B.O.A.T.

 You do know the definition of boat (B.O.A.T.) right?  Bring On Another Thousand.  Things were really in pretty good shape when we got to the boat yard until we uncovered the inflatable.  Even though we had it covered, it looks like the summer sun in Florida did a job on the it.  We've been cleaning the big boat and putting sails back on, etc. for the last 3 days and haven't run into anything else that is too serious.  Lots of little Florida bugs to clean off the boat after sitting for 6 months, but we kind of expected that.  Surprisingly, there wasn't much water and/or moisture on the interior so we didn't have anything to deal with like we did last year.

We're going to go to an inflatable sales/repair company in Marathon, tomorrow, show them the picture and see what they say about dinghy repair.  I'm sure that anything can be repaired, but the big questions are how much it will cost and how long it will take.  I did want a smaller dinghy, but I wasn't planning on doing it quite like this.  We'll see what we find out.

The place we're staying is working out very nice.  It has nice accommodations and is relatively close to the boat yard.  The worst thing that has happened while we've been here, at least for Marilyn, is that the Green Bay Packers lost their game last Sunday.  About another week and Andrea and grandson, Ky will be here.  Gramma is really looking forward to that.

On the East Coast of Florida

We've made it to Fort Lauderdale on the east coast of Florida.  Thanksgiving was spent in Cedar Key, Florida which is a very laid back fishing/claming town.  They actually have private clam farms that the residents farm and sell the clams commercially.  The first two photographs are of Cedar Key.  We took a key tour by water in order to get a better idea of where things were.  The weather was sunny and in the upper 60's but it was nice to have a sweatshirt out on the water.

The third photo is off the pier in downtown St Petersburg, Florida.  There was a light wind with several boats in the water, but most were heading for the dock since it was just starting to get dark.  Lots of activity around the pier.  We bought a "Napolean and an Eclair" for our dessert.  They were great!!

Today we went from St Pete to Fort Lauderdale and then tomorrow we'll be headed for Key Largo.  Probably won't get to the boat tomorrow, but will for sure on Monday.  They only have temporary staff there on the week-ends anyway.  I made plans to have the bottom of the boat repainted, so I hope it's all done when we get there.  I have several projects that I want to do, so we'll be busy for at least the next week or so.  We have a small condo lined us for accommodations while we work on the boat.  

Crazy New Orleans

Made it to New Orleans and have plans to spend a couple of days here.  Yesterday we played tourist and went to the River Walk, the French Quarter, ate beignets and did a little bit of drinking in some of the bars.  The picture is of our host at Buba Gumps restaurant.  It was crazy now, I can't imagine what it's like during Mardi Gras.  Today, Sunday, naturally, it was important that we find someplace to watch the Green Bay football game.  The closest place we could find was Hooters, so the game was good, they won, and there was lots of other scenery to look at as well.

The weather is getting better.  It's definitely easier to deal with than what we left at home.  However, it looks like the temperatures are back in the 50's in Bismarck.  Looks like the weather is going to be good for the Thanksgiving week and it should get better and better the further south we get.

We will leave tomorrow for Panama City, Florida, and then on to Cedar Key, Florida the following day.  We've been trying to keep our drives to between 300 and 400 miles a day.  No marathon driving since we don't really have an where we have to be by any particular time.  At least not at this time.

We need to find warmer weather

Did I say it was starting to look like winter?  I should have kept my mouth shut.  We planned to leave on a Saturday and couldn't get away until Monday.  We received 8" of snow after a couple of inches of freezing rain.  Needless to say, it was a mess and I moved snow for a good 3 hours on Sunday.  And here I was hoping I could avoid the snow removal scene.  In the midst of all this, Andrea decided to buy a different car so we were helping her work through those steps.  It's probably a good thing that we didn't leave on Saturday.

We finally turned the house key over to Andrea and made it out of town on Monday, November 12th.  We're currently in St Joe, MO.  Originally we planned to head for Augusta to have Thanksgiving with Tom, however, his deployment was extended and now he hopes he'll be back in country just before Christmas, but even that is not definite.  So, using Plan B, were headed for New Orleans where we plan to spend a few days and then keep going to Cedar Key, FL over Thanksgiving.  We've never been there before, but it looks like it should be interesting.  We have a condo rented with a small kitchen, so we'll see what we can whip up for Thanksgiving.  Ultimately, our plan is to be in Key Largo the 25th of November.  We again have a place rented for a couple of weeks while we work on the boat and get it ready to put back in the water. We still have plans to take Andrea and grandson Kyle on a cruise the 9th of December.  Tom was suppose to go too, but unfortunately his extended deployment will prevent that from happening.  We're still excited to take Andrea and Kyle.  It should be fun!!

We'll give you an update as soon as we get to New Orleans.