On the Way

We're on the way to Key Largo. Left Bismarck on Thursday with hopes of getting to somewhere around Omaha on our way to see Tom in Augusta, GA. We made it to Sterling and had a flat tire!!! The tire was toast, so we changed it and headed back to Bismarck to see about repair and/or purchase. Someone told me there's a recession going on, but we had to go to three different tire stores before we could get someone to look at it because they were so busy. Finally, OK Tire said they'd check it out. Long story short, after a new tire and an additional 2 hours in town, we set out again at about 10:30am. We kept moving anyway and did make it to Omaha, but much later than we'd hoped for.

The next day we made it to St Louis for a visit with our God Daughter Ann Baltzer. We met her at her new restaurant find the "shaved duck". Food was great and it was nice to visit with Ann and her roommate Katie.

The following day October 29th we made it to Atlanta and met Tom there so we could do some sightseeing with him. Today the 30th, we went to the Atlanta Aquarium and the World of Coca Cola. Had a great time playing tourist, but it must have been too much work for Tom and Marilyn, because they're currently taking naps. Weather has been cooperating, but we haven't seen any extemely warm weather. We hope to leave for Key Largo on Wednesday the 2nd with maybe a couple of stops on the way. We're both really excited to see what things look like at the boat yard, so we'll let you know when we get there.

Well we actually purchased "9 Lives", but things didn't exactly go as we had them planned. After the survey and purchase, we decided to have it moved from Sarasota to Key Largo and have it hauled out for the summer season. Bill Ware, the broker that we dealt with, was also licensed to move vessels, so we had him do the move. What should have taken about three day turned out to take almost a week. They had fuel problems and had to stop at least 2 times to try and resolve the situation. After replacing a few lines and a fuel pump, the problem seems to be resolved. I guess we'll see once we are able to use the boat ourselves.

Plans are to head south on October 27, 2011. We will head for Key Largo by way of Augusta, GA in order to see our son Tom who is stationed at Fort Gordon with the Navy. After a short visit, we'll travel the last 600 miles to Key Largo. We have an apartment set up for about two weeks while we work on the boat and get it ready to put back in the water. During this entire summer we've been working to get to this point with no help from mother nature. The flooding on the Missouri river is another whole story the needs an entire blog just to explain what happened there. Suffice it to say that our house didn't get wet. However, we were out of the house from June through August because we didn't have road access. We're back in now and things are well. Still things to be done, but nothing that can't wait until next spring, since most of the repairs are to yard and landscaping. Once we get settled, I hope I can be a little more religious with updates on our travel and activities.