Home for the Holidays'

Friday 11/13/09      After arriving in Columbus we proceeded to prepare the boat for a 2 month rest. A thorough cleaning of both interior and exterior including the hull started the proceedings. The marina continued to fill up with boats waiting to see what path Ida would take which made for great boat watching. A couple of our favorites are the 52 Krogen Express (http://www.krogenexpress.com/) and the 57 Marlow Explorer (http://www.marlowexplorer.com/) both on the same dock as us! Can you say salivate! The folks on the Marlow probably think I'm some kind of stalker for as much time as I spent looking at it with my jaw sprung open. It was interesting watching the Marlow which is 18'2" wide enter the 20' wide slip. The owners son controlled the whole process by wireless remote while standing on the side of the bridge deck. The boat never hit the dock once. I guess all the years of playing video games pays off!

On a different note there were a couple of items that I forgot to mention in earlier posts that fall under the strange category. One is pictured above. We found this guy hanging around the dock at Port Charles Marina, St. Charles, Mo. The other is a little more disturbing. While travelling in the vicinity of New Johnsonville, Tn. a male voice came over the VHF radio on channel 14......."Oh booger bear, oh booger bear, talk to me booger bear". That voice was soon joined by another and a discussion about booger bear ensued. Needless to say we sped up a little to put some distance between us & them. I thought I heard banjos in the background!

On Monday 11/9/09 we picked up a rental car from Hertz and loaded our suitcases, 3 bags of Pams' shoes, other assorted goodies, and 2 props. We pulled out of the marina at 12:30 pm and headed north. Our trip home had 2 highlights. One was stopping at Lamberts cafe in Sikeston, Mo. (http://www.throwedrolls.com/). Lamberts is one of those places you must experience at least once in your life. The food is good and plentifull but their claim to fame is their hot rolls which are delivered to your table by a young man throwing them to you no matter where you are seated in the restaurant. A tourist trap for sure but a successful one at that. The line was out the door when we arrived.
The second highlight was staying at a Holiday Inn Express. I'm sure you can tell by my writing how much smarter I am!
A recap of the first leg of our trip south goes as follows; We travelled 979.7 miles burning 800 gallons of fuel for a little over 1 mpg. The engines ran for 89 hours and the generator for 41. We spent 13 days of actual travel and 17 days over all to get to Columbus.
We will be in Illinois until early January when we plan to return to Columbus and continue the journey south. Until then Happy Holidays!