On The Road Again...

It seems as though it has been forever since we traveled. Well, that is if you don’t count the trip (75 miles each way) down to the boatyard for repairs after the electric pedestal on the dock “fried” some of our wiring & switches last June.

It has been a long, hot summer in northern Alabama and we have been content to lie in the shade of a covered dock and run the air conditioning. We also made a few road trips; because I agreed to do some work for Bereaved Parents we went to a work session in Dallas in June and the Annual Conference in Little Rock in July. Of course we went to Boise in August and stopped in St. Louis on the way through for our own “well baby” check-ups.

The highlight of the entire summer was taking Lauren to Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks. What fun we had wading in the water and watching elk and climbing trees. Oh yeah, Yellowstone, we saw Old Faithful put on its show and then we climbed the stairs in Old Faithful Inn (several times) and ate ice cream on the porch.

Little Anna is the happiest toddler, which shouldn’t surprise us because she was a happy baby. She is walking now, and loves being outdoors; I call her Sunshine because her smile lights up the room. It was really fun watching her wind grandpa around her finger. She would go looking for him calling “Grandpa”, or something pretty close to that, and he would do whatever she asked.

Back home aboard we cleaned a month’s accumulation of spider poop off the boat, restocked the larder, shopped for “stuff” that we thought we needed and generally got ready to get underway.

Last week we made a short run up to Scottsboro, AL and it was great to be going somewhere. Our plan had been to hang out a few days in a favorite anchorage up there but when we pulled into the anchorage and throttled back it was HOT without a breath of air moving. We looked at each other and decided we would not get any sleep in the heat and decided to pull in to one of our favorite marinas, Goose Pond Colony. That is what is so great about the cruising life since your home moves with you your travel plans can change in a minute. On the dock there we were met by friends (another great thing about cruising) and we enjoyed 4 days of happy hours, dinners and fellowship before we had to leave. It was in the mid 90’s every day and we never did get to that favorite anchorage but we sure enjoyed the trip.

Yesterday we departed our summer home at Bay Hill Marina in company with two other boats and started off on a new adventure. We managed to travel all of 10 miles before we stopped for brunch at Joe Wheeler State Park where friends from Bay Hill drove down to help us eat! Fully sated we made it another 3 miles before we anchored to take naps and read the Sunday newspaper.

Our plan is to head down the Tenn-Tom to the Black Warrior River and follow it up to Tuscaloosa. The Warrior runs all the way to Birmingham and is not often traveled by pleasure boaters. We are not sure what we will find, perhaps a lot of nothing, but it will be fun to explore with good company. This morning it was pouring rain and since we start off with two locks in the first 18 miles we line tenders (that would be me and the other wives) voted to sit the day out and wait for tomorrow’s good weather to travel.