Touch and Go in Mobile AL and Headed South!

FIRST,
Here's to the folks left behind slugging it out day in and day out in the Pentagon

Dave and Susan (overworked and under paid!) They are only smiling because of earlier free drinks!




David and Mildred....both great Americans!

Bring passion and a Latin flair to everyday Pentagon crises.



These folks were my favorite peeps I worked with and for at the Pentagon. They are all closet loopers. They work in one of the hardest places to keep your sanity, Air Force A8, which is where you either get money or have it taken....makes people a "bit" on edge. Anyway, I miss them all. I know one day they will take their own loop....it doesn't suck and you guys need a vacation!

Blog continues.....

Hello to All,

We are currently in Mobile Alabama, taking a breather from a very busy 10 days of "river running". In the past 10 days we ran almost 800 miles...averaging about 80 miles a day...and at 10 MPH! It was fun but I was glad to see the ocean again after 6 months of fresh water cruising. Here is a brief recap;

When we returned to our boat from our vacation from our vacation...life if tough, i know, we had to rest for 3 days...weather was crap. Here is a picture from our front porch in Highlands NC...really nice place.

But then we started from Green Turtle Bay KY running down the Kentucky lake. The weather was cool and rainy which added to our motivation to "push er up". That night we pulled into a quiet anchorage and finally saw blue sky for the first time in a week. Here is a typical shot of the house that are along the lake...not quite as spectacular as the 30,000 island in Canada, but still pretty nice scenery to cruise through







We left the lake and started the locking process again beginning the SLOW decent back to sea level. Some of the locks were quick and some others we waited 3 hours or more....yeah, I do really well waiting on anything. Ashton says I start pacing after about 20 mins. Cathy just goes below...smart girl.



After the lakes we started the rivers again...only 500 more miles of them!





Fall colors added some needed scenery...we timed it about right with the leaves changing and the temperatures in the 70's


The time change made our days a bit shorter...we would start getting a bit anxious toward the end of the day, with day-light fading and we still had 20 miles to go. We pulled into on place using flashlights...spotlight had burnt out...not fun.

The mornings were always foggy. Here are some crazy loopers leaving before most folks are even up (except those lucky guys working at the Pentagon)

Here we are...the blind following the blind. This day we had to make 100 miles due to no suitable anchorages or marinas so everyone, including us left butt early and of course, the fog had not burnt off yet. I followed the guy in front of my part of the way using radar....made me think of my old C-5 days trying to find the tanker in crap weather....don't really miss that. Sun came out and burned it off making for a glorious cruising day. Ashton and I tucked into a 1 boat anchorage that night and watched the Cowboys kick Philly butt...love my SAT TV!


This is just a cool picture...taken by a marina we stayed at in Mississippi








And so, we are DONE with river cruising after 1400 miles of it (not counting the stuff we did in Canada)...here is the parting river shot. We will increase our blogging tempo as we should have more stuff to explain away and we are FINALLY back in the land of Verizon WIFI.