October 16th  After waiting for parts etc. in Demopolis we are on our way again.  Replaced the port transmission cable, and while waiting for that Rich put a new themostat in.  We saw 2 wild turkeys on the bank and an air boat passed us, that is a first.  Stayed that night at Bobby's fish camp and had fish with some of our boating neighbors. Rich was thrilled they had whole catfish, bad news is, his were cremated !!  The next day was quiet, we met 2 tows, and went thru the last lock on the Tombigbee River, anchored in the Alabama River cut off. From there we were headed to the Eastern Shore Marina, miles and miles of hairpin turns, with lots of debri.  Next day we crossed Mobile Bay, we had been warned to watch for lots of traffic.....only traffic we saw were a few small fishing boats.Next we pulled into Homeport Marina in Gulf Shores, next to Lulu's Restaurant owned by Jimmy Buffet's sister. No one to tell us where to park, a lady said the slip next to us is a transient slip so we pulled in there.  We were telling them about our daughter being at the Shrimp Festival here and asked how far it was, and Dave said I have a vehicle here, I will take you over. So we got to spend the afternoon with Tracy and help her breakdown her booth. We went to Lulu's for dinner, however it was super loud music, a long wait so we ordered to go and ate in the peace and quiet on our boat. We are now anchored in the English Navy Cove for the night,  had snow in the salon this am !!  Rich had some stuff you mix with resin for a repair in a zip lock back (super fine glass), well he sat down to eat his oatmeal right on the bag, and you know the rest of the story !!! White stuff everywhere !! Thank heavens for vacumms.
Tomorrow we will head for Ft Walton Beach and visit with dear friends from way back when.  We first met them when Rich was stationed in No Carolina in the USMC, wow that was a long time ago.
We had dolfins in our wake this morning, sure hard to get their photo..While we were with Tracy at the festival we met a friend of hers who is a photographer/writer for a local paper. Monday am he came to the boat and interviewed Rich for about 2 hrs for a story on the Great Loop and Rich's career. Who knows maybe they will print it.  We stayed there an extra day to do laundry, defrost the fridge and all those fun chores. Will try and add photos again later, it is such a pain I really have to be in the right mood to tackle that.  We stopped early today and are anchoring out in English Navy Cove in the Pensacola Bay.  We are officially back in Florida, will have to throw out the fishing line !! Ready for some good fish.

 

October 22nd  Here we are in Carrabelle, FL waiting for good weather and seas to head across the Gulf to Steinhatchee, FL...Doing chores while waiting, and went to lunch yesterday to have some of their famous oysters...well wouldn't you know it they did not have any !! ??  So we bought some fresh shrimp and had a good dinner on the boat. The Moorings Marina gave us a ride to the Pharmacy, hardware store, and P.O. to mail our absentee ballots.  I've been editing some of our photos and may get brave and try adding some photos to this Blog.  Friends boat in a Lock, We have been through over 100 !!