ocean and had no air-conditioning—not even window units! The cottage had wood floors, wood walls, and wood ceilings (our father loved heart-of-pine)—and it had old furniture from our recently deceased paternal grand-parents home in Raleigh. All the interior doors in our cottage were louvered to allow the mostly cool summer breezes to flow freely throughout the house—even the closets and bathrooms had louvered doors! When the breeze died, we all were miserably hot—consequently, I spent a lot of time outdoors—even at night. Times were different then. I was 10 years old when we moved into our cottage, my brother (Hi, Jay!) was 6.

Many-a-night with no such breeze, I would go out on our sundeck, lay down on the wooden benches and look up into the sky just trying to get cool—I would be too hot to slip between humidity-laden damp sheets and try to get to sleep—even then as a child! With nothing but hundreds of miles of darkness ahead of me and no town or street lights to get in the way, I would spot the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Orion’s Belt, The Seven Sisters, and could even pick out the occasional satellite—moving ever so slowly. Sputnik, maybe, I never knew. Little did I realize “way back then” that I would have a life-long affinity for the stars and “outer space”. But every one of those summers I was building on it as a very lucky child. Today, I still marvel nightly at those familiar stars plus enjoy the meteor showers in August and December and Haley’s Comet and Hale-Bopp—when they make their infrequent appearances. And through my enthusiasm (I’d like to think), even Louis early on came to appreciate the heavens—that’s one of the chief reasons we named our boat “Bella Luna”—beautiful moon. We both love star gazing!

I have always envied every one of the astronauts who have been privileged enough to have walked on the moon—I can’t imagine what they must feel these days looking up into the sky, seeing the moon, and telling their children/grandchildren, “I have walked up there!” How lucky those few people are. And in a salute to Jack Nicholson (one of my all time favorite actors ever), I have a “Bucket List” of my own. Among the top twenty on the list is that I have always wanted to be able to see a space shuttle launch or any launch, for that matter. And we realized about 10 days ago we just might be able to make that wish come true—barring any unscheduled delays on NASA’s part, we should be right in the area for launching. I don't know the reason, but we've heard that there will not be many more of these launches (maybe 8?), so if we're going to get to see one, we don't need to put it off much longer! We prayed that there would be no clouds or fog at our opportunistic time either!!

And so off we went this past Sunday morning, leaving Ft. Pierce. We were headed north about 30 miles towards Melbourne to hopefully find a good anchorage with an unobstructed view of the northerly sky—a space shuttle launch was scheduled for 7:43 pm that night. Robert on “C-Life” led us to a great spot sheltered from a hard blowing wind and we anchored—boy, is he a great leader—we were in a fantastic spot! We were ready by 4pm with new batteries in our cameras and videos charging—hoping so much that there wouldn’t be any delays on the launch, as so frequently happens. We had this one opportunity—one night to be in a close area for viewing.

We all were on “C-Life” and we had their TV on—the local stations faithfully cover each launch here as NASA is the largest employer for miles around the Cape Canaveral area. If there were to be a delay, we would immediately hear about it. But luck was with us—no delay. The countdown began—we all held our breaths and waited. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, “Liftoff, we have Liftoff!”, we heard from the TV. We all were hanging outside the sundeck’s curtains looking for the shuttle. Then, in an instant, a huge fireball appeared just over the treetops—and it kept climbing. Eureka—this was it!! “I can’t believe what I’m seeing and we are so close to it”, I kept yelling! Then we saw a smoke trail, the “fireball” got smaller, and with such clarity, we could see the actual shuttle sitting on the rocket boosters rotating. Unbelievable! And then within just a few seconds, the sound hit us (from 25 miles away we estimated) — we felt this wave of immense pressure going right through us. We were seeing it, hearing it, and feeling it—all the time trying to capture it on film and video. We saw the boosters separate and fall back to earth (really the ocean) and then so quickly, Discovery was now in orbit and just a pin-head size bright dot in the sky. The show was over—but boy, was it ever a good show—the best I’ve ever seen. NASA was pleased, the Creeches and Wades were pleased and so “over the moon”, and to say it was a thrilling experience would truly be inadequate.

We’re almost home now—we have about six weeks left of our year long trip taking us over 7000 miles. We have a sign in our boat that reads, “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away”. Sunday night, March 15th, was definitely one of them—WOW. Thank you, NASA. TYJ.

Miami to Ft. Lauderdale to Ft. Pierce

2009-03-17T23:00:00.002-04:00

As we passed through Miami, we counted 5 huge cruise ships—all restocking and waiting for new passengers and anticipating other ports of call. We once drove to Miami and took a 7 day cruise with our girls over New Year’s Eve celebrating Louis’s birthday—remember it, Geni & Catherine? Fond memories, for sure! Sadly today though, none of the ships here were taking on passengers—we would have loved to have honked & waved at them—and it was surprising to see them all there on a Monday. As we got closer to Ft. Lauderdale, we saw 3 more beautiful cruise ships tied to the docks—this is definitely the region for cruising!

We entered a narrow part of the ICW coming into Ft. Lauderdale and I’ve never in my whole life seen a more conspicuous, ostentatious, concentrated display of mega wealth. Absolutely unbelievable! We probably passed for a good mile or so, mansion after mansion with huge—and I mean really huge—yachts tied to docks “behind the house”. All well over 100 feet, these yachts were so beautifully pristine from bow to stern—I was blown away by it all—so amazed that I forgot to take even one picture! We’ve been on the water in Palm Beach several times with Brantley before, but we’ve never seen such a display of excess like this anywhere—and I never thought Ft. Lauderdale had so much of that kind of wealth. Others have called that area the "Gold Coast", but we’ve named that stretch in the ICW as “Billionaires Row”. I’m so glad we got to see all that pulchritude (remembering our dear Pete!)—evidently the notorious local bad-boy here, Bernie Madoff, didn't have any of these people as clients!

We arrived at Los Olas Marina in Ft. Lauderdale in time Tuesday to give “Bella Luna” a much-needed good long bath—after a week of neglect (and being without an outside water supply), she was covered in salt. We were tied-up in a slip right near the bulkhead and while washing the boat, we saw three manatees swim alongside our port side—two adults and a baby. We were told they were headed up further north to a power plant seeking warmer waters. With all the boat traffic and narrow channels, I hope they will make it there safely. The main cause of death among manatees is boater interaction and several years ago the state of Florida enacted strict regulations concerning these gentle giants—making manatee safe zones all along this stretch of water. Today, due to such increased awareness and boater co-operation, their population has definitely increased. Yea!

Our friends from Ft. Lauderdale, Cheryl and Harold Lovell on “Victory”, had all six of us over to their wonderful home for a delicious lasagna dinner Tuesday afternoon and evening. We had a great time being with them—talking and reminiscing about our travels together—we traveled most of the Canadian canal system with “Victory” and they finished the Loop right before Christmas. It was also great seeing their precious 16-year-old nephew, Billy, who stopped by to say hello. Billy was ½ of the team (with Bruce, “Phantom…”, being the other half!) that helped change our props in Campbellford and we will always be so grateful for that big, strong, strapping boy who was able to help us out in record time. The Lovell’s home is right-smack-dab on the inlet, so several times that night we saw huge freighters and cruise ships coming and going—so fun to witness! We thank them both for their hospitality.

Wednesday was restock and laundry day. Ellen and Roy from “Our Turn” came by with two (!) cars to take us each in separate ways—the guys one way & the girls the other! The girls, of course, went to Publix and such—the guys to West Marine & Sailor Man. Then both groups met up for a delicious late lunch of sushi, Bennie Hanna, and Chinese. It is one of Ellen’s favorite places to go in the area & all of us could taste & see why! The two cars came back to the boats with everyone so satisfied and stuffed—thanks to them both for spending the day with us!

Yep, it’s Spring Break in Ft. Lauderdale. Late in the afternoon, all of us walked the two blocks up to the beach and it was full of young people—all enjoying themselves in this beautiful weather. We saw just a few people in the water and no one was surfing because there are no waves at all here—but everyone was having a good time none-the-less. Between the skimpy bathing suits and the tattoos on both guys and girls, all “us old people” were shaking our heads! Lord, how times have changed since Louis and I were that age! But after walking up and down the beachfront, we got an outside table “street-side” at Spazio’s and watched for several hours all the passers-by. The huge 2-for1 frozen drinks made it even more enjoyable (love those mudslides!) and we saw so many Rolls, Bentleys, and Jaguars that we finally lost count—definitely the place to see and be seen! We vacated our most-coveted table after a beautiful full bella luna rose, Kay and I really hoping (in our current state of mind!) to get a “Spring Break 2009” tee-shirt—but sadly, none were available in our size—oh to be 18 again!!

Thursday morning, we left Ft. Lauderdale and began our next destination towards Ft. Pierce. Along the way, we went through Palm Beach, feeling comfortable in the waters and reliving some great memories of our trips here with Brantley. It was early, so we didn’t stop for lunch at some of our favorite spots (Waterway Café or The Square Grouper)—but we were finally beginning to feel a little bit closer to home. Going by The Square Grouper at Jupiter Inlet, we hung a hard left and entered beautiful waters again—waters like the Keys—the clearest extended aquamarine waters we've ever seen. When it’s so clear like that, we’re told, the bottom is all sand—the reflections we see are not hampered by coral or grass. Absolutely breathtaking!!

We also saw something we’ve never seen before—right on top of a channel marker in an osprey’s nest were two owls! With their pointed ears sticking up and heads carefully turning watching us pass, what an amazinging sight—and in broad daylight, no less! Sadly, by the time we were on top of the nest, I couldn’t get the camera out quick enough. I can’t remember seeing an owl up that close ever, especially two at the same time, and much less in the daytime. WOW!

We anchored twice with “C-Life” and “Wanderin’ L & M” on our way up to Ft. Pierce. The second night, Kay made a special cake to celebrate Margie’s & Larry’s completing the Loop—and Larry’s 60th birthday. We had a great celebration all afternoon and into the evening—even dancing on our boat to Ronnie Milsap—a first! The Rosses will be staying in Ft. Pierce for a month with their family—we will miss them as we make our way homeward and will think fondly of them as we raise our gold Looper flag.

As we pulled into our slips Friday afternoon, we realized the marina in Ft. Pierce was a really great spot to be with nice laundry facilities and two restaurants on site. Both complete with live music, we had dinner at the more casual one that night—so delicious too—the place was packed. Saturday morning, we took advantage of a wonderful farmer’s market held right at our docks every Saturday October through April—probably the best one we’ve been to on this entire trip! Both Kay and Louis love pork ribs, and each of them got a whole slab (!) to take back to the boats—boy, were they good—cooked just right over charcoal too. But by noon, most of the vendors had sold out their goods and were packing up their gear—city rules state the park must be vacated by 2pm. We also tried to get tickets to see Bill Cosby, who was going to be Saturday night at the near-by Sunrise Theater, but both shows were sold out (within 15 minutes, we were told!)—too bad, that would have been such fun to see him! But I did manage get a super gyro (from the farmer’s market) and some fine Chinese fried rice take-out. Also on Saturday, I got a much-needed haircut and pedicure (my first since then end of December!)—thanks Margie for the reference to the great salon!

We left Ft. Pierce Sunday morning for an anchorage near Melbourne, Florida in order to see the space shuttle launch which was scheduled for Sunday night--March 15th. I'm working on my thoughts about that spectacular night (and my next blog) and will post them hopefully in the next few days.

Marathon to Miami

2009-03-14T21:39:00.004-04:00

As we began our journey north from Marathon, all of us were sad. We had experienced the most wonderful time during our five weeks at Sombrero Dockside—especially since we had heard from home of the snowfalls and teen temperatures while we were enjoying the fine weather in the Keys! But off we went and “Bella Luna”, for the first time in a very long time, was headed north—the last leg of her journey home. We had encountered a lot of wind in our time in Marathon so we all were thankful that it was a beautiful calm and sunny day as we were leaving. Many boats left that morning, but “C-Life”, “Wanderin’ L & M”, and “Our Turn” left together.

After taking the inside Bay route for about 30 miles, our first night (Tuesday) was on anchor behind Islamorada—we rafted three boats together—“Our Turn” taking the outside route from Marathon through Hawks Channel having plans for the evening up at Tavernier. (We will meet back up with them in a couple of days.) Traveling the Bay side was so visually beautiful—shallow channels and aquamarine waters which can easily be seen from the numerous bridges that cars cross all along the Keys. But being able to look down and see the bottom just a few feet below the boat and have it be so clear was especially thrilling for me. The water was still very chilly here so I wasn’t tempted in the least to get into it—even when we were rafted together and I could see the bottom!

Wednesday morning after we pulled up our anchors, we traveled another 30 or so miles up to another pretty anchorage behind Key Largo—still traveling with “C-Life” and “Wanderin’ L & M”—and all three of us rafted together mid-afternoon for another beautiful night under the stars. Anchoring with a good sandy bottom is such a pleasure—we’ve had enough of pulling the anchor up in black muddy bottoms! Thursday, (Happy 8th Birthday Clay!) we headed up to what-would-turn-out-to-be a 3 night stay at Boca Chita in the Biscayne National Park. “Our Turn” caught back up with us right after we pulled up our anchors that morning and followed us into Boca Chita.

Boca Chita is at the top of the Keys right across Biscayne Bay from Miami and Key Biscayne—what a sight to look across the Bay and see all those tall buildings. It is a destination that many boaters use on a regular basis—a long circular wall, surrounded by palm trees, with no power or water in a state park setting controlled by Park Rangers and absolutely gorgeous. Extremely popular with the locals, we were fortunate to find four spots together alongside the wall there by mid-day Thursday—we never would have been so lucky if we had arrived much later in the day, much less on Friday! Thursday night was so calm and relaxing with maybe 12 boats in the lagoon—little did we know how it would explode in activity by Friday noon. By 2pm Friday, there were 25 boats—some rafted together—and boatloads of campers were arriving to set up tents and gear—must have been a youth church group. As time went on, more and more boats were trying to find space to tie up to—no such luck! And there’s no telling how many boats late Friday and all day Saturday came into the harbor only to be forced to go back out into the Bay for lack of room—it was packed to the hilt and fun to watch!! We walked on the little beach there, found shells and coconuts (opened and ate them too!) and sponges, had pot luck dinners all three nights, and just enjoyed being with a whole different flavor of people. With Latin music booming from some of the boats, cigars and grills smoking, children running around, and women in skimpy bathing suits, Margie accurately named it Little Havana! Wow—what an experience—color Louis happy! By Saturday night, at last count before we all turned in, there were 43 boats that had squeezed into that little lagoon, some rafting three across—amazing!

Sunday morning we left the wall at Boca Chita and headed across a calm Biscayne Bay to an anchorage behind the tall buildings of Miami in Stadium Channel. With long-ago abandoned bleachers rising up alongside the fairly narrow body of water, this setting was once home to a Cypress Gardens type water skiing show. When the sun went down and the tall buildings of Miami lit up illuminating the sky, boy was it a beautiful sight—not quite as impressive as the skyline of Manhattan, but close. Thanks to Robert for steering us to that destination!

We’ve now been “on anchor” for 6 nights—a first for “Bella Luna” and good for Louis and me to learn how to manage our water supply. We’ve done really well—but it’s now time for us to get to a marina and fill back up our water tank! So we’re headed to Ft. Lauderdale today for a two night stay at a really nice (but expensive) marina—Los Almos—just two blocks from the famous beach with restaurants and shops galore—but we hear it is Spring Break, oh dear!

Keys Disease

2009-03-06T07:58:00.000-05:00

The locals have a name for it. What occurs is easily transmittable, not curable, and not even terminal—but is something most everyone catches while they’re in the Florida Keys for any length of time. Louis and I have had a bad case of it too—I don’t know if we’ll ever recover—it’s certainly not something you want to voluntarily get over. Keys Disease is a state of mind. And as I don’t want to forget one moment of our time here, I’m taking this opportunity to put most of it down here—so when we get back home into our daily routines, I can hopefully catch the disease again periodically—I’ll just pretend to be Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, close my eyes and click my ruby red heels together three times.

We arrived here in Marathon exactly 5 weeks ago today—it was Tuesday, January 27th. We came in with “C-Life” and “Wanderin’ L & M” quickly followed a few days later— all three boats have been here together. We had planned to stay a month—the thought of staying in one spot for four weeks was a welcomed change. Not once on this whole trip of ours have we stopped and enjoyed one particular place for four complete weeks! Most everyone on the Loop takes the time during the winter months to either linger and enjoy the Florida Keys for several weeks or make a quick stop somewhere here (like Key West) and then go over to the Bahamas for a few weeks. We had fully intended (when we left Morehead City in May of last year) to go over to the Bahamas and Abacos during this time period joining other Loopers—we had all our documentations accurate and up to date—but after we got back to the boats in late December and were exhausted from Christmas and such, we decided we just needed to stop. And what a better place to do just that than at Dockside Sombrero in Marathon! And stop we did—life slowed way, way down—we got into a lazy routine—and all of us caught Keys Disease.

The days flew by—none of us knew where the time went. Our days were spent in a sort of glorious limbo—we were always outside enjoying the high 70’s temperatures—it never rained during the daytime—how lucky we were! We would begin our mornings with walks—even Louis got into the habit of walking with the guys at 7am! The girls would walk @ 8:30 more briskly and longer—at least 2-4 miles each morning. My thanks go to Ellen on “Our Turn” for “keeping the pace” with and for me. I walked every day but one and will miss terribly that part of my morning as we ride “Bella Luna” home. After our daily walks and breakfasts, the rest of our time here has all melded together in a kind of blissful haze.

We only had two things that were scheduled each week that we needed to do. First, we looked forward to the farmer’s market bringing the freshest and prettiest fruits and vegetables to the side of the road for us to buy every Saturday morning. Truly, we’ve never had better fruits and such. And second, we welcomed our pump-out time every Friday morning sometime after 10am. Every thing else we did was just a spontaneous decision/choice. We recycled bottles and cans. How wonderful—we had developed full blown Keys Disease. Twice, we had large Looper cocktail parties (40 or more)—thanks go to Barbara on “Gone Cruising” for organizing Dockside’s one. Early on, we had wonderful visits with Lisa and Jim on “Kismet” and Linda and Charlie on “Freedom’s Turn” (they both have gone to the Bahamas). We saw friends from home—Betsy and Curtis (Raleigh) bringing their precious friends, Susan and Bill Carter, for us to finally meet; Eva and Tom Higgins (Chapel Hill) who were spending the month of February in a nearby beautiful Key Colony home; we had an unexpected surprise visit from Liz Stagg early one morning—we thought she was knee deep in snow!; and we had a special two-day visit with Judy and John Woody. We owe them both a special thanks for making the efforts they did to come see us—not once, but twice now! We also spent several days with Alice and Phil Priemer on “Wonderland” up at Boathouse Marina—they were very gracious to keep coming back and forth getting us with their car. We also had a couple of occasions to get back together with gold Loopers, Carol and Lee Kirwan, whom we met last April in Morehead. Having Brenda and Brantley “Reel Estate” for a week or so right in the slip beside us was very special too. We also enjoyed vicariously the Creech’s and Ross’s grandchildren when they came to visit—think stars, fishing, and youthful enthusiasm & laughter!

We took three day trips too—the first to Key West, stopping at No Name Key for a delicious pizza lunch at the hard-to-find No Name Pub—the second was to the Dolphin Research Center (actually we went there twice) and thanks to Buddy Barnes for making that possible both times—and the third day we spent at the once-a-year marine flea market up at Islamorada. All three of those days were a blast! Also, Louis and five other guys one day chartered our old friend’s boat for a successful day of off-shore fishing—we can always count on Capt. Steve Leopold on “Yabadabado” to put us in the fish!

We enjoyed our dinghy rides every other day or so—going at least twice weekly to Burdines for the very best and freshest Rubens, fries, and fried key lime pie (oh yes, so delicious!). One day while in our dinghy, we got to sneak alongside a big fat manatee and watch it drink water dripping from the fish market’s supply of ice. We also went fishing another day in the quiet and secluded mangroves up Sister’s Creek for small snappers where only dinghies and canoes can go, and other times we would just ride around looking at other boats and boaters—people watching at its very best. Having the opportunity to see pelicans and ibis perched on the branches of the low lying limbs and not the least afraid of us was special to witness too—so was the 3 foot long iguana sunning in the tree-top right behind our boat. We also had a resident manatee that would almost daily pass behind our boats and head up the canal hoping to find a water hose—we followed it one day. Thank you again, Deb, for selling us your dinghy!!

We also had time to get some work done on the boat. Bonnie and Bruce from “Phantom of the Aqua” were able to make and put on for us new white sun screens all the way around the windows of our boat—boy, did they ever do a great job! Our interior is now so much cooler—and we love the privacy the screens allow us. Louis was able to get the zincs changed and a slightly bent prop blade fixed. I planted a small herb garden. Louis “up-fitted” the dinghy with a solid floor and a comfortable seat he got from Phil—although I still think it looks like a toilet seat! We probably put around 300 miles on our bikes too—always going somewhere and glad we had them! Publix (grocery store), Winn-Dixie, CVS, Home Depot, West Marine, Boaters World, and K-Mart were all very close and easily accessible by bike. Having spent so much of our trip going to various Wal-Marts around the Loop, we all were disappointed in the K-Mart here only having a fourth of the merchandise we had been used to prior to coming to the Keys—the shelves were sparsely furnished and selections limited. I doubt they’ll be in business much longer here.

We enjoyed nightly music from our own Dockside’s Bar—Joe Mama and Florida Straits being our favorites. We sometimes ate (just five boats down from us) ribs on Thursday nights, Saturday and Wednesday nights were Prime Rib—all cooked on an outdoor grill. There also was a delicious Super Bowl Sunday Chili Cook-off, a pig roast another day—but not as good as Louis’s by a long shot, and all day Mondays and Tuesdays were “happy hour” at Dockside. We quickly got to know the staff there too on a first name basis—Roy, Ron & Tom on the docks—Debbie & Popeye, Stephanie & Janet on the inside taking food and drink orders. “Buddy” the dock cat came to visit us daily on board our boat—even climbing up the steep ladder to the flybridge with us on several occasions! We went to Keys Fisheries several times—having lunches and dinners and buying stone crab claws to take back with us to the boats. We went to Island Grill several times for the best calamari we ever tasted—went once to Hurricanes for their $5 lunch—went to the Stuffed Pig for another delicious meal too. Having a Chinese lunch buffet within walking distance wasn’t bad either! But probably our favorite local spot to go to was Sparky’s for their “happy hour”—25 cent shrimp and wings, beer $1 and you had to go early to get a table because it was always so crowded! What delicious fun.

We have “penciled in” our names for the winter of 2010 for more of the same—middle of January to the middle of March. “God willing and the Creek don’t rise” (Thank you, Phil, for telling me about this 200 year-old prayer!)—hopefully we’ll make it back—I’m certainly going to keep my fingers crossed until then. This has been the most special time for us that I can ever remember—people who know us well know we don’t stay still for any length of time. And when we first heard about Keys Disease, we had no idea what the locals were talking about. “Nonsense”, we both said. But now we know—we know first hand. TYJ

Marathon, #1

2009-02-03T15:43:00.003-05:00

When I signed off on the last blog, I wrote that I wouldn’t publish another one unless something unusual happened to us here in Marathon—thinking a day to day routine would be boring and uneventful. Not so, I’m finding out—and we haven’t even been here a week! So, I’m going to number this as 1, as our first exciting experience—we don’t want to forget last night! Monday, February 2nd.

It started with a Looper party organized over the daily morning radio program broadcasted here in Marathon at 9am on channel 68. “Pot of Gold” had sent out the invitation to all Looper boats in the area (several mornings in a row) to come to their marina’s dock (City Dock) for a 5pm cocktail party—bring an appetizer and your own drinks—a chance for us all to get together, as we are spread out here in Marathon over several marinas and anchorages. What a great idea and what fun—let’s go!

As the afternoon progressed, we all anxiously watched the weather and the accumulating clouds and hoped the forecasted rain would hold off until after the party was over. As it turned out, there were 66 people attending from 34 boats—we had no idea that there were so many of us in the area! A group picture was taken—maybe it will appear in the next AGLCA mailing. The rain did hold off, but thunder and lightning made the party end much sooner than any of us would have wanted. Quickly gathering our coolers and dishes, we all hurried back to our perspective marinas and boats—many had left windows and hatches open.

Thankfully, we got to our boat just as a gentle rain began—so far, no problem. We were invited over to “Kismet” to have a drink (we’re so glad you’re here, Lisa and Jim!) and then walked down the dock (under an umbrella and carrying my shoes) to the restaurant here at Sombrero Dockside—meeting “C-Life” and making a table of six for dinner in Dockside’s outdoor bar. Under cover, still no problem—we’ve dealt with a lot of rain on this trip.

No sooner had we sat down and ordered drinks did the heavy rain begin. The perimeter curtains around the restaurant were lowered and we all felt safe, secure and dry—thunder and lightning were getting closer, but still no problem. Wow—how in an instant things changed. All of a sudden, a burst of wind blew out the seams in the curtains and the rain blew sideways onto us. Everyone got wet—at all the tables—and most people jumped up and headed inside to the bar area. (Not us though, the bar was way-too packed and we would have gotten even more wet just trying to squeeze in!) A weather “cell’ was over us—bringing winds of 60+ mph—just like a hurricane. Tables were soaked and plastic chairs were blowing over and across the floor. It was surreal—and we were standing outside under cover trying to stay dry near the kitchen! And as quickly as it began, it all stopped. Tables were toweled off, chairs were up-righted, new settings were passed around, we dried ourselves off, sat back down again and ordered our dinners—laughing and joking about our ordeal of the past 20 minutes. Kay even suggested we order hurricanes to drink! (That’s Pat O’Brian’s in New Orleans though!)

The band began playing again and our dinners came—we all enjoyed it tremendously. Having finished our meals, we asked for our checks to come from our still wet (and now cold and shivering) waitress, Stephanie. No sooner had she brought our checks back to the table than another “cell” blew through and the whole scenario began again. Truly, having had enough by then and all of us in some state of “wet”, we quickly said, “G’bye & G’night!!!” and dashed back to our boats. It was 9:15 pm. Whew—we’re so very glad we were right here tied to the dock and not on anchor. But what a night—what a memory!

Everglades City and Marathon

2009-02-01T09:04:00.003-05:00

We left our serene little spot in Goodland Monday morning once the tide got high enough to travel. It has been very surprising to me that the waters in this region of Florida have been so shallow—we have a draft of four feet under our boat, so we have to make sure the water we traverse through has a depth of at least six feet. Many-a-time in these last few weeks we’ve had just that little “skinny water” too—and we’re well off-shore! But what a beautiful day we had to cross to Everglades City—the water was slick calm, the temperature was perfect, and there were dolphins everywhere following us and showing off. A sign well out in the middle of nowhere said, "Welcome to Everglades National Park". What a hoot to be that far from land and see a sign like that!

Everglades City is the last “get off the boat in civilization” stop before a long days’ crossing to the Florida Keys. We docked at the Rod and Gun Club for our overnight spot—what a grand old place that is! Built as a private hunting and fishing club in 1864, it has withstood many hurricanes and storms and is still so stately and beautiful today. Visited by Ernest Hemingway and John Wayne and many more celebrities, it also has held court to four sitting Presidents! Framed newspaper and magazine articles about the Rod & Gun Club line the entrance to the front desk and all kinds of local taxidermied animals and fish hang on the walls—what a history this place has had! We had a delicious late lunch out on the covered screened porch and a late dinner in the beautifully paneled old cypress wood dining room—what a real treat for all of us twice in one day—we thank you Buddy and Jimmy for your hospitality!

The Captains decided at dinner that early Tuesday morning we would leave and cross to Marathon—it would be a long day on the water for the two boats—but we could make it before dark. (We could break this crossing up into two parts with an anchorage tonight—but there’s a cold front coming through sometime Thursday and it is best we go the whole way before the winds really pick up.) So, at first light (ugh!) we’re headed to The Keys—our home base for the next five weeks!

It was a long day, not as pretty as the day before for sure, but we got here safely @ 5:30 pm and were welcomed by the crews of “Reel Estate” and “Sunshine” with drinks in their hands. We tied up in Sombrero Dockside Marina—a really good and convenient spot to rest for a month. We have a popular bar and very casual outdoor restaurant just at the end of our dock—Publix, Winn-Dixie, CVS and K-Mart are just a short walk away. There’s a walking loop that follows the golf course just behind our boats and I plan to make good use of that, hopefully daily! (We think this is a really good spot to be in considering other marinas that are available here—thanks Brantley for making it all happen!)

So now it’s early Sunday morning, February 1st, five days later, as I am writing this. Since we’ve been here (and with Buddy Barnes renting a van—thanks Buddy!) we’ve spent one day going to The Dolphin Research Center and then another going to Key West—love those Cuban mojiotos! (Seeing 9 of us packed into the van was hysterical!) “Wanderin’ L & M” made it here safely Thursday afternoon—boy is it good they’ve finally caught up with us too. We’ve been to some great restaurants and are enjoying the fresh seafood. In between spare times, the guys have been doing projects on their boats—Louis concentrating mainly on getting our dinghy’s outboard motor fixed. The girls have been doing laundry and grocery shopping—plus I’ve walked the loop every morning (we estimate it’s just shy of 2 miles--you're my inspiration, Bean!).

We’re getting into a nice routine now—something we’ve not had the luxury of before on this trip because we’ve always had to keep moving. “C-Life” has their company gone and the rest of our boats are back to being the normal crews. And the Florida Keys is where everyone on the Loop just slows down their pace and comes to a stop. Being this far south, we want it to be warmer than it is—but it’s not. We’ve had a couple of warms days—shorts and sandals—but mostly it’s been cool—far too cool to go swimming—but so nice. And we’ll take it gratefully too—it’s far nicer weather here than what’s at home. (Geni said they’re expecting ice Tuesday night!)

And we are going to try and just stop, rest & relax and enjoy our time here to the fullest—so I won’t be blogging as much—there just won’t be as many different days to document and I need to catch up on some reading! We both got Florida fishing licenses and hope to do some fishing. And we’ve heard from friends from home who will be coming through the area in February—several couples who plan to be in and around Marathon—we’re looking forward to being with them when they get here. By then, we’ll have culled the very best spots to take them to—what fun yet again!

We’re going to a Super Bowl Chili Cook-off Party this afternoon here at our marina—that ought to be interesting—I like the Budweiser commercials the best. After that, we have no plans—and we’re sticking to it! If anything different happens (which I doubt it will) then I’ll do a new posting, but otherwise, love to all and Happy Valentines Day!

Sarasota and Naples

2009-01-25T17:36:00.004-05:00

We left St. Pete on Sunday, January 18th headed to Sarasota. The day before, Louis had lowered our mast so we could take the inside route—going through small towns and under bridges so that we wouldn’t have to wait for them to open for us. We were traveling with “C-Life” and “Reel Estate” and it was a beautiful and calm day, but still very chilly. We enjoyed seeing numerous ospreys nesting on the channel markers—they’re not afraid of getting too close to humans—like eagles are. This must be the nesting season too—every nest we’ve passed has been occupied! There are a lot of ospreys in this area.

We arrived in Sarasota a little after lunch, pulled into the very pretty Marina Jacks and called Tracy Guess—Travis’s father, who lives in Sarasota. Tracy wound up coming to our boat late afternoon and going out to dinner with us and the gang (8 of us total)—we went up the street just two blocks to a great Mexican restaurant, Dos Senoritas—everyone had delicious dinners—cheap too! But it was a mighty cold walk back to the boats—are we really in south Florida? Certainly doesn't feel like it!

Monday, we left the marina and headed to an anchorage—Cape Haze—recommended by Peggy and Guy. We rafted the three boats together in a quiet little cove—surrounded by beautiful homes—feeling safe and secure for the night. (Another cold front was to come in during the night—bringing high winds.) Louis got our dinghy down for Brantley to use with his dog, Rudder, and off the two men went with the dog—seeking a nice grassy spot. Boy, do we both still miss our Buddy! I fixed a big pot of homemade vegetable/beef soup and since there were 7 of us, we ate our supper on “C-Life”. Thanks Kay & Robert!

The cold front did indeed come through during the night waking everyone up but me—how I slept through those two hours I’ll never know! But our anchors held, so everything turned out as hoped. TYJ. We pulled up our anchors the next morning and were in for an ugly surprise—the muddiest, blackest, bottom we’ve ever seen! We spent quite a long time in the howling wind getting all that muck off our anchors—very thankful for our washdown hose on the bow.

Tuesday, Inauguration Day for our new President, we headed to Cabbage Key for the much heralded cheeseburgers they serve. Accessible only by water, this famous place is also known for the thousands of initialed dollar bills hanging from the ceiling and posts. The staff there claims to have over 50,000 bills hanging at all times and so the saying goes, once the bills fall to the floor they’re given to charity. This place is an institution around these parts—and I’m glad we didn’t miss it—even if Louis and I did have a really hard time getting “Bella Luna” secured to the dock in the high winds. By the way, the cheeseburgers were great too! It’s still cold here—but our children back home have snow on the ground today—so we really shouldn’t complain.

After lunch we left for Ft. Meyers—getting in there just at sunset. We were greeted at the dock by Bonnie and Bruce Dailey—residents of Ft. Meyers—and friends on “Phantom of the Aqua” who have just completed the Loop—congrats to them both!! Our boats had lots of salt spray on them—a good bath is in order for them tomorrow!

Wednesday, I watched the morning repeats of the Inauguration in between running back and forth to the dock’s laundry. Once that was accomplished, I started making the breads from the “starter” Peggy had given us—an Amish recipe that you divide and then bake every 10 days. Kay made a chocolate recipe and I made the traditional one—both delicious! Louis and Robert were working on our dinghy’s outboard most of the day—it’s still not working correctly—but I have faith that it will be fixed soon! The guys also rented two cars for us to use the next couple of days. We wound up going nearby to a casual restaurant for dinner—Brantley and Brenda going to the airport during that time to pick up Deb Van Nordwik, who will be traveling with them for a couple of weeks. Also, Margie and Larry, from “Wanderin’ L & M”, joined us for dinner —we’ve missed them during the weeks apart for Christmas. They are in a near-by marina having their boat repaired and will join us as soon as they can—hopefully before we cross to Marathon—where we’ll all be together for a month.

Thursday morning, Brantley, Brenda, Deb, Louis and I took off in our rental car for Sanibel and Captiva. Both small islands, they are known for their beautiful beaches, lush landscapes and superb shelling. Walking the pretty beach, we found lots of beautiful shells (small conchs), 9-fingered starfish, and other sea-life that had been washed ashore in the past two days’ high winds. We also went to lunch at one of Sanibel’s most popular spots (and one of Louis’s top 5!), “Cheeseburger-Cheeseburger”. With over 20 different toppings to choose from, plus five kinds of cheese, and all cooked to perfection, need I say more?! We’ll be back, for sure! That evening, we were still stuffed from lunch—but not wanting to miss a thing, we joined the group and went for sushi and Chinese at the Dailey’s favorite near-by spot.

Friday, “Reel Estate” took off for Marathon early. Poor Brantley, he had gone slowly long enough and was ready to “let the big dogs run”. It was a beautiful day and calm water and he was in Marathon by mid-afternoon—in comparison, it will take us 5 good days to get there—but we’re still enjoying the journey, slowly. No sooner had they left than Louis’s cell phone rang and it was Alice and Phil (of “Wonderland”) and Jackie and Lyn ( of “Carolina Captains”) both Loopers and both in Ft. Meyers for the day—by car. Both couples came to our boat and we all got in a nice visit before going to Joe’s Crab Shack for lunch. It was really great seeing both couples—it had been April ‘08 when we saw them last. “Wonderland” will be in Marathon when we get there—yea!

Saturday (yesterday), we fueled early and were underway by 8:30am headed for the Naples City Dock Marina. We arrived around 3pm, got situated in a great spot and called Judy and John Woody—who were coming for their annual winter solstice not too far from us. After getting their RV set up in its’ own special pretty place, they drove down to the marina and met us and the crew of “C-Life”. It was “Saturday Night” and we all had a blast—Judy and John fitting in perfectly with us crazy Loopers. Eleven of us went to the end of the dock to a very popular and crowded restaurant and continued on with “you-know-what”. It was such a special and fun evening and even more so by having the Woodys with us—we really do miss our friends from home! (John, you’re slipping!—you need to practice back-to-back evenings—we know you can do it!)

So now it’s late Sunday afternoon (Jan. 25th) as I am writing this. We left Naples this morning once the tide got high enough and have come down a calm ocean (outside) to Goodland, just below Marco Island. This is the weekend that the tiny village of Goodland celebrates the “Mullet Festival”. The crew of “C-Life” and us walked into town to see just what was going on and found a crowded area of about a square block filled with several thousand orderly people enjoying a live band, lots of motorcycles & old cars & beer drinkers, jewelry & trinkets & fresh vegetable stands, and mullet cooked about any way you can imagine. None of us stayed long—but it was all worth seeing, if nothing else but the clothes (or lack thereof) that some of the people were wearing. What a hoot—any reason for a party!

We’re in the Calusa Island Marina now—in a very quiet and secluded spot among thousands of mangrove bushes. There’s a long wooden dock that weaves around these low, lush mangroves that takes us back to the office, which is hidden from view and quite a long walk away too. We hear none of the noise from street traffic or near-by bars and don’t smell any food cooking in restaurants—it’s really quite refreshing and unlike anything we’ve experienced so far. Needless to say, we don’t have cable TV or Wireless—but that too is befitting this special spot (I hope to use Louis’s phone card to publish this in a while). This is as close to being “au natural” as you can get without being on anchor. The sun will be setting soon—it has finally warmed up—and we really feel blessed to be in Florida now. The windows on the boat are open and Louis has been taking a nap—just right—only the ospreys are making any noise. And with the sun to my back, this is the perfect place to sit and type and gather my thoughts—I love it! We’re having dinner on “C-Life” tonight with Kay’s & Robert’s guests, who have been with them for several days now. What a grand week we’ve all had!

Tampa Bay

2009-01-21T11:04:00.001-05:00

From Tarpon Springs, we traveled a short distance down to Clearwater. We fueled, pumped out, and both “C-Life” and “Bella Luna” miraculously got into their very narrow slips as the wind was howling. We enjoyed a great—but late—outside lunch at the nearby local hangout (Crabby Bill’s) just around the corner from the marina. We did more laundry and Louis lowered our mast—as we will be going under several bridges (that we don’t want to wait to open for us) on our way to Ft. Meyers. Late in the afternoon, we walked over to the pier where there were sunset activities—a la Mallory Square in Key West. We saw several men with metal detectors combing the beach and we witnessed two weddings on the wide, pretty and populated sandy shore—it was a perfect, but cool, evening and the sunset was spectacular. The pier was lined on both sides with local vendors, artists and picture takers—like us!

We wound up spending six nights on Tampa Bay—three at the St. Petersburg Municipal Marina (right on the Bay) and three with Peggy and Guy in Apollo Beach. Our first two nights were in St. Pete—we did laundry, ate out one night, gave our boat a much needed bath and window polishing, took a red trolley tour of downtown, went out on the famous (but very touristy) pier—complete with a pirate ship no less, took a beautiful nighttime horse carriage ride under a full “bella luna” and enjoyed the pretty sunny days that we had. Brantley and Brenda on “Reel Estate” joined us on our first day in St. Pete—they brought the boat over from Fort Pierce through Lake Okeechobee—and both of them are friends from home. We’re delighted and so glad they’re along for the journey—but Brantley is having a really hard time going slowly with his 1700 horsepower engines!

On Monday, the three boats crossed Tampa Bay (11 miles) and went over to Apollo Beach for a three nights’ visit with Peggy and Guy Leverett. We were able to tie our boat and “C-Life” behind their house, but “Reel Estate” had to go to the near-by marina. (Not a problem.) Our first night there Peggy cooked a delicious lasagna for us all and we had a relaxing and fun evening being in their beautiful home. Tuesday, the four of us girls went shopping and the boys went flying in Guy’s airplane—a Piper Cherokee 160. Guy showed Louis and Robert several anchorages we’ll be hopefully using on our way to Marathon and the men all had a great day “up in the air”. We four girls also had our own super days’ fix of retail therapy! We wound up that night at the marina restaurant, Circle’s Bar and Grille, and all eight of us had a delicious outside dinner—Kay surprising Louis with his own tiny toy octopus to keep as a reminder of his favorite meal in Tarpon Springs!

Wednesday, the girls decided to go to the movies (“The Reader”) and with so many good ones out now (it was hard to pick one)—but that one was especially good. The guys worked on the boats, did errands and everyone was happy. On our way back from shopping, we stopped at the local meat market and bought steaks for the night and wound up grilling for dinner back at the house. Guy and Peggy made our three nights with them so special and easy, and we all are deeply appreciative of their time, energy and efforts—especially since Peggy was not feeling her best. Get well soon, Peg!!

After breakfast Thursday, we crossed back over Tampa Bay to the same municipal marina in St. Pete. The Creeches picked up a friend of theirs who flew in from Southport—Buddy—who will be traveling with them until we reach Marathon—his wife will fly in next week. Once we all got our boats secured, Brantley and Brenda took off to run errands, Robert and Kay waited for Buddy to get to the marina, and Louis and I took off to go see another movie (“Gran Torino”) with Clint Eastwood—another good one—color Diane happy—two days in a row! Since the temperatures have taken a dive here and everywhere else on the east coast, Brantley cooked a big pot of delicious chili for us all and we ate on his boat—yum! Thanks B & BG!

So now it’s Friday and we’re leaving a rough and white-capped Tampa Bay—headed to Bradenton for the night—Twin Dolphin Marina. This afternoon, the guys are being picked up by a rep and are going to see a boat that is built in Bradenton that Buddy is very interested in—a Marlow—and “us girls” are going to enjoy a few hours of just being on our boats in solitude—something that we rarely get. (If it were a decent temperature outside, I think we would be poolside—but not this week—it’s record lows here too.) Twin Dolphin Marina is a great place with all the amenities—with Charlie Price as the Harbor Master making us all feel so welcomed. With his generosity, all three boats were able to stay two nights, rent two cars (7 of us!) and spend most of the day in Sarasota visiting the Ringling Brothers Museums (think circus!), and at the end of the day we enjoyed Charlie’s annual marina appreciation party. We thank you greatly, Charlie!!

From Twin Dolphins, we head to Sarasota for Sunday night, an anchorage Monday and then we hope to be in Ft. Meyers on Tuesday—weather permitting— a cold front is coming in with high winds. In Ft. Meyer’s, we’ll join Margie and Larry on “Wanderin’ L & M” and be in the home port/marina of Bonnie and Bruce Dailey—“Phantom of the Aqua”.

Five Days in Tarpon Springs

2009-01-11T12:40:00.000-05:00

Like so many others who have done “the crossing”, we were elated to see all the activity, pelicans, snowy egrets, commercial fishing boats, restaurants, sponge boats and people as we pulled into the village of Tarpon Springs on Monday, January 5th. It was a pretty ride from the main channel up the narrow bay with commercial boats on each side of us; we made our way to the City Marina—our home for the next four nights. The smells of the different restaurants made our mouths water! Cute shops right on the water—real civilization—yes!!! Color Kay and Diane very happy!

Side by side with “C-Life”, we quickly got both boats settled in our narrow slips and immediately hit the pavement. We were definitely in the thick of activity—and all just a few feet from our boats! We were located right beside the Sponge Factory Museum, sponge boats and several head boats—boats for daily off-shore bottom fishing that take individual passengers out on the Gulf. (“Head” boat means you don’t need to charter the whole boat to enjoy a day of fishing; you just buy a ticket and get on—they provide all the fishing equipment.) We had been told by other Loopers that this location—City Marina—was the best location for seeing and visiting all the popular spots in the area of Tarpon Springs which we would be interested in.

With 65% of the population being Greek in Tarpon Springs, it was no wonder we had landed in the thick of Greek food restaurants and culture. We chose for dinner Monday night, from a recommendation by recent Loopers, a near-by restaurant called “Hella’s”. As expected, it really was delicious—except that Louis ordered grilled octopus, thinking it would taste like calamari. At some point, Louis needs to tell everyone reading this blog what he thought of his meal. Let me put it this way—I’m proud of him for trying something different! We all got lots of laughs just from watching Louis react to the plate put in front of him and Robert pushing back in his chair away from the dish!

We had expected bad weather/rain on Tuesday (we did have high winds though), but the front stalled and it wouldn’t get here until Wednesday. We had heard that taking an hour’s trolley ride would be worth our time—and since the weather was accommodating us—we thought it a good idea. So off we went a couple of blocks to catch the trolley. Little did we know it was Epiphany Day—a Greek religious holiday—and that thousands of people would descend upon this town to watch the festivities. Our trolley ride couldn’t navigate the narrow streets packed with cars from all over the surrounding areas. So we decided to follow the crowds and see what all the hoopla was about.

Epiphany Day is always January 6th—it is the twelfth day after the birth of Christ and the day that John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the river Jordan. The Greeks celebrate this day with gusto! They gather in their neighborhood churches for a service at 11am, and then all walk in a procession around noon (with the priests in full robes and drummers leading the way) to a natural spring area/lagoon—located centrally to the community. (The largest church, St. Nicholas, was broadcasting its’ service to all of us gathered on a lawn at Spring Bayou just two blocks away.) We saw several men, women and especially children in their native Greek costumes too—just precious—more Kodak moments. And surrounded by thousands of on-lookers sitting on the steep, grassy lawn all around this small lagoon area, the celebrations continued. After more prayers and blessings from the singing and chanting priests, around 60 young boys (ranging in age from 15 to 17) all clad in black shorts and solid white tee-shirts raced down the steep, stone steps and jumped into the shallow lagoon. The boys then swam/raced to about 8 small boats, all tied together in a semi-circle, and tried to get on them. Several of the boats tipped over with too many youths trying to get into the closer ones and other boats sank from the sheer weight of too many bodies. It was fun to watch—people were laughing and yelling and there was so much excitement. (I felt like I was watching the running of the bulls in Italy!) After a few more prayers, the main priest threw a small, white, wooden—but heavy— cross into the lagoon and all the young men frantically jumped in the water in hopes of retrieving the blessed cross from the bottom of the waters. As is custom for 103 years now, the boy who finds the sunken cross is believed to have the greatest of good fortune/luck for the coming year. And as it turned out, the young man who found the cross was the fifth in his family to do so. (Talk about pressure!) His grandfather, his father, and two uncles all preceded him in their youths—finding the cross—a very “lucky” family indeed!

After the cross celebration, everyone started walking away from the lagoon. We wound up eating a late lunch in another Greek restaurant—the local’s favorite, “Mama’s” (Kay got her Greek fried cheese—yum!) Again, everything was delicious but very crowded this Epiphany Day—and we decided that since it was so late, we would not have dinner but walk up after dark and eat pastries for “dinner”! What a hoot—we’ve never done that before—we hadn’t been enticed at all after either huge meal to order dessert, but we knew we wanted to sample the beautiful/delicious pastries from the three fabulous bakeries before we left here. So, we each ordered 2 desserts—I had tiramisu and chocolate chipped canolies (sp.?). Louis ordered carrot cake and an éclair. Have I said yet that when we get home from this trip that both Louis and I are joining Weight Watchers and Alcoholics Anonymous?! It’s sad, but true.

An interesting thing happened to us earlier Wednesday morning when we were both working outside, Mary and Bob Drake from Soundings magazine walked up to us and asked to interview both “C-Life” and “Bella Luna” for an upcoming issue on boaters enjoying Tarpon Springs! They both stayed around for almost an hour, Bob taking pictures and Mary writing frantically in her steno pad—what fun we had, Robert, Kay, Louis and I all eagerly talking about our fabulous journey—and someone was actually listening! Louis eventually pulled out several Soundings magazines we had on board and Mary turned to an article she had written and lo and behold, Louis had dog-eared the page! I really think she was delighted and impressed that it was interesting enough to us that we had ear-marked that particular article—one on Saint Simmons Island in Georgia, where we plan/hope to stop on our way home. It will be interesting to see what Mary has to say about us when the article comes out later on this year—she said it would be in an early winter publication—and I do so hope Bob took good pictures—especially of me!

Thursday morning we finally got our trolley ride, after two other attempts. Of particular interest were the three neighborhood churches all within easy walking distance. So after lunch, Robert & Kay & I (Louis was going back to wash the boat) took off to visit these churches—stopping by the Spring Bayou to hopefully get a chance to see the manatees which had been there earlier on our trolley ride. As hoped, they were still there and we watched and watched as they came up for air in the shallow spring. Slow and gentle and huge, one even had a baby—which was sticking very close to its’ mother. What fun—now I can say I’ve seen a manatee up close and personal! And the churches were very special too—one was a lovely, small “neighborhood” Greek Orthodox--Saint Michael--and the other was the large Greek Cathedral--St. Nicholas—with beautiful guilt, paintings and many stained glass windows—the church that had broadcast the worship service on Epiphany Day. The third church was a small Unitarian Universalist Church featuring George Inness, Jr’s wonderful, huge paintings.

On our way back to the boats, Kay and I stopped at Mykonos restaurant for a glass of wine and a beer for me and I got the fried smelts, which I had been wanting to try ever since I saw a plate of them go by at another restaurant. Very small, very tasty and lightly fried, I was glad I hadn’t missed this wonderful Greek specialty. To their credit, Kay & Robert & Louis all tried one, but they didn’t like them—so I got the whole dish to myself—yum! And I’ve decided if we ever get the opportunity to go back to Tarpon Springs, we’re going to eat at Mykonos first—definitely the best of the three Greek ones we tried.

We’ve decided to eat on the boat tonight (Kay’s cooking soup) and tomorrow (Friday) we leave for fuel and an overnight in Clearwater, then two nights in St. Pete (Saturday & Sunday) and on Monday move across Tampa Bay to spend a few nights in Apollo Beach with our dear friends we’ve traveled with so much throughout this trip—Peggy and Guy Leverett on “Southern Comfort”. They have graciously offered us and the Creeches the use of their dock and their neighbor’s dock for a couple of nights’ layover and a special visit with them. “Southern Comfort” completed the Loop just a few weeks ago before Christmas and they now have earned their gold Looper flag—congratulations, Peggy & Guy!

Crossing the Gulf of Mexico

2009-01-07T14:22:00.000-05:00

We left Apalachicola on Friday, January 2nd—having been at Scipio Marina for two nights, right alongside a wonderful seafood restaurant—Pappa Joe’s. We had the crew of “C-Life” over to our boat the day before for a traditional New Year’s Day lunch of turnip greens, black-eyed peas, pork, and cornbread. Yum-yum—I love New Year’s Day! Kay furnished mashed potatoes and gravy, deviled eggs, and a nice bottle of champagne and we all toasted the New Year with gusto—several gustoes!

We left the cute town of Apalachicola mid-morning for a short (30 mile) run to Carrabell. This is the place where most Loopers wait for a calm day to make their crossing of the Gulf of Mexico over to the west coast of Florida. We’ve had friends leave almost immediately and others who have had to wait over a week for a calm sea in order to cross. We had no idea what time frame we would be in—would we get lucky? January is not known for its’ good days to cross—the books say there may be 10 good days out of the whole month that might be favorable—we knew we were behind the main group of Loopers who had crossed before Christmas. Buddy is the “crossing guru” at Moorings Marina (where we were going in Carrabell)—everyone seeks his valued and accurate opinion and goes when he says, “Time to go!” Both “C-Life” and “Bella Luna” were prepared to wait (even if it would, most likely, take us over a week)—we would have a long trip of 82 miles (11-12 hours) in very open waters and no land in sight to get to the other side of the Gulf—Steinhatchee.

So, we got to Carrabell around lunchtime after a calm-but cool-ride. (We’re in Florida, right? I thought we were going to be warm!) Louis and Robert checked in the marina and quickly sought Buddy’s opinion. Showing our Captains his computer generations, Buddy said we needed to leave very early the next morning (yipes!)—there would be 3 days in a row with calm seas—almost unheard of in the month of January. This is great news to us!!! Both couples made a quick dash across the street to the local IGA supermarket to stock up on a few more supplies, knowing our next several nights we wouldn’t have any access to a grocery. We had one more meal of oysters at the local favorite restaurant—with a ride over and back from Tony—and all four of us loved every bite.

Saturday morning, after an abortive attempt at 6:30am, we left the docks at 8am—still in dense fog. It was daylight, but just barely in all that fog—we would be in that soup until almost 3pm! Thank goodness for radar, a great GPS system, no wind, calm waters and the security of having another boat with us! Not only is it a long ride over to the west coast, but it’s another long two days after that to get to Tarpon Springs and the comfort of the ICW. We had three days in a row of pretty weather—we knew we needed to hustle.

And hustle we did! We got to Steinhatchee just at dusk—lots and lots of Saturday fishermen were coming in. And we were tied right at the end of the dock watching all of it! Cooler after cooler went to the fish cleaning station (thinking of you, Bob!), where men and women worked hard to clean their catches of mostly bottom fish. At this local, very old Florida “happening place”, the prettiest catch I saw was 8 large and very heavy red groupers on a string. For once I didn’t beg for a single fish—I was just too tired to clean and cook anything so fresh that evening! Besides, we had to leave before daylight the next morning to go another 80+ miles (about 15 miles offshore) to get to Chrystal River. (The reason we have to go offshore so far is that the waters are just too shallow to run the coastline in this part of the west coast.)

From Steinhatchee to Chrystal River—from dawn to dusk we traveled on calm waters. We had to go out and around several shallow areas—we were 12-15 miles offshore—and had another long day after this one still to go! But we had been assured we would have little wind and a “small sea” so we took advantage of it and pressed on. We got to Pete’s Pier in Chrystal River just at sunset—hit the metal canopy overhead (which we had been assured we could fit under!)—and promptly switched slips. The locals there living on their boats all told us many boaters hit the top of the shed—evidently the owners (whom Louis had talked with 3 times about the height) still didn’t know how “tall” their roofs are! Such is life on the water.

We left Chrystal River at dawn—still having not seen any manatees, which the town is noted for. But we have been assured by Robert, from “C-Life”, that we’ll have many more chances. I’m holding him to that promise! We dodged thousands upon thousands of crab pots almost all day—poor crabs, they don’t have a chance in this area—we had no idea that Florida Marine Fisheries would allow so many in one area—and were grateful for the spurs/cutters on our propellers—we hit two ropes that were invisible and underwater! By reversing our engines several times, thankfully, Louis did not have to go swimming that day.

We have been eating on the boat now for three days and all of us are looking forward to getting to Tarpon Springs today—a huge Greek enclave with lots of fabulous restaurants, bakeries and “The Sponge Capitol of the World”. We’ll be at the City Marina for several days—right beside all the activity of the fishing boats, sponge docks and restaurants—and we all need to just stop and rest for a while. Four longs days on the water in a row is something we wouldn’t have planned—but the weather was perfect for our “crossings” of the Gulf and so, once again, we were lucky. TYJ. (Most Loopers make a 24-26 hour single crossing, traveling overnight, from Carrabell directly to Tarpon Springs. But neither “C-Life” nor “Bella Luna” wanted that long a trip, so we broke it up into 3 days.)

It's Good to be Back!

2009-01-02T19:17:00.002-05:00

After a wonderful and power-packed three weeks at home, we returned to the boat on Sunday, December 28th. We had spent the three weeks at home seeing as many people as we could, having doctors’ appointments, and doing as many fun things as possible. We had put over 4,000 miles on our rental Chevy Impala by the time we got back to the boat—that didn’t even include all the miles I put on my car, nor the ones Louis put on his! We were up and down, back and forth many roads during that short time period and it was truly special for us; we appreciated it even more after having been gone for over 7 months. Our children were able to come to the lake from Monday through Friday of Christmas week—what great fun we all had—how our grandchildren have grown and matured this year! H.T. is taller than I am, Clay is really beginning to sprout up too, Katie is beginning to read (she’ll enter kindergarten next August!), and Taylor is no longer “the baby”. We put out only the basic necessities of decorations for Christmas and had our grandchildren merrily decorate our tree with over 200 tiny red velvet bows—which had been quickly purchased by me, thanks for the idea, Lisa!—it turned out to be just beautiful too! So when the last child had left us on Friday, we had a fairly easy time of getting everything back in place and still had enough time to get ready to close up the house and leave before lunch the next day. I did not want to see any Christmas in that house when we returned, hopefully, in May!

We spent the night of December 27th with our friends from Southport—Kay and Robert Creech—so that we could get an early start for the drive to Panama City, where we had left our boats side-by-side for the month. We left the Creech’s house at 4am and got to our boats just at dusk Central Time—time enough to get the car unloaded and all that we brought back from home safely tucked on our boats before it got too dark. In the 3 ½ weeks since we left Panama City, we had seen and done and driven and eaten and celebrated all that we could—it was time to return to the boat—we were truly exhausted. But like I’ve said before, this is no cruise boat—there’s little time for rest!

We woke up Monday morning with projects (always!) to do on the boat—Louis needed to change the oil in the generator and change fuel filters. We had the salon AC that wasn’t working upon our return and the port engine wouldn’t start the next morning. Louis quickly fixed both of those problems, but it was still worrisome for him—and not in the plan for the day! That morning, I had to get us unpacked and take stock of what was needed food-wise in order to make a grocery run—plus I needed to find a good hair salon—I did not have time during Christmas to get a much needed haircut. We wanted to get Florida fishing licenses that afternoon and have some of the near-by “famous” Apalachicola oysters too! (Our rental car needed to be turned in on Tuesday afternoon, so we were making the best time-use of it while we had it.) We had saved Tuesday lunchtime to go to Destin Beach, Florida (an hour’s drive) and check that place out—we had heard so much about the white sandy beaches and pretty spots to have lunch.

Destin Beach really is beautiful—we can understand why so many people talk about it. All along there are the whitest sandy beaches we’ve ever seen—the shoreline almost looks like sugar has been trucked in. We had lunch at The Wharf—outside on a beautiful, sunny day overlooking the inlet and large sport fishing boats. Someone had just come in from fishing and was cleaning a whole batch of flounders and the pelicans were at his feet, all clamoring for any tiny morsel to gulp down. There must have been 30 or so pelicans just right there, from the solid brown juveniles to the young-adult yellow topped ones to the old, white headed ones. We just don’t get to see that many pelicans up our way getting that close to humans.

Wednesday, we tossed our lines off the boat and said good-by to Bay Point Marina—we can’t say enough good things about that place. If we were ever looking for a great place to stay for a month or two, Bay Point would be it—from the management to the spa facilities to our morning paper delivered to our boat, Steve and his staff really know how to make you feel welcomed. Both Robert and Louis had left our spare keys with him while we were away and neither had remembered to get them back upon our return, but at 10pm Tuesday night, Steve returned to the marina to give them back to Robert—plus handed him a stack of tee shirts! How lucky we were that #1 Robert remembered (even at 9:45pm), that #2 Steve came back, and that #3 we didn’t have to wait for the marina's office to open at 8am the next morning! We needed to be underway by 6:30am Wednesday morning—we were traveling 60+ miles to Apalachicola.

There have been numerous WOW moments on this trip of ours and each of them, I hope, have been documented here. But another one happened Wednesday morning as we were crossing the wide part of East Bay—and thanks to the call from my cousin Carol, I was facing backwards “up top”. (We seldom face that way—we only look behind the boat to make sure no one is coming up on us unexpectedly!) But there was a lot of talk on the radio at that time—plus Louis was on a call himself—so I turned around to try and hear Carol better. I looked back, and lo and behold a large pod of bottlenose dolphins were jumping in the first wake right behind our boat! They continued on with us for about a mile—jumping and rolling and looking me right in the eye! I was no more than six feet from them—they were having a ball and so was I. There must have been about 8-12 of them, but one in particular kept pace with us—turning over to let me see his white underside and giving me a wink as he did so! This is a “true story”! What a thrill for me—I will forever be appreciative of that particular call, Carol—you heard me!—I do so wish you could have been with us!!

After all that excitement, the rest of the way to Apalachicola was uneventful—except for seeing another big beautiful bald eagle sitting atop his high nest waiting for an unlucky fish to break the water. We’ll never, ever get tired of seeing eagles! The afternoon was becoming increasingly chilly and grey and the wind was picking up—we were glad to be going to a marina for the night. And it was New Year’s Eve.

We arrived at our marina around 3:30pm—another great and safe day on the water. We tied up right beside a seafood restaurant and had an early, but simply delicious, dinner of oh-so-fresh oysters cooked 15 different ways—after all, we were in the area that has over 6,000 acres of oyster beds—the famous part of Florida’s panhandle called Apalachicola. It was December 31st—Happy Birthday Louis and Bud—what a way to end the year! Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest will have to bring down the ball without us this year—we still haven’t caught back up on lost sleep—we were all down for the count by 10pm! Happy New Year everyone!!

Thanksgiving and Coming Home for Christmas

2008-12-03T18:24:00.002-05:00

We left Eastern Shore Marina in Fairhope, Alabama one day later than anticipated—Wednesday, November 26th. Bella Luna’s water pressure system needed mechanical attention. In order to take showers and have water up in the cabin, the belt and pulley had to be replaced—after 14 years of good service. Louis had to get those two new parts “overnighted” (a $20 part cost $130 delivered!) —and with the greatly appreciated help of Larry and Robert, the pump was fixed in no time—it really helps having three sets of hands! While the guys were working on the boat that morning, the girls were able to sign up for the rental van just once more and make a quick dash to the nearby grocery, Winn-Dixie; after all, we would be at anchor that night and the day following was Thanksgiving. After the part was fixed, and with turkey and all the fixings on board, we crossed the wide body of water of Mobile Bay accompanied by dolphins and brown pelicans. The air smelled differently; crab pots were in the water—we were beginning to feel we were in somewhat familiar waters. Hooray! We looked over in the distance with our binoculars and saw several small oil rigs—the first I’d ever seen. It was a beautiful, calm morning—we joked about being able to water ski in the Bay that morning—it was just that slick calm.

So we crossed the Mobile Bay and took a 90 degree left turn—guess where we were then? The Gulf-ICW!! Silly me, I always thought the ICW (the Inter Coastal Waterway) started in Florida, but in actuality, it begins in Texas. And for the better part of our trip back to NC, we’ll be in the ICW continuously —having good and mostly reliable red and green markers leading our way, houses on both sides, dolphins feeding and jumping all around the boat, brown pelicans doing their kamikaze dives, a few restaurants actually waterside (for instance, Lulu’s—Jimmy Buffet’s sister’s restaurant right on the ICW), ocean on our starboard, marsh on our port, and traveling through “sounds” mostly on our way back home. All somewhat familiar to us—this is good.

We set our anchors in Ingram’s Bayou just before sunset—we were all three rafted together. Everyone climbed over to Bella Luna and we had wine and cheese on our bow—what a beautiful evening it was too—such tranquility, pink and blue clouds covering half of the sky, hearing a wolf howling in the distant marsh, fish jumping, brown pelicans perched on nearby broken down pilings, and hearing what-we-thought was an unseen alligator grunting somewhere very nearby. I made Creole Shrimp for dinner for the six us—none of the others had ever had it—what a treat for us all—thank you, Barbara E, for the recipe and Kay, for offering “C-Life” as a place for us to gather!

Thanksgiving morning, we pulled our anchors up, and headed for Pensacola, Florida. About 10am we crossed the “state line”—which sounds funny being on the water! Not too much further up either, the scenery magically changed as well—all of a sudden, there were white sand dunes and long stretches of beach on our starboard & pink and green houses—yep, we must be in Florida. In fact, we have a picture of a big blue sign at water’s edge, “Welcome to Florida”, which we took at the state line—the first one of those we’d seen on the water—and we’ve been in many states since crossing back into the US at Drummond Island, the top of Michigan. Even the types of boats in the marinas we were passing were different—we were now in the land of the Sea Rays, sport fishing, and go-fast boats—such a difference from the trawlers and sail boats we’ve mostly been traveling with for the past several months.

We arrived in Pensacola around 1pm—Happy Thanksgiving everyone! There was no activity in the marina at all—we had wisely chosen to fix our own big dinner and not try to find a restaurant—good thing too, there was no courtesy car at this marina. So we all gathered around 4pm on “Wanderin” L & M” and had our own big feast—complete with champagne, thanks Margie! Being on boats didn’t hamper us at all—everything was delicious and appropriate for the occasion too. Although not with our families for this holiday, it was a special one for each of us being with friends whom we’ve traveled with on this wonderful journey. We all six told each other what we were most thankful for—a special day indeed. TYJ.

Friday, the guys wanted to go the Naval Air Museum and they wanted to rent a car for the day. No such luck on the car, none were available at two different companies. So all three of them decided to take the city bus—an hour each way, plus a 20 minute walk to the bus stop from the marina. Needless to say, the girls opted out of that adventure and we decided to walk up the street several blocks, have lunch, and see what was happening in town. We each enjoyed our day—Louis saying it was the best museum he’d ever been in—although the guys were tired when they got back to the boats. After a cocktail hour though, we wound up going back up the street for dinner—found a sports bar—ate chicken wings, burgers, and such—and Kay and I took a turn at shooting pool. What a hoot—neither of us knew what we were doing and the “game” ended up being a long one too, but lots of fun—we laughed at the shots taken (and there were no side bets either—it was a miracle when any of the balls fell in any of the pockets—Kay won by my landing the 8 ball in the opposite corner—whew, it was finally over!). A really good time was had by all.

Saturday morning, after a two hour delay, we were underway bound for the free city dock at Fort Walton Beach. With rain clouds around us all day, we thankfully were able to get tied up alongside the dock just before the deluge hit us—and it would rain hard all night too. Obviously, it was not an afternoon/evening to venture from our boats, so we brought out all the leftovers from our Thanksgiving feast and finished them off. Still delicious too, and we sadly finished eating the rest of the caramel cake—thanks again Mimi & Frank! (You now have two “Yankee” converts—who took all the information and tin back to their boat!)

We are now underway, a long day of 70+ miles, towards Panama City—where the boat will be stationary for the month of December. It’s a gray, fairly chilly day too (Sunday)—Louis is up top driving the boat and I’m down in the cabin writing this last entry, for a while, to our blog. We hope to be in our marina, Bay Point, by late afternoon. We have a car rented for the month of December and plan to drive home with Kay and Robert, who live in Southport, NC. As soon as we both can get our boats ready to leave them for the month, pack the car, and squeeze ourselves in, we’ll be underway. We hope that will be Tuesday, so we’ll be home sometime later on in the week. We hate to say good bye to Margie and Larry, Lisa and Jim, Linda and Charlie, Peggy and Guy, Muriel and Bud and Shelly, but we’ll pick back up with them sometime mid-January as we continue on down the west coast of Florida. Both Louis and I are looking forward to being on dry land for a while, seeing family and friends, and having our precious family for several days during Christmas. I’ll be way too busy this year getting our house (which has been neglected for 7 months) cleaned and decorated and ready for our family to come, shopping, cooking, and visiting with friends. Short trips to Durham, Morehead City, Hyde County, and Williamsburg are also planned in that time frame as well as our immediate family’s own triangle of Cary, Oxford, and Hyco Lake—we’ll be “burning up the road” while we're home, for sure. We hope to return to the boat with Kay and Robert to theirs sometime around the 29th or 30th of December.

So this is my last posting until we return to the boat, and this will be our best-as-it-will-get 2008 Christmas card for this special and wonderful year in our lives—we wish for our friends and family: peace, good health, safe travels, prosperity and good fortune.

God bless our troops.

Merry Christmas!

Love, Diane and Louis

Mobile Bay, Alabama

2008-11-25T00:09:00.004-05:00

We crossed Mobile Bay on a calm, beautiful, late November Saturday afternoon—it had been so rough the day before, as we were told, with boaters fighting five foot waves—we were again, “lucky”. Coming from absolutely the middle of nowhere for five days (since Demopolis), we saw the skyline of Mobile (civilization!) and came into the busy port terminal where we saw cruise ships, navy and cargo ships, tall cranes, coal barges, and lots of people—yes! We crossed through what is known as the “shipping channel” with no difficulty. TYJ. We were on our way across Mobile Bay (a nice wide body of salt water) for a three night stay at Eastern Shore Marina—which was nearly destroyed by Hurricane Katrina—everyone watching the horrible news on TV during that storm saw the destruction this place specifically suffered. The sailing Yacht Club also right here in front of us was, in fact, completely and tragically destroyed by Katrina—now a new and beautiful clubhouse has just been completed and overlooks our boat, as I am writing this.

We had just left the busy port in Mobile, and were out in the Bay when almost on cue, a pod of dolphins came right up out of the water on our starboard side—what a glorious sight—I’ve missed the wonders and beauty of salt water. (I’ve always said I was a salt water girl who happened to marry a fresh water guy!) But we arrived at the marina around 2pm, and had Linda and Charlie (Freedom’s Turn) waiting to catch our lines—they were two days ahead of us and we’ve missed being with them. Also at the marina were Lisa and Jim (Kismet) whom we’ve missed as well. BTW—Happy Birthday, Lisa—albeit a week early! We had several hours to catch back up with each of them—exchanging hugs and information—both boats were leaving here the next morning. We surely hope we’ll see them both somewhere on down the line before we leave for home, family, and Christmas.

The nearby town here, Fairhope, is absolutely precious. The marina has a courtesy van, which the guys—Larry, Robert, and Louis—quickly all signed up for on Sunday for two hour intervals. The quaint little town and shops were having their first-of-the-season Sunday Christmas Open House (complete with cookies, punch, and extras)—most of the shops, if not all, regularly are not open on Sundays at all. (Interesting fact: The super Wal-Mart closes at 6pm on Sundays here, every Sunday!) After a delicious lunch (gumbo, shrimp & oyster poor-boys) with the guys, Margie, Kay, and I spent four fabulous hours just wandering the shops downtown—enjoying a much-needed girl’s retail-therapy afternoon. I want to remember especially about Fairhope: the huge arrays of flowers at every corner, the heavily lighted tailored trees which beautifully line both sides of the streets at night, the welcoming “Azalea Girls” in their pastel antebellum hoop-skirted dresses, and the youthful adorable ballerinas in their light-pink leotards & tutus, touting “The Nutcracker”, which will begin here next week. It’s a magical and beautiful small, coastal town—almost with a “Pleasantville” atmosphere and attitude—I could easily live here (except I’d be way too far from our children and grandchildren). Then, as a perfect ending to a special day, we all went to a Chinese restaurant/buffet and stuffed ourselves miserably.

Monday morning was spent with Louis changing the zincs (I had done laundry the day before) and Louis chasing down a problem with our auto-pilot (which with greatly appreciated help, he fixed!) and afterwards, we got the courtesy van again and went to Hobby Lobby, Home Depot, Boater’s World, & Michaels. Margie has taught me a wonderful new craft (I’m not telling yet!), and I especially needed more supplies. The guys went one way, the girls the other! We’re getting very adept at getting in & out of the mostly awkward courtesty vans, shopping expediously, and being back at the marinas “on time”.

“Sunshine”, “Southern Comfort”, and “Blue Max” pulled into the marina late this afternoon(Monday)—we had just enough time to get hugs from them, wish Shelly a Happy Birthday!, and give those three boats information we’ve learned since being here—sound familiar? Heavy rain is expected here tonight, so each of us has decided to stay on our boats (we’re all so spread out here anyway) and get to bed early. We’re on the move tomorrow—headed by boat to Lulu’s for lunch (Jimmy Buffet’s sister’s restaurant--another Looper favorite) and then to an anchorage, and then on to a marina in Pensacola, Florida for Wednesday and Thursday nights—which is Thanksgiving evening. We plan to be in Panama City sometime over the weekend—where we’ll leave the boat for a month and drive home for Christmas. Kay & Robert Creech (“C-Life”) who live in Southport, NC, are also leaving their boat in Panama City for a month—so we’ll rent a car & drive home together—then drive back to our boats sometime shortly after Christmas to continue on with our Loop. We hope to be back home @ December 3rd—after seven months of being on the water and going roughly 4300 miles, we’re both very excited to be coming home to "dry land" for a good long visit. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Lower Black Warrior River to Mobile Bay

2008-11-23T08:16:00.002-05:00

Wednesday, November 19th, we left Demopolis, Alabama and were headed for Mobile—our last “leg” of the river system. We would be traveling all the way down in what is called the Lower Black Warrior-Tombigbee River. Our just-around the-corner and early morning lock was crowded; all ten “pins” held a boat. The lockmaster there was extremely concerned with the positions and names and documentation of all ten boats, so it took a long time to get everyone situated on his terms—then there was the exiting of his lock—again, still agonizingly slow. But we all did get through safely (I believe/know we were more experienced at locking “pleasure” boats than he was!), and we were underway by 8am. Whew. We had a long day to go—about 70 miles—and to a small anchorage—we were dubious if all of us could get into the reported small anchorage. Luckily, 7 boats were able to get in the anchorage—with rafting—we set our anchors just at dusk and were all tired.

“C-Life”, “Wanderin’ L & M”, and “Bella Luna” decided several nights prior to leaving Demopolis that the three nights it would take—on anchor—to get to Mobile, we would raft together each night and each boat take a night to cook dinner and share it with the other two. First night was Kay and Robert’s; they decided to make a Frogmore Stew. Delicious it was too—and with North Carolina shrimp, no less! Thanks, Kay and Robert! We ate early, and turned in early too—these next few days will be long—with no chance really to get “off boat”, except at Bobby's Fish Camp which is out in the middle of nowhere!

Thursday, we left our anchorage after the first raft behind us had broken apart—around 8am. We were headed down river –about 25 miles—to Bobby’s Fish Camp—this is a must stop for all Loopers. As we were making our way down river, we noticed for the first time Spanish moss in the trees—and I saw a few Palmetto palms up in the banks as well—we must be getting to warmer weather! It’s been very chilly lately, cold even—all of us are ready to get south and back into shorts.

Bobby’s Fish Camp is about 4 miles north of the Coffeeville Lock, having nothing but a short dock just alongside the river. Each boat pays $1 a foot—no electricity, no cable, nothing available but a delicious dinner (for an additional price), served family style, up the bank at Bobby’s Fish Camp beginning at 4pm. By the end of the afternoon, there were 10 boats rafted up to the Camp’s short dock—3, 3, and 4 at the back. It was impossible to get a picture of all 10 of us, but what a pretty one it would have been if we could have just talked someone into taking their dinghy down and going out in the river to snap it. (Just like us, everyone deemed it too much trouble!) So, just as the sun set, we all walked up the hill and had a really delicious dinner of fried river catfish and seafood. Interesting note: beers were $2.50 apiece or you could order an ice-chilled-in-the-bucket-six-pack for $6.00! Guess what our table of six ordered? (Hint-it’s been a long time since I’ve ordered a six-pack!)

The largest boat in our three rafts, a 59 foot Marquis, came in later in the day and happened to be alongside the dock (in the back raft) with 3 other boats tied to him. This particular boat was being delivered to Mobile—and the Captains of that boat wanted to get it to Mobile on Friday (burning the owner’s gas, they would waste no time in getting there either). They had contacted the nearby lock and requested a 6am locking—so we all went with him—no sense in wasting a lock on just one boat—and with all the tows on the river, if we could get through, let’s go! Rising at 5:30am, we were underway at a dark dawn of 6am (our earliest departure on this whole trip)—with all our navigational lights on, it looked like a parade! But we all got through the Coffeville Lock—our last one of the whole trip. How ironic too—the Coffeeville Lock and we hadn’t even had our first cup of coffee yet. “C-Life” and “Bella Luna” took several pictures of each other documenting our last lock—what an accomplishment for us both with all the locking we’ve done (over 130!)—and TYJ, we’ve had no accidents, incidents, or problems.

The second night at anchor was Bella Luna’s turn to cook dinner—we had homemade chicken and dumplings—a nice hearty dinner on what-would-be our coldest night on the water. Sure enough, the next morning, it was 26 degrees outside—even Robert’s bow anchor-wash-off hose froze and broke! Margie and Larry will be cooking for us tonight—their turn.

From Chicago to Mobile Bay is approximately 1200 miles. With our side trip to Chattanooga adding another 400 miles, we’ve come a long way in just two months. Seeing the skyline of Mobile today was exciting—yes! civilization—we’ve been in the river system long enough—time for a change. Salt water, warm weather, Florida, and the Keys—here we come!!

Demopolis, Mississippi

2008-11-18T17:59:00.003-05:00

The afternoon before we left Columbus Marina, Bill from "Tortuga" had asked if he could follow our three boats down river for a while. Of course!, we said, four boats is manageable and good--we were glad to have him! So, we four left the marina in Columbus, Mississippi very early (6:30am!) Sunday, November 16th. We had a long day ahead of us and hopefully two locks—you either “get lucky” with the timing of the openings in the locks or you “get stuck” and have to wait as much as 3 hours. Like Robert (from “C-Life”) has always said, ‘I’d rather be lucky than good!’” Amen to that, Robert. We took the first lock just after we left the marina and never slowed down—that was “lucky”. We had a fairly uneventful day, not seeing any waterfowl or much else to note here—a fairly boring, but beautiful day. We wound up getting “lucky” again in the second lock late in the day, and pulled into a great little anchorage just down river of the lock— “Tortuga” rafted with the three of us (“C-Life” and “Wanderin’ L & M”). We all were invited over to see “Tortuga”—so we fixed drinks and appetizers and had a great couple of hours on his 1984, 38 foot beautifully restored boat. Thank you, Bill! We had another long day ahead of us on Monday, so we all went to bed early.

Waking up to ice/heavy frost on the boat has been an interesting and different experience for Louis and me. Thank goodness we have heat in the cabin (and Louis has rigged us a propane heater on the flybridge too!). But the generator on “Tortuga” had quit sometime early on in the evening, so Bill was really, really cold when he woke up the next morning—poor thing. Plugging his coffee pot into our galley and filling him with a nice hot breakfast helped his disposition greatly! (I’m sure he was glad he had rafted with us!) We were underway and half-frozen from pulling our anchors, but by 7am we were headed for Demopolis, Alabama—thanks to "lucky" locking yesterday, no locks today—but 43 winding miles. We figured we went in and out of Mississippi 3 times as the river took us on its meandering course—but what a pretty ride it was that day. We went through two long separate stretches where there were white cliffs rising straight up out of the water—almost like being in the Grand Canyon—beautiful, especially with the sun shining so brightly on them. And we saw several ospreys carrying fish in their feet (talons?), plus we saw another beautiful, mature eagle. I will never tire of that.

We got to Demopolis, Alabama fairly early in the afternoon, fueled at $2.89, and signed up for the courtesy car for several hours (Robert at 2pm, Larry at 4pm, and Louis at 6pm!). We toured by car some of the more historic and pretty old homes in Demopolis (just a small town), and made the customary trip to W-M. For dinner, we went to a great local place, The Red Barn. Red it was from top to bottom, rustic and good food too—another “lucky” and wise decision on the part of our Captains.

Tuesday, today, for me has been spent doing laundry, cleaning and computer blogging/e-mails. Louis has been busy organizing his tools and cleaning/polishing the windows up top. He gave “Bella Luna” a good “vinegar” bath yesterday—to get all the stubborn stains off her hull from the hard water we’ve been in recently. We’re both glad to have had this day to rest—rather—stop off the water. (There’s no “rest” on this trip for any of us!) We have 217 miles left to get to Mobile, which we think will mean three, long, 70 mile, days each one. We’ll be at anchor for those three nights in a row, somewhere just off the river in hopefully a quiet cove, and probably won’t have much cell phone service—much less any wireless. We’ll have just two more locks—amazingly, the last two of our whole trip. That’s so hard for me to believe—the locks have been such an important part of planning each day—now I wish I had counted them all. We figure the number of locks we’ve been through is somewhere around 130—beginning with our first, the small one in Elizabeth City, NC—and without each and every one of them, this whole trip of ours would have been impossible. We love locks!!!!
***More from Mobile in a few days.

Columbus, Mississippi

2008-11-18T17:23:00.003-05:00

We arrived in the Columbus Marina Friday afternoon, November 14th, along with 9 other Looper boats. Several of us had to raft off each other to be able to fit in the marina, but we were all able to get power and water—that’s the important thing! “Freedom’s Turn” was rafted to us, and just behind us were “Little David” and “Gill Raker”, who were rafted together as well. We were all scattered around the marina, but there was continuous action on the end of “B” dock!

Friday afternoon was spent catching up on e-mails, visiting other boats, and laundry. Louis secured the courtesy van for dinner, and Margie & Larry, Kay & Robert and Louis and I went to a great local restaurant, J Brussard’s—simply wonderful. It was so nice to have linen tablecloths, pretty candles, great hot bread, gourmet food, and experienced waitresses----for a change! (Most places we’ve been recently have been either “family” restaurants or pub/bar food-------“OK, who’s got the ribs?” coming from our order taker, no less!)

Saturday morning, we sadly said good-by to "Freedom's Turn"--Charlie and Linda are a few days behind their schedule and want to catch up with "Kismet"--besides, 9 (or more, in some instances) Looper boats overwhelm most of these marinas and anchorages along the river--the marinas are not big enough to handle us all together. As much as we hated not traveling with them and Lisa and Jim, we all felt the realization/need to spread apart for a few days--at least until the waters get wide again.

Getting back to Saturday morning, we were able to get the courtesy van again, and the above six of us took off to do some sightseeing in Columbus—but we had to get the van back by 2pm (hustle, hustle, everyone!)—someone else had signed up for the much-appreciated courtesy transportation too. Our destinations that day were: The Tennessee Williams House, Friendship Cemetery, and Waverly Plantation (and maybe if time allowed, a trip to W-M!).

Born in Columbus in 1911, Tennessee Williams was one of the most important American playwrights ever. He wrote the Pulitzer prizewinning “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ and “A Streetcar Named Desire”. He also wrote “The Glass Menagerie”, “Sweet Bird of Youth”, “The Night of The Iguana”, and “Summer and Smoke”. One quote I particularly enjoyed of his was: “Home is where you hang your childhood, and Mississippi to me is the beauty spot of creation, a dark, wide spacious land that you can breathe in.” A several time Tony Award winning writer, he died in New York City in 1983, and from official reports succumbed from choking on a bottle cap.

We were also able to pick up information at his house on a self-guided car tour of nearby/downtown antebellum homes. We rode through the area, and saw some magnificent ones too—so nicely restored and maintained—the grounds were spectacular too. (These particular homes were spared by Union and Confederate soldiers because the area was used primarily as hospitals by both armies during the war.) The Magnolia trees there in Columbus were the largest/prettiest I’ve ever seen—we figured most of them must have been well over a hundred and fifty years old!

For all of us, the Friendship Cemetery was the most meaningful place we went all day. A huge area of land located within the city limits, it has several sections where Confederate soldiers are buried—a few named, but mostly the markers were “Unknown Soldier”. It was a somber but comforting feeling to see all those hundreds and hundreds of small white stones—we had been left with a bitter taste after being told in Shiloh that fallen Confederate soldiers could/would not be returned to their families from their mass graves for “proper burial” (military orders from General U S Grant). Small American flags dotted the graves of the soldiers and having Veteran’s Day just a few days back, we all were honored to be there. There was also another grave site which is very famous in the cemetery—a full sized granite carving of an angel kneeling on the headstone with her head resting there and arm draped over the front—it is titled “Even Angels Wept”—it is too precious for words—and I do have several pictures of it. We drove several times around the small narrow dirt paths in the cemetery—quietly and reverently taking it all in.
Founded in 1849, the cemetery was the site of the first Memorial Day Celebration in 1866.

Built in 1852, Waverly Plantation was about 5 miles out of town. Having been abandoned and left vacant around 1916, and left completely unattended for 50 years, it has been owned privately for the past 45 years by a devoted family who have been restoring it ever since. The four-story home once stood on 50,000 acres stretching from the river back. The foyer of the home rose 65 feet to a huge belvedere on top (reading this, Frank?!) where the entire plantation could be looked over—it was hard to imagine that piece of information—we were not allowed to go all the way up there! The original family had 10 children and over a thousand sharecroppers or slaves who worked the land—it was a completely self-sufficient “city” unto itself—even having its own post office! Most impressive there to me were the moldings, mantles, and mirrors—which all miraculously escaped theft in those 50 years of the house being left wide open and vacant. But I think each one of us was disappointed that the house and grounds were not in even better shape than we had hoped or expected—the furniture was lovely but not original to the house (the pieces were mostly “period accurate”). But glaring to us all, the house itself needed major, major work done both inside and outside to bring it up to others we’ve seen before--grounds too. Our tour guide was Marjorie who lives there with her elderly father; she told us some dear stories about her growing up in the house and the ghost who has been heard and seen for years there as well—a sweet young girl. I hope that some kind of a Preservation Society can take it on as a project and do justice to it, but there seem to be many antebellum homes all around here. Wonder what the qualifications for acquisition require?

We had “just enough time” to get in yet-another quick trip to Wal-Mart & Subway (love that tuna!) before getting the van back to the marina by 2pm. Christmas is all over that store now and is really upon us--boats in this marina are already decorated for the season! Since I haven’t even thought about it yet (much less started shopping), I guess I’ll need to hit the ground running when we get home the first week of December. (Or maybe we’ll just keep it simple this year—how ‘bout it, girls?!) We got back to our boats just in time for Louis to complete a major charging project on the boat's batteries, and for me to get started on this blog.

We had dinner Sunday—as did everyone else in our group (19?) at the marina’s restaurant, “Woody’s”. A cold front had stormed through Mississippi during the previous night with winds of 45 mph, and it had turned really cold outside, so when we walked the very long way over (in the cold dark too) to the restaurant and saw a fire burning in the cozy fireplace, color us ALL happy!—it was a fun evening with most everyone there and great food too. Sadly, we said our good-bys to “Sunshine”, “Southern Comfort”, and “Blue Max”—they will be coming a few days behind us, so we’ll all be able to get in the small and few anchorages as we make our way down to Mobile—about 350 more miles. More from Demopolis, Alabama.

The Tenn Tom Waterway

2008-11-14T23:16:00.002-05:00

We left Joe Wheeler State Park on Saturday morning, November 8th, headed down the Tennessee River on our next “river leg” towards Mobile Bay and salt water. We left with four other boats: “C-Life”, “Wanderin’ L & M”, “Freedom’s Turn”, and “Sunshine”. We were all headed towards an anchorage that we had been to about a month earlier when we diverted and went “up river” to get to the fall rendezvous at Joe Wheeler. (A side trip to Chattanooga also took up two weeks in that month.)

We did indeed get to the anchorage and rafted up, but it was just at dusk and we were all tired—it had been a long day on the water. We each pulled out left-overs and had an early evening get-together on “C-Life”. We were anchored right across the river from Grand Harbor Marina in Yellow Creek and were now officially at the head of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in Mississippi, the Tenn-Tom Canal as everyone calls it. It is a 253 mile man-made stretch of water, begun in 1972 and completed in 1985. This mammoth Army Corps of Engineers project moved more dirt than was moved to build the Panama Canal and it cost more than 2 billion dollars to complete. This Tenn-Tom Waterway is relatively unknown throughout the US to the general public, but its use saves travelers as much as 720 miles and the swift currents of the Mississippi River. There are 10 locks, 9 of which will take us down about 30 feet at each lock, and one will take us down another 84 feet—the Jamie Whitten Lock—the largest on the waterway. Commercial traffic on the Tenn-Tom has never reached the level that was originally envisioned, and it is doubtful it will ever “turn a profit” (thank you, Skipper Bob!). But we are mighty gratefull that we didn't have to do any more of the Mississippi than was necessary!

Sunday we left one anchorage for another—we would be just upstream of the largest lock and fairly early in the afternoon, we all decided we would wait for an early morning lock-through on Monday. There were 2 large barges ahead of us Sunday afternoon waiting to lock down, and we knew we would be behind them for the next few miles before we could get to our predetermined anchorage. With always a "Plan B", we turned into a nice cove and this time we all five rafted together--and early enough to enjoy the beautiful fall afternoon. Linda, from “Freedom’s Turn”, had all the ladies (5) over to her boat for a lovely and special “Michigan” wine tasting party and the guys went over to “C-Life” and watched the televised NASCAR race—drinking beer and smoking cigars! Thank you, Linda and Robert!

Monday, November 10th we all were headed to Midway Marina, located about 20 miles from Tupelo, Mississippi. After we got our boats secured, all 10 of us piled into the courtesy van and headed about 4 miles away into the nearby town, Fulton, to the only restaurant open that night—Mexican—and it was surely the best we’ve had so far—what a delicious surprise! Back at the marina, our boat was tied alongside the outside dock, and looking out our saloon window we had a beautiful view of a cypress filled marsh/swamp. There were thousands and thousands of coots swimming and feeding not 12 feet from us all day long, and I spent 30 minutes early one morning (with coffee and blessed silence) watching a majestic, beautiful eagle perched at the top of a dead cypress tree just outside our window. Color Diane, quiet and happy.

Tuesday, Charlie from “Freedom’s Turn” rented a 15 person, four row, “church van” and we all took off for Tupelo—wanting to see the huge antique car museum, a federal fish hatchery, Elvis’s birthplace, and the ever-needed stop at Wal-Mart. The car museum was very impressive with around 200 old cars dating back to the very first ones made, a collection belonging to just one man and donated by him to the city of Tupelo. By chance, for only two weeks, there happened to be a small mini-showing of street rods in the collection—color Louis happy! We all were given cards to vote on our favorite car and my vote went quickly to a black 1929 Duisenberg—all original and in outstanding shape. The federally operated fish hatchery was closed, due to it being Veteran’s Day—so was the Visitor’s Center, which we tried to take in as well. But not Elvis’s birthplace!!! We each had received a complimentary coupon at the car museum to get into the old, wooden, white house, on the actual spot, where Elvis lived until he was three years old. Built by Elvis’s father for $180.00, it was a very small, two room house (just a bedroom and a kitchen)—still with a few original furnishings, wallpaper, and linoleum flooring—a very depressing sight, in my estimation—I’m glad we didn’t actually have to pay to see it. There was an elderly lady sitting in an old chair in the bedroom (behind the roping) talking about the house there, answering questions, and obviously very much still in love with Elvis—I had to quickly get away from her and out of there! But I did enjoy the tranquil settings and grounds which were beautifully landscaped and groomed, with bronze life-like statues of Elvis as a young boy spaced here and there. In addition, there was a memorial chapel, which you had to purchase a ticket to enter and none of us chose to see the inside of that. And of course there was a new, large brick building that had all sorts of things to buy that were Elvis related—poor thing, people are still making big bucks off him anyway they can--he'll never "rest in peace".

Wednesday we had planned to leave Midway Marina, but with the impending forecast of 1-2 inches of rain we decided to remain there one more day. It gave us all a day to do laundry, defrost the freezers, and catch up on odds and ends—much needed too—and I actually got a couple of hours to get on “Wanderin’ L & M” and do a crafting project of Christmas ornaments with Margie. That was fun, thanks Margie for showing me how! (As a postscript in remembering Midway Marina, can any one of us ever forget the millions upon millions of tiny bugs that decended upon our boats in those three days?! Will we ever get them all off?!!)

Thursday, we had two locks to go through to get to the marina in Aberdeen—a must stop for all Loopers—and about a half mile off the river and up a winding, narrow, cypress lined ditch. On our 6 hour trip down river, we saw 5 mature eagles—still a thrill! All of us had been waiting to buy fuel in Aberdeen, which was selling in that marina for $2.69 a gallon—a welcomed relief from the fuel in Canada of over $6.00 a gallon—and the least we would be paying for fuel since leaving in May! The Aberdeen Marina is actually a family-owned “community” convenience store selling fuel at the same price for cars as well as boats—unheard of in the boating world! Plus, we had heard about their famous fried chicken and chicken livers cooked right there in the marina store—but we needed to get there before 2pm, because that was when the cooks “left for the day”. Fearing we wouldn’t make it by 2pm, Louis got an order in for all 9 boats, and our boxes were waiting for us when we arrived. As promised, it was delicious—even at 3pm! We all fueled (which took several hours to complete), and with the time change and it getting dark around 5pm, everyone just stayed at the picnic tables under the marina’s waterside overhang until bedtime—enjoying Susan’s and Jeff’s and Granddaddy Kelly’s unbelievable hospitality. More stories, more laughs, more cigars, and more alcohol were brought out over the course of the evening—even Kelly’s dark “shine” was passed around. (Make note—neither Louis nor I smoke, especially stinky cigars!) But most surprising was that cute, Granddaddy Kelly was up bright and early the next morning to cook for us all his famous southern breakfast—complete with country ham, eggs, grits (with garlic & cheese, no less), biscuits, and red-eye gravy. This was a truly-great charming spot which does a tremendous amount of local business too (for instance, selling over 90,000 cases of beer just last year!)—everyone of us wished we could have stayed more than just one night. I don’t believe we’ll find another marina half as much fun as there in Aberdeen!

Friday morning we were enveloped in dense fog—delaying our departure until around 9:30am. But as soon as the fog lifted, we called the lock (which will not lock anyone through in fog and was right at the turn-off for the Aberdeen marina) and the lockmaster said there were no tows waiting—making our only lock of the day very quick and easy. (We’ve had to wait at some locks as much as 3 hours for the tows to get through!) After the lock, we had a quiet/dull 4 ½ hour ride down the canal to the Columbus Marina—seeing no eagles, few waterfowl, no turtles, no towns, and maybe 3 houses total. It is here now-4pm-Columbus Marina-that I’m writing this week-long blog, and we’ll be here for two nights—seeing several antebellum homes tomorrow (Waverly being the most famous). More later, after this weekend.

Chattanooga Back to Joe Wheeler

2008-11-07T19:50:00.004-05:00

The 3 “marinas” in Chattanooga are all just floating docks right alongside the river—all 3 owned by the city and run by River Max. Employees use golf carts to run back and forth between the marinas, which are just 1 ½ miles apart. There are no showers or laundry facilities—ugh. But the location of our “marina” was otherwise perfect—we were almost at the base of the aquarium—right in the “official park” area. We had arrived mid-afternoon on Wednesday, too late to take in the huge aquarium with its’ freshwater side and other saltwater side—we understand you should spend a whole day there. Louis tried to get a rental car, but being so late in the day, it would have to wait until early the next morning.

Early Thursday morning, Louis got us a sporty rental car and we were off to do laundry—2 miles away and across the river. We had accumulated a weeks’ worth of dirties, and had “company” flying into Chattanooga Friday mid-day (we’ve really got to get the boat ship-shape now). Our dear friends, Mimi and Frank Liggett, were coming to spend almost a week with us! Knowing Frank’s rules for visiting other people, we were truly thrilled that they would take the extended time and extra energy to visit us. They had never been in these parts before and they wanted to experience the river system here with the all pretty fall foliage. We were also having a Halloween Looper gathering on our dock the next evening—complete with a pumpkin decorating/carving contest—another excuse for a party! Frank and Mimi would be the judges (they had no idea what was ahead of them!) and Louis and I would furnish the prizes!

After the great Halloween party (the Liggetts decided everyone was a winner!), the four of us walked up to “Sticky Fingers” for a delicious dinner—the restaurant is famous for its ribs, chicken, and bar-b-que. It was a fairly long walk up and upon leaving the restaurant; Louis spied one of the marina’s golf carts taking another couple back. It was cold outside—we were tired and full—and the street was festive and alive with costumed ‘young-uns’. Sooooo, we hailed the golf cart and all six of us piled on and had a welcomed-relief ride back to our boat. Happy Halloween everyone!

Saturday, November 1st was Frank’s birthday and our 39th wedding anniversary—time to celebrate again! Before breakfast, we brought out a chilled bottle of pink champagne and all had congratulatory hugs and cards from our fellow Loopers—what fun—and early too. We had to vacate our spots at the marina because there was a competition of high school and college scullers/rowers—out in the river just beside us and taking up the whole area in the park. It was so interesting to see all those long, skinny boats—we were told they were around 900 of them. Among the hundreds of competitors, we were lucky enough to see boats from UNC, Wake Forest, and Duke—they would be racing Saturday and Sunday in different categories and with different sizes of boats. It was the “Festival of the Hooch 2008”—a huge event—and multiple tents were set up within the park selling food stuff, tee shirts, and rowing gear. Huge speakers were blaring hip music and traffic was halted at each end of the park. Boats were piled on hundreds of racks sometime four high and eight long. Spectators and competitors were everywhere enjoying the beautiful clear morning—it was quite an event to pull off—the organizational aspect alone was awesome.

We left the dock and traveled a short distance (around 4 hours) to our anchorage near Nickajack lock and dam. We rafted with “Wanderin’ L & M”, “C-Life”, and “Kismet”. The others--“Sunshine”, “Freedom’s Turn”, and “Annie” chose to anchor nearby. To celebrate our anniversary and Frank’s birthday, Lisa and Jim had us over for her delicious Bloody Mary’s (complete with blue cheese stuffed olives!) on “Kismet’s” fly bridge. We watched a beautiful sunset on an equally beautiful boat—a Fathom—thanks Lisa and Jim! It was Saturday evening and Daylight Savings Time would be going off after midnight—ugh—our days on the water would be getting shorter and shorter and our nights longer. Little did we know how the time change accompanied with entering a different time zone would mess all our systems up!

Because it was now dark just past 5 (for the rest of the week) the four of us were hardly able to keep our eyes open past 7pm—and we were rising around 5am—an awful mess! It’s one thing to be on the water and not know the day, but coupled with not knowing the time is surreal. We just laughed a lot about the changes we all were experiencing and ate when we were hungry and slept when we were tired! (It’s now six days later and my body hasn’t caught up yet!)

Monday and Tuesday we traveled the beautiful Tennessee River with glorious days—there were still the six of us who were all together since Chattanooga. “Annie” is a very special boat—a tug of sorts—and handmade by her owners, taking 16 years to complete. Unique and simply gorgeous, she has a calliope on her bridge and has serenaded us on several occasions—but the most special time was in the lock. After all the locks we’ve been through (somewhere around 130), I can honestly say this one lock was the most enjoyable and fun. We listened intently to the Southern songs as we descended the 60 feet and with a big blast of her “toot-toot” whistle, we all left the lock smiling.

We arrived at Joe Wheeler State Park Tuesday afternoon—in time to enjoy this area with Frank and Mimi before they had to fly home early Thursday morning. Louis had a few “projects” to do on our boat and Frank was a willing and knowledgeable helper. Mimi had caught “the cold” and needed to get some meds and rest, so it was good we came in a day earlier than scheduled. The two of them took the two of us out to dinner Wednesday night, and we all four “turned in” early to bed yet again. We have so enjoyed having the Liggetts along for the short week with us—our fellow Loopers have too. Maybe a Loop is in store for them when Frank finally retires—who knows, we may do this again if they do! Time will tell.

Up the Tennessee to Chattanooga

2008-10-30T15:39:00.004-04:00

We left Joe Wheeler State Park Saturday morning along with “C-Life”, “Kismet”, “Wanderin’ L & M”, “Sunshine”, “Freedom’s Turn”, and “Going There”. We were all headed for the great city of Chattanooga—200 miles away from Florence, Alabama, up the Tennessee River. If all went well, we would be two nights at anchor and two nights in marinas. Our flotilla looked great as we all left the park, lined up like little ducks following their mother.

After traveling about 25 miles, our first stop was Riverwalk Marina in Decatur, Alabama. As we were approaching the narrow entrance to the canal leading into the marina, we all waited out in the river for the first boat to get into his slip. We were a very impressive sight all circling out in the river just past the huge bridge—a sight so impressive that an Alabama police boat came barreling up close to all of us to take a “look see”. Once he figured out we were not terrorists and were just waiting our turn to tuck into the marina, he left as quickly as he came—no lights flashing. Whew! We had dinner on premise at “The Hard Dock Café”—with Charlie and Linda getting a big boost as Michigan State beat Michigan.

Sunday morning we left for a 55 mile day plus a lock—we all knew it would be a long day. We had a beautiful ride and easy locking to get to the new, free docks at Guntersville, Alabama. We arrived fairly late in the afternoon, but still had time for everyone to get out their chairs and have an impromptu cocktail party on the docks—we had the dock all to ourselves and had passing cars honking their horns and waving to us as they passed by. Loopers do seem to draw attention!

Evidently, someone in a car had stopped by the local newspaper there in Guntersville and sent a reporter down not 20 minutes later on Monday morning to interview us—I think this will make the fourth time we’ve been in the papers so far. We find it so interesting that the locals find US so interesting—we would have thought they’d been used to seeing several boats traveling together by now. And I’ll bet with all the negative reporting that’s being done right now on the upcoming elections, a nice story about friends traveling great distances together is a refreshing storyline and welcomed relief to all readers!

As we were pulling away from the docks that morning, “Freedom’s Turn” evidently hit something under water—there was a big CLUNK as Charlie put the throttle in gear. Making a long story short, he and Linda turned away from our group and headed for the nearby marina where the boat was pulled, propeller taken off, and their boat will be out of commission until the prop is fixed. Also, “Going There” peeled off to go to the same marina—they’re having shaft problems. So now we were down to 5 boats—but not for long.

We arrived at Goose Pond Marina, near Scottsboro, Alabama around noon. Louis quickly secured two loaner cars for the 11 of us, and we took off for town—hoping to get to the famous “Unclaimed Baggage” store (stocked with lost airlines’ bags), a lunch stop, Wal-Mart, and CVS before we needed to be back by 4pm. After a lot of hype, the unclaimed baggage store was a disappointment for all of us—the prices were too high. We all felt we could find new things for almost what that store was selling its used things for—Louis was happy, I could check that store off my list!

When we returned to the marina, we found two more boats that would join us for at least these next few days—“Little David” and “Gill Raker”. Our ever-present, resourceful, transportation leader, Louis, called a nearby Italian restaurant, “Stevarino’s”, and he persuaded the owner to come get all 14 of us so we could eat with them—and then bring us back to the marina! Unexpectedly, it was a really delicious meal—with Steve’s unique “beach bread” being especially delicious—and we all had great leftovers to enjoy the next day. It was the coldest evening to date as we all hopped on our boats—tired, full, and happy. Weather reports said it would get down to 40 degrees that night.

Knowing it would be chilly the next morning, we had been promised during dinner that Tuesday morning we would all be treated to a warm breakfast—“Bud’s Buns” and “Kay’s Hams”—all 16 of us!! And sure enough, at 8am we all were gathered on “C-Life” with coffee in hand to enjoy Kay’s ham biscuits and Bud’ cinnamon buns—all homemade and perfect! We thank them both—what a way to start the day!

Tuesday, we traveled along the winding Tennessee to an anchorage just upstream of the Nickajack Lock and Dam. Rafting together in a group of six boats, we watched from our bow as the sun set in a beautiful and quiet cove—boy, it was getting cold. Splitting off into pairs, we had second-time-Loopers Lisa and Jim from “Kismet” over for a just-after-sunset early dinner.

Wednesday, we woke to the first-ever-this-trip of ice (heavy frost) on the boat!! We were slipping and sliding outside and laughing as Robert made a “snowball” and threw it at Larry. The fog, from the warm water, rising over the steep hills that morning was truly one of the prettiest scenes I’ve ever witnessed. Everyone was taking pictures and I’m sure there will be some spectacular ones too. We were able to leave our cove around 9am.

Making the last few miles to Chattanooga was surely the prettiest part of the Tennessee. We had only 12 miles to go by “as the crow flies” chart, but it took almost 36 miles of winding around these canyons to get there. In fact, the locals call this the Grand Canyon of the Tennessee River—and grand it was—narrow and deep too. This trip up to Chattanooga is just a “side trip” and is not considered part of the Loop. But Fall is the best time to be doing this river, and about 16 Looper boats decided it was not to be missed—we don’t know if “Bella Luna” will ever be near here again! I’m really glad we have the opportunity to turn around and go back—all 200 miles of it—this is just too pretty to only see once! Paddle wheel boats, beautiful homes, wildlife (we saw several turkey families!), tree covered mountains, tall gorgeous rock cliff formations, and changing leaves make for a great October ride up the Tennessee River. More from Chattanooga.

A Week at Joe Wheeler

2008-10-27T17:30:00.002-04:00

The Fall Rendezvous of the American Great Loop Cruisers Association (AGLCA) was held October 21st through the 24th at Joe Wheeler State Park near Florence, Alabama. This event has been held here for the past several years and we now can see why. The park covers about 1,500 acres and is beautiful in its wide open and colorful simplicity. There were close to 170 people and 55 boats present for the four days of meetings, dinners, and fellowship. It was fun catching back up with some of the boats we have been traveling with over these past several months—and sad to witness as some of these same people have “crossed their wakes” meaning they are now finished with Looping and are going home. It’s hard to believe that Louis and I are just a little over half done ourselves—but coming from North Carolina through Canada down Michigan to Alabama is a daunting task just in itself.

We had a lot of laughs, good food and jokes, and gathered valuable information for going south along the Gulf and then Florida and the Keys. One of the more interesting things to happen to us while we were at Joe Wheeler was our first night in the marina. We had been warned upon check-in that there were lots of raccoons wandering around at night who were not shy in the least about getting on any boat. We made sure nothing “foodwise” was out down anywhere below that raccoons could get into and we secured our flybridge too. Feeling all was well, we turned in for the night. Lo and behold, the next morning we had a surprise waiting for us “up top”.

About mid-morning, I climbed our ladder to get a soft drink out of our dorm refrigerator which is on the flybridge, I unzipped the door curtain, and couldn't believe what I saw. Evidently and unbelievably, several raccoons had made themselves at home during the night feasting on our Tupperware locked box of snacks! Cheetos and Nekots being their favorites, there was paper mess everywhere—and not a speck or crumb left anywhere. I just didn't think that raccoons could/would climb our steep ladder of 8 steps—much less be able to unlock our plastic container!! There were small, very distinguishable footprints all over the deck—so we knew exactly who made the mess—and who had left us two “piles” as a calling card. By the time the week was over, every boat we checked with had been visited during the night—and several Loopers saw them out wandering the docks too—six at a time, at last count.

Sometime during the period we went home, both Louis and I picked up colds—so we were definitely not the life of the party at the rendezvous. We would race back to the boat after sessions to grab a quick nap, re-medicate ourselves, stuff our pockets with more tissues and cough drops, and we would always be the first ones to turn in at night—not the norm for either of us. But it was a great time to be with special friends in a quiet setting and if we had to both be sick, it was the ideal spot to be in.

Our mentors and home-port friends at Joe Wheeler and “gold flag” Loopers, Liz and Bob Stagg, graciously hosted all of us and made us feel so comfortable all week—lending their car for much needed runs to the grocery and pharmacy and answering tons of questions for all of us. They even rounded up a van and took a group on Friday—post rendezvous—to their hometown of Huntsville, Alabama for a day long tour. The group went to the Space Center, the Botanical Gardens, Harrison Brothers famous hardware store, toured the pre Civil War homes that were left standing by Union soldiers, and had some famous Alabama bar-b-que for dinner. The whole group was so appreciative for the time, enthusiasm, and energy it took for Liz and Bob to arrange all this—they’re both very special people!!

Saturday morning was sunny, cool and crisp as 7 boats departed Joe Wheeler bound for Chattanooga—“C-Life”, “Wanderin L & M”, “Kismet”, “Sunshine”, “Freedom’s Turn”, and “Going There”—it will take us four nights and 200 miles to get up river. We’ll have two nights in marinas and two at anchor, but the leaves will be pretty and it should be a smooth and gentle run with interesting stops along the way. More later from Chattanooga

Sneaking Home

2008-10-21T17:35:00.002-04:00

After going through two huge locks (80 feet plus!) on the Tennessee River, we arrived in Joe Wheeler State Park Marina on Tuesday afternoon, October 12th. We had an easy time with locking (we’re old hats at this now!) and our transit up the river to here was a beautiful ride on a perfect fall day. We were traveling with “C-Life” and “Freedom’s Turn” and had a good time taking pictures of each other’s boats in front of the mammoth locking doors—what pictures we’ll have to share once we get home!

Wednesday morning, Louis was immediately able to secure a rental car and that accomplished, we decided we had just enough time to go home for a few days—we had until Monday noon at which time the Fall AGLCA Rendezvous would begin here at this marina. Others were making plans to go by car to either Nashville or Memphis, but we hadn’t seen our children in almost six months! I was way overdue in needing hugs and kisses from our precious grandchildren—and the last couple of weeks have taken their toll on us as we have talked with them on the phone about Halloween costumes, pumpkins, school doings, scouts, and the State Fair. Without a doubt, it was time to “sneak home”.

We had inquired a few days earlier about our children’s plans for the weekend, not letting them know we were even contemplating coming home—so we knew they both would be at their respective houses during the time span we had available to surprise them—they would not be camping, having evening parties to go to, having company, birthday parties, going out of town, etc. We knew it would take one full day of traveling (just about 620 miles to our lake house) and then one whole day (ugh!) to get back to the boat, but we didn’t care how far it was—we were grabbing the time and going home specifically to see all our children. Yippee!! So, with lots of help from friends here, we got the boat off-loaded with lots of stuff and the car loaded down and we were underway at just past 1pm when we texted a message to Geni and Catherine saying what our surprise was. Everyone was jubilant—me especially!

We arrived safely home just after midnight Eastern Time—boy, what a great feeling to see that everything was all right there. We were tired after a 12 hour driving trip—but still so excited to be home that it took another two hours for me to calm down and get to sleep! Louis hit the big bed immediately and had no trouble at all falling asleep—lucky him. We had (earlier in the afternoon) made impromptu plans to spend Thursday afternoon/night in Cary with Catherine and her family—then drive over to Oxford for the same on Friday afternoon/evening with Geni and her family. We would spend Saturday night back at home and leave for our return to the boat early Sunday morning—“o dark” 5-ish—we wanted to get back to the boat before dark. Whew—it was Wednesday, we’d be back Sunday afternoon—a lot to accomplish in just a few days. Around 1400 miles--no problem, “Let’s go!”

Suffice to say, it was well worth the huge push to make it all happen. Our children were thrilled to see us, and I think even more, us them—thankfully, we had comfortable and safe traveling—our home and yard were in surprisingly good shape (thank you, Rick!)—we were able to see just a few of Southern Coach’s office staff Thursday at lunchtime—I got to sleep in Taylor’s bed Thursday night and Clay’s bed Friday night—we had great meals at Neo-China in Cary, La Coquina Mexican in Roxboro, Smithfield’s Chicken and BBQ in Henderson, Oxford’s famous George’s pizza, and Cracker Barrel somewhere on the way back to the boat—we got to see both boys play their Saturday morning soccer games (sorry we missed yours, Katie!)—we were able to get to the post office in Leasburg and continue to have our mailed forwarded—we got to “trick or treat” with Katie and Taylor and see their cute costumes—we changed out light bulbs and rotated timers at home—we pulled under a shelter our potted plants and brought back fall clothes—we slept blissfully in our own king size bed two nights (our bed on the boat is a double!)—I had time to take two long, hot, tub baths (my first in six months as there is no tub on the boat!)—and we got "just barely enough” hugs and kisses to last us until we come home for the holidays.

When I titled this blog, “Sneaking Home”, I did so for a specific reason—we called no one other than our girls to say we were coming home—there just wasn’t enough time to get a chance to see our friends in three short days. How could we call one person and not others? We both decided it was a Solomon’s choice we just couldn’t make. But as fate would have it, we were just several hours into our trip home when we got a call from Frank—and we couldn’t lie!—so he was the only one who knew how our plans were unfolding—and it must have been telepathy—we were bringing off the boat the last of Buddy’s things for his dog, Dixie. We had planned to leave those things at Catherine’s house for Frank to pick up later, but wound up going over to his house and delivering the "dog stuff" in person and getting great hugs there from Mimi too—so glad we did that. (We love your new hairstyle, Mimi!)

Hopefully in the 4-5 weeks we’re home for the holidays, we’ll be able to connect with others whom we’ve missed so terribly too! Both Louis and I are looking forward to seeing friends and other family members during that time—both at home and at the beach—it will have been since the first of May that we left. Seven months then, we're half done----unbelievable!

Grand Harbor and Shiloh

2008-10-13T09:22:00.003-04:00

Today is Sunday, October 12th and we have been here in Grand Harbor Marina since Friday mid-morning. And I was wrong in my last blog saying this marina was in Tennessee—it’s actually in Mississippi—the state line of Tennessee being at the top of the very steep hill here! This very large, fairly new marina is on beautiful Lake Pickwick (on the Tennessee River) and we have a great spot here alongside “C-Life” right at the marina’s office/ship store. We are backed into our slip, and the view off our stern (for 180 degrees!) is nothing but tall hardwoods just beginning to turn their fall colors—we’ve had some nice “slip spots” before, but this one ranks right up there in the top few for us. We even have a working cable TV—cable being something that seems to be rare for us in any marinas these days!

Yesterday, Saturday, six of us went in one of the marina’s courtesy vans about 25 miles away to visit Shiloh National Military Park—site of the famous Civil War battle which took place April 6th & 7th in 1862. Situated along the Tennessee River, this two-mile square battlefield area and surrounding woods saw almost 24,000 men lose their lives in just two days—Union soldiers being the victors against the Confederate men. It is absolutely staggering to me to even comprehend that fact—what an unthinkable tragedy. We spent nearly three hours there—visiting very quietly and soberly—we all felt we were on such hallowed ground. One interesting fact that I do not want to forget is that immediately after all that carnage, General Grant ordered mass graves to bury all the dead—trenches where the bodies were piled on top of each other—Union soldiers placed in separate mounds from the Confederate ones. The horses and mules were burned. After the war was over, President Abraham Lincoln ordered only the Union graves reopened to bury the soldiers in proper single graves marked with headstones in the cemetery at Shiloh--the cemetery remains there today with a huge American flag flying, very visible even from the river. The Confederate soldiers were left where they were buried—all in a pile. Doesn’t seem right, does it—and I also wish I knew why the Confederates' loved ones were not ever allowed to claim the bodies of the men who died there for a proper burial. Led by the Union General, Ulysses S. Grant and the Confederate General, Albert S. Johnston, all the soldiers fighting there thought the war would be over in just a few weeks—little did they know the war would last another three long years—ending at Appomattox, Virginia with the surrender of the Confederacy by General Robert E. Lee to General U. S. Grant in April of 1865. In those four awful dividing years of the Civil War, over a million lives were lost. Unbelievable to comprehend, isn’t it.

Because we stayed so long at Shiloh, we had a very late lunch (3pm) at a small local Tennessee ribs/bar-b-que/chicken place—yummy—we all were starving! Our meal was delicious; we watched some of the UNC/Notre Dame football game while eating and needless to say, none of us had supper after eating so much/so late in the afternoon!

We had just enough time to make one more stop before making the trek back to our marina—the former home/now museum of Buford Pusser—the notorious 1960’s sheriff of McNairy County, Tennessee. His life was made famous by the movie, “Walking Tall”, and he was well known around these parts as being “judge, jury, and executioner”. A tall man, he was always known to carry a large stick or baseball bat along with his gun, and he never hesitated to use the stick/bat—his temper was just a heartbeat away. He primarily wanted to rid this area of moonshiners, and in doing so, lost his beloved wife and half his face in a “Bonnie & Clyde” style ambush. Plus, he was stabbed twice and nearly died both times from the puncture wounds to his chest—but he always survived against unreal odds in the late sixties and early seventies. He lived a fast and hard life, and died at an early age while driving alone in his Corvette one evening at high speed and losing control of his car in a curve.

Tonight, Sunday night, we had a pot luck dinner on the dock with “C-Life” and “Freedom’s Turn”. There are four sets of wooden gliders on our dock here, two 4 person, two 6 person—all complete with a pretty blue canvas on their tops—and we each brought something delicious for the six of us to share in one of these gliders. Complete with candles and our special “mosquito busters” at our feet, we had a special evening right on the dock for an hour or two—just gliding back and forth and enjoying each other’s company under a beautiful “Bella Luna”. We thank our lucky stars we are so blessed.

We leave tomorrow morning, Monday October 13th, for two nights at anchor and then arriving Wednesday afternoon at Joe Wheeler State Park for the Fall AGLCA Rendezvous with all the Loopers of this year—plus new ones from Michigan, Wisconsin Illinois, Ohio and up-this-way just beginning their journey. Lucky for them!!! Sadness for us!!—we just realized our trip is now half over.

Kentucky Lake & the Tennessee River

2008-10-11T09:40:00.001-04:00

We left Green Turtle Bay Marina Monday, October 6th mid morning. It was a bright and clear fall morning as we departed with “C-Life”, “Sunshine”, “Southern Comfort”, and “Blue Max”. We were headed for Panther Bay, a great anchorage along the Kentucky Lake about forty miles down—a cove just off the lake enough not to get any wakes from other boats. It was a pretty day to travel on the water and when we arrived, we found “Freedom’s Turn” and “Voyager II” already tucked in the cove—great minds think alike! We quickly rafted up with “C-Life” and “called it a day” of traveling. We really like these “short” days of our trip—around 40 miles is just perfect—when traveling at 7.4 knots—are you reading this, Ed? Can you believe Louis is actually enjoying this speed?! We spent the night up in the cove with lots and lots of stars out—Louis and I have taken to setting up cushions on the bow at night and enjoying the beauty of it all. Without lights and noise—wow!

Tuesday morning there was rain “a-coming”—and much needed rain for this area too—can you believe that with all the flooding we dealt with on the Illinois and the Mississippi, that on these lakes there hasn’t been any rain to speak of in 4 to 5 weeks! It’s hard to imagine, but it is visually so—both hurricanes Hannah & Ike missed this area of Kentucky and Tennessee—and the water levels are down considerably—in fact, people here are in a “water conservation mode”. So with the impending rain, we scurried about and got our anchors up and washed off (lots of black mud on the bottom here) and headed for our next stop, Pebble Isle Marina—again about 40 miles.

We arrived at Pebble Isle mid afternoon after a huge thunder storm about noon. (One thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three …) Thank goodness we were under our bridge cover and only got wet from our leaky top—not much though—and it was a damp and cool afternoon as we pulled up to the marina. With 8 other Looper boats tied up to the main dock, “Bella Luna” was given a spot under a huge tin awning—what fun it was to listen to the rain under that! But we are quickly learning that under these huge awnings, you have no cell phone, no wireless, and no TV signals! We were tied up where all the huge houseboats were housed—one having bright orange canvas all over—got that Jan?

We all had dinner in the marina’s store/office/dining room/main everything building—right on the end of the dock where all the others were tied up. Six of us had the special of the day, “home-made chicken & dumplins”, and it really was a perfect dish for the cool rainy weather we had experienced all day. This particular place is known for their huge desserts—“the cookie” being most famous—a freshly-baked hot 12-inch chocolate chip cookie piled high with three scoops of ice cream, pecans, whipped cream, hot fudge sauce, caramel sauce, and a cherry. If only we had had our camera as our friends at the next table ordered it—and I can’t believe Louis resisted ordering one. However, he did order a strawberry cake with ice cream weighing in at slightly less than 3 pounds (citing eating chocolate at night keeps him awake all night long!). We all had a great time laughing at the absurdity and abundance of both those desserts!

We left Pebble Isle Wednesday morning under cloudy skies with “C-Life” in the lead. “Mojo” and ”Grettatude” had left about an hour earlier—and the rest of the Loopers decided to remain at the marina one more night. With access to a courtesy car, haircuts and a trip to the grocery were on the agenda for those who stayed. (Wonder what the “special of the day” will be at the restaurant there & what dessert they’ll have tonight—can’t wait to hear when we catch back up with those friends in a few days!)

As the day has progressed (I’m writing this up on the bridge now), the weather has turned from cool to perfect. One of the highlights of the day for Louis has been crossing UNDER the I-40 highway bridge which crosses over the Tennessee River—the bridge that he crosses on his winter duck hunting trips to Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee. He said he always hoped one day to be down on the water under that bridge taking a trip—some wishes do come true—just like the bridge near Belhaven, NC over the ICW that we cross over on our way to Hyde County—that was a wish for me to cross under that bridge one day—and we have.

We’re in such a beautiful area, the Tennessee River—others have called it the prettiest on the entire Loop—and Louis and I heartily agree. Earlier in the summer when we were going through the beauty and wilderness of Canada, we thought we had reached the “visual” summit of our trip. Not so, this area really is prettier to us than what we saw in Canada. So far, the Tennessee River is calm, narrow, green, and deep—the shores are hilly and green (just beginning to turn into fall colors) with willows and hardwoods and the occasional cypresses with their sprawling exposed roots. The hills are magnificent where the river has cut deep into the rock, leaving only the hardest of the rock exposed—we’re seeing trees growing right out of the rock up high as well as down low. It’s hard to think that a tree could survive in that space, but they do—none of these trees show any signs of being deprived of water! We’ve seen one eagle today too—always such a thrill, no matter how many we have seen on this trip so far. And the migrating white pelicans are following us south too—we’ve seen hundreds of them today. Louis has even seen a few flocks of blue wing teal—the first ducks to migrate south. More later.

We traveled a long day, and when we pulled up into a cove for the evening, “Mojo”, “Grettatude”, and “Party of Two” were already rafted together and at anchor. Way up in the cove ahead of us was “Barbarossa” a 35 year old, dark-green, concrete sailboat from England. We’ve been traveling some these past few weeks with Rob and Sue, and it was good to see them again—I have numerous pictures of this boat—she’s not like anything we’ve ever seen before! We got anchored and rafted with “C-Life” and were able to enjoy a gorgeous sunset, dinner with Robert and Kay, and a calm night.

Thursday, October 9th (Happy…..Birthday Nancy!) was spent mainly waiting for the TVA lock and dam at Pickwick to open. Barge traffic always takes precedence, and we had to wait almost 3 hours tied up to a “cell” waiting for the lockmaster to call us in and lift us up. But boy, once we got on this upper part of the Tennessee—what a show! Pickwick Lake on the Tennessee—what fabulous place to call home! We are now in the area where Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee all join borders. Huge “homes” (and I mean “movie star” status) dotted the very steep hills everywhere and most everyone had some kind of elevator from the house to the water! Beautiful boat houses, perfectly groomed and landscaped lawns were all around us—complete with railroad tracks from the lake to the top for the necessary elevators! The water level here was at pool stage, meaning the water hadn’t fluctuated like it had below the dam. And the houses up here evidently are not subject to flooding like the ones downstream—the ones below earlier in the day were all built on levees AND on stilts. Not on the upside of the dam here though—this is what we used to call “High Cotton”!

We tried to get in a small cove for the evening that had a waterfall in the back of it—but when we turned off the big lake, there already was a trawler in it. The lady aboard said she had been there a week—“why leave?’ she said—just a perfect spot. But it wasn’t big enough for two more trawlers, so we went to another anchorage just a couple of miles away recommended by Skipper Bob—and it was equally beautiful. A big, beautiful, white-chested osprey watched as we anchored and rafted; he was still there, standing guard high in his tree, when we closed up for the night on the Mississippi side. We will be in a marina for the weekend—Grand Harbor—on the Tennessee side. We can be in three states in just a matter of minutes—amazing, isn’t it!

Green Turtle Bay Marina

2008-10-07T16:08:00.002-04:00

It’s hard to believe that we have been here in Green Turtle Bay Marina for almost a week. Situated on Lake Barkley, the marina is about 25 miles east of Paducah, Kentucky and home to some of the largest house boats we’ve ever seen! The average house boat here is probably 80 feet long and 18 feet wide—all with two stories and numerous sundecks, most with hot tubs, central air-conditioning units sitting right out on their aft decks, sliding boards, beautiful teakwood furniture, and each one looking like it could sleep twenty or more—huge floating condominiums is what they are!

AGLCA flags have been coming and going all week—and new “waves” of Loopers are expected in here over the next few days—as all the boats that were stuck up-river of us have begun to catch up with one another. This marina is easy and pleasant to remain in for several days! They have good laundry facilities, an indoor pool, a workout room, two saunas, two on-site restaurants, cottages and golf carts for rent, a fairly decent book swap, four “loaner” vans, numerous gazebos in pretty spots, a movie rental on site, and the ever famous restaurant, Patti’s Restaurant, with-in walking distance. Our week has been full and we’ve had beautiful weather every day—how lucky we have been!

In trying to remember it all, I’m sure I’ll miss something—but here goes on our week. The first two days were spent “cleaning house”—Louis spent the better part of those two days below deck—cleaning the strainers and the bilge from all the mud of the Mississippi River and then washing the boat. I did very necessary interior cleaning, five loads of laundry, and cleaned the nasty—lock besieged— fenders. After we were satisfied with all our cleaning, it was time to relax—so we signed up for one of the loaner vans and took off for Paducah. Six of us set off for downtown to specifically see the murals, the River Heritage Museum, and the National Quilt Museum. We also wanted to have lunch, do grocery shopping, go to the marine store and of course—find a liquor store! (Our marina is in a dry county, so we’ll all have to “brown-bag” at dinner!)

The quilt museum was breathtaking—the pieces displayed (actually owned by the museum) were stunning in their complexity, colors, and fabrics—we were blown away with the art of such fine stitchery—a lot done by men too. I could have stayed in that museum for hours—I thought of you Judy—a definite road trip for you sometime soon! It is inconceivable to me how anyone who has labored so long over any one of these quilts would/could/should dare part with them. We were told that the museum rotates the quilts every 3 or 4 months, so they must have an awesome collection hidden somewhere special.

The “downtown” murals are very special too—thank you for telling us about them, Jan! Painted on the inside (town-side) walls of a huge concrete man-made levee—are scenes depicting the history of Paducah. Covering over 300 years, the hand painted murals were so interesting to see and very graciously donated by individuals and businesses—and so pretty a covering for such a drab grey concrete stretch of wall. Having recently been built, the levee is the only barrier in keeping the rising waters out of the downtown area—1993 being the latest (and hopefully last) river surge which flooded all the businesses there.

The week was spent dining out several times too—imagine that! We ate at Patti’s in Glen Rivers—just a short distance from our marina. The restaurant is famous for its’ grilled 2” thick pork chops—we all had one and it was truly delicious. By the time we were done with dinner and dessert, we were stuffed and miserable! Patti’s so reminded us of the old Hartmann’s in Durham, with its many connecting rooms—except these rooms at Patti’s were extravagantly decorated—too, too much. Stuff was everywhere! Each room had a different theme—and by Christmas time, all the rooms will be “decked out” in you know what. We also went to dinner at the marina’s club house, which was delicious too, followed by a van ride to the local “community” theater in town where we saw the cute play, “Bus Stop”. That play, so we were told that night, launched the career of Marilyn Monroe back in 1955. One other night, we went to a small house nearby that the owner, Marilyn, primarily uses as a cooking school. Knowing what we were getting into, eleven of us sat in her kitchen one evening and ate a completely German dinner/buffet—in celebration of Oktoberfest. It was a fun and entertaining evening with lots of laughs, but not something any of us would do again any time soon—it was just too heavy and meaty a dinner. Bring out the Rolaids!

All in all we had a great six days there—seeing faces we hadn’t seen in a while, and meeting new members of our AGLCA crazy group. Two afternoons (one the day we got there and one the last we were there), we had “Looper” cocktail parties out on one of the gazebos overlooking the water; those parties are always fun—and we spent one afternoon out on our dock celebrating with “My Cin” and “Whichaway” both of whom have just crossed their wakes this week—congratulations to them for finishing the Loop—go Texas! (Now go get that gold flag!)

Going Swimming, Finally!

2008-09-30T17:59:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, September 30th

We have been at anchor now for three evenings—the first night in Little Diversion on the Mississippi, the second night on the Ohio at a huge, federal, concrete “cell”, and last night at the Cumberland Towhead—at the mouth of the Cumberland River. We have been rafting every afternoon with “Sunshine” and “Southern Comfort”—they’re all great folks and fun to be with. Bud, from “Sunshine”, has put his dinghy over each afternoon to get their dog, “Carlie”, off to go ashore—boy, do I still miss my sweet “Buddy”.

It’s been hot each afternoon and the water has not tempted me before yesterday—mainly because the muddy Mississippi is unfit for swimming, and the location on the Ohio was equally unsuitable. But once we got tied up Monday afternoon, and it was even hotter once we got anchored and rafted together, the “fairly-clear” green water just beckoned me in! So, I jumped in with my shorts and shirt on and had my first swim of the season—color me happy! Everyone joined in except Peggy—and Louis did his usual cannon ball entry to make a “big splash”! We had wanted to go swimming in Canada, but the waters were just too cold all summer long every where we went. We’re spoiled by good ole’ Atlantic Beach warm summer waters!

We’ve had cocktails on the bow of our boat two of the three nights—our bow being in the shade and roomy. Also, Louis has made ice cream twice and Peggy treated us all last night to a yummy Mexican cocktail party on board “Sunshine”—ole’! Being at anchor is not all that bad!

We had a storm last night—our raft of boats did a 360—but no damage to any of us, thankfully. The temperature has finally dropped and we feel like “fall is in the air”. We’ve all got on jeans and long sleeved shirts—what a difference from just yesterday! We’re seeing that leaves are really beginning to turn now—not beautiful yet, but soon. Getting off Lake Michigan when we did has afforded us the opportunity to experience this time of the year here before the cold fronts storm through this area. I’m so glad I got my “summer swim” in yesterday! These last two days of traveling have been calm and beautiful—we’re seeing nothing but barge traffic, but still these hills we’re passing through are some of the prettiest continuous passages we’ve made. We go through a lock today that will lift us 57 feet! This afternoon, we will be in Green Turtle Bay Marina at the mouth of the Tennessee River, but actually in Kentucky, and I hope to get these last two postings published there. Back to civilization! More later.

The Mighty Mississippi

2008-09-30T17:56:00.000-04:00

Thursday, September 25th.

We left our “home” of the past 12 days, Grafton Marina, with owner Jan waving us off her dock. We felt so fortunate to have had our “sequestered” time there with Jan and Joe—what wonderful hosts they both were! We were only leaving to venture down to Alton (@ 20 miles), but we were on the water again and moving south—and it felt really good. We were in the “Day 2” spreadsheet that AGLCA had set up to keep all 60+ of our Looper boats from exiting at the same time and getting bottlenecked further on down the river. With no marinas, spaces to overnight are precious and few on the Mississippi, Ohio, and Cumberland.

So we went only to the city of Alton—giving us one more chance to spend a few hours with Janet and Steve Godwin. Have I not mentioned before how tan, buff, slim, and cute Steve still is after all these years?!! Amazingly, he still has a head full of hair and all his teeth! (Are you happy now, Steve?!) We have sooo much enjoyed our time with this precious couple, and appreciate greatly the time it took for them to drive to and fro to get to us (over an hour each way!). Janet, I found out last night, likes anchovies as much as I do---love that girl even more!

Friday, we left Alton Marina and went through two debris filled locks—we had hoped by the third day of being open, most of the mess would have been flushed out—not so. We passed St. Louis—saw again the famous arch—took pictures from this side—and were so happy to see that the water had receded there and all was back to normal. The flagpoles that were previously well under water were now all safely perched high above the water on their concrete bases—it looked to us as if at that particular part of the Mississippi, the water must have risen a good 20 feet—but it’s hard to judge heights from our vantage point. On down the mighty river we went—with a good 4 knot push—making Louis and all the other Captains happy—good fuel economy. Just south of St. Louis, all we saw were hundreds of barges and several large rock quarries—so many that we lost count. With all the beautiful, high stone, white cliffs, it’s no wonder there were so many of these quarries—I just hope there’s some kind of very strict regulations on the aftermath of all that much stone stripping—reclamation of some good sorts. Surely there is.

We were headed for “Hoppies”—an institution on the Mississippi—just ask any Looper. “Fern” and Hoppie have owned a “marina of sorts” since 1973 along the river—and the two of them have seen it all! They’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly—the river rising and falling substantially each/twice this year—good drivers and bad ones that weekly crash into their barges. The “marina” is actually just a series of barges linked together alongside the river—but complete with fuel, water, and a lounge—what a hoot!—but rare on this stretch of the Mississippi. There were six of us Looper boats there—“Sunshine”, “Southern Comfort”, “My Cin”, “Whichaway”, and “Illusions”. Fern (a great old salt if there ever was one!) sat us all down in her outdoor on-barge lounge at the cocktail hour and went through our charts with us—answering all our questions—giving us such valuable information for our trip south. We will have 217 miles on the Mississippi, 60 miles on the Ohio, 30 miles on the Cumberland, and then we get to Green Turtle Marina on the Tennessee. Fern warned all us “Admirals” that we would be on the water non-stop for 4 days, possibly 5—either at anchorages or on a wall—but we would not be able to get off the boat for that entire period. What??!! Needless to say, we all (Captains & Admirals) were anxious for one more dinner off boat! Alas, no car and “town” was a couple of miles away. “No problem”, Fern said, as she gave the keys to her brown 1984 Lincoln Town car over to Louis—how did she know he (among the 15 of us) would want to be the driver?! Must have been his smile! Anyway, after 3 roundtrip shuttles to the restaurant, Louis finally got to sit down and eat his pizza! In our car (both ways), we had 9 people, counting our driver. People were laughing and giving us the “thumbs up” as we drove up to the restaurant—and we all felt like circus clowns getting out of her rear-end-heavy car. This is what we’ve all told our children--over and over--not to do!

Saturday, (Happy 40th Birthday, Travis!), laden with tee-shirts and confidence, we left the unforgettable “Hoppies” early in the morning with clear skies. All six of us were headed for an anchorage—Little Diversion—just a small finger off the river, but off the still-falling current of the Mississippi and safe from debris. We had talked with “C-Life, who had spent the night at Little Diversion the night before, and we were told there would be plenty of room for all six boats—plus the other 2 non-Looper boats that would also anchor there—they had come from Hoppies with us. “Huck Finn” (don’t you love it?!) and another one, I didn’t get the name of his boat—but a smaller pretty blue-hulled boat like ours.

Little Diversion was quiet and pleasant—we rafted in two large rafts—Louis made ice cream for our raft, and promised the other “Texas” raft they would get theirs tomorrow night on the wall/bollard down on the Ohio River. Lots of stars were out that night as the sky was clear with no moon and there were no city lights around us. We were on the Missouri side of the river, so we spent the night in another state! It was a beautiful evening, snuggled back up in our cozy creek for the night! A good anchorage.

We waited for about an hour Sunday morning in Little Diversion for the fog to lift. With all the barge traffic and diving buoys around us, no one wanted to venture out of our safe spot! Around 9am, we got back out on the Mississippi—and rode for about 48 more miles to the turn-off for the Ohio River. As much as I’ve heard all my life about the Mississippi River—the sweet songs and the mysteries of the river, I can honestly say I wasn’t impressed with these 217 miles we’ve traveled one bit. There were no areas to enjoy the water—it’s just a brown, muddy, vast wasteland of “waterfront”. There are wing-dams all along the river, mostly in the bends, to keep the banks from eroding—making our navigating cross from one side to the other continuously. With the waters flooding as often as they do, building a home near the water is truly foolish. We saw not one person swimming or skiing or enjoying the water the way we do, albeit the flooding might have kept people off the river—but still, no pleasure crafts at all, only us Loopers and the occasional boater ( maybe 3?) traveling south. The Mississippi is just a long commercial waterway/highway, pure and simple. Barges, barges, and more barges—and tugboats, large and small, scampering back and forth from one to another.

As we made our wide left turn into the Ohio River, the waters suddenly changed from a muddy brown to a pretty green—finally, halleluiah—back into nice waters! (Ever since we left Lake Michigan, we have been in nasty waters—how many weeks has that been?) The line separating the two bodies of water was visually amazing—it was as if there had been a knife cutting through the water—brown on one side, green on the other! Color us all happy! Swim anyone?!

A Few More Thoughts From Grafton

2008-09-24T20:10:00.006-04:00

When you spend so many days mesmerized by watching the water rise over 12 feet, praying it doesn't get over the wheels of your car parked in the parking lot, seeing roads closed due to flooding (detour, detour, detour), also praying the power/water doesn't get cut off to your boat and you'll have to use your generator in this muddy mess---you lose track of time. What day is it? How long have we been here?! All total, we've spent 12 days here--and I totally forgot some of the other things we did when I posted the last blog this morning. Since we get to finally move down river tomorrow, I don't want to forget them either--so here goes.

We spent one morning going to the lock at Alton--there's a museum on site and a guided tour. On our day there, we had a young girl (maybe 20 years old)--only her 4th time leading a tour of the lock--and poor thing, she didn't know much at all. Others went the day before and got an older gentleman who evidently gave them a fantastic tour--oh well, can't get them all just so. But the interactive displays in the museum were very interesting and we each got the chance in a simulator to try and drive a barge through one of the locks--not an easy feat --none of us succeeded! We were all amazed at how much debris the locks keep bottled up in times like these--we would have thought they would have released all the stuff to flow downstream as soon as it collected. Not so. It all flows to New Orleans--no wonder they have so many problems there!

Another day, once the rivers started to drop, we took the near-by Brussels ferry across to the historic Wittmond Hotel, in Brussels. Constructed in 1885, it serves "family style" lunches and dinners 365 days a year (imagine!) by fifth generation family members! Fried chicken, roast beef, homemade country sausage, rolls, soup, vegetables, relishes, slaw, gravy & mashed potatoes & homemade desserts.....all served on lace tablecloths.....wow, did we ever stuff ourselves--all 7 of us ate like it was Thanksgiving! On the way home, we all chose what we thought was the best--I chose the warm blackberry cobbler with ice cream.

Another treat was going up the steep hill just behind us to "the winery". It actually doesn't make wine there--only serves it, and now only on the weekends--but what a truly fantastic view of all the surrounding area. We could see for miles--see where the Mississippi and Illinois rivers join, see farm land off just beyond the Mississippi, even see the city of Alton--which is 15 (?) miles away. We all wished we could come back when the leaves would be turning their vibrant colors and just sit up there one whole afternoon and watch it all pass by--wouldn't it be lovely!

During the times when we weren't going back and forth through the corn fields to Jerseyville for Wal-Mart, Auto Zone, UPS, and such--we spent walking the streets here in Grafton--great little shops and such. There was an "Arts' Fair" in the Town Square Saturday, and that was fun. We've all bought fresh fruit, peanut brittle, and homemade pies from the "pie lady"--absolutely the best ever--just ask Louis. We've bought 3 pecan pies!! We seem to be just like our friends the Staggs, and I quote: "We just seem to be eating our way around the Loop!' Yep, that's all of us too. Loopers seem to know all the best places to go, and we love "networking"! Delicious all the way----is the only way to go!

We leave tomorrow (Thursday, September 25th) for the marina in Alton. Although it's only 15 miles downstream, a spread sheet was proposed for all of us Loopers to follow as we exit our perspective spots--so that we not get "bottle necked" in any one particular area in the coming days. As we travel down the Mississippi for the next 200 hundred miles or so, places to overnight are few and far between. We will be at anchor three nights, and the few anchorages there are can't hold many boats. Had the flood not come, we all would have been spread out enough to make each stop without any trouble of "no place in the inn". But since we all got held up for almost two weeks, now we all need to be smart and follow the departure suggestions from AGLCA. It's our turn to leave and start down, so we leave. We say good-by to Jan and Joe here at Grafton Marina--we're now members of their family--but there are many behind us coming down who will enjoy this place as we have. "Sunshine", "Southern Comfort", and "Bella Luna" are so excited to be on the move again! We'll join the 3 "Texas" boats at Hoppies on Friday--more of our Grafton family!

The rivers are going down!

2008-09-24T11:01:00.003-04:00

I haven't posted anything in a week because we're still in the same place we've been now for eleven days! Our "special home" of these past days has been the Grafton Marina, and we've been here with 10 Looper boats--everyone "stranded" because of the high waters on the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. All the marinas/lock walls/barge tie-ups both up and down the rivers have been ordered to stand still. The Coast Guard shut down the rivers--giving $1,000.00 fines for anyone crazy enough to get out on the waters. Whole trees, hunting blinds, wooden docks, big sections of marshes, huge buoys, and every kind of trash imaginable have been floating down the flooded river beside us. The current is very swift too--making boating treacherous--especially for the boats that have only one engine or go slowly on normal currents . There are over 60 Looper boats now--all trying to get moving again--some way behind us (Chicago--360 miles) to others just a few miles downstream. But we've all been sitting still for well over a week.

Our days have been spent basically working on and cleaning our boats--boy, do they all shine now! Every one's laundry is caught up and pantries well stocked. We've had a rental car, so we consider ourselves luckier than most--we've had access to shopping, restaurants, and touring. We spent one day in St. Louis--going to the famous arch and it's wonderful museum. The arch was built in honor of Thomas Jefferson and his wish to "venture westward" in the expansion of the United States. The museum that is also at the arch is well worth the 3 hours we spent there--they have 2 movies and a self guided, but fabulous rendition of what Lewis & Clark experienced in trying to explore what was then called The Louisiana Territory (purchased from Napoleon!). Although it was unveiled at the St. Louis World's Fair, it was not designed for that exposition, as we both had thought (like the Eiffel Tower in Paris). But what fun it was to ride the little cable car up the short 4 minute passage way to the top! And what a view! On one side we saw the flooded Mississippi, with its' paddle wheel boat stranded and all gang planks leading down into the muddy, nasty waters--what a mess--the 3 flag poles and the road in front of the tour boat were all 10-12 feet (?) under water--not a welcoming sight at all. But on the other side of the arch we saw the baseball field and a beautiful view of downtown.

Being here for so long has also given us the great opportunity to see Louis's old high school buddy, Steve Godwin. We've had dinner with Steve and his precious wife, Janet, now three times--and we all have had just the best time catching up with each other after these many years apart. We've loved reliving old times/stories and sharing new ones about our now grown children and grandchildren, careers and travels. I wish we lived closer!

A stay of any length of time here would not be complete without mentioning the ever famous restaurant/bar/local gathering place called "Fast Eddies"! What an experience--no one under 21 is allowed on the premises, there's a band nightly, they have only 7 items on the food menu, they have a huge inside and an equally large outside "dining" area (order your food & then find your own table), they're open from 11am to 1am---and it's hard to find a table to sit at even during lunchtime! We've been there now twice, and at lunch both times; we can't imagine what it would be like at night--wild and even-more loud, probably! It's totally unique! Their food prices are dirt cheap (delicious 1/2 pound hamburger is 99 cents!)--obviously their money is made on the bar and tee shirts/coozies/hats/beads/various junk! Even with all that, what a great place! Color Louis happy.

We've also eaten at some great places too--one being here in Grafton, The Mississippi Half-Step. Anyone reading this who is coming behind us downstream should not miss this place--we've eaten there twice--Louis having the scallops one night, the steak the other night, and me having chicken livers both nights--they're that good. Actually, I shared mine with Janet one night--gotta love a woman who loves chicken livers!! Yum.

I hate to end this blog this way, but on a serious note, the hardest thing we've had to face while on this trip is when we hear sad news from home--we feel so helpless being so far away and at a loss of just what to do. We've heard recently of the loss of Troy's son, Betty Clyde's mother and Vance's father--and just this morning, of the sadness Brantley's facing right now with his mother. Our hearts and prayers go out to all these special folks--our friends. If we were home, all of you know we would be right there beside you. God bless us all.

Safe and Sound, but Stuck in Grafton!

2008-09-17T12:45:00.001-04:00

Sunday, September 14, 2008
As I sit here Sunday morning writing this, I’m watching the effects of Hurricane Ike float by the boat. We are safely tied up in a marina in Grafton—“the confluence town”—where the Illinois River and the Mississippi River meet—at mile marker 0.0! We’re expected today to have between 2-4 inches more of “Ike” rain, high winds, and the river is expected to rise 3 feet—but Ike is moving quickly through the area and by mid afternoon it should be gone.

With the storm coming, we pushed harder yesterday, traveling another 20 miles further than our usual, of late, 40 miles per day. We skipped tying up at the restaurant dock, deciding to come 20 miles more and get safely in a marina before the wind and rain descend upon us. We have traveled this week 326 miles—amazing—considering we left Chicago Monday morning—the beginning of the Illinois River—and we arrived at the end of the Illinois late yesterday—Saturday. As we got closer and closer to this marina, it was like a space shuttle countdown on our flybridge….10, 9, 8, 7, 6, …..miles to go! Whew—we’re here!

But yesterday was exciting in its’ own particular way. We had one lock to go through, but because Chicago had experienced 5 inches of rain two days prior, the river had already risen considerably. So when we got to the lock—instead of going through the lock, we went over the dam! It sounds scary, but it wasn’t at all. The dam has “wickets” which can be hydraulically lowered in times of high water. So we gracefully slid by the lock, taking pictures from the “outside” and marveling at modern technology. We have two locks to go through on our part of the Mississippi ( @200 miles), and we might have the same experience there too—who know how much more rain we’ll encounter on our way down! People around here don’t seem to get bothered by all this rising and falling of the waters, so I guess we should just chill too.

It’s now Tuesday morning, and we’re still here in the Grafton Marina—owners Joe and Jan have been so hospitable, supportive, and understanding of our dilemma. The rivers are flooded and everyone has been advised to stay put for several days more and wait for the waters to subside—upstream and downstream. We may be here for even as long as a week—everyone will be. “Bella Luna” is tied up at the end of a dock, tied “side-to” so that our salon window is parallel with the river. All day long we watch the river rapidly flowing and the debris that is coming with it. The debris could pile up in front of our boat, like it did the other night when we were tied up to a barge, but it doesn’t now—we’re behind a breakwater wall and all the mess is on the outside of the wall. We’re in a lot better spot than some others along the river: we’ve got power, Louis is going to get a rental car today, we have walking access to the cute town/restaurants here, and we hope to drive to St. Louis and give it a tour either today or tomorrow. Louis’s high school buddy, Steve Godwin, lives in St. Louis and we will be seeing Steve and Janet again. Both of them drove here (an hour away!) our first night here and what a reunion the guys had!! The evening was just great—and men think women talk a lot!

Raindrops Keep Falling On Our Heads!

2008-09-17T12:42:00.001-04:00

September 11 & 12
We’ve spent the last two days traveling in the rain—and believe me, locking through is no fun in the rain—I get soaked every time! The weather forecast is for two more days of rain, with the remnants of hurricane Ike coming through our way either Sunday or Monday. By then, we hope to be in Alton (near St. Louis) where we’ll stop and rest for a few days, rent a car and ride out the effects of Ike. But it sounds like we’ll not see the sun for several more days. Ugh.

Since leaving Chicago Monday morning, we have been through the towns of Marseilles, Ottawa, Peru, Rome, Havana and Liverpool—wow—around the world in 5 days! But we both have chuckled over those names as we continue to move on down the Illinois River. There’s not much to see on this stretch except barges and levees, which protect these small towns from flooding. We have seen some interesting photographs on walls in local restaurants that have men standing waist deep in water in the middle of town from flooding. Scary! There is a lot of debris now—logs, boards, tree branches and such floating quickly downstream, so we both are really focused on what’s ahead of us as we motor along. With the rapid water now and the fact that we’re going downstream with it, we’re also getting a great “push”—great on fuel consumption. Color Louis happy! We’ve also seen several more eagles in the past two days—all perched on dead trees looking for a tasty fish to swim by. These Asian carp are sometimes jumping in our wakes too—the river is full of them—and I was told this morning that some of them get to be five feet long and weigh close to 120 pounds. Amazing! They do not bite on a hook, you have to net them.

After spending Thursday night in the quiet, but nice Tall Timbers Marina, we’re now (Friday afternoon) tied up alongside a huge barge in Beardstown, Illinois—the smaller “spud” barge (which is actually the town dock!) is currently too full of river debris for us to get anywhere near it. In order for us to get alongside this barge, the tugboat company’s manager cranked up his engines and blew off all the debris which had collected alongside over the past several days. Thank you, Captain Jeff! We’ve been following the Stagg’s blog on “Second Wind” (they completed the Loop last year) and when they got to this very place last year it was 103 degrees—wow—what a difference we’re having this time around! (Don’t know which is worse—the heat or the rain?!) We’re still traveling with the same five boats of the past several days and hope to make a long run tomorrow to Hardin, where we have reservations to tie up at a restaurant dock—just like Tony’s dock in Morehead City! (I’ll bet they don’t have hushpuppies of any kind there though.)

As I sit here this afternoon blogging, our bow is facing upstream and I’m also watching all the debris coming down the river—so much more so than when we tied up four hours ago. Bud on “Sunshine” just stopped by our boat to tell us that the locks have lowered their “wickets” because of all the rain yesterday, today, and what’s forecasted in the next few days. That’s exciting—the locks tomorrow ought to be fun!! The river is racing by us now as we’re tied securely to the old rusty barge, and every now and then we hear a bump or a scrape—just more stuff floating downstream. We’re the “lead boat” tied up today—everyone takes a turn. Hopefully something really big won’t crash into our bow before we leave early tomorrow!

September 10th, Feathers and Fur

2008-09-11T21:11:00.003-04:00

We did indeed have two bumps in the night—both from logs or something big enough to startle us awake and hit all 5 boats while we were tied up against the wall in Joliet. (No damage to any boats thankfully.) The river, so far, is narrow—and to tie up beside a wall at night is at each boater’s peril. The “walls” ( in a town/near a town) are usually free of charge, so a lot of Loopers decide to overnight against them—however, we feel in this river (because it is so narrow) it is more comfortable/safe to stay off the main channel and in a marina, if possible. The Illinois, Mississippi, and Ohio are commercial waterways first and foremost—we “pleasure crafts” are mighty small in comparison. You only need to go past one of these long barges to realize how "small" we are! We certainly do not need any more prop/hull damage to “Bella Luna”—hello, no one does! Not a single boat on this trip has escaped some sort of prop/hull damage that we know of--to date.

We traveled on a bright and sunny, but cool (47 degrees!), Tuesday morning down the Illinois River to Ottawa, Illinois—getting there by mid afternoon. There were five us now: “C-Life”, “Sunshine”, “Southern Comfort”, “Phantom…”, and "Bella" (as our friends are calling us now!). We’re taking advantage of the beautiful weather and trying to move as far south as we can while the weather holds. To think that we have several hundred miles to travel to make Joe Wheeler by October 20th is daunting—weather can keep us at bay for untold days. It's tough traveling distances several days in a row, but our Captains keep us moving. “Rolling, rolling, rolling, keep those doggies rolling…rawhide!!”

So, after a quick-but-late (we were doing laundry at 10 pm!)) Tuesday night in Ottawa after a too long mexican dinner, a trip to the local Laundromat, Henry’s (local ABC), and IGA supermarket, we left the newly refurbished Heritage Harbor Marina in Ottawa, Illinois early Wednesday morning and hated to say good-by to Captain Moe, a former Looper and Harbor Master Supreme. He made our brief stay in his marina truly memorable—from the wonderful gift bag for everyone to enjoy, to the use of his personal car, to securing a van for all of us to go to dinner, and for hosting a cocktail/briefing party on his fabulous party boat right after our arrival. His marina is the kind of place we would all be happy to be “stuck” in for several days because of weather! We’re all looking forward to seeing him again for the fall rendezvous at Joe Wheeler in October. He’ll be there promoting his “new” marina, of course!

It was a beautiful Wednesday morning as we got back on the water, and as we started south we saw (surprisingly) numerous waterfowl hunters out on floating blinds, setting up decoys, brushing up blinds, and other hunters sitting quietly in their freshly completed blinds—little did we know that a short goose season was in right now. There were duck blinds to our port, and others to our starboard—we had never seen so many in one place ever--and for miles too!! We even heard a few gun shots. Color Louis happy. He said this had to be his favorite day in the whole trip so far--imagine that!

With nice weather, we have traveled now about 120 miles down the Illinois River, coming through several large commercial locks, and making our way this afternoon to Hamm’s Marina--just about 20 miles north of Peoria, Illinois. There are five of us boats, who have all been traveling together now for three days, and we’re just “rolling down the river” as Tina Turner would sing in “Proud Mary”! No one has the song with them, so “Brother Jay” is sending it along to Louis’s computer, and we’ll probably get it tonight or whenever he can get high speed wireless. We’ll be playing it for everyone for several days to come, I'm sure! Bud on "Sunshine" sings to us everyday--so we're hoping to get something else to listen to. We love you, Bud!

We have not had a “nature day” like today in our whole trip—boy has it been exciting! To start off with, Louis was below and I was at the helm with 2 boats behind us (two in front of us) when I noticed off to my port—a doe swimming across the river! Poor thing, she was wide-eyed and scared, seeing us come into her path—and not even realizing that there were two more big boats behind us too. I quickly slowed down, alerted the boats behind me, and we all swerved to make her crossing easier. Thank goodness she made it across, we lengthened her swim by several long minutes—and it’s not easy swimming against this current! Wouldn't that have been a great headline: "Woman Boater Runs Over Deer In Middle Of Illinois River!"

About an hour later, we had about a 30 minute wait for the federal Marseilles Lock to open for us, and while idling we saw such waterfowl as we’ve not seen before. We saw beautiful white pelicans, hundreds of them, so they must be migrating. We’d never seen the white ones before, and they were so big, so white, with their black tipped wings and long yellow beaks. We were told that these pelicans are the largest web-footed birds in the world—with wing spans up to 8 feet. We hope to see most of them in Florida—they may just get there before us! We also saw a huge white-headed eagle sitting on a nearby log eating a freshly caught fish—so much fun seeing him so close! We had, sadly, not seen eagles for weeks, and were thinking that we wouldn’t see them again for a long while. Not so. Color all us Loopers happy when we saw him! Also, in the water there we saw geese, mallards, grey and white herons, ospreys, and cormorants. We had not seen that much waterfowl concentrated in one spot the whole time we had been on the Loop—amazing! Thank goodness too, because if we had not had to wait for the lock to open, we would have missed the view of all those feathers—we had several special minutes to just idle and enjoy our surroundings. It makes me wonder though why all that waterfowl was congregated there—right at the dam and lock opening. I’m especially glad we didn’t miss that opportunity. A day of feathers, fur, and feathers—wow—we’ve traveled for months now all through the Chesapeake, New England, Canada, the Georgian Bay, and the North Channel and haven’t had a "nature" day like today! It was a beautiful day indeed. TYJ.

Farewell Chicago!

2008-09-11T20:57:00.003-04:00

We left Chicago on this bright sunny morning around 8 am with “C-Life”, “Sunshine”, and “Southern Comfort”. We quickly locked through the first lock, which was built to keep the nasty waters of the Chicago River (which runs through downtown Chicago) from getting into the pristine waters of Lake Michigan. Good thing too—it was an ugly mess! We have been in such beautiful waters ever since leaving New York and it was a stark reminder of how truly nasty some waters can become—what a shame too. But quietly riding along under the bridges and overpasses of busy and rushing early morning Chicago commuters was special—they were hurrying, most were on cell phones and we were just cruising along! And riding along through those canyons of tall buildings where we were at water level was even more imposing—the buildings were much, much taller than when we had been on them at street level!

We passed through South Chicago—not a pretty view at all from our angle—many industrial plants and such—plus O’Hare’s runway must have been very close—lots of airplanes were thundering at take-off right over us. Along the way, we encountered several long barges going upstream to us—sometimes we even went between two at a time! Yipes—and with me at the helm! But we had a relative easy 40 miles traveling south (downstream) on the Illinois River to Joliet, only occasionally dodging logs and trash. We passed under a bridge called “The Atchison, Topeka, and The Santa Fe”—I remembered a song with that name in it and I thought it was especially funny—considering where we were—I thought we’d have to be out west to hear that! We also went under a huge green arch which was constantly electrically charged (from the arch overhead to a screen on the bottom floor of the water) to keep the Asian carp from swimming upstream. These carp were brought in years ago in hopes they would help with the algae problem in the river. The river had so much algae/food in it that the fish reproduced/exploded in record numbers—now they have a problem with way too many carp---just like our lingering problem with kudzu! Hard to mess with Mother Nature!

After about 5 hours of traveling, all four boats tied up against the wall in Ottawa, Illinois—in the cold, wet rain. Our bows were facing upstream so if any debris/logs were coming our way it would hopefully bounce off the bows and not the sterns—where the props are. There’s lots of trash/logs/debris in these waters. Good decision/idea! We got together for drinks on “C-Life” after getting hot showers (we were meeting their "new" company on board), and regrettably, it was not a great afternoon nor evening to go exploring Joliet! Maybe next trip.

Thoughts on Chicago

2008-09-07T13:26:00.000-04:00

No matter how much time you have available to explore Chicago, it’s never enough! We thought we had five days here, however we lost one to tropical storm Gustav dumping over 3 inches of rain here in a single day—we stayed on the boat to clean, read, and “piddle”. Fortunately, we were securely tied down in our marina, so the high winds didn’t affect us at all. Plus, Louis was sick with a 24 hour virus the next day, which kept him tethered to the boat for the duration—we’re both glad we were not “traveling” during that time.

We do have a few highlights of our stay here in Chicago:
**The architectural boat-tour that takes its passengers through downtown Chicago on a 90 minute tour is well worth doing. Although we will be going through the same route on our way south, we learned things that our many guidebooks couldn’t tell us.
**Navy Pier doesn’t have much to offer us—except the magnificent stained glass museum, with its’ huge collection of 1890’s-ish panels, doors, and archways that could have been lost during the 50’s and 60’s when stained glass fell out of favor. Many of the stained glass pieces were made by Tiffany, but the prettier pieces for me were not his. I have never seen a collection as large as this one, and would highly recommend it to anyone. It takes about 2 hours to go through completely. Supposedly, Wheel of Fortune was being filmed at Navy Pier this week. The Ferris Wheel is half as tall as it used to be, but on the day we were there it was not weather friendly enough to ride it.
* *Fogo De Chao is always a fabulous restaurant—and we’re constantly on the outlook for one in a large city (there are not that many in the states). What a treat for us and a “dining experience” for our friends—thank you—burp, Brother Jay, for introducing us to Fogo’s many years ago!
**Bike and Roll’s Segway tour is the best in Chicago! We started our tour in Millennium Park, and for the next 2 & ½ hours, we had a ball. The view of Chicago from the Aquarium has to be the most photographed angle there is—spectacular—wow. We saw 10 brides and their bridal parties while we were briefly there (Saturday @ 3:30pm)—all wanting to get that perfect shot/background for their albums! I imagine there’s a steady stream all day long of wedding parties—especially on Saturdays—it was fun looking at the beautiful dresses! We glided through the Museum Campus, the South Loop Lakefront, Michigan Avenue, Grant Park and we stopped mid-way to get a “famous” Chicago hot dog and cola. The second Mayor Dailey has definitely left his stamp on Chicago by elevating this city’s position from #28 to #2 in the country in beautification ranking—Seattle being #1. Every park is exquisitely decorated with huge planters, fountains, sculptures, statues, benches, and flowers—and every outdoor restaurant, by law, must now have flower boxes outside separating the diners from the walkers. So big city pretty and welcoming to us tourists!
**The play, The Jersey Boys, is simply fabulous. I would see it over and over. Frankie Vali and the Four Seasons was the first concert I ever saw as a young girl—and their music I have loved ever since. I have had the original Broadway production CD now for months—and love it, love it. Thinking of you, Jeannie!
**The bike/walk pathways are wonderful here. They connect all areas of downtown—we have “pounded the pavement” daily and nightly, feeling safe and secure at all times. The Chicago Marathon will be run in October with a limit of only 35,000 participants (why?)—I believe half of them were out training on these pathways Saturday morning as we were trying to get to the grocery. Bicyclists do not slow down on these paths—they fly!
**The DuSable Marina on Lakeshore Drive is a great spot for staying a few days in Chicago. Michigan Avenue used to be “the waterfront”, but after The Great Chicago Fire (where Mrs. O’Leary’s cow knocked over a lantern) and where 17,000 businesses and houses were burned to the ground, all the rubble was pushed towards the water—extending “the land” two long blocks wide all along the lake—now Lakeshore Drive is waterfront. A mammoth removal like that could never be done in today’s times—otherwise Manhattan would now be larger than it was pre 9/11.
**Trump Towers will be the second tallest building in Chicago when complete—only behind the Sears Tower. The Trumpster wanted to build it higher, but they wouldn’t give him a license to do so!
**Oprah lives on a whole floor in Water Tower Place—home of the Ritz Carlton and fabulous shopping. Her opening show of the season was shot in Millennium Park with the Beijing USA Olympians—we could have gone (they were giving out tickets) along with 8,000 other people—but six of us had already purchased other tickets for a tour during the same time—all “unrefundable”, of course. I would have loved to see Oprah’s show, but Louis would have hated it!
**Chicago-style deep-dish pizza is OK—thick crust and a good 2 inches deep in cheese. We both prefer a thin crust pizza—good ole’ North Carolina style—one that you can roll up and eat with your fingers.
**Chicago must have the country’s largest fleet of stretch limos. We have never seen so many in so many different locations in one city—they’re everywhere, everyday—unbelievable. Also, especially on a Saturday afternoon and evening, this town is hopping—with food, music, boats, cabs, lights, and people. You can find anything you want here—and in any language—the town is so diversified. It’s wonderful to see and experience the energy—we’ve been happy with our time in The Windy City.

Arriving in Chicago

2008-09-07T13:23:00.000-04:00

We had hoped to spend more time coming down the shoreline of Michigan, but with the forecast of the remnants of Hurricane Gustav coming up this way, we decided to shorten our plans and cross Lake Michigan on Tuesday, a predicted calm day. Evidently, others decided the same thing—early Tuesday morning, nine Looper boats came out of the harbor of Saint Joseph at the same time! Other boats were coming out as well—fishermen and sailboats—and with the sun just coming over the horizon, it was a pretty picture indeed.

We had an easy 50 mile crossing—the winds were low and the waves 1-2 feet—we couldn’t ask for a better morning to be on the lake and out-of-sight of land for several hours. We arrived in downtown Chicago at DuSable Marina mid-afternoon on a hot, hot day. It was September 2nd, and both Louis and I couldn’t remember one single day this summer that we’ve been that hot! What made it so uncomfortable was there was no wind—and we thought we were in the “Windy City”!

Once we had secured the boat and checked in, we joined “C-Life” and “Wanderin’ L & M” and headed towards the Visitor’s Center for maps and brochures of the area. We passed Millennium Park, which is just two blocks from our marina, and quickly found the old library where all the information was. So much to see and do here and over 16,000 restaurants—how/what will we choose?! Decisions, decisions. But we all know the weather makes our decisions for us.

We all decided to try and do at least: an architectural boat-tour of downtown Chicago, eat deep dish “Chicago” style pizza, do a Segway tour of downtown, see a few museums, do a tour of Wrigley Field if we can’t go to a game, see the play “the Jersey Boys”, go to Navy Pier, and go to the fabulous restaurant, Fogo De Chao. We have five days here—we ought to be able to squeeze it all in! With 2-4 inches of rain and high winds predicted for Thursday, we may lose one day.

Grand Haven, Michigan

2008-08-30T15:37:00.004-04:00

Today is Saturday, August 30th, Labor Day weekend—how sad, the official “last” weekend of summer. We’re all aghast at how quickly the summer has flown by—even our children at home can’t believe it! We have been here in Grand Haven now three nights and we will stay until tomorrow, Sunday. Then we hope to anchor in Saugatuck and enjoy that “artsy” little town for a couple of days. We hope the crowds of this holiday weekend will lessen after Monday, and we can continue working our way down to Chicago with calm winds.

Grand Haven is a busy place! There’s lots of boat traffic here with several marinas all feeding through this one inlet onto Lake Michigan. We are happily parked at the town’s Municipal Marina along with over a dozen other Looper boats—all deciding to stay put for a few days. We hustled earlier this week, traveling long days—three in a row—and we’re all tired. So sitting still is having its’ rewards! We’ve “slept in” (7:15am!), worked on the boat, done laundry, Louis has waxed the inside hull and cleaned the teak cockpit, we’ve rented a car for Wal-Mart, West Marine, Napa, Home Depot, Staples, Hallmark, etc. Another Looper has had a birthday: Robert from “C-Life”—Happy Birthday Robert!—and many more. We’ve had 2 “pre-dinner get-togethers” so far, and we’re having a Looper hamburger cook-out tonight—color Louis happy—he gets to be the official cook over charcoal! As of this writing, there are 23 people signed up to come--yipes! Everyone is looking forward to the cookout because we've all been using gas grills now for months—and there’s nothing better than a burger over coals! (Thinking of you, Bean!)

We’ve taken the trolley on a tour of the town—it also took us to the State Park end where the pretty, sandy, beach is that we saw coming into the harbor here. There were trailers, campers and people everywhere. We were amazed to see so many people out on the beach and some actually in the water (burr!), but then we learned that one and a half million people visit that particular beach/park every year! Amazing—where do they all come from? The “season” here is so short that it makes it even more unbelievable, considering how much longer the season is where we come from.

Right behind us there is a coal-fired electric power plant—reminding us of Lake Hyco—but with only one “stack”. Barges that are 500-600 feet long bring in the coal to fuel the plant--the barges come right behind our boats! We’ve been here now three days, and I have yet to see any smoke coming out of the stack—must be a lot cleaner than home—and it’s very quiet too. It’s now Saturday (as I’m continuing to write this), and the boat traffic today is the craziest to date—I think everyone who has a boat is out on the water today (as they should be!) and they are all HERE! It’s a cool, clear, and beautiful day. TYJ. I am so glad we’re in a slip.

***Something of interest: Even with the “main street” (nicer shopping & restaurants) of Grand Haven being just across the street from us, our marina is part of a long, wide, concreted boardwalk that follows along the water’s edge for a good, long distance. There are all kinds of tee shirt and clothing shops, ice cream stands, trolley stops, hot dogs, popcorn, and taco stands, and a nice stretch where lots and lots of people: walk, bicycle, jog, rollerblade, walk dogs, push baby carriages, look at boats (“tied up” like us and “profiling” up and back, up and back, behind us), sit under beautiful shade trees, sit on benches and watch everyone else just going by. People watching is always fun! The parade of boats today has been especially spectacular. There’s even a grand-stand area where people gather every evening to watch the light show across the water--or dance, if the DJ is there—which he was Wednesday evening. The town of Grand Haven sponsors a sound, light, and “dancing waters” show every evening at 9:30pm—it lasts about 20 minutes. The music changes nightly, so it’s been fun to watch it each evening. It takes place right behind this marina (we sit on our stern and watch it from a bird’s eye vantage!), and we’ve watched it now for the last three nights. What fun—and what a good incentive for keeping the hordes of tourists downtown until 10pm! Tonight will be the last show for us, as we’re leaving tomorrow morning for Saugatuck. The nightly show is every evening from Memorial Day to Labor Day—and then only on weekends through the end of September--just another sign, along with the changing leaves here, that fall is right in our faces. Ugh. Also, there is the fabulous farmer’s market which is held right here on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. It is something we’ve all enjoyed and it’s been fun to be right in the thick of things for a few days. Happy Labor Day everyone!

Fishing on Lake Michigan-or-Trying At Least!

2008-08-29T09:53:00.004-04:00

Today is Wednesday, August 27th. We have been blessed with three beautiful, calm days on Lake Michigan in which to travel. Although cool in the mornings (47 degrees early Tuesday morning!), the winds and waves have died down—allowing us to ride comfortably for these three days another 160+ miles further south. Lake Michigan is approximately 307 miles long and 118 miles wide—all beautiful and clear fresh water—we have also seen depths of over 500 feet. Amazing!! We will be going all the way down the eastern shore of the lake to Chicago—taking us along the western coast of Michigan. This time of year the lake gets especially windy and rough—so we have to be careful when traveling and choose our days to travel wisely. And after reading the blog of our good friends, Liz & Bob Stagg on “Second Wind” who completed the Loop last year, we find ourselves feeling mighty lucky! Their weather was not as favorable as ours has been—to date!

We left Charlevoix Monday morning and traveled 65 miles south to Frankfort. We got there late in the afternoon, and were greeted by a full flock (20+) of beautiful white swans, swimming very near our boats—the first large number of these to date! We didn’t have time to see much of the town, but we all ate ribs that night and skipped the nightly ice cream! We were all so disappointed to learn that the local bakery that we had heard about would be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays—we were leaving early the next morning—and we all were hoping to have some nice, fresh, hot breads to take with us. Soooo, coming up with plan B—like all good Loopers do—we made a quick early morning run to the nearby convenience store for fresh, hot donuts for all five of our boats—our “diets” are all going to hell—but no one seems to care! We left the quiet lake in Frankfort, which was full of fog—all the Captains were glad that the fog seemed to be only in our cove area— hanging low and full on the early morning water. A sliver of a moon was still shining brightly, and it was as picturesque as could be. Fishermen were already out (before daylight!); slow trolling in our cove and in the inlet leading into it. There’s lots of fishing going on here—more than we’ve seen to date.

I watched all day (and yesterday too!), from Frankfort to Ludington (46 miles), as the waters calmed and the fishermen were everywhere. Once we arrived in Ludington, a state-of-the-art fish cleaning area was right at our marina—color me happy—maybe I could persuade some fisherman to part with “just a little piece” of his catch! No such luck—they’re not allowed to “sell” any fish caught, and the man and his wife did not seem to want to barter with me either—sadness!! No fresh fish for us today.

We talked later on in the evening with a local guy who was going out early tomorrow morning to fish. It seems the salmon are finally running—and good too—and the fishermen hope it will last until late September. I do too—maybe there’s a chance for me after all. Up here, you’re allowed per boat: 3 of any one species, and five fish total per person. 5 people = 25 fish! The locals up here put children aboard, tell them to turn their electronics on and stay still (please!), and then the older guys put the fish onboard!! Good idea. Good mathematics.

So, like I said….today is Wednesday. We are almost in Grand Haven, Michigan, having traveled 56 miles today. I have put my fishing gear up and am now on the computer, on the flybridge—totally exasperated. Back about 40 miles, the water was flat, we had seen fish jumping, and lots and lots of boats had lots and lots of lines out. I couldn’t stand it anymore!!! I got my hastily packed box of beach tackle (all salt water, of course!) and found my largest lure, a #1 Clark Spoon, and my largest planer, a #4 one. I got Louis to slow the boat down so I could set the planer, and VOILA, I was fishing!! Color me happy. We were in about 40+ feet of water, and we had been told that the salmon were in about 100+ feet, but I didn’t care—I was finally fishing!!—thinking that maybe some stray fish would like to bite on what I was skimming in this pretty clear water. Our traveling Looper boats knew I was fishing, and they kept calling on the radio and asking how many I had caught and what time the fish fry would be tonight—ha ha! Not tonight, for sure—no such luck for me—but I was really trying! And when I finally pulled my hand-line in, my lure was gone!! Something either took a bite of it (which I hope/prefer to believe) or it became tired of being dragged for 40 miles! Everything else in my box was way too small, and I believe, way “not shinny” enough. So fishing was “over” for me for the day, but Wal-Mart is calling us tomorrow and I’ll surely get some fresh water tackle for my box! I really do hope to catch a fish before we get out of Lake Michigan—and they’re biting like crazy right now. Thankfully, Robert from “C-Life” was able to cajole his neighbor’s boat in Ludington into giving him a nice big piece of fresh salmon, so I’m going to cook it for him when there’s not a huge crowd around us.

***Something of interest—we have been traveling between ½ and 1 mile offshore today all the way to Grand Haven, and just today we have seen for the first time lots and lots of monarch butterflies migrating, all going from south to north—what a beautiful sight—I wonder why they’re traveling north and why so far from the land. We’ve never seen so many monarchs before and it reminds me that this time of year (around Labor Day) at Atlantic Beach we always see thousands of small yellow butterflies migrating, always west to east—I look forward to seeing them each year.

We wound up pulling into the Municipal Marina in Grand Haven around 4pm Wednesday, along with 11 other Looper boats—and you betcha—another cocktail party tonight—25 people!! What fun all these great people are—and they do like to have a good time around food and drink—I wonder why we fit in so well. We actually met 2 more Looper boats this afternoon that we hadn’t met before: “Our Turn” and “Kiwi Explorer” (they’re from New Zealand!) We plan on taking a tour of the area tomorrow, probably renting a car too. There’s a Cabela’s nearby, Wal-Mart and a West Marine, Staples and Home Depot—they’re all calling us. Plus a Verizon store, Louis needs to get his phone fixed, or get a new one—I’m tired of sharing mine!

Charlevoix to Frankfort

2008-08-29T09:49:00.001-04:00

Monday, August 25th.

We left the lovely Charlevoix this morning, getting up before sunrise (6am--ugh), putting on our jeans and sweatshirts (it was 55 degrees!), wiping the dew from the boat, untying our power cables and lines, and waiting in a 8-boat line to cross through the only bridge out onto Lake Michigan again—which would open for the first time at 7am. Thankfully, I can’t say I’ve seen as many sunrises as Louis, but this one this morning was especially beautiful. It was a crystal clear morning. The winds of the past four days had died, Lake Michigan was beginning to calm down, and 5 Looper boats were ready to travel and take advantage of the good weather: “Wanderin L & M”, “C-Life”, “Sunshine”, Phantom….” , and “Bella Luna”. “Southern Comfort” and “Ithaka” decided to sleep in and take the 8am bridge opening, but they were ready to travel too.

We got out on the clear waters of Lake Michigan and it was a little rough for about an hour, but then the “seas” calmed down, and the lake became as flat as it could be—and we’re thankful too—we will be going 65 miles today, almost twice as far as we’re now used to going. We’ve been spoiled—as I’ve said here before—we really like 30-35 mile days! It’s so calm that right now I’m sitting on the flybridge (1:15pm) and writing this in Word—to be “posted” at a later date!

On our port (left) side are these humongous sand dunes—600-feet-high—and a half mile off shore, the water’s depth is 350 feet deep! It’s hard to imagine just how high these dunes are, and how much fun it would be to slide down them! Back about a mile, there was an abandoned, rusty tanker off to our starboard—it must have mistakenly been in waters too shallow or been caught in one of these notorious Lake Michigan storms or fog—it’s listing heavily and stuck solidly very close to the shoreline. I wonder how long it’s been there—none of us Loopers know!

We should reach Frankfort by 4pm this afternoon—making for a long, but pleasant day on the water. Frankfort was supposedly named for Frank Martin, who arrived in the area in 1855. He promptly built a log stockade around his home to ward off the winter snow drifts and his neighbors called it “Frank’s Fort”—the name stuck. The town sits on Betsie Bay, which is fed by the Betsie River (thinking of you Betsy!). Five boats hope to stay at the Municipal Marina tonight and have ribs for diner at the locally famous restaurant, Dinghy’s. Yum—we haven’t ordered ribs yet on our trip—what with all the great fresh fish up here! “Ithaka” has decided to go into Leland for tonight and “Phantom wants to anchor out in a pretty spot. (We’ll all catch back up with each other in a few days.) “Prime Time” seems to be about a day ahead of us, and we have no idea where “Victory”,"Sandpiper", and “Mojo” have gone! If tomorrow is another day like today, we’ll be on the move again south—days like today will get “fewer and far between” as August comes to a close.

Another night in Charlevoix

2008-08-24T13:20:00.003-04:00

Today is Sunday, August 24th. I shudder to think that four months from today is Christmas Eve! Where does the time go--our "golden years" are just flying--and I want to throw out the biggest anchor I can find and hold on to now! Any suggestions, anyone?

All seven boats decided early this morning to stay put one more day here in Charlevoix--a good decision in the minds of all us girls. The winds were predicted to pick up later today and then die out tonight--so we'll all be up early tomorrow and on the move. The Captains have decided to skip Leland and head straight to Frankfort--possibly traveling several days in a row to make up some time. This upcoming weekend is predicted to be "iffy", so we might be laid up again then. We need to travel when the winds are low.

We wound up yesterday (Saturday) taking a short walking tour of Charleviox. We went to see the "mushroom" houses, designed by Earl Young--"a dreamer, designer and builder of unique and fascinating stone houses, making a lasting impression on Charleviox." To us, they all looked like gnomes or smurfs had lived in them! They had uneven shaped and low shake roofs, tiny windows, large stone-built on the outside, and chimneys that had cement poured/dripping around the tops looking like snow was still on them! They all were precious and unique. After taking lots of pictures of the cute houses, we went for a tour of the local library. Talk about an inspiration for every town, this one here is a benchmark for every community that has old, outdated school buildings. Having been built originally in 1909, it was first just a school, then a lower school, then a middle school, then in the late 1990's deemed "out of date". The community got behind the push to make it a "downtown" library, pooling 2 million dollars through donations and a 6.2 million dollar bond. They built a state of the art, fine, fine, fine library--coming in under budget and finishing construction ahead of time! We were lucky enough to get a guided tour, compliments of one of the trustees (former student, former teacher, and former President of the Library Guild--talk about a true legacy!) and we were all totally blown away with what they had done there. We even went upstairs and bought "gently" used books in their used book room--all sales going into a fund for buying children's books. I could go on and on about how impressed we were with what a small community can do with an old, outdated, centrally located building!

Saturday night we all went up to the local deli and had another delicious dinner--thankfully skipping the nightly routine of the ice-cream parlor for dessert. We all went back to our boats thinking we were getting up early today and leaving --that didn't happen. That seems to happen a lot being a Looper! So Sunday, today, has been spent washing and waxing and odds and ends on every boat. Maybe a movie this afternoon--Olympics closing ceremonies tonight.

Mackinac City to Charlevoix

2008-08-23T11:00:00.002-04:00

We wound up staying in Mackinac City four nights--the winds were just too strong and the waves too high for us to travel comfortably when we wanted to leave, so we waited for "calm seas". Lake Michigan can be very treacherous, and boaters need to err on the side of caution when traveling. In fact, all along the coast, approximately every 20 miles, Lake Michigan offers "Safe Harbors"--places specifically designated for stormy weather and marinas that cannot turn you away in the case of bad weather--even if it means rafting up--which we really like to do. This is a much appreciated service for all boaters and comforting too. So we didn't mind staying in Mackinac City another couple of nights--a touristy town (but not as bad as being in the rocky waters of the island) and we enjoyed the conveniences of having a car (Thanks Ron!). We were able to see the quaint town of Harbor Springs by car, traveling 20 miles through the tunnel of trees on a winding one-lane road, seeing the coastline from the opposite side of the water, and enjoying the locally famous "Bar Harbor" restaurant for lunch--where they make their own hamburgers and onion rings, and cook them anyway you like--yum! Color Louis happy!

Tuesday morning, August 19th, we left Mackinac City on a beautiful, calm morning and headed for Petoskey, Michigan--we'll be staying in ports along the eastern coast of Michigan all the way down to Chicago. After spending one night in Petoskey, we awoke to a calm morning. Time to get moving! So we fueled up and all 6 of us boats were ready to head to Charlevoix, Michigan--an easy run too. As we slowly traveled the shoreline, we saw the first--of many we hear to come--sand dunes!! Nice soft sand--yea! "Bella Luna" has had enough of rocks. As we approached the bridge leading into Charlevoix, the water turned crystal clear, aqua blue--so unexpected and beautiful. I looked for fish, because you can see so far down, but saw none--and I don't know why except that maybe the larger fish can see as clearly as I, and the little ones are hiding in the weeds!

Both Louis and I remember that his parents used to talk lovingly about Charlevoix--a lot. Neither of us can recollect when they were here or how often they came--and that's sad--we both wish we had paid better attention. But we can certainly understand their happiness for this place--it's so very beautiful and picturesque--we hope that they are looking down on us and smiling now that we're here. Louis even remarked that this was his favorite spot to date!

We're here with "Sunshine", "Ithaka", "Southern Comfort", "Wanderin' L & M", "C-Life", "Phantom of the Aqua", and this marina's resident Loopers, "Kismet". We've had two fun-filled days with these great people, enjoying breakfasts at "Judy's", where Judy's Mess and pancakes were a hit, lunch at the local Chinese (we all got our "fix") and Subway (color Bruce happy!), shopping at the great little boutiques, 4 Loopers getting haircuts, women doing laundry, enjoying having a nearby grocery (you can buy beer, wine, and liquor in the supermarkets and 7-Elevens!), shopping at the local Thursday morning farmer's market, having a Looper cocktail party in the wonderful newly decorated marina's lounge, enjoying ice-cream nightly, and celebrating Margie & Larry's 39th wedding anniversary--congratulations to them both! There was even a concert in the little clam-shelled pavilion right at the end of our dock on our first evening here! This is a special place indeed--no wonder it's so popular and hard to get a reservation here! We've loved it.

We hope this afternoon, when the rain subsides, to go see the "Mushroom Houses"--I don't want to miss them. If the rain continues, the girls may go to see "Mama Mia" which is close--two of us have already seen it, but will gladly go again! Tomorrow, Sunday the 24th, we sadly will leave this great town, but my seeing goldenrod blooming and leaves dropping makes us need to keep moving south. Every store front is full of fall and winter clothing--depressing!

As soon as we were "checked in", Louis put the dinghy in the water and off we went exploring. After touring this small lake filled with many boats, numerous huge boathouses, "Architectural Digest" homes and condos, we found a narrow and shallow "ditch" that took us in a horseshoe shape direction around the backside of the small lake where we're "marinered". Then, we went on to the very large and absolutely gorgeous Lake Charlevoix, a roundish immense lake, surrounded by large homes and beaches--and a mountain range in the far distance. It's one of the prettiest settings that we have ever seen! One beach in particular we liked--the one with all the little multicolored huts all lined up in a row--possibly owned or rented out for the summer. No one was on that particular beach, and it was a beautiful day, so we don't know exactly what it was--we can only surmise. But it's late summer here--August 20th--and the water is still so cold. We haven't seen but just a handful of people swimming at all during this entire trip, and I know why--65 degree water. Burr! We'll wait for warmer waters before we break out the bathing suits!

Yea!, we're back in the USA!

2008-08-18T18:20:00.006-04:00

We had an easy crossing from Canada to Drummond Island, Michigan. The water was almost flat enough to break out the water skis—if we had had any on board! “Phantom”, “Golden Lily”, and “Bella Luna” came out of our marina and in about an hour met up with “Wanderin’ L & M”, “C-Life”, and “Adagio”—all three of them electing to anchor out last night. The six of us looked like little ducks—all lined up in a row—for miles! As we were just about to cross into American waters, “ETC.” joined up—having come from the southern shore. We were a convoy of 7 boats—looking like a proud invasion of Loopers! There is a designated line, on the chart we use for navigation, showing where we actually would come into American waters, and as we passed over it, I quickly headed below for my “Ray Charles Sings America” and John Phillips Sousa CDs! We played 2 songs from both of them for our flotilla, and it was a really great feeling hearing those songs. As much as we hated leaving Canada, I must say we felt an unexpected and overwhelming joy upon returning “back home”! We all raised our yellow quarrantine flags, Custom officials came to all of our boats, and we had an easy transit back into the country. Whew!

We spent the first night in Drummond Island, going to dinner with all of us who had crossed that day—all 14 of us—and we had a great time, in spite of most of us who had left the windows in our boats open, left in 2 cars, drove a few miles away from the marina to a delicious restaurant, and half-way through dinner, looked out to see it pouring rain—ugh! “Welcome Home Everybody”!

Friday, we left for a marina at St. Ignase, Michigan—about 40 miles (?)—and had an easy crossing there too. We walked the streets in the small town, had dinner at an outside café across the street, and saw a beautiful sunset—“red skies at night, sailors delight”—plus a glorious, full, bella luna! The meteor shower had been this week for three nights, but we saw not a single one—the moon was just too bright. Sadness!

Saturday, August 16th, we crossed the lake 8 miles and settled into the Mackinac City Marina—a great spot in a busy town, with lots of shops and restaurants, fudge and ice cream. We are also just across the bay (16 minutes by ferry) from the famous island of Mackinac—pronounced “Mac-a-naw”—home of the Grand Hotel (one of “100 Places to See Before you Die” book and “Somewhere in Time” movie). We spent all of Sunday on the island, taking over there a jet boat ferry (complete with a huge rooster tail!), taking a horse drawn carriage tour of most of the island, having a delicious lunch outside (yea Rudy!) overlooking the bay—at the Fort, and going to the Butterfly House (disappointment—not that many varieties). The island does not allow cars, so the only means of transportation are horses (over 600 in the summer) or bicycles (thousands of them!). We were told that the “pooper scoopers” who go along behind the horses are some of the highest paid workers on the island—they’d have to be—imagine 600 horses—“road apples” are everywhere, but not for long! There are fudge shops almost on every corner, tee shirt shops elsewhere, and people, people, people everywhere—what a “must see” for all the tourists up this way. (Once is enough for us!) But The Grand Hotel is aptly named, painted the whitest of white, sitting high on a hill having a commanding view of the lighthouse and water, possessing almost 400 rooms—all decorated differently, and declaring proudly of having “the longest front porch of any hotel in the world”. The word huge does not adequately describe it—but “so beautiful” does.

I am now sitting in The Bean Counter, a small coffee shop, because our marina does not have wireless. Our marina is right across the street from dozens of these small shops, and we’ve had a great time peeking in and out of them. We had planned to leave this morning, Monday, but the winds are just too high for a comfortable 45+ mile ride to our next destination—we’re told Lake Michigan will likely be this way a lot—so we’ll just have to wait and be ready to run when the winds get down. So, “Bella Luna” got a great 3 hour bath this morning from the water level to her top and we all went out at lunch for pizza at Mama Mia’s—great! The Olympic are—sadly for us—winding down, and we’ll take advantage this evening of good TV reception to watch them. As of this posting, “Phantom of the Aqua”, “Grace Full”, “Etc.”, and “Bella Luna” are waiting in this marina for the winds to die down. “Wanderin’ L & M”, “C-Life”, and “Ithaca” are in the island marina at Mackinac. “Southern Comfort”, “Sunshine”, “Golden Lily”, "Adagio", and “Blue Max” are in the marina at St. Ignase—all 12 boats just a few miles apart. We will all head out as soon as we can, so more later, as we work our way south. We’re still thinking we’ll be in Chicago the week after Labor Day.

Leaving Canada

2008-08-18T16:44:00.002-04:00

Goodbye Canada

Thursday, August 14th. How befitting that on the morning we left Blind River, Ontario and headed for the USA we would see a beautiful eagle perched on a jetty rock just outside our marina! It was right at 7am, and he must have known we were leaving—his beak was pointing the way for us! (We hadn’t seen as many eagles as I had wished we would, but I felt this sighting was especially poignant.) We had spent the night at the marina, eating on board, watching a little of the Olympics, and choosing to go to bed early in preparation for our crossing The North Channel Thursday—it looked to be a favorable day to cross this wide body of water. We’ve become so spoiled with calm waters, having been in small canals almost since coming to Canada, protected from the winds and waves by cliffs and trees.

We have been in Canada now for two months, and we will remember being here for so many reasons:

First and foremost, we left a sweet part of our lives, and a member of our family, in Penatanguishine—our precious dog, Buddy. I put it all in his obituary, but his absence is still felt, achingly, everyday. Our hearts will always have in them a special place for Canada.

Weather
We’ve had the absolute coolest summer of our lives! Take for example this morning, it was 52 degrees when we woke up, and the highs in the afternoons have been only in the mid 70’s, with very low humidity—fabulous! Although Canada has had a record breaking summer of rain, it hasn’t hampered us or detracted from our enjoyment one bit. Most days have been beautiful to travel, with rain coming in late afternoon—or storms overnight. So far, wind has not been a major factor, making us “lay-over” for days on end. We’ve seen glorious sunsets. It’s very tempting to want to spend every summer here.

Colors
We’ll take with us flashes of color—brown cottages with red roofs, wind-bent green pines and cedars, pink granite cliffs and rocks, “snow” topped mountains—actually huge boulders of white quartz, tall scarlet flowers in Hopewell Bay, aqua waters in Topaz Lake, white and blue sails, red canoes, orange moons, jet black squirrels, brown sea gulls, multicolored flowers in the locks, black and white loons, silver domed churches in Quebec, green-topped buildings in Ottawa, “pretty” colored paper money, fireworks in Montreal, and red mushrooms in the forest path—to name only a few.

Tastes
We’ll take with us tastes of freshly caught pickerel and white fish, pea meal, poutine, freshly picked tiny wild blueberries, Fouquar’s (sp.?) ice cream, numerous “potluck” dinners, Canadian Labatt beer, and the very best fried chicken livers I’ve ever had in my life at Drummond Island (are you reading this Claire and Judy?!)—all so unexpected and delicious to us!

Sounds
Loons singing their special song—the rushing sound of waterfalls—bag pipers so graciously piping us into a small town—sitting in the basilica in Montreal listening to an all French mass—ospreys chirping constantly overhead—small town church bells—having “Mama Mia” play through my head for days, after seeing the movie—all sounds of this particular summer. Blissful quietness being anchored in coves—all so wonderful.

Faces
I’ve saved perhaps the best for last; because it’s the faces I want to remember the most and will probably have the hardest time doing so. Smiling faces everywhere—from the exceptionally trained and staffed Parks Canada men and women in the lock system, to the helpful locals pointing the way for us “tourists”—the people of Canada have been wonderful hosts. Smiling faces of children when their eyes lit on Buddy—“a dog on the boat”! Smiling faces so interested in our journey, unbelieving and envious that we’ve come so far. Smiling faces of store clerks and restaurant waitresses, fuel pumpers, dock hands, and everyday people—there seems to be an attitude here of happiness—at least from our perspective. Even Canadian television appears to have an uplifting attitude and “take” on the daily news programs. There’s not one single occasion that either of us can remember where we’ve been slighted in the least—everyone has gone out of their way to make us feel welcomed. And all of it makes me want to be a better ambassador of my own country—making me more tolerant of, and patient with, others visiting where we live, and not just Canadians either--all "tourists". It’s not the big things we’ve seen and done so far on this trip that I will remember the most, it’s the kindness shown by total strangers at every turn that will keep me smiling with fond memories. After all, it’s an attitude—eh?

The North Channel

2008-08-13T17:29:00.005-04:00

August 11th. We left Little Current Monday morning—all of us scrambling for a “pump out” at the same time. There must have been 10 boats, all lined up, and waiting for only 2 attendants to get lines on, pump each one out, take money, and get lines off. What a zoo!! The staff should have known that after everyone being “socked in” for the weekend with 2 & ½ inches of rain in 24 hours, that at the first sign of good weather, everyone would be itching to get back on the water! Oh well.

So we all finally got serviced, and off we went—to The Benjamin’s—a funny name, but a beautiful spot. Pink granite cliffs and huge rocks surrounded us—patches of wild blueberries were everywhere too! We rafted with “Phantom”, “C-Life”, and “Wanderin L & M” in a quiet little cove—had it almost to ourselves for a while. But with the wind the way it was for that day--it was a popular anchorage—a few sailboats came in, and then our other friends came to join us. We were so happy to see them too—these were the boats that were at the other marina in Little Current: “Sunshine”, “Southern Comfort”, “Blue Max”, “Ithaca”, and “Golden Lily”. After an impromptu cocktail party on the bow of our boat, we all settled in for the night—or at least we thought we had—until Larry and Robert decided to go just behind our boats and build a campfire on the big rock. (A round rock pile had already been formed by former fire-builders!) Louis and Bruce couldn’t stand that the others were having all the fun, so they joined them too—what a cute sight that was, all four guys sitting around a campfire—what stories/lies must have been told!! Alas, no one, on any boat, had marshmallows!

Tuesday, August 12th. We awoke this morning with Bonnie bringing us homemade blueberry muffins!! What a treat for the four of us boats rafted together—and what a labor of love—the wild blueberries up here are plentiful, but tiny, tiny—you have to stoop and pick a lot to even get a cup full! It was a beautiful morning, and we all wanted to take it slowly. But while the weather was pretty, we needed to move westward—so off we went—landing in Bear Drop, John Island, in the early afternoon. We’re all hoping that late afternoon today or very early tomorrow morning, we’ll see a bear!! Don't think so though because there are five of us rafted together for this night—“Adagio” has joined us. Most all of us run our generators at night, so we'll be making too much noise for any wild animals to come near us for a drink of water. As I write this, Louis, Larry, and Robert have gone out on the dinghy scouting—for what I have no idea!! Bonnie and Bruce have also gone looking for more blueberries! (Pancakes tomorrow?) There is an inukshuk right behind us—overlooking and guarding our boats—someone else has decided to decorate this beautiful cove! This afternoon, we’re all purging our refrigerators—because you can’t bring fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats into the USA—we will all gather and eat tonight on “C-life”. Thanks Kay and Robert! Tonight is also the beginning of a 3 night meteor shower, and we’re all hoping the clouds will stay away—so we can see the shooting stars, we’re certainly not worried about any city lights up here getting in our way!

2008-08-11T09:20:00.005-04:00

I got this email from mom this morning (a picture of the girls!):

Eleven Looper boats gathered for Happy Hour on the docks of the Sportsman Inn in Killarney Channel the evening of 8-6-08. The following boats were present: C-Life, Southern Comfort, Ectra, Wanderin L& M, Ithaka, Bella Luna, Sunshine, Graceful, Golden Lilly, Phantom of the Aqua, and Blue Max. Victory had left in the morning and Prime Time was at the docks. A good time was had by all as we swapped tall stories of our adventures and plans for our future travels!
Geni
**Addition from Diane, the picture of "the girls" is far better than the one of "the boys"!

another picture from Geni

2008-08-10T15:56:00.002-04:00

I got this today from Boo...
"Geni, you might post this - our looper group travelling together. This is cocktails at Killarney, Ontario."
Keep sending 'em to me and I'll post them!
Their *favorite* daughter,
Geni

Killarney to Little Current, North Chanel

2008-08-09T21:32:00.007-04:00

After the horrendous storm of last night, the four of us boats very carefully "un-rafted" on a clear, beautiful morning and headed towards the end of the Georgian Bay at Killarney. When we left Mills Bay where we had been rafted and traveled the narrow channel that morning, we saw so many trees that had been snapped off, and others simply felled, high and low, and for several miles too. We knew the storm was really bad, but to see all the damage it had especially done just around us made us believers for sure! As we progressed that day, evidence of the storm waned and we knew that whatever had hit us was definitely the worst part of the storm.

As we were making our way, we passed huge, pink, granite rocks--we had heard they were up here, but had not seen them yet. The cliffs were so tall and pretty, and occasionally we would see a waterfall--something we probably wouldn't have seen the day before, but with the storm the night before--water was definitely streaming off those cliffs! All of a sudden, we were at the end of the channel, and the waters opened up to a beautiful bay with aquamarine water--just like in the Caribbean--what a surprise! And in the distance, a mountain range looked like it had snow on top--only it was white quartz boulders peeping through the trees. What a preponderance of colors--blue sky, white top/tree covered mountains, pink cliffs, aqua water, and us! Yes, we took lots of pictures.

Killarney, Georgian Bay, is a wonderful little town--where we spent two nights in the Sportsman's Marina with a bunch of other Loopers. We all were spread out over three marinas--all within walking distance of each other--the town is just about three blocks long. The first night there, all us Loopers gathered at the dock for an impromptu party--I counted 24 people--what fun! Killarney's claim to fame is the Red Bus Fish and Chips. Now we have really been eating a lot of fish up here, but this was definitely the best we'd had to date. In fact, it was so good--we ate lunch there twice!! (We have not done that on this trip until now.) And I would have eaten there again and again--it was that good. They sell only two things, fish and fries. No slaw, no hushpuppies, no crackers or bread, no nothing else--even the drinks are sold out of 3 drink machines (with only two working!). And the fish is sold out of an old red school bus! People are lined up, day and night, eating is outside at picnic tables only, and the servings are plentiful--with the ice cream shop just next door--amazing. Ice cream is everywhere in Canada.

While we were in Killarney, we took our dinghies to Covered Portage to look for the Indian Chief rock and hopefully, some wild blueberries. We found the Indian Chief but no berries. The animals or other boaters must have picked them all. But we were determined to find them--sooner or later! And we would.

We left Killarney with "Phantom" on Friday, August 8th--8 other Loopers had left the day before. We headed for Baie Fine--a long ride up an off-course route--to see and spend the night at anchor in "The Pool". We had an easy ride to the Pool--"Bella Luna" getting probably as close to a fjord as she will ever be. We anchored in a cul-de-sac bay, rafted up with "Phantom" and launched the dinghy. We were headed for a walking trail that led up the mountain just behind us, through a creek bed, through the forest, and up, up, up to the top--where we would find "Topaz Lake". The lake there is definitely the most pristine one I've ever seen--the water was the color aquamarine, and you could literally see 30 feet down into it. I'm sure it's all fed by snow and rain, so unspoiled by man, and truly breathtaking in beauty. We all stopped at the top to reflect on the journey so far, and said our thanks. We also found wild blueberries! It's been quite a while since I've been on such a hike, and I must admit I got winded a few times, but the views were spectacular! Bruce found me a "walking" stick, and it really helped me with my uncertain balance--living on the boat now for 3 months has made me unsteady, to say the least!

Saturday, August 9th, we left the Pool in the rain--we had left our hatches open again--it being such a beautiful evening the night before--and yes, our comforter and other things got soaked again! UGH. But our short time there was worth it--we had seen an eagle, a huge beaver, picked wild blueberries, seen Topaz Lake, and had a wonderful evening under millions of stars with good friends. Wow.

We got to Little Current, North Chanel a little after 1pm--tying up at the town docks along with "Wanderin L & M", "C-Life", "Prime Time", "Phantom of the Aqua", "ETC.", and "Grace Full". The other 5 boats, "Southern Comfort", "Sunshine", "Blue Max", "Golden Lily", and "Ithica", had reservations to be at the marina at the end of town--Spider Cove. We were lucky to get a spot here, as this "marina" does not accept reservations--just a first come basis. We really like where we have been now for 2 days--right beside the laundry, near 2 grocery stores, an LCBO and beer store, and just across the street from cute shops and restaurants--just like being on the town docks at Beaufort, NC. Lots of people walk the docks, and it's been fun being here--plus great wireless!! Just poor cell phone reception--guess we can't expect it all, right?! Little Current is the eastern most spot in the North Channel.

We've had more rain today, but we expect it to clear this evening and all 12 boats plan to leave in the morning headed west to The Benjamin's--great anchorages and pink rocks. Then on to Gore Bay and another anchorage. It will probably take us 5 days to reach Drummond Island, where we'll clear customs, and be back in the USA. From there, we'll be working our way down the western coast of Michigan to Chicago, arriving there sometime mid September. For lots and lots of reasons, I'll be sad to leave Canada--I'll try to do a special posting on our reflections of this special place and time in our lives.

Penatang to Killarney

2008-08-09T17:02:00.005-04:00

****This is the posting I was trying to get to the other day!!! Our good friend, Guy, from "Southern Comfort" has been sitting beside me now helping me do this--while the rest of the group has been having cocktails!!. Thank you Guy!

Thursday, July 31st.
We left Penatange with 8 other boats this morning. “Sandpiper” had arranged a Captain to lead several boats on a flotilla for 12 days ending in upper Michigan sometime around August 12th. This is a once in a lifetime trip for us, so we decided that we didn’t want to be on quite that tight a schedule, so we opted out of the flotilla—us, “Phantom of the Aqua”, “Traveling L & M”, and “C-Life”. We four would all work our way through the Georgian Bay and North Channel—after all, with our great Captains, we ought to be able to navigate! As it turned out, all the boats from three marinas left around the same time in the morning—so we wound up being in the flotilla after all, until after lunch!
Traffic on the water has really picked up and at one point in the morning, there were 18 boats, all lined up like baby ducks, weaving and winding through these narrow cuts and islands—it was quite a sight! We all, plus many more others, were headed to Henry’s Fish Camp for lunch on the island of Sans Souci—the only spot to stop for miles! Float planes were flying people in to eat, big and small boats were jockeying for a spot on their many docks, and dogs were barking, children were running all over the huge rocks — it was a real “happening” place! We sat at picnic tables inside a huge screened room (although there were tables outside as well), and ate baskets of delicious pickerel, whitefish, and perch. What a treat—what an institution here—and one we’re glad we didn’t miss.
After lunch, we split from the flotilla, and headed to a beautiful anchorage in Echo Bay—where the four of us boats all rafted together to spend the night. Dinghies were launched, Louis grilled brats for all of us, and just at sunset, Bonnie saw a moose! A beautiful/surprise ending to a great day!Friday, August 1st.
After a calm night at anchor, I slept in late—8am! Louis had been up since 6am, checking the engines, listening to the weather, charting our course for the next several days, and making sausage rings! What a treat for us to wake up in a beautiful, quiet spot smelling sausage cooking—just like camping! The Captains were worried that bad weather was coming in from the west, so a decision was made to move to Parry Sound. Around 11am, we pulled up our anchor, and we were on the move again.
We had an easy run to the town docks in Parry Sound, passing small, red and brown cottages with lots of activity in and around them—turns out this is another holiday weekend for Canadians—a “Civic Holiday”! Interesting, since May 24th (Queen Victoria’s birthday!), the Canadians have had 3 more holiday weekends—love that summertime! As I mentioned before, the traffic on the water has increased greatly—now we have small, local boats (and some “go-fast” ones too) darting in between our line of slowly moving trawlers—sometimes it can get “hairy” in the narrow spots—making me nervous and keeping Louis on his toes!
The town docks where we are docked are right beside the Georgian Bay Airways—float planes. All afternoon we watched these planes take off and land—ferrying people for scenic tours and taking them to Henry’s Fish Camp. If we hadn’t already eaten there yesterday, we might have been tempted to take to the air for a different perspective! But we decided instead to wash the boat, take showers, put more water onboard, relax, and go just across the street to Bay Street Café for dinner. A good choice! There are four boats here—“Victory”, “Phantom”, “Paradigm”, and us. And it didn’t storm after all that worry and discussion!

Saturday, August 2nd.
We had expected bad weather today, but woke to a beautiful morning with a 10% chance of storms. We were thankful, but confused! We spent the day charting, cooking, exploring the town, peeking our heads in and out of the cute stores (we found Louis’s Crocks!), and going to the movies—the new Mummy movie. The guys loved the movie; the girls still like Mama Mia the best! “Prime Time” has caught up with us, and we’ll be traveling again with them tomorrow.

Parry Sound was named after the arctic explorer, Sir William Edward Parry (population @ 6,500). First a logging town, Parry Sound became a busy transshipment port for oil and salt. Today, salt is still delivered by ship to several spots on the water. One such place was directly across from our marina, and we watched as this huge ship docked and off loaded a tremendous Hershey-kiss shaped pile of salt. The pile was then covered with this equally huge black tarp, and everybody went home! Fascinating.

Later, we had take-out Chinese food for dinner and went to bed early. The sky tonight then was the clearest yet, with millions of stars—I’m really hoping I’ll get to see the Northern Lights sometime while up this way—I keep looking every night. Louis has seen them several times before on his hunting trips in Canada, lucky guy!

Sunday, August 3rd.

With a float plane in front of us, and one behind us, we left Parry Sound and headed northwest. It’s been so interesting to intermingle with these float planes—just business as usual up here! I remember seeing the first ones somewhere around Montreal—and it still gives us a thrill to see them take off and land. We saw one yesterday that was all red, and instantly thought of the Red Baron! It was a beautiful morning, calm waters, and cool.

We traveled to a spot that “Southern Comfort” had told us about—Hopewell Bay. We set the anchor, rafted up with “Phantom”, launched the dinghy, strung a long rope from the stern to a nearby tree, and took off exploring in this beautiful cove. We saw several small inukshuks—a man-like stone figure the Indians used as a marker when traveling—and we decided to make one of our own. So, we found a spot that looked good and fairly flat which had small stones nearby, and we proceeded to build this inukshuk—not an easy task! But we did, and we all loved it—took pictures of HER—and had fun. We called her “Lady Loop”. While exploring, we also found small, wild blueberries—which the bears had eaten most of, but we were able to find enough to satisfy our taste buds. Also in this cove were two small ice-fishing houses (just like in the movies!), pulled up on the rocks with cables, stored safely for their owner’s winter entertainment—the first we’ve seen of them. It’s hard to imagine this area being so frozen that you can drive snow mobiles from town to town on the ice—and be able to pull these seemingly heavy “huts” out over enough water to actually catch fish below. I’d love to come back and see it in the wintertime!

After a good nap (we had worked so hard on the rocks!), we opened the refrigerator and shared our leftovers with “Phantom’s”. We were in a cove, neither a light nor sound around us, and for the last time @ 11pm, I checked the sky—looking for shooting stars or the Northern Lights. None were found, so I called it a night!

Monday, August 4th.

Today we were up early and on the move again. It takes a good amount of time, work, and effort to “un-anchor”—but we really are enjoying being on anchor—choosing your own “spot” and staying as long as you want is a freedom we’re just not used to having. Plus the quietness and sheer beauty of all around you is breathtaking, making the days and nights at anchor just the best! We’re both still hoping to see some wildlife when we’re anchoring, but so far, nada.

We traveled “outside” in the big, deep waters of the Georgian Bay—about 5 miles off shore. It was a short and very enjoyable respite from all the narrow, shallow, rocky, and winding channels we’ve been in for such along time. The outside water was flat—such easy traveling—and a day we all were thankful for. We were headed to Wright’s Marina—and we passed “Prime Time”, “Wanderin L & M”, and “C-Life” as they were headed out of Wright’s. We should catch up with them in another day or two at Killarney.

Wright’s Marina is a quiet little spot, with not much there. I tried to do our laundry, but they only had 2 washers and 1 dryer—and I needed to do 4 loads. That would have taken all afternoon, so I only did 1 load—will try again in Killarney. We did, however, go to dinner at one of Canada’s top 10 restaurants—The Little Britt Inn—wow. Hard to believe a place like that could be this remote! Jim, the owner, came to our marina and picked the four of us up and took us to his restaurant—and we can’t say enough good things about the food, service, the reasonable pricing, and décor. Jim is quite a character, has many funny stories to share, has an eclectic taste in his furnishings, and has an excellent chef—his wife! The menu there is hilarious too—one section in particular (kids) I’d like to remember. The menu says; “Noisy kids: Fried liver & onions with broccoli & a side of olives. Priced according to noise levels. Messy kids: “Uncle Jim” will make them clean up after themselves—no charge!” And finally, “Polite kids: Macaroni & cheese & free ice cream!” (There were no kids there the evening we went!) We came back to the boats in time to see an orange sliver of a new moon just rising over the trees—our moons at home don’t get that color until the fall—so pretty!

Tuesday, August 5th

We left Wright’s Marina @8am, and headed out into the Georgian Bay, where we would be off shore 5 miles for about 25 miles in distance. The boat channel goes out there, with no inshore route available—so we had to “pick” our day to travel. “Phantom” and Louis decided it was a “calm enough” day—so, off we went. We had a side-to wind the whole way, making us roll and roll and roll—very uncomfortable after all the calm waters we had been in for the last several weeks, but fairly common in the waters of North Carolina. After about 4 hours, we reached the inlet where we could go inside and find anchorage for the night—Collins Inlet.

We got “Phantom” and “Bella” anchored and rafted together just before the worst storm we’d ever witnessed (while being on the water) hit us head on. Neither of us has a wind gage on board, but Louis estimated winds of over 60 MPH. Rain was blowing sideways, visibility was limited just to the bow of the boat, and lightning was cracking all around us. It got so bad that Louis and Bruce both turned on the engines and pointed our bows into the wind—and we were still at anchor! I understand from daughter Catherine that this is the same storm that hit Chicago yesterday and that Wrigley Field had to be evacuated in the middle of a game. It truly was something else!

After the storm passed, “Wanderin L & M” and “C-Life” came into our cove and rafted up with us—they had waited out the storm in a safe place about a mile away. We all laughed about what we had just witnessed, and were so thankful that we had not been out in open waters when it hit. Margie wound up fixing homemade pizzas for all eight of us, Bonnie and I emptied our refrigerators of salad fixings, and we had a great time on “Wanderin”. After supper, Louis made another batch of his now famous ice cream for us all to enjoy!

We were sitting there finishing the ice cream when Larry looked out of the boat and up the channel where we had all come from. Lo and behold, another storm was coming down the channel—a huge white curtain of rain was about to descend upon us again—ugh. If someone had yelled “FIRE!” we couldn’t have scampered off the boat more quickly! We all hurried back to our boats, hopping on and off our “raft”, to get back and prepare for more rain. Sure enough, in about 5 minutes it hit—although this storm was nothing like the previous one. But it was now late enough for us all to be safely tucked in for the night. What an interesting day this has been!

Lost in Killarney!

2008-08-07T15:26:00.003-04:00

I have been blogging daily since July 31st on Word--saving daily accounts each night since we're finding wireless so infrequently. I have been sitting in another marina's reading room now for a while (a good 15 minute walk from our boat since our marina doesn't have wireless), and feeling like a complete idiot. (I really need Computer 101.) I have tried and tried to copy and paste--and am doing something wrong--I can't get it to work! Neither Geni nor Catherine are available at their cell phones, and there is no one around me who can help! So, I'll try again in the North Channel with my friend Robert from "C-Life" beside me--that should be in a few days. I hate that I cannot post now, because a lot has been going on--all positive. TYJ.

We are in the western most part of the Georgian Bay (Killarney), and will cross over tomorrow into the eastern most part of the North Channel. Little Current is where our next big stop will be, and I should be able to get wireless then. From there, we'll have @ 100 miles before we reach Drummond Island, Michigan, where we'll clear customs and be back into the USA. We have no idea when we'll reach the tip of Michigan--we're having the most wonderful experience up here!

All is well with us and the boat and others--the weather is perfect--Canada is really the place to be in the summer! We're with about 15 other Looper boats, off and on, and all of us are sharing this amazing adventure with such pleasure. We miss our family and friends--and wish each of you could be on this journey with us!

pictures from Geni!

2008-08-01T08:53:00.003-04:00

Hey everybody! Since mom & dad are having a hard time with my "lessons" on posting, I figured I'd post some pictures that were emailed to me! One of their friends took these as they were passing through some locks last week. I have no idea where they were, someone will have to let me know.
And no, I do not write anywhere near the level that my mom does, but at least I know how to post pictures... LOL. Enjoy!
Their *favorite* daughter,
Geni (genislaughter@hotmail.com)

The Wonderful People of Penatanguishine

2008-07-30T15:24:00.003-04:00

First of all, many thanks to those of you who have reached out to us during this sad part of our trip--the e-mails, the calls, the hugs and tears have all been so much appreciated. We even received flowers (imagine!)--thanks again Robin and Mike. Bay Moorings Marina is a very special, caring group of dedicated people--I know it would be fun to work here! As I said in a note to someone, our hearts will be forever linked to this place--and it's because of the wonderful people we've met and been with who all helped us with this difficult time.

Today is Wednesday, July 30th--we had planned to leave early this morning but because of a big thunder storm that lasted until 10 am, we decided to stay here and get some cleaning done on the boat--good decision! I've rearranged storage spaces, having made extra space yesterday by cleaning out Buddy's extra stuff. We wound up giving all his extra food to the animal shelter--his toys, leashes and other things have been given away too. I told Louis that Buddy was my last dog a long time ago--and this time I mean it. We lead too much the lives of gypsies to have another pet. PLEASE remind me of this if I ever again get tempted! Or tipsy!

We've had a relative quite time here (Saturday and Sunday being real "downers")--not doing much except grocery, LCBO, cleaning, and visiting with friends. However, I did spend almost 3 hours yesterday having my hair cut, a manicure and pedicure--color Diane happy! It's been 3 months since I've done anything like that, and I didn't feel guilty at all!! We've had two pot luck dinners with other Loopers, had an almost full day Monday of seminars on the Georgian Bay and North Channel--hosted by Kathi and Harold Rogers and aided by this marina, Bay Moorings. We've gained valuable information about this beautiful area, and hope to spend almost three weeks here exploring. This is where we'll really use our dinghy and anchor out a lot at night--and hopefully empty that freezer that Louis put on the flybridge right before we left Morehead City!

Four Looper boats left out of here Sunday, five today, and four of us will leave tomorrow morning early. We're all going in the same direction, so we'll cross paths a lot with all these boats as we all make our way to the upper tip of Michigan, where we clear customs. We'll start traveling tomorrow with "Phantom of the Aqua", "Wanderin L & M", and "C-Life"--and hope that "Prime Time" can catch up with us this week-end. Poor things, they're still having prop problems. We're headed for Henry's Fish Camp--about 30 miles away. We will be in really sparsely populated areas, so I doubt I'll be able to blog--but I'll keep good daily notes, and catch up ASAP. So far, we're still able to get our cell phone to work, but doubt that it even will make the whole next 300+ miles.

This area is absolutely beautiful--cool days, not cold nights, clear and clean water. Neither Louis nor I have been in the water yet, but we expect to on this next leg. Up some of these rivers are supposed to be unbelievable waterfalls and "pools". I can't believe that Friday is August and we haven't had on bathing suits yet--crazy!! But the boat generally stays clean in this fresh water! It's also hard to believe we've been on the boat now 3 months. I hesitate to put this here because I know I'm going forget several (I'm sorry!), but Happy August Birthdays to Jay, Bean, Carol, Cap, and Tommy E.!

The Canadians are to be admired for their clean and "green" towns (practically no litter). Everyone here recycles, and they bring their own bags to the grocery stores--in fact, some groceries don't even have plastic bags to take your purchases home! Others charge 5 cents per plastic bag! Beer can only be purchased at The Beer Store and that store pays upon returning: 10 cents for beer bottles and 20 cents for wine and liquor bottles--what an incentive to recycle!! It's most impressive, and it's everywhere up here where we've been so far. I do so wish we would do that in the USA. Think of all we could keep out of our limited landfills.

We're having four couples over to the boat this evening for cocktails and eats--and an early evening--we're all excited about tomorrow as our Georgian Bay and North Channel adventure begins! Say a prayer for Louis that he'll keep "Bella Luna" off the rocks! We'll keep you posted.

Buddy Wade

2008-07-28T14:46:00.009-04:00

Today is Monday, July 28th. We are in Penetanguishene at the wonderful Bay Moorings Marina, having arrived here Saturday mid-day. Since this is the latest posting (having not had Internet service for a week), you may not have read the one I posted last night. Please stop now and read that one--it will catch up with this one.

My last words on that posting were that all was not well. We have been very worried for over a week now, but have been totally inaccessible to veterinary care. I have never written an obituary before now, and I will try to do justice here to our faithful friend, Buddy Wade. Yesterday, Sunday, I couldn't have done this--but I've had time to think this through.

About a week ago, Buddy became very lethargic--he seemed to have no energy at all. He was still eating, still drinking, and still had his regular "routine" on the grass and bushes. But he would tire so quickly and just drop to the ground on some walkings off boat. We'd had so much rain for the last several weeks, I thought that maybe his arthritis might be acting up. I gave him 2 pills a day instead of one. Then I thought that maybe he had an infection somewhere, so I gave him some amoxicillian of mine. Nothing seemed to help, yet he never complained, never seemed to be in any pain. Just lethargic. We were so far removed from any kind of medical care.

I knew that once we got here we could seek a good vet. So at the last lock I got the most wonderful "lock mistress", Jenny Leduc, to call and find us a place to take Buddy. It being Saturday, I knew most places would be closed, but figured there would be a 24 hour care place. After 5 calls, Jenny found us one--45 minutes away by car. It also was 45 minutes away from the marina we were going to--so we decided to push on. After all, Buddy was woofing at dogs in the last lock, and seemed to be OK then--riding in his spot across the bow--enjoying the cool, sunny day.

We called ahead to this special marina and told them we had a sick dog and needed to get him to a vet ASAP. As we pulled into here, Amanda Reynolds, Harbour Master, and her staff had a golf cart waiting at the dock for us to take him to a waiting car--which would take us to a vet here locally. Sheila Driver, DVM, had waited to see us, hoping to make an initial diagnosis, and not have us drive another 45 minutes to the 24 hour hospital. Our fellow Loopers here got our boat situated, and off the three of us went to see what was wrong with our faithful friend. Mike McKeown, an employee of this marina, drove us and was with us all day.

The initial diagnosis was correct. Buddy had a tumor, probably on his spleen, and his belly was full of blood. We were sent on to the hospital 45 minutes away, and by this time Buddy was in really bad shape. Two x-rays were done, which showed a huge mass, and he was "white as a ghost"--funny isn't it, he being so black. He was immediately put on oxygen, and surgery was not possible at this time--he had lost just too much blood. Evidently, he had been ill a long time--we just didn't know it. He had only a 5% chance of surviving surgery at a later date, with only a tops of 4 months further life expectancy. Our decision, although tremendously difficult to say, was nonetheless very easy. Louis and I both were all to pieces. Our new friend, Mike and the most compassionate female doctor, Louis, and I all four agreed. He needed to be put down. So, with his head in my lap, I talked him into the Big Chute in the sky. I think he was grateful--his tail was wagging. It was very peaceful, and we said our good-byes with lots of hugs and kisses. He is now with his first-ever best friend, Chaney.

Buddy met so many wonderful people and animals in his 10 year life. Through him, I have done also. He afforded me the chance to get off boat at every occasion, enjoy the beautiful parks and greenways, locks and cities. I saw things Louis never got to see--thank you, dear friend, for that chance. Plus, all the boats we have been traveling with adopted him--he truly was a Super Dooper Looper Dog! There's no telling how many photos he's in all over Canada--at every lock, children especially would want to pet him--and adults were amazed we were traveling with a dog, "That Big!"

He was a lucky dog too--he traveled so much, would jump in the car and boat so quickly, and never wanted to be left behind. He never complained and would do anything we said. He loved especially the lake, the beach, Hyde County, duck hunting, crab pots, swimming, his blanket, and our grandchildren. But I really think he loved me the most--I was the one who fussed over him for 10 sweet years. He was my very special friend. Of the four dogs we've had in our married life, Luke, Ritz, French Fry, and Buddy, he was definitely the best, most loving, and obedient dog. When I would talk to him, he would turn his head and knew exactly what I was saying--all the time.

Buddy will be cremated with his bed and blanket, and left in Canada--he had told us over and over how much he enjoyed being here--it was his coolest summer ever! Although there is this huge void in our lives right now and will be for a long time, we think it's perfect that he remain here too. Goodbye sweet precious friend, we will miss you so. You were the best!

Buddy Wade is survived by his loving family and a huge family of friends--old and new. He is also survived by his own very special friends: Abby, Chester, and Annie. And we need to add to his special friends list: Lexi, Gracie, and Rocky Alford, who will miss him too.

Peterborough to The Georgian Bay (finally!)

2008-07-27T20:18:00.006-04:00

Monday, July 21st, we left Peterborough at 8am with 2 ice cream cones delivered to the bow of our boat (courtesy of "Sunshine")--thanks guys! I must admit that having ice cream before morning coffee isn't all that bad--these Canadians & Louis really do love it, anytime of the day! We left hoping to get an early spot on the blue line in preparation for locking through that day--we did--leaving with "Phantom of the Aqua", "Prime Time", "Mojo", and "Victory". There were 8 boats all trying to get to the first locking--the locks couldn't take but 3 of us at one time, so we got all spread out. It was a rainy morning, but by the time we got to lock #27, the sun was shining--happiness and relief. We had a full day of traveling, but by mid afternoon we settled in for the rest of the day and night on the wall at Young's Point. Louis got out our grill, we all got together for a pot luck dinner at the picnic table right beside the boats, and we enjoyed the wonderful little store/shop right beside us on the wall. All of us girls bought something we just couldn't live without!

Tuesday, July 22nd, was a beautiful morning. We wanted to travel @ 35 miles that day, and hoped to get to Bobcaygen for the evening. During the day, we crossed Clear Lake, seeing some of the more exquisite homes to date--huge, sprawling lake front homes--all sitting on enormous rocks. At one point, we passed through a narrow cut of water, "Hell's Gate", and really had to be careful of the rocks--we've had enough of that already to last us through this trip. But it really was a calm ride and a pretty sight. We arrived in Bobcaygen in time to check out their famous shoe store--finding none that we couldn't live without. We tried to get another pair of Crocks for Louis--he's worn the soles almost totally off his everyday pair--they're mighty slippery for him now--but the shop didn't have his size--so we'll keep looking. Speaking of Crocks, I don't know what any of us would do without them--that's all we wear now--and both Louis and I now have cute "Crock tans"! Our boats were tied up on the wall in Bobcaygen with this full Osprey nest up high right off the bow of our boat--it was fun watching the adult birds with their chicks--they make a lot of noise until dark. We wound up having dinner with Bonnie and Bruce at Waterside Restaurant Tuesday night.

Wednesday, July 23rd, we left Bobcaygen locking through to Fennolin Falls. We all tied up after locking through, to go in and explore that cute town. The Captains decided the Admirals needed a mid-day break from all the locking we had been doing of late, so we walked through the cute town and all of us had a delicious hot hamburger/lunch at The Lake House--what a treat for us all after the usual cold sandwich/leftovers we usually have at lunchtime. We left there and headed for the second and last "pan lift" which was at Kirkfield. Louis drove the boat into this huge "infinity esque" pool--stopping only inches from the end--very scary. We looked out over the bow of the boat and looked down about 65 feet to the bottom of the canal we would be going to--what a sight!! It was like being at the top of a roller coaster--you couldn't see what was under you--and our descent took only 2 minutes--what a ride! We would now be going down in all our locks to get to The Georgian Bay. We spent the night at a small marina--Sunset Cove (not very good) and had dinner on the boat.

Thursday, July 24th, was a beautiful morning--clear, cool and crisp. We crossed Lake Simcoe with no problems--we had heard it could be very rough--we were lucky. This was our first big body of water in quite a while--and Louis ran "Bella Luna" hard for about 20 minutes with no problems. Our spare props are working great! Not many boats carry spares--boy are we glad we did! We locked down all day arriving in Orillia in early afternoon just in time to get to the A & P right across the street and stock up. We had drinks on "Paradigm"--thanks Emily and Jeff! We all had dinner on our boats. We were sad to hear about Barbara Hall being in the hospital--we wish for her a speedy recovery.

Friday, July 25th, we had another beautiful morning to travel. We're still with "Sandpiper" and "Phantom"--all trying to get through these last set of locks and get out into The Georgian Bay. We got to Severn Falls Marina by 1:30pm, and decided to quit for the day--our next lock tomorrow would be a biggie. This small little marina had a restaurant, LCBO (their ABC), a grocery, and an ice cream parlor--and lots and lots of small boat traffic. Our three boats took up the entire side of the only long dock of the marina--and boats were being launched and put back on trailers well after dark. Seems there are a lot of "cottagers" in this part of the Trent, and the only way they have to get to their homes is by water. Anyway, it was a not-so-good stop for us being as busy a spot as it turned out to be--and our boat was right at the launch ramp--ugh. But we did have a good dinner in their restaurant--me having pickerel (fish) for the first time--delicious!

Saturday, July 26th, was a cloudy, misting, and very cool morning--there had been a storm overnight. But for the first time we actually smelled two separate wood fires burning--a perfect morning for this--but hard for us to imagine--it's late July! We were on the blue line waiting to lock through "The Big Chute" when it opened at 8:30am. This has to be the most interesting one we'll ever go through. Louis--very slowly--drove "Bella Luna" up onto a submerged railway platform, where then a sling was put around the back part of the boat--the bow was resting on the platform and the propellers were hanging off the back. He turned off the engines, the platform rose out of the water, the railway car rolled us up on tracks, lifted us up over the road, and took us down a very steep hill, to a different body of water on the other side. The platform then sunk back down into the water, our boat was floating again, the straps were lowered, Louis turned the engines back on, and we exited the lock. The whole event took about 15 minutes to complete and what fun it was--Buddy riding high in his spot on the bow of the boat. Our friends took pictures of us (and we took theirs) and we can't wait to see them. The Big Chute is really something special. We had one more lock--the smallest and narrowest of any on the Trent--and we would be through with locking and in the Georgian Bay by mid morning. After having gone through the canals of the Chambly, the Rideau, and now the Trent-Severn, we are ready to put our locking gear away for a while--we've done now well over a hundred of them! We're old hats at this. Locking is not hard, it just takes our full concentration--so as not to mess up--either our boat or someone else's. Finally, we have reached the beautiful, wide, clear waters of the Georgian Bay. The sun is shining and it's a beautiful day. It's just past noon, but all is not well.

Kingston to Peterborough

2008-07-20T15:54:00.008-04:00

Before we left Kingston, on Monday afternoon, "Sandpiper" had to be pulled out of the water and have their props removed and replaced with spares--what an ordeal! Their boat had hit something hidden under the water, and repairs were necessary. We felt so sorry for them--such a time consuming and unpleasant thing to happen--so we had them over for drinks and dinner. We so enjoy Robert and Ann and it was great having them all to ourselves!

We left Tuesday morning headed for Trenton. With "Bella Luna" in the lead, "Prime Time", "Sandpiper", and "Phantom of the Opera" following closely behind, we had an easy, but long, and uneventful transit in the Bay of Quinte of Lake Ontario. It took 7 & 1/2 hours to go 56 miles. But we arrived safely in the little town of Trenton--"The Gateway of the Trent Severn" in time to fuel up, pump out, and go into town to explore. Louis quickly found a great marine store and bought another book about the Trent Severn--a necessary one we thought we had, but didn't. We also found a Kentucky Fried Chicken store, and bought a box for the next few days' travels. We returned for a cocktail party aboard "Sandpiper", and went to dinner at the newest restaurant in town--which just happened to be right across the street from the marina--how convenient!! After an interesting event aboard the small sailboat docked just three feet across the finger pier from us--a "spat" between two relatives involving one being literally thrown off the sailboat along with all his "stuff"--we all thankfully settled down for the evening. The "event" reminded me and all of us of a gopher trying to create a new hole!

Wednesday morning, we went under the archway designating the Trent Severn Waterway and all four boats headed for Campbellford--beginning the canal route (240 miles) and a series of 42 locks. We expect this part to take seven days to complete because for most of our route the speed limit will only allow us to go 6 MPH--it's shallow, winding, and rocky.

After a series of locks (I'm not counting anymore!), we arrived safely in the cute little town of Campbellford--tying up against the town wall in early afternoon. There was an outdoor concert in the small white gazebo just across the canal from us that evening, and with six "Looper" boats all tied up in a row, I'm sure it was a pretty picture from the other side of the canal! "Mojo" and "Victory" had joined our merry group! Buddy has been very happy and fortunate these past few days in that grass and bushes have been so close by!

Thursday morning, Pat and Gary joined us for breakfast at this wonderful little place we had heard about the day before (can't remember the name!) and we all had Canadian bacon like we've never had before--simply delicious! Can't match for breakfast what Brenda at White Swan makes--but it'll do up here! After a hearty meal, we headed next door to Dooher's--a fantastic bakery to say the least! We also checked out the World Famous Chocolate Outlet--and color Louis happy--he was in heaven! It was now 9:30 am and time to leave for our next night's destination--Hastings.

"Mojo" had left early in the morning--so they were already gone when calamity struck "Bella Luna". We were the first to untie and leave the dock, and had just gone under the town's bridge when Louis missed a green marker on our port side and promptly put our boat securely up on a rock. The townsfolk call it "Florida Rock" because so many boaters hit it and the one man in town who helps fix their boats makes enough $$$$ to go to Florida yearly! We were sick to say the least, but fortunately we were going so slowly that we hoped major damage wasn't done. We were, however, out of the channel, so our other boats couldn't come and pull us off the rock. But a series of events soon unfolded--we immediately emptied our water tank, "Pete", his son and granddaughter from just across the canal swam over, three dinghies were launched to tie off our stern, the lock masters at both ends where we were raised the level in the river by one foot, and we were able to pull/push "Bella Luna" off the rock. We were towed just a short distance back to the wall where we had spent the night before, and there the real fun began. Boy, does it ever reinforce our belief that it's better to travel with others than travel alone. What would we ever have done without the help and support of our other Looper friends! And as luck would have it, we had two certified divers with air tanks in our group who went below to tell us that the only damage to the boat was bent props. TYJ! We had two spare propellers aboard, and with a huge group effort, we were able to change out our two badly gnarled props without hauling the boat! It took about two hours to complete, and we will be eternally grateful to Bruce and Billy for their yeoman's efforts on our behalf. Also, our thanks go out to the four other boats who turned around and stayed behind to offer moral support. Ann of "Sandpiper" said to us, "You either HAVE run aground, you are WAITING to run aground, or you've NEVER left the dock!" How true--but we'd rather have hit a soft sandbar than hard rocks! Hopefully, our rock hunting now will be forever behind us.

Our mishap cost us about four hours total, yet we were all able to reach Hastings by 6:30pm. After such an emotionally and physically exhausting day, we were delighted to be welcomed into the small town of Hastings by a "eight-some" band of bag-pipers--complete with kilts and headgear! They played a good hour and a half as we all tied up, got settled in, took showers, and fixed good drinks! Louis took us ALL out to dinner--where we were finally able to laugh and joke about the day's events--the guys still wanting Louis to lead, but he decided he wants to be an Indian now, not a Chief! Needless to say, we both slept hard and soundly Thursday night--Buddy totally unaware of anything unusual that had happened earlier in the day! Lucky dog.

Friday, we head out for Peterborough--where we planned to rest out the weekend. Since we have started the Trent Severn, so far, we have been going up in locks. We will rise up a total of 840 feet above sea level before we begin our descent to 576 feet above sea level at Balsam Lake to take us to Port Severn--the end of this canal. At Peterborough is the huge "pan" lift--a 96 year old engineering marvel. We look forward to this on Monday.

OK, so now it's Sunday, and we've been in Peterborough since Friday--and have had a great, relaxing week-end. Our marina is right at the town's beautiful park and amphitheater where festivities started building Friday, for Saturday--all day long. All kinds of vendors brought their wares--food, jewelry, Red Cross, marine supplies, ASPCA, etc.--white and blue tents lined the perimeter of this huge park and people started streaming in--in the early afternoon to set up their chairs for the concert (a local and fantastic band) and fireworks that would be held in the evening. We all guessed there were close to 5,000 people who turned out on this beautiful day--what a treat for us to be right here among them--but guarded by a gate at the end of our dock! The marina had wisely put most of us Loopers on the same dock and so we commandeered the end of it, had "pot luck" dinner for about 20, had a surprise birthday celebration complete with cake and candles for Pat--Happy Birthday Pat!, listened to the great music all around us, saw Elvis sing (Pat got a birthday kiss and lei--turns out he's alive after all!), and just had a great afternoon and evening--complete with fireworks and our third, now, full bella luna!

Thanks to Robert Levine, Louis was able to find a capable, friendly "prop man" here in Peterborough to assess our two badly damaged ones. He came to the boat late Friday afternoon, picked up the opened sardine can looking ones we had, and will have them fixed by Monday. (Amazing--we both thought they were unfixable.) And after finding out from our friend, Ed Bailey, what new ones would cost us, needless to say, we were THRILLED to learn that they both were reparable. Also, since we've been here we've conveniently gone to two movies--color Diane happy--and have seen "Mama Mia" which I thought was simply wonderful (can't wait for it to come out on video for me to buy), and we saw the new "Batman" movie which Louis thought was, "Great"! We're now caught up on our popcorn. And we've been to a great sushi restaurant--so, time well spent in Peterborough!!

And two more happy thoughts--when we checked into this marina, we were surprised and delighted to find out that our dear friends aboard "Sunshine" had left for us two prepaid ice cream cones!! Thanks Muriel, Shelly, and Bud--you know us well! And secondly, we were happy to hear from Sam at Morehead City that the tropical storm which blew through this weekend didn't do any damage. Thanks for the call Sam--sorry we missed talking with you!

Kingston, Ontario

2008-07-14T14:29:00.009-04:00

As I write this, Monday July 14th, I still can't believe we have the "Bella Luna" all the way up here--what an amazing feat to think we started out in North Carolina and got all the way to this point! We have to pinch ourselves daily to believe it's true! It makes both Louis and I wish that North Carolina could/would combine all our rivers and lakes via locks (we have the dams) and connect our beautiful coast with our beautiful mountains--what a great trip that would be--sign us up!

We arrived in Kingston Friday mid-day. We had spent Thursday night at the bottom of Jones Falls near a historic hotel-- we combined our leftovers and had dinner on "Prime Time". Thanks guys! We went to bed on a beautiful evening listening to the roar of the nearby huge waterfall. We had decided that it was such a pretty evening (cool, no humidity, and the sky full of stars and a half bella luna) that we would sleep with the windows and hatches open. MISTAKE!! We woke early in the morning to find it was raining, and our comforter was soaked--what a mess! It continued to sprinkle throughout the morning, but by the time we got to Kingston, it had cleared and was a beautiful day again. TYJ.

We have OFFICIALLY "Done the Rideau"--and in a way we are kind of sad to be knowing that this part of our trip is over--and we'll never get this way again. Both of us feel the closer we got to Kingston, the prettier it got--wide open spaces, and the water appeared cleaner and clearer too. So we finished all those Rideau locks and settled into Kingston for a long weekend. Whew!

We stayed Friday and Saturday nights at the Kingston Marina, along with "Prime Time" and "Phantom of the Aqua". After getting tied up Friday, we rented a car and hit the high spots of Costco, West Marine, and Wal-Mart--what fun!! We got back to the boat just in time to have a small gathering on our boat--we're so glad to finally catch up with our friends on "Sandpiper". Three couple wound up going to this wonderful Irish pub for dinner--Toucan's & Kirkpatrick's--although by the time we got there, most of their daily specials were gone--poor Louis and Bob!

Saturday morning we grabbed a quick breakfast at Pan Chancho's (where they bake all night and open at 7am to crowds of people every day!) and walked a little further down to catch a trolley bus tour of the town of Kingston. This once capital city is known for their military (The Royal Military College--similar to our West Point), universities (2), and their penitentiaries (10). They also have more restaurants per capita than any other city in Canada! There are 173 parks and about 120,000 people. Our particular weekend was the annual festival of the Buskers--a street festival of sorts--featuring amateur jugglers, dancers, pogo jumpers, fiddlers, accordion players, drummers, face painters, hot dog stands, etc. We walked the streets (Louis got a haircut!!!!) and we enjoyed the youthful energy that these fun people brought to town (although both Louis and I hoped all those Buskers had good "day jobs"!). Saturday was also Bonnie's birthday--"Phantom of the Aqua". In the afternoon and after all of us wished and sang "birthday" for her--complete with flowers from husband, Bruce,--the three couples went to Chez Piggy for dinner--a very famous restaurant started by one of the original "Loving Spoonfull" members. It was pretty, delicious, and a great evening--Happy Birthday, Bonnie! Love that sangria!

Sunday, we had to move out of our marina--it being primarily for slip owners--and the three slips we had, the owners were coming back! It was a very convenient marina for downtown and close to all the action and such, but we had done all we needed to do, and so were not upset to leave. So we moved over to Collins Bay Marina where "Sandpiper" has been for the last few days, and we were glad to join them. After getting tied up here, we went to "Lucy's" famous Sunday Brunch--famous since 1947--complete with white table cloths and a fabulous piano player--he never took a break! The buffet was simply delicious--probably the best french toast we've ever had (sorry Catherine!) and we all stuffed ourselves. Boat people are always hungry--doesn't "the water" make it so? At our table, we all tried "Name That Tune"--won't say here who was the winner!

Monday, today, Louis has been diligently cleaning the boat outside and I've been inside cleaning and grocery shopping (fresh produce mainly) in preparation for our leaving here tomorrow. We plan to leave early Tuesday morning and go all the way to Trenton (@ 60 miles)--the beginning of the Trent Severn Waterway--and yes, more locks. It will probably take a week for us to navigate through these locks and we'll be staying mainly on "walls" at night, enjoying the small villages that we'll be going through. This will be the series of locks where on one occasion they will take "Bella Luna" completely out of the water, put her in straps, put her on a railway car, and lift her over a huge hill to water on the other side! It's called The Big Chute--and we can't wait for that! What pictures that'll be--wonder if they sell tee-shirts! What will Buddy think?!

Ottawa to Portland--the Rideau Canal

2008-07-09T16:39:00.009-04:00

We left Ottawa fairly early Sunday morning in preparation for a another full day of locking. We also needed to get to Dow's Marina to get fuel and water--diesel fuel being so scarce where we are. After almost an hour of fueling because of the small hoses they use, we put 186 gallons into "Bella Luna" at $6.05 a gallon--including taxes. Not as bad as we had expected here in Canada, but still stiff enough for the bank to call and make sure it really was us charging that much! Louis has been happy with how little fuel our generator burns--as we have had to use it now on many occasions when we do not have a power source at night. Thanks Ed and Steve at Coral Bay Marina for your insight on this!

The Rideau Canal is long, winding, mostly shallow, beautiful, and in some parts very narrow. It also has 45 locks from Ottawa to Kingston. The "season" for locking is May through October. In the winter time when the water freezes, a part of the Rideau--almost 6 miles between two locks--becomes the longest ice skating rink in the world! Fire trucks daily spread a new layer of water on top, zambonies groom along the ice 5 across, hot dogs, fried dough, and hot chocolate stands line each side of the walls and literally thousands of people ice skate the Rideau daily! The water level has been lowered early on to a depth of only 4 feet, and about 3 feet usually freezes--so if you happen to break through (which doesn't happen)--all you'll be is wet--and cold! The season for ice skating lasts from 4 to 10 weeks--depending on the amount of snow they get. Last year they had to close the canal after only 4 weeks because they had too much snow in the canal and had no way to remove it! Sadness!!! But wouldn't it be fun to see it this way too--a frozen, white, hard, glistening Rideau--I just can't imagine it any other way other than what we see right now--green and full of life. And in addition, Dow's Marina does a huge business in the cold months--renting ice skates and supplies and keeping their three restaurants hopping with "winter business". Good for them, they're nice people.

We go through 8 more locks finding ourselves at the bottom of lock #17, tired, dirty, ready to quit locking, and anxious for a few cocktails and bed. There are 6 boats tied up here where we are, all expecting to lock up sometime tomorrow--we have a great time meeting these mostly "locals". After a short time of socializing, we shower, have a small dinner on the boat, and call it a day--going to bed before 9pm--it's still light outside!! But it's quiet on our dock. What a day it has been for us all.

Monday, "Bella Luna" and "Prime Time" are the only ones waiting on the blue line when the first locking begins at 8:30am. We're ready for the day--and a long day it will be as we plan to go through/up 12 more locks and get to Smiths Falls for the afternoon and night. At every lock, all the Canadian Parks people are so friendly, helpful, and curious about our trip. And they love Buddy! At one lock today, as we were waiting for another 3 boats to come down, Buddy got off the boat for about a half hour--off leash--and did nothing but swim--color him a super happy Looper dog!!

We get to Smiths Falls, tie up at a beautiful park wall, and head into town for a wonderful dinner at an Irish pub--overlooking the 4 huge, raging waterfalls. What a beautiful setting--and what a welcome relief for us all to just kick back --we've now gone through 28 locks in 3 days! I'm now going to "officially" quit counting the locks daily--it makes me even more tired to remember them all--trusting just to say here that by the time we've completed this journey of ours, we will have gone through somewhere around 165 locks. We'll be old pros and full of muscle for sure by the time we get home!! Wow--what an experience.

I have noticed something that I think is really worth mentioning here now though--and I don't want to forget it. Every little town we've been to and through most recently up this way has lots of Irish pubs in them--several in each small town. And I've noticed so many, many women, men, and children with fair skin and bright red hair--all along the canal locks and in the towns. I hadn't connected the two thoughts until just yesterday---this area of Canada has lots of Irish people--it's so very delightful and unexpected!!

We're now in Portland, and it's Wednesday, July 9th. We've been here since yesterday--deciding this morning to rest here for one more day and night. This marina, Len's Cove, is one of the "best finds" we've been to yet. In addition to being so quaint, it has a semi-circle of 15 small dark brown cottages--which have been here for about 75 years, and which are rented weekly by the same families who have been coming here for years. They have now their third generation of families coming here to enjoy the serenity and beauty of this place--reminds me of our connection to camps Seagull and Seafarer on the coast of North Carolina--we're the third generation of campers there now too! Len's Cove has a full service marina too--that's always comforting for boaters. Also, at the small local grocery store just two blocks up here in Portland, the white canvas sign over the front door says, "Fireworks, Worms, & Ice"--I thought that was a scream and guess it says it all! We went into the store, bought ginger snaps and fresh corn, and were happy with what they had to offer--still no diet tonic though. But back at the marina here, they have the best "swap library" I've seen to date--two sides of this un-airconditioned long "lounge/library" room I'm sitting in now are lined with three shelves of books on each side--just wonderful--packed with hundreds of books, and so much variety--I'm thrilled! I've "swapped out" for several really good ones to take with me for the next few weeks. They also have two fabulous restaurants just a two minute walk away--we celebrated Gary's birthday last night at one (with two other tables!)--Happy Birthday Gary!!!--and Louis and I had a great lunch at "Fast Freddie's" today. Dinner will be simple and on the boat tonight. We hope to get on Skype and talk/eyeball with our children tonight--we haven't seen each other in weeks!! Can't wait to see Clay's black eye!

I've been blogging for over 4 hours now, and it's time to stop. I've done the last two postings today, and one last night--catching up on the last 9 days. But my time on the Internet is unpredictable--and I have to do it whenever it's possible/available. We really hate to leave this area--this is such a beautiful part of the Rideau--wide and full of small islands with houses on most of them--and lots of loons. But we need to keep moving so we can enjoy every place along the way as much as possible--especially the Georgian Bay and the North Channel. Everyone who has done this Loop before us says those are the prettiest parts of the whole trip--we'll see and keep you posted. For us, after the 4th of July the days always seem to fly, and with the days of summer going so quickly for us now and with what we want to see and accomplish, it'll be hard for us to stay on a schedule of reaching Chicago by Labor Day! How truly fast "time flies"--even our children tell us so. How much I wish I could just throw out an anchor and hold tight to our days right now.

We'll be in Kingston for a long weekend--locking through the rest of the Rideau tomorrow and Friday--I think we have something like 17 more locks to go. Did I just say/blog that I wasn't counting locks anymore?? Yep---CRS! More later...........

P.S. We woke up yesterday to find that Louis's cell phone "sound" doesn't work on his phone. He immediately called our precious friend, Kate (we love you!), at Verizon in Briarcreek, only to find out that it is a "sometimes common" problem on his type of cell phone--wish we had known that earlier! Anyway, my cell: 919-280-7064 is now the one we can receive calls on & is up and running after having been in the dresser drawer--turned off--here on the boat since entering Canada (not on the "Canada" Verizon plan--but now is--thank you Kate!). We hope that once we get to Kingston, we can get Louis's phone fixed--we'll see! He can still get his messages on his cell via my phone, but just can't talk on his. Stay tuned!

Montebello to Ottawa

2008-07-09T14:05:00.009-04:00

We spent two nights in the marina at Montebello. We had a full day of touring the small little village on our bicycles, seeing the Papineau Mansion, and covering only a part of the vast acreage of the private resort area. It's hard to believe these days, but the entire parcel of land is somewhere around 65,000 acres! We would love to come back in the winter to see all that this place has to offer then--ice skating, curling, sleigh riding--and I would especially love to see that central, huge, six-sided with glass doors, stone fireplace just glowing with thick snow coming down outside. How romantic a setting!

We left Wednesday morning in the rain, but thankfully it didn't last too long, and we are protected from the elements up in the flybridge. We were in different waters--mostly unpopulated--and had left a lot of the narrow canals that we had been in for several days--we were now in calm, fairly wide bodies of water. Interestingly enough though, we did see that day 13 sea planes--just tied up at water's edge--in people's front yards. We have seen the float planes before up here, but not that many and not in one day.

Around four o'clock, we reached Hull's Marina--at the Parc de Jacques Cartier and near the base of the famous eight locks/steps on the Ottawa River. We cleaned up, put on our walking shoes, and took off across this long, beautiful, old, high bridge that would connect us with Ottawa--stopping along the way to take pictures of the beautiful old stone buildings with their ornate green-topped spirals that make this town so unique and picturesque. Below us was the raging Ottawa River, with its' sightseeing boats, sculling teams, waterfalls, and swirling currents. We've never walked over any bridge like that before--and we would do it twice!

We passed the American Embassy--a stark, modern, glassy, fenced-in and very heavily fortified building--so inappropriate in architecture for the area in my estimation--with all these breathtakingly beautiful old building just a block away. I would love to know why it has to be so fortified and foreboding--I thought we were not only "friends" but neighbors to Canada. Maybe one day someone will tell me why.

We headed towards Byward Market--a bustling, busy, and crowded place of outside vendors--selling everything from fruits and vegetables to flowers, any kind of food you want, clothes, and trinkets. What a fun place to be--what smells and sights--and just too many restaurants, bistros, and kiosks to choose from. We finally settled on this little bistro and had a great meal with "Prime Time". I got fish & chips, Louis got a pasta carbonara. Full as we were, we took a much slower and seemingly longer walk back across the long bridge to our boat. It was about 9:30pm and it was just getting dark--amazing! The lights reflecting off the old buildings at dark were another wow factor. I need to start a "wow" list---we've had far more than we expected this early on in our trip!

Friday morning, our friend Pat, from "Prime Time", and I took off for the grocery store--(our daughter, Catherine, said I needed to put this down here)--as we actually took the city bus to the grocery! What a sight, Pat and me, carrying our recyclable bags under our arms, and our rolling carts behind us--putting our $2.60 a ride in the change port. We had been told to get a "return" voucher as not to have to pay to get back home, so we did. We ask the bus driver politely to let us know when we get to the grocery store (we have no idea where we're going!), and in about 15 minutes--mute as he had been so far--he yells out, "Maxi's"!--points to us and waits for us to get off. About an hour later, we completed our shopping, filled our bags and carts up to the brim (you have to bag your own groceries in Canada!), and went back outside to wait for the bus--we waited where we had been left off. About 10 minutes later, #37 pulls up to the stop, and we begin to get on (making sure we were getting on the right bus)--only to be told we had to cross the street and catch the other #37 going back the way we came!! So across the street we hustle, seeing a bus coming--meantime I've lost my return voucher! Where can it be?? With a huge stroke of luck--the SAME bus driver opens the door, remembers both of us, and patiently waits for us to get all our stuff back in/up/over onto the bus. Whew! Needless to say, by the time Pat & I get back to the boats, we are worn completely out. What an experience--we've been laughing about it ever since. I fixed homemade spaghetti and had Gary & Pat over to "Bella Luna" for dinner.

Saturday morning early, we moved over to the "blue line" to wait for the 8:30am first locking. The "blue line" is actually right at the entrance to both sides of a lock (it is a wall with tie-ups) and the top of the wall is painted bright blue. The lockmaster can then see plainly which boats are desiring to lock through--and he/she can decide which way to go first--either boats like us going up, or boats on the other side of the lock going down. There were 5 of us going up that morning, and only 2 going down--so, thankfully we got to go up first--and it's on a first come, first served basis too--the boats tied up first go first. This was a huge and time consuming experience for us as we (5 boats) locked through/up eight consecutive locks--lasting 3 hours and 15 minutes. We felt so sorry for the poor boats that had been on the blue line "up top" since earlier that morning (like us on the "down" blue line) and had to wait almost 4 hours to lock down--that could have been us--only thing that saved us was that there were more boats wanting to go up than down! TYJ.

OK, now we are officially in downtown Ottawa--and it's Saturday mid-day, and we find a space against the famous spot/wall that everyone jockeys for--and we grab it. "Prime Time" finds a bigger spot too--life is good. We have 2 other Looper boats already there also, who graciously help us tie off and get settled in. We're exhausted and sore from all the locking--but Pat, Gary, and I head back to the Byward Market--which is conveniently now only 2 blocks away--for a few more provisioning for the boats. We're invited for cocktails at 5pm on "Double SS" joining "Mojo" (are you reading this Frank and Mimi?!) and "Prime Time". Louis brings along our now-famous "jar" and we all had a delightful and delicious (love those cheese curds!) several hours sharing stories, favorite places, and good information. Thanks "Double SS"!

Also, we are now "officially" in the Rideau Canal--having just gone up locks 1 through 8--a system of 45 locks that will take us from Ottawa to Kingston, Ontario. Hopefully, we'll meet up with other Loopers who took the Erie Canal--a 330 mile shorter route than the one we took. Most all of us will then take the Trent-Severn canal to the Georgian Bay. We miss "Sunshine", "Southern Comfort", "Wanderin L & M", and others--slow down you guys and let us catch up with you! We also want "Maya Lisa" and "Salante" to catch up with us--maybe they will as we plan to spend several days in Kingston.

Ottawa is our favorite "big" town to date. It's just so pretty from the water--and so,so green. Unlike other large cities we've seen, Ottawa has miles and miles of greenways, parks, and paths--they're everywhere--and the varied trees and flower beds are spectacular too. You don't feel cramped by large buildings and lots of concrete--their city planners really did get it right here. We also saw for the first time lots and lots of black squirrels!! Completely black with long, bushy tails--at first I didn't believe what I was seeing--I thought it was a small cat. And as I'm sitting here now writing this (4 days later) we've seen no other variety of squirrel--just black. They're everywhere!

Montreal to Montebello

2008-07-08T15:37:00.005-04:00

We left our wonderful spot in Montreal against a tough 7 knot current, went through two Saint Lawrence seaway locks on a beautiful day, and luckily found ourselves tied up in the quaint little town of Saint Anne De Bellevue, by late afternoon--against a very popular wall. There are actually two walls, divided by the canal, with the town being on one side--full of restaurants and shops. A cruiser's dream! We fixed a drink, sat on the back of the boat, and watched all the boats parading up and down the canal--reminiscent of "Ego Alley" in Annapolis. Lots of Fountain and Donzie boats (color Louis happy!)--everyone picnicking, sunning, and enjoying a glorious day on and around the water! With our boat tied up there, and so loaded down as it is, everyone is continuously so curious about how we got to Canada. We truly seem to answer the same questions almost daily: North Carolina, Bella Luna, this May 14th, 7000+ miles, 1 year, Yes--we miss them terribly!, May 2009, Buddy! It's getting rather comical and almost predictable.

We were so glad to hear the joyous news of the arrivals of Samuel Bolton Huckabee and Henry Dewitt Brewer. Congratulations to both sets of parents, siblings, and grandparents--and thanks so much for the precious pictures sent to us too! It's hard to believe, but they both will probably be walking by the time we get home. Welcome wee ones, we can't wait to meet you both!

Tuesday, July 1st, we left our "wall" early in the morning, going through another two locks-- the Carillon lock was a 65-yipes! foot lift--and had a long day's ride on the Ottawa River to Montebello. (July 1st is for Canada's what July 4th is for us.) Everyone who had a boat was out on the water--and a beautiful day it was. We were constantly passed by folks who were trying to get to Ottawa for the festivities and fireworks--a huge 400th year celebration for them. I had to laugh several times at the women riding in the boats with their hair tied up in scarves--a la' 50's style--what a hoot--haven't seen that in many, many years! We weren't in a hurry, we were just happy to be going to the world's largest "log cabin"that day--Montebello! Cabin is not the right word here at all--Le Chateau Montebello is more descriptive. It was built in 1930, just at the onset of The Great Depression. It took thousands of workers, laboring night and day to complete the unbelievable six-pointed, three story, log structure--in a record time of just 3 months. It was constructed of 10,000 red cedar logs, transported directly to Montebello by the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was built for the Seigniory Club as a private hunting and fishing retreat (200 guest rooms!), with most of the members being connected with the railway. In 1970 it was taken over by the Canadian Pacific Hotels Corporations, and today is run by the Fairmont Hotel chain. It offers everything all year round--indoor & outdoor pools and tennis courts, horseback riding, golf, spa, all kinds of winter sports, even an Orvis car-driving school! The tartan-plaid carpeted lobby is immense too--the biggest one I've ever seen--and in the middle is this huge stone fireplace which rises up three floors right in the middle of it all--"tee pee" style. No wonder it has hosted dignitaries, presidents, and conferences from all over the world for more than 60 years. We had a fabulous outdoor dinner on the terrace of Montebello with "Prime Time"--what an extraordinary evening. An outdoor bar-b-que of quail, ribs, lamb, chicken, steak, scallops stir-fry, shrimp stir-fry, cheeses, salads, pastas, home made ice cream, desserts, etc. Yes, we were stuffed--very much like The Greenbrier in West Virginia. Wow--we're sure Montebello is the most beautiful "log castle" we'll ever see!

A Long Week-end in Montreal

2008-06-29T16:23:00.005-04:00

We spent Friday morning tending to the boat--it's amazing how quickly things get cluttered and misplaced. I told Louis I thought the inside of our boat looked like a dorm room--so we spent an hour trying to make it look neater! Maps, charts, guidebooks and fliers needed to be organized and left either out for use for what's ahead of us these next few weeks, or stowed under the bed for much later. I think before we left we had over 120 pounds of that paper stuff--and Louis has added to it often since. We need a bigger boat!

Friday afternoon we took a 3 hour tour by bus of Montreal. We got a wonderful overview of what this city has to offer--plus a look "up top"--from the mountain of the city --to below. WOW--that's definitely a different perspective than being on the water! There's so much to do here, we could spend two weeks here alone and not see it all . The people here are so friendly and have been so patient with us English--as most here are bilingual. The currency here is different, but most everyone has just taken our American dollars and given us back Canadian currency. The exchange rate last Friday was $200 American = $198 Canadian. Food and drink here in Montreal are expensive too. A beer is @ $6.00, and a simple lunch meal of hamburger and fries was $16.00. Interesting, n'est pas?

Saturday morning, I went to China Town with my friend Pat, from "Prime Time". We walked up and down the streets, going into shops and markets, bakeries and butcheries. With hundreds of other people in about a 3 block square area, we experienced such beautiful and interesting colors and smells! We wound up eating lunch there--color Diane very happy--my Chinese fix for a while--and so, so fresh, crunchy, and delicious. I don't know how they can cook all that food and it still remain so colorful!

Saturday afternoon around 2:30, it started raining again. Nap time! We awoke just as the rain ended, and got ready for "Saturday Night"! We walked just a block over to Old Town and had dinner at The Spaghetti House--a bustling fun place, and again, another sumptuous meal. How do all these French women up here stay so thin?! Not fair. We returned to the boat just in time to catch the 30 minute fireworks and music show--given right here beside the marina every Saturday night until August 3rd. We're told it's a competition of nations, with judging going on every week and the grand prize winner announced after the last show in August. Last night's show was Italy, and since it's the only one we'll see, we vote for Italy! Spectacular.

Louis told me Friday to pick a day and plan it--he would do anything I wanted to do! So, I picked Sunday--we would go to Mass at 11am at the Basilique de Notre Dame, afterwards have a lunch of crepes. Then we would take in a museum and go to the IMAX theater--both nearby. Bless Louis's heart, he didn't say a word! And I got 2 out of the 4. Not bad.

Mass at 11am was breathtaking, to say the least. With a full chorus, an outstanding "high-up" organ with over 7000 pipes, 6 priests, maybe 8 priests-to-be, and a congregation of well over a thousand--I sat down at my first Catholic Mass--in French, no less. The basicillia was maybe half full--and closed to tourists during the ceremony. We had visited it on our tour Friday, and I wanted to come back. Candles were lit everywhere--hanging from the enormous guilded dome, on the altar, behind the altar, and at the numerous "stations (14?)" all around the inside. The whole service took about an hour and 15 minutes, including Communion, and it will forever stand out in my mind as one of the more beautiful experiences I've had in my life. I didn't know what was going on, but when everyone stood, I stood. When everyone sat, I sat. I think at one time they said the Lord's Prayer. But the sheer beauty of sitting quietly in that amazingly stunning place was pure joy for me. I'm glad we were in Montreal on a Sunday.

After Mass, outside with the two, old, huge, steeples happily chiming their bells almost to the deafening point, we walked down 2 blocks to Suzettes'--a creperie! I had crepes, Louis had quiche. Both delicious. After lunch we walked over to the IMAX, only to find out that the only two "English" movie times were at 11am & 7pm. We would have to forgo both. Then we walked over to the museum, only to find out that it really was not worth $36.00 for us to tour that particular museum--it just didn't interest either one of us that much. Oh well, c'est la vie! We walked back by La Place de Cartier--where the street is permanently closed to vehicular traffic and lined on both sides by restaurants. All kinds of "street festival" events were taking place--it's their holiday now! And by then we both were tired, and so we just walked back to the boat. Louis is studying the charts for tomorrow as we head to Ottawa, and I'm doing the laundry--free machines here at this great marina. Thanks Debbie! And Buddy's been on two walks already today, so every one's happy. We love Montreal!

Chambly, Sorel, and Montreal

2008-06-27T20:39:00.009-04:00

Today is Friday, June 27th. We have successfully made our entry into Canada, and are now in Montreal. Hooray--we have wi-fi! And what an interesting last few days we've had.

We left Rouses Point, NY early Tuesday morning, going about 3 miles north into Canada and to a small building on the water to clear customs. We tied up alongside the customs wall, Louis went in with our passports, boat documentation, and Buddy's papers--they asked if we had any firearms on board, the purpose of our visit, and how long we intended to stay in Canada. Louis said, "No firearms---doing 'the Loop'---and 6 weeks". The customs official smiled and said, "Have a nice stay in Canada." That was it--simple! Whew! For some reason, we both had worried this might be difficult.

OK, so it's 8:45am and we've cleared customs, and we're so excited to be in Canada, Quebec Province--too early to break out the champagne--but we seriously thought about it! There were 3 boats traveling together that morning--"Prime Time, "Segue", and us. I don't think any of us realized it was June 24th---Saint Jean de Baptiste Day--a Quebec Province only holiday. No wonder EVERYONE was outside--bicycling, rollerblading, walking, fishing, etc. As we were going through the Chambly Canal and its' locks, all along the sides of the canal and at every lock, people would stop to watch the boats lock through. Mile after mile of this. We felt as if we were in a parade--waving and talking with people on both sides of the boat--it was so much fun!

Lake Champlain feeds into the Chambly Canal, which feeds into the Richelieu, which feeds into the Saint Lawrence River, at Sorel. The Chambly Canal is a series of locks, all going down to the Richelieu. The Chambly is very narrow in most parts, with a road on the port side, and a great bicycle/walking path on the starboard. This goes on for a good 12 miles, we estimated. The speed for the boat has to be very slow (max speed 5.4 knots), so slow that in fact an elderly man on a four wheel scooter passed us twice! (locking taking up the "lap" time for us) That was hysterical! We saw thousands of people of all ages out enjoying their holiday--it was a beautiful day.

We arrived at the town of Chambly by mid afternoon. We tied up along the wall there, and were soon to find out that this place was a Looper's paradise. A grocery store not a block away, lots of ice cream shops, several nice restaurants right there too, and eureka!--a nice, green, grassy, park right alongside the wall--not 4 feet from the boat. Perfect for Buddy--he finally got off leash and got to be himself again. Color him a super happy Looper dog!

We had drinks on "Chaos", joining "Distant Shores", "Segue", and "Prime Time". It's always fun meeting new Looper friends and sharing stories and information--especially with the Loopers who are on their 2nd or 3rd Loop. We had a great evening!

Wednesday morning we left the wall about 9am and went through our last 3 locks on the Chambly Canal. These 3 were especially interesting because we went directly from #3 into #2 into #1--a "step" down lock if there ever was one. We had the same young people helping us with our lines at all three locks--that was nice for us.

We traveled the Richelieu seeing pretty houses and several cable ferry boats---the houses, trees, and water color being very similar to Lake Hyco. Most houses had clothes swinging on clotheslines in the stiff breeze and others seemed to have white glider swings down by the water--although we saw not a soul in a single swing! What a shame and what a difference from the day before when everyone was outside. We had no one to wave to that day!

We arrived in Sorel, gave the boat a good bath, and went to dinner with "Prime Time" at a nearby, lovely french restaurant--having probably the best creme brule we've ever had. Reading menus in french is awkward at best for us, but we had a great translator--thanks Gary! If our calculations are correct, Sorel will be the furthermost north we will go on this trip--unless we find a spot in the Georgian Bay that's more north. We didn't spend any time sightseeing in Sorel, hoping to get an early start for Montreal on Thursday. We knew we would have to fight the current all the way up the Saint Lawrence--a long, slow day of traveling.

Thursday, after 6 hours of traveling, we get to Montreal---coming through currents that were terrible. At one point right before we got to the marina here, we were going against a 6 knot current! Louis remarked that some sailboats would not be able to make any headway--they's be sitting still. Amazing. And in fact, there are two marinas here and I haven't seen a single sailboat--they just can't get here.

Montreal is the second largest french speaking city in the world--over one million people live here too. It is also a huge port city, employing over 23,000 people at the 16 mile long port. Our path to the marina yesterday took us past all 16 miles of it too--boring--not a particularly pretty route, but the only one to take. We had several huge container ships and barges pass us on our way here--they don't even notice the current--the wakes were fun for Louis and Buddy.

Our marina, The Yacht Club Montreal, is a 3 year old one--right in front of "Old Town"--a perfect spot! Debbie Lapalme, the Agent de port here, has been wonderful in guiding us to interesting places nearby--she speaks wonderful english, TYJ! The city is gearing up for Canada Day--July 1st, (like our 4th)--and no where is it more visable than along the water right here in front of us. Lots of white tents have been put up today, there's a small circus down just one wharf, and we expect a lot more activity all around us--building up to Tuesday night's fireworks. It's exciting! Canadians will take off from today through Tuesday--and we expect a lot of them will be on the water too. Ugh.

We took a 3 hour tour today of the city---on a Coach Canada bus! Who's reading this at Southern Coach?! We had a super driver/tour guide who's been "in the business" for 46 years. He and Louis had a good time talking about all the old buses that have come and gone and just business in general--making Louis happy. Our tour was really wonderful--making five stops at important places, but now I'm tired, so I'll have to blog about it later. Yawn. I want to get this one posted right now and go to bed! G'night!